History Music / JonathanCoulton

* HugeGuyTinyGirl: "Just As Long As Me"- a folksy song about a Huge Guy who is tired of Tiny Girls and wants a woman of his size for once.

* MixAndMatchCritters: The [[AllGirlsLikePonies half pony]], half monkey [[BodyHorror monster]] from "Skullcrusher Mountain".[[note]]Creator/SeananMcGuire made an [[http://seananmcguire.com/gallery.php?image=288 artist's rendition]] of it.[[/note]]

* NoodleIncident: "He brings it up again; the famous apple fritter incident of 2010."

%%* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: "The Future Soon".

* DrivenToSuicide: The vampire in "Blue Sunny Day" is depressed over not being able to go out in the sunshine anymore. He decides on SuicideBySunlight as a result.

* InTheStyleOf: Changed the iTunes listing of his "Baby Got Back" cover to a sarcastic "...(In The Style Of ''Series/{{Glee}}'')" after they stole his arrangement (including the [[SoundEffectsBleep censor quack]] ''and'' replacing "Mix-a-Lot" in the lyrics with "Johnny C.") without his permission and told him he should be thankful for the publicity. However, he's donating all proceeds from the sale of the song to the It Gets Better Foundation and [=VH1=] Save The Music as a result.

* InTheStyleOf: Changed the iTunes listing of his "Baby Got Back" cover to a sarcastic "...(In The Style Of ''Series/{{Glee}}'')" after they essentially used his arrangement without his permission and told him he should be thankful for the publicity. However, he's donating all proceeds from the sale of the song to the It Gets Better Foundation and [=VH1=] Save The Music as a result.

** ''[=JoCo=] Looks Back'' collects the best of his ''Thing A Week'' project.

* CoverVersion: He's done a lot, from the aforementioned "You Oughta Know" and "Baby Got Back", to [[{{Music/Queen}} "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions"]], and ultimately an entire cover album entitled ''[[ShoutOut Some]] [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Guys]]'', where he takes on a series of [[TheSeventies 70's AOR classics]] from the likes of Music/TheBeeGees, Music/{{America}}, and Music/TheEagles among others.

* DancingRoyalty: ''Dance Soterios Johnson Dance" is about a local newscaster who lives a double life as one of these.

Notable for being one of the first musicians to fully embrace the online model of earning money for his songs - most of his songs are available free on [[http://www.jonathancoulton.com/ his website,]] if you want to dig through his blog, but they're also all for sale through a variety of media. He also uses the Internet to gauge where to perform - if enough fans petition him, he'll plan a concert for you.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Played with in "Ikea": the narrator thinks Sweden was founded by [[Myth/NorseMythology Thor]], and that Ikea was one of the first things to be created in the country, along with Vikings and longboats.

* {{Crossover}}: In his ending theme for ''VideoGame/LEGODimensions'', [[spoiler: [=GLaDOS=]]] mentions that she's met ComicBook/{{Batman}}, who is "kind of a big deal".

* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: His GreatestHits album is an inversion - ''Jonathan Coulton's Greatest Hit (Plus 13 Other Songs)''.

* RuleOfThree: He wrote the ending themes to both ''Portal'' games, both sung by [=GLaDOS=]. [[spoiler: So of course, he also wrote a song for her appearance in ''VideoGame/LEGODimensions''!]]

* ShoutOut: Manages to shout-out to ''himself'' on the ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' soundtrack-- towards the end of "Still Alive", [=GLaDOS=] sings "'''I feel fantastic''' and I'm still alive..."

* CoverVersion: He's done a lot, from the aforementioned "You Oughta Know" and "Baby Got Back", to [[{{Music/Queen}} "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions"]], and ultimately an entire cover album entitled ''[[ShoutOut Some]] [[Music/TheRollingStones Guys]]'', where he takes on a series of [[TheSeventies 70's AOR classics]] from the likes of Music/TheBeeGees, Music/{{America}}, and Music/TheEagles among others.

* FilkSong:
** "Red Shirt" for, well, ''Literature/RedShirts''
** "Still Alive" for ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}.''

* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: "The Future Soon".

* CelebrityIsOverrated: "Tom Cruise Crazy".

* DoggedNiceGuy: "Soft Rocked By Me".

* DrivenToSuicide: The vampire in "Blue Sunny Day".

* GadgeteerGenius: The narrator of "The Future Soon" envisions himself as one.

* IHateSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm3TayCgW0Q "I Hate California"]] doesn't exactly hide its point -- though it makes it clear that he's not blaming anyone in particular for the feeling, and the main problem may be that the object of his affection is there when he isn't.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: "Skullcrusher Mountain" is basically an extended (relatively polite but deeply insane) statement of the trope.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: That poor giant squid in "I Crush Everything" wants nothing more than to live a normal life. Too bad he's a ''giant'' squid.
* IWantMyJetpack: "The Future Soon".

* MachineWorship: "The Future Soon".

* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: The general premise of "Skullcrusher Mountain".

* StalkerWithACrush: Very common theme.

* SuicideBySunlight: "Blue Sunny Day".

* ToiletHumor: "Big Dick Farts a Polka".

* ZombieApocalypse: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQYjZc7gKXc "Re: Your Brains".]]

* AccidentallyAccurate: As he found out in 2007, Music/JoeJackson really ''was'' bitter about being overshadowed by "the great Music/ElvisCostello".

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: "My Monkey", "Code Monkey", "Monkey Shines"...

* MixAndMatchCritters: The [[AllGirlsLikePonies half pony]], [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys half monkey]] [[BodyHorror monster]] from "Skullcrusher Mountain".[[note]]Creator/SeananMcGuire made an [[http://seananmcguire.com/gallery.php?image=288 artist's rendition]] of it.[[/note]]

He often performs with Music/PaulAndStorm, and has done collaborations with Music/MCFrontalot. He has been involved in several Podcast/RiffTrax, including playing some songs before the live ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace''. He's the resident musician on the Creator/{{NPR}} game show ''Radio/AskMeAnother''. He is also the "Official Contributing Troubadour" of ''Popular Science'' magazine, and sang the opening theme for their podcast. He also has a handful of songs featured in ''VideoGame/RockBand''. As mentioned above, he wrote the credits song for ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', "Still Alive", as well as [[VideoGame/Portal2 the sequel's]], "Want You Gone". He's also long-time friends with Creator/JohnHodgman, has written songs for Hodgman's book tours (which he often participates in), and has appeared on all three audiobooks for Hodgman's Literature/CompleteWorldKnowledge series. Lately, he's done the [[PreviouslyOn recap songs]] for ''Series/BrainDead2016''. Basically, he's popular, is what we're getting at.

* GadgeteerGenius: "The Future Soon".

* MixAndMatchCritters: The [[AllGirlsLikePonies half pony]], [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys half monkey]] [[BodyHorror monster]] from "Skullcrusher Mountain".

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: "I Crush Everything" is one of these in song form. The reason the giant squid hates himself is because while he just wants to make friends with the dolphins and play with the pretty white ships, he can't do it without breaking them.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: The zombie in "Re: Your Brains" keeps asking the guy to "compromise" with the zombies outside, but this involves just letting them in to eat his brains.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, whose guilt in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal is a matter of some debate, gets characterized in "Kenesaw Mountain Landis" as a wife-beating, baby-eating {{Heel}}, as a foil to Landis (who gets a corresponding HistoricalHeroUpgrade despite his infamous bigotry regarding the racial integration of baseball). Of course, the entire song is PlayedForLaughs, as it also claims Landis was "seventeen feet tall and had a hundred and fifty wives" and conflates Joe Jackson the baseball player with Joe Jackson the pop singer (of "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" fame).

Jonathan Coulton (born December 1, 1970; occasionally shorted to "JoCo") is a primarily internet-based musician who writes songs on all sorts of stuff, though his more popular songs tend to cater to the nerd or pop-culture crowd. You probably know him best as the writer of ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'''s ending song, "Still Alive". He also gained fame before that for his "Thing-A-Week" series of albums, wherein he challenged himself to write and record one song a week for an entire year, and actually did it.

Jonathan Coulton (born December 1, 1970) is a primarily internet-based musician who writes songs on all sorts of stuff, though his more popular songs tend to cater to the nerd or pop-culture crowd. You probably know him best as the writer of ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'''s ending song, "Still Alive". He also gained fame before that for his "Thing-A-Week" series of albums, wherein he challenged himself to write and record one song a week for an entire year, and actually did it.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, whose guilt in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal is a matter of some debate, gets characterized in "Kenesaw Mountain Landis" as a wife-beating, baby-eating {{Heel}}, as a foil to Landis (who gets a corresponding HistoricalHeroUpgrade despite his infamous bigotry regarding the racial integration of baseball). Of course, the entire song is PlayedForLaughs

* YourCheatingHeart: Betty of "Betty and Me" cheats on her husband with Dr. Martin, though the poor sap is completely oblivious.

Notable for being one of the first musicians to fully embrace the online model of earning money for his songs - most of his songs are available free on [[http://www.jonathancoulton.com/ his website]], if you want to dig through his blog, but they're also all for sale through a variety of media. He also uses the Internet to gauge where to perform - if enough fans petition him, he'll plan a concert for you.

** "Todd the T-1000" has the singer get a "smasher, like the trunk of a tree" and a saw implanted to intimidate his malfunctioning android butler into respecting him.

* IHateSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm3TayCgW0Q "I Hate California",]] which doesn't exactly hide its point -- though it makes it clear that he's not blaming anyone in particular for the feeling, and the main problem may be that the object of his affection is there when he isn't.

* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: "Skullcrusher Mountain".