
Gregory "Greg" Guevara, better known online as Jregnote is a satirist, humorist, musician, philosopher(??), shitposter and one-time Ottawan mayoral candidate who makes sketch comedy, satirical video essays and music videos. The satire is often political and highly postmodern, with a degree of irony so strong that it is intentionally impossible to tell whether jre's sincere or not.
Jreg blew up upon the release of the "Political Compass Rap"
, which led to the invention of the satirical ideology Anti-Centrism, which advocates for political extremists of all kinds joining forces to kill all centrists and political moderates. This concept has been turned into a full-on webseries called Centricide, in which a Nazi, an authoritarian communist, an anarcho-communist and an anarcho-capitalist are assembled by Jreg to fight a league of centrists and moderates.
Many of jris videos are oversimplified parodies of political science that try and explain various ideologies through visual compasses and memes. Thanks to Poe's Law, some people have mistaken the videos as genuinely advocating for the political ideologies that the videos make fun of.
Jre's also a musician
with a couple of originals, parodies, and web series-specific songs under jris belt. Both jris main web series, Centricide and The Mental Illnesses, feature musical numbers. In 2024 he released a full album called Postmodern Love Songs.
In 2021, jre rebranded jremself as JrEgnote , marking the beginning of the second JrEra and the move away from political content. After the conclusion of Centricide, JrEg began a new series about personified mental illnesses appropriately titled The Mental Illnesses. In January 2022, Jreg publicly came out in a video titled “Gender Tier List”. Jre had came out to jris livestream audience a month prior when the Gender Tier List livestream was recorded. Jre uses jre/jrem/jres (also spelt “jris”) neopronouns.
In August 2022, jre renamed the channel again to Gregory "Jreg" Guevara and announced jre's independent mayoral run for Ottawa, promising to build a giant wall around the perimeter of the city and then make it an independent state among numerous other positions that can be seen here
. Jre have denied claims of running a "joke campaign" and has promised to actually intend to implement the policies if jre are elected. Jre are taking donations of up to $1,200 from private individuals living within the city.
In November 2022, jre once again rebranded into a totally normal, non-mentally ill, non-politically extreme channel, this time called "jREG", short for "J-Regular". Despite this, jre has occasionally continued to post suspiciously irregular videos on jris channel which deal with frameworks, identity, and sparsely, politics.
By 2024, as part of jris Creator Recovery, the channel moved back toward making heavily satirical and postmodern content, complete with another rename of the channel to "JREG" in all caps.
Note: This page refers to both Jreg the Centricide character and Jreg the YouTuber. This page assumes the character goes by he/him while the YouTuber goes by jre/jrem.
Jreg videos contain examples of:
- 10-Minute Retirement: On July 22, 2020 Jreg uploaded a video "I'm Quitting YouTube"
and cited reasons like stress from being a public figure, problems with family and friends, and lacking motivation, saying that it won't be like others where jre'll return in an hour or so. Exactly an hour later, jre uploaded "I'm Returning To YouTube"
. - Always a Bigger Fish: When deconstructing the logic of the "Roko's Basilisk" thought experimentnote , Jreg points out that jre can just envision jris own though experiment which is twice as strong as the hypothetical Roko's Basilisk called "Jroko's Basilisk" that tortures Roko's Basilisk twice as hard for eternity and humanity gets to exist uninhibited. This highlights the meaninglessness and arbitrariness of the thought experiment.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: While whether jris gender is a subject of Kayfabe or not is up for debate, Jreg has deliberately added fuel to the fire with "I'm Trans
", in which jre claims to be "male-to-Male" or "mtM" transgender, as in a male who becomes extremely male through the use of steroids to accumulate muscle. Is this video a joke or not? Even with the obvious satirical edge, no one can say for sure. - And I Must Scream: In "Negative Politics", by the Eight Circle, political dissidents are given robot bodies that are impervious to lava but can still feel pain, and are then dropped into lava for all eternity.
- Anarchy Is Chaos: What Nazi says will happen throughout "Anarchist Uprising", expecting the anarchist society to crash and burn.
- Anthropomorphic Personification:
- The Centricide characters are personifications of political ideologies. Other political ideologies, including made-up ones like communo-capitalism/capcomnote show up in other videos.
- The Mental Illnesses characters are personifications of mental illnesses, mental disorders, trauma disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, and possibly more. The Neurotypicals are personifications of how non-mentally ill people treat those who are mentally ill.
- Bad "Bad Acting": In "The Election of 2024" which parodies a movie trailer.
- Bait-and-Switch: The video "Why There's NO WAY I'm Voting For Joe Biden
" is a one second clip of jrim saying jre's Canadian. Because, you know, Canadians can't vote in US elections. - Black-and-White Insanity: "Modern-Day Political Satire"
parodies a TV satire that portrays President Trump saying blatantly stupid things, after which "The Script Writer's Preferred Candidate" arrives to shoot him with a gun, subsequently declaring that Trump's ideals have died with him. The viewer appears to take this all in stride, but then he actually prepares to shoot himself. - Blatant Lies: In Addressing Allegations That I Have Ties To The Far Right
, Jreg strongly denies having far right ties- while wearing a Nazi uniform and using the War Ensign of Germany as a background. - Bread Milk Eggs Squick:
- “5 WaCkY Ways The World Could End!” lists implausible apocalyptic scenarios. That is, except for number two, when the music stops and Jreg gives a speech about how humanity needs to deal with climate change before it’s too late.
- In Jreg's song "Ottawa!":
Ottawa! Ottawa! Justin Trudeau!
Ottawa! Ottawa! The Parliament buildings!
Ottawa! Ottawa! The canal!
Ottawa! Ottawa! Ottawa! Unceded Algonquin land!- In "Incelclopedia", Ian Celibate describes Involuntary Celibates(Incels) who want to have sex but cannot, Voluntary Incelibates(Sexhavers) who want to and do have sex, Voluntary Celibates(Volcels) who choose not to have sex, and Involuntary Incelibates, who are-*Ian stops and looks very concerned for a moment before a transition cuts him off*
- Butt-Monkey: When they collab, fellow Canadian Political Youtuber J.J. McCullough often plays this role, who as a moderate conservative is often mocked and (jokingly) abused for being the type of centrist that JrEg despises.
- Cast of Personifications: Most of the videos involve one or more personification of a political ideology, especially the Centricide series.
- Central Theme: The entire overarching message of the channel and the twisting tale it tells can be summed up as "Fostering a community and building relationships with other people will improve your mental health and make you a better and more mature person".
- Could Say It, But...: In jris videos on various Assassination Attempts which happened in America in 2024, jre satirically "condemns" them underneath a layer of irony to avoid courting controversy or getting in trouble with YouTube for promoting political violence, which winds up making them sound suspiciously like this trope. This is especially noticeable in "Condemning the UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassination", where jre repeatedly says over and over that you shouldn't kill CEOs (with their easily-explodable heads and home addresses that are readily available to look up online) because if you do, you'll wind up providing immediate tangible benefits to real people in need and receive worldwide fame and adoration and a bunch of women will want to have sex with you. So you SHOULDN'T!
- Cutting the Knot: Jreg’s solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is to nuke the Middle East.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The video "A Hugh Conspiracy" posits the existence of a worldwide conspiracy headed by people named Hugh that wields power behind the scenes in a manner deliberately similar to far-right anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: In "Negative Politics" Jreg designs a society meant to maximize human suffering.
- Easy Evangelism: In the "Anarchist Uprising" video, The East (a character embodying non-western society who is planning to invade the communes that have taken over America) is instantly convinced to embrace anarcho-communism by one of the Ancoms asking if everyone could just get along and joins quem in chanting "Hail Anarchy!" at the end of the video.
- Eat the Rich: Often mentioned by the leftist extremists.
- One video posits a compromise between anarcho-capitalism and communism where the political system is structured like the former, but at the end of every year the top 1% are executed and their wealth redistributed.
- Election Denial: In "I Won (And By A Lot)
", Jreg responds to losing the election for Mayoralship of Ottawa by declaring victory, stating that there is a deep-state conspiracy out to undermine democracy. He then tells all of his voters to storm the capital of Ottowa... as in the capital "O" in a public sculpture of the word "Ottowa". - Equal-Opportunity Offender: Jokes are made at the expense of all the many ideologies portrayed.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: In "Warhammer 40k Political Ideologies
", Jreg examines the various factions of Warhammer 40,000 and how their ideologies are derived from a multitude of different real-world ones. Jre even says that the political compass is just as much of a fantasy setting as 40k is, but then keeps making thinly-veiled jabs at then-current events when talking about fictional concepts in the 40k universe. - Fate Worse than Death: In "Negative Politics" by the Eighth Circle, people get trapped in a VR world and are forced to repeat their worst experience over and over for millennia.
- Godwin's Law: "Nazi Doesn't Know Who To Support
" unpacks the concept of "Nazinflation", or how the term "Nazi" is used both as a pejorative in the modern day and as a broad descriptor for various types of nationalist, racist and fascist groups (in some cases as an Appropriated Appelation), many of which would be at odds with the original Nazis because of them being comprised of multiracial people, middle easterners, etc.Nazi: Back in my day, Nazism used to mean something! Now everybody's calling everybody else a Nazi and everyone's saying 'Yeah, I am, and it's based!'" - Good Capitalism, Evil Capitalism: Minarchist brags about treating his trade partners like family and is heavily implied to have considerable sympathy for the less fortunate. In contrast, Ancap is extremely cutthroat in his business practices and blatantly exploits his workers.
- Grand Theft Me: "A Neo-Nazi With They/Them Pronouns" is subject to this with his other four personalities (a nonbinary person, a demon who repeatedly says "I AM LEGION," self-declared 'Wacky Frank' and a regular dude).
- Hypocritical Humor:
- A t-shirt that says “Fast fashion is destroying the planet” with the crossed-out image of a t-shirt on it.Authoritarian Right: It boils my blood when I hear someone call me something that I’m not.Interviewer: So then would you call someone by their preferred pronouns?Authoritarian Right: Ahahaha!
- "lefttube"
portrays a left-wing YouTuber "humbly" asking for support on Patreon to "defeat capitalism", until funding grows to a ludicrous degree. In the end, they are making $21,163 a month and have converted to Libertarianism. - In the video "Political Ideology Tier List,"
Jreg ridicules the idea of an ideology whose only trait is being against something, despite the fact that jris ideology is Anti-Centrism, an ideology whose main trait is opposing centrism.Jreg: I mean, can you imagine making an ideology that's nothing but against something? Anyway, let's continue with this Anti-Centrist tier list.
- A t-shirt that says “Fast fashion is destroying the planet” with the crossed-out image of a t-shirt on it.
- In a World…: Is said in "The Election of 2024" which is a parody of a movie trailer. "In a dystopian future ruled by centrists..."
- In the Future, Humans Will Be One Race: Jris "Race Accelerationism" video.
- Important Haircut: At the beginning of jris "jREGULAR" jrera, jre cuts jris messy unkempt afro from jris mentally ill days and shaves jris scraggly beard and moustache, signifying jris becoming "regular" and jrim no longer being mentally ill or politically extreme.
- Just a Machine: In 2025 jre would begin to start making increasingly hyperbolic and satirical content about jris disillusionment with the rise of A.I. and the Tech Bros who run the world wanting to upload all human consciousness into a singular intelligence and/or replace everything that makes humanity human with transhuman augments for the sake of a misguided sense of "efficiency", to the point of calling jrimself a "robophobe" advocating for the destruction of all clankers. Case in point, jre even made a song about it called "Total Clanker Death
". - Kayfabe:
- It is impossible to verify whether or not Jreg is an legitimately extremely mentally ill person with a dispassionate outlook on society who attempts to fill the void in jris head where a framework should belong with noise or if jre is just doing some kind of gigantic act as a way of expressing jris thoughts.
- You may have noticed the use of "Jre/Jrim" neopronouns to describe Jreg the human being on this and the related pages; that's because it's also unverifiable what jris gender identity is, given that jre's said contradictory things about it in the past and has made multiple "schizopolitical" videos that examine the intersectionality between politics, mental illness and gender that have jrim claiming to be every gender simultaneously and therefore none of them. It could potentially be an act with Jreg still being a cis male underneath it, but it could also be the closest thing we'll ever get to the truth about the subject.
- Literal-Minded: In the video "A Neo-Nazi With They/Them Pronouns," the titular character has they/them pronouns not because they reject the gender binary, but because they have five entities possessing their body.
- Ludd Was Right: As part of his increasing satire against the rise of artificial intelligence, jre would begin calling for the mass destruction of all robotic entities and make it a large satirical aspect of jris channel starting in 2025, claiming to spearhead the "Neo-Neoluddite" movement. (It may initially seem like despite the extreme hyperbole and obviously racially-charged epithets like "clanker" jre uses that jre believes in this concept unironically, but considering both that this is a schizopolitical ideology on the level of some of the wackier ones from Centricide and the importance of meta-irony to jris channel it is equally likely that jre only unironically believes it as a means of satirizing how reactionary ideas manifest from nonexistent and ridiculously abstract concepts, thereby making it a case of jrem ironically believing something unironically).
- Mantis Mating Meal: In "Inventing New Sexualities", jre describes how "Mantisexuals" consume their partners' heads after having sex.jREG: Fellas, tell me how many times that's happened to you, spiritually or otherwise.
- Media Scaremongering: In "Do NOT See Joker!!!!", Liberal Media warns the viewer of the movie Joker (2019), saying it glorifies violence. He predicts that an incel will shoot up a theater because of it. When weeks pass and Joker becomes a box office success, Liberal Media decides to put on a clown wig, grab a gun, and take matters into his own hands.
- Midword Rhyme: "If the world was ending I would go to Mars", a parody of "If the World Was Ending" by JP Saxe:
- [Greg, Liam:]
If the world was ending I would grow a farm
I’d be like Matt Damon from the Mar... (-tian?)
- Mind Screw:
- Jris old channel intro video
is this combined with Trolling Creator, featuring jremself constantly contradicting and interrupting jremself and ends with jrem curled into a Troubled Fetal Position and swirling on screen with the extremists at the corners of the video a fire consumes the background. - The Schizopolitics videos feature Jreg speaking into a microphone for an extended period of time. The videos contain themes of frameworks, politics, and schizophrenia explained in a mind-boggling, surreal manner. Little explanation is given by Jreg as to what's the purpose or meaning of these videos.
- Jris old channel intro video
- Mx. Fanservice: Parodied in multiple videos where jre disparages people for making pornography and then proceeds to strip down to jris underwear and showing off jris 8-pack abs.
- Multiple-Choice Past: One of the examples of Jreg being a Trolling Creator was jrem uploading a series of videos outlining jris unironic political beliefs and how they influenced jris satire-the issue being each video differs on what jris views are (centrist, progressive, libertarian, identitarian, Marxist-Leninist or unironic anti-centrist) as well as details of jris personal background (for instance, the Marxist video has jrem claim to be a distant relative of Che Guevara, the identitarian one has jrem claim jre is of a mixed European background and the progressive one has jrem claim to be of Jewish descent) and motivation for making jris content (some of the videos have jrem Doing It for the Art, but the libertarian one has jrem claim jre's Only in It for the Money and each one has jrem claim that ideological standpoint informs jris takes).
- Jris other channel averts this, and it's clear jre had a conservative background years ago, but it's never revealed if that past is indicative of jrem today.
- Centricide 6 shows what seems to be jris actual DNA results, and jre's 50% Jewish and 50% Basque (A Spanish-French ethnicity). While said genetic chart was actually for Nazi, who is initially horrified but decides to become a Jewish fascist instead, It's most likely Jreg's actual results.
- Not Me This Time: In "Illuminati postpones world domination due to pandemic", a spokesperson for The Illuminati explains that, while they are trying to bring the entire human race under their rule, they had nothing to do with the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. In fact, it forced them to delay their plans due to multiple key operatives of theirs being sickened by it.
-
Poe's Law: Be careful while watching jris videos. You will definitely run into this all the time while watching jris videos. Remember that jre's a satirist. - Political Rap: “Every Extreme Is On the Same Team”
- Before that, "The Political Compass Rap" was the video that introduced the earliest iterations of the extremists.
- Postmodernism: Parodied or even mocked
as an entity that aimlessly kills the personification of God, Community and Truth, leaving Modernism upset without any purpose. Realizing that all he can do is destroy without actually giving people a foundation to be happy and find meaning, he simply offs himself which forces Modernism to become Post-Postmodernism to gain any semblance of sense. - Post-Somethingism: In jris video "Post-Irony, Meta-Irony, and Post-Truth Satire,"
Jreg brings up a hypothetical case of someone initially pretending to be homeless ironically, finding themselves enjoying the lifestyle, and starting to live on the streets because of it as an example of post-irony. - Refuge in Audacity: A substantial portion of jris work involves trying to see just how far being satirical and meta-ironic will protect jrem from otherwise getting banned off of various internet platforms, simply because no one else would have the guts to be so brazen. Case in point: "I Hate Zionists", a satire about how criticisms of Zionism as an ideology increasingly co-opt anti-semitic rhetoric in an entirely non-anti-semitic context, where every five seconds jre asks "Is the video still up?" (Hilariously, this video actually would get taken down on YouTube and is now only available on jris Patreon).Jreg: Susan?note Susan, I don't know the rules anymore! SUSAN, I'M SCARED! I'M SCARED, SUSAN, I DON'T KNOW THE RULES! I DON'T KNOW THE RULES ANYMORE!—
- Riddle for the Ages:
- What are Jreg's actual political views? Jre plays this as the biggest Running Gag in jris channel especially when jre released a 6 contradictory videos that while framed as sincere, were about jrem being a centrist, anti-centrist, Marxist, Identitarian Nationalist, Progressive and Libertarian at the same time. Jris other channel, however, notes that jre had a conservative background years ago with Christian groups that may or may not reflect what jre believes today. In "Mistakes I Made While Making My Webseries", a relatively unironic video where Jreg reflects on the process of creating Centricide, jre says that jre'll release jris real political views once jre reaches 400k subscribers. When jre reached that goal, jre released a 9-second video proclaiming to be a social democrat with no elaboration. Ensue multiple
tweets
by Jreg
claiming how much jre "loves" social democracy, along with putting a sock emoji in jris Twitter display name. It's still unclear if jre's actually a social democrat and this is an example of post-irony, or if jre is joking about the popular assumption that jre is a moderate leftist. - Being the
Spiritual Successor of the political views question: what are Jreg's actual mental illnesses? A question prevailing many times since The Mental Illnesses's inception. The only one Jreg's confirmed is depression. For a long while, it's been a running joke that Jreg's schizophrenic. Jre mentions it jokingly in many videos. Same with ADHD, Schizotypal Personality Disorder, and BPD, the latter of which jre claims to be diagnosed with in jris channel's trailer video (the seriousness of which is debatable). People wonder which disorders Jreg is writing from a personal point of view, but it's unlikely jre'll reveal them. The JrEg/Junior Egg character in The Mental Illnesses claims to have every mental illness.
- What are Jreg's actual political views? Jre plays this as the biggest Running Gag in jris channel especially when jre released a 6 contradictory videos that while framed as sincere, were about jrem being a centrist, anti-centrist, Marxist, Identitarian Nationalist, Progressive and Libertarian at the same time. Jris other channel, however, notes that jre had a conservative background years ago with Christian groups that may or may not reflect what jre believes today. In "Mistakes I Made While Making My Webseries", a relatively unironic video where Jreg reflects on the process of creating Centricide, jre says that jre'll release jris real political views once jre reaches 400k subscribers. When jre reached that goal, jre released a 9-second video proclaiming to be a social democrat with no elaboration. Ensue multiple
- Rage Breaking Point: "I'm Gonna Snap!
" is a song all about this, though it degenerates near the end into Jreg beating the shit out of jris colleague, who is dressed as a camel. - Running Gag: Jris hatred of the "Centrists". Expect jrem to immediately rate anthing centrist in nature an absolute bottom tier in any tier list video jre makes.
- Self-Deprecation: Jreg is not averse to taking potshots at jris own content, jris status as a YouTuber or jris own political leanings (wherever they may fall Jreg has made fun of them).
- Reaches its apex in Centricide 6 where both Jreg (the anti-centrist character) and Radical Centrist accuse Greg (the YouTuber hosting Jreg in-universe) of being a narcissistic self-promoter.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: JReg Gaming (a completely unrelated gaming Youtube channel that happens to have a similar name) is jokingly portrayed as a rival.
- Shown Their Work: Behind all the silliness, Jreg clearly knows quite a bit about a number of political philosophies, even fringe ones like Posadism
or National anarchism (though jre refers to it as anarcho-fascism)
. Several of the videos jre makes involve discussing these fringe ideologies in depth in ways that, while Played for Laughs, are largely accurate. - Stylistic Suck:
- The fact that Centricide is made by one person in an apartment with a crappy green screen only makes the comedy better.
Jreg: (in the description of "Centricide 1") They told me I could never make a series in my room all by myself. They were absolutely right and it was a mistake.- The main character design for The Mental Illnesses are the characters wearing giant posterboards on their heads with their names.
- Take That!: "The Worst Possible Political System || Hell || Negative Politics
" was designed as a way for Jreg to come up with the most unbearable political system that maximizes the suffering of those in it without collapsing the society that practices it entirely... only by the end that jre realizes that jre is basically describing modern Neoliberalism.- In A Message From America's Future
, future Jreg warns jris past self not to wreck America by voting for the 'old, senile, decrepit pedophile' in the 2020 presidential election. Present Jreg fails to act on this advice because when jre considers each point jre determines they apply to both candidates. - Jris appearance on
Russia Today was mostly Jreg doing jris usual Anti-Centrism bit, but Jre also made some brutal digs by way of sarcasm:- When the hosts discuss how Trump supposedly wins even when he loses:
"Meanwhile Biden only wins if he wins, which is a bad strategy."- When discussing anarchism, and jre calls out the fact that they removed the part attacking Russia:
"...if people start off as anarchists and end up uh disliking you know liberal democracy because its uh devolved into a corrupt oligarchy that only benefits the wealthy unlike a good country like Russia..."
- In A Message From America's Future
- Take That, Critics!: ''Removing Problematic Centricide Characters''
has Jreg responding to the controversy of playing "offensive" characters like Nazbol by removing them, which means that Centricide ends early with Queer Anarchism being the only one left who proceeds to bore Jreg by reading queer feminist theory. - Tech Bro: Somewhere In Silicon Valley
satirizes these, portraying them as a bunch of drug-addled psychopaths who are constantly coming up with nonsensical ideas like "Uber for bongs", "Web 7.0", and "An app that fucks you in the ass" and then all collectively hyping each other's terrible drug-induced pitches up. - Terrible Pick-Up Lines: In "How To Be An Alpha Chad That Slays Mad Poon", said "Alpha Chad"'s idea of a pickup line is this embarrasment:Jreg: ...I demand SEX!...Please! Pleeease, give it to meeee! MMM, FEMOID! RAWR—!
- Tick Tock Tune: In the song "I Watch My YouTube Videos At 2x Speed". The ticking is continuous throughout the song, but it becomes more prominent in the latter half as the song speeds up.
- Villain Ball: Defied in "Illuminati postpones world domination due to pandemic
" in which the Illuminati, who'd been planning a global takeover for centuries, asks why they would randomly start a coronavirus outbreak while they'd been working for decades on their 5G surveillance/mind control system. - War Hawk: In "Accelerate"Class war now! Race war now! Honestly, I just want a fucking war.
- War Is Glorious: I Want To Die In A War
offers a look as to why young men would want to enlist and die in combat despite the advent of War Is Hell tropes. Namely that many of these young men are so disconnected from society that war offers them a chance to die for a cause as part of a collective team of like-minded people. That, and it offers their Death Seeker lives a chance to have an impactful death to escape the harsh realities of the modern world since many still aren't willing to kill themselves or fear dying for nothing.
- Artistic License – Pharmacology: When characters drink from the Fountain of SSRI, they are granted immediate positive results. Depression describes himself as feeling amazing directly after drinking. Actual SSRIs take a few weeks before the person begins to benefit. Side effects of the SSRI are prevalent in the first weeks as the body adjusts.
- Aside Comment:
- In Robbery:
Anxiety: I'll have a, uh... I'll have a, uh... [Inner Monologue] Oh God, oh God, oh fuck, I knew this would happen. I knew this would happen. Oh God, why do I even try? How could this possibly get any worse?
Sociopathy: [pulling out gun] This is a robbery. Everybody put your fucking hands in the air!
Anxiety: [to audience] Oh, that's how!- In Laugh Track:
Schizophrenia: Oh, should I go visit [Autism]?
PTSD: Hm, no, he doesn't like to be disturbed so... [looks to camera] I wouldn't go there. - Audience? What Audience?: PTSD's reaction to Schizophrenia's fourth-wall breaking.PTSD: Yeah, Schizophrenia, I guarantee nobody's laughing.
- Bait-and-Switch: In an example of Trolling Creator, the entire series is technically a bait-and-switch. The original “The Mental Illnesses” video came out directly after the last Centricide video. The video portrays the concept of personified mental illnesses as flawed and possibly harmful due to how complex disorders are simplified. Some took it as a satirization of Centricide’s concept. At the end, Neurotypical declares the series a very bad idea and states “there should not be any more of this.” On Twitter
Jreg posted the video and made a poll captioned “Should this be the next series” with both answers of the poll being “no”. Three months later? It’s an actual series. - Bungled Suicide: In episode 4, Depression tries to shoot himself and discovers he cannot die.
- Burger Fool: Depression works at a fast food joint. He doesn't appear to like it, considering his experience in life is so bad that he actively wants to stop living.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Anxiety to Depression in "The Mental Illnesses 4", possibly an Interrupted Declaration of Love.Anxiety: Depression, people really care about you. I care about you. I... I might even l...lo—...l—.
- Company Cross-References: Schizophrenia, being a Fourth-Wall Observer, references Centricide multiple times.
- In "Laugh Track" he says they're the "spiritual successor of a web series about political ideologies", referencing the concept of Centricide.
- In "Schizophrenia Explains Schizophrenia", he describes people with schizotypal personality disorder as having "magical thinking". Saying "they might believe in some wacky stuff that nobody else believes, like some random - like some political framework that doesn't exist but they believe it unironically for some reason." This is a callback to anti-centrism, a fictional ideology that's the driving force of the Centricide series.
- In "The Fountain of SSRI", a mysterious figure that calls himself "Junior Egg" appears before Schizophrenia, represented as the Anti-centrism Polcomp Ball.
- Destination Defenestration: Socipathy pushes Neurotypical out the window from at least the second floor in "The Mad House"
- Edible Ammunition: Inverted in episode 5, where normal bullets are used. Pica eats the lead bullets PTSD shoots at her. Although according to him, he was just offering her a meal.
- Ensemble Cast: The Mental Illnesses features a cast of over 7 main characters.
- Episode Title Card: Present for the first three episodes. Absent from 3.5 and the fourth. Returns in the 5th.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Played straight in the first episode of The Mental Illnesses.
- Exploiting the Fourth Wall: Schizophrenia is aware he's a 2D sheet of visual information. He exploits this in episode 5 in a fight with a neurotypical where he manipulates himself to dodge the neurotypical's weapon. But the neurotypical also exploits the fourth wall by pulling back Schizophrenia's green screen and "smashing" reality, sending Schizophrenia into a temporary daze.
- "Friends" Rent Control: The Mad House has at least 10 residents. It has multiple stories and is next to a city. The only characters shown to have some way of making money is Depression and Autism, who has a Mc Job and trades stocks respectively. So unless Autism is really good at trading stocks, this goes unexplained.
- Healing Spring: The Fountain of SSRI is a spring. The fountain spews selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), which are used to treat depressive and anxiety disorders. The fountain grants drinkers immediate positive effects.
- Hypocritical Humor: In "The Fountain of SSRI", PTSD chastises Sociopathy for using a gun, right before proceeding to gun down Neurotypicals.
- Laugh Track: In keeping with the Sitcom theme of The Mental Illnesses, the series utilizes canned laughter. The laughter plays even when nothing funny is occurring. At the end of the third episode “Laugh Track”, it’s revealed that the laughter is coming from a group of neurotypicals next door who are watching the mental illnesses through their TV. Although it’s not clear if this applies to the entire series. Schizophrenia is the only one able to hear the laugh track.Schizophrenia: There was nothing funny about what you just said but... but they laugh. Why do they laugh?
- Melancholy Musical Number: "Stockholm Syndrome With Being Alive" from the Mental Illnesses episode of the same name. The song details Depression's bleak worldview and how he views the "normal ones" as having Stockholm Syndrome with life, disillusioned with reality. Yet, at the same time, Depression desperately wishes to be like them.
- The Reveal: In episode 5, the SSRIs triggered "Depression's" mania, revealing he's actually Bipolar Disorder.
- Roommate Com: See Sitcom.
- Shout-Out: In the "The Mental Illnesses" video, the background music of Dementia's section is "Everywhere At The End Of Time" by The Caretaker, an album relating to the illness.
- Sitcom: Compared to its predecessor Centricide’s Myth Arc, The Mental Illnesses takes a more sitcom approach to storytelling. Schizophrenia outright calls the series a sitcom premise in “Laugh Track.” The series is a Roommate Com centering around the many residents of the Mad House.
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Spiritual Successor: The Mental Illnesses is the spiritual successor of Centricide. Fourth-Wall Observer Schizophrenia outright calls it a spiritual successor in the third episode. - Stealth Pun:
- DID's segment in the "The Mental Illnesses" video mostly consists of him switching his name; from "Split Personality Disorder" to "Multiple Personality Disorder" before settling on "Dissociative Identity Disorder".
- The house the mental illnesses reside in is called "the Mad House", named in the first episode title. A "madhouse" is an informal, somewhat offensive term for a psychiatric hospital that houses mentally ill patients.
- Trauma Button: PTSD's trauma is accidentally triggered multiple times, usually by another character asking what traumatized him.
- A Very Special Episode: "Schizophrenia Explains Schizophrenia." The episode has no plot and is light on humor. Schizophrenia speaks directly to the viewer about what schizophrenia is and how it's like to live with it. He also talks about things similar to schizophrenia such as schizotypal personality disorder and schizoid personality disorder. Near the end, he elaborates on the deep-rooted stigma surrounding schizophrenics and the ableism they face. He urges the viewer to treat schizophrenics like people while also cutting them some slack if they act a little off.
- Welcome Episode: The first episode of The Mental Illnesses. Neurotypical is introduced to the residents of the Mad House.
