"You’re riding alone on a moonlit, but starless night. You just missed your exit, and now there’s only one way back home. Sit back, open your ears, and hold on tight. Because you're about to take a quick detour...through Uncanny County."
Uncanny County is a comedy Anthology podcast by Todd Faulkner and Alison Crane that began in 2016. The stories center around the lives of the people living in the titular Uncanny County, and the strange occurrences that befall them, with hefty doses of Magical Realism, Black Comedy, and Southwestern charm.
There have been two seasons with a third incoming.
Tropes
- An Aesop: Most episodes have a moral, which the the narrator will helpfully lampshade at the start and end of the episode.
- Alternate History: "The Boy Who Cried Martian" imagines what would happen if an actual alien invasion took place at the same time as Orson Welles's infamous War of the Worlds broadcast.
- Apocalypse Cult: The Clown Worshipers from "The Clowning"
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Outright stated in "Homecoming Queen Of The Damned" and "Wish You Were Here"
- Beware the Mind Reader: "Locked Inside" features a psychic nurse who keeps his brain dead patients alive against their will so he can steal their assets and play around in their memories.
- The Bluebeard: "The Ballad Of Bobby Blue" is a Whole-Plot Reference to the original story of Bluebeard.
- Body Horror: In "Coulrophobia" a man is twisted up like a balloon animal.
- Book Ends: "Irreconcilable Differences" begins and ends with Amy and Calvin visiting in prison.
- Bury Your Gays: Zig-Zagged in "Locked Inside" and "Host and the Machine," which sees both couples reunite even after one member is functionally dead.
- Callback: References to other episodes are peppered throughout Season One
- "The Clowning" is a direct sequel to "Coulrophobia," which had ended on a Cliffhanger.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Newswoman Connie gets her power from her viewers and they don't want to let her go.
- Color Blind Confusion: Sheriff Rowland warns Deputy Dillard not to open any gray filing cabinets. The cabinet in question is actually green.
- Christmas Episode: Three of them.
- Creepy Child: Tyler in "The Clowning" is obsessed with clowns...
- Crossover: The station from King Falls AM plays a minor role in "Home Is Where The Spice Is"
- Sheriff Rowland and Deputy Dillard make an appearance in an episode of Return Home
- Defrosting the Ice Queen: "Lockup, Lockdown" implies that Jake may be warming up to Calvin
- Deus ex Machina: "Eleventh Hour" centers around characters whose job it is to dole these out.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Topher in "Homecoming Queen Of The Damned," though it crosses over into Entitled to Have You territory by the end of the episode, which he lampshades.
- Elemental Embodiment: "Burnin' For You" and "Imperfect Storm" both feature these.
- The Evils of Free Will: Debated in "Home Is Where The Spice Is"
- Fantastically Indifferent: Everyone in the county to some degree, but Sheriff Rowland in particular has seen it all.
- Fantasy Americana
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Despite everything that happens in Uncanny County, people find aliens hard to believe during "Wichita Starman."
- Forced Transformation: Those who the Rainbow Magic Kittens deem unworthy end up transformed into parrots.
- Fountain of Youth: Well, a bathtub.
- Grand Theft Me: "Locked In," though the victims are brain dead and don't mind much.
- Haunted Technology: Connie Ambrose, the titular "Host In The Machine," is trapped in her news station and only appears in broadcast form. Morgan takes over at the end of the episode.
- He Who Fights Monsters: "Imperfect Storm" ends with an unusual example of this when the storm chaser becomes a storm.
- Hive Mind: The Spice, though its true intentions aren't clear.
- Our Time Machine Is Different: The alarm clock in The Ridgeway Motel lets people revisit significant life events... once.
- Monster Clown: "Coulrophobia" concerns an entire alternate dimension of these.
- Mundane Fantastic: The characters might find their situations unusual and express some confusion, but they rarely bat an eye at the outlandish explanations.
- My Beloved Smother: The mom in "Mother Loves You" loves her kids so much she becomes a vampire so she can watch them forever.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- The Angel from "Our Better Angels" DEFINITELY isn't a thinly veiled Take That! at anyone in particular.
- The episode description for "Home Is Where The Spice Is" reads:
- Non-Ironic Clown: Susan Pasternak is an award winning birthday clown, though she gives up on it after the events of "Coulrophobia." Dana from "The Clowning" as well.
- Punny Name: The stripper who radios orders in to the Deus Ex Machinas is coincidentally named Destiny.
- Replacement Goldfish: Sally replaces the entire town of Junction Falls with robots piece by piece.
- Ret-Gone: During "The Ridgeway Motel" Larry accidentally erases his niece from existence.
- Robot Master: Sally in "A Thing For Machines," and by the end of the episode, Hal.
- Running Gag: It's always the deputy's first day.
- Shout-Out: "A Thing For Machines" features a pair of robots named Bert and Ernie.
- Soul-Crushing Desk Job: "Wellness" centers around one, literally.
- Split Personality: Amy/Jake thanks to an extreme case of Conjoined Twins
- Sweet Home Alabama: The whole series has shades of this.
- Time Travel Episode: "The Ridgeway Motel"
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ted's attempt to overcome his fear of clowns accidentally opens a portal to the clown dimension.
- Villain Love Song: "Let The Music Capture You"
- Where Are They Now: The "Tales From A Distance" dispatches offer a brief update on some characters from the first two seasons and how they're dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
