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Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
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alt title(s): Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog; Dr Horrible 
Our hero villain protagonist main character, flanked by everybody else who's anybody. Except Bad Horse.
"Justice has a name. And the name that it has, besides justice, is Captain Hammer."
"I have a Ph.D. in horribleness!"
—Dr. Horrible
An aspiring supervillain trying to get into the Evil League of Evil finds himself entangled in a Love Triangle with his arch-nemesis and a girl he knows from the laundromat. A three-part Web Original Vlog Series, created by Joss Whedon out of his own pocket as a more-or-less direct result of the Writer's Guild strike of 2007-2008. A musical. A really freakin' awesome musical.
The series was released for free until July 20, 2008. After that time it was placed on iTunes for purchase (USA and Canada only) and for free with ads on Hulu.com (United States Only) with the revenue from both going to pay the cast and crew. Overwhelming response crashed the servers, and vigorous international response prompted the team to make the videos viewable internationally. A DVD was released December, 2008. It features two commentary tracks, including "Commentary, the Musical" that will blow your mind.
There is also a prequel comic by Zack Whedon from the point of view of Captain Hammer. The official fansite is here. A Moist comic is available on the Dark Horse My Space page, here. There's also a Penny Prequel comic here on the Dark Horse My Space page.
There is also a fanmade prequel, Horrible Turn, that has been recognised by Joss as " itsy kitschy glitzy," whether that is to be taken as a compliment remains to be seen.
Rumors swirl about a sequel but it has not been officially confirmed, only strongly hinted at by Nathan Fillion and Joss Whedon himself.
The series won the 2009 People's Choice Award for "Favorite Online Sensation" as well as several 2009 Streamy Awards for:
- Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series
- Best Editing
- Best Cinematography
- Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series
- Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series
- Best Original Music
- Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series
Also, as of September 12, 2009, it is the winner of the Emmy for "Outstanding Special Class – Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program", making it potentially the first show to have won an Emmy without having ever been aired on television. Quite a unique honor.
Characters:
Dr. Horrible a.k.a. Billy (played by Neil Patrick Harris), the aspiring supervillain. Currently designing a gun that will freeze people in time.
Captain Hammer (played by Nathan Fillion), Dr. Horrible's arch-nemesis.
Penny (played by Felicia Day), who uses the same laundromat as Dr. Horrible and volunteers at a homeless shelter. She dies.
Moist (played by Simon Helberg), Dr. Horrible's friend. He seems to have superpowers related to getting things slightly damp.
There is now a character sheet.
See also Commentary The Musical.
Also see: The zany theories page for the show. After you've seen the show.
From this point forward there be unmarked spoilers. Read after seeing the 'sodes. The trope references won't make much sense until you do, anyway.
Tropes include:
- Affably Evil
- Alternative Character Interpretation: There's a large camp of people who believe Dr. Horrible and Billy are two separate people in one body, as evidenced by some of the trope comments below, even though this was never revealed in the show.
- Almost Kiss: In Act II, after Penny's song, you can see them inching in towards each other before Penny mentions Captain Hammer.
- Amusing Injuries: Well, Captain Hammer considers them amusing while he inflicts them on a helpless Dr. Horrible. Subverted as Captain Hammer's injuries from the exploding Death Ray, and his reaction to them. "I think this is what pain feels like!"
- Animal Supervillain Bad Horse
- Anti Villain: That trope fits Dr. Horrible like a glove. At least, up until the point where he changes his gloves and uniform.
- Arch Enemy: Doctor Horrible says that Johnny Snow is not his archnemesis, but rather that's Captain Hammer, who dislocated his shoulder...twice. And threw a car at his head.
- Aside Glance: Captain Hammer pulls one when the fan trio says that "[they] do the weird stuff."
- Attack Of The 50 Foot Whatever: In Dr. Horrible's revenge daydream sequence during "Brand New Day" at the end of Act II, he turns into a giant and stomps Captain Hammer flat.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: What poor Billy gets in the most painful way possible.
- Better Than It Sounds: Read the synopsis at the top of the page. A made-for-Internet short film deconstructing comic book archetypes, done on the cheap during the WGA strike. And it's a musical. But that sounds awesome.
- Beware The Nice Ones: Doctor Horrible was a Technical Pacifist even against his nemesis Captain Hammer, who regularly beat him silly (dislocating his shoulder at least twice, throwing a car at his head, launching him several hundred feet into the air in the comic) until Hammer decided to date Penny explicitly because Billy was in love with her. It says a lot for the quality of the piece that the supervillain is the "Nice One" and does it effectively.
- Blond Guys Are Evil: Note the titular character. He's also blond in the companion comic.
- Blown Across The Room: Captain Hammer, upon firing Horrible's death ray.
- Bond One Liner: Two, right after each other, one of which is a Metaphorgotten, by Captain Hammer in Act III.
Captain Hammer: A death ray! Looks like Dr. Horrible's moving up. Let's see if this one works any better than the others.
Dr. Horrible: Don't!
Captain Hammer: I don't have time for your warnings. You give my regards to Saint Peter...or whoever has his job, but in hell.
- Break The Cutie: Dr. Horrible's humiliations in Act II are only the latest in a long line of humiliations and injuries inflicted on him by Jerk Jock Captain Hammer.
Billy: "Listen close to everybody's heart / and hear that breaking sound / hopes and dreams are shattering apart / and crashing to the ground."
- BSOD Song: Everything you Ever. My God, Everything you ever. Neil's Turn from Commentary is also a comedic take on this.
- Buffy Speak: A given when you consider the writer.
Dr. Horrible: "Moist! My evil...moisture...buddy..."
Dr. Horrible: "I wouldn't want to turn my back on a fellow... laundry... person."
In Act III, we have Captain Hammer: "Mama! Someone maternal!"
- Canis Latinicus: The seal of the Evil League of Evil bears the phrase "Homines Non Boni Seriose" which can be translated as "Seriously Not Good Guys."
- Cannot Spit It Out: Billy is so painfully shy that his first on-screen attempt at talking to Penny at the laundromat ends with him mumbling unintelligibly, and his second attempt ("Love your hair.") becomes a Did I Just Say That Out Loud moment for him when she turns around in surprise. He backpedals hastily, "No, I- I, I...love the air." At one point he tells Moist that he is so close (surely only a few weeks at most!) to achieving "real audible connection" with Penny. He never gets around to actually telling her that he loves her.
- Card Carrying Villain: Dr. Horrible, who wants to prove his worth as a supervillain to be allowed to join the Evil League of Evil. Not to mention the actual members of the actual Evil League of Evil, like Bad Horse, of course, of course. Ironically, he just about epitomizes the opposite of that trope in all other respects.
- Car Fu: "Captain Hammer threw a car at my head."
- Cartwright Curse: Captain Hammer implies that his girlfriends don't last very long, as he's never slept with the same girl twice.
- I think this is more a case of the girls wising up and dumping him (as Penny was showing signs of doing), than them dying.
- Um... or, he's just been sleeping around? Bear in mind he's tempted to sleep with her a second time because "they say you get to do the weird stuff"...
- Catch Phrase: "I'm Dr. Horrible! (I hold / I've got) a PhD. in horribleness!"
- Lampshaded by Moist: "Is that the new catch phrase?"
- Apparently before that it was "Horrible is just what the Doctor ordered", which Moist stated needed changing.
- Catch Phrase Interruptus (well, High Note Interruptus): "WAAAAAAAAAY!" (Captain Hammer)
- Chekhovs Gun: The Freeze Ray. Literally shown first in Act I and then used later in Act III.
- It's also shown on-screen then used off-screen in Act II.
- The death ray is (possibly) powered by Wonderflonium, which upon its reveal is precautioned to NOT BOUNCE. Later, the ray is bounced, and explodes with its next shot.
- Dr. Horrible's trying out different laughs at the start of Act I; he appears to have perfected it by the time of Act III, opening "Slipping" with a likely well-rehearsed Evil Laugh.
- Character Blog: As the title states, Dr. Horrible operates a blog in which he talks of his life as a supervillain. Unfortunately Captain Hammer watches the blog—and so does the police department.
- Chest Insignia: Captain Hammer has one of these. It's a... well take a guess. Nevertheless it's not a cool iconic design of a warhammer, or a jackhammer, or a sledgehammer, but a photograph of a garden-variety claw hammer, likely from Sears.
- Civvie Spandex: Captain Hammer's costume consists almost entirely of normal items of clothing
- Clark Kenting: Played straight and subverted. Penny doesn't recognize her laundry buddy Billy as Dr. Horrible (though admittedly she didn't get a very good look at Dr. Horrible). Captain Hammer seems not to recognize him, but it turns out he's just waiting for Penny to leave the room.
- He greets the Doctor with the words, "You seem horribly familiar." while smirking. That should have been a warning sign.
- At the end of Act III, Penny also seems to recognize Billy through his Doctor Horrible outfit as she's dying. Earlier she appears to mouth "Billy" while she's hiding behind some chairs.
- This could also be due to the fact that he says "Head up, Billy buddy" which she told him in Act II.
- Penny also doesn't recognise Billy when he dons a fake mustache and takes over at the soup kitchen.
- Although this was more a case of staring too much at Captain Hammer to notice Billy in the background.
- To be fair, this troper didn't notice him in the background either.
- Coconut Superpowers:
- We see the (dubious) success of Dr. Horrible's Transmatter Ray when he shows off a Ziploc bag full of liquefied gold bullion/bouillon.
- We only hear from Dr. Horrible that Captain Hammer threw a car at his head. We never see it.
- Subverted twice, in that we see the Freeze Ray and the Death Ray in operation. And both malfunction soon afterward.
- Color Coded For Your Convenience: Reversed (Or Is It?): Dr. Horrible wears white, Captain Hammer wears black.
- Dr. Horrible's red suit at the end of Act III is definitely an example of this. So are Dr. Horrible's new black gloves, which now match Captain Hammer's black gloves from earlier, hinting that Dr. Horrible is now as evil (and hypocritical) deep down as Captain Hammer.
- Crapsack World: After this troper viewed it again the ending drives home that the world genuinely does suck. When Dr. Horrible's death ray blows up and kills Penny no police arrive to apprehend him or even try to stop him, the media start taking pictures of the moment and asking him why he did it, there's even EM Ts on scene to take away Penny's body but no one even tries to stop Dr. Horrible as he leaves.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Several examples within the film (pretty much any time Neil Patrick Harris opens his mouth to sing, for example), but really, the very existence of this is a CMOA for all involved. Joss Whedon and company cooked up the whole thing to circumvent the issues brought up during the WGA strike; it was funded with Whedon's own money and most of the cast and crew worked for nothing (other than the possibility of the film earning enough to actually pay them). Then the strike ended, and they went through with it anyway, and it actually worked—so much so that when the first act went live online, the influx of viewers crashed the server.
- It is also worth mentioning that the first act features Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion, falling from the sky onto a moving vehicle and bursting into song. This troper considers that sight one of the CMOA of his life.
- "Now Doctor Horrible is HERE. To make you quake with fear. To make the whole world kneel." Coupled with Dr. Horrible's Evil Costume Switch to the red lab coat, black gloves and goggles pulled over his eyes. It gave this troper chills.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: "The hammer is my penis."
- When Captain Hammer starts his speech at the unveiling of the new shelter: "*clears throat* I hate the homeless. [next card] -ness problem that's been plaguing our city."
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: Difficult to pick.
- Cut Lex Luthor A Check: "It's not about making money, it's about taking money."
- Dark Reprise:
- The first time we hear "Slipping," it's an instrumental as Dr. Horrible sets up the remote for the Wonderflonium van heist, but the song itself in Act III is a disturbing echo of the tune.
- "My Eyes"
- Also the Ironic Echo variation/type when: Dr. Horrible's theme from the opening credits is played again in the middle of "Slipping". Exact same notes, much more disturbing context. It's even worse during the finale, used for the Doctor's Suit Up sequence.
- During "Slipping", Dr. Horrible repeats Penny's line, "Head up, Billy buddy" on a dark and tragic note as it's the final attempt of the Billy part of him to stop before fully embracing evil. It succeeds; Billy hesitates and can't bring himself to pull the trigger. But No Good Deed Goes Unpunished; Hammer immediately punches him in the face and across the room when the Freeze Ray wears off.
- We also hear a low-key reprise of "Brand New Day" during the finale at Dr. Horrible's victory party.
- Reversed in how "So They Say" puts a greater emphasis on the previous song's title than its own.
- And let's not forget the music during the end credits, where Penny's sweet, kind piano theme is quickly and completely drowned out by Dr. Horrible's dark symphonic theme. This may even symbolize how Billy's old personality is snuffed out by Dr. Horrible by this point in the story.
- Dartboard Of Hate: Dr. Horrible actually misses his target, though. Fortunately this is quickly rectified by more direct application of dart to Hammer.
- Death By Origin Story: Penny, unless Joss has something really twisted up his sleeve for the putative sequel.
- Death Ray: Dr Horrible was originally a Technical Pacifist, but later recants and turns his Stun Ray into a Death Ray. You know it used to be a stun ray because he is shown covering up "stun" with a piece of black tape with "death" written on it.
- Deconstructing: The Super Hero and villain dichotomy as follows:
- The villain is a likable, shrinking violet Technical Pacifist.
- The hero saves the day but only to feed his ego...he's an obnoxious Jerk Jock, Jerk Ass with womanizing tendencies and not much liking for anyone who isn't him.
- Department Of Redundancy Department: The Evil League of Evil
- However, "evil" functions as both a noun and an adjective. "Evil League of Evil" can mean a league which is both itself evil and made up of evil.
- Designated Hero: Two examples, as this whole series is sort of a deconstruction:
- Dr. Horrible. He claims to only be a supervillain so that he can improve society, and there is some truth in that, but much of what he does is purely for his own advancement. A rather complicated case though, as he's a Card Carrying Villain who also happens to be a harmless Anti Villain. Really, it depends on what point of the show you're talking about, as early on he's entirely likable and benign, but by the end he's ceased to be heroic.
- Captain Hammer is officially a Hero in the point of view of the in-show world, but he doesn't follow through on any of his crimebusting. From Horrible we know there's a history of Hammer catching him in the act and beating him up, sometimes brutally. But Horrible has never been arrested.
- Captain Hammer is more interested in adulation than in doing right for doing right's sake. He smashes the driverless van's control device, then jumps off the still-moving van to mack on a bystander. Moments later, when Hammer has caught Horrible and stopped his attempt to steal the Wonderflonium, he lets Horrible go in order to devote his full attention to flirting with Penny (who he "rescued" by tossing into garbage with his super strength).
- Captain Hammer is only involved in helping the homeless because it gets Penny to sleep with him.
- Captain Hammer is perfectly okay with rubbing Billy's nose in the fact that as the hero, he gets the girl. Particularly the girl Billy/Horrible wants.
- Captain Hammer is disgusted by the homeless. And apparently, by pigeons.
- He doesn't care about the innocent. Witness his "rescue" of Penny above, and the fact that he doesn't do anything to assure the safety of the people gathered at the shelter dedication; Horrible, on the other hand, encourages people to run away.
- Captain Hammer doesn't have the typical heroic compunction against killing.
- Captain Hammer is xenophobic and anti-intellectual, believing that goths, "geeks," and anyone who demonstrates scientific or mathematical aptitude should be jailed as potential supervillains.
- When it comes down to it, he's a Miles Gloriosus who's been given super strength.
- Die For Our Ship: The groupies have an irrational hatred for Penny....
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: Inverted on the DVD when the League warns you against using the DVD for non-evil purposes.
- Dis Continuity: The final song was not, in fact, "Everything You Ever". It was "My Freeze Ray (Reprise)", in which Dr. Horrible freezes Penny with the ray as a form of suspended animation, rushes her back to his lab, and uses Science to save her life. This song also included a modified verse from "Brand New Day" and a Bad Horse Chorus. After the song, Penny had Laser Guided Amnesia, and couldn't remember any of the story's events, allowing Joss to avoid a romantic happy ending without needing to kill anyone. And, yes, this is also Fanon.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Billy is, at his core, a genuinely nice guy who's too shy to act on his wishes, so instead, out of frustration, he indulges his fantasy life and acts out through Dr. Horrible. Unfortunately, this makes him a stalker who fibs about his likes and dislikes to keep the girl smiling and talking to him. Perhaps he needn't have worried, after all, it was Penny who talked to him first. Arguably, it is intentional and the point that the so-called Nice Guy is more of a stalker, and that the tragic ending is as much his fault as it's Captain Hammer's. If he had just talked to Penny instead of admiring her from afar none of it would have happened.
- Dont Explain The Joke: [Captain Hammer holds up fists] "These are not the Hammer." [leaves then returns] "The Hammer is my penis."
- Downer Ending / Bittersweet Ending: Captain Hammer is revealed for the punk he is. Penny dies, fulfilling Bad Horse's requirement. Doc Horrible becomes a famous supervillain and gets admitted to the Evil League of Evil. But without Penny, the world is an empty place, full of haunting memories. Billy's last shreds of idealism and innocence died with Penny.
Dr Horrible/Penny: There's no happy ending.. so they say.
Dr Horrible: Not for me, anyway...
- Draco In Leather Pants: The Fan Girls/Boy give this treatment to both Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible.
- Ear Worm: The songs are — dare we say — horribly catchy.
- Easter Egg: On the DVD, in the scene selection, no less. Act II, 'Moist Dries Out'. It gives you a full-screen close-up of the ELE seal, with Dr. Horrible's picture and a countdown from five before it auto-directs you back to the main menu
- It actually has a purpose... try pressing 5 or 6 on your DVD remote during the countdown. There are two other similar easter eggs as well, accessed the same way: try pressing Enter during the "Act 2" title and during the "What Just Happened?" special feature when Felicia says "Mariah Carey", and more countdowns will appear. Again, pressing 5 or 6 yields interesting results.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: A literal case here with the Thoroughbred of Sin himself, Bad Horse; despite only featuring in two short songs and having a brief physical cameo at the end, just about everyone loves Bad Horse.
- He's a supervillain Godfather horse who delivers orders via cowboy-themed musical telegram.
- And has the amazing ability to sign phone calls
- Epileptic Trees: This page, and the related Wild Mass Guessing page.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Dr. Horrible isn't so sure about this whole killing people thing and is especially appalled at the suggestion of killing a little kid (and future president) to boost his own reputation of evilness.
- Everything But The Girl: To the tee at the end.
- Evil Costume Switch: In Act I, during the heist to steal the Wonderflonium, Billy changes from his normal clothes into his evil persona and dons the Dr. Horrible outfit (complete with goggles).
- In Act III, the final switch from villain to supervillain occurs: from Dr. Horrible's previous iconic outfit consisting of white labcoat, white boots and gloves to a blood-red labcoat and black gloves. He keeps his goggles, but now they've become Scary Shiny Glasses, covering his eyes.
- Evil Feels Good: What Dr. Horrible learns in Act II. Before, his determination to get entrance into the prestigious Evil League of Evil was merely a wish to gain respect. Now, it's personal. Now, he wants revenge.
"I cannot believe my eyes / how the world's filled with filth and lies / but it's plain to see / evil inside of me / is on the rise."
"It's a brand-new day / and the sun is high / all the birds are singing / that you're gonna die!"
"It's a brand-new me / I got no remorse / now the water's rising / but I know the course."
"It's a brand-new day / yeah the sun is high / all the angels sing / because you're gonna die!"
- Evil Gloating:
- Captain Hammer's gloating at the laundromat, when he tells Billy/Dr. Horrible that he will date Penny solely because Dr. Horrible has a crush on her. He grinds it into Horrible's face (metaphorically) with, "...and I get what you want."
- Dr. Horrible's song "Slipping" in Act III.
- Evil Is Sexy: The aforementioned "Slipping." Irrepressibly catchy tune? Check. Haunting melody? Check. A voice that brings to mind a master of seduction? Check to the eight-millionth power.
- On the non-
interesting musical commentary, Maurissa Tancharoen even says, "This is my favorite scene" when NPH grabs her chin.
- "Brand New Day." Psychotic Smirk. That is all.
- Evil Laugh: What Doctor Horrible is practicing in the beginning. He has a vocal coach.
"If you're gonna get into the Evil League of Evil, you have to have a memorable laugh!"
- He gets it right at the end.
- Evil Minions: Moist barely qualifies as a henchman, because in his own words, "Even at my most Bad Ass, I can only make people feel like they want to take a shower."
- However, he does have some 'horrible' ideas...
- And enough evil hours to be in the Henchmen's Union.
Moist: "Hourglass says she knows a kid in Iowa, grows up to be president. That'd be...big."
Dr Horrible: "...I'm not gonna KILL a little KID."
Moist: "Smother an old lady."
Dr Horrible: "Do I even know you?"
- Evil Sounds Deep: Possibily deconstructed, if not subverted or even averted. The Designated Hero antagonist has a much deeper voice than the mostly-sympathetic Villain Protagonist
- Exactly What It Says On The Tin: Subverted somewhat with the Freeze Ray - it stops time, not the more obvious possibility.
"With my freeze ray I will stop the pain / It's not a death ray or an ice beam / That's so Johnny Snow..."
- Played straight with Bad Horse. And Moist, who, well...is.
- Lampshaded with the sticker label on the
Stun Ray turned Death Ray.
- The title itself is a subversion. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog implies that it's a sing-along, but nowhere during the show do the lyrics appear in "follow the bouncing ball" or karaoke style so viewers actually can sing along. But this may be the Genre Savvy Joss Whedon counting on his Fandom to provide the lyrics until the official release happens. Since Whedon's previous musical effort (the Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling") has since inspired its share of sing-alongs and Rocky Horror-style reenactments, maybe the title is anticipatory...Also, it is not, in fact, horrible.
- And once you've watched it you will spend the rest of your life singing along.
- Also, the vast majority of the "blog" is not, in fact, a blog. Act I opened with the blog, for only one song ("My Freeze Ray"). Act II had it in the middle, for, again, only one song ("Bad Horse Chorus (Reprise)"). It doesn't even appear in Act III at all. ("a thing", from "Everything You Ever", was not the blog - it's Dr. Horrible's blog, and it is Billy, not Horrible, who sings "a thing")
- Face Framed In Shadow: During "My Eyes" while singing about the darkness in him rising, he stands so that only half his face is lit by a streetlight. When he mentions that it's rising, he steps back, allowing his entire face to be covered. The only light still hitting his face is from a hobo-fire.
- Fan Girl: Captain Hammer has a trio. Well, two fangirls and one Camp Gay fanboy. They are reminiscent of the gag Fan Girls from Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series. In the end, they immediately jump over to worshiping Horrible instead, possibly because that bitch Penny's dead, seemingly because of him — or just because All Girls Want Bad Boys.
- Or because the show is satirizing how the masses blindly follow the newest and coolest thing. Now that Horrible has "defeated" Hammer, all the fans turn on Hammer and become Horrible fans.
- Fantasy Twist: In the first song, much of which takes place in the imagination of Billy/Dr. Horrible, he imagines himself slipping up and saying "Love your hair" out loud, then awkwardly trying to cover his Did I Just Say That Out Loud moment by claiming he loves the air.
- Feet Of Clay: Penny starts seeing Captain Hammer as he truly is: an egotistical Jerk Ass bully with superpowered brawn. Hammer's final attack on Horrible really shows his true colors and shows him for the punk he is. Penny's last words are "Captain Hammer will save us" (see Final Speech, below). Take that, well-intentioned villainy. For all his Jerk Ass-ness, Captain Hammer's the only Super Hero around. As with "Maybe the fee's too pricey/for them to realize/your disguise is slipping," Penny may not like Captain Hammer as a person but accepts the need for a somewhat-heroic hero when that no-goodnik Doctor Horrible rears his ugly head.
- Fiery Redhead: Subverted. Penny is so mild-mannered and gentle that she is only grateful when Captain Hammer uses his super strength to push her at high speed into the garbage. She's so sweet that her dying words are meant as reassurance to her Billy buddy.
- Final Speech: Penny's Last Words were intentionally kind, and that makes them the unkindest cut of all to Dr. Horrible. She recognizes Horrible as Billy, speaks words of concern for his safety, and then tells him everything will be all right because "Captain Hammer will save us." To be fair, Penny was clearly delirious there. Hence her saying Captain Hammer would save them despite Hammer having already run away, and the fact that Hammer was the one who tried to kill Dr. Horrible to begin with. She was either delirious or, realising that Billy was Dr. Horrible and his goal that had been vaguely alluded to her earlier was to become a respected super-villain, decided to use her last words to validate him as a villain, thereby making his dream come true. She doesn't realise that this actually does more harm than good.
- Foreshadowing:
- The person whose email provokes Billy to launch into "Freeze Ray", the song about Billy's love for Penny, goes by the handle Dead Not Sleeping. Interpreted by some as a warning that Penny is not just sleeping.
- "Because the dark is everywhere / and Penny doesn't seem to care / that soon the dark in me / is all that will remain..."
- Dr. Horrible: "There's no happy ending / so they say / not for me anyway..."
- During "Brand New Day", on the line "...all the birds are singing that you're gonna die!", Penny, rather than Captain Hammer, looks at Dr. Horrible.
- That one's debatable. It's likely that she's actually just looking at Captain Hammer.
- During the Bad Horse Chorus (Reprise) in Act II: "There will be blood, it might be yours / So go kill someone / Signed: Bad Horse."
- "The only doom that's looming is you loving me to death"
- During the "My eyes" at the end of Penny's solo verse she has the lines "It seems to me / That some kind of harmony / Is on the rise". In the next verse she is singing in harmony with Billy.
- Fridge Brilliance: There's a whole level of psychological stuff happening with regard to Billy that becomes apparent through his song lyrics. "Slipping" is a tug-of-war between the Billy and Horrible aspects of his personality.
- Funny Background Event: Dr. Horrible stalking Penny and Captain Hammer on their date.
- Gag Dub: Commentary The Musical at times has elements of this.
- Genre Savvy: Doctor Horrible has a voice coach for his laugh, and respects Bad Horse's work on his terrible Death Whinny. He insists it's about standards. He uses the laugh appropriately later.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Doctor Horrible literally has goggles, but never seems to use them (of course, he might use them later on). At the end, Doctor Horrible wears the goggles over the eyes on his new, 'true evil' costume, signifying the completion of his change. They are harder than they look, and did save his life from the car thrown at his head.
- The Good Captain: Subverted by Captain Hammer.
- Penny drops a Lampshade Hanging by asking him "What are you the captain of?"
- That could also be interpreted as a Shout Out to Firefly, another show written/conceived by Joss Whedon (in which Nathan Fillion, who plays Captain Hammer, is the captain of a spaceship).
- Hammerspace: Dr. Horrible produces the Death Ray from beneath his coat in Act III, despite there being no evidence of it being there in earlier shots.
- Especially funny, since his nemesis is Captain Hammer.
- Happy Ending: Well, that depends on how you look at it.
- Played straight: Billy finally achieves his ambition. He defeats Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible becomes a member of the inner circle of the Evil League of Evil.
- Subverted, bigtime: Billy's Death Ray explodes in the hands of Captain Hammer. The shrapnel hits Penny and she dies, losing the girl he loves without ever getting a chance to say how he feels about her, let alone goodbye.
- Hellish Horse: Bad Horse is a black horse who doesn't look like anything special but his Coconut Superpowers include a "terrible death whinny."
- He must have done something evil to cause Penny to look horrified at the mention of the Thoroughbred of Sin.
- Hero Antagonist (Captain Hammer, though he barely qualifies as a hero in the first place)
- Hero Insurance: Captain Hammer, big time. Until the end, of course, when he ends up in therapy, for once (debatably) feeling remorse for Penny's death.
- Or maybe he was traumatized by his moment of vulnerability and near-mortality.
- Heroic (Villainous?) BSOD Dr. Horrible twice: first at the beginning of Act II after Penny and Captain Hammer have hooked up, and then the very last shot of Act III.
- Captain Hammer: being seen running away whilst crying for "someone maternal" and then later being seen in therapy counts.
- (S)He's Just Hiding: Certain viewers feel quite strongly that Penny did not die. She turned out to be an undercover operative for the Evil League of Evil...or Billy gives up on Dr. Horrible to be with Penny, because he realizes love is more important than ruling the world, or... something!
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Bad Horse (until the finale). Also, Exactly What It Says On The Tin: The "Thoroughbred of Sin" is revealed to be... yeah, a real horse. He doesn't even look particularly evil.
- His plain appearance no doubt makes him even worse. After all, you would expect such evil from a hellish looking horse. It could also suggest his evil is so notorious he doesn't even need to appear outwardly villainous like the rest of the league.
- His threats are certainly quite evil. "Or he'll make you his mare..."
- Also, the actors who played the Evil League of Evil's members did not know that Bad Horse was a real horse until the scene happened.
- Conflict Diamond, Bait, Switch, and Hourglass are all referenced within Dr. Horrible and Moist's circle of friends, but none of them are seen.
- However, Moist is seen with someone wearing a pink and black outfit during "Brand New Day"
- In contrast the pink pummeler is seen with Moist but not named in the film
- Hey Its That Guy: Dr. Horrible's sidekick Moist is played by Howard form The Big Bang Theory.
- Hollywood Nerd
- Hope Spot: Doctor Horrible has a moment of triumph as he survives his gun exploding without harm, and Captain Hammer has fled, broken and humiliated. But then he turns around, to see the fallen Penny.
- Hopeless Suitor: Dr. Horrible to Penny, with the difference that Hammer knows that Billy the laundry buddy is not "just a friend."
- Hype Backlash: Can a modest 45-minute humorous short really live up to the massive praise heaped upon it by its fans?
- Hypocritical Humor: "Wow, sarcasm! That's original!" Subtly lampshaded as Horrible pauses a moment, as if reflecting on this statement, before continuing.
- I Am Song: Initially played straight, 'A Man's Gotta Do...' is hijacked by Captain Hammer before Dr. Horrible even gets to the first chorus. Though he doesn't sing it himself, he has cowboy henchmen to do it, Bad Horse's letter to Dr. Horrible also qualifies.
- If You Know What I Mean: "The Hammer is my penis."
- If Youre So Evil Eat This Kitten: The deed to be done to get into the Evil League of Evil ("A heinous crime, a show of force, [a murder would be nice, of course"]).
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Played straight in Act I and Act II. Turned on its head in Act III where said ineffectiveness is what ends up creating a shoddy weapon that kills someone the Doc never intended to harm, and thus fulfills Bad Horse's requirement of murder for him to join the ranks of the Evil League of Evil. Though, see Nice Job Breaking It Hero below.
- The Ingenue: Penny comprises this trope distilled. There are hints she is not as naive as she seems to be on first glance, though. She certainly has experienced sorrow and rejection in her life, but unlike Billy, she did not let this get her down, she kept her optimism intact.
- Innocent Bystander: Penny gets dragged into the rivalries between Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer. In the first Act she is nearly run over by the out-of-control van, and in the last Act she pays for it with her life.
- Intercourse With You: Captain Hammer's other reason for dating Penny was for the sex and the bragging rights thereof.
"This is so nice / I just might sleep with the same girl twice / They say it's better the second time / they say you get to do the weird stuff."
"I thank my girlfriend, Penny / Yeah, we totally had sex / She showed me that there's so many muscles I can flex ..."
- Internet Backdraft: Whatever you do, don't start a discussion on whether Penny's fate was a standard-issue Women In Refrigerators death, or a deconstruction of said concept.
- Intrepid Reporter: There are two people who do not run or cower during 'Slipping'. One is taking pictures of Dr. Horrible. The other is taking notes on his speech. The latter is in the front row. She doesn't even flinch when he leans over to correct her spelling, gun in hand. She just shows him her notebook.
- Ironic Echo: "Head up Billy buddy".
- It Runs On Nonsensoleum: the final component for the time-freezing ray is "Wonderflonium." (Which must never be bounced.)
- Its Personal: One of the many reasons Billy finally decides to get rid of the kid's gloves and off Captain Hammer.
- Jerk Ass: Capt. Hammer.
- Jerk Jock: Meet Captain Hammer, corporate tool and narcissistic womanizer.
- Jossed: Everybody is going to be talking about that ending for days.
- Just Between You And Me:
- In Act II, at the laundromat, when Captain Hammer catches Billy before he can slip out the door and then, while Penny is otherwise occupied, has a little chit-chat with him, revealing that he knows that Billy is Dr. Horrible and also that he noticed Billy's/Horrible's feelings for Penny. All the while having his arm around Billy's shoulders in what looks like a jovial, friendly buddy gesture between guys... until you look at Billy's face frozen in fear and impotent rage.
- In Act III, Dr. Horrible's song "Slipping" is the musical equivalent of the supervillain's triumphant monologue. Of course, his two-minute song gives his Freeze Ray time to run out of power and release Captain Hammer...
- Karma Meter: The colour of Doctor Horrible's goggles. In Act I, they're reflecting some light, and look white. As the story unfolds, the light gets reflected less and less often, and the goggles turn darker and darker as Horrible's personality does the same. Finally in Act III, the goggles are completely black. Interestingly, just as "Everything You Ever" starts, light momentarily reflects off the goggles again. Last trace of goodness?
- Kent Brockman News: "It's a good day to be homeless!" Also: "Next up: Who's gay?"
- Kick The Dog: Captain Hammer is made of this. In Act II, Hammer reveals that he's dating Penny just to mess with Horrible.
- Knight Templar: Captain Hammer, the self-designated Hero. Not only does he not hesitate to shoot a helpless opponent in the face, but according to the Captain Hammer: Be Like Me! comic he considers everyone who is a "freak" or a loner or just good at science and math a potential villain and danger to society.
- Large Ham: Captain Hammer, especially in-universe. Especially in-universe. Dr. Horrible, by contrast, is mostly subdued...up until "Slipping," where he goes full ham as only a singing, Death Ray wielding supervillain in top Evil Gloating form can.
- Like A Weasel: Billy does this to Penny, in reference to laundry.
- Lock And Load Montage: The Doctor converting his Stun Ray into a Death Ray in Act III. Also at the end of Act III, the Doctor changes the color scheme of his Mad Scientist getup.
- Lonely At The Top
- Lost Love Montage: My Eyes, the first song of Act II, seems to be this for Dr. Horrible.
- Love Makes You Evil: Pretty much the entire second half of the story.
- Love Triangle: Triang Relations type 7. You may think type 4, since Penny never gets the chance to reciprocate Horrible's affections before she dies, but note how she buys two frozen yogurts and looks whenever somebody comes in the door in Act 3.
- Lyrical Dissonance:
- "Brand New Day" is an upbeat, rock anthem about plotting murder.
- In a minor key with crunchy evil synth and guitars. So, arguable.
- "Everyone's a Hero" is an inspirational anthem that actually insults its audience.
- "Everything You Ever" is a triumphant victory song with the cadence of a dirge.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Horrible and his various inventions. Also, arguably, Professor Normal, given that headgear.
- A Man Is Not A Virgin:
- Subverted by the clueless (or possibly in denial) Billy.
Billy: ...they're probably going to French kiss or something.
- Played straight with Captain Hammer.
Captain Hammer: This is so nice / I just might sleep with the same girl twice / they say it's better the second time / you get to do the weird stuff...
- Metaphorgotten: Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer, with headless fish and lacy, gently-wafting curtains, respectively.
Capt. Hammer: It's curtains for you, Dr. Horrible. Lacy, gently wafting curtains.
- Billy: "Tell you how / how you make / make me feel / what's the phrase? / Like a fool / kinda sick / special needs / anyways..."
- Lampshaded: Penny: "(Cut off the head) of the human race?" - Billy: "It's not a perfect metaphor..."
- Billy: "Like with pie."
- In his own special way, you know... he meant that a pie has a top crust... then the filling... then the bottom crust.
- "The only signature that he needed was my fist. Holding a pen. That I was signing with."
- The Mayor: "Justice has a name, and the name that it has, besides justice, is Captain Hammer."
- Captain Hammer: "But home is where the heart is / so your real home's in your chest."
- Billy: "Hammer, meet nail."
- Memetic Mutation: "The hammer is my penis."
- Misaimed Fandom: some people, as highlighted in this essay, are arguing that a large part of the audience seems to have missed the point especially in the way it tackled the idea of Women In Refrigerators and of Billy as a Nice Guy. Billy's complete transformation into the Dr. Horrible persona is clearly and unambiguously portrayed as a tragedy; not only because of the loss of Penny, but because it costs him the very humanity that his friend associates with. Some people are still going to prefer the Well Intentioned Extremist Dr. Horrible over the nebbish Stalker With A Crush Billy.
- Mobile Shrubbery: Dr. Horrible uses it to follow Penny and Captain Hammer around at the beginning of Act II.
- Mood Motif:
- Mood Whiplash: The series begins with a light comic tone that begins hinting at darkness in Act II, to abandon the comedy (almost) entirely by the end of Act III. Although Dr. Horrible singing: "Say it was (H/h)orrible! Spread the word! Tell your friends! Tell them the tale. Get a pic! Do a blog!" amidst the carnage is still pretty funny (especially in light of the title of the musical). He even pauses mid-rampage to make sure a reporter is spelling his name correctly. Not to mention the headline which read "Country Mourns Death of What's-Her-Name" or something to that effect during the Downer Ending. Mood Whiplash, indeed.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate
- Moral Dissonance: Captain Hammer.
- Most Definitely Not A Villain: When Dr. Horrible meets Captain Hammer in the laundromat, the first thing he says is "We're meeting now for the first time."
- Mundane Utility: Kind of the point of the song "My Freeze Ray"
- Murder The Hypotenuse: Dr. Horrible's motivation for going after Captain Hammer. He hopes to make it up to Penny by giving her "the keys to a Shiny New Australia".
- Musical World Hypotheses: Mostly Alternate Universe Hypothesis plus All In Their Heads, but still a bit of the Adaptation Hypothesis:
- Judging from the half-embarrassed way in which Billy stops singing when Moist enters, Freeze Ray seems to imply he really is singing, hence Alternate Universe, though the laundromat scenes are of course All In His Head.
- Both versions of the Bad Horse Chorus are Adaptation Hypothesis: Billy actually is reading the letter, but the singing cowboys are an artistic touch to make the reading of the letter more fun.
- However, Moist comments on the contents of the letter and Billy nods his head in time with the music, even snapping his head back to the letter after a pause in the music, making this one a bit more difficult to sort out.
- Brand New Day and Everything You Ever are All In Billy's Head, inner monologues that are clearly not heard by the other characters around in the scene.
- My Eyes is an All In Their Heads duet, with no other characters present in the scenes being aware of either Billy or Penny's singing.
- Caring Hands, A Man's Gotta Do, Penny's Song, So They Say, Everyone's a Hero and Slipping are all probably Alternate Universe.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Multiple events and situations lead to people repeatedly being unable to completely finish their songs.
- Act I has Moist interrupting "My Freeze Ray," Dr. Horrible interrupting "Caring Hands" with a scream of surprise, and Captain Hammer stealing "A Man's Gotta Do"
- Act II has perhaps the most interesting one, where Penny interrupts her own song due to her Almost Kiss.
- Act III finishes on a high note (pun intended) with the freeze ray interrupting Captain Hammer's "Everyone's a Hero" (who is determined to finish anyway) and Billy interrupting his own "Slipping"
- Musical Spoiler: In Act III, after the death ray explodes and Captain Hammer runs off screaming and crying like a little bitch, Dr. Horrible picks himself up from the floor and starts to grin with the sudden realization that he has won after all. And then he turns around, and sees... And everything goes very quiet. No music, not a sound. Just his expression, changing to horror.
- My Greatest Failure:
- Inadvertently introducing his archnemesis to the girl of his dreams.
- "Freeze ray needs work."
- And then, in Act III, comes the greatest failure of all: The death ray exploding and accidentally killing Penny.
- The Death Ray was probably damaged from the fall, just after Captain Hammer punches Dr. Horrible off of the stage. Electrical arcing can be seen before Captain Hammer pick it up.
- Mythology Gag: Dr. Horrible creates his death-ray by, er... modifying, a stun-ray. Said stun-ray is a repainted Alliance stun-gun.
- Names The Same: Captain Hammer: Not to be confused with The Backyardigans supervillain of the same name.
- Nerd: Billy (and Dr. Horrible, too, although that changes halfway through, when he gets his mad on.) He's also a tech geek, to judge by his apartment.
- Never Hurt An Innocent: Doctor Horrible, initially.
- Nice Job Breaking It Hero: In Act III, when Captain Hammer slams his fist into Dr. Horrible's face and sends him flying backwards, the death ray goes flying, too. The sudden impact on the floor causes it to begin sparking ominously. (Hammer doesn't notice, and, despite Horrible's warning, seeks to kill the Mad Scientist with his own weapon. But when he pulls the trigger, the death ray explodes.
- Not to mention Hammer pounding the controller of the courier van, making it careen out of control and almost kill Penny.
- Also, you could say that Captain Hammer played a big part in "breaking" Dr. Horrible as a person
- Nietzsche Wannabe: Dr. Horrible's part in "My Eyes ".
"Any dolt with half a brain/ Can see that humankind has gone insane/ To the point where I don't know if I'll upset the status quo/ If I throw poison in the water main..."
- Nigh Invulnerability: Captain Hammer. However, it is only nigh invulnerability, as seen in Act III when the Death Ray explodes in his hand - "I'm in pain! I think this is what pain feels like!"
- Noble Demon: Dr. Horrible fits this trope to a tee, at least before the finale.
- No Export For You
- No Plans No Prototype No Backup: The Freeze Ray and some of Dr. Horrible's other inventions. During "So They Say", we can see Horrible working out plans on the whiteboard to convert the Stun Ray into a Death Ray.
- No Respect Guy: Until Act III, Dr. Horrible was more of a villain wannabe than an actual force to be reckoned with.
- Not Listening To Me Are You: Penny's spiel in Act I trails off with "...so they can buy rocket packs and go to the moon" as she realizes that Billy's attention is elsewhere.
- Not So Harmless: After Dr. Horrible builds a bunch of ineffective, nonlethal devices and is defeated by Captain Hammer on numerous occasions, he converts his Stun Ray to a Death Ray, which serves the purpose of defeating Captain Hammer. It also managed to kill someone.
- The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness: The Evil League of Evil
- Oh Crap: "....that's not a good sound....."
- Only Sane Man: (at stage 3: Violent Sarcasm) Billy/Dr. Horrible is exasperated that he seems to be the only person who can see through Captain "Cheesy On The Outside" Hammer's disguise and spot him for the jerk he is. Everyone else (the "sheep") are practically worshiping Hammer.
- Paper Thin Disguise: Billy's "disguise" while tailing Captain Hammer and Penny at the soup kitchen, which consists of a mostache and nothing else.
- Parental Abandonment: Implied in the comic Penny: Keep Your Head Up.
- Part Time
Hero Villain: Apparently even villains need to do laundry.
- Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Billy wants to be an achiever, he longs to be taken seriously, and he believes the only way he can attain his goals is by becoming a supervillain. After he applies for membership in the prestigious Evil League of Evil, Bad Horse puts the metaphorical thumbscrews on poor Dr. Horrible, demanding that Horrible must prove that he is ruthless enough.... or else.
"He rides across the nation, the Thoroughbred of Sin / He got the application that you just sent in / It needs evaluation, so let the games begin / A heinous crime, a show of force / (a murder would be nice of course)"
"The Evil League of Evil is watching so beware / The grade that you receive'll be your last, we swear"
"It's a brand new me / I got no remorse / Now the water's rising / But I know the course / I'm gonna shock the world / Gonna show Bad Horse / It's a brand new day / And Penny will see the evil me / Not a joke, not a dork, not a failure"
- Pieta Plagiarism: When Dr. Horrible carries Penny's body to the stretcher.
- Power Incontinence: Moist is always icky wet due to his profuse sweating, and it's bad enough that when he brings Horrible the mail, the top few pieces are soggy.
- He fights a losing battle with the lid of a preserving jar, too.
- And to complete the trifecta, the finale has him dropping the money bags he's supposed to be carrying during the bank heist.
- Pow Zap Wham Cam: As Dr. Horrible encroaches more and more on Billy's psyche, the shots of him become more angular and starkly lit, culminating at his sudden appearance at the shelter dedication. His "Last Shot of Remorse" ("A thing...") has him completely out of uniform, just looking pitifully like he needs a hug.
- Product Placement: Dr. Horrible uses a remote program on his iPhone for nefarious purposes. Guess who's sponsoring the episode downloads. It was actually Nathan Fillion's personal iPhone, so this is more a coincidence than anything else. For some reason, for "Bad Horse Chorus (Reprise)", Horrible has a flip-phone, instead of an iPhone.
- Protagonist Centered Morality
- Psychotic Smirk: Dr. Horrible, at the end of Act II as he starts singing "Brand New Day."
- Punched Across The Room: What happens to Dr. Horrible as a result of his hesitation with the Death Ray. Hammer unfreezes and lets fly with a haymaker that sends the somewhat hapless Mad Scientist sliding across the floor.
- Puppy Dog Eyes: Dr. Horrible at the opening of Act II, and his disheveled look after Captain Hammer threw the car at his head. "Eyes full of unshed tears"? Check. The second half of Act III is overflowing with this trope. The poor guy carries his emotions on his sleeve, or rather, on his face.
- Pyrrhic Victory
- Pyrrhic Villainy: Depends on how you interpret Dr. Horrible.
- Real Men Wear Pink Moist's friend "Pink Pummeler"
- Rule Of Cool: It's a super-villain musical. It practically subsists on this.
- Sanity Slippage: From "My Eyes" all the way to the end, you can see Billy and Horrible vying for dominance of the brainpan.
- Secret Identity Identity: Billy and Dr. Horrible.
- Sequel: A sequel has been confirmed, but talk of it has been very hush-hush, giving little information other than "we're working on it". Nathan Fillion (who plays Captain Hammer), has gone on record to state he knows the name of the sequel, but can't disclose it at this time. It seems that they are in the early planning stages.
- Shiny New Australia: Trope Namer. Dr. Horrible plans to give Penny Australia once he takes over the world.
- Shout Out / Actor Allusion: Possibly. During their duet, Penny asks Captain Hammer (played by Nathan Fillion) what exactly he's supposed to be the captain of.
- Also, the head of the Evil League of Evil is "Bad Horse." And the company who puts out most of Joss Whedon's comics (including the Captain Hammer comic) just happens to be called "Dark Horse." Okay, could be coincidence, but still.
- The newsreaders in Episode III were played by David Fury and Marti Noxon, also from the Evil League of Evil, "Professor Normal" is played by Doug Petrie and "Fake Thomas Jefferson" by Drew Goddard. All were writers for Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
- The "do not bounce" warning on the Wonderflonium is ...horribly similar to the warnings that go along with "Happy Fun Ball" from Saturday Night Live.
- How is it no one's mentioned the fact that Dr. Horrible is played by the star of Doogie Howser MD?
- Penny's "..and become florists?" comment when Billy isn't paying attention. Becoming a florist is stated as an indicator of some sort of implied mental derangement at least twice in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Fake David Bowie being in the Evil League of Evil might be a shout out to The Venture Brothers, where David Bowie (voiced by not David Bowie) is the head of the Guild of Calamitous Intent.
- There's mention of a Deputy Mayor in Act I as well.
- Shrinking Violet (the male version): Billy. Although he is smart and quite handsome, he is bitter, cynical and painfully shy around women. He wants to be an achiever, but things never work out the way he wants them to. He dresses like someone who does not wish to draw attention to himself, and his circle of friends seems to consist of his buddy Moist. He invented his alter ego Dr. Horrible, a cooler Mad Scientist version of himself, who unfortunately gets bullied mercilessly by Captain Hammer. Not only that, but the perpetually squicky Moist appears to have a more active social life than he does. How depressing is that?
- Sick Sad World: Absence of karmic justice, check. Parodic and funny for the viewers, check. Despite being dark, there are characters who deserve our sympathy, check.
- Billy/Dr. Horrible has horrible luck in general, but he is punished by fate whenever he does something decent and good, such as when he can't bring himself to pull the trigger to kill Captain Hammer, whereas when he decides to be evil, he is rewarded (and even that is a questionable reward). Captain Hammer on the other hand seems to be able get away with anything (except at the end). The person who suffers most is the Wide Eyed Idealist Penny.
- In fact the world seems to view super heroes and villains not only as celebrities, but as interchangeable. In the end, Captain Hammer's fans have defected to Dr. Horrible, and even the bank teller looks more excited than scared about being robbed by a killer mad scientist.
- Signature Style: It's a Joss Whedon story. Honestly, what other ending did you expect?
- Sliding
Musical Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism: A duet highlights this contrast between Dr. Horrible and Penny.
- Smug Super: Captain Hammer
- Solo Duet: Some songs make it clear that both Dr. Horrible and Billy are singing to them. 'Slipping' is the most obvious, but it's present in 'My Freeze Ray', 'Brand New Day', and the finale. Played interestingly, since Neil Patrick Harris puts pretty subtle but present difference in the two personality's voices.
- Sounding It Out: Subverted whenever Dr. Horrible gets a communique from Bad Horse, a trio of cowboys lean into frame to sing the message Horrible is reading (or listening to in the case of the cell phone call). Also, justified when he reads viewer emails to his video blog.
- Spandex Latex Or Leather
- Split Personality Takeover: In Act I, we see that Dr. Horrible may have evil aspirations, but Billy has a modicum of human decency. Not only does he dislike killing (and the weapons he invented up to that point are all nonlethal), he won't do battle anywhere children could be hurt. And he's capable of love, even if he's too shy to act on it until provoked. Even his heist was bloodless, the only person getting hurt was Horrible himself. He warns in Act II that the good in him is dying from his rage at the world and at the Captain. Act III sees Billy making one last attempt to get somebody to stop him. But the warning is fulfilled, and he declares the good in him dead upon realizing the explosion of his death ray has killed Penny...
Dr. Horrible [Act II]: Because the dark is everywhere / and Penny doesn't seem to care / that soon the dark in me / is all that will remain...
Billy/Dr. Horrible [Act III]: Look at him! Not a word! Hammer, meet nail!
Dr. Horrible [Act III]: Here lies everything / The world I wanted at my feet / My victory's complete / So hail to the king
- Split Screen: Twice with Billy/Horrible and Penny singing in duet. In "My Eyes", they were just on opposite sides of a convenient wall. "So They Say" uses a more conventional Split Screen.
- Spotlight Stealing Squad: Captain Hammer does this to Dr. Horrible in Act I. Which Dr. Horrible does right back in Act III. Hammer then returns the favor after the Doc's freeze ray runs out of power.
- Stalker With A Crush: The Doc dons various flimsy disguises to blend in and observe Captain Hammer's wooing of Penny. One of the Captain Hammer fans is an extreme example of this. "This is his dry-cleaning bill...four sweater-vests!"
- In "Brand New Day" we see Horrible in his lair admiring a candid photograph of Penny...obscured by and clearly taken from behind bushes.
- Start Of Darkness: Dr. Horrible. To a much lesser extent, Moist: Humidity Rising, which covers how Moist was given his condition and his first meeting with Dr. Horrible.
- Stealth Pun:
- Moist went on a double date with Bait and Switch. He thought he was going to end up with Bait, but...
- The fact that one of the members of the Evil League of Evil is named Fury Leika. Needless to say, she's a woman. ("Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.") Not only that, but a Laika is a type of dog. Put that together with the fact that she wears a wedding dress, most men are likely to think of her as, well, a bitch.
- Dr. Horrible points out he successfully transported gold bars from the bank to his lab. He holds up a ziploc bag full of the gold, which has turned out liquefied. ("bullion" for metal bar/"bouillon" for soup)
- Penny's name. It cost him a pretty penny to get into the ELE.
- Also, "penny" is the unit of measurement for the weight of nails. And what do hammers do with nails...?
- Captain Hammer is introduced as being a corporate tool...
- "Your humiliation means he [Bad Horse] still votes (nay/neigh)!"
- Stood Up: In Act III, Penny waits at the laundromat with a second cup of frozen yogurt to share with Billy. Presumably it's a Saturday, given Billy's stated observation of and familiarity with Penny's pattern, and Penny's having said the shelter can open on Monday. He's plotting against Captain Hammer as Dr. Horrible, so he has no idea she was waiting for him, and might even have picked him.
- Sugar Bowl: Played straight with the charming "My Freeze Ray" song, and the sweet Penny moments. The sets are also brightly and cheerily lit, and the songs full of delightful, catchy tunes and phrasings. But the Signature Style of Joss Whedon soon changes that.
- Swiss Moment:
- People have reported only getting the Bait and Switch gag later, and/or after repeated viewings.
- The same is true for the Fury Leika joke and gold bullion and other Stealth Pun jokes.
- Nobody gets the Conflict Diamond reference. She's apparently a bad date.
- The commentary notes that the picture of Penny that Dr. Horrible holds when he sits in the big chair being taken from a Stalker With A Crush vantage was less noticable than expected.
- Take Over The World: one of Dr. Horrible's declared goals
Dr. Horrible: (re: Johnny Snow, his self-proclaimed "nemesis") "Look, I'm just trying to change the world, ok? I don't have time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka!"
Dr. Horrible: The world is a mess! And I just ... need to rule it.
- Talking Is A Free Action: Averted in "Slipping", as singing that song wastes all of the time his freeze ray had to hold Hammer in place.
- Take That: How the media in the room reacted to Dr. Horrible after Penny dies by taking pictures and asking him questions instead of getting the police was very eerily similar to celebrity journalists on the red carpet to this troper.
- Tear Jerker: (Dr. Horrible) [singing in Act III] "And I am fine." (The look on his face and the camera's pull-away show he's anything but. He's hurting and alone.) and [singing at the end of Act III] "And I won't feel..." [the door slams shut] - (Billy) "...a thing."
- I keep saying the same thing about "Still Alive"...
- Technical Pacifist: Literally. Dr. Horrible does not want to kill anybody. He also shows disdain for people who don't seem to respect life. He likes to build various ray guns (although with one exception they're all nonlethal) and fantasizes about taking violent revenge on Captain Hammer, but outside his daydreams he hesitates to actually follow through. He shoots into the ceiling instead, while encouraging the onlookers to run away.
Dr. Horrible: I don't have time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka. Besides...there are kids in that park, so...*scoffs*.
Dr. Horrible: It's not a death ray or an ice beam, that's so Johnny Snow...
Dr. Horrible: Killing is not elegant or creative. It's not my style.
- Theme Song:
- Dr. Horrible has his own tune
- Bad Horse does as well, right down to it being the ringtone on Horrible's phone for when Bad Horse calls.
- One could argue that Penny also has her own theme, considering that both Caring Hands and Penny's Song (note the self-referential name) follow the same tune, and are incidentally her only solo pieces.
- The Paolo: Captain Hammer, to some degree.
- This Is Something Hes Got To Do Himself: "The League is watching. This is something I have to do alone." Also, the whole "A Man's Gotta Do" song.
- Time Passes Montage: A delightful medley of seasonal reflections on Dr. Horrible's relationship with Captain Hammer are as follows:
- Spring (A trellis of roses grow as Dr. H. is smacked into a wall, punched in the stomach, and kneed in the groin.)
- Summer (Captain Hammer punches Dr. H. in the face repeatedly, pausing to smile for a camera-toting tourist in a Hawaiian shirt.)
- Autumn (Dr. H. is hung suspended over a pile of fallen leaves in a brutal Atomic Wedgie.)
- Winter (Captain Hammer spins through a snowfall with Dr. H over his shoulders in mid-TKO as a charity Santa Claus rings his bell.)
- Time Stands Still: What Dr. H. wants to make happen with his freeze ray.
- Too Good For This Sinful Earth: Penny.
- Trampled Underfoot: The "Brand New Day" Imagine Spot ends with Dr. Horrible about to do this to Captain Hammer.
- Trope Overdosed: Just look at this page! This is for a 44-minute web program. What the hell is wrong with us? It is not like we are ever going to hear from it ever again.
- A search found about 242 entries for Dr. Horrible on this site. It is 42:25 in length. This comes to roughly one trope every eleven seconds, which likely makes Dr. Horrible the most trope dense entry on the site.
- Truth In Television: Captain Hammer's obsessed fans. Admit it.
Groupie number 2: "This is his hair."
- Twitchy Eye: A nervous squint (so pronounced as to resemble a Tourette Syndrome tic) which our protagonist suffers from both as Billy and as Dr. Horrible, so it's not merely an affected character quirk of the Dr. Horrible persona; happens repeatedly throughout the first two Acts (less so during the third). Some examples:
- When Dr. Horrible discusses Penny with Moist, expressing his hope that he will soon make "audible connection" with her.
- After Horrible receives Bad Horse's letter and declares that he will go ahead with his heist to steal the Wonderflonium to prove his worth as a villain.
- During the scene where he video-blogs the tale of his latest failure, about how Captain Hammer threw a car at his head, he looks mostly resigned. Then, after a pause he rallies himself and strikes a firmly (fake?) upbeat tone, "Not to worry though! Because I'm..." But that's the exact moment when his tic starts up again, belying his optimistic tone.
- At the laundromat, when Penny touches Billy's face to cheer him up but then aborts their Almost Kiss by suddenly blurting out, "Anyway that's what Captain Hammer says...". Upon hearing his rival's name Billy flinches, hunches his shoulders and squints his eyes hard. Moments later, Billy runs smack into Captain Hammer's chest and tries to avoid meeting Hammer's eyes. After Penny introduces them, Hammer greets him with mock affability, "Oh! Billy, the laundry buddy! Well it is very nice to meet ya!" and then adds, "You look horribly familiar." at which point poor Billy's nervous eye twitch becomes really pronounced.
- When Captain Hammer tells Billy (Dr. Horrible) that he is going to sleep with Penny. Although this is more of a traditional eye twitch of rage.
- A big one in the middle of "Slipping," though that may just be him closing his eyes in frustration at the stupidity of the world around him.
- Un Evil Laugh: The first act opens with Billy trying for an Evil Laugh but not quite managing it, despite the voice coach. He does get it right in the end, though (just before Slipping, in Act III).
- Unobtainium: Wonderflonium.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Turns out to be literally true; Dr. Horrible reports that his evil scheme fell apart because Captain Hammer had been watching his blog videos.
"I also need to be a little bit more careful about what I say on this blog. Apparently, the LAPD and Captain Hammer are among our viewers. They were waiting for me at the Mayor's dedication of the Superhero Memorial Bridge... the freeze ray takes a few seconds to warm up and I wasn't..." (pause) "Captain Hammer threw a car at my head."
- Unstoppable Rage: What Dr. Horrible flies into at the end of Act II. (Which, given his track record so far, might not turn out to be so unstoppable in real life, but at least in his fantasies Captain Hammer meets a gory end.)
- He does beat Hammer in Act III, though, you know, he's indirectly responsible for Penny's death afterwards. He tried to warn Captain Hammer that the death ray was malfunctioning - after it hit the floor hard, it started to overheat, crackling with ominous red discharges - but Hammer cuts him short and even states flat-out he won't listen.
- Villainous Breakdown: After Captain Hammer torments Dr. Horrible with exactly what he's going to do with/to Penny, Dr. Horrible breaks, doing significant damage to his Technical Pacifist nature, although he still hesitated when he pointed his Death ray at the presently frozen Captain Hammer.
- Villain Protagonist
- Villain Song: It's called Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, of course he sings the best songs, especially "My Freeze Ray" and "Brand New Day."
- "Slipping" is this trope played straight to the moustache-twirling hilt.
- Captain Hammer hijacks "A Man's Gotta Do What A Man's Gotta Do", and then sings "Everyone's A Hero". They are both grade A Villain Songs.
- Villain Ball Magnet: This trope was originally inspired by Dr. Horrible.
- Villain With Good Publicity: Well, a villainous kind of hero; Captain Hammer is a colossal dick, but nobody apart from Dr. Horrible seems to pick up on it.
- Lampshaded by Dr. Horrible in "Slipping" when he sings "the fee's too pricey/ for them to realize / your disguise is slipping." The implication is that everyone knows Captain Hammer is a jerk, but won't admit it because they don't want to lose their hero.
- Penny does, about halfway through in Act III. Although she showed signs of doubt in her relationship with Captain Hammer and in his personality as far back as Act II. If a woman describes the guy she dates with the words, "He's... nice." and "He's ok, I guess." she's trying very hard to persuade herself she's happy.
"And you believe there's good inside of everybody's heart / keep it safe and sound..."
- There's an Ironic Echo in Horrible pointing out that everything's slipping. Horrible himself is slipping back and forth between Horrible and Billy.
- Also subverted with Dr. Horrible, the actual villain. When his death ray accidentally kills Penny, he starts getting on the cover of newspapers as the most evil villain around - which is good for him, considering it cements his place as a high-ranking member in the Evil League of Evil and sends fear into the hearts of everyone who meets him, making him the perfect supervillain.
- Viral Marketing: The word spread about Dr. Horrible by word of mouth and word-of-internet. So fast and so far that the server was not prepared for the load and went down.
- Visionary Villain
- Weird Trade Union: Moist mentions the Henchmen's Union, but Dr. Horrible blows him off, claiming that he, Dr. Horrible, is not a henchman, he deserves to be in the Evil League of Evil.
- Well Intentioned Extremist: Dr. Horrible wants to take over the world so he can improve it and give the Status back some Quo.
Dr. Horrible: "The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it."
"Anarchy! That I run!"
- What An Idiot: Seriously, why does Dr. Horrible talk about his plans on his blog where superheroes can read it? Does he think Captain Hammer is so dumb that he can't read?
- Given Captain Hammer, that's entirely possible. Irrelevant, though, since it's a video blog, so the point still stands.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Dr. Horrible's overlarge armchair in which he plots world domination. Clearly a case of someone being too big for their
boots chair.
- How can he be to big for his chair if it is bigger than him? Seemed more like him trying to measure up to something
- What Does She See In Him: "She called him sweet. How is he sweet?"
- What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway: Moist's power is, apparently, to make things moist. Which, if you look carefully, is because he's constantly sweating...
- Misapplied Phlebotinum: Moist. "Humidity Rising" reveals that his condition was caused by a Plutonium-powered humidifier.
- Which is from...Chicago. (Definitely not Russia!)
- And what about that Communist symbol on the side?
- What The Hell Hero: Dr. Horrible calls Captain Hammer on his "acts of heroism"
Dr. Horrible: Maybe the fee's too pricey for them to realize / Your disguise is slipping / I think you're slipping.
- Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him: What Dr. Horrible actually tries to do to Captain Hammer, several times alone during the musical, but there's always a fatal flaw, such as the weapon malfunctioning, or him losing his nerve. When counting the companion comic, he must've tried in vain to get rid of Hammer umpteen times before (always with nonlethal weapons, like i.e. a muscle-weakening ray), so much that Hammer is now merely amused by demonstrations of Horrible's incompetence. It appears the Doc has read the Evil Overlord List, but he's just plain unlucky.
- Dr. Horrible clearly has not read the Evil Overlord List. For example, #20 rules against having an Evil Laugh, while #27 disallows No Plans No Prototype No Backup. Horrible obviously has an Evil Laugh, and doesn't keep spares of his devices.
- You've got to have an Evil Laugh! That's about standards. Also, we never see Dr. Horrible need to dig up a back-up, so there's nothing to say he actually has no spares. Heck, if the bridge caper went so badly, he might not have escaped with the original freeze ray and is using a back-up later.
- "Slipping" is a FLAGRANT violation of Rule #6
- Wide Eyed Idealist: Penny seems to be one, but she's not that wide-eyed, just trying to make the best of things:
Penny: Here's a story of a girl/Who grew up lost and lonely/Thinking love was fairytale/And trouble was made only for me... Grief replaced with pity/For a city barely coping/Dreams are easy to achieve/If hope is all I'm hoping to be...
- The Woobie: Not only does Dr. Horrible get roughed up on a regular basis but takes it in stride ("...honestly, I'll live."), he suffers the emotional equivalent of a punch to the gut several times.
- Women In Refrigerators: Penny. She had very little character depth as compared to Horrible or Hammer, and that's almost in spite of the fact that she is the only mostly good person in the main cast. She was Horrible's Love Interest so she had to die so he'd have more to angst about despite it giving him what he needed to meet Bad Horse's standards for joining the Evil League of Evil.
- Possibly lampshaded in the media reaction to her death, which identifies her as "Captain Hammer's Girlfriend" and "What's-Her-Name."
- The song "Penny's Song" could be Penny's one moment of character exploration: a woman dedicated to helping the less fortunate to distract from her own despair.
- She had greater depth than Billy understood, which sets up the tragedy of the story. She obviously finds him likable and attractive once they start talking (despite him being a rather strange nebbish), most likely because he seems to have a kind heart. Billy's insecurities convince him that he must win her respect by defeating Captain Hammer, somehow not realizing that revealing the "evil in me" or giving her the fruits of his world conquest won't impress her at all.
- Penny's the wisest and most mature of the three leads: while the boys are fighting over their black-and-white sets of rules, she suggests a third way, based on a Taoist acceptance of the world as it is rather than as we expect it to be. (This is most apparent in "Penny's Song" at the laundromat (which I am calling "Every Drop of Rain"), though it's consistent with what we see of her philosophy and actions throughout.) While everyone is caught up in the city's Heroes vs. Villains struggle, a struggle in which most people are bystanders, Penny is quietly getting the people to change themselves and do their own small heroics rather than waiting on the supers. Her death means the loss of that third way—freedom, the hard kind that means building the world you want to live in. Now the regular people have no choice but to watch passively as heroes and villains battle on their behalf, and they're so much poorer by her death than they ever realize.
- You Have Failed Me: The other reason why Dr. Horrible has to commit a murder.
- Your Mileage May Vary: Has quite a polarizing effect on viewers. Specifically, whether the ending is dramatically appropriate or a Diabolus Ex Machina fueled by Joss Whedon's persistent sadism towards his characters and/or audience has been the subject of much debate. Or whether or not the whole thing is intended to be funny including the ending.
- Or even what actually happens in the end. Depending on who you ask, either a) the whole story is a fantasy of ineffectual schlub Billy, who would like to be a supervillain someday; b) It really happened, but Billy/Horrible are two distinct personalities (as in clinical multiple personality disorder) who have been fighting over control of their body, and Horrible has finally won and submerged nice guy Billy once and for all; c) it really happened, but Billy has been destroyed emotionally due to the loss of Penny. He puts on a brave face as Dr. Horrible, but "a thing" shows how he truly feels; d) some combination of the above; e) something else entirely.
- You Should Know This Already: Joss Whedon has a Signature Style that never includes a Happy Ending, and even if there is one, at least one character you have grown to like will die. Possibly by being stabbed in the chest.
(At the Comicon panel for Dr. Horrible):
Neil Patrick Harris: You do kill a lot of chicks.
Joss Whedon: My personal life is not the point here!
Incidentally, did we mention that Penny dies?
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