History Characters / NathanBarley

* SanitySlippage: His mental health, which is already in a precarious state, further deteriorates as he gets swept up in the happenings of the local hipster subculture - not to mention his sociopathic boss.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:His mental health deteriorates throughout the series, and in the final episode he jumps out of a window, sustaining serious injuries. He ends the series drugged out of his mind at a hospital, signing a waiver so that Nathan can use the footage of his jump for his show and learning that Claire has accepted a job offer on said show instead of following her own dreams.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: His fall out of the window in the last episode appears intentional and suicidal as he just lets himself drop.

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: While Claire is proactive in advancing her career and earning money, Dan squanders most opportunities awarded to him, abuses alcohol with little regard for consequences, fails to pay off his rent and debts, and is in general a mess of a human being.

* MySisterIsOffLimits: Dan cannot stand the thought of Nathan going anywhere near Claire.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "The Rise of the Idiots" is this, in written form, to the entire hipster subculture.

* AmbiguouslyBi: He doesn't date anyone over the course of the series, but he does flirt with Sasha, is very fond of his (male) housemate Jones and gives a handjob to a "stray for pay" man (albeit after being forced to do so by Jonatton Yeah?).

* TheBully: To his beleaguered assistant, Pingu.

* HumiliationConga: In the 4th episode, when he gets a truly horrendous haircut.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Nathan's geek pie haircut is a moment of embarrassing shame amongst his peers in Hosegate, but randomly becomes Big in Japan when he accidentally bumps into some Japanese TV culture correspondents. The haircut, along with some of Nathan's mottos like "Peace and Fucking", are shown to spread like wildfire among the Japanese youth.

* BelligerentSexualTension: With Claire, and with Dan if you squint.
* BornLucky / KarmaHoudini: No matter how many times Dan tries to sabotage or humiliate Nathan, he always comes out on top. Even after Dan genuinely embarrasses him with the geek pie incident, he still ends up getting TV coverage in Japan.

The loss-making, garbage-producing amateur film studio, managed by Nathan out of a grotty flat on Textile Street, Hosegate. Nathan films, cuts and edits his videos here, as well as uploading shit to his website Trashbat.co.ck (registered in the Cook Islands) with Pingu.

* DudeMagnet: Nathan, Toby and Pingu are all shown to be attracted to Claire, which contributes to Dan's worsening mental state.

* IceQueen: Many men fancy her, but she is only interested in her career.

* {{Workaholic}}: She is only interested in her career and, unlike her older brother Dan, actually puts in the hours and the effort.

Pingu is the only other employee of Trash Industries: a painfully shy and nerdy hipster tech geek, who does all of the behind the scenes work on the Trashbat.co.ck website that Nathan gleefully takes credit for. He rarely ever speaks, and seems deathly afraid to stand up to Nathan, who bullies and harasses him almost to the point of 1984-style psychological torture.

* ButtMonkey: The nervous, socially awkward Pingu is the butt of all of Nathan's jokes and pranks while doing all the actual, behind-the-scenes work at Trash. Nathan treats him so poorly that it almost comes across as psychological domestic violence.

* GeekPhysiques: He is a tech geek and very, very skinny.

An executive at TV station Channel Seven. He initially grants Claire an interview, but quickly loses interest when Nathan butts in with his awful prank videos. Not only is Ivan happy to accept the Idiot subculture, he actively embraces it in an effort to be 'down with the kids'.

* InsufferableGenius: Is generally hailed as a revolutionary mastermind by the press, almost to the point of toppling Doug Rocket.

* ThePrimaDonna: He ramps up the melodrama whenever he's not the center of attention.

* BadBoss: To Dan. He forces Dan to wear a preacherman costume, ignores or outright contravenes his advice and pleas in staff meetings, and publishes rubbish under Dan's name without his consent. His meanest action is to force Dan to prostitute himself with men in a pub toilet, just so that an article can be written about the experience. But Dan in turn is also a very bad employee and probably deserves it.

* {{Foil}}: To Dan. While both are exasperated with their SurroundedByIdiots status, Jonatton manages to profit off it while Dan sulks in the background. He is also very industrious, unlike Dan.

* SmugSnake: Smug and evil, and much more capable than the stereotypical version of the trope.

* OfficeLady: Appears to be the only female at the Sugar Ape office, and the only one who does any sort of administration or organisation.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Sasha is disdainful of her moron co-workers at Sugar Ape, but always takes a keen interest in Dan's welfare in most of the episodes and appears very close to him. He hints briefly at taking her out to dinner, but it doesn't end up going anywhere.

* AlphaBitch: She is pretty and reasonably successful, and she never lets the people around her forget it.
* BelligerentSexualTension: She is sexually attracted to Nathan despite finding him insufferable.

* DrivenToSuicide: There's a way to read his jump out of a window in the final episode as this.

* ALighterShadeOfGrey: While he is an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist, he is portrayed with more empathy than the more idiotic Nathan.
* LoserProtagonist: He's a depressed, dateless, near-friendless man who lives in poverty, fails at every single thing he undertakes, and still works for a youth mag despite being in his thirties (and hating the job).

* PursueTheDreamJob: Dan wants to work for an "adult" publication, but he knows nothing of adult things like wines, restaurants and cars, and his job interview is a trainwreck.

* SanitySlippage: His mental health, which is already in a precarious state, further deteriorates as he gets swept up in the happenings of the local hipster subculture.
* TheSlacker: Doesn't pay his bills, loses his house keys, doesn't watch any of Claire's videos upon her request, unable to even start his cover feature on 15Peter20, the list goes on...

* TrueArtIsAngsty: In-Universe. He is only able to write scathing critiques and vitriolic "thinkpieces".
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: He is not a noble person and his misfortunes are often played for laughs.

Sugar Ape's chief editor: a smart, dry, and highly sarcastic mastermind. He shares Dan's views on the waves of shallow, unintelligent hipster bullshit around them; however, unlike Dan, Jonatton cynically participates in and exploits it all for profit.

Sugar Ape's chief editor: a smart, dry, and highly sarcastic mastermind. He shares Dan's views on the waves of shallow, unintelligent hipster bullshit around them; however, unlike Dan, Jonatton cynically participates in and exploits it all for profit. Had the question mark added to his name by deedpoll.

* BadBoss: To Dan (who in turn is a bad employee to him). His meanest action is to make Dan essentially prostitute himself in the men's restroom for an article.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Dan fails to come up with the goods for 15Peter20's cover feature, Jonatton Yeah? steps in and writes it instead. (However, he intentionally forfeits credit and maliciously attributes the feature to Dan Ashcroft - earning Dan even more unwanted praise for his "awesome fuckin' opinions" that he didn't even write.)

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Sasha takes a keen interest in Dan's welfare above the rest of her colleagues, and he hints briefly at taking her out to dinner, but it doesn't end up going anywhere.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible

* BadInfluencer: A rather fascinating UnbuiltTrope example, given that the show predates the concept of 'influencers' by [[UsefulNotes/TheNewTens roughly a decade]]. Nevertheless, Nathan manages to meet almost all of the hallmarks of the {{Jerkass}} variant, being a [[TheDitz moronic]], [[ShamelessSelfPromoter atttention-seeking]] SpoiledBrat {{Manchild}} prone to ConspicuousConsumption who performs inane publicity stunts and [[InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube films a variety of dangerous [=and/or=] demeaning 'pranks' with the aim of publishing them on his website]].

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Talks in [[TotallyRadical incomprehensible slang]], constantly plays inane pranks on those unfortunate enough to be around him, and let's not even get started on his UsefulNotes/{{Dada}}-style website "trashbat.co.ck" which is a bit like WebAnimation/YouTubePoop ''before Website/YouTube existed.''

* AccidentalPervert: Nathan startles him as he's delivering Claire a cup of tea, causing him to spill it all over her. [[DidntThinkThisThrough He then begins frantically wiping it off her breasts.

* BadInfluencer: A rather fascinating UnbuiltTrope example, given that the show predates the concept of 'influencers' by [[UsefulNotes/TheNewTens by roughly a decade]]. Nevertheless, Nathan manages to meet almost all of the hallmarks of the {{Jerkass}} variant, being a [[TheDitz moronic]], [[ShamelessSelfPromoter atttention-seeking]] SpoiledBrat {{Manchild}} prone to ConspicuousConsumption who performs inane publicity stunts and [[InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube films a variety of dangerous [=and/or=] demeaning 'pranks' with the aim of publishing them on his website]].

* OnlySaneMan: An interesting {{Deconstruction}}/{{Subversion}}. While he's at least reasonably intelligent and grates against the antics of Nathan and the other 'idiots', he's also a lazy, [[LoserProtagonist burnt-out loser]] who is [[PerpetualPoverty always desperate for money]] and will do all sorts of degrading things to try and get it.

* OnlySaneMan: Only compared to Nathan and his ilk, as he's suffering from a barrage of his own problems.

* NiceHat: He has quite a number of those, from baseball caps to trilbies.

* NiceHat: Like Ned and his glasses, Rufus has his silly flat cap glued permanently to his head.

* BadInfluencer: A rather fascinating UnbuiltTrope example, given that the show predates the concept of 'influencers' by [[UsefulNotes/TheNewTens by roughly a decade]]. Nevertheless, Nathan manages to meet almost all of the hallmarks of the {{Jerkass}} variant, being a [[TheDitz moronic]], [[ItsAllAboutMe atttention-seeking]] SpoiledBrat {{Manchild}} prone to ConspicuousConsumption who performs inane publicity stunts and [[InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube films a variety of dangerous [=and/or=] demeaning 'pranks' with the aim of publishing them on his website]].

* BadInfluencer: A rather fascinating UnbuiltTrope example, given that the show predates the concept of 'influencers' by [[UsefulNotes/TheNewTens by roughly a decade]]. Nevertheless, Nathan manages to meet almost all of the hallmarks of the {{Jerkass}} variant, being a [[TheDitz moronic]], [[ItsAllAboutMe atttention-seeking]] SpoiledBrat prone to ConspicuousConsumption who performs inane publicity stunts and [[InstantHumiliationJustAddYouTube films a variety of dangerous [=and/or=] demeaning 'pranks' with the aim of publishing them on his website]].

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Talks in [[TotallyRadical incomprehensible slang]], constantly plays inane pranks on those unfortunate enough to be around him, and let's not even get started on his {{Dada}}- style website "trashbat.co.ck" which is a bit like WebAnimation/YouTubePoop ''before Website/YouTube existed.''

* AttentionDeficitOohShiny
* BadLiar

* BriefAccentImitation

* ComplimentBackfire
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}

* CountryMatters
* CovertPervert
* CringeComedy
* TheFashionista Although his ideas of "fashion" are often quite inane.

* KubrickStare

* TheNicknamer

* UnusualEuphemism

* {{Tomboy}}
* TomboyishPonytail

* AccidentalPervert

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing

* DeadpanSnarker

* OnlyOneName

* MagnificentBastard: He is clever, AffablyEvil and mildly sociopathic. He likes to poke fun at Dan Ashcroft while simultaneously milking his unwanted popularity as much as he can for the good of the magazine. He seems to share Dan's views on the plebs and morons that surround him, but is a lot smarter and more socially savvy in the way he deals with them.

* HeroicBSOD

* RageQuit

* SatelliteCharacter

* CoolShades
* OnlyOneName
* RecurringExtra

* TheKlutz

* InvincibleIncompetent
* LargeHam

* AttentionDeficitOohShiny

* MadnessMantra

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: His hair is partially dyed magenta.

* TheFashionista