Our Choir is an unpublished comic inspired by Glee.
The story is, as follows; Carla Clarkson has just started high school. She led her children's choir to winning 1st place in national championships 5 times in a row, so naturally she joins her school's choir, named the Direct News. However, much to her surprise, the club is made of misfits and outcasts, who now Carla has to lead. Drama, humor and numerous musical numbers ensue.
The song selection is similar to that of Glee, but with (even) more focus on pop music.
The Characters
- Anita Gregory - Music teacher and Direct News' coach. A Cool Teacher that all of her students adore.
- Carla Clarkson - Nice Girl, leader of Direct News.
- Sandra Dixon - Genki Girl whose signature color is pink.
- Daniel Strossmayer - Deadpan Snarker with Messy Hair.
- Derek Prescott - Class clown, with a likable personality.
- Mary Pill - Chubby Goth Team Mom of the group.
- George Phillips - Lovable Jock; he's in choir and the football team, which his teammates tease him for.
- Andrea "Andy" DeMarco - A jerky Italian.
- Amira Hadžić - A foreign exchange student from Bosnia.
- Linda Stefani - Half Mexican, half Italian member of the school volleyball team who joins the choir.
- Sebastian Jones - The school womanizer, who's forced to change his ways.
- Laura Boux - Fiery Redhead with a bizarre fashion sense.
- Barry Lakes - Nice Guy with an abusive girlfriend, namely...
- Lucy Benson - Fat girl who engages in Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male, at least until she and Barry break up.
- Ian and Iris Hassen - Inseparable twins, but with a secret... they were born as boys - Iris is actually transgender.
- Phillipa Valentine - Friend to All Living Things.
The Tropes
- Adults Are Useless: Strongly averted with Ms. Gregory and principal Peterson who help out the students any way they can. The other adults, not so much.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Daniel's failed relationships with Derek and Carla drive him into the arms of delinquent Wolf, though Daniel is aware this is a bad idea, which is why he soon ends it (not that Wolf is happy about it).
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Daniel and Sandra are in love with Derek. He ends up dating both of them in different points in time.
- Coming Of Age Queer Romance: After she breaks it off with Derek, Sandra dates Amira. All is well, until Amira punches Clarity Johnson for being a horrible bully and is forced back to Bosnia.
- Distant Finale: The final episode sees a reunion of all the members of the choir, with the final scene showing Carla as a music teacher on her first day on the job.
- Everyone Is Bi: Half the choir is bisexual.
- Gayngst: Daniel has this in the beginning, at least until he and Derek start to date.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted with Sandra when she ends up pregnant with Derek's baby; in the end, she puts up the baby for adoption.
- Incompatible Orientation: The main reason Daniel doesn't tell Derek about his crush on him is because he's afraid Derek doesn't swing that way. As it turns out, he does!
- Musical World Hypothesis: There is no rule when it comes to the musical numbers. They're either performed on stage, in the character's mind, or any variation thereof.
- No Antagonist: The closest thing this series has to an antagonist is Alpha Bitch Destiny Jones, but even she turns into a Lovable Alpha Bitch. Her successor, Clarity Johnson, turns out to be a major psychopath, but once she leaves, the series has no antagonist whatosever.
- Odd Friendship: Abusive Lucy and trans girl Iris form an unlikely friendship.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: A common thing for Derek is to say something shocking and/or stupid, only to immediately regret it. Daniel and Sandra find this endearing.
- Rape as Drama: Sandra finds out she has a stalker, Kyle, who after she rejects him, sexually assaults her, but she manages to fight him off and get away.
- Really Gets Around: Sebastian, who's even been described as the school manwhore. Linda forces him to change his ways and apologize to every girl he seduced... he did so by gathering them all in the auditorium and singing "Material Girl" by Madonna in full drag.
- Rummage Sale Reject:
- Sandra's infamous pink kitty sweaters before her makevoer.
- Laura dresses in the most uncoventional clothes. Her most infamous one was her second day of school look, when she wore a ball gown complete with opera gloves to school (which she got dresscoded for).
- Sadist Teacher: Thanks to such a person, Carla is forced to repeat her senior year.
- School Play: Laura directs a play called The (Wo)Man in the Moon, based on the Show Within a Show from Mame. Lucy and Iris want the lead role, but much to their displeasure, it is given to Phillipa. During the play, Phillipa falls from a badly made prop (a paper mache moon), and breaks her leg. Laura is of course, horrified and feels very guilty.
- Show Within a Show: After losing regionals, Ms. Gregory reveals she signed up the choir for a show called Last Choir Standing, which is basically American Idol with glee clubs and show choirs, which they do win.
- Stalker with a Crush: Sandra to Derek until he and Daniel start dating.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Rich Bitch Destiny Jones' parents decide to send her to Africa to straighten her up, everybody in school tells her how much they'll miss her. She thanks them at first, but immediately gives a speech abouth how all her friends are fake and were with her for her money, and how she used that fact to manipulate them. She then says that the only people who were real and honest to her were Direct News, and thanks them for being brutaly honest with her.
- Twincest: Ian and Iris are uncomfortably close, but it doesn't get beyond that.
- Two-Teacher School: The only staff seen in the entire school are the principal, the counselor, and Ms. Gregory.
The Songs
Here are just some of the songs performed on the show:- Greatest Love of All
by Whitney Houston - performed by Ms. Gregory in the first episode, and by Carla in the final episode,as a sort of Book Ends. - Tainted Love by Soft Cell, performed by Barry, intercut with scenes of Lucy abusing him.
- Xanadu by Olivia Newton-John, Direct News' winning song on Last Choir Standing.
- The Boy Is Mine by Brandy and Monica, sung by Daniel and Sandra, their way of fighting over Derek.
- Those Were the Days by Mary Hopkin, sung by Ms. Gregory, as a way to cope with reaching her late 30s.
- Everything About You by Ugly Kid Joe, sung by Lucy and Iris to Laura, since she didn't give either of them the lead part in the school play.
- Fighter by Christina Aguilera, sung by Sandra after she beats up her would-be rapist, Kyle.
- Worms by Ashnikko - however, the assault still leaves a mark on her, which she copes with by singing this song.
- Worms
- Ever Fallen in Love (with Someone You Shouldn'tve) by The Buzzcocks - Daniel sings this at the height of his Gayngst
- Picking up the Pieces by Paloma Faith - While dating Daniel, Carla sings this when she realizes he still has feelings for Derek.
- Some songs from Grease:
- It's Raining on Prom Night - Sandra and Mary perform this at their senior prom.
- Beauty School Dropout - Sandra's friends from Beauty School hire Direct News to perform at their senior prom, where Daniel sings this song. He's afraid of how they'll react, but they all like it a lot, finding it funny and amusing.
- There Are Worse Things I Could Do - Destiny Jones sings this to Direct News, showing her Hidden Depths.
- Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee - Sandra sings this unironically about herself. This was before her makeover.
- Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise) - Sung by Sandra after her makeover.
- Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)
- It's Raining on Prom Night
- Popular from Wicked - Sung by Destiny Jones to Carla.
- Brother Louie by Modern Talking - Sung by Andy to Linda, with the rest of Direct News doing back-up. It should be noted that Andy sings this so Linda could leave her boyfriend for him, thinking that Linda's boyfriend is "Brother Louie", not realizing that he, Andy, is "Brother Louie". Daniel even sings the line "Why does he go on pretending that his love is neverending?" instead of Andy, much to his displeasure.
- Pefect World by Gossip - Sandra sings this after finding out Derek and Daniel are dating.
- How Much Is That Doggie in the Window by Patti Page - Sandra sings while looking for a dog to take home, as a way of coping with Daniel and Derek's dating each other.
- Don't Marry Her by The Beautiful South - Sung by Daniel in a Fantasy Sequence; afraid Derek might go for Sandra, Daniel imagines them living a boring, married life and ends the sequence with Derek leaving Sandra for him, Daniel (this is before the two of them start dating).
- Eat it by Weird Al Yankovic - performed by Laura and Direct News at the school festival.
