Web Video / What the Cut

What the Cut is a french YouTube series hosted by Antoine Daniel, who reviews weird, stupid and So Bad, It's Good videos from all over the internet. The series works pretty much like Ray William Johnson's =3, and Antoine himself has stated that he got his inspiration directly from that series.

However, Antoine tends to look for more obscure videos, so as to avoid reviewing ones already covered by any other video reviewer he knows about, and has a bigger focus on videos made by French-speaking people, often leading to him being baffled (and sharing his bafflement with his audience) by various types of weird documentaries, bad artists or downright insane people.

He also manages to release another show each 29th day of the month. It is called "Le 29 avec Antoine Daniel" ("The 29[th day of the month] with Antoine Daniel") and has several goals: talking about current and planned events of his show, presenting three Youtube channels he likes (among links sent by fans), and answering questions about himself and the show.

Following the release of episode 37, the series has been put on indefinite hiatus due to a case of Creator Breakdown, while Antoine moved on to other projects, such as an audio series named Clyde Vanilla.

List of episodes:

Regular episodes

• #1 - Threats, Subwoofer and Horses
• #2 - Birthday, Viagra and President Morsay
• #3 - Dog, Ducks and Flying Carpet
• #4 - Belgian, Monkey and Kisses
• #5 - Seducer, Singer and Advertisement
• #6 - Creature, Choregraphy and Russians
• #7 - A Clash, a Clip and Butter
• #8 - Yoga, Surprise and Art
• #9 - Tears, Adventure and Japan
• #10 - Love, Juggler and an Emu
• #11 - Goat, a Puppy, and My Dick
• #12 - Nicky Minaj, Poodle and Chase Scene
• #13 - Bricks, Sex and Heavy Stuff
• #14 - A Door, a Drummer and a Pirate
• #15 - Mud, a Trombone and Rap
• #16 - Corn, Cereals and Marc-Edouard
• #17 - A Guest, Paint and My Pussy
• #18 - Glass, Kevin Prototype and a Pillow
• #19 - Pork, a Virgin and Poo
• #20 - Dubstep, a Scream and a Goth
• #21 - A Voice, Brasil and 2016
• #22 - Kung-Fu, Trees and Pee
• #23 - A Shower, a Lack and a Diary
• #24 - Food, Advert and Documentary
• #25 - Cigarette, Scholar and Bonsoir
• #26 - Subway, Ah-Ah and a Crazy Evening
• #27 - Reeds, Farewell and the Thing
• #28 - Photobomb, a Group and Deviance
• #29 - Michel, Germany and Walls
• #30 - Balloons, Tango and a Concert
• #31 - Pole, Brush and the Adventurer
• #32 - Potato, Shovel and Piano
• #33 - Teeth, Boat and Genius
• #34 - Liquid, Mayor and Pony
• #35 - Childhood, Mask and Cooking
• #36 - Jesus, Winter and Pacific
• #37 - Temple, Ceremony and Cosmos

Specials

• Japanese Videos
• Indian Videos
• Quebec Videos
• Russian Videos
• Japanese Videos 2

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What the Cut provides examples of the following tropes:

• Auto-Tune: During the musical part of #27, Antoine notices that the singer still sounds out of tune despite using an Auto-Tune-like tool. Antoine then mocks it by purposefully singing badly only for the autotune software to answer with "I refuse to cooperate."
• Berserk Button: A few, such as considering completely random things (like a large black woman stepping and dancing on butter, or a guy painting with a brush up his ass) to be art, people having sex with their socks on, or the big black borders on the sides of videos filmed with phones.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Double Subverted in #15. After watching a video showing a bikini-clad woman wearing a horse mask and having someone play violin on her breast (with a latex glove tied to the bow), he has several reactions:
  Antoine Daniel: A video that understands me, at last! ... Seriously, am I the only one who feels like I just watched zoophiliac porn? ... Yes? Oh, Crap!!
  [...]
  Richard: This is the greatest video I've ever seen!
  Antoine Daniel: Shut up, Rich... wait, you're quite right, this time. Come here!
  (They begin to kiss. Cue Antoine alone a bit later)
  Antoine Daniel: So, this video is absolutely awesome and we can say this car is there because Oh my God did I just have sex with a plushie!?
• BFG: The Potato Launcher in #36. It looks like a regular rocket launcher, but when using the Holy Potato as ammo, takes out everyone who was fighting in the quarry. The Squirrel-man survives, though.
• Black Comedy: In #29.
  Antoine Daniel: Michel is a singer [...] as electric as Claude François.
• Blatant Lies: In #29.
  Antoine Daniel: Coming up next is a really cute cat video. Just kidding, it's a fat German singing half naked in a forest.
• Broken Record: Johnny Crying in #27, who keeps asking the viewers if they've seen the "beautiful reed" he's filming.
• Bystander Syndrome: In #35, Peru refuses to help for some reason, while the rest of the world unites to fight the Space Pirate invasion.
• The Cameo
  • French youtuber [MisterJDay] has a scene in episode 12.
  • In the Russia-themed special video, the "creepy guy" who meets Antoine to suggest him the theme of the episode is Florent Dorin, mostly known as the main actor in the show Le Visiteur du Futur.
• Call-Back: In #33, the video's first part is focused on a guy brushing his teeth with a toothbrush ducttaped on an airsoft gun while firing it. Then Antoine makes a couple of jokes about using a toothbrush as a firearm. In #34 action opening, we can brievely see a man shooting with a toothbush.
• Captain Obvious: In "Le 29 avec Antoine Daniel" #3:
  Antoine Daniel: I asked you all to send me questions via Twitter so I that can aswer them, which is actually the principle of asking questions.
  • The "Buscarron's Choice" pub is named as such because of its owner, Buscarron. No shit.
• Caption Humor: Used to emphasize some words, or the way he mispronounces some of them, as well as certain parts of the videos he reviews.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • In episode four, one of the video reviewed is a message recorded by a Belgian guy who tells his love of the French pornstar Katsuni, explaining with a lot of details how he would like to eat her body waste. Antoine's reaction:
  You're sick, man. She's ASIAN!
  • In the second Japanese videos episode:
  Antoine Daniel: And then, the guy removes his shorts and he has a baby instead of his dick!
  Another Antoine Daniel: The guy is wearing shorts during the winter?
  • In episode 34, after the initial shock of Samuel kidnapping, his first reaction to the ransom note is to express how poorly written it is.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes.
• Depraved Kids' Show Host: Comes across a few hosts (episode 4, 8 and 27) who are a bit too friendly and touchy with the kids they get to interact with...
• Distracted by the Sexy: For some amount of "sexy", at least... In #35, while humans and space pirates are waging war, humans suddenly stop fighting because of leaked nude pictures... of Angela Merkel and Susan Boyle.
• Early-Installment Weirdness
  • The early regular episodes were a lot shorter than more recent episodes, featured a lot less montages and acting, and Richard was totally absent.
  • The Fourth-Wall Mail Slot role of "Le 29 avec Antoine Daniel" actually appeared in the special 2013 birthday episode (between #2 and #3). Also, the opening music only appeared with the #3.
• Ear Worm: Invoked at the start of episode four:
  Antoine Daniel: Tell me, you bunch of people, have you ever heard a song that plays in your head again, and again, and again, and again? ...You are gonna love me.
• Enemy Mine: In episode 35, the humans and the Space Pirates form an alliance to fend off the Camels from Pluto.
• Feigning Intelligence: Eddy Malou is either doing this or trolling his interviewer.

• Freudian Excuse: In the 36th episode, Antoine Daniel talks about "mechanophilia", ie people with a sexual attraction towards appliances and vehicles (in this case, cars) and wonders what could have triggered this kind of attraction for these people. Cue Antoine Daniel in the role of a child getting a toy car for Christmas and staring creepily into the camera.

• Gag Penis

• Also the giant foam dick seen by a Russian dashcam.

• Grammar Correction Gag: In the opening of episode 34, Samuel has been kidnapped and Antoine receives a ransom note.
  Antoine Daniel: [Said note is written in a childish script with tons of spelling mistakes] This... This...This... is extremely badly written!
• Gratuitous English: Criticized in episode 29.
  Antoine Daniel: I beg you, you have to stop putting an English word with a French given name, it doesn't fit at all. Like "Michel Forever", why not "Gérard Together", "Jean-Louis Remember", or "François Death-Metal"? (Cue a shot of a nuclear explosion with François Hollande face in the middle of the mushroom while Metal music is playing in the background.)
• Groin Attack: In #29, the German guy from the second video lights his diaper in fire, prompting Antoine to think that, if this guy does it, it wouldn't be dangerous. He then sets his pants alight. Cue the paramedics.
• Heroic BSoD: In #29, Antoine initially reacts to the second video (a German guy wearing a diaper in a forest and singing while burning rolls of toilet paper — /!\ not fully SFW) by staring blankly at the camera while the words "Mind Rape" are flashing on the screen.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: The nature of most, if not all, of the singers he comes across.
• Holy Hand Grenade: The Holy Potato, when put in the Potato-Launcher in #36. It causes a small-scale nuke blast that wipes out both sides of the battle, save from Antoine and his second-in-command. The Squirrel-man survives as well.
• Hypocritical Humor
  • In "Le 29 avec Antoine Daniel" #4:
    Question: Will you keep us up to date on your upcoming projects?
    Antoine Daniel: No, I won't, I would have to release a show each month 29th day, to explain where I am and what I intend to do, I don't have enough time and I don't want to do it, because I scorn you.
  • In #29, about the Germans burning toilet paper:
    Antoine Daniel: That's not a good reason [he previously wondered if it was revenge against toilet paper], because 1) It doesn't talk, and 2) It doesn't talk.
    Samuel the Fucking Fan: That's true.
    Antoine Daniel: Thanks, Samuel.
• I Love the Dead / Mummies at the Dinner Table: In #23, the trope is implicitely evoked by a (shocked) Antoine when reviewing lyrics of D'jow song.
  D'jow: I try, I try but I'll never have anything! [The song is about a boy and the death of his girlfriend]
  Antoine Daniel: Hey, dude, she's dead, what is there to try? (his expression then shifts to horror.)
• If It Was Funny the First Time.../Never Heard That One Before: Antoine reported in some interviews that he felt tired by the hundreds of fans who repeat him some out-of-context episode jokes ("It's normal in Russia", "... except one time in the cabin", "It's for work", etc) when they meet. Ironically, THIS became another Running Gag in his last videos.
• Ineffectual Death Threats: Some videos he reviews are about that, and tend to be made by guys who have trouble expressing themselves coherently, towards people who probably won't even notice them. The example featured in #7 could be considered as some Karmic Justice, as the author of such threats is targeting a bunch of infamous French rappers whose notoriety mainly comes from similar videos.
• Insult of Endearment: Towards his audience, and he throws a new one at the start of every regular What the Cut episode. He explained in interviews and in one "Le 29 avec Antoine Daniel" that it has three goals:
  • It is first intended as a catchphrase to attract the viewer's attention since the beginning of the video.
  • It also aims to sort out his audience, as someone who is offended by the insulting opening would be offended by the video content anyway.
  • It finally intends to give a feeling of forming a Vitriolic Best Buds relation with the viewer.
• Intercourse with You: Some songs (as well as the people singing them, of course) are very un-subtle attempts at this, such as "My Dick" and "My Pussy". Done by different people, by the way.
• Kubrick Stare: In #36, when a young mecanophiliac receives a toy car for Christmas.
• Loudness War: The subwoofer in the very first episode, which is pretty much causing a miniature earthquake and shaking out of its shelf.
• Lyrical Dissonance: Noted how out-of-place D'jow's "Yeah yeah yeah" were since his song is about his girlfriend getting stabbed and dying in front of him...
• Mayan Doomsday: #17 was released on December 21, 2012. The thumbnail shows Antoine next to an Maya calendar, and the opening spoofs the phenomenon:
  Antoine Daniel: [yelling] Oh my God! It's December 21, 2012, it's the end of the world! [normal voice] Wait... I don't give a fuck.
• Money, Dear Boy: invoked Pacific Sound 3003 in #36. He only cares about his "fans" if they're giving him money.
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Made a special about Russia, and a good half of the videos he reviewed showed how badass and fearless some Russians can be.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The reeds in #27, or at least in the mind of the guy filming them and spouting over-excited nonsense about them...
• Naked People Are Funny: Averted. The videos featuring naked people and Full-Frontal Assault (the dancer with the pants down on the ankles in #6, the Russian guy dressed as a pirate and making rotating his penis while dancing on a Pirates of the Caribbean theme cover in #14, the four naked guys with pink hoods having sex with the nearby walls in #29) are among the videos which Antoine seemed the most horrified to review, to the point that it would deserve a new trope named Naked People Are Creepy.
  • Again in episode 36 with another ART video.
• Never Heard That One Before: Let's say Antoine is getting a bit tired of his fans overusing his jokes, even invoked in #35:
  Antoine: We're gonna fuck you up!
  Pirate: Except for that one time at the cabin!
  Antoine: I HATE THAT PUNCHLINE!
• Non-Indicative Name: In #29, the first video is titled "First Psalm". It doesn't show anything christian, but four naked guy wearing pink hoods and busy raping the scenery (which is full of empty beer bottles). Though Antoine eventually wonders if it isn't subverted, asking himself if this could be a religious ritual.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: In #34, Antoine's discovery of the "Pony Play" fetish (Warning: Wikipedia article not-fully SFW) on Youtube is represented by a very short montage of extracts set to O Fortuna.
• One-Steve Limit: In #29, this trope's aversion in Real Life in referenced during the introduction of the first video of the episode, which is a music video made by a French artist named Michel.
  Antoine Daniel: Do you know Michel? Of course you know Michel, there are so many people named Michel that everyone knows at least one Michel, but this Michel is above all the other Michels that you were able to know, so I never pronounced so many times the name Michel in a single sentence. Michel!
• Poe's Law: In #28, he asks himself if the very bad music video made by some teenagers is intended or not to be so bad, then concludes that it was supposed to be a genuine serious video, thinking that teenagers wouldn't be able to go so far to create a hoax. It was actually a video deliberately made to be So Bad, It's Good with the ambition to be reviewed by either What the Cut or Salut Les Geeks.
• Poke the Poodle: Involved in an explaination attempt of the German video in #29.
  Antoine Daniel: Those people make me laugh with their aggressive arts in "What could we do to look really mean?" mode.
  Another Antoine Daniel: Walk around with firearms.
  Antoine Daniel: No.
  Another Antoine Daniel: Insult other people's mothers.
  Antoine Daniel: No.
  Another Antoine Daniel: Beat up some old people?
  Antoine Daniel: No.
  Another Antoine Daniel: Set toilet paper on fire while singing "Pipi Caca" ["Pee and Poo"]
  Antoine Daniel: (no response; silent nodding from the other Antoine Daniel)
• Porn Stache: Antoine grew one specifically for the Indian-themed special episode.
• Refusal of the Call: In #28, how the bad music video' intro should've went:
  Kid: Hey, do you want to make a [music] group?
  Other Kid: (Robotnik's voice) NO!
  THE END
• Retconning the Wiki: Not in the show itself, but it unwillingly inspired such actions. Antoine himself didn't have a Wikipedia page before 2015, but there is a catholic saint also named Antoine Daniel (he was a French missionary which had a role in Canada evangelization during the first half of 17th). Guess what? This latter Antoine Daniel own Wikipedia page (in the French encyclopedia) was regularly modified by Wiki Vandals who added some What The Cut shout-outs in it.
• Rule of Three: In #35:
  The world's governments unite against the Space Pirate menace. Except for Peru.
  Facing a common threat, the humans and space pirates combine their forces to fight the camels from Pluto. Except for Peru.
  Humanity woke up with a massive hangover but lived in harmony with the space pirates. Except for Peru.
• Running Gag:
  • Sometimes, when witnessing a creepy face or moment, he will zoom in on it and add some sex-related threat pronounced by an artificial voice to stress the creepiness. Examples of such comments include "I will fill up your vagina with tandoori sauce", "I will sodomize you so hard that you will poop backwards", or "I'm going to shove my dick so far up your ass that whoever manages to pull it out will be called King Arthur".
  • He has a few jingles he uses every once in a while, like "This is so gross..." set to Tane no Uta, or "Psychopath Alert!" when he is about to show something especially creepy.
  • In a lot of episodes, there is a scene when he makes a lame pun, followed by Antoine wearing sunglasses while the famous jingle from CSI is played in the background.
  • This one is a Running Gag specific to one episode. During the Russian-themed video, he repeatedly added in a jingle proclaiming "IT'S NORMAL IN RUSSIA!" after having watched something particularly strange. He recycles it as "IT'S NORMAL IN... Taiwan" in #26.
  • Subverted when it comes to some of his catchphrases, including "It's normal in Russia", where's he's sometimes going out of his way to come close to saying one of them, lampshade it and then dodge the opportunity (or get interrupted by a random object being thrown at him or getting shot).
  Antoine: It's reminiscent of those little houses you can see on the mountainside...
  Another Antoine: *stares* You really wanna say it.
  Antoine: Yeah, but I'm not going to.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Gets some in #35's thumbnail.
• Schmuck Bait: At the end of the first episode, Antoine asks the viewers not to watch 2 girls 1 cup.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In #29, it is Antoine's initial reaction after watching the German artistic video.
• Self-Deprecation: Often. #36 in particular is loaded with self-deprecating jokes about how long it took him to release the episode.
• Shout-Out:
  • The first scene of #35^note the part which summarizes what happened between the previous episode and the current one, not the bar brawl with pirates is a pastiche of Hot Fuzz opening, with a similar voiceover and montage, and the same music.
  • At one point in #36, Antoine even goes to space to ask an astronaut about Richard's missing nut. The segue to the next scene is the space core from Portal 2 zipping by and yelling "Spaaaaaaace!".
• Shovel Strike: In the intro of What The Cut #35, Antoine Daniel uses the holy shovel as a weapon during a bar fight.
• Singing in the Shower: The old guy in #23. He also smokes and listens to bad electro remixes of classical music. Antoine questions the point of filming himself doing all of this in the first place.
• Skewed Priorities: In #35, humans flee out of the cities to escape from the Space Pirate invasion, but because there's no 4G out there, they decide to come back despite the danger.
  • Also in #35:
  Antoine: *standing in front of his burning house, naked* *turns around, smiling* Doesn't matter, had sex.
• Slasher Smile: The "guest" from #17.
• Space Pirates: The Earth gets invaded by them in #35. While Antoine is drinking at Buscarron's Choice. For three months straight.
• Spoof Aesop: Given by Antoine in #29 about the chorus of the German video:
  Antoine Daniel:And that kids is why you must not take LSD or ecstasy. But don't hesitate to consume as much heroin as you can.
• Stylistic Suck: Often used to mock videos featuring bad dancing / singing / acting.
• Suckiness Is Painful: To the point that Antoine sometimes likes to light his hair on fire or iron his face to attenuate the pain of listening to bad songs.
• Take That!
  • To the French television channel NRJ12 in #29.
    Antoine Daniel: And this good old Michel, like a lot of other people like him, was invited in a crappy television show (the name "Tellement Vrai"^note literally, "so true" flashes on the screen) in a crappy television channel (same thing with the channel name "NRJ12")
  • Also in #29, Antoine is shown randomly bashing his keyboard (as an explanation attempt to how the German artist wrote the chorus of his song), then cheerily says: "Hey, I just wrote Twilight.
  • Antoine eventually wonders if the video isn't itself a Take That! to modern art. Which is supported by some of the lyrics and the title itself ("The German Artist").
  • Possibly to other shows which feature a lot of different characters played by the same person. In #35, Antoine asks a question, and another character (also played by him) starts answering it, cue Antoine abruptly cutting him off while calling him a "useless character who will never come back ever again".
• Take That, Audience!
  • In "Le 29 avec Antoine Daniel" #1:
    Antoine Daniel: So, have a happy new year eve, I like you a lot, except you, there, I hate you.
  • In the 2013 birthday video, after granting thanks to the audience for a minute long:
    Richard: What? Didn't you tell me they were all douchebags?
  • In "Le 29 avec Antoine Daniel" #4:
  Question: Why do you insult us in the beginning of each episode?
  Antoine Daniel: Because I hate you all. (he then stares blankly a the camera for several long seconds, then answers seriously; the reasons are summarized in the Insult of Endearment entry)
  • In the 37th episode, Antoine Daniel says sarcastically that people who joke about delays between What the Cut episodes are funny and original.
• Talking Appliance Sidekick: Richard the (plushie) dog. Also Samuel the Fucking Fan, even though he doesn't talk a lot.
• Talking to Themself: Antoine does it from time to time.
• Tanks, but No Tanks: In #34, one of the videos presented is about Vilnius' mayor crushing a car parked in a non-parking area with a military vehicle. Antoine keeps refering to it as a "tank", although it actually is a BMP-like infantry fighting vehicle.
• There's No Kill like Overkill: In #35, Nuclear weapons are used to defeat the Camels from Pluto. And also switchblades. In that order.
• Toilet Humor: In #29, also about the Germans burning toilet paper:
  Antoine Daniel: If they wanted revenge on toilet paper, wiping themselves with it would have been enough.
• Trailer Spoof
  • In #16, Antoine spoofed one of the videos reviewed in the episode (this cereals ad) by reusing the pictures and... dialogs for a fake trailer for a movie adaptations of The Sims.
  • He included a fake trailer for his own series in #21 after seeing the trailer of an actual low-budget Ugandan movie. It involves cats eating yogurt, cats eating yogurt that explodes, naked chicks and shit.
  • In #27, he spoofs Johnny Crying and his weird lines about reeds by making a fake trailer for a So Bad, It's Good sci-fi movie involving an invasion of reeds from outer space.
• True Art Is Incomprehensible: Antoine has reviewed a lot of videos by certain artists, and always had trouble understanding their notion of art, often for good reason (For example, the "Bonsoir Love" guy(??) in #26).
• Understatement: A few times. For example, he describes the video where Rin Kagamine is chased by two bodybuilders with one of them riding on the other like a motorcycle, turning his dick into a baby face and shooting lasers out of it as "strange".
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Several of the videos he presents feature people doing something unusual in a public place without anyone noticing it. It is usually remarked by Antoine in his comments. For example:
  • #1: The Norwegian guys practicing anal sex in the gradins of a hippodrome.
  • #6: The dildo-covered thing in the subway. This one is subverted, as everyone in the screen is indifferent (read: pointedly ignoring it) with the exception of a small child.
  • #14: The incredibly motivated Korean drummer who's pretty much wailing on his drum set with all his soul... while playing a relatively calm Sinatra song. Nobody except the cameraman pays him any particular attention.
  • #26: The Taiwanese guy in the subway receiving oral sex from someone he hides under a coat.
  • #32: The Bulgarian guy dancing and hitting himself with a shovel.
• Voice Clip Song:
  • In #11, he mixed the goat that goes "Yeah" and the fart from #3 with Open your Heart by Crush 40.
  • In #17, he mixed the screams of the painter from the second video with the Super Mario Bros. theme.
• What the Fu Are You Doing?: "Retard-fu can destroy paper", in episode 22. Also the "Ah-ah" grandma from #26, if what she's doing really is a form of martial arts...
• Word Salad Philosophy
  • Both appearances of Johnny Crying:
    • In the Québécois-themed special episode:
    Johnny Crying: I destroy your vagina with a milk carton. [...] When I fly in the sky, I see your vagina far away, and I do the strategy. And I take position, and I start tossing those small carboard pieces. And those cardboard pieces decay before reaching you, because I am so high^note The world used doesn't mean "high" in the meaning of "stoned", but literally high (like flying).
    Antoine Daniel: Dude, it's so deep I can't even see you anymore!
    • Then in #27:
    Johnny Crying: This cattail comes from a extern world: Planet G, Planet C, I don't know. But what I know for example is that these cattails imported from Italy face South Africa: THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE! IT'S THE CATTAILS!
  • Eddy Malou, the self-titled "first scientist of the Republic of Congo", is worse. Half the word he uses don't even exist, the other half would be smart if used in the right context, but the way he mixes all of them makes them lose all their sense.

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