The Hatchetfield Ape-Man
- Actor-Inspired Element: Joey Richter revealed in the Q&A that he did, in fact, grow out his scruffy "quarantine beard" due to the COVID-19 Pandemic before this show was written and he was cast as Konk the Ape-Man, and that this may have partially inspired the casting. (There's also the fact that he's the only cast member who had done a full-on nearly-nude Shirtless Scene onstage before as Grunt in Firebringer and had "nothing to lose".)
- Blooper:
- One that only happened due to the problems with Zoomcasting — Jeff Blim puts on a tuxedo jacket to briefly play the Bit Character of Lucy's butler, Rupert, only for his line to be inaudible because his computer is still on mute — forcing Nick Lang to pick up his part and read Rupert's lines himself rather than break the flow by saying something about it. As a result, there's a bit of a humorous dispute on fan wikis over whether to credit the role of Rupert to Jeff or Nick.
- There's a pretty funny blooper in "The Hatchetfield Ape-Man" that unintentionally lampshades the meta gag of playing a Fake American (played by Robert Manion) against a pair of Fake Brits (played by Angela Giarratana and Curt Mega) — there's a line invoking Prof. Hidgens' insane hatred of the British calling Jonathan a "crumpet-eater". Robert Manion just reads "crumpet" and stops, possibly because in countries where crumpets are a regular breakfast food (the UK, Canada, Australia) "crumpet" is already an insult (e.g. the Australian expression "not worth a crumpet
"). - At one point the Internet lag caused by doing this as a Zoom call causes one of these — there's an awkwardly long Beat between Konk proposing to Lucy and Professor Hidgens bursting violently into the room to reveal Ted's secret, prompting Joey Richter to try to awkwardly improv a next line for Konk as though Konk doesn't know what to say next after a woman accepts his proposal.
- A more consequential Blooper may have been Joey Richter brushing his keyboard and muting himself before saying Ted/Konk's tearful last words, "Lucy... very... beautiful...", although having them be a Silent Whisper could be argued to be more melodramatic.
- Fake American: Australian Robert Manion reprises his role from The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals as Prof. Hidgens, with his extremely theatrical American accent. The irony is played to the hilt, by making the character played by the one non-American cast member turn out to be so rabidly patriotically American he holds a homicidal hatred for English people due to still holding a grudge over the American Revolution.
- Fake Brit: Angela Giarratana as Lucy, Duchess of Stockworth and Curt Mega as her fiancé Jonathan Brisby. Lampshaded by Prof. Hidgens, as a backhanded Actor Allusion to the fact that he himself is a Fake American:Ted: Maybe he [Jonathan]'s not really British!Hidgens: Oh, he’s British alright. Did you hear him? You can’t fake an accent like that.
- Playing Against Type: For Starkid fans, who got to know Angela Giarratana as the very American Delinquent and Deadpan Snarker Lex Foster, to see her next big role be the English Rose Lucy Stockworth. To a lesser extent, Curt Mega, last seen playing ultra-American characters like Agent Curt Mega in Spies Are Forever and President Howard Goodman in Black Friday, showing up as Evil Brit Gentleman Snarker Jonathan Brisby.
- Typecasting: Lots of jokes were flying around in chat about Joey Richter showing up as a handsome Ape-Man. And then, of course, the real Ape-Man who was really hirsute and animalistic would be played by Jeff Blim.
- Word of God: Nick Lang openly admitted that "The Hatchetfield Ape-Man" was the "silliest, by far" of the ideas they'd had for Nightmare Time stories and they put it first to "get it out of the way".
- Word of Saint Paul: Robert Manion and Joey Richter mildly trolled "Tedgens" shippers fishing to know if Ted's acting skills as Konk the Ape-Man came from taking acting lessons from Prof. Hidgens, saying that Ted and Hidgens' only relationship in this episode was as partners in con artistry. Robert added that it's possible Ted got lessons from Robert himself instead, plugging Robert's services offering acting training online in Real Life.
Watcher World
- Actor-Inspired Element: Mariah Rose Faith shared on her Instagram that she's been diagnosed with anxiety and suffered from panic attacks in Real Life, and enjoyed the opportunity to try to portray this condition respectfully and realistically here.
- Ascended Fanon: Fan Art of The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals and Black Friday picked up the idea of showing people under the effects of Mind Manipulation as having glowing, brightly-colored irises — Occult Blue Eyes in the case of TGWDLM's alien Hive Mind, and a Sickly Green Glow in the case of Black Friday's Hate Plague. This idea is finally made canon in this story, where purple eyes are a sign of someone being manipulated by Blinky.
- Blooper: There's another accidental mute in this part of the episode, where Mariah Rose Faith's mic is off in the very last scene, leading her to sound like she's ignoring Bill when he asks "Whatcha doing?" instead of saying "Instagram".
- The Danza: When the actors playing the Sniggles suffer a mishap and end up breaking character, each actor is addressed by the name of the actual actor playing them.
- Dawson Casting: Mariah Rose Faith, who is 24, reprises her role as 18-year-old Alice from The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, although this is the first time she gets to play the real, non-Hive Mind Alice for more than a few minutes.
- Defictionalization: In a series mostly devoid of bespoke props, Nick Lang did take the time to make a prototype Blinky doll the same way he made the original Tickle-Me-Wiggly doll for Black Friday, in hopes that if Nightmare Time becomes as popular, the Blinky dolls will become just as sought-after as merch.
- Descended Creator: "With A Thousand Eyes" is a rare case of songwriter Jeff Blim's solo performance of a song being used as the final released version rather than as a scratch track.
- Queer Character, Queer Actor: Alice is a lesbian, and Mariah Rose Faith has revealed on social media that she's pansexual. To a lesser extent, the Carnival Barker is Ambiguously Gay (he welcomes Bill to Blinky's service by kissing him), and James Tolbert is gay.
- Throw It In!: James Tolbert in this episode is wearing a patterned bowtie over a plain black shirt, which thanks to the way Zoom's virtual Green Screen algorithm works, gets interpreted by the algorithm as part of the background, causing it to look like it's a shimmering hole in his chest letting you see the background behind him. Even though this is almost certainly just a flub, it does look cool and if you Hand Wave it might even be foreshadowing as to his character's nature (all of his characters in "Watcher World" turn out to be in some way an avatar of Blinky.)
- Underage Casting: In contrast to the Dawson Casting of Mariah Rose Faith as Alice, Corey Dorris is in his 30s and his character, Bill, would have to realistically be at least ten years older than he is in order to have a teenage daughter. There's also Lauren Lopez for once playing a character older than herself rather than being cast as a prepubescent boy, an evil old crone who works as a Fortune Teller.
- Word of God: Nick Lang has disproved fan theories springing up about the actors in Blinky's Watch Party being named after their real-life counterparts meaning that somehow the members of Team Starkid actually exist within the Hatchetfield universe "canonically", saying that it was "just a bit of fun" with Breaking the Fourth Wall and not meant to have a deeper meaning.
- Nick gave a tongue-in-cheek answer to the question of whether The Trail to Oregon! and the Hatchetfield series are in continuity with each other due to the shared reference to "the Watcher(s) with a Thousand Eyes" in "Watcher World", saying The Trail to Oregon! didn't actually happen in the "Hatchetfield universe" but was performed as a musical at the Starlight Theater.
