Since Terrible Writing Advice is about how not to write a story, it's only natural that Beaubien would take potshots at stories that demonstrate what he's talking about. Here's a list of examples, sorted by target.
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- The Na'Vi appear in the "Environmentalism" video and are described as "Mary Sues".
- "Science Fiction Weapons" has no patience for the Na'vi, frequently mocking their plot armor and ability to apparently take down virtually anything humanity fields.
The Twilight Saga and Fifty Shades of Grey
- "Alpha Heroes" is one long potshot at the Fifty Shades trilogy as J.P. advocates having the alpha male be a controlling abusive sociopath and lists off a number of actions and character traits to give him which are clearly taken from Christian Grey, including being unhealthily obsessed with the lead character, using his hard childhood to justify his abusive behaviour and putting the responsibility on the protagonist to "fix" him and committing a number of morally reprehensible acts which the narrative justifies because the narrator is in love with him (most of which, including outright kidnapping the narrator which shocks J.P. so much that he "breaks character", are things that Christian Grey actually does).
- The episode on "Original Characters in Fan Fiction" ends with another dig at Fifty Shades of Grey, showing a black book with the title Twilight, but with Diet Bondage crossed out and replaced with 50 Shades of Search and Replace.
- "Love Interests" has a Jacob Black parody say "my violent and controlling disposition will be romanticized!" and then get roasted over an open fire by Beaubien.
- The "Urban fantasy" video is a big one to The Twilight Saga, mocking the Love Triangle and plot flaws of the books and movies.
Star Wars
- The "Rebels" video has one for the sequel trilogy at the end, describing the reset in status quo as the writers failing to think of new plotlines.
- "Mid Series Shakeups" takes a potshot at how comic book series would promise a significant change to the story, but never follow through on that because nobody breaks their own money printer. He then adds "...intentionally", showing the franchise in a burning dumpster.
- The "Leader Character" episode features an example of a Commander Contrarian by having a Grand Admiral Thrawn stand-in explain to a Pellaeon stand-in how eliminating the Star Wars EU was necessary for Disney to bring the Empire back as the primary antagonist of the franchise and how Disney's lack of creativity will save the Empire.
Other specific works of fiction
- The protagonist in the "Isekai" episode bears a resemblance to Kirito, and Beaubien remarks how overwhelmingly vanilla he is.
- In "Worldbuilding Cultures", JP states that people won't notice any issues with your world building unless you really screw up, zooming in on a poster of Bright as he says so.
- The "War Stories" video ends with him showing a poster of Pearl Harbor to emphasize that no genre, even one primarily targeted towards men, is immune to the Love Triangle.
- "Giant Monsters" refers to Reptilicus as "a highly entertaining trainwreck".
- The Smash to Black "conclusion" of "Ending a Story" is a pretty obvious shot at the infamous finale of The Sopranos.
- "Reboots Rebooted" has one to Star Trek (2009) and its copious use of the Lens Flare, when JP sarcastically says that lens flares automatically make reboots better than the original.
- In the same video, JP responds to Inner Critic's talk of cutting down the video with "when the dust settles, I'll make my own edit. I'll call it 'the JP cut'", a shot at the Snyder Cut of Justice League (2017).
- "Noble Houses" seemingly takes a few potshots at A Song of Ice and Fire, with House Badguy serving as a stand-in for both the Lannisters and the Boltons. However, he also holds up the first book as an example of the fall of a house done right, alongside Dune, suggesting he takes more issue with the series' inferior imitators, as is relatively frequent in the series.
Tropes and Genres
- The Love Triangle is by far the most mocked trope in the entire series, with it being a Once an Episode gag. The biggest criticism of them is that they tend to be shoehorned into every kind of story imaginable regardless of genre, so JP suggests adding one to whatever kind of story he is discussing in the video of the day, especially if it does not fit at all with the story.
- "Antiheroes" is basically an episode-long one towards the idea that being Darker and Edgier automatically makes a story or character better.
- The "Grimdark" video (along with pretty much everything else) has a bit of a specific jab at writers (and commentators whenever they see the contrary) that use "historical accuracy" as a blanket excuse for rampant sexism and racism, and while the series doesn't necessarily advocate for Politically Correct History either, it makes it very clear that half of these people spouting this also tend to suffer from Artistic License – History so at best to take it with a grain of salt.
- "Steampunk" in turn attacks Politically Correct History by saying that sanitizing the attitudes of past eras that do not align with modern sensibilities deprives the story of interesting potential conflicts based around how the characters deal with those attitudes and how they impact their society as a whole.
- In "Noble Houses", when mentioning how he will use the "standard, off-the-shelf stock version" of the royal court, Beaubien is seen buying it from a "Stock Setting Emporium" with a sign pointing offscreen to the Light Novels sections, with a note that there's "75% off being stuck in another world", a potshot at the massive oversaturation of the Isekai genre in light novels.
- In "Deconstruction", JP indirectly maintains that an actual deconstruction is supposed to examine a trope from a different perspective rather than just tear down a genre with excessive edge and cynicism. He goes to show how poorly-done deconstructions use the label to look edgy and transgressive instead of actually deconstructing anything, much like many Darker and Edgier adaptations or variants of the superhero genre. He also shows how he's not fond of how the word is misused when the audience applies the label on anything that subverts their expectations.
- In "How Not to Write a Mary Sue", he takes a jab at how fandoms tend to just lob the
Mary Sue label at a character they simply don't like, and also how people scrutinize for the presence of Mary Sue Tropes (and the associated litmus tests) rather than properly understand why the Mary Sue is unlikable.
Other
- "Apology Video Template," from start to finish. Not only does it takes shots at the common patterns of YouTube apologies such as jarringly different format, having ads, and long sighs, and never actually apologizing, but it also takes shots at highly specific things that have actually happened. These include abusing a homeless man
, luring young fans to gambling sites, and manipulative corporate apologies. It also takes a shot at excessive online anger, stating that no one is too obscure to one day wake up to find "an internet hate mob" at their door. - "MYTHS, LEGENDS, AND GODS" mocks mystery boxes, saying that they probably have nothing in them but disappointment. The concept of "subverting expectations" is also mocked by having an annoyed reader saying that he expected a good story, but that his expectations were subverted because the story ended up being terrible.
- "Beginning A Story" takes a shot at the film medium itself by comparing movies to books and pointing out how movies involve "minimal emotional investment," "(do) the imagination part for you" and refuse to challenge the audience so that they can remain popular and profitable.
- It's shown in the "Characterization" video that he is very unimpressed with character profiles, calling them "so exciting, like a grocery list." The onscreen example shows "Mary Sue," who is incredibly, beautiful and powerful, and whose only "flaws" are virtues.
- In the "Shipping" video, who appears to be Harry Potter and Aang are discussing what appears to be their problems with the fandom. Though Harry quotes the Ron the Death Eater trope in shipfics, Aang mentions about "Mia" and a miscarriage...a sly form of Take That! to How I Became Yours.
- "Franchise Reboots" jabs at all the studios trying and failing to build a cinematic universe like Marvel, and how the studios spend most of the films teasing future stories instead of telling one in the first film.
- In "Reboots Rebooted", Inner Critic angrily insists that there's nothing wrong with his review video of The Last Jedi being over 76 hours long. This is a shot at MauLer and his notorious habit of making movie reviews that take longer to watch than the actual movies themselves do, with his one on TLJ being one of the longest and most infamous, as well as his history of mocking people who complain about said length.
- In "Being Original", he takes a potshot at Games Workshop, specifically their infamous attempt to copyright the phrase "Space Marine" for 40K, only to lose the case and replace their name with the more copyright-friendly name "Adeptus Astartes".
- "Evil Lackeys" has two potshots:
- For Fist of the North Star, JP makes clear his disdain for how stupid the gangs of thugs are, stating that Kenshiro can walk through a building like it's nothing and proceed to kill someone in typical Hokuto Fashion, yet thugs will always rush him like he's an easy mark, just like the last 500 people that Ken exploded. This is depicted with Kenshiro holding, with one arm and over his head, a large slab of reinforced concrete, from what is likely that very building, while the goons have literally formed a line to fight him.
- For Avatar The Last Air Bender, JP isn't thrilled with how the Yuwan Archers showed up for a single "hero being captured arc" and were never heard from again, despite being such a credible threat in the first place.
- For Fist of the North Star, JP makes clear his disdain for how stupid the gangs of thugs are, stating that Kenshiro can walk through a building like it's nothing
- "Media Literacy for Writers":
- For starters, JP says he's definitely not doing this video out of dissatisfaction at the current environment of online discourse.note
- On the topic of context, text, and subtext, it takes a jab at shippers who distort or ignore subtext that would otherwise contradict their preferred ship.
- The video mocks "anime pfps", people with very strong opinions on media and who usually have unabashedly horny images of anime girls as their profile pictures. "XXXSEXYVADER69", whose avatar is the big-breasted elf woman from TWA's episodes on anime, rants in an all-caps, run-on sentence that they, who have no creative effort in anything besides one fanfic and social media posts, should be given creative direction over the franchise they hate so much.
- One potshot is directed towards the Americans in "Governments and Politics", with JP insinuating that his American viewers don't know how the government works.JP: "Now JP, I hear you ask, surely you don't need to cover the US system of democracy. Are you suggesting that your majority American audience doesn't know how their own government works?"
[Beat]
JP: "So anyway, the United States works by electing a president through popular vote..."
