"Once they connect to it, it's theirs. And once it's theirs, that shit is gone forever."
Jordan Peele: Samir Wassan is an artist of great principle, a man who refuses to compromise his beliefs for a cheap joke. But tonight, he felt the rush of the limelight for the first time. Now, he'll have to decide what really matters to him when the laughter stops. And how much he's willing to give... to the Twilight Zone.
Samir (Kumail Nanjiani) is a political comedian who never gets a laugh. His fellow comedians chide him for not being "funny" and trying to infuse meaning into his work. Things change when he encounters the comedian J.C. Wheeler (Tracy Morgan), who gives him advice in how to gain the fame and attention that he desires, which comes with a dangerous side effect.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Asshole Victim: Once Samir realizes what's happening, he focuses on people he knows who deserve to be erased, such as a comedian who killed a woman and her baby by driving drunk, and a high school football coach who was a rapist. Of course, he ends up screwing things up.
- As You Know: Some of the dialogue regarding reality being warped sounds like this, with Samir pointing out various consequences rather than simply letting the audience notice them.
- Bait-and-Switch: How Samir's final routine begins. Detailed under Wham Line.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Samir wishes that he were funny to get money. His wish comes true at a grave cost: it makes him rich, popular, and beloved, but it also reduces his girlfriend Rena to a waitress because he erased the man who helped make her a lawyer.
- Bittersweet Ending: More bitter than sweet, though. Samir brings back all the people he erased from history by erasing his own life, though in addition to bringing back the innocent people, this also means that the terrible people who deserved to be erased were brought back as well. And then Didi meets J.C. Wheeler, implying he will lead her to erase people and screw up her life, just like he did to Samir.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: J.C. is willing to help people be successful comedians. However, he doesn’t care that his actions affect several people’s lives in the process. All he cares about is the success and thinks that people should do whatever it takes to be successful, even if it means erasing innocent people from history.
- Bookends: The episode opens on a mural of figures decorated on a wall in the nightclub. It ends focusing on the same mural, only with Samir added to it.
- But Not Too Gay: Didi, Samir's friend and comic rival, casually mentions that she's a lesbian ("If I was into guys..."), but beyond a brief moment of checking Rena out at the end of the episode, she doesn't get any opportunities to show it.
- Butterfly of Doom: Removing people from existence causes Samir's present to change. By removing a drunkard comedian who killed a mother and child in a car accident, the accident never happened. By erasing Rena's law school mentor, he robs her of the chance to finish law school, which in turn makes her a poor waitress at a diner.
- The Corrupter: J.C. Wheeler plays this to Samir, encouraging him to become famous by erasing more people from history, and trying to justify it by saying “It’s not murder if they never existed”.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Samir gets jealous of his girlfriend’s mentor and heckles him out of existence. Unfortunately, it greatly impacts Rena’s professional and romantic life with Samir.
- Deal with the Devil: Implied after Samir talks to the enigmatic J.C. Wheeler. J.C. helps him become a successful comedian, but anyone that Samir jokes about in his acts ceases to exist. Samir argues that what he does is murder, but J.C. claims that it isn’t murder if the person never existed at all.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Samir's final act begins like this, with him calling out (and erasing from existence) anyone who has ever upset him, including his dentist, several ex-girlfriends, a neighbor's entire family, and a school mate who wouldn't share a lunch with him.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Some real-life comedians have called the episode a very apt metaphor for what the job is really like, and how the second you put someone from your life in your act, the clock is ticking on your relationship with them, as they’ll never again fully be able to trust you, worrying that anything they say or do will suffer a public mocking.
- Didn't Think This Through: Samir failed to consider how erasing someone critically important to Rena's career would impact her life and their relationship.
- Downer Ending: Samir, upon realizing that he has become a selfish, bullying monster, erases himself onstage, with no one the wiser. And then Didi stumbles upon J.C. herself...
- Enemies List: Once he realizes that he can wipe people out of existence by using them in his routine, Samir makes one to exact revenge on people who've wronged him over the years or otherwise deserve to be erased in his eyes.
- Equivalent Exchange: Samir can get a laugh when he relates a story about someone that he knows, but after the set, they're Ret-Gone.
- Foreshadowing: During the first iteration of his "Second Amendment" bit, Samir points out that 11% might not sound like a lot until one considers what would happen to a plane that only makes it 89% of the way to its destination. The plot of the next episode is about an airplane that may not make it to its destination.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: While Samir is checking his phone for any sign of Deven after his act, his contacts list includes characters from the original series, such as James Embry and Al Denton.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Samir goes from an unskilled and dull speaker of politics to a headline-making comedian who can make masses laugh at the cost of erasing people from existence.
- God in Human Form: Implied. J.C. Wheeler is clearly no ordinary comedian, being fully aware of the destructive power that Samir wields. Yet he is also a (former) world-famous comedian, given how the other characters talk about him in hushed tones and reverent voices. Did we just see Cthulhu on tour?
- Gone Horribly Right: Samir making his comedy a lot more offensive and aimed towards specific people has deadly effects. On a lesser note, Samir is now able to make his audience laugh so hard that one woman falls off her chair spraying her champagne.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Samir towards Rena's mentor. In true Twilight Zone fashion, it bites him in the ass.
- Here We Go Again!: After Samir wipes himself from existence, Didi stumbles upon J.C. and asks him for pointers, suggesting that the whole ordeal will befall her this time.
- Heroic Suicide: This is essentially what Samir does to himself at the end, undoing his erasing other people earlier.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Samir slowly has to learn his power and how it works.
- Humor Dissonance: Invoked and lampshaded; Samir doesn't understand why a fellow humorist accused of murder is popular with the crowd, but his relevant stuff gets no laughs.
- The mere fact that Samir is onstage joking about someone seems to make everyone laugh, no matter if the actual jokes are funny or if certain people would normally find them so. The comedian who committed vehicular manslaughter while drunk seems to find it hilarious when Samir jokes about the crime that he committed, and Rena laughs both when Samir makes jokes about how David wants to have sex with her (which she had previously been offended by) and when Samir starts joking about himself, despite being upset with him mere seconds before.
- Informed Ability: After making his deal with J.C. Wheeler, Samir's routine invokes roars of laughter from his audience— even though he's typically doing nothing more than yelling about and insulting the subjects of his ire. Justified given the source of his "comedic" skill.
- Informed Flaw: Samir's stand-up initially is described as "not funny" by a fellow comedian who tells him that he's
too heavy-handed about politics. Except that that's not that much different from the usual routine of his actor, Kumail Nanjiani, which is usually hilarious. To be fair, what we see of Samir's act isn't all that impressive, given his stilted delivery and apparent fixation on the Second Amendment. - Insane Troll Logic: Samir's attempts to justify his vanishing people sounds a lot like this— since you can only kill someone who's alive, making someone never be alive period isn't the same thing, right? J.C. Wheeler later does the same, claiming that murder is only murder if there are "crying moms" to mourn the dead.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Erasing Didi seems to be this moment for Samir. He clearly debates doing it onstage, but eventually goes for it, and then has a complete breakdown onstage, using his power to eradicate every person that he can think of who has ever slighted him. Then the ending subverts the trope, as he ultimately chooses not to remove Rena from reality, instead choosing to delete himself.
- Killed Offscreen: Samir's final routine has vibes of this— he starts shouting out names at a breakneck pace, much to the audience's delight. Since every name that he mentions means that someone vanishes...
- Louis Cypher: A variation. YouTube commenters have noticed that the mysterious J.C. Wheeler, with his love of smoking, brimmed hat, and offers of fame and fortune in exchange for one's soul, is likely an incarnation of the vodou loa Papa Legba
. - Magic A Is Magic A: The person that Samir uses in his routine only gets him a warm reception (and subsequently erased from existence) if they have a personal relation to him. He tries using the president as a setup for one of his acts, but he gets the same blasé reaction from the audience as his impersonal political humor. This is also the least that he has to do, he can immediately use hecklers for material just by using their names and something about them to spin into a set. It also seems to work any time that he mentions someone on stage, which he seems to realize when he goes on after Didi and urges the audience to keep applauding after mentioning her to keep her from disappearing.
- Metaphorically True: Played With. After one of Samir's erasures, a fan tells him that "[He] really killed it". Not so much killed, but erased from existing to begin with.
- Mic Drop: How Samir's last routine ends as a result of erasing himself.
- Missing Child: Samir becomes greatly concerned when his nephew vanishes after his second act. Emphasized when he realizes that his nephew is absent in a picture that used to have him, and Rena is confused when Samir mentions him.
- Morality Pet: Rena serves as the main bit of moral standards that Samir has. Once he chooses to talk about her mentor in one of his acts, it results in her life (and subsequently his) changing significantly and Samir suddenly regretting his actions. Near the end when he’s condemning several people in his life to nonexistence, Rena appears and shows off his book, which contains the names of several people that he retconned out of existence. She then challenges him to do the same to her, since she knows what he’s done, but he chooses to heckle himself instead.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Samir enviously erases Rena's law school mentor... which means that Rena herself wasn't able to complete her degree and now works in a diner. His reaction to her going on her shift screams this trope.
- Mythology Gag:
- The name "James Embry" is seen on the wall of the green room, which is name of the main character in "King Nine Will Not Return". It's also one of the names on Samir's contact list in his phone; other names include Al Denton (the main character of "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"), Cadwallader ("Escape Clause"), and James Corry ("The Lonely").
- The flashing "Franklin" sign at the bus stop references Franklin Gibbs, the unfortunate victim of "The Fever", who was haunted by a slot machine that repeated his name while flashing lights at him.
- Willie the Dummy from "The Dummy" is seen in the background of one shot.
- Samir only getting laughter from the audience when he engages in personal stories evokes "Take My Life... Please!".
- At the bar, "Kanamit Lager" can be seen; it is named after the aliens from "To Serve Man".
- Nothing Is Scarier: One of the cornerstones of the episode. Many of the scares come when the camera cuts to where someone was standing or sitting seconds before Samir said their name... and the space is now empty.
- Not in Front of the Kid: Samir tries to get Didi to stop swearing in front of his girlfriend's nephew. It doesn't work.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- J.C. calls Samir out on him becoming concerned later in the episode about his powers when J.C. warned him about the consequences at the beginning.
- Rena stops Samir's final Disproportionate Retribution act by pointing out that he's not being funny or relevant, he's just hurting people because he can.Rena: It's just names, Samir. I don't even know who these people are. People who wronged you, people you don't like. Your act is just you being superior to other people. Taking them down.
- Reset Button: In-Universe. Samir erasing himself means that he never gained the power to eradicate people to begin with, restoring everyone that he took away.
- Ret-Gone: What Samir does to people with his routines. All photos disappear of the vanished person whether digital or physical, other characters say that they don't know who Samir is talking about, and whatever actions that have affected the other characters have a ripple effect in the world.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Even though everyone else in the world completely forgets the people that Samir mentions in his routines, he himself doesn't. It's later revealed that J.C. Wheeler doesn't, either—but then, he doesn't exactly seem human.
- Rousseau Was Right: Zigzagged throughout the episode. When Samir discovers his power, he's determined to only erase people who "deserve it," like a rival comic who killed a mother and her baby in a drunk driving accident. Then the trope is subverted when envy and paranoia take over, and he begins vanishing people that he sees as a threat, including his girlfriend's law school mentor and his chief comic competition Didi. He then follows it by removing everyone who has ever upset him in any way. Then the ending plays it straight, with Samir deciding to use himself as comic fodder rather than hurt anyone else.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Samir initially has this attitude; he believes that infusing humor with meaning is what makes the humor matter.
- Self-Deprecation: Samir erases himself by insulting himself, claiming that he would be nobody without the audience. He needs the audience and their money and support to be someone.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Samir's ultimate solution is to erase himself. Since he never existed, he never erased any of the other people.
- Shout-Out: Samir appearing on the painting of an audience at the end of the episode echoes the end of The Shining. Samir's last routine also mentions a number of people named "Torrance".
- Snap Back: Once Samir erases himself, everyone else that he had erased comes back.
- Tough Room: Samir's jokes about the Second Amendment fall flat, even though his actor has done similar routines to a much more appreciative audience in real life. The fact that he always uses the same "well regulated" joke in each of his acts may have something to do with it.
- Twofer Token Minority: Didi is a rare triple minority— a lesbian black woman.
- Wham Line: Just when it seems that Samir has gone much too far and is about to erase Rena, this happens.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Didi and Samir measure their success in how many "followers" they get online in general, rather than naming specific sites. It's justified somewhat, in that many sites — from Instagram to Twitter — use the term "follower."
Jordan Peele: Samir Wassan learned the hard way that sometimes getting everything you want means losing everything you loved, and after finally finding himself on the verge of becoming somebody, he chose instead to once again be a nobody. In the end, Samir's final encore is a show one can only buy a ticket to... in the Twilight Zone.
