Mike and Melissa is a roughly 16-minute animated short film created by animation student, Mike Chenoweth in 2012. While it was meant to be an entire series, only the rough pilot, "Mike Goes Crazy" exists along with other lost media content.
The plot of "Mike Goes Crazy" consists of a crudely-drawn fictionalized version of Mike Chenoweth living his everyday life, such as his failed attempts to get women to notice him, going to a party with his metalhead "friends," seeing an indie band perform live, and starting a riot.
When Mike goes home, he decides to... um... "pleasure" himself out of self-pity, which results in the arrival of Melissa Mouffette, an anthropomorphic skunk woman. She explains that she is a Púca, a "benevolent animal spirit" conjured from Mike's mind to help him cope with his lack of female companionship. This leads to Mike believing that he's insane, to which she denies, saying that he just needs to have someone there for him and love him.
After immediately having sex with her, Mike realizes that he still has a project to do for his animation composition class, which Melissa tells him not to worry about, and takes him out for a walk, where they discuss the outcomes of their relationship. Mike promises her that he won't forget about her if he finds someone else, and they both share a kiss under the moonlight.
The pilot has often been compared to Sonichu and The Room (2003) by people who have viewed it, due to comparable levels of quality and lack of self-awareness.
"Mike Goes Crazy" can be found here.
THESE TROPES ARE NOT MEEEEETTTTAAAAAALLLLLL!!!
- Alliterative Name: According to the end credits, Melissa's full name is Melissa Mouffette.
- Angrish: Mike throws a tantrum after losing a game of Madden NFL which consists a mixture of this and Cluster F-Bomb.
- Animesque: The pilot is vaguely drawn this way, albeit in a very crude and surreal way.
- Atomic F-Bomb: Mike ends his Cluster F-Bomb rant with this.
- A Rare Sentence: "Melissa, do you want me to form a church of a purple skunk?"
- Big "SHUT UP!": Mike's roommates/neighbors yell at him to shut up when he's howling in the bathroom, which is exaggerated to the point where their screams become unintelligible growling.
- Brawn Hilda: Even the female characters, including Melissa, are drawn with the same buff body shape as the male characters.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Lenny and Choo Choo, though they appear to be very drunk during their screen time. Mike also counts as one to an extent.
- Cluster F-Bomb: At the beginning of the pilot, Mike loses in a video game which results in this.
- Fun T-Shirt: "I am MIKE The Hardcore + Awesome."
- Jump Scare: When Mike is waiting at the bus stop and glances down at his "I am MIKE The Hardcore + Awesome" shirt, it jarringly cuts to a Freeze-Frame Bonus of a much more detailed picture of a monstrous, hag-like creature holding the aforementioned t-shirt as a guttural scream is heard. The image appears again towards the end of the pilot, where Mike implies that it represents his ex-girlfriend.
- Inelegant Blubbering: The lead singer of Shotgun River breaks down on stage and resorts to this as he sings about his girlfriend.
- Informed Attractiveness: Apparently, Mike is attracted to purple skunk people.
- Large Ham: Ted. "No... No! NO! NO! THIS PLACE IS NOT... METAAAALLLLLRRRREEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
- "I JUST WANTED TO TALK ABOUT MY SERIES!"
- "SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPP!!!"
- "PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME! I CAN'T LIVE... WITHOUT YOOOOOOUUUU!"
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Melissa to Mike.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Mike masturbates in order to cope with his loneliness and to feel close to somebody. Then Melissa arrives...
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The pilot never specifies whether or not Melissa can be seen or heard by other people and can interact with things around her, or is merely just a figment of Mike's imagination
- Mirror Monologue: The opening sequence is Mike staring into a mirror, openly pondering about his sanity and howling at his own reflection before getting screamed at by a neighbor.
- No Social Skills: Implied with Mike. There's one instance where he meets a girl at his bus stop, but rather than approach her himself, he thinks that she should say hi to him, and gets upset when she ignores him. Mike does have a few friends or acquaintances, such as his metal band friend group and Lenny and Choo Choo, but their relationships all seem one-sided at best.
- Those Two Guys: Lenny and Choo Choo, who are only seen hanging out together during the party scene.
- Tulpa: While Melissa claims to be a Púca,note This trope describes her more accurately. She was created by Mike's subconscious to balance his negativity by channeling his positivity into her, projecting her into reality (Or at least exclusively to Mike), in a form he finds attractive.
- Self-Deprecation: Mike constantly calls himself a "crazy person" and "insane," and presents himself as a loser who has no luck with the ladies, and is shown masturbating on screen because he feels sorry for himself.
- Shout-Out: Ted is wearing a Metallica shirt.
- Stock Scream: The drummer of Shotgun River yells out the Wilhelm Scream when Ted grabs him and yanks him away from his drum set.
- Stylistic Suck: The style of the animation is done in a poorly-drawn, Animesque fashion.
- Take That!: There are several instances of this throughout the pilot:
- It's implied at the end of the pilot that the Freeze-Frame Bonus of the terrifying witch-like figure at the beginning is an unflattering caricature of Mike's ex-girlfriend.
- Mike makes fun of his animation composition class by depicting his professor as a rectangle-obsessed nutjob, even repeating the word "rectangle" multiple times as Mike zones out.
- "The Lameingtons - Un-Metal Song - The Happy Album."
- Mike depicts a Nickelback fan as a drooling, cross-eyed moron.
- Some of the characters' shirts have text on them, examples including "another esoteric reference," and "why...?"
- Technicolor Eyes: Melissa's left eye is gold while her right eye is blue.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: One way to interpret what Melissa truly is.
- Urine Trouble: There are a few scenes of Mike inexplicably peeing during the "beer song," and even pisses on a tree during the Shotgun River disaster.Random Guy: Don't pee on that tree, asshole.
- Vulgar Humor: There are several instances of Mike peeing, including one where he does it on a tree, and a masturbation scene.
