History WebVideo / CaptainDisillusion

* {{Kayfabe}}: Captain treats the creator, Alan, as his unpaid intern who just happens to look like him. Additionally, rather than an organic being who paints the bottom half of his face silver, he's canonically an android who paints the top half of his face flesh-colored.

* AnAesop:
** In "The Undebunkable", Captain D gives an [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristically direct and passionate talk]] about the importance of not thinking ''everything'' is fake. He stresses ''critical thinking'', not cynicism.
** "The Mandaellah Effekt" features Captain D and [[ItMakesSenseInContext Holly!Captain D]] showcasing how harmful conspiracy theorizing can be, with the "it's just interesting to think about" line of thinking going against the historical facts and encouraging illogical reaches.
--->'''Captain D:''' Being fascinated with a quirk of the mind is great, but if your explanation for it blows right past OccamsRazor to "inter-universe leakage", it's kind of a problem for the rest of us.\\
'''Holly!Captain:''' It encourages sloppy, uncritical thinking, which is never a good thing. Knowing how to distinguish what you ''think'' is real from what ''is'' real is the most important skill in the universe. [[ItMakesSenseInContext I'm saying that, and I'm an actual goddess.]]

* RatingsStunt: Spoofed in the episode "Fantasy Files Explanation", which opens with Captain D analysing his [=YouTube=] viewer statistics and concluding the best way to boost his audience is to spice his show up with gratuitous 3D, [[StylisticSuck cheesy green-screen effects]] (despite the show already using very competent green-screen effects), and a topic chosen to appeal to a young adult demographic.

*** "[[https://youtu.be/iLIAMt0wXzQ Quick D: Cup Levitation & Train Track Rescue]]" uses 4:3 ratio and DeliberateVHSQuality to show that a certain magic trick is "So old, [he] covered it in [his] pre-internet days".

*** "[[https://youtu.be/g5ZgUIobSj0 CD / Aspect Ratio]]" switches aspect ratios to demonstrate its subject matter. Although it uses white {{Letterbox}}ing, presumably to blend in with Website/YouTube's light mode interface.
*** "[[https://youtu.be/_1yOwgXGKPM CD / Interlacing Addendum]]" has scenes in 4:3 as part of its DeliberateVHSQuality, and switching to 16:9 and the style of a midcentury instructional video.

--> '''Alan:''' Oh God... How could I've been so blind? I'm part of this, aren't I? I gotta do something... [...] I gotta commit here now and resolve... to say... that I... [[spoiler:'''refuse to be a dick'''!]]

* HistoryRepeats: [[DefiedTrope Defied]]. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LI2nYhGhYM Laminar Flow DISAMBIGUATION]], the video starts with him showing clips of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzsE5WZkoCs a Buddha statue floating down a street.]] However, the clip comes from from the video was created in response to a video of a statue of the "Virgin Mary" floating down the same street, which was debunked by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc6pK_ouO1k Mr. Flare.]] At the end of the Laminar Flow video, Captain Disillusion puts up watermarks and holds a sign that shows what he's doing is visual effects fakery in an attempt to stop a cycle of [[CreateYourOwnVillain making a demonstrative fake video]] for the intentions of [[DoWrongRight showing how the fakery could look more realisitic.]]

* ADayInTheLimelight: Mr. Flare has four episodes of his own [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Mr. Flare Explains"]] sub-series with no sign of Captain D.
* ADogNamedDog: Mr. Flare, the lens flare.

* RatingsStunt: Spoofed in the episode "Fantasy Files Explanation", which opens with Captain D analysing his [=YouTube=] viewer statistics and concluding the best way to boost his audience is to spice his show up with gratuitous 3D, [[StylisticSuck cheesy green-screen effects]] (despite the show already using very competent green-screen effects), and a topic chosen to appeal to the young male demographic.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Captain D gives one to Holly in "Shark Surfer".

* MeanBoss: Captain D to his [[TalkingToHimself intern Alan]] during "Heroic Feats of [=YouTube=] Debunkery". In addition to making Alan give a talk that Captain D was scheduled for (and berating him over Skype when he acts reluctant), Captain D also makes Alan's family and girlfriend film the episodes because "he loves exploiting free labor". Alan is also so intensely involved in the creation of every episode, [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall sometimes he feels like 'he' is Captain Disillusion]].

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LLMAZ8hGs Patreon announcement video]] ends on a particularly disturbing note as show creator Alan Melikdjanian, talking directly to the viewers, is interrupted by [[TalkingToHimself Captain Disillusion]] with a harsh tirade about him selling out, while Alan covers his ears and screams "[[ImNotAfraidOfYou I don't have to listen to you any more!]]"

* RaceAgainstTheClock: Done in the episode "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX-Ra4nrVj0 The Debunkathon]]". Captain D struggles to debunk viral videos while they still remain relevant, and each time he does another unit of a countdown appears on the wall behind him - seconds, then minutes, then hours... and everything beyond minutes is already at zero! As the clock ticks down, the set begins to glitch and fade out, Cap's hair starts turning grey, he even swallows his pride and tells [[TalkingToHimself his intern Alan]] that [[ItHasBeenAnHonor he's doing a good job]]... [[spoiler:until the countdown ends and [[AntiClimax nothing happens]]. Cap reveals that it's just his own personal deadline which he is free to change, and he simply resets the counter, returning everything to normal]].

* TakeThatMe:
** When Mr. Flare almost takes over the show, he claims one of the changes he'll make is they'll stop using "debunk" as a noun.
--->'''Mr. Flare:''' That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!
** When the Captain discusses the "Escherian Stairwell Deconstruction" by Michael Lacanilao, he brings up how the project had an unsuccessful Website/{{Kickstarter}} campaign.
--->'''Captain:''' I'm sorry to hear that, Michael. But trust me; you don't want to take one little project that gave you validation as a young person and milk it for years into a full time, crowdfunded career. ''(LonelyPianoPiece starts playing)'' Before you know it, you're pushing 40, still splattering on stupid sliver make-- [[VerbalBackspace I mean]], spreading rumours about a fake stairwell!
** The Captain relies on a lot of self-depreciating humor, especially regarding his subscription numbers.
** Where the Captain is a bombastic, larger-than-life character, his intern, [[AsHimself Alan]], is shown to be meek, insecure, and kind of sad.

** In "UFO Over India", the man playing the UFO Hoaxer is a drunken man who was kicked out of his girlfriend's house, blows all his money in Atlantic City, and then gets arrested for [[ADateWithRosiePalms public indecency]] after watching his view count hit a million.

** This is [[DiscussedTrope the main topic discussed]] in "The Undebunkable". Captain D explains how [[AluminumChristmasTrees sometimes outlandishly-appearing things can be in fact real,]] and how mistrusting and denying everything on the basis of "it looks fake" without doing proper research or accepting new information is ultimately unhelpful and sometimes flat-out ''wrong.'' He also cautions that such a mindset puts one in danger of becoming a ConspiracyTheorist.