History WebVideo / PhilosophyTube

* NightmareFuel: Transgender healthcare on the British NHS (episode [[note]]I Emailed My Doctor 133 Times: The Crisis In the British Healthcare System, 11/11/2022 [[https://youtu.be/v1eWIshUzr8]][[/note]]) deserves its own Nightmare Fuel page!

** Taken UpToEleven with the Suffragettes. Unlike the above examples - where singular groups or events were forgotten - the very ''methods'' the Suffragettes used in their fight to get women the right to vote are forgotten. These incuded acts of vandalism and even throwing stones at Winston Churchill.

* {{Corpsing}}: As a trained actor Abigail is excellent at performing the most ludicrous lines in a completely serious tone ("The Philosophy of Anime" is full of this), but occasionally corny lines make her break down. She leaves those outtakes in for comedic purposes.

* SarcasmMode: In "The Social Contract", she describes Britain as being "very normal" during the late 1600s (which, for reference, included Oliver Cromwell running rampant over Irish people and outlawing Christmas, and everyone freaking out so much over the thought of a Catholic monarch that they brought in a Dutch prince to take over), while not-so-subtly referencing a lot of much newer instances of institutional prejudice (including the RedScare, trans rights, and the War on Drugs):

* SarcasmMode: In "The Social Contract", she describes Britain as being "very normal" during the late 1600s (which, for reference, included Oliver Cromwell running rampant over Irish people and outlawing Christmas, and everyone freaking out so much over the thought of a Catholic monarch that they brought in a Dutch prince to take over).

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Subverted n "Jordan Peterson's Ideology", Adelaide complains about how it's unfair that people are wary of her brother for smoking...and always somehow being around fires...and repeatedly having giant barrels of flammable chemicals and leaving them in suspicious places... She becomes visibly disturbed as she goes down the list. However, she ultimately chooses to ignore the implications and [[spoiler: support her brother's run for Mayor of London. And yes, he's the Arsonist.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/abigail_thorn.png]]
->''I'm giving away a philosophy degree for free! Subscribe to learn and boost your brain power!''

Abigail Thorn (born April 24, 1993) is a British philosopher, actor, and leftist [=YouTuber=] best known as the creator of the channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/thephilosophytube Philosophy Tube]]. She created the channel in 2013 in the wake of the 2012 British tuition increase to, in her own words, "give away my MA in philosophy free to people who don't have the opportunities for learning I've had".

** ''Steve Bannon'' introduces [[spoiler: The Arsonist]], who's [[{{Expy}} based on the villainous characters]] from the play ''The Fire Raisers''[[note]] original title "Biedermann und die Brandstifter"[[/note]]. It features a cover of "Why We Build the Wall" by Anais Mitchell, which puts the song in a whole new context.

Philosophy Tube makes heavy use of Socratic exercises, often inviting the viewer to approach the subject of the video from the subject's standpoint and providing insights into the philosophical arguments for and against, as well as occasions where the logic of those arguments do not necessarily follow, as well as a recommended reading list and episode sources in the text box beneath the video.

* StylisticSuck: Sir Nigel Piss has a rather dodgy costume, and after Abigail came out as trans, he got a deliberately lazy "lady imitating man" voice. He was introduced while Abigail was transitioning off-camera, so the minimal effort in playing a male character was likely intentional, and his second appearance after she came out is visible to the audience as a silly drag role played by a woman. The shoddy acting and costume, however, are also just comedically less polished than Abi's other characters, which contributes to the satire of the character.

** Similarly, in her "Ignorance & Censorship" video, Abigail repeatedly tries to translate the Greek roots of philosophical terms, but ends up reading about her romantic failures.

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During the channel's early history, Abigail operated using a standard "talking head" format using a simple web camera and microphone to discuss topics of philosophy, often by tying the works of a famous philosopher to another topic (such as video games, certain shows, and the nature of things like {{fanservice}}), gradually entering more into the domains of political philosophy and current events during 2015 and onwards. Beginning in 2018, Abigail began experimenting with making more longform thinkpieces with sketch/comedy interludes from an actual studio, akin to similar [=YouTubers=] WebVideo/ContraPoints and Webvideo/HBomberguy. These longform videos come out monthly and represent most of her current output.

** The star at the end of the ''Suic!de and Ment@l He@lth'' title is a reference to [[Music/DavidBowie David Bowie's]] ''Music/{{Blackstar|Album}}'', an album that Abigail listened to a lot during the making of the video, which had echoes in the cosmonaut and conversations on death. The logo shown in the intro sequence of ''Identity: A Trans Coming Out Story'' is actually a colourised version of the text from the cover of ''Blackstar'' representing the word "Bowie", and the title song plays as her male persona says farewell, bows down and disappears.

** Abby's first video on the channel was on the subject of Descartes and his statement of absolute certainty that "I think, therefore I am". This video, and Descartes' statement, tends to receive callbacks frequently, especially in videos about trans issues, queerness, and mental health as a way to identify the root of issues.

* EnglishRose: While Abby is English and generally understated, it was {{invoked|Trope}} in her coming out statement and video. In her post mortem stream she stated she worked hard to act like the BBC archetype of English femininity in order to persuade the English media to be softer on trans people.

* HateSink: [[EvilCounterpart The Arsonist]], also known as the traveling salesman, is portrayed by Abigail as embodying, to her, everything wrong with modern-day ultraconservative worldviews as well as representing a cautionary tale of how vulnerable people are towards far-right and fascistic ideas. In ''Steve Bannon'', the Arsonist is used by Abby to highlight how the far-right uses [[FauxAffablyEvil superficial charm]] and exploits down-to-earth rhetoric to turn people against anti-racist and anti-fascist activists and light matches (a metaphor for committing hate crimes) with the arsonist. Further videos such as ''Abortion & Ben Shapiro'' and ''Climate Grief'' reveal that the Arsonist was responsible for burning his wife to death when she had an abortion and that the Arsonist believes that draconian forms of population control [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain directed against immigrants and refugees]] are totally justifiable means of fighting climate change.

* TheMentor: Abigail claims [[WebVideo/PBSIdeaChannel Mike Rugnetta]] was this to her. Not only was Abby inspired to get into Youtube by Mike, but Mike was also the one that introduced her to the works of Creator/KarlMarx.

* TheOner: Abby's background in theatre has given her the skills necessary to perform lengthy scripted videos in a single take. While not the only example on her channel, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeGEv0YVLtw Men. Abuse. Trauma]]" is particularly noteworthy; it starts out with her talking about how Creator/JeanPaulSartre's play ''Theatre/NoExit'' is written as a single, uninterrupted scene, and the video itself is not only done in a single ''31 minute'' take, but even includes an off-camera costume change. On top of that, filming it only took two takes!

** Abby also makes frequent digs at her own personal identity of a Marxist, at one point having a fake breakdown over feeling nationalistic when people say "God Save the Queen" during her video on the subject.

** In "Beauty in Ugly Times," Abby waves off attempting to do a literary analysis of ''Literature/{{Lolita}}'' because, in her words, [[TheDitz "I am a himbo."]]

-->'''Fifties Cooking Show Abby:''' If you were to ask an ancient Roman how many calories were in the bulls' testicles they were consuming, they would have said, "Quid dicis?" Which is Latin for "what the fuck are you talking about?"
* SpiritualSuccessor: The 2021 video “Jordan Peterson’s Ideology” is a successor to the 2019 video “Steve Bannon” in many ways. They both open with Abby addressing the viewer as if they are theatre patrons, telling the audience that in the event of a fire, “the exits are on the far-left”, and speculating the subject of the video may be “in the audience tonight”. Both tackle media personalities who attract controversy, and use fire and arson as a metaphor for fascist ideology and the people who spread or cover for it. The former video is the first appearance of the recurring character of The Travelling Salesman/The Arsonist, and the latter of his sister, a newspaper columnist who shares many of his views, and makes excuses for his actions.

* SelfMadeMan: Parodied in "The Ballad of Kelly Slaughter" segment of the video ''Food, Beauty, Mind''. Kelly Slaughter mentions that she had to work hard for where she is now, but mentions that she graduated from Stanford with 180k in her bank account and got a job in her mom's law firm. She also acts like a "does-it-all" woman who is a mother and a businesswoman but often lets it slip that she actually has a lot of hired help other women with less means would have no way of affording.