History Series / GarthMarenghisDarkplace

-->"I ran the only way I knew how. By placing one leg in front of the other in quick succession."

* GratuitousSpanish: The Padre. "''Dios Mío!''"

... OK, so that's not actually true. The show itself is a spoof, though presented straight, of horror stories and '80s action shows. It is intentionally SoBadItsGood, with [[BadBadActing wooden acting]], many a SpecialEffectFailure (including a motorbike chase where they're riding pedal bikes with motorbike noises dubbed in), {{Anvilicious}} [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop dubious morals]], cheesy plots (including AttackOfTheKillerWhatever), poor editing and [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry corny dialogue]]. The show itself is this original footage, introduced by the fictional Marenghi (who [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed does not at all resemble]] a cross between British pulp horror writer Shaun Hutson and StephenKing, with a little CliveBarker, James Herbert, and Ramsey Campbell thrown in), with interviews by other cast members, praising how ground-breaking the show is, and generally offering insights into its (rather warped) meaning.

The ShowWithinAShow focuses around the staff of Darkplace Hospital in Romford, East London, which is apparently built over [[{{Hellgate}} the very Gates of Hell]]. Or, to be slightly more accurate, it's about Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D -- played by Marenghi himself -- [[MartyStu who is the best doctor in the world ever, as well as a crack shot, action hero and master warlock]]. Nevertheless, Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D, and (to a lesser extent) his friends and co-workers are the only hope the planet has against the various evils that rise up in Darkplace Hospital, including [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking mutant eye-babies, infectious broccoli-women, and of course, Scotsmen]].

** Dean is, in his own words, "not an actor" and simply blurts out his lines with no understanding of what he's saying. He also frequently glances off camera at his lines or at the camera itself. There are also lots of obvious edits in his longer lines, making it clear that he couldn't get out his entire speech in one go.

* ChekhovsGun:
-->"Take this, Dag."
-->"What is it?"

* ChivalrousPervert: What Rick Dagless is supposed to be in theory. In practice, not so much (well, not the chivalrous part).

* DelusionsOfEloquence: Garth is quite fond of trying to sound erudite, and failing catastrophically (mostly due to [[DontExplainTheJoke explaining]] what any [[ViewersAreMorons remotely exotic word means]]).
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment:
** Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D. expands to "Doctor Rick Dagless, ''Medicinae Doctor''". Real doctors choose one or the other.

-->'''Reed:''' Come on, you two queers! We need to lick this problem before it turns around and slaps us in the nuts!

* GratuitousSpanish: The Padre. "''Dios Mío!''"

* HeyItsThatVoice: Dr. Lucien Sanchez is played by Todd Rivers who is played by Matt Berry, also known as [[{{Memes/Advertising}} George the Volcano]].
** Not to mention a rather loud [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXU9Ur9QznE gummy bear]].

* IKEAErotica:

--->Dean: ''No one was more surprised than me when you pulled through'' (shifty eyes)
* KillItWithFire: Dag's solution to dealing with Renwick's reanimated corpse. This after shooting it several times with both [[RevolversAreJustBetter his revolver]] and [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Reed's shotgun]].

* LargeHam: Garth Marenghi himself. Thornton Reed is clearly meant to be played a LargeHam, but Learner is such a [[StylisticSuck hilariously bad actor]] that it doesn't entirely work. But there is no one hammier than Todd Rivers as Sanchez. [[http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=X6iJRNHUOT4&feature=related "So, what happened between you and this Renwick customerrrrrr?"]]

* LoopingLines: Often featured and played for comedy. The looped lines are much louder than the normal dialogue and stuck in regardless of whether they match the actor's lips or if his mouth is even moving at all. Most of the additional dialogue seems to be added to add exposition or address continuity errors.

* MoreDakka: Combined with OneWomanWail and a BigNo. Three things that really shouldn't go together.

* OhCisco:

* ProductPlacement:

* RuleOfCool: Sometimes merely otherwise inexplicable (why are doctors carrying around guns?), sometimes clearly a product of Marenghi's fanboyish replication of US media (the English Dag having fought in Vietnam "for [his] country").

** Sanchez stating, "That'll stop him" after Dagless has just fired eleven rounds from his {{Hand Cannon}} and used a flamethrower on [[spoiler:Renwick's re-animated, and somehow once again intact, body]].

* ViolentGlaswegian: Dagless goes on a long, horrifying, pretty racist rant about the night his plane had to make a lay-over in Glasgow.

* EurekaMoment:
** Spoofed in "The Apes of Wrath" when people start devolving into monkeys due to obviously green contaminated water. Dr Dagless suddenly puts all the pieces together -- the fact that his friends turned into monkeys after drinking a cup of water, the only two people who haven't turned into monkeys aren't drinking the water, and that the water's a sickly green color -- [[AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering and concludes that he's thirsty.]]

* LipLock: The actors (especially Todd Rivers) frequently lose lip sync in their poorly looped dialogue.

* MrExposition: Naturally, Dr. Rick Dagless, MD.
** Taken to ridiculous extremes. In one episode, the plot was so badly written that by the end of the show Garth has to talk non-stop for nearly a minute in order to explain what the hell has been happening. Made even more hilarious when it becomes obvious that this scene was never filmed, as we hear Garth delivering a voiceover at breakneck speed whilst the screen displays stills of inanimate objects from Thornton's office.

** Parodied again when Dagless [[CelebrityParadox picks up a Marenghi novel]], and spouts off several lines of dialogue concerning how he had "misjudged the genre".

* SoUnfunnyItsFunny: The characters are often spouting what are supposed to be witticisms, and there are a few moments of friendly playfullness between the doctors that are intended as comic relief. They're all so cliched or poorly executed that it's funny.

* OffTheChart: The main characters will often hand each other meaningless charts and graphs, often with the conclusion simply written out on the page in giant letters.

** Garth takes a SeriousBusiness approach, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome milking every mundane line as if it's the most terrifying thing in the world.]]

* FilmingForEasyDub: Lots of dialogue is obviously replaced or added outright in post. Usually it's to provide exposition for clumsily shot scenes or to address continuity errors.

* LivingProp: One "labourer" who fills at least ten different roles throughout the series.
* LoopingLines: Often played for laughs, such as when Dagless randomly yells "Don't do drugs" at a child without moving his lips.

* MeaningfulName: The name "Garth Marenghi" came from rearranging the letters in the phrase ARGH NIGHTMARE.
** SignificantAnagram

* OhCisco: "Just as long as it's not a ''screwdriver''!"
** "Yes, I'd prefer a beer!...Dear me...oh dear..."

* ProductPlacement: During one episode, the characters go into a ''[[OverlyLongGag lonnnnnng]]'' [[OverlyLongGag tangent]] about the superiority of name-brand batteries such as Duracell or Eveready over cheap "£1 bags" of batteries. Note that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofcom Ofcom]] doesn't like this kind of thing at all.

* ParodySue: Rick Dagless. He is more specifically a parody of a real Sue: Peter Rickman of KingdomHospital. Aptly, Garth Marenghi is not a small bit reminiscent of Stephen King himself.

* ShoutOut: Garth's showdown with the Scots is an obvious ShoutOut to ''TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly''.
** The broccoli disease is quite probably a reference to "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" section of {{Creepshow}} wherein Stephen King touches a meteorite and is overtaken by an aggressive space fungus.
* SittingOnTheRoof: Every episode ends with Dagless [[ContemplateOurNavels navel-gazing]] on the roof.

* SoUnfunnyItsFunny: The material is so ridiculous and presented in such a straightlaced fashion that it all becomes rather hilarious.
** Especially true of Garth's attempts at actually being funny. His jokes are so bad and the execution is so poor that you can't help but laugh at them.

* StylisticSuck: The entire series, but particularly the actors.
* TalkingAnimal: "That's strange. That cat just told me to leave."
** The cat is obviously voiced by Matt Berry. Of all the cast, he has the funniest voice.

* TwoWordsObviousTrope: Tele Kinesis.

* WriterOnBoard: The real premise.

* ActorExistenceFailure: Madeleine Wool; see DroppedABridgeOnHim below.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: There's a random Shakespeare quote in the first episode that pops up on screen for several seconds, then is never again referenced.
** Made even more hilarious by being referenced as "King Lear, p46" as opposed to the slightly more accurate "scene 4".

* BadassLongcoat: Dr. Rick Dagless [=MD=] is rarely seen without his doctors cape and cowboy boots.
** Even when he's not even wearing pants.

** Dean is, in his own words, "not an actor", and clearly has no idea what any of his lines even mean ("We're going to comfort Dag, want to come?" "No.") You can easily tell he's just blurting out his lines and where it's apparent that they've had to stop as Dean's forgotten them.
** Todd has a habit of [[AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle drawing out vowels]], and [[LargeHam hams up every line]] like TomBaker on one of his drunk days. The actor does the same thing when advertising for [[Memes/{{Advertising}} bottled water]].

** The "labourers" (including Graham Linehan) react to everything with blank expressions and bored voices: "Let's do it here. I'm really horny."
** The cook (Stephen Merchant) talks ''reallyreallyquickly''.

** ''ManToManWithDeanLearner'' adds Glynn Nimron to the register, an American [[strike: sci-fi]] SF actor who talks like no human ever would, even when not acting.

* BigNo: About seven per episode.
** Also usually of absurd length: Sanch's scream when his first shakes Liz's hand is so ridiculously long that even Sanch starts looking bored and glancing around.

* ButtMonkey: Liz. Literally in one episode.
* CampbellCountry: The final episode ("The Creeping Moss from the Shores of Shuggoth")provides us with Marenghi's rather unique take on Lovecraftian Horror.

* DelusionsOfEloquence: Garth is quite fond of trying to sound erudite, and failing catastrophically (mostly due to [[DontExplainTheJoke explaining]] what any [[ViewersAreMorons remotely exotic word means]]). This is probably because he's in [[PerfectlyCromulentWord rebelliance]] against convention.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D. expands to "Doctor Rick Dagless, ''Medicinae Doctor''". Real doctors choose one or the other. Also this delightful exchange from ''Scotch Mist'':

** It doesn't actually say what is based on this. But we can hope it's just the music. . .
* DontExplainTheJoke

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: The (fictional) actress, Madeleine Wool, who played Liz disappeared without a trace after the filming of ''Darkplace''. She is (emphatically) presumed dead by her fellow cast members. Dean Learner speculates that she's "buried somewhere in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Eastern bloc]]. If she got a burial."
** It's hinted more than once that they KNOW she's dead and that Dean had more than a little to do with her demise. Todd at one point says that he "Has to be careful what he says here" in the commentary when discussing Madeleine and, when Garth brings up Madeleine's street theatre act where she would take things from people Dean says he would "beat the hell out of her" if she tried that with him. The uncomfortable silence that follows from the three is more than a little suggestive.
*** The implication is less that Dean had something to do with it than Wool was involved in things [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Dean found beyond the pale]], and they are not comfortable even mentioning her in passing as a result. The anecdotes they do reluctantly air suggest she was a very odd woman indeed- although granted Todd Rivers' idea of odd is that she refused to sit on his knee.

* EurekaMoment: Spoofed in "The Apes of Wrath" when people start [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys devolving into monkeys]] due to [[{{Troll2}} obviously green]] contaminated water. Dr Dagless suddenly puts all the pieces together -- the fact that his friends turned into monkeys after drinking a cup of water, the only two people who haven't turned into monkeys aren't drinking the water, and that the water's a sickly green color -- [[AreYouPonderingWhatImPondering and concludes that he's thirsty.]]
** Now some people may complain that Dean ''did'' drink the green water, but he only took a tiny sip, and it doesn't work if you only take a tiny sip. That's why that line of dialogue was there, "Thank god I only took a tiny sip." So it would make sense.

* FantasticAesop
-->''My books always say something. Even if it's just something simple, like "don't genetically engineer crabs to be as big as men".''

* {{Filler}}: Dean Learner states that so much slow-motion footage was used because the episodes often ran several minutes short and had to be padded out somehow.
* FilmingForEasyDub
* FiveManBand
** TheHero / TheSmartGuy: Rick Dagless
** TheLancer: Lucian Sanchez
** TheBigGuy: Thornton Reed
** TheChick: Liz Asher. So. Very. Much.

* [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan Get A Hold Of Yourself Woman!]] Rather than slapping Liz whenever she's "[[HystericalWoman hysterical]]", Dagless punches her in the face. But then again, it's obvious Garth has "issues" with the fair sex.

* [[AGlassInTheHand A Polystyrene Cup In The Hand]]: When it's [[ItMakesSenseInContext not a shovel]] anyway.

* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Garth is fond of peppering his speech with foreign words, mostly [[GratuitousFrench French]], ([[ViewersAreMorons which he then translates]]) in an effort to make him sound more [[strike: pompous]] intelligent.
* GratuitousRap: Thornton Reed's brief stint as a rapper in the so-Eighties-it-hurts music video ''One Track Lover''.

* HallOfMirrors: Clearly the budget wouldn't stretch to an entire hall, but we do get the tense shoot-out in the "water and mirror storage room", [[SarcasmMode which you'll find in every hospital]].
* [[HesGotAWeapon He's Got A Stick]]

* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: Darkplace itself
* IKEAErotica: Episode 6 opens with a hilariously bad sex scene from a Marenghi novel.
-->''Mary felt her body burning, even though the room was properly air-conditioned. They tried all the positions: on top, doggy and normal. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Then, a hell-beast ate them.]]''

* {{Jerkass}}: Marenghi is bad, but Dean Learner suffers from so much ValuesDissonance that he borders on HeroicSociopath.
** Especially as it's implied he killed the person who financed the show (Achmed who was interested in "moving pictures" and very "sadly" was shot in his flat), Garth's second publicist and Liz's actress. And he tried to kill Steve Pissing, a race car driver.

* LargeHam: Either Dean Learner or Garth Marenghi himself; Thornton Reed is clearly meant to be played a LargeHam, but Learner is such a [[StylisticSuck hilariously bad actor]] that it doesn't entirely work.
** There is no one hammier than Todd Rivers as Sanchez. [[http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=X6iJRNHUOT4&feature=related "So, what happened between you and this Renwick customerrrrrr?"]] It's no coincidence that a bottled water advert featuring the actor has become a staple for YouTubePoop.
*** "'You and he were... BUDDIES, weren't you?' Need I say more? Need I say more?"
** "Not my fault! BASTARD monkey hands!"

* LipLock: The actors (especially Todd Rivers) frequently lose lip sync.
* LittlestCancerPatient: About OnceAnEpisode.
** Made all the more hilarious in one instance where the kid is a heroin addict.

* CampbellCountry: The final episode ("The Creeping Moss from the Shores of Shuggoth")provides us with Marenghi's rather unique take on LovecraftianHorror.

** Renwick telling Dagless, "It really hurts."

** This is especially with Garth's attempts at actually being funny. His jokes are so bad and the execution is so poor that you can't help but laugh at them.

* FilmedForEasyDub

[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/GarthMarenghisDarkplace Now has a character sheet]].

** [[{{TheITCrowd}} Thornton Reed is Maurice Moss and Lucien Sanchez is Douglas Reynholm]]

* DontLookAtTheCamera

** The cook (Stephen Merchant) who appears in one episode just talks ''reallyreallyquickly''.

** Todd has a habit of drawing out vowels, and [[LargeHam hams up every line]] like TomBaker on one of his drunk days. The actor does the same thing when advertising for [[Memes/{{Advertising}} bottled water]].

In the UK the series ran on Channel 4, in America, the series first ran on the SciFiChannel, then moved to AdultSwim.

* {{Metaphorgotten}}
-->"The doors of Darkplace were open. Not the literal doors of the building, most of which were closed. But evil doors. Dark doors. Doors, to the beyond. Doors that were hard to shut because they were abstract and didn't have handles. They were more like portals really. From this day on I'd have to fight these forces of darkness, and deal with the burden of day-to-day admin."

* AlmostDeadGuy: Parodied with [[spoiler: the Temp]], who, as he lays dying, manages to hold on long enough to explain Bermuda's political position in the United Kingdom.

* TwoWordsObviousTrope: Tele Kinesis.

* AlmostDeadGuy: Parodied with [[spoiler: the Temp]], who, as he lies dying, manages to hold on long enough to explain Bermuda's political position in the United Kingdom.