"F*ckin' superheroes..."
— Dr. Lynn Matthews
Super Therapy! is a series of parody fan videos by the Barely Political
channel.
Each episode is a therapy session going on in Dr. Lynn Matthews's office. There, she analyses several superheroes or supervillains from the DC and Marvel universes (plus one episode with Darth Vader and Palpatine) for their various psychological issues, and tries to find solutions — preferably without her office getting destroyed in the process. As you can guess, Hilarity Ensues.
You can watch the whole series on YouTube.
Sessions:
- Super Therapy!
- Robin, Are You Gay?
- Spider-Man Therapy!
- Wonder Woman Therapy!
- Flash Therapy!
- Captain America Therapy!
- Joker & Harley Quinn Therapy!
- Magneto & Professor X Therapy!
- Storm Therapy!
- Thor-apy!
- Hulk Therapy!
- Aquaman Therapy!
- Catwoman Therapy!
- Two-Face Therapy!
- Avengers Therapy!
- Wolverine Therapy!
- Thor and Loki Therapy!
- Darth Vader Therapy!
- Joker Intervention
Super Therapy! provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- According to Superman, the Kents are far from the Good Parents we've always believed them to be. Among other things, they force him to use his powers to get exotic food items from far-off places and steal money from ATM machines, and they call him demeaning nicknames like "freak-show." In fact, Martha apparently made his iconic outfit as a punishment for him wetting himself (which itself was in response to their demeaning treatment).
- Loki claims Odin was manipulative to both him and Thor when they were boys, particularly in terms of his deciding which one of them would succeed him as king of Asgard.
- Addiction-Powered: The Flash's Super-Speed is implied to be thanks to "Flash Powder".
- Affectionate Parody:
- Of the whole superhero genre, by looking at their psychological issues rather than their hero-ing (or villain-ing).
- "Two-Face Therapy!" also introduces a parody of Dr. Phil replacing temporarily the usual therapist.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Wonder Woman's main problem is to pick sleazebags as her boyfriends; the therapist describes it as her Kryptonite.
- Apologises a Lot: Spider-Man. Even when told to stop apologizing.
- April Fools' Day: Magneto claims that dropping the Golden Gate Bridge while full of cars was for an April Fools joke.
- Ass Shove: Apparently, Iron Man once pushed a vodka-soaked tampon up his own ass. It's referenced as a sign of how bad his alcoholism is.Dr. Matthews: That's disgusting!
Iron Man: Don't act like you guys have never tried it.
Captain America: No! The back entrance is not open for deliveries!
Thor: Does that not burn one's rectum?
Iron Man: No, I thought it would, actually it's quite pleasant—
Hulk: ENOUGH! - Brief Accent Imitation: Magneto and Professor X imitate each other's accent during a reversal roleplaying. The doctor is in stitches from Xavier's imitation of Magneto.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Superman's iconic Chest Insignia gets an explanation...Superman: The "S" stands for "Soggypants". Don't tell anyone...
- Camp Gay: Robin in "Robin, Are You Gay?", although he denies it.
- Catchphrase:Dr. Matthews: I think that's a good place to end the session...
- Ceiling Cling: Spider-Man, of course, after a Jump Scare from the doctor raising her voice.
- Clark Kenting: The therapist isn't fooled a second by Clark Kent's disguise, but she just humors her patient.
- Code Name: The therapist herself is looking for one to fit within the super community, as seen on her notes, though she's hesitating between several options: "Super Shrink", "Empathy Girl", "Dr. Pain", "The Freudinator", "NEW AGE LADY", "Dr. Issues", "The Enabler"... she later seems to decide on "The Repressor!!"
- Cone of Shame: Catwoman wears one in the teaser preceding her dedicated episode. She explains that she got into another fight with Batman.
- Dating Catwoman: Unfortunately for Catwoman, Batman wants nothing to do with her because her animalistic habits turn him off.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dr. Lynn Matthews tries to stay professional most of the time, but sometimes she can't help letting the snark comes out.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The video gets in black and white when the doctor starts talking like in a Film Noir to reach out to Captain America.
- Destination Defenestration: Wonder Woman's session ends up with her throwing her sleazy boyfriend through the window.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Joker starts explaining the joke about "having Poison Ivy on his junk", then gets depressed that he, of all people, would resort to that.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: One of Captain America's problems, unsurprisingly. He has hard time understanding Dr. Lynn Matthews is the therapist and not just a secretary, for starters.
- Gray Rain of Depression: Storm's mood swing is accompanied by a rain-shower... inside the therapist's office. The doctor clearly expected this, as she has an umbrella at hand.
- Hypocritical Humor: "Avengers Therapy!" has two good ones...
- Hulk ends the session by smashing through a wall, despite Dr. Matthew having asked the Avengers to stop breaking things a minute ago.
- As a result, the exasperated doctor then takes a swig of alcohol herself, after having spent the session trying to get Iron Man, Captain America and Thor to lay off the drinking.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode is called a "Session", and its title (bar Sessions #1, #2 and #19) begins with the name of the super analyzed and ends with "Therapy!"
- I Need a Freaking Drink: The therapist ends up taking a swig from Tony Stark's flask at the end of a session spent trying to convince the Avengers to lay off the drinking.
- It's All About Me: The doctor calls out Thor for having this attitude. He, of course, disagrees.Dr. Matthews: Not everything is about you.
Thor: Yes, it is. Who would it be about if not me? - Motor Mouth: The Flash (who else?) speaks very fast.
- Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: What Batman immediately adds after telling the therapist he's pretty sure Robin is gay.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Aquaman says this after drowning his latest date... again.
- On the Next: Each episode end with a glimpse of the next patient(s). The dialogue is usually unique to this ending and not repeated the next episode.
- Piss-Take Rap: The Joker in "Joker Intervention" tries to rap, dissing his fellow villains as well as Batman, with cringe-inducing results. Batman points out how weak are the rhymes. Although in the end, it's so awful that Batman jumps through the window, so you can say it works.
- Pun:
- The Flash does a terrible Subverted Catchphrase when refusing to show his "Flash Powder".Flash: With great powder comes great responsibility...
- "Thor-apy session..." Although Thor doesn't get it.
- The Flash does a terrible Subverted Catchphrase when refusing to show his "Flash Powder".
- Pungeon Master: Catwoman makes frequent cat-related puns, to her therapist's annoyance.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: The Joker proves to Harley that he's still the same lunatic she fell in love with... by offering her a bouquet of flowers full of killer bees.
- Secret-Keeper: The therapist knows most secret identities — not hard with Spider-Man considering he signs his checks with "Peter Parker". Of course, she's tied up by doctor-patient confidentiality.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Captain America's other main issue, as diagnosed by the therapist. The alarm clock ringing sends him running for cover, gun and shield in hand.
- The Shrink: The main character of the whole series. She falls mostly in the well-meaning, but not terribly efficient type, though with the bunch of neurotic supers she's treating, it's not so surprising. And her opinion of some patients isn't very kind, as seen with the doodle of Spider-Man she puts on her notes.
- Slimeball: Travis, the cheating boyfriend of Wonder Woman. He's back during Storm's session, having tried to convince her to start a tornado just so he could film it and sell this to television channels.
- Smoke Out: Batman gets out of the second session ("Robin, Are You Gay?") with a smoke grenade.Robin: Now how is that not gay?
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Batman, who else? In Session #19, he's just suddenly sitting on the couch, startling Joker.
- Super-Speed: The Flash just can't stay on the couch and zips around the office all along his session.
- Take That!: "Joker Intervention" as a whole is one toward the Suicide Squad version of the Joker, which is treated as some kind of mid-life crisis, requiring a group intervention from his fellow Rogues Gallery (and Batman).
- There Are No Therapists: A big aversion of this trope for the Marvel and DC universes, for sure. The doctor works hard to solve the supers' psychological issues, though it's still an uphill battle.
- There Was a Door: At the end of the Avengers' session, Hulk smashes through the wall to exit... despite the doctor having asked them to stop breaking things a minute ago.
- Third-Person Person:
- Thor about himself, constantly.
- As well as the Hulk, as usual.
- A Threesome Is Hot: Harley Quinn would be all for a threesome with Mr. J and Poison Ivy.
- Time Travel: Thor uses the power of his mighty hammer to travel to the past and smashes his father's face. And then he travels again to stop himself from doing it... erasing himself from existence in the process.
- Truth Serums: Wonder Woman's lasso, as usual. Quite efficient to make a cheating boyfriend fess up.
- Weather Manipulation: Storm's power, naturally. Except it's linked to her mood swings, so after raining indoors, the doctor's office goes from searing hot to frigid cold, and the session ends up with a lightning strike frying the potted plant.
