History Creator / JonBois

* WhosOnFirst: Jon takes particular delight in ''The People You're Paying to Be in Shorts'' after realising that Anthony Davis never played for the Hornets because he was drafted by the Hornets.[[labelnote: Explanation]]After the New Orleans Hornets drafted Anthony Davis but before he played a game for them the team changed their name to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Charlotte Bobcats then changed their name back to the Hornets because the name was now available.[[/labelnote]]

* TheDeterminator: How he describes real life NFL Quarterback Tom Brady, mostly tongue in cheek. During ''Breaking Madden'' on the other hand, he decided to throw him into a scenario where Tom simply couldn't get away with the ball to score... until he somehow did. ''Three hundred forty-five tries later.''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yerbuddyjon.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Jon in his natural habitat, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Troy_State_vs._DeVry_men%27s_basketball_game#2017_video_analysis discovering a terrible secret.]]]]

** ''The People You're Paying to Wear Shorts'' details the '11-'12 Charlotte Bobcats and how, despite a rough off-season exacerbated by a lockout, things seemed to be looking good to at least try and squeak into the play-offs and make some noise to try and drum-up interest for Free Agents to come play for them. What ends up happening is that the Bobcats not only have a losing record by the end of the season, not only manage to get two of the longest losing streaks in League history in the one season[[note]]The shorter of which was still longer than the Sacramento Kings ever achieved in their ''seven decades'' of existence [[/note]], and not only finish the season with the worst win percentage and single season point differential in League history, but they did not even get the silver lining of picking first overall in the draft thanks to the lottery and end up losing generational talent Anthony Davis to the Hornets franchise, ''whose departure from Charlotte led to the Bobcats existing''. When Jon [[https://twitter.com/jon_bois/status/1586199169135509510?t=y644rluqCnXHvMnVf2Hjrw&s=19 made a tweet]] comparing the moral of the Bobcats to morals of other teams that Secret Base made Dorktown documentaries about, he listed their moral as '''"unfortunately god has been run over by a bus"'''.

** Jon believes that the Charlotte Bobcats changing their name back to the Hornets was the franchises way of doing this to the Bobcats legacy, which considering the '11-'12 season highlighted by ''The People You're Paying to Wear Shorts'' was probably for the best.

* WhosOnFirst: Jon takes particular delight in ''The People You Are Paying to Wear Shorts'' after realising that Anthony Davis never played for the Hornets because he was drafted by the Hornets.[[labelnote: Explanation]]After the New Orleans Hornets drafted Anthony Davis but before he played a game for them the team changed their name to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Charlotte Bobcats then changed their name back to the Hornets because the name was now available.[[/labelnote]]

* CelebrityResemblance: In the ''Pretty Good" episode on Lonnie Smith (the baseball player), he shows a picture of Lonnie alongside a picture of the jazz musician [[NamesTheSame Dr. Lonnie Smith]], and concludes they might actually be the same person.

** ''The People You're Paying to Wear Shorts'' details the '11-'12 Charlotte Bobcats and how, despite a rough off-season exacerbated by a lockout, things seemed to be looking good to at least try and squeak into the play-offs and make some noise to try and drum-up interest for Free Agents to come play for them. What ends up happening is that the Bobcats not only have a losing record by the end of the season, not only manage to get two of the longest losing streaks in League history in the one season[[note]]The shorter of which was still longer than the Sacramento Kings ever achieved in their ''seven decades'' of existence [[/note]], and not only finish the season with the worst win percentage and single season point differential in League history, but they did not even get the silver lining of picking first overall in the draft thanks to the lottery and end up losing generational talent Anthony Daniels to the Hornets franchise, ''whose departure from Charlotte led to the Bobcats existing''. When Jon [[https://twitter.com/jon_bois/status/1586199169135509510?t=y644rluqCnXHvMnVf2Hjrw&s=19 made a tweet]] comparing the moral of the Bobcats to morals of other teams that Secret Base made Dorktown documentaries about, he listed their moral as '''"unfortunately god has been run over by a bus"'''.

* WhosOnFirst: Jon takes particular delight in ''The People You Are Paying to Wear Shorts'' after realising that Anthony Daniels never played for the Hornets because he was drafted by the Hornets.[[labelnote: Explanation]]After the New Orleans Hornets drafted Anthony Daniels but before he played a game for them the team changed their name to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Charlotte Bobcats then changed their name back to the Hornets because the name was now available.[[/labelnote]]

* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: In ''Chart Party:'' "The Search for the Saddest Punt in the World", Jon goes over an ineligible entry where a 4th down play deep in enemy territory embarrassingly ends with a desperate pooch punt. Jon doesn't have a clip, and surmises that the [=NFL=] drove the footage of the play to the desert and buried it.

-->'''Jon Bois:''' I would say there's a pretty good chance for a fairy tale ending for these Chargers. ''Except...''\\

** ''The People You're Paying to Wear Shorts'' details the '11-'12 Charlotte Bobcats and how, despite a rough off-season exacerbated by a lockout, things seemed to be looking good to at least try and squeak into the play-offs and make some noise to try and drum-up interest for Free Agents to come play for them. What ends up happening is that the Bobcats not only have a losing record by the end of the season, not only manage to get two of the longest losing streaks in League history in the one season[[note]]The shorter of which was still longer than the Sacramento Kings ever achieved in their ''seven decades'' of existence [[/note]], and not only finish the season with the worst win percentage and single season point differential in League history, but they did not even get the silver lining of picking first overall in the draft thanks to the lottery and end up losing generational talent Anthony Daniels to ''the Hornets franchise whose departure from Charlotte led to the Bobcats existing''. When Jon [[https://twitter.com/jon_bois/status/1586199169135509510?t=y644rluqCnXHvMnVf2Hjrw&s=19 made a tweet]] comparing the moral of the Bobcats to morals of other teams that Secret Base made Dorktown documentaries out of he listed their moral as ''God has been run over by a bus''.

** ''The People You're Paying to Wear Shorts'' details the '11-'12 Charlotte Bobcats and how, despite a rough off-season exacerbated by a lockout, things seemed to be looking good to at least try and squeak into the play-offs and make some noise to try and drum-up interest for Free Agents to come play for them. What ends up happening is that the Bobcats not only have a losing record by the end of the season, not only manage to get two of the longest losing streaks in League history in the one season[[note]]The shorter of which was still longer than the Sacramento Kings ever achieved in their ''seven decades'' of existence [[/note]], and not only finish the season with the worst win percentage and single season point differential in League history, but they did not even get the silver lining of picking first overall in the draft thanks to the lottery and end up losing generational talent Anthony Daniels to ''the Hornets franchise whose departure from Charlotte led to the Bobcats existing''. When Jon made a tweet comparing the moral of the Bobcats to morals of other teams that Secret Base made Dorktown documentaries out of he listed their moral as ''God has been run over by a bus''.

* TheKenBurnsEffect: A variant. Jon tends to structure his later videos around a single board full of graphs, pictures and dates, panning back and forth, uncovering more and more as video progresses.

* TheDeterminator: How he describes real life NFL Quarterback Tom Brady, mostly tongue in cheek. During ''Breaking Madden'' on the other hand, he decided to throw him into a scenario where Tom simply couldn't get away with the ball to score...until he somehow did. ''Three-hundred and fourty five tries later.''

* DrugsAreBad: In his episode on Lonnie Smith, Jon completely freaks out when he realizes that the three most notorious cocaine addicts on the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals were also the two best hitters and best pitcher on the team. A team that won that year's World Series.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Discussed in "How to score 10 runs in the first inning and lose". Steve Jeltz had ''the worst'' batting average of any Major League Baseball player (with at least 1000 plate appearances) throughout the 80s. He was so infamous that the bio on his own baseball card made fun of his for his batting average, "which seems like something that should not be allowed". But Jon Bois pulls up a percentile graph representing everyone in the US who's ever played baseball at the high school level or higher, and argues that anyone with a years-long MLB career (like Steve Jeltz) must be in the 99.9th percentile of baseball players. Jeltz just happened to be at the bottom of that top sliver of a percent: one of the best players in the world who had the misfortune of getting compared to the tiny fraction of even better players.

-->'''Jon Bois:''' With number 7 we learn that if the Fates have decided that you're going to win, you will be dragged, kicking and screaming, to that win, no matter how much you don't want to. [...] When the Fates decide that you're gonna win, they lay opportunity at your feet. You can try to overthink or cower your way out of it, but the win will always find you. Sorry, Dolphins. You won.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted in "Lonnie Smith" from ''Pretty Good'', which also features music from one Dr. Lonnie Smith, and in "History of the Seattle Mariners" from ''Dorktown'', which briefly shows the career of every [=MLB=] player named Randy. But the greatest aversion of this from Jon is ''The Bob Emergency'', which exclusively goes through the careers of athletes named Bob, even uncovering one obscure fighter who averts it on his own with the name [[RepetitiveName Bob Bob]].
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Discussed in "How to score 10 runs in the first inning and lose". Steve Jeltz had ''the worst'' batting average of any Major League Baseball player (with at least 1000 plate appearances) throughout the 80s. He was so infamous that the bio on his own baseball card made fun of his for his batting average, "which seems like something that should not be allowed". But Jon Bois pulls up a percentile graph representing everyone in the US who's ever played baseball at the high school level or higher, and argues that anyone with a years-long MLB career (like Steve Jeltz) must be in the 99.9th percentile of baseball players. Jeltz just happened to be at the bottom of that top sliver of a percent: one of the best players in the world who had the misfortune of getting compared to the tiny fraction of even better players. against the

* ''WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix''
* ''Literature/TheTimTebowCFLChronicles''

* TheWorfBarrage: Invokes this at the start of ''The History of the Atlanta Falcons'' series to argue why the 28-9 lead was the more cathartic score difference during the Falcons and Patriots' Super Bowl LI game rather than the more proliferated 28-3. After being completely dominated by the Falcons for the first two quarters of the game and earning nothing but a Field Goal for their efforts, the Patriots muster up everything they have for a protracted drive to score a single touchdown toward the end of the third quarter — except they fail the one point conversion. They further attempt an onside kick out of desperation, which also fails as the Falcons end up recovering it. 28-3 may have been the bigger differential, but 28-9 was when it became clear to people that the Patriots were completely outgunned and [[TemptingFate probably not going to recover from this.]]

* TheCameo: Appears in unrelated projects for [=SBNation=], like the {{WebOriginal/Shutdown Fullcast}}, though he usually brings his affable, bizarre nature with him.

* HyperlinkStory: The ''Dorktown'' episode "How to score 10 runs in the first inning and lose" is a downplayed example. It starts off describing "a man named Rooker" trekking across Pennsylvania on foot, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, describes the difficulties and dangers of his journey, then asks why he's doing this, without answering. Then Jon and Alex switch to the main subject of the video--the June 8, 1989 baseball game between the Pittsburg Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies where, [[SpoilerTitle as stated in the title]], the Pirates scored 10 runs in the first inning but still lost the game. At the end of the game, Jon and Alex connect these two plot threads: ''Jim Rooker'' was a commentator on that same baseball game, and at the end of the first inning, seeing the Pirates' ''unprecedented'' lead this early in the game, [[TemptingFate boasted that he would walk back to Pittsburg if the Phillies somehow won]].

* ApocalypticLog: The final edition of ''NBA Y2k'' is Jon entering draft after draft of the worst created players possible after every NBA season, and is punctuated by official looking scraps showing the growing number of talentless players who are slowly beginning to eclipse the talented, finally ending with a MadnessMantra that gives the entry its title:

* SeriesMascot: For ''Breaking Madden'' and ''NBA Y2K'', it was Clarence BEEFTANK, a 400 lb., 5'1 cannonball of a created player.

* NeverLiveItDown: [[InUniverse According to Jon,]] Lonnie Smith. In something of a [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged example,]] Lonnie Smith did many notable things during his baseball career, both positive and negative, yet Jon states that what he's most remembered for is his baserunning error that cost the Atlanta Braves the World Series in 1991 in Game 7.
-->'''Jon:''' They don't remember him for the pigeon toes, the Phillie Phanatic, the coke benders, the bottles, all the World Series rings, the murder plot, one of the greatest comebacks ''ever'', or the World Series home run record. Nope, it's this shit.