History Videogame / ThimbleweedPark

** Late in the game, [[spoiler:Delores is given a balloon animal, with no idea on what to do with it. At least AI Chuck gives her the [[LoggingOntoTheFourthWall hint to look at the Kickstarter video]], which involves using the balloon animal on Boris's corpse in the first 30 seconds.]]

* SurpriseCreepy: Revisits to the coroner's autopsy room can give you shots of him creeping up on the player character, [[AbortedArc or a scene where one of them is lying on a slab]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: This game has so many {{Shout Out}}s and gags about ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' that it's ''thematically'' more of a direct sequel than the ''actual'' sequel ''VideoGame/DayOfTheTentacle''.

** Played straight with the books in the Mansion mansion library. Every pixel is a different book, so it can be very difficult to find yours among the hundreds and hundreds of them.

* BookEnds: The first puzzle of the game leads to Boris's death, and the last puzzle involves doing something with his corpse.

* {{Expy}}: Reyes and Ray bear a striking physical resemblance to [[Series/TheXFiles two other famous FBI agents]], and their initial characterisation (he's wide-eyed and friendly and seems to be a ConspiracyTheorist; she's grouchy and realistic and acts like she's SurroundedByIdiots) also resembles a slightly mean-spirited parody of the same. We eventually learn that they are quite different characters beneath the surface, though.
** Quite a few characters bear more than a passing resemblance to a few characters from the Simpsons, including a grouchy, not-quite-child-friendly clown, a deranged Scottish groundskeeper, a fat comic book nerd who over-articulates, and a mustachioed friendlyman with a weird vocal tic-a-reno.

* ParadiegeticGameplay: To solve the last puzzle with the balloon animal, the player is required to [[spoiler:go online and watch the kickstarter video for the game]].

** Chuck has a cat-o-nine tails made out of [=Cat5=] cables in his home office during Dolores's introductory flashback. [=Cat5=] cables weren't invented until 2001.

** The biggest one that was pointed out to Creator/RonGilbert that made him kick himself was the presence of "Sexy" Riker in Thimblecon. While Star Trek had been back, by the time the game takes place, Riker hadn't grown a beard in TNG yet. This solicited a "DAMNIT" from Gilbert.

** TakeThatUs: Because some people thought this was annoying, a patch gave players the option to turn off the "Annoying in-jokes"

** The items in Delores's fridge serve only as a CallBack to the ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' fridge. The can of Poopsi serves as an Easter Egg, the rest of the items are useless [[spoiler:except for the hot sauce, which coincidentally, is the only item not from the CallBack.]] The items in Delores's bedroom: Her math trophy, red gel decorder, and stuffed chinchilla can be picked up in her flashback, but are useless. [[spoiler:The decoder and trophy are not useless, however, in the present.]]

* TheVoiceless: Lenore's husband and son don't say a word. If Dolores tries to speak to either, Lenore will loudly assert that if her sister has anything to say, she could say it to her.

** When Willie [[spoiler:has a wallet covered in blood]] he refuses to give the agents. That would certainly fall under probable cause (and, given how small it is, they could argue Willie might dispose of it if they waited for a warrant).

** The specks of dust and the Occult Store's eyedrops were only useful to get an achievement.
** You need the severed head from the occult store for an achievement, and to gain the arcade tokens, but you can complete the game without doing it.

** The items in Delores's fridge serve only as a CallBack to the ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' fridge. The can of Poopsi serves as an Easter Egg, the rest of the items are useless [[spoiler:except for the hot sauce.]] The items in Delores's bedroom: Her math trophy, red gel decorder, and stuffed chinchilla can be picked up in her flashback, but are useless [[spoiler:The decoder and trophy are not useless, however, in the present.]]

* ScareChord: Can be heard when a pair of [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] appear in the sewer opening early on.

** [[spoiler:At one point the characters get a Beta Max copy of ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. A character who looks at it comments that they like it, but are unsure about what they think of the ending. ''Blazing Saddles'' and Thimbleweed Park both end pretty much the same way, by not only breaking the fourth wall but blasting through it with full force, winking at the viewer the whole time; it can also be seen as a TakeThat for those who didn't care for the game's ending.]]

** The bottle of whiskey and the [=BetaMax=] tape were originally intended to be part of a quest involving the convenience store security camera, but the quest was cut for time, and the items were never removed.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: Who ''did'' kill Franklin and Boris? Where did Franklin's body go? Franklin's casualness with his killer before his offed suggests it couldn't be Chuck or the Sheriff (as he was afraid of them), but he clearly knew who the person was.]]

** [[spoiler:At one point the characters get a Beta Max copy of ''Film/BlazingSaddles''. A character who looks at it comments that they like it, but are unsure about what they think of the ending. ''Blazing Saddles'' and Thimbleweed Park both end pretty much the same way, by not only breaking the fourth wall but blasting through it with full force, winking at the viewer the whole time; it can also be seen as a TakeThat for those who didn't care for the game's ending.]].

** [[spoiler:At one point the characters get a Beta Max copy of BlazingSaddles. A character who looks at it comments that they like it, but are unsure about what they think of the ending. BlazingSaddles and Thimbleweed Park both end pretty much the same way, by not only breaking the fourth wall but blasting through it with full force, winking at the viewer the whole time; it can also be seen as a TakeThat for those who didn't care for the game's ending]].

* TapOnTheHead: That's how Boris goes out in the prologue and also agent Ray later behind the diner.

** Madame Morena curses Ransome the Insult Clown for... insulting her while she was viewing his act, which was entirely about insulting everybody in the room. Her curse results in Ransome losing his marriage, his house, his lawyer, a potentially multi-million dollar plush toy business, forces him to have his clown makeup stuck on his face for the rest of his life, and ultimately leaves him a destitute man squatting in the remains of the run down old circus he used to perform in. Ransome is a dick on and off the stage no doubt about it, but Morena really had no cause to be offended and her punishment was way overblown.

* TheUnsolvedMystery: Who or what killed Boris and kidnapped agent Ray?

* GoshDarnItToHeck: Considering that Ransome swears so much he bleeps, it's a little weird that Reyes refuses to swear at all, saying "Bullpuckey" if he catches someone lying to him.

* VerbalTic: The sheriff, coroner and hotel manager all have this: A-reno, a-who and a-boo respectively. This tic is what keeps people from suspecting they're the same person, and each of them insists that you'll never catch them using the other's tic. However, each has at least one situation, when surprised, in which they use the wrong tic, suggesting they really are one and the same.

Agents Ray and Reyes have been called to investigate a corpse lying face down and beginning to pixelate by Trestle Trail, right off the highway near the tiny town of Thimbleweed Park. Delores Edmund wants to be a game developer, but if she becomes one, she'll go against her entire family's wishes. After an untimely death, a phantom needs to put his last affairs in order so that he might move on to the afterlife. Ransome the *bleep* Insult Clown, greatest artist of a generation, has pissed off the wrong person, and now needs to recover the mere tatters of his former success.

* UnwinnableByMistake: There were a few rare bugs the developers fixed.
** The dime could spawn in a place where it could not be reached, and the agent could've had no way to rescue a trapped partner.
** The game would remove the pirate hat from the inventory if a failed trade was made to get the hint book.

* AcmeProducts: The hotel manager tries to call ACME Maintenance for assistance – but they're busy.
* AdvancedTech2000: The machines all over Thimbleweed County are named [Whatever][[NameTron Tron]] 3000™.