Web Video / Microwave Society

"we make videos"

The channel's description.

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Microwave Society is a reaction channel on YouTube hosted by Jude Howard, Josiah Brown, and Brendan "Bren" Willoughby. Originally starting out as a gaming channel, they transitioned into a humorous film commentary channel where they watch movies either from their childhood, ripoffs, or just plain weird videos and films. Occasionally, they'll also do videos on cooking, crafts, and challenges in general. The channel was launched in 2019 and since then they've been regularly uploading videos once or twice per week.

Microwave Society provides examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Jude, who's utterly despondent and unimpressed throughout basically the whole of the The Cat in the Hat video, admits that the 'oversized pen that requires two hands' gag is actually really funny.
  Jude: That, that is funny. Hey, look, we did something! You got me to laugh, movie, wow! The prop department made me laugh!
• Animorphism: Josiah pokes fun at Helvetica's wish to turn into a giant wasp by turning into a "giant bug" himself... which is to say, he turns into a pixelated png of a bee, white background and all.
• Audience Participation: Most of the films they do are recommended by fans.
  • One video had them do a video chat with one fan at a time to see if they could make them laugh.
• Author Appeal: Nu Metal and Alternative Metal in general, with the guys (particularly Jude) often making references to bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn, and especially System of a Down.
• Bad "Bad Acting": The Society will often mock any moments of poor acting ability by repeating them in an exaggerated manner. For example, in their Sky High video, when Will asks if he will eventually get his powers, the trio make fun of his delivery, comparing it to William Shatner.
• Big "SHUT UP!": All three of the guys give these out from time to time, though Josiah lets out a pretty mighty one as a response to the "I'm An Alien" twist in We Can Be Heroes.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: A few videos have Jude's "have a day" catchphrase being said by other members of the channel.
• Breaking Old Trends: While most of the videos were recorded over Discord, with the guys reacting in separate rooms and on separate video feeds, some videos instead saw them watching the film/video in question on a couch. As of Home Alone 2 is Peak Christmas Movie, this has become the commentary videos' standard format.
• Broken Record: "Did you know that Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory is the only factory in the world that mixes its chocolate by waterfall?", repeated by Bren thoughout the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory video.
• Buffy Speak: Exaggerated in the JerryVFX video; Teacomfy explains how helicopters generate lift and fly but doesn't even bother to refer to the main propellor and tail propellor by vaguely-descriptive names, instead just calling them the "OOOOOOOH" and the "AAAAAAH" respectively.
• Call-Back: There are several:
  • In the commentary for Shorts, the Society brings up the fact that they already covered High School Musical when it was referenced in the movie.
  • Parodied in the commentary for The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water when they bring up the last SpongeBob commentary they did.
  Jude: Hey guys, remember when we covered the first SpongeBob movie?
  ''(A clip from that video plays, and then they stare blankly at the viewers)
• Catchphrase: "Don't forget to lick the video", usually said by Bren or Josiah before the video properly starts.
• Comically Missing the Point: The guys have a habit of focusing on random, inconsequential background details to the point where it's a Running Gag;
  [The guys come across a picture of a lighter made of false teeth with a city playmat in the background]
  Jude: Hey, look, it's that rug everyone had, like, 10 years ago!
  Bren: That's what you're paying attention to?
  • Reaches its peak in the video on The Incredibles, where - in the middle of the scene where Helen prepares to leave after Mr Incredible is captured - the guys instead choose to focus on and debate a weirdly-tilted bedroom light for 30 seconds straight.
• Comical Overreacting: Another things all of the guys do from time to time;
  Josiah: Why did you have to give us what's practically a mirror ball so we can see the studio lights!?
  Bren: [laughing] Josiah's so mad...
  Josiah: Like, they made everything in this scene CG except for the cherry! It's a literally GLARING FLAW! ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS RED SPHERE! AND VEGGIETALES WAS DOING IT IN '95!
  [Bren claps]
  Josiah: LET'S CONTINUE WITH THIS GARBAGE MOVIE!
  • Let's not forget Bren's screaming tirade about saws in the DIY video;
  Bren: Wow, you made a SAW! WITH A SAW! NOW IT'S JUST A SMALLER SAW! JUST USE THE BIG ONE!
• Department of Redundancy Department: "The ice castle, home of the Princess of Ice where the Ice Princess lives with ice. In the ice castle."
  Josiah: Hey, did we mention it's ice?
• Disproportionate Retribution: At one point, Josiah jokes that whoever gets kicked out of the guys' comedy club is sent into a black hole.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Josiah does this in the Shorts video as a sort of Lame Pun Reaction;
  Nose: [to Helvetica] I'm not afraid of anything anymore. Not even you, typeface.
  Josiah: Typeface. TYPEFACE!? GET IT, CUS HER NAME IS HELVETICA BLACK!? AND IT'S A TYPEFACE SO YOU TYPE ON YOUR COMPUTER AND THEN-
  Bren: Shut up!
• Dreadful Musician: In actuality, the guys are actually fairly-skilled musicians, though they play this role from time to time.
  • In the video on training videos, a mention of "the hizzy" prompts Josiah to sing an off-key piano ballad about buying video games. It's so bad that Jude stops the video so he can repent and pray for him.
  • In the video on High School Musical, the video opens on a cutaway gag of Bren introducing himself as "Musical" before proceeding to play the opening section of "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" fairly well... only to scream and slam on his piano.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: As mentioned, before they did film comedy they were predominantly a gaming channel. Additionally, the channel was hosted only by Jude and Bren at first, with Josiah only joining them later on and earlier just being their editor.
• Fantastic Racism: Josiah's reaction to the "Yes, but you're blue" line in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; "Hey, there's no blue children in my house!"
• Faux Horrific: In the 3-2-1 Penguins! video, the guys absolutely freak out and scream when Grandmum's mouth briefly moves into frame.
• Formula with a Twist: The reaction to High School Musical is mostly just a regular reaction video intercut with cutaway gags and skits; the first of which has Jude travelling to Josiah's house to get a hard drive containing a vocal track for a song, and the latter seeing the guys breaking up before reconvening through The Power of Friendship.
• Girlfriend in Canada: Jude parodies this in the Zathura video;
  Josiah: Jude, how did you get so mean...?
  Jude: I'm a college dropout! I have a... girlfriend!
  Bren: No you don't.
  Jude: You don't know her, she goes to a different YouTube channel.
• Halloween Episode: The reaction to Monster House was uploaded on Halloween and referred to in the video itself as 'the Halloween special', with the guys even dressing up for the occasion; Jude wears a Groucho Marx mask (which he takes off not even a minute in since it's hurting his nose) and calls himself Eddy Burback; Bren comes dressed as 'the Blue Man Group' (which is to say he just puts on a blue, full-body morphsuit), and Josiah claims to be a house (he has no costume at all).
• Lame Pun Reaction:
  • The various "leaving the set" gags are generally a result of this.
  • In the High School Musical video, Bren making a "I hardly know 'er!" joke prompts Jude to leave the group.
  • In the Barnyard video, when the film reaches the chicken coop scene;
  Josiah: Those chickens aren't invited to the party, I guess...?
  Bren: Nah, they're all cooped up.
  Jude: Oh my god. I will end my recording...
  • In the Minions: The Rise of Gru, after the Vicious 6 get turned into mice;
  Bren: Aw, rats...
  Jude: Brendan.
  [Jude and Bren stare at each other in dead silence for a few seconds]
  Bren: It was funny.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: "They call it an X because it's an X; they don't call it a Y because it's not in fact a Y."
• Metal Scream: Jude pulls one off in the video on Sharkboy and Lavagirl; "LAVAGIRL, LOOK BEHIND YOU! RAAAAAAAA-!"
• No, You: All the time.
  Josiah: They made a... shape layer in After Effects and put a gradient on it...
  Bren: You're a shape layer in After Effects with a gradient on it.
  Josiah: [as a shape layer in After Effects with a gradient] I will embrace this.
• Overly Long Gag:
  • The minute-long bit of the guys debating how the Velocipods from The Incredibles would actually function.
  • In the video on The Lorax, Josiah holds a strained "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" for 15 seconds straight (edited down; if Bren is to be taken literally he actually did it for a whole minute).
  • In the DIY video, the guys come across a video showing a "quick and easy" way of decorating a cake... which goes on for 20 minutes because the groom in the video keeps halting things to re-explain what he's about to do. The particular upload they watch is a 5-minute edit, and in the video itself it's cut down even further, but it's still just as frustrating.
  Groom: This is the moment, right? This is the moment!
  Bride: This is our wedding cake!
  Bren: It's been the moment for 12 minutes, DO ANYTHING!
• Pixellation: Played for laughs in How much water is too much water?, where Bren's feet are censored after he loses a sandal.
• Power Trio: Jude, Bren and Josiah.
• A Rare Sentence: In a short, Bren comes across a packet of Jujyfruits with a flavour called 'anise' (which he pronounces as "anus" for Rule of Funny), which leads to...
  Bren: I wanna look up what anus is... which is a sentence I have never said.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: In the JerryVFX video, the guys come across a design for a parking garage that lifts cars up onto a wall by their rear bumper. Teacomfy points out that it'd be impractical, but as for why specifically...
  Teacomfy: ...but all the blood would rush to the car's head and then it would pass out!
  [Bren bursts out laughing]
• Running Gag:
  • Josiah pointing out film effects and cases of Special Effects Failure (and how they could easily be rectified).
  • "Woah! X with no Y!"
  • "KANSAS!" [usually accompanied by a gif of Jude spinning in place]
  • Someone leaving the set for whatever reason. Usually done by Jude.
  • The "I hardly know her!" joke crops up from time to time.
  • In the DIY video, the guys repeatedly coming across videos of people just pouring cement over things to turn them into planters.
• Self-Deprecation: In the Zathura video, all of the guys react to the film's first Name Drop by repeatedly saying "The name of the movie! Which is Zathuuura!" out of sync, which culminates in Jude going "We're so annoying!"
• Sensory Abuse: Of the Aural Invasion variety, multiple times over.
  • The guys have a habit of imitiating ride operators by blowing out their microphones and screaming "HAVE A GREAT DAY AT KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINGSS ISLAND!" into them.
  • Jude and Bren imitating a rocket launch in the video on The Incredibles, and raptors in the reaction to The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.
• Sexual Euphemism: In the Barbie Fairytopia video, Josiah exclaims that he wants someone to "suck the magic out of [him]".
• Shout-Out:
  • In the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory video, when it cuts to the shot of the mountain, Bren exclaims "Welcome to the Himalayas! Snowcone?".
  • Bren refers to Thomas repeating "Hello?" into the drive-thru speaker at a Burger King's as him "phone guy"-ing the operator.
• Signing Off Catchphrase: "Have a day!"
  • Conversely, they also have a signing-on catchphrase;
  [clapclapclap]
  Jude: Hello everybody!
  Bren: Welcome to [work]. My name is Microwave...
  Jude: And I am Society.
  • In their commentary videos they instead introduced themselves as different halves of the work's title ^note e.g for Sky High, Bren introduces himself as "Sky" and Jude introduces himself as "High", with Josiah introducing himself as the film's subtitle (if it has one) or seguing into the video proper.
• Skewed Priorities: Lampshaded by Bren in the Zathura video; "I am stuck in space, I just got attacked by a robot, and my sister is frozen. I want Kraft."
• Special Guest:
  • Josiah was initially just the channel's editor before making a guest appearance in Our Editor Beats Us At Mario Kart, becoming one of the channel's hosts shortly afterwards.
  • Teacomfy, who initially appeared in We Made A Discord Comedy Club, would end up singing the Piss-Take Rap for the 3-2-1 Penguins! video, and occasionally appeared in some of their reaction videos.
  • Oompaville makes guest appearances in the reaction videos to In Space with Markiplier and Spaceballs.
  • Lauren - one of the channel's editors - appeared in the videos on Spy Kids: Armageddon (filling in for an ill Jude) and Temu products, and Thomas - the channel's other editor - appeared in the video on Coraline (also filling in for Jude). Both of them would appear in the reaction to Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) and later in How much water is too much water?.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • In the video where they watched their old YouTube videos from when they were kids, Jude and Brendan make fun of how poor quality some aspects of the videos are.
  • They also point out the poor quality of the Nintendo Switch knockoff they were testing in the TEMU Scam video.
• Stunned Silence: Occasionally happens when something ridiculous happens in the movie they're watching.
• Take That!:
  • In the Zathura video;
  Josiah: Um, I would like to formally apologise for playing Zathura with more than two players...
  Jude: You better do a YouTuber apology video.
  Josiah: I am doing an apology video... right now.
  Jude: No; there's not a light four inches from your face, you don't have a ponytail, and your face isn't covered in tears.
  • In the Shorts video;
  Jane: We don't even know who our son's girlfriend is!
  Bill: So? We just spy on him! That's a new feature I'm adding; 'Spy On Your Kids!' I'll have an answer in no time!
  Jude: Oh, did you mean Life360?
  Josiah: What're you gonna do, Apple Family Share your girlfriend!?

  Josiah: So [Black Box] own all the houses... and they're the police force...?
  Bren: Don't worry about it.
  Jude: Don't talk about Amazon like that!
  • Expect any instance of Jude recounting his time working at Kroger to be this.
• Toilet Humor:
  • In their reaction of Barbie Fairytopia, Brendan claims that all he's done during the reaction is fart.
  • In the TEMU Scam Products video, they point out that two of the options for video game characters are "Chun-Li and Chun-Li covered in pee".
• Trademark Favorite Food: Beans are constantly referenced in multiple videos, to the point that the trio has gotten sick of it and are visibly annoyed when beans are mentioned in a movie they're watching. Special mention goes to the Lord of the Beans reaction and the You Laugh, You Bean video.
• Troll: Thomas in How much water is too much water?, where he and Bren are supposed to keep the water the group buys, only for him to just have the latter carry it all. By the end of the video, Bren is buried under precariously-stacked cups and cupholders - which he eventually just dumps and spills everywhere when he gets out the car.
  Thomas: Oh dear, oh dear... it's been a stressful day, actually.
  Lauren: [between laughs] I'm going... to make seven horcruxes... and I'm gonna leave them all in Thomas' house!
• Voodoo Shark: In the Zathura video, the concept of Walter and Danny living in a house in space completely fine prompts Jude to throw around the idea of a similar situation, just living in space and eating mac n cheese every day. When Bren questions how he'd get groceries, Jude just goes "Well, I'd just Doordash!", which prompts Bren to go on a screaming tirade questioning the logistics of sending a rocket up into space every day to deliver someone Arby's.
• Would Rather Suffer: In the video on The Polar Express, Bren says that he'd rather be "hurtling to [his] death in a caboose than even think about drinking La Croix".

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Have a day.

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