Line #34 Series/LadyDynamite


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lady_dynamite_xlg.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:I'm a Pterydactyl!]]
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4	''Lady Dynamite'' is an American television comedy series created by Pam Brady and Mitch Hurwitz, on Creator/{{Netflix}}. The series stars Creator/MariaBamford, and is loosely based on her life. Stand-up comedian/actress Maria Bamford (portrayed by herself) moves back to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles after spending six months away in recovery for bipolar disorder and attempts to build up her life from scratch with the help of her agent Bruce Ben-Bacharach (Creator/FredMelamed). Throughout the entire first season, flashbacks are employed to gain an insight on Maria's backstory and her relationships with her family and friends.
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6	The series aired for two seasons, from 2016 to 2017.
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10	!! This show provides examples of:
11	* BlandNameProduct:
12	** Checklist stands in for Target, which real-life Maria actually did commercials for.
13	** British News appears as a facsimile of [[Creator/TheBBC BBC News]].
14	** Instead of Jimmy Kimmel, Bruce books Maria onto the Ginny Kimmle show, which is broadcast on Periscope from a garage with a studio audience of a dozen high-schoolers.
15	* BrokenRecord: Maria repeatedly insists she broke up with Chad because "It was like a veil lifted and a monster was there!"
16	* {{Bookends}}: The first episode has Maria apologizing to [[Music/SugarRay Mark McGrath]], and it's only revealed in the season 1 finale what she'd done wrong.
17	* TheCameo:
18	** Creator/BrianPosehn
19	** Creator/JohnMulaney
20	** Creator/JuddApatow
21	** Creator/PattonOswalt
22	** Creator/SarahSilverman
23	** Creator/JonCryer
24	** Creator/JamesCorden
25	** Creator/SethMeyers
26	** Creator/MissiPyle
27	** Creator/BrandonRouth
28	** Creator/WendieMalick
29	** Creator/JasonMantzoukas
30	** [[Music/SugarRay Mark McGrath]]
31	** Creator/TigNotaro. "I don't even have a line in this scene."
32	** The Lucas Brothers
33	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: The show takes place in three time periods, so to keep it from being confusing, each time shift has a title card and a different colour treatment. The Present looks normal, the Past is totally over-saturated and cartoony, and Duluth is washed out and blue to reflect the sadness of that period.
34	* CombiningMecha: When the three Karen Grisham's meet, they merge to form "Super Grisham" a guinea pig, representing Maria's mania, that they control from a console in its brain, which in turn controls Maria. (ItMakesSenseInContext).
35	* ConvenientMiscarriage: To generate some sympathy after accidentally dressing an African child militia in Maria tour shirts, Bruce takes over her Twitter account with a made-up story of her losing her baby while horse riding. [[{{Hashtag}} #redsaddle]]
36	* CrosscastRole: In one scene, Bruce is working with child actors on a remake of ''Series/SmallWonder'', but with VICI played by a boy.
37	* CrowdChant: Bruce, the bottomless well of tragedy, arguably hits his lowest ebb when a studio full of his betters chant "Boo-Hoo Bruce" at him.
38	* TheDogWasTheMastermind: Before her death, Maria's pug Blossom was apparently trying to kill her.
39	* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Poor Bruce's experiences living at a frat house are played for laughs. Even with sexy porn muzac playing as he recounts his story.
40	* ExpansionPackPast: It's revealed at Blossom's wake that she was married to Maria's other pug Bert, while buying a house with her corgi boyfriend, she held dual Canadian-German citizenship, had two DUI's and Creator/RobertDowneyJr was her AA sponsor.
41	* FreezeFrameBonus
42	** At a stand up gig at a record store, one of the labels reads [[Series/DesperateHousewives Mark Cherry]].
43	** When Blossom dies, Maria wraps her in a 'DEALS DEALS DEALS' Checklist blanket, making it read "DEAD".
44	** Scott's Vision Board has items from the entire season's storylines.
45	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the first episode's fake shampoo commercial, Maria goes down a slide which has Karen Grisham's glasses over the mouth, she'd later meet the real Karen Grisham who would similarly chew her up and spit her out.
46	* HumiliationConga: Poor Bruce is humiliated at least once an episode; he's cuckolded by a younger man who takes his house, wife and clothes, he is trapped on a stricken cruise with no electricity and knee-deep sewage, is sexually assaulted in a frat house and ends up selling his possessions out of the van he lives in.
47	* InnocentlyInsensitive:
48	** Bruce's desire for Maria to be a star (and help his ailing financial situation) often lead him to begging Maria to take horrible parts, propelling her into a mental breakdown.
49	** When Maria travels to Checklist's immersion school/sweatshop-worker training ground in UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}, she unwittingly becomes a mouthpiece for the evil corporation by voicing their mascot "Trabajito The Frog".
50	-->'''Maria:''' When there’s an accident on the floor, Trabajito keeps his lips zipped!
51	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: Sexy saxophone music plays while Bruce recounts being repeatedly sexually assaulted in a frat house. After a long pause Maria wonders aloud where the music is coming from.
52	* LenoDevice: Seth Meyers and James Corden joke about Maria's child militia scandal on their respective shows.
53	* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Maria is generally sunny and chipper, while all the Karen Grishams are pushy, aggressive and highly sexual.
54	* MinnesotaNice: Maria's parents genuinely love and support her, but it's sometimes hard to tell if they're being genuine or not. Even moreso in Susan, Maria's childhood friend, who is absurdly passive-aggressive and gives out very mixed messages.
55	* MoralSociopathy: All the Karen Grishams, particularly Maria's agent. At one point she activates a desk hologram which is dangerous enough to terminate pregnancies, then casually offers her "condolences, or whatever" in case Maria was pregnant.
56	* NoSenseOfHumor: Maria's ill-fated boyfriend, Jack, who [[MirthlessLaughter feigns enjoyment at everything, no matter how inane,]] but does not understand what makes anything funny. It actually crosses into something of a disorder; the act of laughing or hearing laughter secretly causes him physical pain, and his idea of true comedy is "a kid who can't add". [[TakeThat He also enjoys]] ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''.
57	* OnceMoreWithClarity: The Checklist Checkdown, from Maria's perspective shows Mark [=McGrath=] unmasked as the evil Sugar Ray Sugar Beast who battles "Ultra Maria" in a Power Rangers-style smackdown. After Maria checks into a mental institution, orderlies watch the event on Website/YouTube, which just shows Maria shrieking onstage, attacking Mark, who accidentally knocks the catatonic Checklist CEO offstage.
58	* OneSteveLimit: Averted, as Maria's agent, realtor, and life coach are all named Karen Grisham.
59	* RunningJoke:
60	** Maria getting bossed around by powerful women called Karen Grisham
61	** Maria keeps dating former Supermen
62	** Maria screaming into sponges when she's overwhelmed. (See Shower of Angst)
63	* RealPersonCameo: Maria's actual parents appear in the congregation for Chad's funeral.
64	* {{Retraux}}: The credits sequence is a parody of 1970s TV shows, with Maria's fashion style, mirrored images, colorful silhouettes and gratuitous kung fu moves.
65	* ShowerOfAngst: When overwhelmed, Maria will often retreat to the shower to scream into a sponge, even if the shower is part of a TV commercial set.
66	* TalkingAnimal: All of Maria's pugs, especially Bert - her wise, rational confidant who inexplicably sounds like Creator/WernerHerzog.
67	* ThatCameOutWrong:
68	** Bruce's horribly misguided musical claymation dramatization of the USS Indianapolis disaster, which manages to be both racist and slightly homoerotic.
69	-->'''[=SharkBruce=]!:''' I got a mouth full of seamen/I think I need to have a little nosh/When I got me a mouth full of seamen/Then I shout by gum,by golly, by gosh!
70	** Bruce's charity is regrettably called "Touch The Children".
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72	---> [[Music/DeanMartin I don't know what I'm doing, more than half of the time...]]

Context Series / LadyDynamite