Web Video / OddTube

"OddTube will start now!"

Oprah: When Olympia first asked to do this whole "OddTube" thing, I said, "No way!" Then she gave me these juice boxes.

[pan right to show an absurdly large amount of juice boxes]

Oprah: Then I said, "Okay." But when Olympia said she wanted her show to be interactive and have people vote and ask her questions, I said, "Absolutely not!" Then she gave me these juice boxes.

[pan left to show even more juice boxes]

Oprah: So, OddTube is happening, people!

— Promotional video for the show

OddTube is a Vlog Series that serves as a Spin-Off from the TV show Odd Squad. The first season, comprised of 20 episodes, premiered on November 10, 2016 and concluded its run on March 23, 2017. Three years later, in 2020, it was announced that the series would get a 12-episode second season that would premiere in the fall. However, for unknown reasons, it was pushed forward to the summer and premiered on June 10, 2020, with the season finale releasing on August 26, 2020.

Originally conceived as the pet project of Agent Olympia, Season 1 focuses on her as she reveals all sorts of hidden secrets about Precinct 13579, encourages interaction from viewers (such as voting on the official seal for the series), and performs interviews with guests, both villain and agent alike, among other things. Season 2 features a shift in hosting duties with Agent Orla taking over for Olympia, traveling around the world, interviewing agents and even passing the hosting mantle to her fellow teammates on occasion.

While the series was initially released on YouTube, it has since made its way to linear broadcast, airing as interstitials between episodes of Odd Squad on both PBS Kids and TVO Kids. However, due to time constraints, episodes are often shortened to make room for promotional material for other shows.

The playlist with all of the episodes in the series can be found here.

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Tropes:

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: More like Arson, Jaywalking and Murder, but same concept. Owen's guacamole has some secret ingredients — a bit of orange juice, his dreams of peace and prosperity for all humankind, and cilantro, in that order.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In "Meet an Agent From Around The Globe", the Mobile Unit van becomes under attack by a giant baby, which Orla and Ovidio work together to calm and shrink down to normal.
• Beyond the Impossible: Olympia gets three gumballs from the gumball machine in the Breakroom, puts them in one of the refrigerators, and it turns into an entire cooked chicken (that tastes like gum) within seconds.
• Big Eater: In "20th Anniversary Video", Olympia orders (and presumably eats) a 20-foot-long meatball sub. It's so long that Olympia is unable to show it in its entirety on camera.
  • Averted in "How Odd is Odd Squad?", where she attempts to eat a fully-cooked chicken that tastes like gum, but stops herself because she already had lunch.
• Broken Record: Yeah, "we'll be odd again" for sure...if we can get past Olympia's thank-you message.
• Call-Back: In "Interview with Olive", Olympia tells the viewers about the events of Odd Squad: The Movie, where she worked with Olive to stop Weird Tom from destroying the world.
  • In "Know a Big O", Orla catches the viewers up to speed on Oprah's life working for Odd Squad thus far, and a screenshot from "Totally Odd Squad" is shown as Orla describes Oprah going from an Investigation agent, to an Odd Squad Director, to the Big O.
• The Cameo: Numerous characters make cameos in Season 1. By far the most famous cameo is that of Olive, the (voiceover) role of which Dalila Bela reprises.
  • Olympia also makes a voice-only cameo in the Season 2 premiere.
• Camera Abuse: In "Coach O's Life Tips", Coach O hurls a basketball at the camera, which breaks the lens. When the camera moves back to Olympia at the end, however, the lens is intact.
  • Orla absolutely loves to shake the camera, considering it's not mounted on a desktop computer like with Olympia in Season 1.
• Character Blog: For Olympia originally, then for Orla.
• Clones Are People, Too: In "Know a Big O", Oprah uses a Clone-inator to create a clone of herself that can fill in for her as the Big O while she gets interviewed by Orla. It's not made explicitly clear whether the clone is an Expendable Clone or not, but considering that Oprah doesn't get rid of it when the interview is over, it's possible that she views it as a real being.
• Cold Open: Each episode opens up with the host saying "OddTube will start now!" in some way or another, such as doing cartwheels while saying it or changing outfits with each word.
• Comically Small Bribe: Inverted. The way Olympia got Oprah's permission to create OddTube was by offering her a ludicrous amount of juice boxes. Oprah being who she is, she happily took the bribe.
• Continuity Nod: In "Oona Fills In", Oona unboxes a package given to her by Odelia. One of the things inside is a card, where Odelia apologizes for chasing Oona while she was mind-controlled during "Oscar Strikes Back".
  • During "Welcome to OddTube", Olympia begins dancing to the "Take Away One/Gonna Add One Remix", which was previously heard in one of Oscar's Training Videos.
  • In "Know a Big O", an alarm sounds, and Orla wonders if it's a Hydraclops attack or a Daves invasion.
• Dancing Is Serious Business: The end of "Know a Big O" has Orla and Oprah, as well as the latter's clone, taking part in the latter's "hourly dance break".
• Delayed Reaction: In "Meet an Agent From Around The Globe", Ovidio mentions how Mexico City is under attack by a giant baby, and Orla reacts by saying it's amazing. A split-second later and she realizes what's happening as the van begins to shake.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The first half of the Good-Times Montage in "20th Anniversary Video" is like this, then when a clip from the end of "Interview with Olive" plays of Olympia exploding with joy, color is restored.
• Edutainment Show: Naturally. This is a Spin-Off of Odd Squad, after all.
• invoked Early-Bird Release: "Orchid's Almost Half-Hour Talent Show" was released early on the OddTube website as Olympia's special surprise for her viewers, 4 months before it would air on PBS Kids.
• invoked Fan Community Nicknames: Olympia comes up with the name "Oddballs" for fans of OddTube. Although "agents" was officially used as the nickname for the younger fans of the show and their parents, most older fans have accepted the "Oddballs" nickname as a widespread term.
• Fish out of Water: Par for the course for Orla in Season 2, as she is first shown fiddling with the camera in the season premiere and has no clue how to start a web series (or for that matter, what OddTube even is).
• Flying Face: In "Happy Twelve-iversary", Orla encounters a man who is just a floating head. She offers to restore his body, but he tells her not to rush, as he finds not having a body fun.
  • In "Oddness in NYC", she encounters a man — Mark De Angelis, as a matter of fact — who is also just a floating head. Like the aforementioned man, he doesn't seem to mind it.
• Genki Girl: Olympia, obviously, which makes her a perfect host for the show.
• The Golden Rule: In "Know an O: Part 1", Arctic Mr. O's third tip for Odd Squad Directors is to "treat others the way you want to be treated".
• Good-Times Montage: Olympia's 20th video is comprised of a montage with tidbits from previous videos, as shown in her scrapbook.
  • Similarly, Orla's 12th video is comprised of a similar montage, with scenes from previous Season 2 episodes shown. Instead of a scrapbook, however, it's displayed on an ancient scroll, to fit in with Orla's Fish out of Water status.
• Gratuitous Spanish: In "Meet an Agent From Around the Globe", the Cold Open has Orla saying "OddTube will start now" in Spanish. Both Ovidio and Orla also greet each other in Spanish before Orla realizes that not all of her viewers speak Spanish, and she uses the Translator-inator to translate Ovidio's words to English. In addition, Ovidio's lullaby is sung entirely in Spanish.
• Gravity Master: At the end of "Meet Agent Olo", it's revealed that Olo has the ability to move her chair on her own, without using any outside forces (like her feet or someone else pushing it), by simply curling herself into a tight ball and saying "meeeeep". It's an ability that carries over from when she accidentally turned herself into a dustball, as she would use that method to move.
• Group Hug: In keeping with tradition for the franchise, the Mobile Unit agents all share one in "Happy Twelve-iversary", which is the final episode of OddTube as a series.
• Hypocritical Humor: In "Interview with Olive", Olympia is shown dialing the end of Olive's phone number. She exhales, then straightens herself up in an attempt to look professional. One ringback tone later, Olive picks up, and any semblance of professionalism Olympia has is thrown out the window.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: Season 1 has a transition of a small panda riding a jackalope that bounces across the screen, creating dust clouds. Season 2 has two transitions — one of a small jackalope riding a horse that is creating dust clouds (befitting Orla's ancient warrior status), and another of the Mobile Unit van shooting lightning bolts and often decorated to match the theme of the episode.
• Innocently Insensitive: Otis, being camera-shy and socially awkward, refuses to join in on OddTube, stating that Olympia had promised him he wasn't going to be involved. Her response? Look at the camera and inform everyone that he's shy.
• Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: The Cold Open of "Coach O's Life Tips" has Olympia cycling through Investigation, Maintenance, Medical and Management uniforms respectively, with her imitating Dr. O's comically serious nature and reciting the end of Oprah's "In my office, now" Catchphrase.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: In "20th Anniversary Video", Olympia pronounces an agent's name as "Agent Oba". She informs her that it's actually "Obaaa", pronounced in a similar manner to a sheep's cry.
• Jumping the Shark: In "Let's Get Historical", Olympia shows off a "Jump the Shark Award" (depicted as someone literally jumping over a shark) and delivers some Self-Deprecation to herself and OddTube by pointing out that she hears she's in the running for the award. Mileage varies among the fanbase, however, on whether OddTube has actually jumped the shark in terms of the Odd Squad franchise as a whole.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Orla displays some Fangirl tendencies when she gets a chance to interview Oprah in "Know a Big O". This is despite the fact that Orla interacts with the Big O in nearly every episode, where she gives her and her partners cases to solve.
• Lava Pit: It's heavily implied that Orla once swam in a volcano in "Meet an Agent From Around the Globe". To her, it was just another body of water, and if the casual way she brings it up is any indication, she doesn't seem to have received any injuries.
• Lazy Bum: Arctic Mr. O is portrayed as this in this series. Despite being an Odd Squad Director, he gets tired after doing menial things like making eight snow angels and has his energy sapped when he gives The Golden Rule as a bit of helpful advice for other Directors, immediately falling asleep when Orla allows him to take a nap.
• Literal Metaphor:
  • "Exploding with joy" means you actually explode when you get too excited. However, instead of guts and gore left behind, glitter is spread all over.
  • According to Coach O, eating a well-rounded breakfast means to eat circular breakfast foods, such as eggs and pancakes.
  • When asked what the hardest case she's ever solved was, Orla explains that she once had to find a needle in a haystack. Whose name was Charles.
• Literal-Minded: Olympia shows viewers the Hall of Doors in "How Odd is Odd Squad?" One door she talks about is one with plastic balls on it, which she refers to as "The Ball Room". When she opens the door, however, it turns out to be a ballroom, where a man and a woman are shown dancing.
• Living Legend: The main show makes quite a few references to Olive and Otto's statuses as these (and many fans also view them as such), but "Interview with Olive" makes it official.
• Looking Busy: Arctic Mr. O invokes the trope in "Know an O: Part 1", where he gives his "Top 3 Tips to Be the Best O You Can Be" and lists the first one as "try to keep busy, even if you have nothing to do".
• invoked Milestone Celebration: In-universe examples occur in both seasons.
  • "20th Anniversary Video" marks the 20th OddTube video Olympia has made, and to celebrate, she does all sorts of things.
  • "Happy Twelve-iversary" marks the 12th OddTube video Orla has made. To celebrate, she has Opal, Omar and Oswald interview her for a change.
• Mundane Object Amazement: In "Let's Get Historical", Olympia shows viewers Precinct 13579's Trophy Room and introduces them to Oba, a Security agent in charge of the room. She spins in a chair with a bored look on her face and Olympia is amazed.
• Non-Fatal Explosions: "Exploding with joy" is a very common Running Gag in this series, where a person (or even two) will become excited enough to explode, leaving no gore but plenty of glitters. It doesn't kill the person, and they suffer no consequences unless an Odd Squad Doctor is unable to fix them.
• Non-Ironic Clown: Oprah dresses up as one in "20th Anniversary Video", for absolutely no reason other than it's funny (although she does mention needing to release elephants).
• Overcrank: Used in the Cold Open of "20th Anniversary Video".
• Passing the Torch: Played with. In the Season 2 premiere, "Welcome to OddTube Season Two!", Orla takes over hosting duties for the show. However, it's heavily implied that Olympia didn't pass hosting duties on to her — rather, Orla is hosting her own show that is also called OddTube, and calls Olympia for advice on how to start it. Despite this, Orla also seems to imply (within the same sentence, no less) that two shows, both coincidentally named OddTube and hosted by two separate people, don't exist in the same universe, and instead, there is just one OddTube.
• Product Placement: Parodied. Every episode has the current host giving an "OddTube is brought to you by [mathematical lesson]" message, which serves as the Aesop.
• Really Fond of Sleeping: Arctic Mr. O encourages those who want to be Odd Squad Directors to get plenty of rest. For most, that might mean a nap, when they have the time to. Arctic Mr. O, on the other hand, doesn't take a single nap — he strives to get so much rest that he takes eight naps a day.
• Reduced to Dust: In "Meet Agent Olo", the titular agent tells a lengthy story of the time she accidentally turned herself into a dust ball by accidentally knocking over the Dust-Ball-inator gadget. According to her, she didn't have a mouth to cry for help with and she could barely move. The only way she could move was to squeeze herself into a tight ball and say "meep", which only allowed her to move a tiny bit. According to her, she remained as a dust ball for s month until she eventually landed on the gadget, and a Scientist kicked it with his foot, causing her to turn back to normal.
• Series Mascot: A pandacorn, which was voted on by viewers. It even gets its own designated seal.
• Shout-Out: In "Coach O's Life Tips", Coach O quotes Winston Churchill nearly word-for-word as part of his Top 10 Tips for a Happy Life.
  Coach O: As Winston Churchill once said, "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." I miss that man. ^note The correct quote is as follows: "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Olo's "meeeeep" sounds when she was a dustball definitely ring a bell to this, although there's no swearing of any sort in OddTube. Eventually it became memetic in the fandom and became often used by fans to censor swear words of their own.
• Spin-Off: Of Odd Squad, conceived as a way for PBS Kids to cater to older audiences who prefer the kinds of YouTube videos that have a host directly speaking to, and engaging with, the audience. It's also the first digital-form spin-off for the block.
• Tastes Like Chicken: Inverted. Olympia believes that most things taste like chicken, but manages to turn three gumballs into a chicken that tastes like gum.
• Tastes Like Purple: As the Big O, Oprah has new juice boxes that are monochrome in color. She gives one to Orla for her to try, and when she asks her what the flavor is, her response is "Power. With a hint of cranberry."
• Teleporter Accident: In "How Odd is Odd Squad?", Olympia teleports from the bullpen to the North Control Room by touching the right star located on the Odd Squad seal on the ground with her left pinky finger. However, she ends up with her lower body submerged in a barrel of Owen's guacamole. Owen doesn't mind, however, as he remarks that her being in the guacamole made it taste better.
• Terrible Artist: Averted. All of the drawings seen in Season 1 — the transitions, the endcards, etcetera — are implied to have all been drawn by Olympia. Since the drawings in Season 2 look pretty much the same, it's safe to assume she drew those as well.
• Thanking the Viewer: The end of the Good-Times Montage in "20th Anniversary Video" has Olympia doing this, which starts out short but ends up becoming long-winded: "Thanks for 20 odd-mazing episodes. I couldn't have done it without you, Oddballs. Thank you for everything. Forever. And ever. The End. Forever."
• Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: Coach O, a Drill Sergeant Nasty, spent four years learning how to use a whistle, of all things. Irony indeed.
• Top Ten List: A very common theme of the series. Numerous episodes have the host doing a Top 10 list of some sort (or even Top 5) based around a particular topic.
• Training Montage: In "Coach O's Life Tips", Coach O does various squats, including dancing squats, "thinking about going to Minnesota" squats, and "special edition" squats, among others.
• Unaffected by Spice: Par for the course for Orla — in "Happy Twelve-iversary", she thinks of hot sauce as "red pepper-flavored juice", and begins chugging it. Omar worriedly tells her that it's actually hot sauce, but she takes it literally and tells him that it tastes room-temperature to her. All Omar can do is give a silent "what?" at the camera in confusion.
• Vocal Dissonance: For Olympia's 20th video, Obaaa offers to sing a song while Olympia shows a montage of all the previous videos in the season. Although Obaaa is a child, the song that's sung has an adult woman's voice.
• Vocal Evolution: Both Olive and Olympia's voices sound much deeper than in Season 1 of Odd Squad, due to their actresses hitting puberty. Otto, who makes a voice-only cameo in "Interview with Olive", does not qualify for the trope, since his voiceover contributions are just replayed soundbytes from the show.
• Worldbuilding: The spin-off provides a lot of this for the main show, such as how the Mobile Unit Van functions, new characters, and the interior of Oprah's Big Office, among other things.
• World Tour: Season 2 features many different locales around the world, which Orla (or whomever is the current host) almost always points out.
  • The Season 2 episode "Know a Big O" actively defies this trope. Orla explains that she is in one of the offices of the Big O, but doesn't reveal where the location of the office is, as an intentional move by the writers.

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"Keep on keepin' odd!"

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