Todd and the Book of Pure Evil is a Canadian horror/comedy series created by Craig David Wallace, Charles Picco and Anthony Leo. The series is based on a short film of the same name, and is perhaps best described as Kevin Smith meets the Evil Dead. Appropriately, one of the series' regulars is Jason Mewes.Todd is a metalhead and underachiever attending Crowley High who discovers an Artifact of Doom known as the Book of Pure Evil. Soon, he is pulled into a struggle against the forces of evil, which include the creatures spawned by the book, the local guidance counselor and a secret cabal of Satanists. Todd is joined by his friends: an amputee stoner named Curtis, a science geek named Hannah and Jenny, the object of Todd's desire.The series is not one for the squeamish, as it combines copious amounts of Gorn, Toilet Humor and Dead Baby Comedy. It's also a loving tribute to heavy metal music, and numerous references to various metal bands can be found throughout the series.Sadly, it has not been renewed for a third season.
Tropes featured include:
Action Girl: Jenny, by Season 2. Notably, she even beat Todd to death in Loser Generated Content before a magical Reset Button was hit.
Adults Are Useless: That, or they're utterly evil. Jimmy the janitor is something of an exception. He's not extremely helpful, but he's at least moderately helpful.
Lampshaded by Curtis in one episode where he comments that the staff at Crowley High don't seem to care about what goes on in the school.
All There In The Credits: In case anyone was wondering, the three metal dudes (left to right, based on how they usually stand in front of the car in the parking lot) are named Brody, Eddie and Rob.
A Man Is Always Eager: Averted. Both Todd or Curtis were nervous about the prospect of having sex with their respective girlfriends.
Almighty Janitor: Jimmy, who frequently dispenses helpful advice to the main character.
Ambiguously Bi: Although he is interested in girls, Curtis seems to have a crush on his best friend, Todd.
Todd: What the shit? My finger smells like ass!
Curtis: *takes a long sniff of it with a big smile* …That's not the smell of your ass, dude...
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Todd's ADHD is actually rather realistic, but some of the adults hit by the smoke in "Invasion of the Stupid Snatchers" seem to turn into this rather than becoming a ditz or Too Dumb to Live.
Atticus: (To himself) Focus, focus! You have the Book! Ultimate power is in your hands! All you have to... (Somebody walks past the camera) Hey, is that poutine? (Drops the book and follows)
Bad Future: "The Toddyssey" covers one where Hannah has become evil and rules the school alongside Atticus.
Big "NO!": Uttered by Hannah after Todd becomes an idiot in "Invasion of the Stupid Snatchers."
And Todd, when he thinks Jenny was eaten by a beast. She walks into the hall in the middle of the scream.
The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: And beheads one of the zombies in "Rock N' Roll Zombies Know Best." It gets luckier when you consider Hannah was actually trying to just throw the hatchet to Todd.
Broken Pedestal: Jenny's father is revealed to be a total douchebag obsessed with the Book of Pure Evil. He later uses the book to become a skin-stealing shapeshifter.
Bury Your Gays: Inverted in the fourth episode, since the wish made by the Victim of the Week, who wanted the straight guys in school to understand what he was going through, ended up switching the sexualities of every guy in Crowley High... making him the only straight male when an angry mob of students killed him.
Catapult Nightmare: Todd experiences this in the first season finale, when he imagines slaughtering his friends.
Cat Girl: Hannah gets turned into one during Fisting Fantasy. Well, except for the giant cock.
Stoner #2: Loser! (With Todd and later, Atticus as the typical Phrase Catcher)
Chubby Chaser: Jimmy the janitor. "When I want to grease my piece, I go obese."
Cluster F-Bomb: "Fuck you, you cock-sucker whore-porking piece of shit fucker!"
Covert Pervert: Hannah gets dreamy-eyed when watching Todd and Curtis kiss in Gay Day. Later, when Curtis expresses hesitation over having sex before Hannah is ready, she quickly answers "I'm ready" and pulls him on top of her.
Deadpan Snarker: Jenny, from time to time. Or Todd, when Jenny isn't snarking.
Demonic Possession: Has occured twice in the series thus far, both in the series premiere (where Todd is possessed by the Book of Pure Evil) and in an episode where a basketball player is taken over by the ghost of a former alum.
When a student is "impregnated" by the Book of Pure Evil, she moans rather suggestively before falling off her swing.
A girl named Gina (who insists on pronouncing it like the end of "vagina") is turned into Mother Nature and tries to drag Hannah into her.
Gina: Come back to Mother, Hannah! COME BACK INSIDE MOTHER!!
Drill Sergeant Nasty: Wanda Winterbanks is this misplaced in a cheerleader's body.
Dumb Is Good: Averted in one episode, where the villain of the week is borderline retarded and intent on making everyone dumber than him.
Easy Evangelism: It proves laughably easy for Atticus to convert the students of Crowley High to Satanism. Notably, the illustrated pamphlet his minions distribute to their fellow students resembles the infamous Jack Chick tracts.
Everybody Must Get Stoned: One student tries to use the book to become the smartest kid in school. He ends up with the ability to emit smoke that turns people into morons and ends up infecting the entire school (except Hannah). Todd and Curtis initially assume that everyone is high.
Evil Mentor: The three metal dudes who perpetually hang around outside the school. At first they appear to be helping Todd, but their actual goal is to bring about the apocalypse.
Evil Old Folks: Virtually all of the residents of the Crowley Heights retirement home.
In the second season premiere, the Book of Pure Evil turns the retirement home residents into cannibal zombies.
Exposition Fairy: "Fisting Fantasy" gives the gang one: a Muppet-like critter named "Mischievio," who quickly degrades into The Loadand is actually the guy who used the Book to create the video game world.
Fakeout Makeout: Hannah and Curtis invoke this in one episode to avoid detection by Atticus.
Fusion Dance: The three metal dudes can fuse and create an apparently new person complete with her own personality ("Never know what she saw in you").
Gonna Need More Trope: In "Invasion of the Stupid Snatchers," when Hannah vacuums up the smoke Jenny inhaled only for her to be reinfected.
Hannah: I'm gonna need a bigger vacuum.
Gorn: Very common. The teens who use the Book often meet incredibly grisly ends.
Harmful to Minors: Todd once watched a home-made sex tape starring Curtis' grossly obese parents. The experience scarred him for life, giving him a crippling fear of fat people.
Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Curtis seems to have one of these. He mentions in one episode that his parents are constantly trying to get rid of him. In another episode, when his friend Hannah questions how he learned to pick locks, he mentions that his parents lock him out of the house a lot.
I Just Want to Have Friends: A lonely girl seeking friendship uses the Book of Pure Evil and gains the ability to instantly befriend anyone through touch.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: An incredibly dumb student who used the book to turn everyone into idiots asks Hannah if being smart has made her any happier.
Jackass Genie: The book itself. Just as an example, a bullied gay kid wished that the straight guys in Crowley High understood what he was going through, and the book flipped the sexualities of every boy in the school... including the one that made the wish, who was left as a straight male minority.
Limited Wardrobe: The three metal dudes that hang out in the parking lot don't even swap out their band shirts. Possibly justified because they're not normal people, but it should probably make them stand out more than it does.
Mauve Shirt: Wanda Winterbanks, the head cheerleader, and Ms. Dempsey, the gym teacher.
Metafictional Device: Weaponized by the two-person AV Club in "Loser Generated Content." This included warping a victim around the school using editing and later slicing him clean in half with a split-screen.
2 Girls 1 Tongue is a sequel of sorts to the above and is also a musical predictably.
My Eyes are Up Here: Curtis has to say this to Todd in "Fisting Fantasy," when the gang gets transported into an MMO and Curtis becomes his female avatar.
No Ontological Inertia: A spell that turned all the male students gay ends with the death of the student who cast it. Similarily, when the characters are transported into a fantasy RPG, they are returned to the real world by defeating the student who brought them there.
Ontological Inertia: A lot of other cases such as "Monster Fat" and "Rock N' Roll Zombies Know Best" aren't stopped when the students who made the wishes die. It seems to depend on the nature of the wish, with the ones that create a physical monster of some kind most likely to have Ontological Inertia.
Nobody Poops: Indiscreetly averted as of "See You Later, Masturbator." When Atticus's back is turned, the kid that made himself invisible using the Book craps on his desk, with the Gang noticeably grossed out as they see it happen.
Noodle Incident: "The Incident" from "The Toddyssey." All we know for sure is it's not the threesome Curtis, Hannah, and Jenny had.
Atticus has a few that the show plays with. Each leads into an Imagine Spot, but it's always the same memory of him as a teenager, being intimidated by a snarling wolf in a forest. Doesn't matter what he said about it before the Imagine Spot.
Nothing Is Scarier: Type 1 and Type 2 are both used in "Invasion of the Stupid Snatchers," with some faint disembodied voices as the only sounds.
Occam's Razor: Todd and Curtis first think a cheerleader was eaten alive by something they name "the Beast," leaving just her cheerleading outfit. When Jenny points out there was no blood left at the scene, Todd decides the cheerleader wished for no more periods and suffered total blood loss... and then got eaten by this creature called "the Beast," leaving just her cheerleading outfit. That implies two separate wishes, when the cheerleader actually just wished to be stronger to stay on the team and ended up becoming "the Beast" itself.
Off with His Head!: In "Rock N' Roll Zombies Know Best," although with a hatchet instead of a sword.
And in the Season 1 finale, Atticus does this to his own father.
Offscreen Teleportation: When Atticus is pursued by a man-sized monster baby spawned by the Book. Although the Big Bad Baby is only capable of shambling slowly, it somehow manages to get in front of Atticus as he sprints down a school corridor.
Refusal of The Call: Todd only agrees to help locate the Book of Pure Evil in order to score with his love interest. In subsequent episodes, he exhibits little interest in actually finding it.
Rhymes on a Dime: The Exposition Fairy Mischievio in "Fisting Fantasy," which is just a front. He's actually the guy who used the Book in the episode.
Running Gag: If you don't control German herpes, German herpes will control you.
You wanna make a babeh?
Stop being such a loser, loser!
We're so wasted.
Hey, dude, that's my girlfriend! Not cool!
Atticus's Imagine Spot of himself as a teenager being menaced by a snarling wolf. The first use was when Atticus referred to his first sexual experience, but the changing context later on turns this into a stand-in for any Noodle Incident.
Shaming The Mob: Attempted during "Gay Day," when the student who used the book to turn every male student gay (except himself) makes a plea for tolerance to his fellow students. They tear him to pieces.
Shirtless Scene: During one movement of the rock opera that is the 10th episode of the second season, Todd rips of his shirt and dances on a picnic table.
This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: In the Battle of the Bands in the first episode, when Atticus calls the first act "Posey Fresh."
Audience Member: "Posse Fresh," bitch!
(Audience snickers)
Atticus: Posse Fresh. Whatever... bitch.
Toilet Humor: So much of this. One episode literally features an invisible pervert shitting on Atticus' desk.
Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Book of Pure Evil mostly functions as this, but can change its shape. It's become a guitar, a baby blanket, a basketball and shoelaces.
Town with a Dark Secret: Crowley Heights was founded by Satanists to escape persecution for their beliefs (and carry out the Dark Lord's bidding).
Twincest: The Girl on Girl Is Hot episode focused on a pair of incestuous identical twin sisters. When one sister chases after Jenny, the other sister ends up using the Book of Pure Evil to produce a clone as a replacement.
Weak Willed: Curtis, when Atticus attempts to hypnotize him.
Welcome to Corneria: When Crowley High gets trapped inside a video game, most of the characters outside the gang— including Jimmy, who becomes a blacksmith NPC— fall victim to this.
Todd: Hey, Jimmy!
Jimmy: Hey, gang! What can I get you from the Secret Chamber of Stuff?
Hannah: Doesn't he recognize us?
Todd: Hey, Jimmy...
Jimmy: Hey, gang! What can I get you from the Secret Chamber of Stuff?
He also ends up repeating "Titty-Wizard just spent all your gold, dude" several times when Todd tries to make another purchase at the shop.
Wham Episode: Arguably, the first season finale, in which the three stoners reveal Todd's true destiny as the Pure Evil One, Jenny finds her father, Hannah and Curtis finally kiss and Atticus recovers the Book of Pure Evil and then usurps his father as the leader of the Satanists.
The second season finale is even, uh, whammier. Atticus becomes trapped inside the book during his showdown with Todd, who in turn rejects the Book of Pure Evil. As a result, Hannah dies because of her secret connection to the book.
Wrecked Weapon: Sanddragon gets broken in half by Atticus after his transformation into a goat-man.
Your Head A Splode: What happens to a student who tries to use mind control on Todd, because of his ADHD.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Usually whoever uses the Book of Pure Evil ends up with a dose of karma near the end of the episode. In "The Phantom of Crowley High," Charlotte wishes for an angelic voice to score the lead in the musical and then gets her tongue sliced off in only 4˝ minutes. She goes on to spend the rest of the episode trying to eliminate the competition, and even fails to die by the end of the episode.
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