SAHNIK
and KAYAK are an Abridged Series duology of Sonic X by TheMidnightFrogs, created for and released on April Fools' Day 2014 and 2021 respectively. The titles are plays on the "Sanic" meme, with "KAYAK" being its own corruption of "Chaotix".
SAHNIK is proudly a shitpost. It was born out of the team's Heroic Comedic Sociopath and Cloudcuckoolander inside jokes with Sonic, written as pure nonsense, and willfully edited poorly due to editor Thorn being sick with hay fever at the time. The team had a blast making it, and it's become an infamous video of theirs among fans. They initially chose not to make a sequel, since dragging out the bit could ruin it's magic.
7 years later, after an especially comedically fruitful Sonic Heroes Let's Play on their gaming channel, the team changed their minds and made KAYAK. To avoid watering down SAHNIK's unique charm, they purposefully focused the sequel on the Chaotix and barely featured Sonic at all. It picks up shortly after the first, with Dr. Eggman tasking the detectives with rescuing Cream from Sonic. They then launch into space, and the first video's energy starts to return from there. Where the first video was willfully low-effort, Thorn made sure to edit KAYAK to the best of her ability. Luckily, many viewers found it to be even better than the first.
I'm a trope! I'm standing! Now I'm on the wall!
- The Abridged Series: For Sonic X, only intended to be a one-off but later made a duology.
- Absurdism: SAHNIK is utterly meaningless, written only to have fun with nonsense and misdirecting viewers. The sequel, KAYAK, jumps the line into Surreal Humor.
- Accidental Misnaming:
- Vector does this to himself at one point."We gotta get those two together, or my name isn't Victor!"
- Espio doesn't learn Cosmo's name, so he awkwardly calls her "Grass."
- Vector does this to himself at one point.
- April Fools' Day: Both videos were made for April Fool's, released in 2014 and 2021 respectively. As an additional joke, each video was titled Other People's Wedding Videos Abridged - Episode [_] for a day, to trick viewers expecting a sequel to a different Surreal Humor one-shot by the team.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Parodied with Tails and Cosmo. The two passive-aggressively needle and insult each other constantly, never once suggesting that they actually like each other. Cue the Chaotix thinking they are totally into each other and trying to hook them up. Espio starts to realize they might have been wrong near the end.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Vector draws on Knuckles' face to make him look like Tails."There! The spitting image of Tails! Tails, if I spat on him!"
- Brick Joke: The first "commercial" from KAYAK has Vanilla say "Ehhh" in a Bugs Bunny voice, then SC Johnson's commercial tagline plays. Later in the video, a second commercial has Rouge also say "Ehhh" with the exact same voice clip, then the Farmer's Insurance jingle plays.
- Call-Back: Sonic ends SAHNIK by jumping into Chris's pool and saying "Sonic died! Darn." Near the end of KAYAK, Tails accidentally falls on Cosmo and thinks he's killed her, saying "Oh god! Cosmo died! ...Darn?"
- Cloudcuckoolander: Everyone (except Eggman, Espio, and possibly Cosmo), is completely off their rocker and cannot be understood or reasoned with.(Eggman tasks the Chaotix with rescuing Cream from Sonic and his friends.)
Espio: "Didn't they explode?"
Vector: "That's how kidnappers work!" - Comedic Sociopathy: Everyone except Eggman has no sympathy or genuine kindness for anyone. While Eggman is trying to cure Cream's unspecified illness, Sonic breaks in to free her, completely unconcerned. The Chaotix start out somewhat kind and empathetic to Eggman's difficulties, but once they enter space, all bets are off.
- Credits Gag: The credits in both videos are complete nonsense.
- SAHNIK credits most roles to "Sonic" except the key grip who is Thom Yorke and marketing to the Libertarians.
- KAYAK rolls credits over a shot of Shadow as he sings a parody of "All Hail Shadow". The credited voices are mostly nondescript pronouns, except Cosmo's which is written in an illegible font, Sam Speedo returning from SAHNIK despite the character not being in the video, and Vanilla who has nothing else written with her. And of course Sonic gets listed multiple times.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Parodied in SAHNIK by Sonic scat-singing nonsense and variously saying "Sonic!" and "Me!" as a theme song. He does it again in KAYAK but saying "Chaotix!" instead, plus Vector adding "Kayak!" at the end.
- Framing Device: Both videos are aired on "WTMF-49", a fictional TV station that also airs TheMidnightFrogs' Tamers Abridged, as part of a long-outdated Jetix block. Occasionally the videos cut to commercials or Jetix idents that are jokes in their own right, and the TV rating square also gets changed to weird ratings like "TV Y, SONIC? 7 FV".
- Funny Background Event:
- Eggman orders his "usual" from the Chaotix' bar: oil and an egg. When the camera cuts away to Vector, he can be heard gagging on it.
- When Cream and Cosmo serve the Chaotix tea and cake, Charmy can be seen taking bits of cake out of his mouth and putting them back.
- Fun with Acronyms: The videos are framed as being aired on the TV channel WTMF-49. The TMF means TheMidnightFrogs, and the W is used as a station code in the eastern United States where most of TheMidnightFrogs are located. Thorn also likes to think that the name stands for "What the motherfuck?", which certainly applies to these two videos.
- Humanoid Abomination: Cosmo might be a death god torturing the cast.
- In-Joke: Sonic's character is born from inside jokes among writers Thorn, Yoshi and Jacob where they treat him like a goofy sociopath. KAYAK similarly has roots in their Let's Play of Sonic Heroes on TheStrawhatNO! where they improvised conversations with the Chaotix. This is where Charmy being Vector's son comes from, as they're unrelated in the original franchise.
- In-Universe Soundtrack: Parodied in SAHNIK: like the "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune, Sonic makes his own background music in his head, which manifests as A Cappella versions of "Chariots of Fire" and the Can-Can. Sam Speed also does the same thing with "Chariots of Fire", and he and Sonic are combined in the credits.
- Living Currency: Eggman hires the Chaotix by offering them $3,000,000-worth of spiders."They're trained!"
- Major Injury Underreaction: Sonic thinks he's died twice and isn't very concerned about it.(First time): "I guess I'm dead."
(Second time): "Sonic died! Darn." - Mythology Gag:
- Charmy being Vector's son rather than a little brother figure comes from a Running Gag in the team's Let's Play of Sonic Heroes, though originally Vector just adopted him. He also wasn't a fungus.
- A small string of characters saying "good" leads to Silver's voice saying "Great!" echoing down the hall.
- Pokémon Speak: Along with being a Third-Person Person, Sonic often just shouts his name out loud, whether he's doing an action or not."Sonic!"
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: Both videos are non-stop jokes and misdirection, though KAYAK is paced a bit slower.
- Related in the Adaptation: Charmy is Vector's son in KAYAK. The original In-Joke was that Vector formally adopted Charmy, but this was made extra-impossible in the video where he was apparently born from a fungus on Vector's testicle. But not that one.
- Running Gag:
- Sonic yelling "Sonic!" or inserting his name into his actions like he was calling his attacks.
- Sonic and Sam Speed both sing an A Cappella version of "Chariots of Fire." Their respective vocals are combined in the credits for a comedic Rule of Three.
- Spiders are mentioned several times in KAYAK, first as what Eggman offers as payment for the Chaotix finding Cream, and then as something random that Vector sees on the Blue Typhoon.
- Shout-Out:
- KAYAK was titled Other People's Wedding Videos Abridged - Episode 3: Crocodile Rock when it was first uploaded.
- Chris's single line from SAHNIK comes back in KAYAK but chopped and rearranged to be like dialogue from Banjo-Kazooie, complete with the text box and sound effect from the games.
- Skewed Priorities: Vector thinks Tails and Cosmo drove him to the hospital after he apparently has a heart attack."My new parents are great! They drove me to the hospital! Just 'cause I asked! Suckers! Free blood."
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment: KAYAK's ending, where Cosmo seems to be a death god and mentally tortures Tails, who was actually Cream's chao, Cheese who she previously killed off-screen.
- Surreal Humor: KAYAK is especially surreal: the Chaotix get increasingly detached from reality as it goes on (mentally and physically), Chris's line is just his one line from SAHNIK chopped and rearranged into the style of Banjo-Kazooie, Charmy and Vector sing about how Charmy was a fungus on one of Vector's testicles "and now I'm your son", and it has a creepy ending.
- The Stinger:
- SAHNIK: Tails remarks on how slow the explosion seems to be while the screen is completely white. Then the explosion reaches him.
- KAYAK: Eggman is back at the bar, sadly talking to Vector and Cream who aren't really there.
- Stylistic Suck: SAHNIK is willfully edited lazily and is missing many sound effects and background music.
- Super Drowning Skills: Like the original Sonic X, Sonic can't swim and almost drowns in Chris's pool. However, when Chris saves him, he is not thrilled to meet the boy and jumps right back in.
- Third-Person Person: Sonic almost always refers to himself this way, seemingly as a tick where he must say his name a lot.Sonic: "Vanilla is Sonic's mom, now!"
- Weaksauce Weakness: Played for Laughs with Shadow singing a parody version of "All Hail Shadow":"Nothing can stop me now
Except for skating clowns"
"Sonic died! Darn."
