The DVD cover for "Robot Monster"
Apt. 51 is an extremely obscure short-lived series that can best be described as the poor man's Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was created by a man named Sam Boyer and distributed by Razor Digital Entertainment in 2005, amid a slew of low-budget works designed to cash in on the 3D craze at the time. This one has never been released on anything except DVDs, and the stock online is steadily running out, threatening to turn it into lost media.
The overarching plot of this series is that there are two aliens who live together, presumably in the titular Apt.51, after crashing through it. One, O.G., seeks to dominate the human race, while the other, Mal, is content to live life as it is. One way or another, they end up watching some of the worst that cinema has to offer. This usually takes on the form of them watching extremely condensed versions of these films, constantly interrupting with commentary and/or other incidents.
Only two episodes were made, each respectively taking on Robot Monster and The Devil Bat.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: Our hosts endearingly refer to Bela Legosi's character Paul Carruthers in "Devil Bat" as Uncle Bela.
- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Mal and even O.G. were sent to survey Earth for conquering, but it's very obvious that they enjoy humanity's pop culture.
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Alternate Character Interpretation: Mal depicts Ro-Man as a put-upon actor constantly having to walk all over the place, grousing about his situation all the way. - Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Occasionally, O.G. and Mal will show some genuine camaraderie, such as when Mal bought O.G. a calcinater death ray just to cheer him up.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Mal and O.G., respectfully.
- Captain Ersatz: O.G. looks like a goblin-esque version of ET, while Mal looks like a cross between Goofy and Jar Jar Binks.
- Children Are Innocent: The bedrock upon which O.G.'s Subverted Kids' Show plan rests upon. To him, adults are too preoccupied with their own issues, whereas children are just pure enough to be manipulated by him. Mal is appropriately disgusted.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mal constantly makes jabs at O.J.'s expense, usually out of exasperation with his ambitions.
- Depraved Kids' Show Host: What O.G. really is in "Devil Bat", using his edutainment program to sway kids to his world-conquering cause. Mal is only this by association, but he couldn't care less about it.
- The Dog Bites Back: "Devil Bat" ends with Mal performing a torturous experiment on O.G. so that he never makes him go through another Subverted Kids' Show again.
- Downer Ending: Well, not exactly. Yes, it's heavily implied that O.G. was killed by Mal's Electric Torture, but he was planning on brainwashing kids, so it's hard to feel sorry for him.
- Excited Kids' Show Host: O.G. presents himself as this in "Devil Bat" as a part of his Evil Plan to brainwash kids. Mal isn't quite as enthusiastic on account of the plan being so utterly wrong, but every so often he does get into it. By the episode's end, he's somewhat embraced the more benign aspects of the role.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Mal has only four digits, which comes up in a couple of gags.
- Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: Mal isn't traditionally grumpy per se, but he's very snarky and dismissive of O.G.'s ambitious and energetic attempts at taking over mankind.
- Going Native: From O.G.'s point of view, Mal is doing this by permanently moving into their apartment.
- Ham and Deadpan Duo: Hammy O.G. and Deadpan Snarker Mal.
- Honest John's Dealership: O.G.'s "Craft Corner" involves selling kids the means of making their own Devil Bat prop, while charging $99.95 for what amounts to some vague instructions. Mal can hardly believe it.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: The hosts, especially Mal, are prone to this, complete with appropriate reactions.
- Incredibly Long Note: O.G. maintains the last note of the Sudden Musical Ending long enough for Mal to have to shut him up.
- Mundane Utility: Mal turned a lot of the ship parts into decor for the apartment, with the seats serving as convenient theater chairs, and the ship's screen as a TV. He stranded him and O.G. on Earth as a result.
- Not So Above It All: As exasperated as he is with O.G.'s business with the movies they watch, Mal occasionally proves to be a more avid riffer and joker than him. In particular is his uproarious reaction to his own neck pun, concerning O.G. He's also the one to instigate the Sudden Musical Ending in "Devil Bat".
- Only Sane Man: Mal wants nothing to do with O.G.'s delusions of grandeur, and seems to care only about living a comfortable life in their apartment. He also calls out his Subverted Kids' Show plan profusely at first, and has to force himself to go through with it until the very end.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Depending on how you interpret it, O.G. manages to cause untold amounts of havoc in very short time outside of the apartment at the end of "Robot Monster". In his words, "they're all dead".
- Punny Title: It's a very obvious parody of the infamous urban legend surrounding Area 51.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: O.G. wears a red shirt, and is bent on taking over Earth. Mal has blue skin, and is content to live peacefully in their apartment.
- Red Shirt: During "Robot Monster", O.G. and Mal joke about the former technically being a red-shirt due to his current apparel. Mal takes it further, stating that Central Command told him to put O.G. in that shirt for that reason.
- Running Gag: From "Robot Monster", "STOCK FOOTAGE, AWAY!", "He didn't say goodbye, I love your, or anything", and "They're all dead". The latter implicitly takes a darker turn at the end of the episode. Also, the human race being reduced to four, not five.
- In "Devil Bat", the hosts letting out a slow "AH, AH, AH" similar to the Count every time Uncle Bela does something sinister.
- Shout-Out: The aliens' crashed on Earth after O.G. took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.
- O.G. jokes about how Ro-Man doesn't have to act. He just has to wave his arms around while James Earl Jones dubs the voice in later.
- "More human than Ro-Man! more human than Ro-Man!"
- Many allusions are made to Bela's career as Dracula.
- It puts the lotion on its skin, or it gets the hose."
- "Meanwhile, in The Great Gatsby."
- "Take the last train to Heathville and I'll meet you at the station..."
- "Sanctuary!"
- Small Name, Big Ego: O.G. is implied to be this, constantly talking about bringing the human race to its knees, while Mal just blows him off and lets him do his thing mostly unimpeded.
- Space Whale Aesop: In-universe, O.G. tells Mal based on "Robot Monster" that those who want to be like humans will die like them...at the hands of a space gorilla with a bubble helmet shooting electricity.
- Stock Footage: Aside from the in-film examples from "Robot Monster", Mal ends up changing channels and seeing random scenes of violence, including the infamous shark scene from A*P*E.
- Subliminal Advertising: "Devil Bat" is filled with Freeze-Frame Bonus messages that go hand-in-hand with the propaganda motif the episode is going for.
- Subverted Kids' Show: O.G. presents everything in the episode "Devil Bat" as a children's program, complete with presenting the movie as a storytime segment, and even arts and crafts. It's all a front to brainwash kids into doing his bidding. Mal can barely stand it.
- Sudden Musical Ending: When the hosts get to the part in "Devil Bat" where Uncle Bela makes a new bat to replace the last one, Mal decides to speed things up with a country-style song recapping the movie and what happens next. It's actually pretty catchy.
- Tom the Dark Lord: Apparently, the Central Command that O.G. and Mal answer to is named Jerry, and the former knew him from high school. Neither have a high opinion of him.
- Villain Protagonist: O.G. and Mal were sent by Central Command so that they may monitor humanity, and then one day bring them down. Only O.G. takes this seriously.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: It's clear that O.G.'s ambitions and Mal's need for comfortable living clash a lot, culminating in Mal strapping O.G. to an electric torture device just to get him to stop with this nonsense.
