History Series / TheLastManOnEarth

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In "Double Cheeseburger", Tandy and Gail are arguing about [[spoiler:what to do to make Carol give birth to her second baby]], while in the background, Carol is [[spoiler:quietly giving birth to said baby.]]

* StunGun: In "You're All Going To Diet", Tandy decides to start teaching self-defense courses, and asks Lewis to volunteer for his demonstration on using a taser. He reassures Lewis that he will NOT shoot him, but accidentally hits the fire button anyway. He wonders how to make it stop, and the others suggest he removes his finger from the firing trigger.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The series offhandedly depicts Mike Pence as being the 46th president of the United States, whether because he was elected after UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's term or assumed office due to Trump succumbing to the virus. The show also assumes that Pence's cabinet would be very similar to the one Trump established at the beginning of his term, since the line of succession (and virus victims) includes Paul Ryan, Rex Tillerson, and Jeff Sessions, all of whom ended up resigning or getting axed during Trump's term in office. Of course, the ''actual'' 46th president would end up being UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, whose election coincidentally occurred during a pandemic similar to the one depicted in the show.

* MoodWhiplash: The series finds perfect moments to switch between light-hearted comedy and serious examples of when RealityEnsues, including characters dieing and disasters taking place. For example, Season 3 ends with the [[spoiler:birth of Carol's baby, a beautiful moment immediately ruined by a nuclear meltdown. After having no choice but to go back to Los Angeles, Pat tracks them down, only to be immediately killed by Pamela]].

* RealityEnsues:
** Tucson's a big town, so it turns out a sign saying "Alive In Tucson" doesn't guarantee that the survivor will find Phil. [[spoiler: Melissa was actually in town before Carol, but just hadn't run into Phil yet. Todd was on his way out of town when he saw Phil's fireworks]].
** Zigzagged by the gasoline starting to go bad in season 2. It looks like their vehicular days are numbered, but it's never acknowledged again after being introduced.
** The mid-Season 2 finale shows [[spoiler: what would happen if one of the survivors got a life-threatening ailment. Phil #2 ends up dying because there are no doctors around to perform an operation.]]
** Phil convinces Lewis to [[spoiler: fly a plane before he feels ready. Cue everyone cheering and showing support as Lewis takes off...and immediately crashes. He wasn't ready.]]
** In Season 4, the cast finally starts to acknowledge that their canned food has almost all gone expired and their life of simply living on scavenged luxury items is not sustainable.

* ContinuitySnarl: In the episode "Got Milk?", new character Pamela Brinton shows what happened during the last days of the virus. While in a bunker, she uses the available drone to look for other people. When she finds the group in Malibu, from the groups perspective, the drone appears three times, 1) when Gail was alone, 2) when others were with her, proving its existence, and 3) when the group holds up signs [[spoiler:and Melissa shoots it out of the sky.]] From Pamela's perspective, she sees Gail alone, then the group holding signs before losing the signal to a "fatal system error."

* ''Series/{{LazyTown}}'': In "[=LazyTown=]'s Surprise Santa", Stingy wraps a gift and addresses it to himself.

* OffWithHisHead: After Pamela [[spoiler: shoots Pat in the back of the head, he still wasn't quite dead. After pumping him full of holes, they decide the absolute best way to make sure he's dead is to take a shovel and decapitate him.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The series offhandedly depicts Mike Pence as being the 46th president of the United States, aligning with common predictions in the late 2010s that he'd emerge as a potential successor to UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, under whom he served as vice president. The ''actual'' 46th president would end up being UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, whose election coincidentally occurred during a pandemic similar to the one depicted in the show.
** The show also assumes that with the apparent exception of Trump himself, Pence's cabinet would be very similar to the one Trump established at the beginning of his term, since the line of succession (and virus victims) includes Paul Ryan, Rex Tillerson, and Jeff Sessions, all of which ended up resigning or getting axed during Trump's term in office.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The series offhandedly depicts Mike Pence as being the 46th president of the United States, aligning with common predictions in the late 2010's that he'd emerge as a potential successor to UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, under whom he served as vice president. The ''actual'' 46th president would end up being UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, whose election coincidentally occurred during a pandemic similar to the one depicted in the show.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: No, Phil isn't the last person on Earth.

* SuddenlyVoiced: [[TheVoiceless Jasper]] finally starts talking in "The Big Day". After the gang found him living by himself for who knows how long, it took a few episodes before he finally starts to bond with Melissa and relaxes around everyone.

* ApocalypseHow: Almost all animal life was wiped out by a virus. Not only are there no people, but there are no dogs, cats, birds, and even bugs. Phil and the gang are shocked when they find [[spoiler:a random cow]], and more shocked when they find [[spoiler:crickets]].

''The Last Man on Earth'' is a FOX Network television series that ran for four seasons between 2015 and 2018. It stars Creator/WillForte, Creator/KristenSchaal, Mel Rodriguez, Cleopatra Coleman, January Jones, and Creator/MarySteenburgen. The series was created by Forte himself, with Creator/PhilLordAndChrisMiller producing.

* TheAce: Phil #2. He's a handsome and handy ex-special forces soldier with a host of useful skills. He's even good at Jenga! Phil does not measure up in any way. Even Todd gets insecure. Season 2 introduces an element of BrokenAce, in that his lust for Carol and his dislike of Phil (albeit hardly unjustified in the latter case) hint at a much darker character than the perfecter-than-perfect champion he appeared to be in Season 1.

** After several years with no maintenance or upkeep, [[spoiler:nuclear power plants are beginning to meltdown.]]
*** This is a massive subversion. In real life, nuclear reactors have fail-safes to prevent this exact scenario, called the SCRAM system. If a reaction was to go into meltdown (due to a lack of maintenance), inert lead rods drop between the active radioactive material while the chamber itself floods with a combination of deuterium and bromide known as 'heavy water.' The nuclear disasters of the age (Chernobyl and 3-Mile Island) occurred ''because'' the SCRAM system was taken offline to test different solutions. The last thing to consider is that when reactors run out of fuel, they simply shut down, not explode, much like when an automobile or a campfire simply stops working when out of fuel. For further information see ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics.

*** This is a massive subversion. In real life, nuclear reactors have fail-safes to prevent this exact scenario, called the SCRAM system. If a reaction was to go into meltdown (due to a lack of maintenance), inert lead rods drop between the active radioactive material while the chamber itself floods with a combination of deuterium and bromide known as 'heavy water.' The nuclear disasters of the age (Chernobyl and 3-Mile Island) occurred ''because'' the SCRAM system was taken offline to test different solutions. The last thing to consider is that when reactors run out of fuel, they simply shut down, not explode, much like when an automobile or a campfire simply stops working when out of fuel. When fires and cars run out of fuel, they do not then explode. For further information see ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics.

*** This is a massive subversion. In real life, nuclear reactors have fail-safes to prevent this exact scenario, called the SCRAM system. If a reaction was to go critical (due to a lack of maintenance), inert lead rods drop between the active radioactive material while the chamber itself floods with a combination of deuterium and bromide known as 'heavy water.' The nuclear disasters of the age (Chernobyl and 3-Mile Island) occurred ''because'' the SCRAM system was taken offline to test different solutions. The last thing to consider is that when reactors run out of fuel, they simply shut down, not explode, much like when an automobile or a campfire simply stops working when out of fuel. When fires and cars run out of fuel, they do not then explode. For further information see ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics.