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1%% Zero Context Examples have been commented out. Please fix them before removing the syntax.
2[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/small_sp.jpg]]
3[[caption-width-right:299:Don't touch her. Don't look at her. [[RightHandCat My kitten]] knows [[IKnowKarate tae kwon do]].]]
4
5->''"Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this record in no way endorses a belief in the occult."''
6-->-- The last lines of '''"Lifetime Achievement Award"''', referencing the opening graphic of ''Music/MichaelJacksonsThriller''.
7
8Lemon Demon is a one-man band created by internet personality Creator/NeilCicierega, active from 2003 onward. To date, seven albums have been released[[note]]plus a "live" album and two [=EPs=][[/note]], the first four of which are now [[http://www.lemondemon.com/Lemon%20Demon%20-%20First%20four%20albums/ available for free.]]
9
10Most of his songs could be considered MindScrew, though given he created {{Animutation}}, this isn't very surprising.
11
12The most widely recognizable Lemon Demon song is still 2005's "Music/TheUltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny," which was accompanied by a [[https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/285267 Flash animation.]]
13
14!!Discography
15* ''Clown Circus'' (2003)
16* ''Live From The Haunted Candle Shop'' (2003)
17* ''Hip To The Javabean'' (2004)
18* ''Damn Skippy'' (2005)
19* ''Dinosaurchestra'' (2006)
20* ''View-Monster'' (2008)
21* ''Live (Only Not)'' (2011)
22* ''[[ChristmasSongs I Am Become Christmas]]'' (2012)
23* ''Nature Tapes EP'' (2014)
24* ''Spirit Phone'' (2016)
25* Upcoming album (TBA)
26
27----
28!! "I wish these tropes could take me away!":
29
30* TheEighties: Lemon Demon's music has the general feel of '80s synthpop. Several songs on ''Spirit Phone'' are either set during the decade or reference it extensively, such as "Cabinet Man" and "Reaganomics."
31* AbhorrentAdmirer: The singer of "Soft Fuzzy Man" is a parody of "nice guys" who think they're entitled to women because they're different. In one verse he literally sings "I'm not like other guys," which is technically true, since he's a sentient cloud of DeadlyGas.
32* AbusiveParents: Implied in "As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It":
33-->''Okay, I found my medicine\
34I'm sorry that I yelled at you\
35But let this be a lesson, if you ever steal my medicine\
36That's what I'll do\
37I'll yell at you''
38* AccidentalSuicide: Stan in "Modify" tries to "scarify his neck with a rope." [[EpicFail It goes about as well as you'd expect.]]
39* AccordionToMostSailors: "The Ocean" and "Treasure Map", both songs that concern sailing out to sea, make liberal use of the accordion.
40* AlliterativeTitle: "Ancient Aliens", "Touch-Tone Telephone", "Two Trucks", and many others.
41* AncientAstronauts: "Ancient Aliens" is a [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstruction]] of this trope. An alien crash-lands on prehistoric Earth, tries to ask a primitive human for help, and even creates fire while the human is watching. But instead of learning from the alien, the human ''fears'' them. To the human, who barely understands their own world, a being from another world who can fly, [[TelepathicSpacemen speak telepathically]], and create fire from nothing is a terrifying EldritchAbomination who cannot be comprehended.
42* BigOMG: One happens towards the end of "Ben Bernanke."
43* BlackComedy: Lemon Demon's songs are loaded with this, but particular mention has to go to "Modify", where one person tries to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarification scarify]] his neck...by ''[[HangingAround hanging himself]]''. He's heavily implied to have [[AccidentalSuicide accidentally killed himself]] trying to do it, with the singer seemingly being more concerned about how "dope" the resulting scar would've been than the fact that he died.
44* BodyHorror:
45** "Cryptosanta" is about a person who's accidentally shot with an experimental laser beam that causes him to transform (painfully) into Santa Claus.
46--->''Body horror, tendons snapping\
47Ribbons and wrapping, stocking stuffing\
48Skin is sloughing, [[SickeningCrunch bones are bowing,]]\
49Something is growing. Something, ohhh!''
50** "Modify," which is half a spoof and half a defense on body... modification.
51--->''Howie thought brass was the height of style\
52Now he's got something of a steampunk smile\
53[...]\
54Sally got a dagger hung from her septum\
55O'Malley cut his ears off, but wishes that he kept 'em\
56[...]\
57Rooney got his skull exposed, doggone it\
58Soon he's gonna get scrimshaw carved on it\
59[...]\
60Mason got Frankenstein stitches installed\
61Adjacent to her eyes cause she wants to look mauled\
62[...]\
63Johnny stuck 20 gauge nails through his feet\
64Donnie stuck 40 if only to compete\
65[...]\
66Stan tried to scarify his neck with a rope\
67His plan kinda failed, but it would've been dope''
68** "Sweet Bod," in which a honey-filled corpse is prepared for human consumption as a miracle cure.
69** "Cabinet Man," where the singer's "electric desires" drive him to combine his human organs with a game cabinet's systems.
70** In "You're at the Party," staying at the titular party too long causes some strange things to happen to the protagonist's body.
71--->''Hour hand's gone and now you're feeling strange\
72Now your hands grow strong, your fingers long\
73And your face\
74Your face begins to change''
75* BookEnds:
76** All three parts of ''Dinosaurchestra'' begin and end with the sound of a clock ticking, before finally ringing in the third part.
77** The end of "Spiral of Ants," closing track on ''Spirit Phone'', loops seamlessly back into the start of the album in "Lifetime Achievement Award."
78*** Also, "Spiral of Ants" is about repetition while "Lifetime Achievement Award" is about resurrection, and the first word spoken on the album is "die" while the final word is "life."
79* BowChickaWowWow: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_128564&v=c7XzfM5K_Pk&feature=iv Part 3.4 of the interactive video "Haircut."]] "Do you slap her in the face, or do you Bow Chicka-Chicka Wow-Wow?"
80* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: The chorus of "SAD" is composed of these:
81-->''"Cold plus hopeless: copeless\
82Cold plus listless: kissed less\
83Cold plus relapse: collapse\
84Cold plus morose: comatose"''
85* BreadEggsMilkSquick: A lot songs start out as fairly tame before turning utterly bizarre.
86* CameBackWrong: If the ragged breathing and the repeated chant of "oh no!" is anything to go by, this is what happens to the reanimated musician at the end of "Lifetime Achievement Award."
87* CannibalismSuperpower: The guy singing "Bill Watterson" wants to eat [[Creator/BillWatterson Bill Watterson's]] heart and "absorb his powers".
88* CatsAreMean: The entire purpose of "Kitten Is Angry" is to illustrate this. However, the closing line indicates he loves her regardless.
89* CentralTheme: "Touch-Tone Telephone" is about '''connections'''. The connections the narrator makes between various out-there theories, and the connections he desperately want to make with ''anyone'', anyone at all, for validation, through the titual phone.
90* ChristmasEveryDay: The experiments in [=CryptoSanta=] were trying to open other dimensions filled with presents in order to bring about Christmas every day. Though it's implied they'd be sold rather than given.
91* CompensatingForSomething: The lead singer in "Knife Fight" takes offense to his knife being called "way too small," countering that "my knife's super sharp, and that's what counts."
92* ConspiracyTheorist: ''Spirit Phone'' features several, fitting its theme:
93** The singer of "Touch-Tone Telephone" is one, and details his attempts to contact the host of a paranormal radio show. He mentions space Nazis, ancient aliens, and [=UFOlogy=] as part of his unified theory, and believes that he's being pursued for his beliefs ("pretty soon they'll discover me in the SuperSargassoSea").
94** The bonus song "Crisis Actors" shows a darker side, covering the extreme conspiracy theorists who believe that crisis actors -- individuals paid to stage emergencies -- are behind the world's tragedies. The lyrics also imply that the singer became a conspiracy theorist to cope with personal tragedy ("Your baby's alive! Your family's fine!") and existential fears ("[[GodIsEvil Malevolent gods]] are better than none")
95* CoverVersion: A couple on ''View-Monster'', namely "Super [[Music/{{Outkast}} Hey Ya]]" (which gives the original song even more LyricalDissonance) and "While My Keytar Gently Weeps" (a synth-laden, vocoded cover of "[[Music/TheWhiteAlbum While My Guitar Gently Weeps]]").
96* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: {{Invoked|Trope}} and parodied with "Jaws," which gets multiple facts about [[Film/{{Jaws}} the source material]] wrong while also mentioning it was "a movie that everyone saw." Among other things, he calls Hooper by his actor's name, Creator/RichardDreyfuss, and also claims that the shark "sneaks in [the mayor's house] in the middle of the night and he eats that fucker in a single bite."
97* {{Creepypasta}}: ''Spirit Phone'' is basically a ConceptAlbum consisting of Creepypastas, some original and some inspired by existing concepts.
98* DarkerAndEdgier:
99** Notably, Neil considered the content of the 2007 song "Birdfucker", which is about, well, [[BestialityIsDepraved a rather depraved guy with an "unusual" interest in birds]], a bit too out of Lemon Demon's usual oeuvre in terms of lyrics and didn't want his younger fans to stumble upon it accidentally, and so he released it under the alternate pseudonym of "Grapes and Sunshine".
100** The ''Nature Tapes EP'' has much more unsettling tracks compared to previous releases, and contains swearing in all but one track.
101** Zig-Zagged with ''Spirit Phone''. Some of the songs on the album sound much creepier, more of a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya3jvqnJ_QE The Man In Stripes And Glasses]] tone, while some of them are very upbeat with creepy lyrics.
102* DespairEventHorizon: Crossed by the main character in "Indie Cindy & The Lo-Fi Lullabies." Following a dream of a failed concert, she breaks up (with herself) and tears down her studio.
103* DidntThinkThisThrough: The guys in "Knife Fight" talk up the epic knife fight they're going to have... until they realize [[spoiler:they'll both get ''hurt''! They immediately agree to a much safer tickle fight instead]].
104* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: "No-Eyed Girl" from ''Spirit Phone'' is about a man in love with some sort of EldritchAbomination or HumanoidAbomination. [[spoiler:It seems that he gets the "girl," possibly dooming the world in the process]].
105* DiggingYourselfDeeper: The joke of "Sweet Bod" is that the narrator tries to explain that he definitely doesn't intend anything sexual in creating a mellified man, and that it's purely a commercial project, but the fact that he thinks it necessary to specify this just makes it come off as ''definitely being sexual.''
106* TheDiscoveryOfFire: "Ancient Aliens" plays with this. [[AncientAstronauts An alien]] creates fire in front of a primitive human, but the human sees this as a terrifying, reality-breaking ability and doesn't seem to believe it’s replicable.
107* DroppedInSpeechClip: "Reaganomics" samples Ronald Reagan's inauguration speech, specifically "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem." After the initial sample, the quote is edited YouTubePoop style to say "Government ''is'' the solution to our problem."
108* EasterEgg:
109** The LP release of ''Spirit Phone'' contains one in the run-out groove right after "Spiral of Ants." [[spoiler:It's a loop of the Laughing Record mentioned in "When He Died."]]
110** Similarly, the run-out groove on the vinyl release of ''Nature Tapes'' contains [[spoiler:the robotic voice from "BRODYQUEST" repeatedly saying "Adrien Brody."]]
111* EldritchAbomination: "Ancient Aliens" features an alien who's ''perceived'' as an eldritch abomination by a primitive human whose understanding of the world is too weak for them to comprehend a being from outside of it.
112* EnfantTerrible: "Angry People" has a baby that resents her parents for having her. It wouldn't be a problem but they secretly regret buying her a gun.
113* EpicInstrumentalOpener:
114** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygI-2F8ApUM BRODYQUEST]]" starts off as a progressive instrumental track, until the name of the character walking throughout the quest starts being chanted while he becomes the universe.
115** "Elsewhere," the closing track of ''Clown Circus'', has over three and a half minutes of instrumental before its single verse.
116** "Sick Puppy" from ''Hip to the Javabean'' is even longer, being nearly 8 minutes of instrumental and ambiance before getting to the actual song, which is around 2 minutes long.
117* ExistentialHorror: A CentralTheme of ''Spirit Phone'' is that, perhaps, the scariest thing is living in a careless modern society. It's more subtle in the first half of the album, with the first song 'Lifetime Achievement Award' being about a literal attempt at resurrecting a dead celebrity rather than letting them rest peacefully. Pretty much every song on the latter part doesn't outright fit the previous {{Creepypasta}} theme, instead heavily invoking this more explicitly, especially "I Earn My Life" and "Spiral of Ants." It is a notable shift from the album's more occult and weird horror-themed songs, and seems to imply a message of "What if the real horror is the modern capitalist society we all live in?" It's especially emphasized by the bonus tracks "Crisis Actors" (which is about people who believe in conspiracy theories to ignore the horrors of society) and "Angry People" (which, albeit with a humorous bent, is about civil unrest).
118* EveryoneHasStandards: Implied with "Touch-Tone Telephone," which is a song from the point of view of a conspiracy theorist calling into their favorite radio host. Chances are the host would have to be pretty screwy to get this guy's attention, but it's implied that the narrator is manic enough to make the host try and avoid his calls.
119* FadingIntoTheNextSong: Neil ''loves'' this trope. Most of the songs on each of his albums either fade or immediately transition into each other. {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with ''View-Monster'', where the transitions between each song are given individual entries on the track list.
120* FirstContact: "Ancient Aliens" is about a prehistoric caveman's encounter with an extraterrestrial being whom he can't understand.
121* FriendlyTickleTorture: In "Knife Fight," [[spoiler:the singers ultimately abandon the titular fight and resort to a tickle fight instead]].
122* GratuitousPanning: Both "Geocities" and "Angelfire" from ''Spirit Phone'' have this effect applied to the synth melodies.
123* HangingUpOnTheGrimReaper: In "I've Got Some Falling To Do," a man who is falling to his death from an airplane gets a call from Death, and blows him off in favor of continuing to fall.
124* HauntedTechnology: The eponymous "Cabinet Man" is an arcade cabinet whose inner circuitry has been replaced by a human being's organs, becoming a sentient video game.
125* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: "Aurora Borealis," a song about a man trying to ignore the imminent apocalypse because it's Christmas Eve.
126* IAmAHumanitarian: The "Cabinet Man" only eats the occasional maintenance man.
127* IAmNotLeonardNimoy: Parodied in "Jaws" by referring to Matt Hooper as Creator/RichardDreyfuss, who played Hooper in the [[Film/{{Jaws}} movie the song took inspiration from]].
128* IAmTheBand: Aside from live performances, Neil is the sole member of the band.
129* IFellForHours: "I've Got Some Falling to Do" is about a man who falls off a plane and opts to continue falling instead of accepting help or immediate death. The video for the song even provides the page image!
130* IgnoredEpiphany: The bridge of "Bill Watterson" has the singer, after stalking him for the entire song, realize that Watterson is a ReclusiveArtist "not out of eccentricity, but rather for privacy... [[ItsAllAboutMe when you meet me]]". [[invoked]]
131* INeedAFreakingDrink: In "You're at the Party," the protagonist decides to drink after the party starts to get to them:
132-->''There's only dust on the floor where people were before\
133And the dream won't leave your head\
134It won't leave you\
135You need a drink\
136Half-empty bottles in the sink\
137Down the drain''
138* InscrutableAliens: In "Ancient Aliens", the caveman protagonist is overwhelmed with fear at the presence of the alien and can't comprehend its [[{{Telepathy}} telepathic speech]].
139* JerkassGods: Invoked in "Crisis Actors," which repeats "malevolent gods are better than none." It explains the ethos behind these conspiracy theorists, that it's more comforting to think "malevolent gods" orchestrate tragic events rather than face the reality that these events actually happened.
140* KnifeFight: TropeNamer.
141-->''"Knife fight! You're gonna fight for your life!\
142Knife fight! You're gonna fight with a knife!\
143Knife fight! A really really really sharp knife!\
144Yeah, knife fight!\
145I'm a crazy (crazy) son of a bitch,\
146I'mma cut you (cut you)\
147Swish swish!\
148In a knife fight! (knife fight) \
149Knife fight! (knife fight) \
150Knife fight! (knife fight)"''
151* ALadyOnEachArm: The narrator in "Hip Hop Cherry Pop" claims that, after having the eponymous drink, he'll have ''[[ExaggeratedTrope at least three]]'' "sexy ladies" on each arm.
152* LastNoteNightmare: The final lyric of "Bill Watterson" ("I only want to [[GenuineHumanHide try your face on]])" is slightly distorted to match the creepiness of the statement.
153* LimitedAnimation: The first three minutes of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygI-2F8ApUM BRODYQUEST]], before Adrien Brody becomes a rock star and then becomes the universe.
154* ListSong:
155** "Word Disassociation" is simply a list of random, unrelated words (205, in all) with the occasional chorus.
156** "Everybody Loves Raymond" is a list of American {{sitcom}}s.
157** "Toy Food" is a list of various foods before it is explained in the chorus that "is toy."
158* LonelyAtTheTop: "It Can Get Lonely In My Mansion," about a man who builds all sorts of grandiose attractions in his house, only to discover than no-one really cares.
159* LoonyFan:
160** "[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Bill Watterson]]" is about someone who's deeply attracted to Watterson and believes that he is communicating with them via his strips. Eventually the song escalates from that to cutting his phone lines to wanting to eat his heart and wear his skin.
161** "Gonna Dig Up Creator/AlecGuinness" is about someone who wants to dig up the eponymous actor and put him on display for Franchise/StarWars fans to view as an attraction.
162* {{Lunacy}}: In "Man-Made Object," the singer is "an altogether different man" between night and day; at night, he gains the desire to build ''some'' kind of structure. It seeps into his dreams, and he eventually catches insomnia from looking at the moon.
163* LyricalDissonance:
164** A large portion of the songs from ''Spirit Phone'' fall into this category, understandably so given the album's [[TerminallyDependentSociety overall]] [[GovernmentConspiracy subject]] [[BarredFromTheAfterlife matter]]. Particularly notable examples include:
165*** "Cabinet Man," an upbeat song about a lonely individual who merged themselves with an arcade cabinet to experience love for the first time, [[spoiler:only to be abandoned as time passes and home consoles become more popular, and then destroyed by a group of teens who break into the empty arcade]].
166*** "When He Died," a sweet-sounding song about a man who dies in mysterious circumstances [[spoiler:and is implied to have been some kind of BarrierMaiden whose death would usher in "an endless age of untold nightmares" for all of humanity]].
167*** "Eighth Wonder," about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gef Gef the Mongoose,]] has a fairly straightforward tone for most of the song - this changes toward the end in the form of WhamLine dissonance, [[spoiler:when Gef begs Jim to let him go. This implies that he is either being held captive, or that Jim has become too attached to the ghostly mongoose, who knows he cannot stay]].
168*** "Ancient Aliens," in which a prehistoric caveman has an encounter with an alien [[spoiler:that has likely crash-landed on Earth, killing all of their companions. The alien attempts to reach out to the caveman for help, but the caveman can't understand what or ''how'' the alien is communicating]].
169*** "I Earn My Life," and to a lesser extent, "As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It," both songs about the same father who is incredibly hostile to his child [[spoiler:because their family is deep in debt, forcing the father to overwork and potentially contemplate suicide to get out of his burdens.]] A bit of the dissonance also leaks over into "Reaganomics," as in spite of the upbeat tempo and fun, goofy lyrics, [[spoiler:it's implied that "As Your Father" and "I Earn My Life" both take place in the late 80s, meaning that their precarious financial situation, and by extension the father's suicidal idealization, is likely due in large part to Reagan's economic policies]].
170*** The bonus track "Crisis Actors", an upbeat technopop song about people who turn to {{Conspiracy Theori|st}}es to cope with personal tragedy, existential dread and the pressures of society.
171** "Indie Cindy and the Lo-Fi Lullabies" is an upbeat song about a struggling musician who [[spoiler:becomes so disillusioned with her goals of becoming a musician, she breaks up (with herself) and trashes her studio]].
172** "Bill Watterson" is an energetic song about a stalker who is completely infatuated with Creator/BillWatterson of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' fame. Not only do they sing about cutting his phone lines and standing on his lawn for days, they express a desire to kill him, eat his heart and wear his skin.
173%%** "The Only House That's Not On Fire (Yet)" seems to be this.
174* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords:
175** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImHuiYnVQ0 Redesign Your Logo]]" consists of a lot of six-syllable nonsense corporate jargon to describe a brand. It's based on the infamous 2008 [[https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell-021109.pdf design document]] detailing the process behind Pepsi's logo redesign, which uses a very similar meaningless meaningful tone.
176** "Sundial" is intentionally full of lyrics that sound meaningful but make no sense, ending with the line "Don't enjoy this private screening, this one doesn't have a meaning." Which, paradoxically, is the only line that ''does'' have a meaning.
177* MetalScream: Neil gives a ''chilling'' one at the end of "Everybody Loves Raymond."
178* MindScrew:
179** Oh yeah. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGk2jSabED4 "Telekinesis"]] is an especially good example.
180** What about "Bowling Alley"? Even the narrator claims it's like an acid trip. [[spoiler:Not that he advocates drugs because DrugsAreBad and stuff]].
181** His [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DIQKUZIqHo Rugrats]] video from 2008 [[DerangedAnimation which is a bizarre and trippy tribute]] to the beloved Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} series of the same name]]. Notably the show's composer Mark Mothersbaugh.
182** Many, many, many songs.
183*** "Mold en Mono"
184*** "Musical Chairs"
185*** "Sky Is Not Blue"
186*** "New Way Out"
187*** "Word Disassociation"
188*** "Sundial"
189*** "Flamingo Legs"
190*** "123456 Pokémon"
191*** "Subtle Oddities"
192*** "You're At The Party"
193* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: "The Saga of You, Confused Destroyer of Planets" is about an intergalactic traveller who accidentally and unknowingly destroys planets while drunk.
194* MoodWhiplash: The otherwise humorous and Music/{{Devo}}-inspired ''Spirit Phone'' ends with "Spiral of Ants," an unnerving song about being trapped by society. Even earlier in the album, right after the tongue-in-cheek "As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It" comes "I Earn My Life," an upbeat-sounding tune about a man running himself ragged working day to day, terrified of dying, leaving his family in debt.
195* MundaneMadeAwesome:
196** Neil somehow manages to turn a list of American sitcoms into an insane techno song in "Everybody Loves Raymond." Especially when he ''screams'' the song title during the chorus.
197** In "Lawnmower," he makes the process of mowing lawns seem almost exciting.
198* MusicalNod: When "Jaws" first mentions Brody, it plays a snippet from "BRODYQUEST."
199* NerdsAreSexy: "Geeks In Love" is about two geeks attracted to each other because of their shared nerdy attributes.
200* NeverFoundTheBody: The subject of "When He Died" left behind a mansion full of skulls but his own was never found. Downplayed in that the rest of his body was found, indicated by the lines about [[BodyHorror finding scorpions in his lungs and a message in his spine.]]
201* NightmareFuelColoringBook: The guy in "When He Died" painted a picture of a scary clown when he was a child and on the back he wrote exactly when he was going to die.
202* NoFairCheating: The "Cabinet Man" says he won't hurt you unless you cheat in his game.
203* NonAppearingTitle: On ''Spirit Phone'', "Cabinet Man." The title of "Ancient Aliens" isn't mentioned in the song itself, but actually gets name-dropped in an earlier song, "Touch-Tone Telephone."
204* OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: The lead singer of "Knife Fight" promises to make his opponent "bleed copious amounts" after being insulted about [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything the size of his knife]].
205* ParentalSexualitySquick: Played with in "Elvis Porn", which is about the singer's averse reaction to finding pornography of Music/ElvisPresley in his grandmother's possession.
206-->''"What the hell?" I thought, "this is rather odd"\
207I thought of where I found it, and I shouted "oh my god!"\
208Where did Grandma get this footage of the King?\
209Why the hell would sweet old Granny have this awful thing?''
210* PreAsskickingOneLiner: The penultimate verse of "Knife Fight" is just the two guys hurling these at each other.
211* RedRightHand: "Atomic Copper Claw" is about a person who's trying to hide their atomic copper claw, but the narrator is fully aware of it and seeks to expose them.
212* ReincarnatedAsANonHumanoid: "Cabinet Man" is a really grizzly take on this, where the singer turns himself into an arcade cabinet by replacing one's inner circuitry with his own organs, thus becoming a sentient video game.
213* RhymingTitle: Subverted. The project's name consists of two words that ''look'' like they should rhyme based on their spelling, but they don't.
214* RobotWar: "When Robots Attack!" is about a robot war. [[spoiler:It seems that the robots win.]]
215* RockstarSong: {{Defied|Trope}} with "Being a Rock Star," which is a song about Neil ''not wanting'' to make a rock star song, seeing it as too much of a cliché and wanting to avoid sounding conceited.
216* SanitySlippage: The lyrics of "My Trains" starts out rather eccentric, yet somehow becomes even more manic as the song progresses, ultimately becoming absolutely batshit and leaving you terrified of the narrator's level of fanaticism for his model trains.
217* SelfBackingVocalist: Since Neil is pretty much the only member of his band, most backup vocals heard in songs are just him. On the ''Spirit Phone'' commentary track, Neil states that, on "Sweet Bod," some of his backing vocals are even pitched up to make it sound like he has both male and female singers.
218* SelfReferentialTrackPlacement: {{Subverted|Trope}}. "Eighth Wonder" is the ''seventh'' song on ''Spirit Phone''.
219* ShapedLikeItself: In "Modify," Rooney gets "scrimshaw" carved onto his skull. Among other things, the art of scrimshaw includes carvings in bone.
220* ShoutOut:
221** Several to ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. For example, the chorus of "Nightmare Fuel", a bonus track on ''View-Monster'', is taken from the episode where they watch ''Film/SantaClaus1959''. "Touch-Tone Telephone" was originally written about ''Film/{{Morozko}}'', another film riffed on by the show.
222** He's pretty much the master of obscure and nerdy {{Shout Out}}s - after, all, he sang "Music/TheUltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny."
223** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrCoDZUwRg Goosebumps]] is a love song comprised of Franchise/{{Goosebumps}} titles.
224** Several to ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'', including one of Creator/OrsonScottCard's swordfighting insults quoted nearly verbatim in "Knife Fight." This is unsurprising as Neil's previous music project, Deporitaz, released multiple ''Monkey Island'' remixes, as well as remixes of other Creator/LucasArts adventure games including ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxHitTheRoad'' and ''VideoGame/GrimFandango''. He also provided the music for a fan remake of ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' and translated a German fan sequel of ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'' into English.
225** "Consumer Whore" is one to Creator/DonHertzfeldt's animated short ''WesternAnimation/{{Rejected}}''.
226** The commentary for ''Damn Skippy'' ends with Neil saying, "[[Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff You're still here? It's over. Go home.]]"
227** One of the lines in "Ask For Nothing" is "[[Series/TheThreeStooges Forget it — hey you, wake up and go to sleep.]]"
228** "Lifetime Achievement Award" is one for Music/MichaelJackson, down to the quote from the outro being ripped from the start of the {{Music/Thriller}} video.
229** "Crisis Actors" quotes the banner from ''Film/JurassicPark'': "Imagine a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth!"
230* SnakeOilSalesman: The narrator of "Sweet Bod" is selling jars of honey from a "mellified man" for a hundred bucks each, claiming them to be a miracle cure. Neil directly mentions this in the ''Spirit Phone'' commentary, saying that filling this role makes for a passable pop song.
231* SpaceWhaleAesop: From "Angry People": "Sooner or later, everybody must die/Die by the hand/Of their own evil baby."
232* SurrealMusicVideo: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRisDso99s0 "Word Disassociation."]] The video is with pieces of paper with random words on them, put next to random places.
233* TakeThat:
234** The song "eBaums World Dot Com," which consists primarily of insults directed at the eponymous site and its founder, Eric Bauman. Several of Neil's close friends have had Flash videos stolen by eBaum, so it comes as no surprise.
235** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOqb_UzJSUQ Never Go On]] {{Website/Reddit}}, a brief parody of "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" by En Vogue.
236** "Reganomics" mocks the political policies of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, depicting him as a blowhard wannabe action hero offering empty promises to "save" the country.
237* TearsFromAStone: Statues which cry TearsOfBlood are mentioned in both "Subtle Oddities" and in "When He Died." No explanation is given in either instance (it doesn't help that the blood in the latter is the blood of the man who died, and the statues are of his own children who apparently went missing).
238* TestosteronePoisoning: "Two Trucks" is a song about two trucks having sex, the sight of which is so magnificent that it makes the singer's muscles involuntarily flex, and makes grown men, including the founding fathers, cry.
239* TextlessAlbumCover: "Nature Tapes"
240* TinCanTelephone: One is mentioned in "Your Imaginary Friend." Who exactly is on the other end, however, is up for debate.
241%%* ToiletHumour: "Mr. Porta-Potty Man."
242* TrainSong: "My Trains" is about a man so obsessed with his trains, he'll defend them by killing.
243* TropeNamer: For the UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny and KnifeFight tropes.
244* TwistedChristmas: The main theme of the aptly titled "I Am Become Christmas" EP. The songs touch on themes such as the apocalypse, seasonal depression [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and commercialization]], all with a touch of Christmas.
245* UncommonTime: Neil seems to be a fan of using odd time signatures in some of his songs:
246** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npsXGTwgsCU Rainwater]]" is in 7/8 time, and so are the chorus of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvxRD7mEfuU Modify]] and most of Gravitron.
247** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh2NZWBvfWI One Weird Tip]]" switches between 6/8 and 7/4 time before the instrumental part.
248** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIhIOPkD8Jw Subtle Oddities]]" takes this up to eleven, switching between 10/4, 6/4 and 7/4 time.
249* UnflinchingWalk: "Action Movie Hero Boy" is about some fool trying this in RealLife. [[DontTryThisAtHome It does not end well.]]
250* UrbanLegends: Plenty of these on ''Spirit Phone''.
251** "Eighth Wonder" is a song based on the urban legend of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gef Gef the Talking Mongoose]].
252** "Sweet Bod" about the recreation of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellified_man mellified man]].
253** [[https://twitter.com/neilcic/status/713391210883231744 According to Cicierega]], the song "Cabinet Man" is inspired by the urban legend of ''Myth/{{Polybius}}''.
254* WholePlotReference: "Jaws" is a wildly incorrect sung synopsis of the plot of ''Film/{{Jaws}}''.
255* WordSaladLyrics: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRisDso99s0 "Word Disassociation"]] is this trope taken more-or-less as far as it can go.
256** "New Way Out" also qualifies, with mentions of serpentine alarm clocks and Jimi Hendrix Junior.
257* {{Yandere}}:
258** "Ben Bernanke" has this vibe, among [[MindScrew other]] [[BreadEggsMilkSquick things]].
259** Same deal with "Bill Watterson," where the singer goes from merely stalking the eponymous cartoonist to wanting to eat his heart and absorb his powers.
260%%* ZombieApocalypse: "Bad Idea"

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