]] was a Chilean TV series, which parodied the news shows format, hosted by puppets.The whole idea behind the show was seeing how disastrous things could get on-air and off-air, with characters fighting each other, and Juanín trying to get everyone to do their things.Among other things, the program had a couple of recurring sections, including the "Top-top-top-top-top music ranking" (where parodies of music videos where transmited) and "The adventures of Calcentin-con-rombos-man *
Literal translation: Sock-with-Rhombus-man
" (a parody of super-heroes, with some aesop at the end).Unfortunately, it was Too Good to Last, only spawning 3 seasons and a movie.
Note: since this series includes a lot of significant Spanish names, please try to give them a translation to English. You can always use hot tips: name [[hottip: *: translated-name]]
All In The Manual: Several stuff like the backstory of the characters or the name of some unnamed characters are only given in merchandising or interviews that the characters do in magazines, but never in the show.
Letter Motif: All tramoyas have names that end with 'ín' and surnames that ends with 'illo' (Benjamín Listillo, Fermín Virutillo, Valentín Trujillo, etc.), save for James J. McNamara).
Art Shift: The little bumpers that open and close Policarpo's Ranking Top are in 3D.
Ascended Meme: In 'La amenaza siluria II', the clip of the first Tulio interview is a parody of 'Super Taldo', a Chilean viral video of an old unaired news report about a boy with Tourette's Syndrome.
In 'El video', the last blooper shown is a parody of an infamous leaked blooper reel of the Chilean TV show 'El mundo del Profesor Rossa'.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The lawyer that talks like an idiot is a subversion to this trope.
Cain and Abel: Calcetin con Ramones Man wanted to kill his brother Calcetin con Rombos Man for abandoning him. Lampshaded when the first claims "Who am I, my brother's keeper?"
Carnivore Confusion: A hilarious example; during the first episode, Mico the Micófono's segment had him asking the "people" on the street what they thought about food. At one point, a group of pieces of meat said that they were vegetarians... and then the scene cuts to a group of vegetables chanting "Meat! Meat! Meat!".
Christmas Episode: Every cliche is used, lampshaded and crushed during it. Plus, it was made against the character's will, they had to improvise it at the last second and everyone, except for Policarpo, hated being part of it because they were missing spending the holiday with their families and relatives.
Christmas Miracle: Invoked at the end of the Christmas Episode): after forgiving Juan Carlos Bodoque for losing everyone's gifts at the horse racings, everyone expected to be rewarded with more free gifts. After claiming to "have learned their lesson" and asking "Hey, where are our gifts?" a few times, everyone gets crushed under a rain of gifts, which culminated with Santa Claus himself popping out from nowhere to fall over the characters.
Coca-Pepsi, Inc.: In "Tio Horacio", in the Tio Horacio's Show, there was promoted a "Panashiva" TV.
"Panashiva" is a real brand of cheap and shoddy electronics sold in Chile during the early 2000's.
Commuting On A Bus: Carla Rubio was a reporter of the 'Ranting Club' segment in the first few episodes until it was said to had taken "vacations against her will" and was replaced by Rosario Central. She only appear briefly in two later episodes, where is clearly stated that she was fired.
Contest Winner Cameo: The voices of the kid version of the main characters in The Movie were the winners of a contest.
Couch Gag / Logo Joke: From season 2 onwards, a little pig-esque finger puppet named Carlitos Lechuga attemps to tell an Aesop under the Aplaplac logo after the closing credits, only for the logo or something else to hurt him badly. He gets his revenge during a (surprisingly long) Matrix-esque montage, where the Aplaplac logo transforms into a humanoid mecha, but Carlitos dodges every attack, kicks the mecha in the shins and sends him running away, crying.
Deal with the Devil: The song 'Parque de diversiones' (Amusement Park) where a kid wins a whole park for himself, but then discovers he cannot invite his friends, and also cannot leave the park and he's forever locked inside... with a demon, who's chasing the kid to kill him. It's just a nightmare.
Development Gag: In 'El fin del mundo', the clip shown of how Tulio was before committing plastic surgery was actually footage of an unaired pilot.
Dreaming of a White Christmas: Parodied in 'Calurosa Navidad'(Hot Christmas) where a group of hot, tired and unconfortable people disguised as Santa Claus sings about the problem of celebrating Christmas during summer.
Early-Bird Cameo: Juanín and Balón made cameos on the background of the studio one episode before their formal appearance.
Ear Worm: In-Universe with Tio Horacio Theme Song, ‘Boing boing boing’ which everyone, including God himself loves dearly. Except for Tulio.
Edutainment Show : Played for laughs and then played straight with Juan Carlos Bodoque's segments, where he talks about ecology, the effects of pollution and the theft of Chilean's archeologic treasures.
Also played during Calcetín Con Rombos Man's segments, where the super-hero talks about Children's Rights after solving a crisis that involved one or two rights being trampled.
Everything Talks: is assumed that all the objects in the show are sentient, save when the plot requires otherwise.
Executive Meddling: In Real Life, Patana was added to the show because in focus group made by the channel they pointed that the show needed a "permanent female character". Her name, which translates as 'she-bumpkin', reflects the initial lack of enthusiasm by the crew.
Faking the Dead: In 'El estiercol' and in 'El funeral de Tulio'.
Flowers for Algernon Syndrome: In 'Maguito explosivo', when they want Maguito to lose his 'addiction' to explosions.
Done literally when Juan Carlos Bodoque presented a segment named "La Ruta de la Caca" (The Poop Road) where he explained step by step what happened with human waste, from the WC until it's processed at water treatment plants. At the end, Tulio and Juan Carlos have this conversation:
Tulio: "Fascinating, Juan Carlos. It's very interesting to know what happens with our doo-doo."
Juan Carlos Bodoque: "Crap, Tulio. Let's call things for their name: The Crap. Also known as Ass Juice or PPPTTHHHBBHBHBHBHBHBH. It's a very interesting topic to discuss during lunchtime with the family."
Tulio (visibly upset): "... Thanks, Juan Carlos."
God In Puppet Form: And a very ugly one, with a terrible taste on music.
Hand Puppet: Taken to its Logical Extreme: using socks (or whatever object) without even putting a minimal effort to convert them into sock puppets. This was particularly noted in the earlier episodes.
Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: Bodoque, as he's forced to do ecological reports while actually wanting to be the anchor man of the show.
He Also Did: Few people is aware that Rodrigo Salinas, who plays Ratoncito and El Dostor on El club de la comedia, also voiced Juanín and Mario Hugo in this show.
Hey, It's That Voice!: Sr. Manguera, the owner of the channel, is voiced by Fernando Solís, who serves as announcer in several Latin American commercials and radio and TV channels.
Lampshade Hanging: At the beginning 'Maguito Explosivo' Tulio is worried because at any moment he's going to be interrupted, like in all previous episodes.
Laugh Track: Parodied in the episode 'Risotrón' (Laugh-a-Tron), with a device that makes everything funnier by laughing.
Played straight in 'Patana' during a spoof of an skit of the Chilean sketch show Jappening con Ja.
Mind Screw: Parodied with the Japanese “News segment” in ‘Japonés’ which consists of people dancing in slow motion, while some sad music and a lot of japanese words (including some random stats) fly through the screen. After the segment is over, we get to see Tulio staring at the camera, as if what he he just saw had fried his brain.
Mood Whiplash: In one episode, Calcetín Con Rombos Man discovers that some products with his image are being sold without his consent (and at very expensive prices, to boot) so he decides to track the source and discovers they are being manufacturated on a ship anchored on international waters, by one of the show's recurrent villains, who claims to have reformed and decided to make hero merchandise out of admiration for the man who showed him the light.
Calcetín Con Rombos Man is initially flattered and happy to see an old foe reforming, until he discovers that his products are being manufacturated by children. Slave children, forced to work on inhuman conditions, being fed just once a week and forced to drink alcohol to keep them quiet and obedient. He promptly releases the children and takes them to an Orphanage of Love.
Done In-Universe in the episode '¡Qué lástima!', where the image consultant of the show want to keep it as pitiful as possible in order to raise the TV rating, yet the characters can't stop doing "funny" stuff instead.
Non Indicative Name: The song 'Papá, te quiero' literally translates as 'Dad, I love you', but in the lyrics is told in the sense of "Dad, I want you [to do me favors]".
Overly-Long Gag: In 'El secreto', about one minute of the characters astounded staring silent after discovering Policarpo's secret. (He's bald, his hair is actually a wig)
Painting the Fourth Wall: Every mention of Calcetín Con Rombos Man is followed by everyone turning to the camera while a snippet from Calcetín con Rombos Man's Leitmotif is played. In one episode his leimotiff is played so many times that Calcetín Con Rombos Man yells at the musics to stop playing it, and the musics themselves grab their instruments and walk away, offended.
Guaripolo: "No more trucks, no more whales, no more revolving doors, no more batucadas, no more forests, no more carpets, no more remote controls, no more school vans and no more scholars."
Punny Name: Joe Pino. His name is pronounced the same way as "yo opino" ("I think that..."), and he's the guy who's always opining on anything.
Snap Back: Several episodes end with the cast fired or working at something completely different.
Soap Within a Show: The mock-soap opera Los Títeres (The Puppets) announced by Policarpo during the earlier episodes.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: Los Titeres was the name of an actual Chilean soap-opera from the 80's, where the main theme was that fate controlled everyone's actions, like a puppet's strings. They even use the same theme song.
Something Person: Calcetín Con Rombos Man (Argyle Sock Man). Oddly, he's an actual sock and not a man.
One-shot examples are 'Hombre de plumavit' (Styrofoam man) and '1/2 Hombre' (Half-man).
Species Surname: Raul Guantecillo. Tenison Salinas has a given name and Balón Von Bola has both.
Television Geography: Although The Movie don't mention being located at a specific setting, the single city displayed is made-out of different cities both in Chile and Brazil.
The Workaholic: Juanín Juan Harry hates vacations. His friends take advantage of this and overload him with their own to-do things when the cast goes on vacation, and Juanin actually thanks them for it.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Invoked in episode 1; in it, the "Ranting Club" segment was about a kid (a real kid rather than a puppet) who wanted to dye his hair blue.
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