It's On Cinema At The Cinema
Originally a podcast which then became a web series, On Cinema is film related talk show hosted by Tim Heidecker and "guest" Gregg Turkington as fictional versions of themselves. They "review" movies, generally by awarding films bags of popcorn rather than stars. The reviews are almost always highly positive and they never provide any actual critical insight on the movies they discuss. The podcast and show originally aimed to mock the self-indulgence of the podcast community.As the series went on, while "reviewing" the movies was still the core concept, Tim has tended to use the show to discuss whatever is on his mind, be it personal issues, alternative medicine, politics and his other projects. Gregg considers himself a film expert generally due to his collection of VHS tapes (usually presented on the show as "popcorn classics") which mostly consists of forgotten films. He desires the show to be exclusively focused on movies and gets annoyed whenever Tim shifts the focus of the show. The series has since incorporated multi-episode arcs and has a spinoff in the form of the Decker where the characters of On Cinema decide to make their own "movie". Tim and Gregg have also made other media appearances as with their On Cinema personas including social media (Gregg's Twitter account is exclusively for his On Cinema persona) and a touring live show. Some plot developments are played out through their social media feeds.
Since 2013, they have had an annual Live Oscar special which often gets chaotic due to Tim's behavior. A 2017 spinoff/interlude miniseries, The Trial Of Tim Heidecker, is set between seasons 9 and 10 and chronicles Tim's trial for 20 cases of Felony Murder.
I Give These Tropes 5 Bags of Popcorn:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Tim "left" the show after season 5 to live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming thus leaving Gregg to host the first episode of season 6 by himself. Tim returned in the following episode however when realizing Jackson Hole wasn't as great has he had thought.
- Abusive Parents: Tim insisted that Tom be treated by Dr. San despite proving to be a terrible doctor. Ayaka also testified at Tim's trial that he was verbally abusive to Tom.
- Accidental Misnaming: Tim regularly misreads the names of actors on his cue cards, leading to him crediting people such as Idris Elbow, John Semen, and Tom Diddleston
- Accidental Murder: The vapor device made by Dr. San and given out by Tim at the Electric Sun Desert Music Festival causes the accidental deaths of 20 teenagers and gets San and Tim arrested for Manslaughter charges
- The Alcoholic: Tim. He frequently drinks too much during the Oscar specials which leads to them getting quite chaotic. He admitted he had issues during the third Oscar special.
- Alter-Ego Acting: Tim and Gregg play versions of themselves on the show. Gregg goes as far as having his twitter page done completely in character. The two have made appearances outside of the show where they act as their on cinema personas though Tim does gives some interviews as the actual Tim.
- Ascended Extra: Mark Proksch initially just had small parts in the Oscar specials doing impressionist segments and occasional appearances on regular episodes. He then made regular appearances in season 8 and season 9 while employed by Gregg and Tim.
- As Himself: The majority of the people who appear on the show, especially if they make more than one appearance, including Tim, Gregg, Mark Proksch, Joe Estevez and John Aprea. Among the few who aren't are Dr. San and Axiom who are played by actors.
- zigzagged with "James Dean", whom Gregg claims to be the thought to be deceased actor though Tim doesn't believe him until after Dr. San does a DNA test suggests he is the real James Dean in which Tim begins to accept him and eventually cast him in Decker. In real life though, it is another actor doing the part rather than the real James Dean. Dean's abrupt absence in future seasons though suggest it was someone posing as him, especially considering Dr. San isn't by any means a qualified doctor or scientist.
- Award Show: During the 3rd annual Oscar live, they hosted their own movie award show called the Poppies. Almost all of the awards went to Tim for Decker, which technically
isn't even a movie. It is implied that Tim was the only voter for these awards. - Bait-and-Switch: Gregg builds up one of his popcorn classic segments to seem like the "classic" film featured will be The Blues Brothers, a popular and well received film. Instead, he actually picks Blues Brothers 2000, the film's panned sequel.
- Beat: Used quite frequently, especially if someone says something over another person which leads to slight awkward moments of silence.
- Bittersweet Ending: The end of the trial episodes when considering the different perspectives of the main characters Tim's trial for the Electric Sun 20 results in a not guilty verdict for one of the victims (who likely died of heroin overdose rather than the vapers) and a mistrial verdict regarding the other charges (meaning that district attorneys would have to order a new trial if they think its still worth convicting Tim). While Tim has contempt charges for his behaviour in court, he is more or less off the hook from the major charges. On the other hand, this means no one will be punished for the disaster (since Dr. San already committed suicide) and Gregg will have to deal with Tim regarding the future of On Cinema. While Tim is already hard to work with, Gregg must deal with the fallout of trying and failing to get Tim convicted by giving witness testimony for the district attorneys
- Black Comedy: What the show eventually becomes after Season 2.
- Broke the Rating Scale: Tim has at times given films six bags of popcorn despite claiming the highest rating is 5 bags of popcorn (granted, there is sometimes inconsistency with what the highest rating is). It is also common to award additional things to the 5 bags of popcorn like a number of sodas or something related to the film that was reviewed.
- Butt-Monkey:
- Gregg. He is constantly having his segments skipped over by Tim or at times being proven he isn't as smart as he thinks he is. It is also common in later seasons for Gregg to be annoyed because Tim keeps using the show to discuss non-movie related matters such as alternative medicine and his music career leaving little for Gregg to do. Tim's mismanagement of the Victorville Theater, which Gregg used to program his popcorn classics, and his drug problems also leads to Gregg's archive being burned down and the theater to get closed due to health violations.
- Mark Proksch in later seasons is one. His W.C.Fields impression segment Golden Age Comedies gets cut by Tim. While Gregg employs Mark to be a concession stand worker at the Victorville Theatre, he is given very few hours of work and thus little pay. In season 9, Tim hires him as a waiter at his joint gourmet restaurant/theater though Mark is constantly messing up and being rather clumsy.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Tim himself (in an out-of-character interview) stated that this is why Tim and Gregg have stuck together, even when they've gone through the worst moments; Gregg needs Tim for the show and the financial access, while Gregg is the only consistent backup that Tim has available in most of his situations.
- Caustic Critic: Averted. Films rarely get rated less than 4 bags by Tim and Gregg, and when they do, it's for petty personal reasons (such as Tim's jealousy at Gregg's cameo in Ant-Man, resulting in an unprecedented 1 bag).
- Cerebus Syndrome: Apart from the occasional disagreement about movies, the podcast and the first web video season of On Cinema lacked any generally dark subject matter and is mostly focused on critics giving every film they reviewed a positive score regardless of its actual quality. Season 2 is when the series gradually begins with a more dark tone starting with Tim's health issues and later deals with matters such as abortion, child death, alcohol/drug addiction, and manslaughter, all played for incredibly dark laughs.
- The Chew Toy: Tim, usually made worse by his embrace of alternative medicine:
- During Season 2, he gets several blood clots in his brain that he refuses to get an operation for, and ends the season visibly impaired and close to dying.
- In Season 3 he gets the operation in-between seasons, but prematurely returns to the show with bandages wrapped around his head and suffers various neurological problems.
- In Season 4, he develops diabetes and initially attempts to treat it with acupuncture from Dr. San, only to develop a facial infection from his unclean needles.
- In Season 5, he gets into a motorcycle accident while parked that temporarily blinds him and fractures his wrist.
- In Season 8, he gets hooked on the "nutritional vape system" developed by Dr. San consisting of various illegal drugs, consequently spending several episodes drugged out of his mind before the vape explodes in his sleep, setting him and the VFA on fire, with Tim describing that his right hand was burnt "basically to the bone" and that his clothes have fused with his skin.
- In Season 9, he stops taking the topical antibiotic for his face, leading to it starting to rot off, and eventually getting transplant skin from Manuel's lower back and butt.
- In Season 10, he begins taking sponsor Rio-Jenesis' products meant to block germs, leading to his immune system basically shutting down.
- In Season 11, he accidentally shoots himself in the neck with a shotgun while cleaning it, and spends the finale with it wrapped around a bandage.
- During the 8th Oscar Special, he gets burns all over his face from putting on one of Toni's facial cleaner masks.
- In Season 12, Tim replaces his diet again with RJ's Shakes, but takes in so few nutrients that he has a stomach pump improperly installed to get more RJ's in, leading to both infection at the entry point and causing septic shock thanks to it missing organs completely.
- In the 9th Oscar Special, Tim and the other characters are attacked by the locals near the HEI Ranch. While everyone else flees for safety, Tim stays behind to try and fight them, only to suffer from multiple broken ribs.
- In Season 13, Tim gets into a car accident, later revealed in the 10th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special to be a Bungled Suicide while driving Gregg's VFA Tours van for a Dekkar tour, knocking out his front teeth and giving him whiplash, blinding Axiom and putting Manuel in a coma that causes him to lose his ability to speak and understand English. Tim, following an operation that incorrectly reset his teeth, later begins drinking "Grain Water" from the HEI Ranch, consisting of Lithium and "thousands of minerals" but implied to be sewage that causes him to repeatedly throw up live and leaves him in his own weeks-long coma following a "lethal injection"note meant to prove Grain Water's effects of achieving immortality, after running the risk of developing meningitis and toxoplasmosis.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Both Tim and Gregg. Tim is self-centered, fame-obsessed, ill-tempered, and will bully everyone around him in order in attempt to make the show perfect or promote his pet projects. Meanwhile, Gregg cares very little about anything other than his video tape collection, Hollywood trivia, or proving himself right over other people, to the point where he was more annoyed that his tapes were destroyed in a fire than upset that Tim has a substance problem and almost died in the same fire.
- Particularly notable with Gregg during the "Our Cinema" Oscar special when Tim goes missing and despite other people thinking Tim might have become suicidal, Gregg doesn't really care and just wants to continue discussing the Oscars
- Another Gregg example is at the New On Cinema Oscar Special where Mark, who is still unconscious due the accident from the past oscar special, is dressed up by gregg as a human sized oscar and used as a prop for a segment where Gregg asks him trivia questions followed by pre-recorded answers.
- During the same special Tim shows up uninvited to behave in his usual abusive manner, with the added bonus of holding the building hostage by threatening everyone with pepper spray and keeping an armed associated with him.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Gregg strongly and unwaveringly believes George Lucas stole the concept of "Agent Kington" from Decker for a character in The Last Jedi, even though Lucas had nothing to do with making Last Jedi and the only evidence Gregg has is that both Kington and the Star Wars character in question share the unofficial title of "master code-breaker."
- During the New On Cinema Oscar Special, Tim believes there an operation set up by British and American forces (approved by Queen Elizabeth and President Trump) codenamed Zero Hour that will arrest people involved with Hollywood during the Oscar ceremony. Tim ends up finding out it was just a hoax.
- Courtroom Antics: Tim has no legal education and thinks that grandstanding like a movie or TV lawyer is his key to victory. The approach gets him disregarded, put in contempt, dismissed, and yelled at by the judge.
- Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer: In-Universe. Tim's reviews are often very vague or explicitly wrong about the movies in question, implying that he rarely bothers to actually see movies for the show.
- Death of a Child: Tim's son, Tom Cruise Jr., is announced to have died near the end of season 7 and the final episode of the season is a special in his honor. It's implied that Tom's death was due to getting treatment by Dr. San rather than going to a professional doctor
- Downer Ending: A few seasons have ended this way.
- Season 2 ended with Tim expecting to die as he refused to get brain tumors removed (he insisted they were just blood clots) and doubled in size though its revealed he went through with surgery and was successfully recovering during the early part of season 3.
- In the season 5 finale, Tim reveals he is leaving the show to move to Jackson Hole, Wynomyn and refuses to be involved with Ayaka (a former girlfriend) and their infant son's life. Ayaka and their son are revealed to be living with Gregg while seemingly waiting in vain for Tim to see them. Tim though does return in season 6 and rekindles his relationship with Ayaka and their son, even successfully proposing marriage to Ayaka in the season 6 finale.
- In the Season 7 finale, it is revealed that Tim's son has died and the episode is dedicated to honoring his memory rather than reviewing movies
- Season 8: The season itself had several downer moments such as Tim getting massive burns in a fire he caused which also destroyed Gregg's film archive and most of his clothing. Tim reveals he has not seen Ayaka, who is once again pregnant, since the intervention in episode 8 of that season and is still addicted to vapor smoking. Gregg is getting several complaints from people who lost their items in the fire. The episode ends with Tim revealing he got his band mate's sister pregnant by accident which leads to Gregg to storm off.
- Season 9: With Dr. San's suicide, it appears Tim will likely be targeted by prosecutors for the deaths of 20 people at the Electric Sun Desert Music Festival. Despite all of the bad things San has caused in his life, as well as his role in harming other people, Tim admits he loved him and even gives a tribute to him. The season ends with Tim getting ready for a hearing though not before threatening Gregg that he will never forget the mean things Gregg and Mark said about Tim while he was in jail.
- Driven to Suicide: Dr. San is revealed to have hanged himself in jail to avoid conviction for his part in the Electric Sun Desert Music Festival disaster. His death meant that the families of the deceased would instead target Tim who was going to testify against San.
- Drugs Are Bad: Tim's use of drugs (usually given to him by Dr. San) always led to disaster to both himself and the people around him the results sometimes being fatal.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- In addition to the general difference of mediums, the podcast episodes and the web seasons differ a bit in format. The podcast episodes dealt with a single film that oftentimes was not a new release. Once it moved to the web video format, the emphasis was placed on 2 new releases (similar to Ebert & Siskel) while older films tended to be relegated to the extra segments produced by Gregg (which have a habit in later seasons of being bumped by Tim due to his antics).
- The podcast episodes and the first season of the webseries tended to lack story arcs which became prominent in later seasons of the show. The recap episode released in between season 8 and 9 doesn't even say anything in particular about season 1 beyond explaining what the format of the show is suppose to be.
- The first episode of the web original sees Gregg giving Flight a rating of six bags of popcorn. Starting with episode 5 though, he caps his ratings at 5 bags and complains whenever Tim awards a film six bags.
- It was much more common for films to be awarded 4 bags of popcorn in the early seasons as well as a tendency for Tim and Gregg to slightly change their ratings at the end of a episode during a rating recap (a film that was awarded 4 bags might, without reason, be upgraded to 5 bags during the recap). It has since become rare for a film to not get 5 bags unless there is some petty motive behind the rating.
- Executive Meddling: In-universe. When The Delgado Family gains control of On Cinema, they promote Gregg to co-host and give him more creative control of the show. This makes the show exclusively focus on films even though Tim doesn't find it works as well, particularly the fact that Gregg insists on doing several popcorn classics per episode instead of one.
- A Fool for a Client: After Tim's attorney spends the first day of the trial trying to absolve him of any liability in the Electric Sun 20 incident by unflatteringly (and accurately) portraying him as a naive idiot who trusted a charlatan like the deceased Dr. San, Tim's fragile ego compels him to dismiss Dwyer and represent himself instead. The proceedings devolve into such a shambles that Tim utterly damns his chances and only goes free on a technicality-borne mistrial.
- Forged Message: Tim writes a letter that supposedly is a confession letter by Dr. San in which San claims full responsibility for the Electric Sun 20 disaster and was supposedly given to Dekkar bandmate Manuel a few hours before his death. Tim's attempt to get the letter admitted into evidence, however, failed as the prosecution was able convince Manuel to confess that Tim give him the letter, not San
- A Friend in Need: Joe Estevez to Tim. He was the only person to visit Tim in jail after the Electric Sun Desert Music Festival disaster, which killed 20 people, and shows sympathy and support for Tim whereas Gregg and Mark would rather Tim remain in jail (granted, Tim had treated both of them rather harshly
- Geek: Gregg is a massive film geek and claims to be an expert on the medium (though his trivia knowledge has been shown to be quite poor). As such, he gets rather annoyed whenever Tim uses time on the show to cover topics that have nothing to do with films.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Tim and Gregg have had their moments where they express how they like working with each other. It has winded down though in more recent seasons. Tim though does seem to have a very close friendship with Axiom and Manuel, members of his band Dekkar, whom he considers to be like brothers.
- Hologram: Used in the fourth Oscar Special for Tom Cruise Heidecker to see what he would look like if he didn't die young though it isn't particularly realistic looking.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Tim in regards to his relationship with Dr. San. Despite the fact that San is a quack doctor and his treatments have caused harm to Tim and others on multiple occasions such as failing to cure Tom Cruise Heidecker and assisting Tim with the vape systems that lets to the Electric Sun Desert Music Festival disaster he kept forgiving him after some time and kept working with him up until San's suicide and even then still gave an affectionate tribute to him in the last episode of season 9 and still referred to him as a doctor at his manslaughter trial despite his clear lack of credentials
- Hypocrite: Tim maintains he is pro-life even though he tried to get Ayaka to have an abortion. Similar thing happened in season 9 when it seems he convinced Axiom's sister to abort her pregnancy as well.
- Insane Troll Logic: Frequently among both Tim and Gregg, from the former refusing to get surgery for his blood clots owing to "side effects, the whole medical industry, and Obamacare", and Gregg's insistence that Star Trek II takes place in San Francisco instead of Star Trek IV.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Going by their real life age, Joe Estvez is over 2 decades older than the regular cast but maintains a friendship with Tim and Gregg throughout the series.
- Irony: Tim states that while performing a song called "save us", written to save his troubled marriage, at the Electric Sun Desert Music Festival several people in attendance begin collapsing and end up dying due to smoking devices given out at the festival
- Jerkass: Tim who often doesn't show a lot of respect towards Gregg and Mark and at times is downright abusive towards them. Gregg especially views Tim as this due to his tendency to focus on non-movie related projects, coming to work intoxicated as well as destroying his film collection twice and the poor management of the Victorville Theater leading to its closure due to mold. Gregg and Mark even spend an episode explaining why Tim sucks (at least, when Tim was in jail and they didn't think he was getting out).
- Gregg, meanwhile, can be extremely condescending, and deliberately pouts and makes things awkward even when Tim is actually trying to focus on the show.
- Kangaroo Court: Tim accuses the court, where he was on trial for his role in the Electric Sun 20 disaster, of this several times during the trial. However, one jury member, later revealed to be Toni, refuses to give a guilty plead like the others thus resulting in a mistrial.
- Killed Offscreen: Tim announces his son's death in the season 7 finale (medical problems which Dr. San could not cure) and would also announced Dr. San's suicide in the season 9 finale.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Gregg is this according to film producer, university instructor and one time guest Larry Turman. While Turman notes that Gregg might be good at cataloging films, Gregg lacks any qualifications to be film expert. Granted, Gregg has no formal film study education and the "stump the buff" segments that appeared on the show have all resulted in Gregg getting just about every question asked wrong, most infamously the question of which Star Trek film takes place in San Francisco. Tim also takes this view during his manslaughter trial where he tries to prove Gregg lacks the film knowledge needed to qualify to be a film expert in an attempt to discredit Gregg's testimony against Tim.
- Law Procedural: Tim's trial after the 9th season.
- Leave the Camera Running: As seen in the 7th Annual Oscar special where everyone is passed out and slowly dying due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
- Live Episode: The oscar specials are streamed live on their original broadcast.
- Manchild: For grown men, both Tim and Gregg have very juvenile aspirations, priorities, and expectations of the world around them.
- Metaphorically True: Used frequently by Gregg whenever he's caught in a lie by Tim, such as repeatedly insisting that Star Trek II takes place in San Francisco instead of Star Trek IV, that a focus group screening of Ghostbusters: Afterlife was the actual premiere of the movie or that AMC Networks and AMC Theaters are the same company after being photographed working at one.
- Moment of Silence: At the beginning of The New On Cinema Oscar Special, a moment of silence is given in honour of Christopher Delgado, who died due to Tim and Dr. San's activites at the Desert Sun Music Festival, by his father whose family know owns the show just before the special begins]
- The Movie Buff: Deconstructed with Gregg. He thinks of himself as this as he collects a large number of films on VHS and considers himself an expert on film though he is prone to mess up on certain movie facts such as which Star Trek film took place in San Francisco (it was the fourth but Gregg insists it was the second), and talks about the largely forgotten movies he picks for Popcorn Classics only in terms of raw data such as cast and runtime. Later on in the series, it explores the more sociopathic implications of someone who only cares about movies.
- Never My Fault: Tim takes little responsibility for the disaster at the Electric Sun Desert Music Festival, claiming the fault rests solely on Dr.San (claiming he didn't know the contents of the vapor systems San used despite designing a strain for it) and the paramedics for not being there on time to save the victims (even though Tim choose not to get any doctors or medicis to be at the festival in the first place)
- Nice Girl: Ayaka Ohwaki. She is rather friendly and is never hostile to others like Tim and Gregg sometimes are.
- Nice Guy: Joe Estevez. He is one of the nicest characters on the show and has shown to care for others, even Tim, in their darkest moments.
- Offscreen Breakup: Tim's first wife (who never appeared but was mentioned on the show) divorces him after he got surgery to remove a tumour. Tim and Ayaka also seem to get divorced offscreen at some point before the trial.
- Oh, Crap!: Happens during season 9 episode 8 when Gregg and Mark, who have taken control of the show after Tim was arrested, hear that Tim is likely to get bailed out soon. Neither Gregg and Mark like Tim and spent the previous episode talking about how bad he is with the assumption Tim would never see that episode. They barely talk for the reminder of the episode once they hear the news
- Overly Long Gag: When introducing Joe Estevez in Season 2 Episode 3, Tim spends over 1/3 of the episode just reading off films that Estevez has starred in before showing Gregg's interview with him.
- Pixellation: During one episode, Gregg is wearing an Ant-Man shirt but the words on the shirt are pixelated. Likely done by Tim who is (likely) jealous of Gregg's cameo in that film.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: Tim lifts the melody from "Empty Bottle" for "Farewell Tom Cruise", and it's revealed during The Trial that Tim stole the melody for "Empty Bottle" from a song Axiom initially wrote in Italian and didn't credit him.
- Put on a Bus: Ayaka gets deported back to Japan at the end of season 3. However, she is revealed at the end of season 4 to be pregnant with Tim's child, makes a Skype appearance in season 5 and has had occasional appearances from season 6 to season 8. She has been absent since season 9 though she sometimes gets mentioned. She returns to testify at Tim's trial.
- Recap Episode: A recap was posted after the end of season 8 that provides a general overview of all 8 seasons and the major plot developments throughout them.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Tim is red due to his chaotic behavior well Gregg is blue due to being more level headed, being rather calm even if angry or annoyed.
- The Rock Star: Tim begins a rock band in season 7 called Dekkar. Their website claims they have released an EP that has become the number 1 download on the web. Tim overall has taken a more rock star appearance including a beard, earrings and occasionally eye liner. To Gregg's annoyance, Tim has since used the show to highlight his group's work, and sometimes invites band mate Axiom to be a guest on the show, instead of discussing movies.
- Running Gag: In general, the movies reviewed on the show will always get a positive review (typically 5 bags of popcorn), even if the films had been panned by other critics and audience members. This also includes the popcorn classic segments in which the classic films Gregg shows off are either forgotten or poorly received. The reviews themselves also tend to be very uninformative apart from who the cast is (which Tim often mispronounces).
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kaili Amato, Tim's co-host for much of Season 13 is implied to do this following the class action lawsuit brought against him for the deaths at the Electric Sun festival, on top of the normal chaos of the show.
- Shameless Self-Promoter: Tim has used the show to promote several of his non-film projects such as alternative medicine collaborations with Dr. San and his music career. He even takes up most of an episode to show off a recording his band Dekkar did and thus leaving no time to review movies. Gregg did promote the Victorville theater, which he served as manager and programmer, quite extensively in season 8 though it was at least film related and was where season 8 took place.
- Show Within a Show: Tim and Gregg work on the web series, and later a TV show, called Decker throughout the series. The production of Decker can sometimes be shown to create tension between the Tim and Gregg during on cinema episodes.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Gregg considers On Cinema to be a highly respected institution, going so far as to call it "the premiere source in the United States and worldwide" for movie information. Gregg's twitter (which is done in character) also believes that his rather brief role in Ant-Man was so important that there could not be an "official" sequel without him (the fact that Tim has a cameo in Ant-Man and the Wasp may also contribute to this denial).
- The Smart Guy: Subverted. Gregg presents himself as a top film expert though his complete lack of success in the Stump the Buff segments as well as his claim of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan being the Star Trek film that took place in San Fransisco proves that he isn't as smart as he thinks he is.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Dr San whom Tim often pays for alternative medicine treatments which often led to Tim developing more health issues. Gregg however does not trust him and has on at least two occasions referred to his treatments as "quackery" and is annoyed whenever San is brought in as a guest. He eventually gets arrested after his vapors cause the deaths of 20 people though he hangs himself before he could be convicted for those crimes.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Happy, upbeat music including MT BTL 2.0 plays during the 7th Annual Oscar Special while everyone at Tim and Toni's wedding is slowly dying due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
- Special Effect Failure: In-universe. Tim's holographic "adult" recreation of his dead half-Japanese son is an unlit, un-rendered, barely animated, default Genesis 3 model from Daz3D, whose clothing keeps clipping off. It's somehow even worse during the wedding, where he just crumples into his suit at the end of his toast.
- Special Guest: The show has had a few such as Joe Estevez, John Aprea and Payton Reed throughout the series. Gregg is often billed as a guest despite appearing in just about as many episodes as Tim and generally serves more like a co-host.
- The Sponsor:
- Chaplin's Chilli, and later Chaplin's X-press (which apparently is not affiliated with the former), are fast food joints named after Charlie Chaplin and headed by Tom Chaplin that have sponsored the Oscar specials. They are present at the specials serving food for the hosts, guest and crew, until Tom Chaplin's death during the 7th Oscar Special.
- As of season 10 (X), the show seems to be sponsored by Rio-Jenesis which appears to be a dietary supplement brand which kills germs. It's later implied during the 8th On Cinema Oscar Special and Season 12 that it comes back as "RJ's Shakes", with a special mix meant to block the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Qwikbite, a snack company which bought out Chaplin's when it faced bankruptcy, is the food sponsor for the The New On Cinema Oscar Special
- The Amato Group, the main financial backer for both the HEI Ranch and Season 13.
- Stage Mom: More of stage dad in this case. Tim had tried to get his son Tom Cruise Heidecker Jr into acting, showing Tom's publicity photo a couple times in hopes of getting offered roles, even though Tom was still just a baby. Tom was even given a brief appearance in the Decker spinoff.
- Staging an Intervention: Tim's friends attempt this in season 8 episode 8 after Tim gets severe burns all over his body while sleeping after smoking a device given to him by Dr San to which he became addicted. Tim refuses to listen to them and orders them to leave.
- Stylistic Suck: The series initially started as a way for Tim and Gregg to mock the film podcasting community, eventually developing into more elaborate In-Universe forms:
- Tempting Fate: After Gregg and Mark spend an entire episode bashing Tim (who was in jail for his role in the Electric Sun 20 disaster), Mark towards the end asks "Tim's never going to see this (episode), right?" which Gregg then assures him he won't. Tim announces the very next episode he will likely get bail and has since seen the episode.
- Took the Wife's Name: Played With. During Tim and Toni's wedding ceremony during the 7th Oscar Special, Tim takes Toni's last name of "Newman" instead of her taking the last name of "Heidecker". An offhand comment from Toni's father during the reception suggests that Tim took her ex-husband's name instead of her actual maiden name.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Dr. San encourages Tim to take alternative medicine treatments, the results often being disastrous for Tim and the people around him.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Gregg loves popcorn, even once having a popcorn tasting segment on the show. Both Gregg and Tim even tend to award bags of popcorn to films instead of stars.
- Trash the Set: After Tim is fed up with losing control of the rights to his shows and bands to the Delgato family, especially since they gave Gregg creative control of On Cinema, and cannot take it anymore, he begins ruining the set.
- Troubled Production: In universe. Tim and Gregg constantly fight over the direction of the show (Tim uses it at times as soapbox for whatever he is interested in while Gregg wants exclusive focus on movies) and it results in a lot of the conflict that occurs throughout the series.
- Unconventional Smoothie: The
Hot 'n' Hard in the 8th Annual Oscar Special, which consists of potato chowder, peppermint schnapps, Vaxx-Block, whipped cream, greens and chia seeds. - Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Both hosts are self-centered, rude, and out of touch with reality.
- Vanity Project: Pretty much every non-On Cinema project of Tim's, such as his publishing company, his rock band Dekkar, and his EDM project DKR.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Deconstructed. Tim and Gregg cannot stand each other, but they're both so awful that very few other people will tolerate them, and so they are doomed to drag each other down forever.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: Tim reveals in season 9 episode 5 that his right hand was so damaged in the fire that occurred back in season 8 that he cannot move it and his doctors did not see any point in trying to fix it due to how futile those attempts would be. Tim has worn a black glove over it ever since. Axiom does later donate one of his hands to Tim to replace that hand
