History Main / InsaneProprietor

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CrazyDave_7888.jpg]]]][[caption-width-right:350:"HE'S CRRRRRAAAZY!!"]]

* In ''[[Film/ShortCircuit Short Circuit 2]]'', there is Manic Mike, clearly a spoof of Crazy Eddie.

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', "Film/AttackOfTheTheEyeCreatures", in a police station:
-->'''Susan:''' (''distressed'') Oh, Daddy, these people are crazy!\\

* Played totally straight in ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'', where the shop you buy seeds and the like from is run by Crazy Dave, and called Crazy Dave's Twiddydinkies. Dave himself is a blabbering lunatic who wears a pot as a hat and frequently yells "Buy now! I'M CRAAAAAAZY!!!" at the player whilst frothing at the mouth and shaking. Quite bizarre, but a nice calm experience compared to the rest of the game...

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Eddie Crazy Eddie,]] of course.

* The ads for mattress chain Sit 'n Sleep have a variation of this, with the owner promising huge discounts as his accountant scolds him for losing his mind. They even managed to work in a non-slogan CatchPhrase: "You're killing me, Larry!"

* Among the permanent slogans for Honest Ed's in Toronto: "Honest Ed's a nut, but look at the [[IncrediblyLamePun cashew]] save!"
* There was a bygone advertising campaign in Australia, in which an electrical goods purveyor sat on a rocking chair with an deranged look, as the announcer said, "Ken Bruce has gone mad, Ken Bruce has gone mad -- [shouting] Ken Bruce has gone completely MAD!"

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has the hidden [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCKoz_Q2sCE Wind-Brahmin Salesman.]] A funnily multi-layered example in that he purposely uses "craziness" in his sales pitch yet is oblivious to the ways he's genuinely crazy.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNkK-aQEtMI Crazy Bruce's Liquors]], source of many a WebAnimation/YouTubePoop.

* Referenced in the Creator/Mark3611 WebAnimation/YoutubePoop "Crazy [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast Gaston]]". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2MsGxppE4U]]

* In the late 70's and early 80's, Knoxville, TN television was graced by commercials for "Mad" Jack Fielden's Furniture Warehouse Outlet. His first commercial was relatively straightforward, just stating they have low prices, and then Mad Jack added, "sometimes we have damaged furniture." His sidekick replied "but Mad Jack we don't have any damaged furniture." He then pulled out a baseball bat, smashed a mirror, and said "we do now!" He also got in legal hot water for hiring a "human fly" to climb the tallest building it town as a publicity stunt.

** There was also the famous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Peterson Tom Peterson]], who was in fact a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. He didn't position himself as insane, but rather became well known for not only constantly appearing on the floor of his stores (that sold appliances, furniture and electronics) and interacting with customers, but also unusual gimmicks and commercials- ranging from alarm clocks to cutout masks of himself to even haircuts. At one point, his flagship store was so popular he had ''a trolley'' running between the store and its' parking lots. Sadly, when he acquired a competing chain of electronic stores, it proved to be too big for him to swallow and he ended up declaring bankruptcy, closing most of his stores in the process. He and his wife Gloria attempted a comeback with a new store, but this closed in 2009 and the man himself died in 2016.

-->'''Sammy:''' Hi, you might remember me. I used to be known as "Crazy Sammy". I owned Crazy's Sammy's Discount Store and my prices were so low, you'd have thought I was crazy. And I ''was''. I was bonkers! I was losing money on every transaction, my store eventually went bankrupt, my friends deserted me, and I married a chair. Well, I finally got some help. I went to a therapist for two years, and now I'm better. And happy to announce the grand opening of my new store, Well-Adjusted Sammy's, where you'll find amazingly normal prices. Microwave ovens used to be ''two bucks''! Now a sensible $199. ... And good news! The baboons are gone. So don't run - ''walk'' on over to Well-Adjusted Sammy's, where the prices are... (dramatic echo) ''Appropriate!''

* Some episodes of ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'' end with fake commercials for "Uncle Larry's Superlative Warehouse". "If it's not the best, it's not Uncle Larry's!" These segments [[EdutainmentShow teach viewers about superlatives]].

* Some episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Wordgirl}}'' end with fake commercials for "Uncle Larry's Superlative Warehouse". "If it's not the best, it's not Uncle Larry's!" These segments are meant to teach viewers about superlatives.

* Wiki/TheOtherWiki suggests that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_Muntz Earl "Madman" Muntz]] might have originated the schtick before Crazy Eddie.

* In central and northeastern Wisconsin, there's Scott from 199ride.com. He's a used car salesman with NoIndoorVoice whose whole gimmick is a series of annoying commercials that advertise how much he either needs to move his inventory or replace it with new vehicles, claiming to buy any vehicle regardless of working condition, type, make, model, or year, will pay off any payments you still owe on your current vehicle, and will guarantee an enticing amount of cash off for whatever vehicle you exchange for it (the kicker being that the vehicle would be listed for that same amount more than normal price anyway, and then you would get charged at least a 30% APR when it came time to actually pay it off.) He's Scott from '''ONE NINETY-NINE RIDE DOT COM!''' '''''THAT'S ONE NINETY-NINE RIIIIIIIIDE DOT COM!!!''''' For his 2017 series of ads he began to suggest that doctors have told him to stop discounting his used car inventory at $199/month and that it will drive him to an early death, but he's ignoring their orders and taking his sales pitches UpToEleven because "I'm a dealer...FOR THE PEOPLE!" In 2020, he played up the "doctor's orders" advertisements again, only this time saying that he really ''did'' need to stop, ultimately announcing that he was moving out of the Wausau area in order to rest. In truth, [[LaserGuidedKarma he was being shut down for running a fraudulent business model]], and said fraud investigations followed after him to his relocated dealerships in the Green Bay area in 2021.

* Not the owner, but the aptly-named [[MeaningfulName Fred Rated]] (played by [[Radio/AmericanTop40 radio]] and [[Series/TheHollywoodSquares television]] personality [[TheAnnouncer Shadoe Stevens]]) took the insanity of Madman Muntz and turned it UpToEleven, offering hundreds of off-beat and often downright surreal [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N8AzoDzQhM commercials for The Federated Group]], a chain of electronics superstores in the western United States in the late 70s and early 80s.

* When driving from Michigan (a state in which fireworks are illegal) to Indiana (where they are legal), one encounters nearly a dozen billboards for Crazy Kaplan's Firework Warehouse.

Often seen in the kind of KitschyLocalCommercial that HonestJohnsDealership uses. May be the explanation why WeBuyAnything and WeSellEverything.