Creator / Rooster Teeth

The company's logo since 2023.
^{Click here to see the original logo used from 2003 to 2023.}

Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media studio founded by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman on April 1, 2003. Based in Austin, Texas, they are famous for pioneering Halo machinima and becoming its most mainstream success when they gained popularity through their first show, Red vs. Blue. In fact, Red vs. Blue was officially endorsed by Bungie and Xbox Game Studios.

The studio is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment, which itself is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. As of 2019, Rooster Teeth was separated into three main divisions: RT Studios, RT Animation, and RT Games.

• Rooster Teeth Animation is in charge of producing animated content like Red vs. Blue, RWBY, Camp Camp, and gen:LOCK for the web.
• Rooster Teeth Games is the company's in-house division for developing games based on their properties, along with publishing titles like Bendy and the Ink Machine from independent developers.
• Finally, Rooster Teeth Studios is in charge of producing live-action movies, shorts, podcasts, and TV shows on the web; whether they be original or gaming-related. Because of their weekly upload schedule, RT Studios also included the following channels for their content:

• Achievement Hunter broadcasted how-to guides on how to get various achievements in several video games, along with a couple YouTube channels that invoked Let's Play videos and other nonsense. They later became more focused on the Let's Plays than anything as achievement video guides grew past them. On October 1, 2023, following an announcement on September 18, it was dissolved and succeeded by a new channel called Dogbark. LetsPlay, the division's channel focusing on Let's Play videos, will continue but will be under F**kface, a brand started by Achievement Hunter and Rooster Teeth co-founder Geoff Ramsey as a podcast (see below), involving more than just the former AH crew.
• Funhaus (pronounced "Funhouse"), which features members of the former Machinima, Inc. group Inside Gaming (now revived as of 2019 as mentioned below). They were made part of the studio on February 5, 2015.
• Inside Gaming, the company's gaming news division. Previously called The Know, after Machinima shuttered in January 2019, RT picked up the Inside Gaming brand, merged the former Inside Gaming team with The Know's team (which includes Inside Gaming founder Adam Kovic, among other former Inside Gaming employees), and rebranded The Know to the Inside Gaming name on Valentine's Day 2019.
• DEATH BATTLE!, an animated series focused on hypothetical crossover fights between famous characters in popular culture. It used to be a show made by ScrewAttack, which was made a division of Rooster Teeth on November 4, 2015, before later being rebranded as Death Battle in 2019. Their original website has since been turned into a redirect to the RT site.

Outside of these divisions and channels, Rooster Teeth had also partnered with other creators such as The Creatures (who dissolved in July 2017), Cow Chop (dissolved in 2019), Kinda Funny, Sugar Pine 7, JT Music, Criken2 (as part of the group Sideshow), Chilled Chaos, and Castle Super Beast. They also held a popular annual convention called RTX at the company's hometown of Austin at the Austin Convention Center.^note Despite the name's implication, the convention is not entirely focused on the company itself, nor is it called the "Rooster Teeth Expo". Much like the studio itself, the convention's main focus was on gaming and internet culture. They later expanded it to host international events such as in Sydney and London.

On March 6, 2024, Rooster Teeth announced that the company will be shutting down after nearly 21 years. As Warner Bros. Discovery is currently in talks to sell their series, such as RWBY, the fate of their properties remains up in the air. Rooster Teeth will shut down on May 15, 2024.

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Notable works include:

Machinima works

• Red vs. Blue, Rooster Teeth's first Breakout Hit, made using various Halo titles and even Marathon for a few episodes, with it also eventually including CGI animation in later seasons. Is currently on Season 17. Using the backdrop of the Halo franchise, the series follows two eccentric opposing color-coordinated teams in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere, who are locked in a Forever War until a Snipe Hunt goes wrong, one of the teams gets a Hired Gun to help them sort it all out, and things only go downhill from there. It can be viewed here.

• Red vs Blue: Public Service Announcements, a non-canonical Spin-Off made up of short Public Service Announcements featuring the cast of Red vs. Blue as they inform the viewer about various topics - I.e., the release of certain Halo games, the Winter Olympics, the importance of voting, and tax fraud. Originally treated as being part of Red vs. Blue itself, it was officially spun-off as its own series in 2016. It can be viewed here.

• The Strangerhood, a Sitcom-esque series based on The Sims 2. After a nine year gap in production, a second season aired in between a break with X-Ray and Vav.

• P.A.N.I.C.S., a miniseries based on the game First Encounter Assault Recon. The acronym stands for People Acting Normal In Crazy-ass Situations.
• 1-800-Magic, made using Shadowrun.
• Supreme Surrender, made using Supreme Commander.
• Survive Block Island, a Survivor-style competition series filmed within Minecraft, in which 12 competitors complete challenges in a special Minecraft world and attempt to be the last one standing.

Animated works

• Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures, a webseries that turns the funny bits of The Rooster Teeth Podcast (as well as other sources) into a cartoon. Animated by Jordan Cwierz. Can be found here.
• RWBY, a computer-animated series created by Monty Oum and produced by Rooster Teeth, first shown as a trailer after the final episode of Red vs. Blue: Season 10. Often considered to be Rooster Teeth's second Breakout Hit after RvB, and is easily their most popular work in terms of merchandise. Taking place in the Constructed World of Remnant, the series follows the titular team of four rookie Huntresses and their friends in their trials and tribulations against the insidious Grimm, a hidden malicious conspiracy, and occasionally each other. The first episode was aired at RTX in the summer of 2013, then released on the website on July 18. As of April 2023, it has completed its ninth season. It can be viewed here.
• RWBY Chibi, a chibified spinoff of RWBY, with a more wacky and light-hearted tone. Airs during the RWBY offseason, starting in 2016 after Volume 3. Is currently on indefinite hiatus following its third season in 2018. Can be viewed here.
• RWBY: Fairy Tales: a series of animated retellings of the fairy tales found in RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant. It animates fairy tale stories found within the setting of RWBY, and therefore assumes prior knowledge of the original show.
• RWBY: Ice Queendom: An anime adaptation of RWBY that starts off as an alternate retelling of the events of Volume 1 before deviating into its own unique story. Co-production with Studio Shaft.
• Justice League × RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen: A two-part animated film adaptation of the crossover comic of the same name. Co-production with Warner Bros. Animation. Most notably Rooster Teeth’s final RWBY project before shutting down.
• X-Ray & Vav, an animated series that focuses on the Super Powered Alter Egos of respective former and current Achievement Hunter cast members Ray Narvaez Jr ("X-Ray") and Gavin Free ("Vav"). Debuted in November 2014, and ran for two seasons.
• Camp Camp, a series about the denizens of America's most dysfunctional summer camp. Debuted in 2016. Currently on indefinite hiatus following its fourth season in 2019. Can be found here.
• Sex Swing, a series starring Funhaus following the exploits of the titular rock n' roll group Sex Swing, released on February 18th, 2017.
• Nomad of Nowhere, a western/fantasy mash-up 2D series about a mysterious nomad traversing a western wasteland that hasn’t seen magic in 100 years. Debuted in March 2018. Can be found here.
• gen:LOCK, a Mecha action Cyberpunk series announced at RTX 2017, and released on January 26, 2019. Can be found here. Season 2 co-animated with Bardel Entertainment.
• Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy, co-produced by Hasbro with animation by Polygon Pictures. The first part was released on 2020 on Netflix, with the followups Earthrise and Kingdom being released in 2021.
• Recorded By Arizal, formerly titled Record Keeper, an 2D animated series created by Yssa Badiola, premiering July 13, 2020.
• Recreyo, a webseries in which a group of friends with trust issues are thrown into different chaotic scenarios where they have to survive by learning to trust each other... or not.
• Neon Konbini, an Animated Anthology that premiered in May 27, 2021. Can be found here.
• Tekken: Bloodline, a Studio Hibari co-production that serves as a loose adaptation of Tekken 3. Premiered in August 18, 2022 on Netflix.

Live-action works

• Rooster Teeth Shorts, a webseries that depicts the company's staff in... unusual situations.
• Immersion, a webseries where Burnie and Griffon decide to test various video game facts on Geoff and Gus, seeing if they would work in real life. After a long hiatus, a second season aired featuring the tests this time on Gavin and Michael. The show is currently on its fifth season. Can be found here.

• Past Cast, the YouTube blogs of historical figures.
• RT Life, which are videos the employees make of the various antics they get up to instead of working.
• The Gauntlet, a series where several gamers take each other on in a video game tournament similar to a reality television show in order to win ten thousand dollars, with Burnie as the Games Master and Brooke, Caleb, Gus, and Joel as team coaches.
• A Simple Walk (Into Mordor), where Chris and Kerry have six days to walk from Hobbiton to Mordor - or rather, their respective filming locations.

• The Slow Mo Guys, where Gavin Free and Dan Gruchy film things overcranked. The channel is actually independent of Rooster Teeth, but occasionally will distribute merchandise pertaining to the channel.
• Lazer Team, the company's first feature-length, live-action film, a sci-fi comedy. They held an Indiegogo campaign which for a couple months became the most successful fully-funded project ever on the site.
  • Lazer Team 2, a sequel financed by Youtube, was released in 2017.
• Ten Little Roosters, a 2014 Affectionate Parody of the Murder Mystery genre where ten Rooster Teeth employees as caricatures of themselves are at a party... only for one of them to drop dead. Everyone is locked in, and they must figure out who the killer is before they all die. Viewers are asked to submit guesses as to who is the killer; who will be the survivor (confirmed to not be the killer); and, each week, who will die in the next episode, as well as how they will die.
• The Eleven Little Roosters, an Affectionate Parody of Spy Fiction and the 2017 sequel to Ten Little Roosters. It sees the survivor being recruited into a group of international spies to search for the mole of the group who wants to Take Over the World. Unlike its predecessor, the Rooster Teeth cast are not playing parodies of themselves here (aside from the aforementioned survivor), and are acting as original characters.
• Dead Little Roosters, a Locked Room Mystery series which debuted in January 2021. Several of the cast members from Ten Little Roosters and Eleven Little Roosters return as different characters or caricatures of themselves, but the story will not be connected to either series.
• Million Dollars, But..., Gavin and Burnie sit down with someone else from the office and discuss what they would and wouldn't do for a million dollars.
• Free Play, a magazine-style show hosted by Ryan Haywood and Meg Turney that involves news on other RT productions, a small The Know segment, discussion about topics and a challenge that sees the two hosts competing in some manner.
• Day 5, Rooster Teeth's first foray into a completely dramatic series (as opposed to shows like Red vs. Blue, which became more dramatic over time). Described as being "set in the immediate aftermath of a fatal sleep epidemic," four survivors must band together in order to find the answers for how this apocalyptic event occurred without falling asleep. Debuted on June 19th, 2016 for Rooster Teeth First members. It is currently on hiatus, with its third season set to air sometime in 2019. The first season can be found online here, though its second season is unavailable online due to both the first and second season being syndicated on the El Rey Network.
• Heroes & Halfwits which is Rooster Teeth's own D&D campaign. Shown on the Achievement Hunter channel because it mainly features crew members from that division of the company.
• A Heist with Markiplier, a chose your adventure style series of YouTube videos with Multiple Endings and Markiplier as the lead writer and actor. They helped him produce and film the show, and it's hosted on his channel.

• Theater Mode, which is Achievement Hunter meets Mystery Science Theater 3000 with a lot more vulgarity and alcohol.
• Crunch Time, about some physics students who open a black hole.
• Master and Apprentice, a how-to show in which production designer Marcus LaPorte teaches Adam Ellis how to recreate iconic props from films and video games.
• Skill Tree, in which Ellie Main learns how to become an Action Girl by learning various combat and survival skills in the event of an apocalypse.
• Blood Fest, the company's third feature-length film, a comedic horror film. Written and directed by Owen Egerton, it centers around three horror fans who attend a horror festival and quickly discover things going downhill.
• Murder Room, a game show centered around a panel of four players and guided by an AI named Jessica, attempt to solve a murder.
• Arizona Circle, a Sketch Comedy series starring Funhaus.
• On The Spot, an improv-style game show hosted by Jon Risinger, a semi-inspired homage to Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
• Chump, a game show hosted by Jeremy Dooley, partially inspired by Would I Lie to You?, in which a contestant has to figure out which of the three panelists are lying to them.
• Last Laugh, a Funhaus-created comedy competition where Geoff Ramsey puts members of Achievement Hunter, Funhaus, and RT Core into a Tough Room for six hours and are challenged to make each other break and laugh. The second season brings show creator Elyse Willems on as a cohost to torment the contestants.
• Camp Betrayal, a Survivor and The Mole-esque competition in which 9 contestants compete in challenges set by the whims of the maniacal Babaudour while also secretly sabotaging each other.
• Face Jam's Truck'd Up, a cooking competition in which eight people recreate fast food menu items for the cast of Face Jam to eat and judge.

Podcasts

Currently Running Podcasts

• The Rooster Teeth Podcast (formerly Drunk Tank) is Rooster Teeth's main podcast which is hosted by Armando Torres, Andrew Rosas, and Griff Milton. The podcast generally discusses whatever topics that interests them at the time, compounded with drinking. Gus formerly hosted the podcast with Gavin, Barbara, and a rotating roster of guests after Burnie's retirement, but as of June 2023, he handed off the reins so he can focus on new and current projects that he's involved in. At the same time, Gavin and Barbara handed off their roles on the podcast so they can focus on their own projects, with their main ones being respectively Slow Mo Guys and F**kface and All Good No Worries.
• Death Battle Cast, is the Death Battle podcast, hosted by Chad James and Ben Singer.
• Funhaus Podcast, formerly named Dude Soup, leans towards the latest trends in tech and gaming. The podcast's style is more like the former Patch/Glitch Please podcast. The current hosts are Ryan Hailey and Lindsey Washburn.
• Face Jam, an audio-only podcast in which Michael Jones and Jordan Cwierz try out limited edition fast food gimmicks and rate them, with their producer Eric Baudour tagging along. It also has an animated spinoff, Face Jam Animated, which animates particularly funny moments from the show, and a supplemental show, Spitting Silly, where the structure is far more free-wheeling and random.
• Always Open, hosted by Barbara Dunkelman and Mariel Salcedo where they discuss life, sex, and lots more with their friends. As indicated by the title, it can get very... open. Ended in June 2020, but was rebooted in March 2023 in a more podcast-friendly format with Barbara back at the helm.
• Black Box Down, an audio-only True Crime podcast hosted by Gus Sorola and Chris Demarais, where they discuss notable aviation incidents. The show has an animated spinoff, Aviation Explanation, which visualizes certain incidents.
• Red Web, an audio-only mystery podcast hosted by Trevor Collins and Alfredo Diaz, where they discuss Internet mysteries and conspiracy theories. The show also has an animated spinoff, Red Web Animated, which animates particularly notable segments.
• F**kface, an audio-only comedy podcast hosted by Geoff Ramsey, Gavin Free, and Andrew Panton, where they (primarily Andrew) discuss the comically bizarre mishaps that have happened in their lives and the various ways they've screwed over themselves. There is also an animated spin-off Regulation Animation, which animates particularly bizarre stories from the show.
• Cult Podcast, an audio-only True Crime and comedy podcast, hosted by Paige Wesley and Armando Torres, where they discuss cults, cult leaders, and cult-esque organizations and concepts. Independently owned and run, and began to be hosted on the Rooster Teeth website in October 2020.
• Tales From The Stinky Dragon, an audio-only Dungeons & Dragons campaign with Gus serving as the DM and Barbara, Blaine, Jon, and Chris as the players.
  • "Stinky Dragon Adventures", a puppet show based on this podcast.
• 30 Morbid Minutes, hosted by Elyse Willems and Jessica Vasami, where they discuss macabre and morbid topics pulled from history and current events, with a debut date of March 29, 2022.
• ANMA, starring Gustavo Sorola and Geoff Ramsey, where they reminisce about their longstanding friendship and their history with the city of Austin.
• Beneath, a scripted drama podcast about an expedition to the RMS Titanic shipwreck, hosted on Wondery Media as part of its Wondery Plus programming.

Discontinued Podcasts

• In response to the fact that the main podcast has shifted away from being a gaming podcast to a general comedy one, they later created The Patch. It runs for approximately one hour and is completely centered on video games. Usually hosted by a three person combination of either Gus, Burnie, Meg, Ashley, Ryan and Gus. In 2017, the podcast was rebranded as "Glitch Please" and is hosted by Ashley and a rotating panel for a round table-style discussion before shuttering again in 2018.
• Screen Play, hosted by JJ, which discussed film and television.
• Spoilercast was another short-lived podcast based on people openly discussing a certain TV show or movie.
• Sportsball, a sports-based podcast, hosted by Tyler Coe, Joel Heyman, and Jack Pattillo. In 2018, it was rebooted with Tyler back at the helm and accompanied by co-host Mia Khalifa.
• Fan Service, a round table-style podcast typically led by Gray Haddock discussing anime. In 2018, it was rebooted in collaboration with Crunchyroll as the main sponsor. In 2019, the podcast shifted to a smaller set hosted by Miles Luna, Cole Gallian, and Yssa Badiola with a rotating fourth person until shuttering again.
• I Have Notes, an general animation podcast hosted by Kerry Shawcross and Yssa Badiola, featuring various members of the animation department. Ended in April 2021.
• Good Morning From Hell, an audio-only improv-style podcast starring Chris Demarais and Blaine Gibson, featuring special guests per episode. The premise is Chris waking up in Hell and discovers he has to host a podcast with Satan's younger brother, Clayton, and interview everyone in Hell for all eternity. Ended December 2021.
• No Dumb Answers with Mark and Brad, an improv podcast parodying the podcasting genre starring Kayla Milton, Mariel Salcedo and Zoe Terhune. The three are the crew members of a long running (fictional) podcast and are forced to take over the show to keep it running when the titular podcast hosts fail to show up for work. Ended August 2021.
• Wrestling With the Week, hosted by James Willems and Scorpio Sky, in collaboration with All Elite Wrestling, where they discuss wrestling and other topics that interest them.
• The Real Canon, an audio-only podcast hosted by Jon Risinger and Charles Pulliam-Moore where they discuss comics and other genre pop culture media.
• Filmhaus, where the members of Funhaus discuss films, news, topics, and trends in film.
• The Most, a podcast hosted by Andrew Rosas and Drew Saplin, where they ask their guests "the most" questions.
• OT3, hosted by Steffie Hardy, Sarah Weems, and Ashley Dillard, in which they discuss their interest in fandom culture and fanfiction.
• Talk CRWBY to Me is the RWBY podcast, hosted by Kerry Shawcross where he discusses all the aspects of making the show with RWBY staff.
• Ship Hits The Fan, hosted by Charlotte Avery, Patrick Brown, and Brian Gaar, where they discuss particularly notable naval incidents. Ended in June 2023.
• Off Topic was the Achievement Hunter podcast, hosted by Michael Jones. Ended on September 30, 2023, the day before AH was officially dissolved.

Also, while it is not part of Rooster Teeth proper, Michael Jones' Internet Box podcast features several of the company's employees.

Video Games

• RWBY: Grimm Eclipse: A Hack and Slash based off RWBY.
• Vicious Circle, an uncooperative multiplayer first person shooter, released in 2019.
• While they did not develop Bendy and the Ink Machine, they did publish the console port of the game.

Other

• Nature Town, a webseries that stars various animals voiced by members of the Rooster Teeth staff.
• Rooster Teeth Comics, a comic series about the Rooster Teeth staff's daily life. Written by Griffon Ramsey and drawn by Luke McKay, the series ended in Summer 2011.

• Select All Gaming, formerly named Backwardz Compatible and Sponsor Play, is the animation department's Let's Play series. It initially starred Miles Luna and Kyle Taylor, but due to Miles's busy schedule with RWBY and Camp Camp in 2018, he was replaced by Cole Gallian and Sam Mitchell. The series has since evolved to feature other staff members of the animation department and after Miles's departure from the company, renamed itself as Select All Gaming. The show ended March 2022, due to various members' workloads.
• The Lab, RT's experimental division where one-off short ideas are filmed and tested. It has since been rebooted and merged with RT Shorts and RT Life into the RT Core division.
• Game Time with Burnie, a semi-podcast/Let's Play where Burnie sits down with a particular staff member and lets them share more about themselves.
• RT Docs, a series of documentaries that follow a particular topic. Topics have included professional wrestling, conventions, cosplay, tattoos, ASMR, the history of the company, and personal immigration stories.
• Model Employees, a weekly livestream starring Kdin Jenzen, Tyler Stab, and Jacob Fullerton, where they build model kits and chat. Ended in June 2022 due to Kdin's departure to pursue a full-time streaming career.
• Community and Coffee, a weekly livestream hosted by Chelsea Atkinson, where she chats with the community about various topics.
• All Good No Worries, a multi-group collaboration channel that is aimed towards more feminine-led content. The channel primarily features content from Elyse Willems, Charlotte Avery, and Lindsey Washburn of Funhaus, Ky Cooke and BlackKrystel of Achievement Hunter, and Barbara Dunkelman, who also serves as its main creative lead.

• RWBY: After the Fall, the first in a series of Young Adult Novels and released in 2019. Set in The 'Verse of RWBY following the events of Volume 3.
• RWBY: Official Manga Anthology, a comic adaptation of the webseries of the same name beginning in 2016, but which is not related to the below-mentioned work.
• RWBY: The Official Manga, a manga adaptation of the webseries of the same name beginning in 2018, albeit taking more of a Broad Strokes approach to the series' canon.
• Angry Birds: The Movie, a fake trailer theorizing what a Hollywood Angry Birds film would have been like (released before the official film was announced).

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Rooster Teeth and their works provides examples of:

• Agony of the Feet: In A Simple Walk Into Mordor, much emphasis is given to the abuse Chris, Kerry, and Nick's feet take on the hike.
  • On the Funhaus side of things, Lawrence and Spoole would probably be your go-to guys for this.
• Amateur Cast: Specially in the early years, where only Joel Heyman and Yomary Cruz were the only people with acting backgrounds. And roles for employees and relatives remained even as Austin actors like Shannon McCormick and Samantha Ireland became collaborators. Of course, from the second season of RWBY on many of their shows started to mostly have professional voice actors in the cast.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Seems to be a recurring theme in their series.
  • Red vs. Blue has the main characters fighting against various enemies, fully expecting to die, on numerous occasions simply because it's right.
  • By Volume 4 of RWBY Ruby has become one.
  • Camp Camp has Counselor David who is well aware of the terrible conditions of the camp but never stops trying to get the campers (especially the resident cynic, Max) to have fun.
• April Fools' Day: Defied — as stated, Rooster Teeth was founded on April 1st, and the staff have stated, in no uncertain terms, that they will never make any April Fool's jokes for this very reason. Indeed, every apparent gag production they've released on April 1st (such as RWBY Chibi) ended up becoming full series. The one exception to this so far is April 1, 2024, where they engaged in the common Discord meme of editing their channel symbol to make it seem that they made many more notifications than normal. Of course, by this point, Rooster Teeth was closing down, so they had nothing to lose.
• Artist Disillusionment:
  • When announcing his breakup with Arryn, Miles specifically mentioned that he had waited until after RTX 2015 to avoid any awkward panel questions.
  • Fan behavior for some of their conventions has led to the company endorsing an unofficial convention etiquette guide, due to their dislike of awkward questions, asking for shoutouts and so on.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Several employees' reasons for working at Rooster Teeth Productions.
  • Matt Hullum turned down working on Smallville to work on Red vs. Blue, because he knew this trope would come into play. He also had similar reasons to Kathleen for doing so.
  • Joel Heyman and Kathleen Zuelch both worked in Hollywood a while ago and eventually decided to come back to Austin to work at Rooster Teeth full time, saying it is a lot more fun and less stressful.
  • Gavin Free worked on a lot of films and TV shows in his native UK. He cited it as fun, but incredibly stressful to the point he almost became an insomniac and started hallucinating, likely due to the fact that he was one of very few people trained to work with the cameras and therefore constantly in high, high demand (though cameraman treatment on sets has historically been...awful). This trope is why he chose to come back to Rooster Teeth in 2012. In fact, the main reason he started The Slow Mo Guys is specifically because he wanted to work at Rooster Teeth and the channel was his way of filling his visa requirements.
  • This was basically Monty Oum's entire outlook on life. It's why he started animating in the first place.
• Bait-and-Switch: During an episode of Social Disorder, Aaron slowly unveils a series of paintings he is meant to be auctioning. The first three paintings are of himself wearing less and less clothing. The last painting is a still life of fruit.
  • The next lot is called "Fruit Basket", and this time is actually a nude of Aaron.
• Ban on Politics: Initially enforced and has since been lifted. One of the few initial unspoken rules on the podcast is that you cannot get political. The furthest anyone can get is to say "there's an election coming up, we don't care who you vote for as long as you vote". Going further was normally a Berserk Button for Gus, who will often reprimand the violator of the rule in some manner. During the 2016 US Presidential election, though, this got lifted somewhat thanks to the controversy surrounding Donald Trump, and after Trump won the election, the rule was completely cast out, to the point Gus himself encouraged talking about it. When Brandon commented on this in a podcast, Gus simply declared that such a rule was pointless now and thinks the current political climate needs to be commented on. Since 2016, people on the podcast have commented on political and current events, especially during 2020 and 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the company to work from home and the Texas freeze that forced them offline for days.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Michael and Geoff mimic the Oxfordshire-born Gavin so often one could probably make a drinking game out of it.
  • Gavin once (very briefly) spoke in an American accent in Achievement HORSE episode 62 with Geoff.
  Gavin (speaking lowly): You're an asshole.
• Cast Full of Writers:
  • Burnie and Matt: Red vs. Blue, The Strangerhood, Lazer Team (Burnie also did PANICS and Supreme Surrender, while Matt helped with Day 5)
  • Miles: Red Vs. Blue, RWBY, Camp Camp, Nomad of Nowhere
  • Kerry: RWBY, Camp Camp, gen:LOCK, X-Ray and Vav, The Strangerhood
  • Gray: gen:LOCK, Camp Camp, The Strangerhood
  • Jordan Cwierz: Camp Camp, Nomad of Nowhere, X-Ray and Vav
  • Josh Flanagan and Chris Demarais: Day 5, Lazer Team, Ten\Eleven Little Roosters
  • Plus Joel (1-800-MAGIC), Lindsay (X-Ray and Vav), Barbara (one episode of RVB), Blaine (Eleven Little Roosters), and Shannon McCormick (two episodes of RVB)
• Cerebus Syndrome: Much of their output starts out very heavily comedic, but as they go on, become much more dramatic and story-based. Red vs. Blue is their most famous example.
• Christmas Special: The War on Christmas: A Rooster Teeth Holiday Extravaganza is their demented take on a holiday sketch show, starting with Matt Hullum dressed as Jesus and fighting Josh Flanagan dressed as Baby Jesus. One sketch, "A Rooster Teeth Christmas Carol", was also a Product Placement for the Rooster Teeth Store.
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • Joel exhibits several traits, notably high eccentricity, speaking in non sequiturs, an apparent inability to explain anything in a straightforward fashion, and getting onto almost unstoppable off-the-wall tangents during podcasts.
  • Chris and Gavin are noted to have especially odd trains of thought whenever they appear on the podcast, although Gavin's logic often does have some (albeit very poorly worded) grounding in reality while Chris's logic tends to just make sense to himself.
  • Ryan Hailey is assumed by the fans to be easily the strangest person in Funhaus, with a propensity for telling the strangest stories and having photographic evidence to back them up. Fittingly, he also happened to be an old college classmate of Chris.
  • If F**kface is any indication, Andrew Panton lives in an entirely different reality.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Achievement Hunter runs on this. To an extent, so does the company as a whole, as best seen in RT Life.
• Corpsing: The broadcast team are normally silent during podcast recordings, but during the RT Podcast and Off Topic recordings, they've been known to be heard in the background laughing loudly when especially ridiculous stories are brought up. Eric, the general podcast producer, has become a regular presence in content because of his frequent hysterical reactions. Even though Face Jam is audio-only, audio engineer Nick has become a background sidekick for constantly bursting into hysterics.
  • One epic instance is Off Topic #139, where Trevor announces the date for the premiere of Haunter, but a drunk Jeremy is preoccupied with some cake and misses it. A minute later, he asks Trevor if the date was announced, sending the entire Broadcast crew into hysterics as Jack and Gavin walk away and Trevor looks at the camera in disbelief.
• Crazy Homeless People:
  • The staff fairly frequently tell stories on the RT Podcast about encounters with strange homeless people, several of which have been turned into Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures episodes.
  • Chris notes in Episode 3 of "A Simple Walk Into Mordor" that he, Nick, and Kerry look and sound like this due to their backpacks, smell, hygiene, and talk of going to Mordor.
  • A running joke in Funhaus is that Ryan Hailey is possibly a homeless person, given his bizarre stories about dumpster diving, attending illegal parties, and having spent time sleeping in a closet.
• Crossover: Jack, Burnie, Ray, Joel and Caleb all appeared in a SeaNanners video in Halo: Reach, viewable here.
• Creator Backlash: Joel did not like having to play Adolf Hitler. Twice. This is particularly a reason why he dislikes Past Cast.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • This appears to be the direction that Game Time with Burnie is heading towards, where he'll play a more passive game with a fellow employee and find out more about them.
  • Ever since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone to work from home, there have been a variety of livestreams featuring some of the animation department and behind the scenes staff, putting a face to some of the lesser known staff outside of the Rooster Teeth Core, Achievement Hunter, and Funhaus crews.
    • Community and Coffee, in particular, is a weekly livestream hosted by Chelsea, RT's Director of Community, that spotlights behind the scenes staffers and notable community members.
    • Stay Zen, hosted by Kdin, features her interviewing various staffers from all walks of RT.
• Deconstruction: The entire point of "Immersion", is to play out video game tropes and mechanics in real life to see if it can be pulled off. It only works some of the time.
• Designated Driver:
  • Ryan and Michael drink a lot less on the job than the others, especially after Michael had kids. Ryan is notorious about only drinking diet coke, as well, and both of them try not to go home to their children noticeably drunk.
  • Lindsay, during her pregnancies.
  • Geoff swore off alcohol and is over a year sober. He maintains that it was never an addiction, but he has an extremely obsessive personality, and he knows that if he drinks, there's no tipsy – he'll drink until he's blackout drunk, so he's stopped.
• Did Not Do the Bloody Research: American fans will say that Gavin swears far less than the other RT staff, but in truth he swears about as much, just in English slang. The same applies with Ben.
• Ditzy Genius: Gavin is clever, but he often makes mistakes or slip-ups which make him come across as a bit stupid. Case in point: headlight fluid.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Nearly a decade before he was hired by Funhaus, Ryan Hailey was mentioned in a story Chris told on the RT Podcast (#230, to be exact), of Napkin the Elf, a month-long bit where Ryan would be in-character as an elf and gift cookies to random people. He would reprise the role on an episode of Good Morning From Hell.
• Enforced Method Acting: Because On The Spot is live improv, Jon is not made aware of the contestants' antics other than what the games are and who the contestants are, so his reactions are genuine when they break out the costumes or get Broadcast involved to screw with him.
• Executive Meddling: The "Twitch Debacle", in which an unspecified higher up forced Ray to relinquish control of his personal Twitch channel so Rooster Teeth could have one of their own instead of making their own. Ray nearly came close to quitting the company and later videos would have him moody, quiet, snarky and being something of a Jerkass for quite awhile. He announced his departure from the company on April 10, 2015 and departed the week after.
• From Bad to Worse: "Geoff's Killing Intent", which was a series of stories he told at RTX Australia in 2016 about his surprisingly-long history of accidentally killing animals. The compilation goes on for fourteen minutes.
  Geoff: I got another terrible "Hittin' an animal" story-^note Whatever number you're thinking this 'another' makes it, please add three.
  Michael: What the fuck?!
  Lindsay: Geoff! Stop!
  Ryan: Do you save these up until you leave the country?!
• Hurricane of Puns: Barbara. Ever since 2013, the standard Lame Pun Reaction is Goddamnit Barb!
• The Hyena:
  • Geoff and Gus tend to spend the majority of their podcast appearances cackling their heads off at some dumb comment that either Gavin or Chris tend to make. Geoff, in particular, has ruined his pants on multiple occasions because he was laughing so hard.
  • Achievement Hunter in general spend a lot of time laughing at each other's antics. Jack has been brought to tears from laughing so hard. BK once laughed so hard she nearly triggered an asthma attack.
  • During his tenure at Funhaus, Bruce Greene often broke into hysterical wheezing, sometimes hard enough to fart.
  • Every time Drew Saplin has been on the RT podcast, he's burst into hysterical laughter each time. In fact, his first RTAA appearance was just him cackling.
  • Despite his damnedest to keep a straight face while hosting On The Spot, Jon Risinger is notorious for bursting into hysterical cackling at the contestants or whenever he's on the podcast.
  • Even the broadcast crew are prone to this. While Eric is the main podcast producer, his tendencies to break into hysterical laughter and interjecting lead him to become the third host of Face Jam and a regular presence on F**kface and the RT podcast.
  • Because audio engineer Nick kept cackling during recordings of Face Jam, he's become a sidekick in his own right as the Sauce Monkey, who says nothing but hysterical cackling while wearing a monkey mask and was even promoted to "Laugh Track" on F**kface.
  • Any time Blizz and Chris are on the RT podcast, expect Blizz to be in hysterics reacting to Chris's stories.
• Insult Backfire: When Red vs. Blue was still in its infancy, Ed Halter of ''The Village Voice'' negatively reviewed the series as (merely) being "Clerks meets Star Wars". Rooster Teeth thought that this theoretical show sounds totally awesome used that premise for the rest of the series, not to mention proudly using that review quote on their DVD's.
• Internal Reveal: Given how long the company has been around and just how many hours' worth of stories have been provided over the years (the RT podcast alone has been going on since 2008), there are many times where someone at the company will share a story about themselves that sections of the audience will have known for years beforehand due to past references to it.
  • On the Chump episode "WHO Got Drunk in A TEQUILA Factory?", one game had Hannah McCarthy guessing whether Mariel's scenario of "A drug dealer took pity on [her] and offered [her] money" was true or was actually something that happened to one of the other deceivers (Geoff or Ryan). It was only after the round ended that Ryan was reminded by the stream's chat that he had not only shared the story about himself in the past but that it had actually been turned into a Rooster Teeth Animated Adventure, something Hannah was not aware of when making her guess. Additionally, with Ryan's story about getting drunk at a tequila factory as a kid, Jeremy lampshaded that the audience had an advantage over Hannah in determining that was a lie since dedicated fans know about Ryan's status as a teetotaler.
    • Ryan had a second incident that originated with him revealing it previously; in Episode 3 he ended up with the story of his nearly dying in a Walmart parking lot due to a tornado, which he had previously revealed in a 7 Days to Die video a few years prior.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Barbara has become notorious for cracking bad puns in spite of the inevitable groans from the rest of the staff (and a loud 'Goddamnit Barb!' from Burnie).
• Longing for Fictionland: Parodied.
• Ms. Fanservice: Barbara sometimes, with the most (in)famous example being the "X-Ray Specs" Vine. However, in a RT podcast this trope got lampshaded and defied. (Long story short, a sexist guy said Barbara needed to flash more and she got pissed.)
  • Kara. Oh yes, Kara. At one point, people were coming up to her and asking them to slap ice cream out of their hands.
  • During her time at the company, Meg Turney was the lead Ms. Fanservice, thanks to her cosplay and modeling career, having done a (non-topless) photoshoot for Playboy, and was voted #20 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women of 2015 (just one place behind Beyoncé, and three ahead of Rihanna).
• Mr. Fanservice: Blaine is the current resident Hot Guy as seen in the shorts and has no qualms about flexing his muscles at any opportunity, although recurring guest Ify can give Blaine a run for his money.
  • During their time at the company, Miles was equally shameless in fanservice-y moments, while Aaron and Chris occasional indulged in it.
  • Let's not forget how Michael and Gavin would play up the Ho Yay in Achievement Hunter videos. As of 2022 and 2023, due to getting into better shape, Michael takes any opportunity to show off his new physique, including during the RTX episode of "Off Topic" where the camera zoomed in on his stomach, showing off that Jordan Cwierz signed his abs.
  • Don't forget about the Gus calendar.
• The Merch: How they stayed afloat for many years, next to selling premium subscriptions to access their content. After they were acquired by Fullscreen Media, selling merchandise in their store remain about 20-30% of their revenue amid other avenues.
• Never Live It Down: Invoked on the podcast. Nobody lets Gavin forget the "headlight fluid" mess-up.
• Noodle Incident: The underlying concept in CHUMP is that the panel of liars are describing actual events that have happened to them, with the twist being that the events are not necessarily their own. In the First-members only post show, Chump Change, the truth behind the events are revealed
• Not What It Looks Like: Gavin managed to accidentally pull Geoff's pants down while giving him a hug for getting a high-score in Peggle... just before Kara walked in.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: At one point Jack says that "Gavin would probably win the majority of the Minecraft Let's Plays if he actually concentrated on them instead of just screwing around." Gavin's response? "Yeah, that'd make for a great video."
• One of the Kids: Gus is one of the co-founders of RT and the oldest member of the STF group, and he has no qualms about behaving just as childishly as the rest of the staff who are least a decade younger than him.
• Overreacting Airport Security: More like Overreacting Flight Attendants, but Monty told a story in Podcast #235 about how, dead tired, he said aloud that he couldn't wait to crash into bed. Cue an elderly passenger saying "Did you say crash?!" and despite Monty explaining that he was tired and just wanted to go to sleep, she ran to get a flight attendant. Cue him being forced to move seats to the back of the plane despite explaining the situation to the flight attendant, though for the record the flight attendant that got him up was very understanding, though there was another, female flight attendant that started nagging Monty about how irresponsible he was saying "crash" on a plane.
• Promoted Fanboy: Most of the company. This is either in the sense of being Halo fans, or fans of Rooster Teeth itself, to the point they get featured regularly on Halo Waypoint and even got voice cameos in Halo 3.
  • They've also hired their own talented fans for various projects:
    • Luke McKay was hired for an official comic strip based on his fan art. He continued doing this for about three or so years.
    • Gavin Free was a forum moderator turned intern turned RvB director turned Achievement Hunter mainstay. He was eventually promoted to Creative Director, although he eventually stepped down from the position so he could focus on The Slow Mo Guys. He's explicitly stated that he started The Slow Mo Guys specifically so he could gain a visa so he could work for Rooster Teeth.
    • Ben King was contracted to code the website at 15 after creating some impressive unofficial RvB-related web applications. He did eventually leave to finish his university education.
    • Monty Oum was a huge fan of Red vs. Blue before being hired as the series' lead animator.
    • Michael Jones was discovered by Rooster Teeth when his Crackdown 2 Orbs video got to the top of r/gaming on Reddit. They were so impressed by it and Michael's other YouTube videos that they gave his own show, Rage Quit, and eventually hired him full-time for Achievement Hunter.
    • Barbara Dunkelman has been a long-time forum member and often volunteered to help out at events. She was eventually formally hired, becoming their first community manager.
    • Ray Narvaez Jr made AH community videos long before he was officially hired for Achievement Hunter in 2012. He stayed with the company for three years until he left in 2015. Matt Bragg and Jeremy Dooley were also hired by AH in 2014, and the latter has since taken Ray's place in the main six.
    • Blaine Gibson was a fan of the show, who eventually became a Guardian at RTX and an intern while finishing his college degree. He now works in Live Action Department.
    • Matt Bragg (a.k.a. "AxialMatt") went from a subscriber, to a three-time Game Master in AH's Let's Play Minecraft, to an official RT employee in 2014. His partner Jeremy Dooley was also hired alongside him.
    • Miles Luna's first encounter was interviewing Burnie before being brought on as a writer for RvB and RWBY. Not only that, part of the reason he was hired was that at the very first RTX meetup, he kept the fans engaged and literally asked if he could intern for them.
    • Ky Cooke is a long-time fan of Achievement Hunter and was inspired to start streaming on her own after attending panels about content creation and streaming at RTX and watching an episode of F-ing Around with Ify and Fiona about people of color becoming creatives. Her frequent activity within the community and her own streams soon caught the attention of Achievement Hunter and was subsequently hired as a recurring member.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: A recurring element of the studio.
  • Red vs. Blue focuses on a group of soldiers who were hand picked due to being the lowest-scoring grunts in the military and are incredibly unqualified for handling the various omnicidal maniacs they encounter.
  • RWBY includes a motley band formed to take down Big Bad Salem. There's a Plucky Girl who Jumped at the Call (Ruby), her Bruiser with a Soft Center Cool Big Sis (Yang), a runaway heiress (Weiss), a snarky Defector from Decadence (Blake), a Knight in Shining Armor Idiot Hero (Jaune), a Blood Knight (Nora), and her Stoic Childhood Friend (Ren), Ruby and Yang's Cool Uncle who was driven to alcoholism by his Power Incontinence (Qrow), a Farm Boy who's undergoing a Fusion Dance with the Big Good (Ozpin), a Resurrective Immortal with a Guilt Complex (Oscar), and a Retired Badass who has been Faking the Dead for decades (Maria).
  • gen:LOCK involves technology that sets the titular gen:LOCK system in motion, which is only compatible with very specific nervous systems; with the Union bearing down on them, the good guys are desperate enough to take whatever compatible pilots they can find, regardless of whether they're ideal soldiers or not. Those soldiers are a hot-head who got demoted to cooking duty for insubordination (Kazu), a Cold Sniper who grew up as part of La Résistance (Val/entina), a seventeen year-old Playful Hacker (Cammie), a Union defector recruited out of prison (Yasamin), and Chase, The Hero who despite being The Ace has much more going on than meets the eye.
• Reclusive Artist:
  • Though he will turn up for short stints at events like RTX, Jason Saldaña is rarely seen (or heard) outside of his role as Tucker in Red vs. Blue. He doesn't even appear in videos that are heavily focused on the original 6 of Rooster Teeth, such as anniversary videos or anthologies. He did make an appearance on an episode of ANMA, sharing some of his experiences with Geoff and Gus.
  • Dan Godwin rarely appears with Rooster Teeth at conventions or even in interviews, partly because of his day job. He's also embarrassed by the limelight he gets due to the series. Thus, this is also why Donut is frequently written out of the series.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The guys from Achievement Hunter, owing to the Let's Plays becoming a huge chunk of Rooster Teeth's content. It reaches the point where some watchers of the Let's Plays not knowing who Burnie, Gus, etc. even are. It even got to the point that the division needed its own character and YMMV pages because of how much they dominated their parent company's page.
• Stealth Pun: The name of the company is one on "Cockbite".
• Superficial Suggestion Box: In this short, Matt creates a complaint box to reduce employee frustration. Joel is skeptical about it, especially when it turns out that complaint box uses a "template book of complaints" which is just a Mad Libs book that's already been filled out. When Joel begrudgingly writes a complaint anyway, it turns out that the complaint box is a paper shredder.
• Team Pet: Joe the Cat is the first one for Rooster Teeth, though since he "retired" (as in went to live with Burnie permanently) Adam's puppy Rebel has taken the spotlight. In Achievement Hunter, Edgar the Minecraft cow has been turned into this.
• Those Two Guys: Gus and Geoff for the main Rooster Teeth stuff, Gavin and Michael (a.k.a. Team Nice Dynamite) for Achievement Hunter.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The Achievement Hunter team will all take the piss out of one another and even hit one another from time to time, but at the end of the day they're good friends. This is particularly true with Gavin and Michael, who frequently argue (and Michael has actually physically tackled Gavin to try and stop him getting an achievement) but are still good friends.
  • The official employee handbook apparently lampshades this, according to Burnie.
  • Jack has had to clarify several times that he's friends with Gavin.
  • With the stuff Joel pulls on Jack, you might be forgiven for thinking Jack dislikes him, but guess who was Jack's Best Man.
  • This tends to get lampshaded during heated arguments by someone (usually Joel) piping up with "Fight! Fight! Fight! Kiss. Kiss."
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Michael after his failed attempt at trying to eat a five pound Gummi bear for a bet he had with Gavin. It has to be seen to believe it.
  • Seen (again at Michael's expense) in the pilot episode for the Immersion reboot.
• Wham Line: RTX 2013, podcast panel, you all know the story:
  Joel: We can pick this up, I ju- I just wanna say- I just wanna say one thing... (Beat) 512... (audience groans)
  Burnie: (having pulled out his phone) ...I'm listening...
  Joel: (confused, to Burnie) Really? (to audience) 348...
  Burnie: Got it.
  Joel: Get your fucking ph- (quickly) 9988. (to Gavin) Alright, go ahead, continue?
  Gavin: Was that his number?
  Joel: (Beat) We don't know what that was...^note It wasn't Jack's actual number.
  • And then:
    Burnie: (on his phone, having dialed the number) It's busy...
    • And then, some time later:
      (the camera is focused on a fan about to ask a question)
      Joel: (offscreen, to someone, as the audience gets riled up) I didn't do it! I was here the whole time!
      Jack: (also offscreen) What the fuck happened? My phone is exploding...
• Workaholic: Monty Oum, the CGI specialist for Red vs. Blue and other shows, apparently worked like a machine and fit this trope to a T when he was on the job. When off of work, he would fall asleep in his chair due to exhaustion. It likely got worse with RWBY.
  • Gavin Free applies to a somewhat lesser extent due to his dedication to the company; he's a member of Achievement Hunter, a host of The Slow Mo Guys, AH's representative on The Rooster Teeth Podcast (and the subject of the Gavin or Google? segment), one of the test subjects on Immersion, and the voice actor for his title role in X-Ray & Vav. During RTX 2014, Gavin was on nearly every panel and had very little free time.
  • According to BTS and interviews most of the staff, onscreen and off, are this.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Gavin very nearly didn't get to join Rooster Teeth. His permanent visa required three major things - to have been written about in an newspaper, to be on TV and to have won an award. Then, he did a video for The Slow Mo Guys about a six foot water balloon that made people notice him. Similarly, he was also supposed to be one of the test subjects for the first season of Immersion, but couldn't due to his visa problems. He did become a test subject for Season 2.
  • Meg was actually Burnie's intended choice to host the second season of Immersion, but due to scheduling conflicts and delays with her previous job commitments, the show went on without her. It also would have made a Romance on the Set story had she been able to accept the job, because in her Game Time with Burnie, the "Simulation Racer" footage was what piqued her interest in Gavin.
  • Barbara's experience at Rooster Teeth almost ended up being cut short when Burnie first saw her profile on the site and didn't think she was a real person. Mercifully, this didn't happen.
  • Monty could have been part of the Rooster Teeth team earlier as both the RT team and Monty were huge fans of each others' works. In fact, Burnie actually called Monty at one point and was essentially offering the man a job right then and there, but Monty never realized it!

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