Hoops was a short-lived adult animated sitcom created by Ben Hoffman, Produced and animated by Bento Box Entertainment and distributed on Netflix.
The show follows coach Ben Hopkins (Jake Johnson), a hot-headed and down on his luck high school basketball coach living in a small town in Kentucky; he lives in his famous father's shadow, his wife is trying to divorce him to be with his best friend, his job is hanging by a thread as he fails to bring any success to the team, but things might turn up as he tries to get the tallest kid in school, the 7 feet tall outcast Matty Atkins (A. D. Miles), into the team.
The first season was released on August 21st, 2020 on Netflix. In December 2020, it was announced
that the show had been cancelled after one season.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Ben's dad wasn't a great guy and Matty's dad was even worse.
- Ambiguously Bi: While Ben is interested in Shannon, he seems very open minded about men, he pretty openly compliments how good Ron looks, understanding why Shannon would be with him and even complimenting his dick specifically, and during the second episode, he says that his first kiss was with his male cousin Tony, and even says they should have ended up together. There’s also his extreme fixation on using the word “dick” in conversation.
- Amicable Exes: A weird situation between Ben and Shannon. Shannon is not at all amiable to Ben (since their marriage was terrible), but Ben is really nice to her and even to her new boyfriend, Ron, though it may be because he is still in love with her, and anyway, he refuses to stop referring to her as his wife, or complete their divorce.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Matty has adamantly refused to join the basketball team. Ben spends most of "The Pilot" trying to convince him to do so, even going so far as to hire a hooker to try to get him laid. The plan doesn't work out and both Hopkins and the hooker get arrested before the hooker even makes it through Matty's door. At the end of the episode, however, when Ben is about to throw in the towel, he finds that Matty has joined the team. Matty says that he did so because what Ben did is the first time anyone has ever done anything like this for him.
- Black Boss Lady: Opal.
- Bland-Name Product: Cooters is one letter from Hooters.
- Campy Combat: In "Zen," the members of the Lenwood Colts basketball team go into a fight with a group of bullies called the "Gay Mafia," thinking that it's going to be like this. Instead, the members of the Gay Mafia proceed to deliver them a good, old-fashioned ass-kicking.
- Catchphrase: According to Ben Hopkins, his personal catchphrase is "Boring!", which he shouts whenever someone starts to tell him a story about their personal problems, which he doesn't want to hear about.Ben: It's just a thing I do when I'm bored, like a catchphrase for boring stuff.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Nearly all of Ben's dialogue is him spewing out fucks over literally everything.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Poor Matty. His dad made him sleep in a car all throughout the summer, "taught" him to eat raw chicken, and even betted him in a game of poker just to not put up with him anymore...and that's even before he abandoned him as a young kid.
- Depraved Homosexual: Scott's ex-boyfriend Neil in "Zen". Angry that Scott broke up with him, Neil and his two fellow gay cohorts bully Scott and his team, and accuses Scott of pretending to be be gay to be cool (since Scott's been with 15 women before coming out).
- Didn't Think This Through: In the Grand Finale, Ben gives away his spare tire and tools as gifts to his former team members while saying goodbye. When he and Matty are about to leave Kentucky, they encounter a flat tire. Ben forgot that he gave everything away. The worst part of it all was that the show (because of its cancellation in December 2020) ends with Ben and Matty stranded on the road with a flat tire.
- Disappeared Dad: Matty's dad.
- Downer Ending: Season 1—and the whole show, because of its cancellation—has Ben successfully manipulating Matty into accepting a scholarship away from the new friends he just made so he can get a job at a bigger school. After personally disappointing every member of the team left, his car still breaks, implying he has just roped himself and Matty into even more problems. Outside of that, Ron, who never did anything wrong, loses his girlfriend and his mind.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Ben Hopkins is utterly foul-mouthed and crass, seemingly without morals or ethics. That said, he states that while he would beat up a kid with Hodgkin's, he wouldn't dream of beating up one with advanced Hodgkin's.
- He is also utterly HORRIFIED when Matty reveals how his dad abused him.
- Finger-Snapping Street Gang: In "Zen", the Lenwood Colts basketball team approach a group of bullies called the "Gay Mafia" while snapping their fingers and walking together like the Jets in West Side Story. They were under the impression that their fight was going to be a Campy Combat, but, instead, the Gay Mafia proceed to deliver them a good, old-fashioned ass-kicking.
- Flawless Token:
- Scott, the gay member of the basketball team, is comparatively this. Among the members of the team, he's the most typically handsome, put together, the best player on the team up until Matty comes along, and still has a romantic life (an episode later reveals he had been with 15 women already while in denial of his sexuality), though he is still capable of goofing off with them.
- Marcus, the black member of the team, also has some of this, as he has a very healthy family life, is also more attractive than most of the team, and is less of a loser overall.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Ben refuses to sign the paperwork officially granting Shannon a divorce.
- Former Teen Rebel: Shannon, surprisingly. It's shown that in high school she was the one who convinced Ben to give his coach "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- The Giant: Matty is seven feet tall.
- Grand Finale: In "The Scout", Matty is offered an opportunity to go to Henderson Prep, far from his new friends and Coach. Ben does everything he can to not lose his star player, even hiring a prostitute to pose as Matty's mom. Ben's plan fails until he realizes that he would be offered a position as Assistant Coach at that new school. Ben leaves Lenwood High on a happy note with Matty, until their car breaks down. Because the show was cancelled in December 2020, it was never known if Matty and Ben made it to their new school.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Ben. Literally everything that he hates or doesn't go his way pisses him off.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: The series' poster features Ben lying on a desk naked with a basketball covering his privates. Also, Ben does this in episodes 5 and 9.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Connie, at least that's what Ben claimed.
- Hypocritical Humor: Ben's dad doesn't want to hear about his son's dream of having multiple dicks.Barry: This is a classy family restaurant, you dickhead!
- Jerkass. Ben constantly acts extremely rude to everyone around him, is incredibly foul mouthed, and generally has no redeeming qualities. This leads to his team abandoning him in the finale.
- Kissing Cousins: According to his dad, Ben's first french kiss was with his cousin Tony. Ben adds that his were the first breasts he touched.
- Left Hanging: As explained in Downer Ending, it was never known if Ben and Matty made it to Henderson Prep after the events of "The Scout".
- Love Triangle: Between Ron, Ben and Shannon. Shannon and Ben are exes, but Ben is still hung up on her, even as she has moved on to Ron.
- Never My Fault: In "The Scout", Ben and Matty get a flat tire on their way to Henderson Prep. He notices that his spare tire and tools are missing from his trunk. He blames Marcus for taking his tire, even though he gave it to him in the first place.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: The anger-management instructor in "Zen". He only wears pants, no shirt or shoew
- Overly Long Gag: Ben tries to dunk a basketball in front of his team and constantly misses. And it goes on and on and on, even after lowering the hoop and dunking the ball close to the rim.
- Sassy Black Woman: Opal has shades of this.
- Secret Test of Character: For Matty in "Ethics." He passes Lonnie's ethics exam by not going along with the scheme to frame him for child abuse, though only barely because he went along with a bunch of other lesser stuff before that.
- Sex with the Ex: Ben and Shannon with disastrous consequences.
- Shout-Out: Little Man Tate is referenced multiple times in the first episode as a film Ben loves and continues to be mentioned throughout the first season as a Running Gag.
- The Shrink: In "Death," Dr. Brooks is called in to Lenwood High as a grief counselor following two deaths in quick succession: first that of the school's former basketball coach and then of a delivery guy who gets set on fire by a candle trying to deliver food to Ben at Lamonte's funeral. Unfortunately for her, she's not able to do her job because she ends up spending most of her time at the school having to listen to tales of the messed-up personal lives of the school's adult staff. Then, when she does get some actual students in her office, they admit they were only there to waste some time once the last bell of the day rings. At the end of the episode, she is herself killed by another delivery guy trying to get food to Ben.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Ben. It would actually be easier to count the amount of times where he doesn't swear at all.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Ben is a rude, hot headed and self-serving man, bitter about his failings in life and willing to use everyone, even those that look up to him, to get his goals.
