Hello! is a concept for a television show developed by JHM and Jokerman215, retooled into the concept for a webcomic. It is a kind of double-layered "skitcom" revolving around a series of bizarre recurring characters getting themselves into awkward and surreal situations, intermingled with a series of even weirder, often unrelated sketches and fragmentary stories framed as appearing on the "main" characters' televisions or radios. Dances on the line between the whimsically absurd and deeply disturbed (or disturbing).
Hello! contains examples of the following tropes:
- Affably Evil: Tom, the hopelessly spaced-out Cthulhu cultist.
- Anti-Humor: "You see? It is funny because I am right!"
- Ax-Crazy: The Living Room Angel and Lorena. Harold, Tom's "quirky" roommate, appears to be this, though whether he is a Serial Killer (as everyone strongly suspects) is up for debate.
- Bag of Holding: Bus Stop Girl's backpack has enough room to fit a giant hammer, numerous architectural supplies, a viola, and possibly several dwarf elephants.
- Bloody Hilarious:
- The "introduction," in which the entire cast is brutally murdered. This doesn't last, naturally.
- Any time Lorena Q. brings out her aluminum baseball bat, Mr. Friend.
- Crossover: Possibly intersects with JHM's earlier unfinished work Jacob's Mind due to occasional Drop-In Character Jake's inexplicable loathing of the name "Bernard".
- Eldritch Abomination: Cthulhu, the Living Room Angel, possibly whatever Bus Stop Girl is waiting for...
- Epic Fail: Many of the characters' attempts to do anything result in much disaster. Mike's attempts at "totally original behaviour" are particularly ridiculous in execution.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Parodied and literally averted with minor background character Handsome Bill, to his displeasure.
- Genre Mashup: Mike's band is generally described by fusing together the names of totally disparate musical genres (often ones which Mike ostensibly hates with a passion) followed by "but with" and some unusual instrument. Example: "We're like Romanian folk-punk meets Goa trance, but with more free-jazz oboe solos."
- The Ghost: The bass player in Mike's band. May have been eaten by the Living Room Angel.
- Harmless Villain: Tom, except when he isn't actually trying.
- Hell Is That Noise: In-universe, Mike's band records an album based off of old sheet music accidentally left in the Living Room Angel's cupboard. It's apparently very unpleasant to listen to.
- Hurricane of Puns: The "political parties" arc. How many jokes using the word "party" can one fit into a comic? Lots.
- ...In That Order: When Tom preaches his "gospel," the order in which one is killed or maimed by things from beyond the stars is a very important point of conversion.
- Meaningful Background Event: If it involves George, it's important.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Harold, who subsists on sugary breakfast cereal, speaks in non-sequiturs and randomly shaves in public. With a machete.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Living Room Angel, an Ax-Crazy Sufficiently Advanced Alien with a huge ego that Mike keeps in a cupboard in his living room. Has a taste for bass players.
- Self-Deprecation: Mike and Tom are both radical Flanderizations of both writers' most ridiculous traits.
- The Voiceless: Lou goes through a brief period of only being able to communicate through jazz chords.
- Voice of the Legion: Tom's "big voice" is represented by extreme distortions of font.
