Britanick is a series of short comedy videos by Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher. The videos are a series of short one-offs, with no plot continuity or character development. The humor is generally bizarre, dark, or both, and often centers on the Brian's or Nick's romantic troubles.
As the series has become more popular, they've attracted the attention of a few well-known actors, and some of their later videos have featured Danny Pudi, Joss Whedon, and Nathan Fillion.
Their best-known video is probably their Troperrific A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever.
Britanick contains examples of:
- Behind the Black: Played with in 'Epic Phone Fail' after a Split-Screen Phone Call.Nick: WHERE WAS I? WHERE THE HELL DID I GO??
- Bond One-Liner: 'OLS' features a call center team you can phone to come up with one for you.
- Double Entendre: In 'Boy's Night In', Nick develops a condition where he will spontaneously act on them whenever he hears them, culminating in them trying to have a peaceful night trying to avoid any if at all possible.
- It's eventually taken to ridiculous levels when all Nick has to do is step inside the apartment to suddenly become completely naked.
- Dramatic Thunder: Parodied in "The Mystery", in which thunder strikes both times the detective's client seemingly reveals the culprit of his wife's murder after the detective asks him to Repeat What He Just Said.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: In 'Bathroom Pep Talk':Nick: I am gonna punch you in the face.
Brian: Don't punch me in the face!
Nick: I am gonna punch you in the face.
Brian: Don't punch me in the face!
Nick: I am gonna punch you in the face.
Brian: Don't punch me in the face!
Nick: I am not gonna punch you in the face.
Brian: You punch me in the face. What-
(Nick punches Brian in the face.) - Hair-Trigger Sound Effect: : In "The Dinner Party", every dark revelation is followed by a musical sting. At least until near the end, when the definition of "revelation" gets a bit out of control.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip:
- "A Monologue for Three" ends with a four-way example of this between Nick, Brian, Danny Pudi and . . . you'll just have to watch it. The swap is left unresolved at the end.
- A variation happens in 'Sexy Pool Party', where its implied at the end that anyone who gets wet will change bodies with a hot celebrity. It also doesn't seem limited to a singular body either. (Inan)imate objects are also not immune; a beer can becomes a glass of Martini.
Nathan Fillion: Yeah, could you wait? I just turned into two losers and a dog! - Hilariously Abusive Childhood: 'A Talk With Dad' has Nick's dad ask Nick what happened at school as Nick is treating a black eye. Nick responds that HE (his dad) suddenly appeared at school for the sole purpose of beating him.
- Hyper Space: Apparently part of the teleportation process caused by Herpex: "That place you go to between places . . . can be a little intense."
- Laborious Laziness: In "The Morning Routine", Brian has apparently planned elaborate and ridiculous schemes to get him just a few more minutes of sleep. These include Making a recording of himself talking about getting ready to go work, creating a mask with open eyes to appear awake, and even hiring a double (who seems to think he's playing "Briam"). Worse yet, the title seems to indicate that this kind of weirdness is a regular event.
- Mind Screw: "Boys' Night In" sees Nick taking off all his clothes whenever Brian makes a double entendre, and eventually whenever he comes to Brian's apartment. When Brian's girlfriend comes over on Friday, he's terrified that after he kisses her, she'll turn into "Naked Nick." She persuades him to do so anyway, and after he pulls away, he finds that she didn't transform...but he somehow did. And his girlfriend turns out to be Brian himself, who's also naked.
- Mood Whiplash: "The Kiss" is an extreme case of this trope. It goes from a good, wholesome silent film style romp to an incredibly dark and twisted take on A Clockwork Orange — All in a spine-shatteringly quick 5 seconds.
- Mr. Fanservice: Invoked in "Sexy Pool Party." Nick and Brian have a pool party, and when Brian goes underwater and comes back out, he's somehow transformed into an extremely attractive male model. When he towels off, he's back to his old self, and then explains to Nick that "everyone looks better coming out of the water." Nick tries it himself, and also turns into a hot guy. Later, the two of them, along with their transformed dog Fifi, all go under at the same time to become the epitome of sexiness...Nathan Fillion!
- Narrative Profanity Filter: The joke in "Fudge". Lampshaded by Nick:Brian: Fudge! (Thinking) Only I didn't say fudge. I said the word. The big one. The F-dash-dash-dash word. (out loud) Please don't tell on me!Nick: That you said the word fuck?
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Teamwork," Nick tries to pass himself off as a cop to get Jennifer to kiss Brian, who pretends to be a breathalyzer. Their disguises consist of a British policeman's hat and large, obviously fake mustache for Nick and a small straw for Brian. Amazingly, Jennifer falls for it—but her roommate doesn't. Later, Nick and Brian try again, this time dressing up as a wizard (with a costume hat and towel tied like a cape) and an "enchanted frog prince" (by painting his face green and putting on all-green clothes and a crown), respectively.
- Parody: "Fudge" is an extended parody of a famous scene from A Christmas Story.
- Repeat What You Just Said: Taken to its ultimate extreme as the premise of "The Mystery". A detective tells his client to repeat what he just said in regards to his wife's murder, but instead of stopping the man at the point you would expect him to, he continues to order him to repeat what he said before that and before that and so on. The man ends up recounting moments from his past lives and eventually future lives as well, as it turns out the universe is cyclical, before he loops back to the present.
- Serial Escalation: Invoked for humor in almost all of their videos. Things start off normal and quickly become crazier.
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: Invoked and parodied in "Sexy Pool Party", when Nick and Brian emerge from the water they're replaced with more attractive models. When they towel off, they're back to their old selves. Nick explains that "everyone looks better coming out of the water."
- Side Effects Include...: One of the early videos was a commercial for Herpex, a medicine to treat herpes whose side effects include a semi-controllable ability to teleport (and which doesn't actually cure herpes.)
- Special Guest: Alongside their work on the 2012 release of Much Ado About Nothing (2012), they were able to get appearances from Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, and much of the rest of the cast in various episodes.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: Played with in "Epic Phone Fail", where the split screen actually invades their apartment and has to be forcibly driven away. It also apparently teleports Nick to another dimension.
- Stock Lateral Thinking Puzzle: Invoked in "Brainteasers." Brian sets up three classic puzzles—the fox, duck, and grain boat-crossing problem, a "two trains going in different directions" riddle, and the "a man is hanging from the rafters with a pool of water beneath him" mystery. It soon becomes clear, though, that the whole point of the brainteasers is to steal Nick's Klondike bar. Both Nick and Brian's girlfriend quickly pick up on this, and become irritated.
- Teleportation Misfire: One of the side effects of Herpex. Possibly its only effect, as it may not cure herpes.
- The Reveal: Used liberally in 'The Dinner Party', and at one point the Sting kept playing even though nothing was being revealed at all. Things revealed include: Nick's and Brian's wives have had affairs with each others' husbands; Nick's wife had an affair with Steven Evans; Steven is actually Nick's best friend, not Brian; they ran out of wine; you can't use symbols in Pictionary; Brian's wife's name is actually Heather, and she's actually from New Zealand, and she also had an affair with Steven; Brian's tea leaves formed a sort of "W"; and Steven was at the party the whole time.
- This Is Reality: Invoked by Nick in "The Morning Routine" when he's getting exasperated with Brian's stunts: "This isn't a Marmaduke cartoon strip, Brian. That's not going to work."
- Zany Scheme:
- Parodied in "Teamwork." Brian wants a kiss from the beautiful Jennifer, so he and Nick try various, increasingly bizarre attempts to get one. In the end, Jennifer's roommate outright tells them that they don't need any wacky schemes to do so—Jennifer's dumb enough to simply kiss Brian if he asks.
- Similarly, in "The Morning After", Brian discovers a beautiful woman in his bed after a night of drinking and can't remember her name. He goes to Nick and a visiting friend for help, and the two claim they have perfect schemes...which include trying to sneak into a movie with a Totem Pole Trench, (badly) imitating the lead of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and pretending to be an improv troupe. The last one is the only one even remotely connected to the task at hand ("I'll need a girl's name that I can't believe slept with Brian!"). Both Brian and the woman get irritated with the constant plots.
