Gorillaz / Tropes A to D

Gorillaz Trope Examples
A - D | E - M | N - Z

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A

• Abandoned Area: Both Plastic Beach and the original Kong Studios, the latter while it was still standing.
• Aborted Arc:
  • Phase 3 was originally envisioned as a three-album project about the apocalypse, but it was cut short after Plastic Beach. The plot threads were eventually quietly resolved in the character books released in Phase 4, and the video for "The Lost Chord" in Phase 6 effectively puts an end to the arc once and for all.
  • Song Machine was implied to be an ongoing series upon its release in 2020, due it having "Season 1" as part of its title. After the release of Cracker Island however, Damon Albarn confirmed that no second season of Song Machine will be made, with Jamie Hewlett even questioning why Song Machine even had a "season" designation in the first place.
• Abusive Parents: According to the backstory, Murdoc's father forced him to participate in embarrassing talent contests for money.
• Adventure Game: The Plastic Beach game is the Gorillaz version of this, but it is worth noting that the DVDs and everything else digitally released by them works with this same notion in mind.
• Affectionate Parody:
  • The cover art to Demon Days (Album) is very similar to the cover of Let It Be by The Beatles. And Humanz references both.
  • The opening to "Rock the House" is clearly a spoof of the famous trike scene in The Shining, complete with Creepy Twins.
  • The music video to "Saturnz Barz" is most likely a direct reference to the 1981 Canadian adult animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal.
  • The visualizer for "Sorcererz" is most likely a reference to Heavy Metal as well.
• All Part of the Show: Nobody noticed that the helicopters in "El Mañana" were genuinely trying to kill Noodle until after the filming was finished.
• All There in the Manual: Rise of the Ogre reveals a lot of information on the character's antics and history.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The band came back for Phase 2, only to find Kong overrun with zombies.
• Alternate Music Video:
  • There are two different music videos of "The Valley of the Pagans". The first featured driving footage from Grand Theft Auto V which was uploaded on YouTube. Five days later it was removed and a new video without the GTA 5 scenes was uploaded.
  • Something similar also happens in the video for "Saturnz Barz". The first version of the video showed Murdoc's genitals entirely uncensored, though moments later, the video was removed and subsequently reuploaded, this time with Murdoc's schlong pixel-blurred.
• Always Night: Demon Days as an album conceptually takes place in what Damon Albarn describes as an endless night, in reflection on the state of the world. Celebrity Harvest was also going to take place in this setting as well.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Depending on the picture, Murdoc's skin is either sort-of-normal olive tone or very obviously green. The change is explained in Rise of the Ogre as being the result of tanning.
• Ambiguous Gender: Preteen Noodle caused a bit of Viewer Gender Confusion on occasion.
• Amusing Injuries: 2D sustains quite a few, although it can also creep into Fridge Horror when you realize that he doesn't recover like the typical cartoon character, and in fact has developed an addiction to painkillers as a result.
• Animal Motif: Apes, for obvious reasons. Noodle seems to be developing a cat motif, if the video for "Strobelite" is anything to go by.
• Animated Music Video: Logical Extreme; every single music video is animated due to the nature of the band. However, this can range anywhere from fully animated, to Roger Rabbit Effect (miniature models are frequently used), to Chroma Key with live actors on a sound stage.
• Arc Number: 23 — 2D's birthday, his tattoo, Noodle's obsession with it, her number in the Super-Soldier project, etc.
• Arc Words: The word "plastic" shows up repeatedly in almost every song on Plastic Beach.
• Art Evolution: The artwork for Gorillaz has become more and more detailed and complex overtime. To really drive this home, compare what the band looked like back in Phase 1◊ to what they looks like today◊.
• Art Shift: This happens in the Song Machine episode Pac-Man, where Noodle switches art styles a few times when watching Schoolboy Q record his verse, with one style being an Animesque style, and another being in the style of Peanuts. Apparently, shifting styles is a new ability she's gained, and nobody in the band knows where it came from.
• Artistic License – Anatomy:
  • In real life, eight-ball fractures — or hyphemas — are not permanent. They also don't cover the entire eye; only the iris and pupil. 2D can also see just perfectly, even though his vision should be impaired.
  • 2D, though missing both front teeth, has absolutely no problems pronouncing "f" and "th" sounds while singing. In reality the loss of those teeth would have a significant effect on pronouncing many words. Understandable considering the human singer is in possession of his own.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • Murdoc refers to his pet raven with male pronouns but has made mention of it laying eggs — though perhaps it's just Murdoc's biology failure and not the creators; nobody ever said that captain Crazy Is Cool there knows that much about birds.
  • That, and apparently brain damage turns your hair blue. Possibly crosses over with It Runs on Nonsensoleum.
• Aside Glance:
  • Bruce Willis in the "Stylo" music video looks right into the camera twice.
  • 2D, Murdoc and Noodle in the "19-2000" video.
  • Murdoc does this after spotting the manatee through the submarine car's periscope in the "On Melancholy Hill" video.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: "The Lost Chord" features Leee John dressed up as a giant shackled sea god rise up out of the water and begin indiscriminately destroying Plastic Beach (along with the graveyard of remnants from the Plastic Beach storyline) while singing about wanting to be free. He sinks back into the water just as he came.
• Audience Participation Song:
  • At their Glastonbury performance, Albarn repeated the song "Pirate Jet" about five times until the audience started singing along.
  • "Interlude: The Non-Conformist Oath." "I PROMISE TO BE DIFFERENT! I PROMISE TO BE UNIQUE! I PROMISE NOT TO REPEAT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY!"
• Author Appeal: In typical Jamie Hewlett fashion (of Tank Girl fame), the characters love to smoke cigarettes, have bad teeth and all of the women love to wear hot pants.
• Auto-Tune:
  • It seems to have been used for the backing vocals of "Broken". They're heavily layered and pushed back into the mix behind the lead (non-autotuned) vocals, though, so it's hard to tell.
  • Popcaan is an artist whose vocals are always autotuned, and his vocals on "Saturnz Barz" are no exception.
  • "Momentz" also uses autotune for parts of Posdnuos' verses.
  • "Duetz" is a 2D solo song with completely autotuned vocals.
  • It's used throughout "Mutant Genius," Spacemonkeyz' remix of "New Genious (Brother)."
  • "19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)" uses autotune as well for the chorus.
  • "Friday 13th" has the featured artist, Octavian, singing in auto-tune in some parts of the song.
  • Similarly to Popcaan, 6lack is an artist whose vocals are primarily auto-tuned, including his vocals in "The Pink Phantom". 2D uses an autotune effect for some parts of the song as well.
  • The chorus to "The Valley of The Pagans" is sung by 2D in auto-tune.
  • It's also used in the chorus of Meanwhile's title track.
• Ax-Crazy: Cyborg Noodle seems to enjoy combat an awful lot for a robot.

B

• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Noodle, the only female member of the band, wears midriff-baring outfits on several occasions, most notably during the "DARE" video. Cyborg Noodle does it, too, in "O2 Priority Walk". The three male members either wear full shirts or (especially Murdoc) go completely shirtless.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: 2D, Murdoc, and Russel, respectively. Noodle is all three.
• Berserk Button:
  • Murdoc's older brother Hannibal's berserk button was apparently Murdoc using his (Hannibal's) record player without permission, as this was what earned Murdoc the second and third fractures of his nose.
  • Don't mention the Paula incident to 2D.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Throughout Phase 3, we've seen the 2D is less cheerful and carefree when he isn't high on pain killers. In the iTunes session interview, he actually physically attacked Murdoc when he brought up the Paula Cracker incident, which he would have never done previously.
• Big Bad: The Boogieman was this in Phase 3. Whether or not that's changed as of "DoYaThing" is currently unknown.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • When Noodle joined the band, she almost only spoke Japanese. Some of the lyrics of "Left Hand Suzuki Method" are in Japanese (provided by Cibo Matto singer Miho Hatori).
  • "Faust" also has Japanese lyrics which approximately translate the English ones.
  • Lastly, "Latin Simone" has Spanish lyrics, provided by Buena Vista Social Club alumni Ibrahim Ferrer.
  • "Désolé" is a case of trilingual bonus: English, French and Bambara, courtesy of Malian musician Fatoumata Diawara.
  • "With Love to an Ex": Moonchild Sanelly sings part of the lyrics in her native Xhosa.
• Bilingual Dialogue:
  • One of the web shorts has Russel talking with Noodle, with Russel talking in English and Noodle in Japanese.
  • The web short advertising the band's collaboration with G-Shock has Mr. Ibe talking to Noodle and 2D in Japanese whilst they reply in English.
• Bishie Sparkle: Elton John is presented with this, or rather, "The Pink Phantom" video shows that his piano and his own stylized glasses are producing a gaussian glare from the lighting, which makes him glow.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Series Fauxnale "DoYaThing" features the band back together in London, sharing a house with each other. The Cyborg is gone, Noodle seems to finally be happy and peaceful again and the Boogieman seems to have turned over a new leaf and is now living with the band. However, Murdoc received no punishment for his deed during Phase 3, his relationship with 2D has remained terrible at best, Russel is still a giant, and they are currently being haunted by the spirit of Andre 3000. Made even more bittersweet by the ending, where 2D receives an eviction notice, meaning the band once again has nowhere to go, but is actually overjoyed by the news as it means he may finally be able to get away from the insanity Murdoc brought to him and live a normal life. That is, until 2017 when Humanz released.
• Blah, Blah, Blah: "Rockit" shifts between lyrics and "blah blah blah".
• Bland-Name Product:
  • The cover art for their first album features the group in a Geep, and we all know what kind of car that is supposed to be based on.
  • 2-D's motorcycle in "Aries" (despite being an exact replication of the Honda motorcycle that it's based on, besides a color swap) has a Fonda logo on its front end.
  • Also from the "Aries" music video, Noodle's own racing car, which despite not being shown with a visible logo in-video, is also referred to as a "Geep" in promotional statements, and is labeled as such for the figurine created of it.
• Blasphemous Boast: Almost the entirety of "Murdoc Is God." Though the title likely speaks for itself there.
• Blasphemous Praise:
  • Along with being a Blasphemous Boast, "Murdoc Is God" also qualifies as one of these, considering that Murdoc forced 2-D to write a song extolling his actions post-El Mañana incident, and this is what came out of it.
  • This also seems to be Murdoc's preferred method of flattery, even claiming in one interview that part of his reason for choosing 2-D as frontman for the band in the first place was the fact that in the immediate aftermath of poor 2-D's second Murdoc-inflicted car accident, he looked like "a blue-haired, black-eyed god."
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: 2D and Murdoc are one of the most well known western examples, with 2D as the boke and Murdoc as the tsukkomi.
• Brainless Beauty: Invoked purposefully with 2D, who is meant to be the archetypal stupid, pretty frontman.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:
  • 2D once introduced himself on a radio interview by saying "Hi, my name's 2D, and I'm the singer, and I play the piano, and I need the toilet..."
  • Murdoc chose the middle of another interview as an appropriate time to claim that he lost his virginity at age nine.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Murdoc shrugged off potential murder charges after using the island crash in "El Mañana" to kill his stalker on the grounds that "I'm a cartoon, mate. You'd have a hard time pinning anything on me. I don't even have fingerprints."
• Break-Up Song:
  • "The Pink Phantom" details a failed relationship that the narrator(s) did their hardest to make work, alternating between wanting to hold on and just giving up the ghost (so to speak) as their ex has long disappeared.
  • "Dead Butterflies" also details 2D at the end of his rope after a failed relationship, with the titular image representing him in his depression.
• The Bus Came Back: The band's done this a few times not with characters, but with iconic locations:
  • Kong Studios, located in Essex, was featured during Phase 1 and 2 through the band's website as their home, but it was abandoned following the events of "El Mañana", became infested with zombies, and was burned to the ground by Murdoc in 2008, leading to the new island home/studio of Plastic Beach. However, the name was brought back during the Humanz era as "Kong Solar Studios" (effectively just a trailer home), and with Song Machine, the band founded a new Kong Studios in West London.
  • Plastic Beach itself was abruptly abandoned following Phase 3's tumultuous cancellation, with the band since moving back to the mainland. However, at the end of the "Valley of the Pagans" video, after taking a portal to ride around Los Santos, the band ends up taking another portal that dumps them out in the middle of the ocean with Plastic Beach prominently in the background, almost a decade since its last appearance. It ends up becoming the setting for the following video for "The Lost Chord"... where it ends up climactically destroyed and sunk for good.

C

• Call-Back:
  • "Broken" references "Glitter Freeze".
  • Noodle's transmission (which appears as an epilogue in Rise of the Ogre), has her saying "Hello", and "Is anybody there?" several times. In their first album, the song "M1 A1" featured a sound bite from Day of the Dead (1985) that said the exact same lines, word for word.
  • The Humanz cover is done in the style of the Demon Days cover, except each band member is rendered in a photorealistic style.
  • "Out of Body" references "Busted & Blue". "Busted & Blue" itself has a lyrical/melodical callback to "Saturnz Barz".
  • The Now Now's "Fire Flies" references Plastic Beach's "Broken."
• Calling Your Attacks: The video-game Noodle in the short Gorillabitez cartoon, "The Game of Death".
• The Cameo:
  • Vince Staples, Posdnous, and Jehnny Beth (all Humanz collaborators) make cameo appearances in the "Strobelite" video. In addition, Murdoc and Russel's voice actors, Phil Cornwell and Remi Kabaka, appear in the video as the man at the bar and he trap artist, respectively.
  • Jack Black appears as the guitarist in the video for "Humility", as does Remi Kabaka.
• Canon Discontinuity: The events shown in the video for "DoYaThing" were retroactively made invalid by the "Books of..." at the start of Phase 4, which pick directly up from the animatic of "Rhinestone Eyes" and lead into Humanz. This interview with Jamie Hewlett (in character as Murdoc) implies that "DoYaThing" takes place in a parallel universe.
• Cerebus Syndrome: At the start, Gorillaz was more lighthearted; it had the funny Gorillabitez cartoons, 2D was far happier, Russel still had Del and the band generally seemed to be more at peace with each other. Then came Phase 2, which had Del taken away from Russel and "El Mañana"'s video in which Noodle was apparently KILLED. The following Phase 3 took things down an even darker route, having Murdoc make a pretty sinister robot version of Noodle and push the formerly cheerful 2D to the edge of his sanity by kidnapping him and treating him in the way that only a monster would (including forced drug use.)
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: Phase 4 onwards however seem to go for a more lighter direction, the band is more at peace with each other, 2D is more confident, Russel seems to be fairly normal or happier at least, and Noodle didn't seem to suffer any drama from the events of Phase 2 and 3 and is shown to be better than she was. Phase 6 even has a revamped version of Kong Studios!
• Changed for the Video: The video for "Clint Eastwood" has a short musical intro that isn't on other versions.
• Character Blog:
  • Murdoc Niccals has his own Twitter page.
  • From June 2010 onwards each member of the band — including Cyborg Noodle — has his/her own twitter page.
  • Since 2016, Noodle has her own Instagram page
• Character Development: Overtime the band change as people, for better or for worse. Murdoc continues to move further and further down the slope of anti-heroism and steadily loses his sanity along with it, 2D begins to realize how terrible his life actually is and becomes the Only Sane Man, Noodle goes from a hyper active kid to a mature, focused Super-Soldier badass and Russel becomes progressively more withdrawn from reality.
• Color-Coded Characters: Starting with the cover art of Humanz, each band member is occasionally associated with a colour: 2D is red, Noodle is blue, Russell is yellow/orange and Murdoc (appropriately enough) is green.
• Comically Missing the Point: 2D really doesn't get Sudoku.
• Comically Small Bribe: The prize for the humiliating talent contest Murdoc's father made him perform in as a child was "£2.50 and the chance to humiliate yourself further in the biannual county finals."
• Compressed Vice: In the Song Machine episode "PAC-MAN", 2-D becomes addicted to a Gorillaz-themed Pac-Man arcade machine and plays the game nonstop for hours until Noodle goes to unplug said machine. The lyrics of the song itself also allude to the unhealthy habits of keeping yourself numbed through methods of escapism.
• Concept Album: More like a concept band. Gorillaz has a fairly fleshed out lore that has unfolded across their history. That being said, Plastic Beach is probably the most clear-cut example of a concept album in their discography.
• Continuity Cavalcade: The video to "The Lost Chord" opens up with the band back on Plastic Beach under somewhat familiar circumstances: Murdoc inexplicably wakes up wearing The Boogieman's mask, Russel is giant-sized and Noodle emerges from his mouth (a reference to the ill-fated "Rhinestone Eyes" video), while 2D pukes out a miniature version of the whale that terrorized him during Phase 3.
• Continuity Nod:
  • On Plastic Beach, 2D makes a reference to the organ-transplant game from Phase 2's site.
  • Cyborg Noodle has the same hand-in-a-fist logo on her shirt in "Stylo" and "On Melancholy Hill" that Noodle had on her shirt back during Phase 1.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Murdoc's sentence for running over 2D and putting him in a coma involved having to look after him.
• Cool Car:
  • The "Geep" in "19-2000" certainly qualifies.
  • The "Stylo" car may count as well.
  • The Jaguar Formula E. Especially when Noodle's behind the wheel.
    Noodle: Lovely runner. Needs a bit more front wing, understeers a bit in the fast. Wouldn't you agree?
• Cool Helmet: Noodle wore a few when she was a kid, including but not limited to the kamikaze helmet.
• Cool Mask:
  • Noodle has one stylized to resemble both a cat's face and a butterfly, complete with cat-like ears.
  • 2D has a clown-like mask in "Stylo", "On Melancholy Hill" and "Rhinestone Eyes".
• Crapsack World: This is a world in which someone like Murdoc Niccals was trusted with the life of a coma patient. Also a world in which he is allowed to have joint custody over Noodle.
• Costume Porn: Since the Limited Wardrobe trope universally found in other cartoons is averted and they instead have Unlimited Wardrobe, the borderline obsessive fixation on detail in Jamie Hewlett's art style often results in this.
• Creepy Child:
  • Young Murdoc was described by an old schoolmate as "a creepy little runt", and he does look pretty darn sinister in the artwork.
  • Cyborg Noodle in Phase 3 can be damn creepy at times.
• Creepy Crossdresser: Murdoc has mentioned disguising himself as a woman a couple of times on his Twitter page, though we have yet to see any pics of the same.
• Creepy Crows: When they lived in the original Kong Studios, Murdoc had a red-eyed pet raven named Cortez who he often fed eyeballs for food.
• Crossover: In the album The Now Now, Ace from The Powerpuff Girls served as the bands temporary replacement bassist for Murdoc while he was in prison.
• Cute Bruiser: Noodle.
• Cut Short: Phase 3 was supposed to be a trilogy of albums with an epic plot featuring the apocalypse. Only one of these albums was released and the plot never really ended up going anywhere as a result.

D

• Damned by Faint Praise: The MTV Cribs episode for the band has Murdoc describing Russel as the best drummer in Gorillaz. He then backtracks, stating he himself might be better.
• Darker and Edgier: Just compare Phase 1 to Phase 2. Somehow made darker in Phase 3, what with the Cyborg Noodle, Murdoc, a 2D that seems to be on the edge of insanity, and a giant-sized Russel. And ironically, the music and the art style is brighter and slicker.
• Dastardly Whiplash: Murdoc. Dastardly was even shown as Jamie listed the influences for the Gorillaz characters in the 2001 mockumentary Charts of Darkness.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • "DARE" and "El Mañana" feature Noodle, and Noodle only. The other three makes cameos in "DARE"; Murdoc is the only one with lines and speaks only a sentence. Noodle says in an interview that the reason 2D and Russel were WTFing during the video is because she didn't warn any of them that she was going to record the clip.
  • Russel and Noodle both barely make any appearances during phase 3, and the video for Broken features just them and nothing else. The video is made entirely of footage of Noodle playing the melodica to the song while Russel holds her up for the camera.
  • "Rock the House", which includes the band members but is focused on and sung completely by Del.
  • Music-wise, Gorillaz was almost entirely composed by Russel, Demon Days by Noodle, Plastic Beach by Murdoc and The Fall and The Now Now by 2D.
  • Phase 4 began with the release of four multimedia "books", each focusing on what a specific band member had been doing since the end of Phase 3. After each book was released, a promotion such as an interview or commercial featuring the member the book focused on was released not long after.
  • "Sleeping Powder" features 2D only as a response to criticism of his lack of appearances on the "Humanz" album.
  • "Get Lost with Gorillaz" is a series of telegrams that gives updates on what each character is doing at the time they're posted, with each character getting their own chapter.
• The Dead Can Dance: The "Clint Eastwood" video features the band — or at least Murdoc — being attacked by "Thriller"-dancing zombie apes.
• Deadpan Snarker: Weirdly enough, 2D becomes one in Phase 3.
• Deal with the Devil: By Murdoc, the cause of the band's success. Recent backstory and the flashback in "Rhinestone Eyes", imply that he made said deal with the Boogieman.
• Death Glare: In the Plastic Beach online game, seeing Murdoc's "happy face" isn't exactly worth what it took to rescue him...
• Deface of the Moon: In the music video for "Strange Timez", among the various antics the band has while on the moon is Russel doing donuts across the surface. When they leave, we see that he used them to write out "BE THE CHANGE".
• Demonic Possession: Russel during Phase 1 and 2 would occasionally be possessed by his former crew, notability in Clint Eastwood.
• Demoted to Extra: While 2D, Murdoc and Noodle all have fairly balanced screen time. Russel continues to fall into the background with each passing phase to the point where he barely does anything at all across Phase 3.
• Denser and Wackier: Compared to the previous two Phases, Phase 4 seems to have gone back to Phase 1's wacky and plotless setup. In addition, the band, which had become increasingly more dysfunctional over time, seems to finally be (mostly) getting along again.
• Depraved Bisexual: Not outright stated, but heavily and repeatedly implied in Murdoc's case. There's this gem from the Gorillaz official forums:
  Fan: Have you picked up a nice boy with a pair of chopsticks yet?
  Noodle: That is very funny. Murdoc says that he can pick up boys with chopsticks but he has used his dictaphone. I do not understand this.
• Determinator: Russell swimming to Plastic Beach in Phase 3.
• Deus Angst Machina: The portal that whisks them away from Los Santos takes them back to the Plastic Beach. Nobody has a good time there.
• Diegetic Switch: In the "19-2000" video, Murdoc switches on the radio and 2D and Noodle sing along to it.
• Direct Line to the Author: Rise of the Ogre maintains that Damon and Jamie are the band's mentor/producer and video director, respectively.
• The Ditz:
  • 2D. As of Phase 3 he seems to have gotten a little bit smarter — at least to eloquently express how much he hates Murdoc, anyway. However, it could be that he is actually sober for once, unless Murdoc is giving him pain meds.
  • Pelican from Plastic Beach is like this even more than 2D, much to Seagull's chagrin.
• The Dog Bites Back: After years of torment and harassment, 2D finally lashes out at Murdoc in the iTunes interview, which he would have never done before.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: At one point in "The Pink Phantom", both 2D's and Elton John's grand pianos start to... extend.
• Donut Mess with a Cop: An incompetent cop shows up in the "Stylo" video, and naturally he has coffee and a box of donuts. Even when he's about to be overtaken by the Boogieman, the last thing he does is try to reach for them.
• Doorstop Baby: Murdoc and Noodle.
• Dramatic Thunder: This is a common trope in Gorillaz imagery.
  • "Clint Eastwood" constantly features this throughout it, to the point of the video ending in sunrise.
  • "Rock The House" begins and ends with this for its intro and outro, in a similar vein to the "Clint Eastwood" video
  • "Saturnz Barz" features this just before Gorillaz are about to open the door to the Spirit House
  • "Garage Palace" and its visualizer features constant shots of thunder throughout it as well.
• Dream Within a Dream: The "DARE" video.
• Drives Like Crazy: The video for "The Valley of the Pagans" features the band going on a manic joyride across Los Santos with Noodle behind the wheel, resulting in high speeds and occasional collisions with the police. She and 2D appear to be enjoying the ride, while Murdoc and Russel are a little less so.
• Dug Too Deep: The Strangefolk end up causing the Monkey to erupt whilst mining it in "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head".
• Dysfunction Junction: Nobody in this band seems to be mentally stable.

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