Boardkake is a web comedy show starring Mike Bennett(of The Bunny Perspective fame), Andy Lewis, Josh Lyon and Sam Oswald as caricature versions of themselves playing board games. The concept is very simple, the execution gut-bustingly funny. The games rarely go as planned and go off the rails into house-ruled insanity or devolve into rules lawyering and nitpicking. It doesn't help that all four protagonists play for keeps and are more than willing to screw each other as they play.
The series has scripted episodes, but also vlog Let's Plays of the different games where the cast explains the rules and play in a much friendlier manner. The vlogs still turn out hilarious, though, considering they like to play games like Cards Against Humanity and Munchkin.
The show is released under the Bunny Perspective channel on Blip. You can check it out here.
This series provides examples of the following tropes:
- Butt-Monkey: Sam, who actually tries to play the games as intended and is prone to rules-lawyering. The other guys pretty much always gang up on him as a result. "Shut up, Sam!" might as well be the show's catchphrase.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Andy. The Red Dragon Inn episode was pretty hard for him.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Josh has so far shown he likes to cheat when he gets a chance. Doesn't help him win. He cheated by looking at Andy's cards in the Red Dragon Inn episode and Andy STILL won, and in the Monopoly episode he won on a technicality(the game was so insanely chaotic that the players basically said "fuck it" and streamlined the game with a special die; it ended up making Josh win by no effort of his own, fair or otherwise).
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Andy. He's kind of a ditz and has some weird gameplay ideas. In the Monopoly episode, he's the one that brought up the house rules.
- Drinking Game: Red Dragon Inn is a board game based on this concept. Andy's the only one who ends up with the intended result.
- Endless Game: What the Monopoly game devolves to when the house rules are applied. The game lasts a week before the guys decide enough's enough.
- Film Noir: In the Red Dragon Inn episode, Josh and Mike end up facing off in a card game and the scene starts spoofing a film noir scene, including dramatic lighting, black and white video and intense, witty banter. This witty banter includes the phrase "
Ring-a-ding-ding, here comes the fuck-truck!" - Flipping the Table: Mike's usual response to losing.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Mike=Choleric, Andy=Sanguine, Sam=Melancholic, Josh=Phlegmatic.
- Gargle Blaster: Mike establishes a house rule during the Red Dragon Inn episode that whoever draws a Dragon's Breath Ale card(the most alcoholic drink in the game) has to chug down a shot of vodka mixed with hot sauce. Andy ends up getting ALL OF THEM.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Mike. Loud, obnoxious, irritable and a sore loser in the extreme. The other guys actually had to do an intervention because of his tendency for table-flipping.
- Jerkass: All of them, to a degree, but Mike's the worst.
- Loads and Loads of Rules: Sam likes them, the rest of the guys don't. In the Red Dragon Inn episode, when he sees the game's rules fit in only one page, he instantly declares it a "baby's game."
- Morality Pet: Fuckface the Cat(played by Anubis the Cat), a cat that the guys get Mike to give him something to calm him down.
- No Indoor Voice: Mike. He will not say anything he couldn't instead say at 160 decibels.
- Only Sane Man: Sam, much to his dismay.
- Rules Lawyer: SAM. This causes the other guys no end of grief.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Mike's red to Sam's blue.
- Running Gag: "Shut up, Sam!" is said every time Sam's going to complain about something. It's said even when Sam's not saying anything. It's said even when Sam's not on the table at all.
- Sanity Slippage: What happens to the guys during the Monopoly game.
- Serious Business: This show might as well be called "Board Games Are Serious Business: The Web Series".
- Sore Loser: Yeah, they ALL are to a certain extent, but Mike takes it waaaay too far. He ruins games if he loses.
- Tantrum Throwing: Mike does this too. Can you tell he doesn't like losing?
