History Podcast / WelcomeToNightVale

** The end of the ''Thrilling Adventure Hour / Night Vale'' Crossover is one big shout out to the ending of ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' with the band playing a mashup of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' and ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' themes.

** This all assumes that [[EldritchLocation Night Vale even has a fixed physical location to begin with.]]

''"[[SigningOffCatchPhrase Goodnight, Night Vale. Goodnight...]]"''

Done in a community radio style, the show reports on the various stories around town and the community events happening that week. The host is Cecil, who coolly narrates in a dispassionate manner reminiscent of Garrison Keillor in Radio/{{A Prairie Home Companion}}. The background music playing throughout the show is composed by [[http://disparition.info/ Disparition]], with the exception of the "Weather" section of the show, which features a different musical guest each episode.

** To a lesser extent, Egemony and Kellogs.

*** In "Condos", [[spoiler:he runs from his microphone to pull Carlos out of his black cube moments before they all descend into the earth, taking their occupants with them to never be seen again.]]

* ForbiddenZone: The City Dog Park.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In "Old Oak Doors", [[spoiler:Steve]] points out that, technically, Carlos is not a native Night Vale inhabitant. [[spoiler:This comes into play at the end when Carlos is unable to return to Night Vale since he's originally from out of town and doesn't belong there]].

* GenreSavvy: The citizens of Night Vale realize that the carnival coming to town is probably an EldritchAbomination intending nothing but harm. [[spoiler:They're [[WrongGenreSavvy hilariously wrong this time]], but can you really blame them?]]

* GibberishOfLove: Cecil is embarrassed to have been afflicted with a mild form during one conversation he has with the ever-so-radiant Carlos. He becomes flustered and only manages to reply with an enthusiastic "Neat!" to Carlos' science-related call.

* HadToBeSharp: Pretty much a pre-requisite to survive Night Vale.
** Furthermore; if you ever start underestimating Cecil for being rather naïve or ditzy, remember that he survived both as a boy scout and ''radio intern''.

* HeroicBystander: The show plays with Cecil being one of these. He definitely has the desire to help out in certain situations, but, by definition as a radio reporter, he is always distant from the action. A couple of times his helplessness causes him legitimate distress, but his [[TheFettered sense of duty to stay]] and report the news keeps him at the station. However, he does [[RunningGag frequently]] send out [[RedShirt station interns]] to investigate, some of whom have made it back alive.

* HypocriticalHumor: Complaints about the shadowy World Government are often tempered with glowing praise for the town's own Secret Police and totalitarian City Council.

** "Ignorance may not actually be bliss, but it certainly is less work."

* ImplausibleDeniability: The Night Vale Business Association declares that Harbor and Waterfront Recreation Area - which they built in a previous episode... in the desert, at great expense, and for no good reason - was simply a mass hallucination. Remembering it or finding it exactly where it was ''supposedly'' built simply means you are still hallucinating.

* TheIntern: The radio station has several, generally {{Red Shirt}}s, often only mentioned to say that they're missing, presumed dead. Dana ([[AmbiguousCloneEnding or her doppelgänger]]) is the only one who survives long enough to become a character in her own right. Later joined by the ProperlyParanoid sceptic, Maureen, and later, by Kareem.

* IrrationalHatred: Cecil hates Steve Carlsberg for initially no discernible reason, and goes out of his way to insult and mock him at every turn. However, as the show goes on it explores his relationship with and feelings towards Steve in more detail. Cecil initially accuses Steve of being a neglectful stepfather to his niece, Janice, but in The September Monologues, [[spoiler:Steve claims that Cecil really resents him for trying to tell Janice the truth about the town's conspiracies rather than feeding her a safer lie.]] In the episode "Matryoshka", Cecil admits that [[spoiler:the real reason why he hates Steve is because he perceives him as getting in the way of Cecil's relationship with his sister and niece. Cecil and Abby had spent most of their adult lives barely speaking to each other, and that had only just started to change when Janice was born and her medical condition put him in the position of being Abby's primary source of emotional and financial support. He saw Steve coming in to offer support of his own as taking that importance away from him and demoting him to "just an uncle". He admits in that episode that he has been unfair, and that Steve is a good father and friend, and is friendly towards him in subsequent episodes.]]

* {{Leitmotif}}: The podcast's theme song, "The Ballad of Fiedler and Mundt", could be considered this for Cecil. [[spoiler:Its sudden appearance in Episode 48 signals his return.]]

** Episode 6 features a horoscopes section where each of the zodiac signs are given increasingly odd/hilarious horoscopes. Among other things, Cecil warns Capricorns that "those were not contact lenses you put in this morning", announces that it's Taurus's "annual crime day" where they're exempt from all laws, and simply curses Scorpios and their families and calls them "vile".
*** The live episode "Librarians" sheds some light on this when Cecil accidentally slips in reading the horoscope for Scorpio. A certain Steve Carlsberg is born under that sign.

** Of course, it's also possible that Telly the Barber (who cut perfect Carlos' perfect hair) was driven mad because he was run out of town when Cecil publicly condemned him on the radio, and he was forced to live in the sand wastes. It's a bit unclear.

* MirrorUniverse: Desert Bluffs is one for Night Vale. And may, depending on your perspective, [[EvilerThanThou be worse than Night Vale]]. Cecil certainly seems to think so.
** Also, apparently a literal MirrorUniverse can be created as a consequence of using substandard bloodstones.

* MoodWhiplash: Cecil often switches abruptly from talking about something terrifying to an unrelated and much more cheerful story, or at least one he seems to feel cheerful about at any rate.

** Although, judging by Hiram's campaign message in Episode 32, the multiple heads ''do'' have very different, er, priorities.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The story of "The Shape In Grove Park" involves a mysterious black shape that no-one acknowledges or speaks about. When the shape turns molten red and speaks in countless voices, Cecil receives a missive from the City council instructing him to stop speaking about it.

* Nuclear Horror: In the year [[ArcWords 1983]], [[spoiler:The Able Archer tests went wrong. Soviet Russia and the U.S.A declared nuclear war on each other. In a fit of desperation, the city's resident benevolent [[EldritchAbomination eldritch horror]] Huntokar reached out and cut off Night Vale from the soon-to-be destroyed reality. However, in doing so, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero she cut off every Night Vale from their realities]]]].

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Carlos, described only as "a scientist", doesn't seem to concentrate on any particular branch of science.
** He does give an interesting statement on the matter in Episode 38, though.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. All of the angels who stay with Old Woman Josie are named Erika. There is, for what it's worth, only one Steve. Although he seems to be literally so rare that he has no counterpart in mirror community Desert Bluffs.

* OpenSecret: Many of Night Vale's secrets are the "officially denied but everyone knows" variety. Including but not limited to [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]], [[TheMenInBlack a vague yet menacing government agency]], the antics of Sheriff's Secret Police, or the undisclosed location where people (and/or people's loved ones) get taken.

* OriginsEpisode: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] for the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home, in the live episode "Condos." The Faceless Old Woman tells a story that begins, "Once upon a time there was a young woman who had a face, and did not live in secret." But the woman begins to doubt her life, and tries to live others' lives, and as a result becomes harder and harder to see, because there was less of her to see. Until she dies. The Faceless Old Woman then explains that that wasn't her, it was just someone she watched, although she can see why you might have been confused.

* PrecisionFStrike: None in the actual show, but in two of the Weather segments: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RdlhkTrwHI Neptune's Jewels]]" in Episode 17 and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hww3n1cqnM Stupid]]" in Episode 47.

** Then again, this is Night Vale. These ads might actually ''work.''

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:The Apache Tracker]]. Nobody likes him, and Cecil frequent refers to him as [[spoiler:a racist and a jerk]] but when he saves Carlos from [[spoiler:the miniature people and is fatally wounded in the process]], Cecil calls him a good man.
** And then goes on to acknowledge in the next episode that while [[spoiler:the Apache Tracker]]'s heroic actions were worthy of the statue the City Council had built of him, said statue was then buried somewhere in the desert because he was still [[spoiler:a racist jerk and nobody wanted Night Vale to be associated with him.]]
* RedShirt: The constant deaths of the community station's lowly interns/staffers. Cecil will mention their "sacrifice" to the station's cause, though by the time we get to Intern Jesús, he can't seem to be bothered any more. It's worth pointing out that Cecil himself was once an intern, making him either extraordinarily lucky, borderline indestructible, an ActionSurvivor, or something in between.
** The Night Vale Community Radio intern shirts in the Night Vale online store are, appropriately enough, solid red.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Episode 25 marks the first moment Carlos is shown to reciprocate Cecil's long-standing crush. Two episodes later, they begin dating. The live episode "Condos" suggests that Carlos wants to move in with Cecil. Cecil refers to Carlos as "my boyfriend" for the first time in Episode 32.
** As of Episode 100, [[spoiler:Cecil and Carlos are married.]]

** This is, however, [[JustifiedTrope in keeping with Night Vale's weirdness]] and Cecil's UnreliableNarrator status, as well as various hints that something is seriously weird with Cecil's family/past/timeline and how he became the Voice of Night Vale.

* RummageSaleReject: Cecil's outfits include: his best tunic and furry pants, a Hawaiian shirt and a hat made of honeycombs, tights and sponge clogs, and according to the ''Thrilling Adventure Hour'' crossover, a fanny pack most of the time.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Carlos gets fed up with all the crazy unscientific nonsense in the ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour'' crossover and projects himself back into the parallel alternate desert otherworld where he lives. As you do.

* ShameIfSomethingHappened: Cecil tells his listeners to tip the leaders of the road crews working on the highway generously. Also, "Lack of tipping is the leading cause of sink-holes in the U.S."

*** Also, the proverb for the episode, "A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A basilisk" is a parody of Sean Parker telling Mark Zuckerberg "A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion dollars" in ''Film/TheSocialNetwork''

** Episode 4 has a ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' reference, about the first death in the film
*** The plot of the episode also involves [[Series/{{Torchwood}} pterodactyls coming to the present through a rift in time and space]]

*** Apparently the doors to the Night Vale Community Radio Station can only be opened when [[Literature/HarryPotter given blood]].

* SigningOffCatchphrase: "Good night, Night Vale. Good night."

* [[SpecialEditionTitle Special Edition Opening Theme]]: In Episode 19B, the regular theme song is replaced by a pleasant guitar tune [[spoiler:which is the theme song for the Desert Bluffs community radio channel.]] It returns in Episodes 47 and 48 [[spoiler:when [=StrexCorp=] takes over Night Vale and assimilates it into the 'Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area'.]] All three shows are [[spoiler:hosted by Kevin.]]
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: A lot of names tend to be misspelled. For the record, [[http://stevecarlsberg.tumblr.com/post/55797081331 according to Jeffrey Cranor]], it's "Steve Carlsberg" with an "e", "Old Woman Josie" with an "ie", "Telly" with a "y", and the levitating bathroom cat's name is [[http://stevecarlsberg.tumblr.com/post/55799545725 "Khoshekh"]].

** He later clarifies that he doesn't feel much of anything at all.

* StrawmanNewsMedia: A rare sympathetic example. Cecil seems to be generally biased in favor of Night Vale's totalitarian municipal government and uncritically relays a lot of obvious misinformation, but he also doesn't seem to know any better and is clearly well-meaning.
** That being said, there are signs that [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Cecil might just be complying with the official story because he knows what might happen if he doesn't.]] After all, even his credulity/compliance is strained when the City Council explains that the feral dog pack seen around town was really just plastic bags. There's also a vaguely [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] tone to his references to the local police and government (once referred to "unsupervised, gun-toting thugs of a shadow government"). He seems to disapprove, but isn't in much of a position to directly say anything negative. Cecil seems to know enough not to trust [[spoiler:[=StrexCorp=]]] when they arrive in Episode 32, and he pirates the station's signal to express his support of [[spoiler:Tamika's rebellion]] in Episode 36. He also mentions in that pirate broadcast that he's frequently prevented from saying what he really thinks.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: The authority figures in Night Vale pretty much run on this trope.

* TalkingIsAFreeAction: While Cecil always seems to have time to wax poetical in the midst of dangerous happenings, an especially notable example occurs when [[spoiler:Lauren and Kevin find Cecil's hiding spot at the end of Episode 46. Cecil has a very long time to describe Kevin and express his feelings of horror and despair before the two interrupt him to seize his microphone (and Cecil himself).]]
** Subverted and perhaps lampshaded in Episode 38 when [[spoiler:Cecil ponders sending a long, passionate text to Carlos in the face of his impending death by John Peters (y'know, the impostor) and a reality-bending orange-- but then realizes it would take too long and just whacks Fake!John upside the head with the phone.]]

* TitleDrop: Usually, the title of an episode is the primary focus of the episode, but there are a few exceptions:
** Episode 34, "A Beautiful Dream"

* TownWithADarkSecret: Night Vale has plenty.
** Desert Bluffs has a more cheery exterior, but evidence suggests that the situation there is just as bad if not worse than the one in Night Vale.
* [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday The Transit Service That Wasn't There Yesterday]]: The plot of Episode 29A was the appearance of a citywide subway system, literally overnight. After one day of operation, service was suspended until further notice because of construction, but the deer-masked entities responsible promised would-be passengers that free shuttle buses would be provided when one least expects it, at moments of great despair and hopelessness.

** Perhaps Kevin did attempt to hug Cecil in the vortex but Cecil took the action as an attack and reflexively fought back against him. Cecil was rather shaken up by the whole affair and Kevin has shown himself to be unendingly, unnaturally cheerful. Or perhaps hugging is seen as an act of aggression in Night Vale. Or perhaps "hug" is Desert Bluffs' term for attempted strangulation.
*** Given the Desert Bluffs intern/helper doppelgänger helping the original to "Put up shelving" ended up with a death, whereas the Night Vale one was just a pure attack, it seems like Desert Bluffs has a more happy outlook on violence.

** "Is that even a smile?"
** "[[LittleNo No]]. ''That is not a smile''."

** The Glow Cloud later wins an election for president of the school board. Because [[RuleOfFunny why not.]]

** Episode 65; [[spoiler:Not only does it include pretty much every voiced character from the show, but it contains three big revelations. 1) Carlos finally figured out that the desert otherworld is contained within the dog park, thereby giving Cecil a way to come visit and possibly for Carlos to get out, 2) Fey (the Numbers Station AI) still has some of her sentience and was able to momentarily break out of her repetition by herself, and 3) Kevin is still around and kicking, and he (and presumably Desert Bluffs/the remnants of the Old [=StrexCorp=]/The Smiling God) have something big planned for Night Vale in the very near future.]]

* PteroSoarer: Subverted.
-->"Secret police are now reporting that the offending beasts were not pteranodons after all, but pterodactyls. Also, pteranodons aren't even dinosaurs, as the station had previously stated-- just winged reptiles that lived about 70 million years after pterodactyls."
** Double Subverted in that the mentioned pterodactyls, which in real life were filter feeders with three foot wingspans, managed to kill 38 people at a PTA meeting, which would have made ''more'' sense if they were the much larger Pteranodons.

** In Episode 1, Carlos visits the studio with a Geiger counter and promptly advises everyone to evacuate. Clearly the studio has high levels of ''[[IncrediblyLamePun "radio activity"]]''.

* ValentinesDayEpisodes: No romance seems to be involved; apparently a normal Valentine's Day in Night Vale involves widespread property damage and terrible loss of human life. In the days following, the streets are cleared to allow emergency vehicles through to the affected areas, which are strewn with corpses, rubble, and chalky candy hearts.

* HotScientist: Carlos is described by Cecil as having beautiful hair, a beautiful voice, and "teeth like a military cemetery." Whether this is all true and Carlos is actually really hot or Cecil is just biased is another story, however the town does seem to at least be in agreement about the hair.

* TheIntern: The radio station has several, generally {{Red Shirt}}s, often only mentioned to say that they're missing, presumed dead. Dana ([[AmbiguousCloneEnding or her doppelgänger]]) is the only one who survives long enough to become a character in her own right. Later joined by the ProperlyParanoid sceptic, Maureen.

A ''Literature/WelcomeToNightVale'' novel was released on October 20, 2015. Chronologically, it is set right before Episode 76 of the podcast, which serves both as an epilogue and a sort of advertisement for the book. A second novel, titled ''Literature/ItDevours'', was released on October 17, 2017. The third novel, ''Literature/TheFacelessOldWomanWhoSecretlyLivesInYourHome'', was published on March 26, 2020.

** The local grocery store is a Ralphs, which would suggest south-eastern California (the only desert region where Ralphs operates). Joseph Fink grew up near this area, which has many weird little towns.[[note]]The hometown he describes in an interview sounds more like Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, or Ontario, which are studiedly ''not'' weird and instead rather industrial, and surprisingly flat. Also, they kind of blend into one another, so it isn't always possible when you've left one of these towns for the next.[[/note]] Mentone is a candidate as is Yucca Valley; Forest Falls and Mountain Home Village would be excellent settings for nearby Pine Cliffs[[note]]Go Lizard Monitors![[/note]]. Cecil mentions "Joshua trees" in "The Registry of Middle School Crushes"; this could refer to Joshua Tree National Park or the nearby weird little town of Joshua Tree[[note]]a hippie enclave which actually had a community radio station until 2016, when it was forced to shut down by increased royalty demands from the RIAA -- the lawyers who own the record companies. Today's nearest equivalent would probably be Ken Layne's [[https://www.desertoracle.com/radio/ Desert Oracle Radio]].

** The local grocery store is a Ralphs, which would suggest south-eastern California (the only desert region where Ralphs operates). Joseph Fink grew up near this area, which has many weird little towns.[[note]]The hometown he describes in an interview sounds more like Rancho Cucamonga or Ontario, which are studiedly ''not'' weird and instead rather industrial, and surprisingly flat.[[/note]] Mentone is a candidate as is Yucca Valley; Forest Falls and Mountain Home Village would be excellent settings for nearby Pine Cliffs. Cecil mentions "Joshua trees" in "The Registry of Middle School Crushes"; this could refer to Joshua Tree National Park or the nearby weird little town of Joshua Tree.

** "[[LittleNo No]]. ''[[UncannyValley That is not a smile]]''."

->''"A friendly desert community where the Sun is hot, the Moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. [[TitleDrop Welcome to Night Vale]]."''

* CrapsaccharineWorld: On the surface, Desert Bluffs appears to be a much more cheery town than Night Vale, but that only makes the occasional references to Desert Bluffs' dark side even creepier. [[UpToEleven And then you find out]] everything is [[spoiler:either [[MeatMoss covered in]] or ''[[HumanResources made out of]]'' [[EvilIsVisceral viscera]]]].

** Taken UpToEleven in the Whole Foods ad from Episode 49A: "At Whole Foods, we don't have any rotting, decaying matter mixed into our products. There are no secret blood rooms in our stores. Where we keep the secret blood. None of the boxes of cereal contain spiders, and if they did, they would be very friendly, helpful spiders. Why, wouldn't you be lucky to find a spider like that in a box of Whole Foods cereal? Or not just one. Hundreds of them. But anyway, you won't. Whole Foods serves only the freshest food, and we certainly do not keep venomous snakes under the fruit in our produce section. Why would we? That would be dangerous and not good for business. No one has died of a snake bite at Whole Foods. No one you know. Whole Foods: why in the world would we poison our frozen dinners? We definitely do not do that."

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** Every episode, after some particularly weird story, the creepy music will suddenly cut out and Cecil, speaking matter-of-factly, will say "And now the weather", followed by a piece of music that changes each episode (in a kind of "musical guest" section).
** Episode 13, appropriately titled "A Story About You" is told entirely in the SecondPersonNarration, rather than the usual mix of third person narration via news delivery and Cecil's [[FirstPersonPerspective first person]] asides. Episode 45, "A Story About Them", is in the same style, and can be considered a sequel of sorts.
** Episode 19B is set in Desert Bluffs and hosted by Kevin, Cecil's counterpart.
** Episode 53 has no stories, just monologues from three very different people with no Weather or even a proverb! Cecil himself barely appears. This format is repeated in Episode 86.
** In November of 2014, the show went on a hiatus - but the kind of hiatus where they still released full length episodes, only these were short stories written by guests, narrated by Cecil... and rather odd. "Minutes" was simply the minutes of a Night Vale Community College Faculty Meeting, while "What of the Sea?" was the existential reflections of a Night Vale woman who receives a mysterious letter in the mail.
** Episode 65 "Voicemail" is literally just Cecil's voicemail, with messages from people like Carlos, Dana, Old Woman Josie, and [[spoiler:''Kevin'']].
** "[Best Of?]" is hosted by [[spoiler:Leonard Burton, Cecil's predecessor]].
** The "Who's a Good Boy?" two-parter is by far the darkest episode in the series, with the usual comedic asides all being replaced with grim reminders that the Universe could be about to end. For instance, the Community Calendar segment says only that all events are cancelled, including the week itself, and the Horoscopes just say that the stars have all gone silent to protect us from the knowledge.
** The 100th episode features every character/actor who has ever appeared on the show (including both voices of Carlos, see TheOtherDarrin below) delivering short quips or stories, rather than a single narrative from Cecil. LeaningOnTheFourthWall, they are both congratulating the podcast itself on 100 episodes and, InUniverse, [[spoiler:congratulating Cecil and Carlos on their wedding.]]
** Episode 109, "A Story About Huntokar", is narrated by [[spoiler:Huntokar, telling her own life story.]]

* ThoseTwoGuys: The-Man-Who-Is-Not-Tall and The-Man-Who-Is-Not-Short are this in "A Story About Them". Though they may be skirting the line between this and ThoseTwoBadGuys considering they killed you.

** It's unclear what precisely is going on with time in the episode "Michigan", but you could make the argument for this, as Kareen spends 2 years living in Night Vale, but when he leaves to visit his family [[spoiler:they imply he's been gone for 20 years. He then spends 2 weeks with them and when he returns Cecil claims that he's only been gone about 5 minutes.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler:all attempts Kareen makes to communicate with his family from within Night Vale suggest that his letters and phone calls are either reaching back in time to before he departed, or possibly into another dimension entirely, as his family claims that he's there with them, and he even manages to talk to himself over the phone.]] [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Understatement Time is weird in Night Vale.]]

* WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler:Kevin pulls this on Cecil in Episode 49. Cecil refuses, but Steve Carlsberg wavers...[[BerserkButton until Kevin implies that Steve's disabled stepdaughter is "broken"]].]]