Line #25 Literature/PattyAndMark


1	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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3	''Patty and Mark'' is a series by LotzOfHistory about Patty Martins and Mark Bonhoff, a pair of journalism students attending Waurden-Ricks Institute of Journalism in the small town of Ipswich, Maryland.
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5	A comedy, the series spoofs aspects of American pop culture like tacky pop music, fast food restaurants, old TV shows, and conspiracy theories.
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7	The stories can be read here: [[http://www.readwave.com/patty-s-wild-night_s66912]], [[http://www.readwave.com/the-many-misadventures-of-mark-hist-mighty-motorcycle_s71781]], [[http://www.readwave.com/eyespy-through-patty-s-eyes_s72587]], [[http://www.readwave.com/stargazing_s72592]]
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9	Their Christmas special: [[http://www.readwave.com/the-gift-of-the-magi-pt-ii_s73889]]
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13	!! ''Patty and Mark'' contains the following tropes:
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15	%%* Adorkable: Patty and Mark. Brian the hipster also counts.
16	%%* AllJustADream: The story "EyeSpy Through Patty's Eyes"
17	* AuthorAppeal:
18	** Lotz loves astronomy, and the story "Stargazing" shows Patty feels the same way about it.
19	** The series is set in the state of Maryland. According to WordOfGod this is Lotz's love note to the state.
20	** The characters are stated to read similar books and listen to similar music to what Lotz likes.
21	** The characters are all training to be journalists. Guess what Lotz is by trade.
22	* AxCrazy: Downplayed with the League of Men Engaged in Continuous Combat. They only attack people for "the spirit of combat" and it's implied they try to avoid actually hurting anyone. This would basically make them a weird cross between a milita and a fight club.
23	*** CloudCuckoolander: Everyone to some extent.
24	* ConspiracyKitchenSink: As it goes on, the series gradually implies that ''every'' conspiracy theory is not only true, but connected in the least likely way possible.
25	* CreatorBreakdown: Inverted. Lotz wrote "Patty & Mark in the New Millennium" about a week after breaking up with his girlfriend. Said story has Patty and Mark not only struggling but ultimately staying together, but finding out that they've been together over numerous lifetimes.
26	** Also played straight. In the early stories, Mark often called Patty "babes." Lotz called his girlfriend this and since they broke up, WordOfGod states that Mark now calls Patty "princess" instead.
27	* CasualKink: At the end of "Patty & Mark in the New Millennium", P&M engage in role-playing sex that involves wearing cardboard Burger King Crowns and pillow talk in Dutch discussing civil engineering (ItMakesSenseInContext).
28	** While delivering pizza one night, Brian accidentally walks in on Mel wearing Dominatrix garb and holding a whip while Joe is handcuffed to the bed.
29	* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: In "EyeSpy Through Patty's Eyes", Patty decides to replace her glasses by getting a pair of electronic 'spy eyes' surgically installed into her head. Over the course of the story they turn her into a murderous cyborg who decides to destroy the town simply because her eyes creep people out.
30	** This is actually a recurring theme throughout Lotz's writing. Anyone who gets an Intelligence Hotwire installed in them becomes at best, a CloudCookoolander, and at worst, an OmnicidalManiac.
31	* GenreBusting: ''Patty and Mark'' is essentially a youth sitcom in episodic book-form with elements of surrealism, ScienceFiction and horror mixed in.
32	* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Afrikaans pops up a lot.
33	%%* {{Jerkass}}: Joe Ramirez can be pretty jaded.
34	* ShoutOut:
35	** Patty mentions she thinks she might've discovered zero-point energy. This is a reference to Literature/TheSongsOfDistantEarth by Creator/ArthurCClarke.
36	** Radio/CoastToCoastAM
37	** The Series/MaxHeadroom Broadcast Hijacking
38	** Film/BladeRunner
39	** Literature/{{VALIS}}
40	** Music/JohnnyCash, more specifically the song "Once Piece at a Time"
41	** Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi
42	* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: In "Oohray-Oohrah for Reading!" the League of Men Engaged in Continuous Combat do several dangerous and illegal things involving children (it's implied they hijack school buses) in order to get children for their titular ShowWithinAShow. They also have elementary school kids reading books like Literature/FlowersInTheAttic to do reviews on. Somehow they never get arrested for this. Stephanie and Mel even discuss this.
43	* PunkPunk: Lotz stated that P&M is an example of a new kind of -punk he calls, "Dial-up Punk".
44	* ReincarnationRomance: "Patty & Mark in the New Millennium" has the two sent a thousand years into the future where they discover that their future incarnations are a couple as well (but they've swapped genders).
45	* RetroUniverse: Aesthetically and technologically, the series seems to take place in TheEighties or TheNineties, but culturally it resembles TheNewTens.
46	** WordOfGod says the next P&M story to be published mentions Mark taking Patty to see ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' (premiered summer 2015) while using ''typewriters'' to write their news articles.
47	* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Patty is bubbly and excitable, while Mark is more reserved and pragmatic.
48	** Brian and Stephanie Summers are this even more so.
49	* Vaporwave: The characters listen to this sometimes.
50	* TheVerse: ''Patty & Mark'' is one series sharing an entire universe with Lotz's other works. Christine is originally from an earlier series by Lotz set in a town called Wacovia.
51	* WordSaladTitle: InUniverse: Lunar 3D Pizza Extraordinaire is a pizza shop that rips off several fast food franchises and somehow hasn't been sued yet.
52	* WorldOfWeirdness: Which each passing story, the series' universe gets progressively more bizarre and unpredictable. WordOfGod states an upcoming StoryArc will focus on this.
53	* WorldWarThree: In "Patty & Mark in the New Millennium", the residents of the future mention a World War III happening in sometime around the 2600s. Little is revealed about it, but apparently it destroyed a lot of technology and set the human race back a few centuries.
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Context Literature / PattyAndMark