Everyday Craziness in Pontypandy
is a series of Fireman Sam fanfictions written by NoonboryKedabory.
The series is based closely on the 2008 version of the cartoon, with a few elements from the classic series sprinkled in. In addition to the main cast, there are a few new characters, mainly college students and sweethearts Gabby and Svetlana.
In addition to the main series, there is also a tie-in manual describing what a video game based on the series would look like. This manual contains various extra information about the cast and setting.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Gender Identity: In canon, Ellie Phillips is a (presumably) cisgender woman who uses "she/her" pronouns. Here, Briar Phillips is nonbinary and uses "they/them" pronouns.
- Adaptational Sexuality:
- Ben and Tom, neither of whom had a love interest in canon, are a couple here.
- Elvis is implied to be straight in canon, due to his interest in Penny in early seasons, and later Krystyna. Here, he's gay and in love with an oblivious Sam.
- All Just a Dream: Most of "Sarah's Mermaid Adventure" is a dream Sarah was having after she fell asleep after she read Mermaid Girls.
- Almost Kiss: In "A Story for Lily", the mermaid and the prince are about to kiss on the beach when the prince's guards arrive, and the mermaid has to flee into the ocean.
- Amusing Injuries: One of the bloopers from "Valentine's Daze" has Elvis fall on his face as a gag.
- Anachronic Order: Several chapters are ordered differently than they were released both here and in the manual for the video game. For instance, "Scary Stories" is Part 1 despite being released on February 28, 2024 and "Valentine's Daze" is Part 6 despite being released on Valentine's Day.
- Badass in Distress: In "Sarah's Mermaid Adventure", the entire fire service is captured and held hostage by Count Slither, requiring the Mermaid Girls to rescue them.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Inverted in "Sarah's Mermaid Adventure"; while wearing swimsuits for lifeguard training, it's the tomboyish Gabby who bares her midriff in a ruffle top and skirt, while the more feminine Svetlana wears a one-piece suit with shorts.
- Born in an Elevator: In "Lift Life", the fire service has to rescue a labouring woman from a stuck elevator, and Penny ends up delivering the baby inside the lift.
- Call-Back: In "Bronwyn's Helper", Gabby's only background knowledge of Pontypandy was the movie incident from "Set for Action!".
- Calming Tea: In "Scary Stories", Elvis carries a mug of tea through the episode to ease his nerves about being in the fire station at night.
- Camping Episode: In "How Not to Camp", Tom brings Gabby, Svetlana, and the kids out on a camping trip. They get rained out by a thunderstorm.
- Canon Foreigner: Gabby McGraw and Svetlana Blomgren were created specifically for this series. In a literal sense, they are foreigners to Pontypandy, as Gabby is from Canada and Svetlana is from Sweden. Sign of the Maze Monster introduces Freya, Svetlana's deaf sister who communicates with sign language.
- Chekhov's Classroom: Early in "Valentine's Daze", Elvis demonstrates the Heimlich maneuver to Gabby. At the end, Gabby uses this knowledge to rescue a choking Svetlana.
- Chore Character Exploration: In "Potato Queen Bronwyn", while peeling potatoes, Norman has an existential crisis, to which Gabby gives very dry responses.
- Cool Big Sis:
- When Elvis and Gabby become friends, Elvis serves as a fun, brotherly figure to the younger Gabby, serving as her closest confidante.
- Gabby herself takes on somewhat of an older sister role to Norman, usually acting as a straight mannote to his antics.
- Damsel in Distress:
- In "Bronwyn's Helper", Bronwyn and Gabby get stuck on the Wholefish Cafe's roof, and need the fire service to get them down. While Bronwyn is easily saved, Gabby slips and nearly falls off; luckily, Sam is able to catch her in time.
- In "Valentine's Daze", Svetlana chokes on a scallop and needs Gabby to do the Heimlich on her.
- In "Runaway Raft", Mrs. Chen and Lily inadvertently drift out to sea. Jodie, Ben, and Krystyna bring them back to shore.
- In "Sign of the Maze Monster", Freya gets trapped in a burning hedge maze. Sam and Krystyna air-lift her out.
- Faint in Shock: In "Lift Life", seeing the messy results of Mrs. Adelstrop's baby being Born in an Elevator makes Elvis pass out.
- Foot Popping: In "How Not to Camp", Svetlana pops her foot while hugging Gabby.
- Freeze Sneeze:
- In "No Power, No Problem", the house goes very cold from a power outage in February, which results in Elvis sneezing himself awake.
- In "A Story for Lily", after falling headfirst into the ocean, Ben gets a little sneezy.
- Freudian Slip: In "Valentine's Daze", Gabby rants about how frustrated she is with everyone trying to hook her up with boys she's not interested in, and inadvertently lets it slip that she actually likes girls. She quickly realises what she's just said and tries to cover it up.
- Group Hug:
- In the epilogue of "Lightning Flu Blues", the four firefighters (and Gabby) all share a hug after getting a sickly Elvis to cheer up.
- In the ending of "How Not to Camp", the entire gang present all share a big group hug. Because there's a mix of kids and adults, the adults get knocked off balance and they all fall down.
- Growling Gut: In "To Melt This Aussie's Heart", Ben's stomach rumbles as a sign that something's wrong with him.
- Hidden Depths: Sign of the Maze Monster reveals Sam and Tom know sign language.
- Hilarious Outtakes: Chapter 2 of "Valentine's Daze" is a blooper reel.
- Holding Hands: In "Lightning Flu Blues", Sam holds Elvis' hand to comfort him after putting him back to bed for a sick day.
- Illness Blanket: In "Lightning Flu Blues", while Elvis is laying on the couch during his sick day, he keeps himself comfortable with a blanket.
- In-Series Nickname: Very rarely is Gabby called by her full first name, Gabriella.
- Instant Birth: Just Add Labor!: In "Lift Life", Mrs. Adelstrop starting labour and the birth of her baby happen all within the span of about twenty minutes.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Due to the lack of people her age around town, eighteen year old Gabby is best friends with twenty-nine year old Elvis, thirty-four year old Bronwyn, and eight year old Norman.
- Lap Pillow: In "To Melt This Aussie's Heart", while waiting at the doctor's office, Ben lays his head in Tom's lap.
- Luminescent Blush: Gabby does this in the Hilarious Outtakes of "Valentine's Daze" when Svetlana asks what the former's name is. Gabby then admits she forgot her own name for a second.
- Mythology Gag:
- In "To Melt This Aussie's Heart", a street appears called Kynman Avenue, named for Steven Kynman, the voice actor for Sam, Elvis, Norman, and Charlie.
- In "Svetlana Gets a Job", Svetlana mentions a sewing business by the name of Alderton, which shuttered in 1994. This is a nod to the classic series, which was narrated by John Alderton and ended in 1994.
- "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: In "Lift Life", the baby is named for the firefighters who rescued her. This name, Elsa Penrose, is derived from Elvis, Sam, 'Penny, and Briar (Briar Rose).
- Nose Tapping: In "Valentine's Daze", Elvis' understanding of Gabby's distaste in men is punctuated by him tapping the side of his nose.
- Oblivious to Love: Sam when it comes to Elvis such as in "Sign of the Maze Monster" when Elvis, who is learning sign language to communicate with Freya, tries to subtly spell love as a stealth flirt when Sam talks to him. Sam just says that Elvis loves learning sign language.
- Person as Verb: The sixth blooper in Chapter 2 of "Valentine's Daze" is called "Pulling a Cridlington" due to the similarities to his clumsiness when Elvis falls flat on his face.
- The Pratfall: In "Bronwyn's Helper", Elvis fails to pull a spoon out of a pot of sticky toffee and falls flat on his ass.
- Queer Establishing Moment: "Valentine's Daze" has Gabby come out to Elvis as a lesbian. At the end, she's comfortable being out to everyone, and even meets her love interest, Svetlana. This same story also has Elvis admit his crush on Sam.
- Script Fic: "Wellness Check-In" is a transcript of a Zoom call between various residents of Pontypandy on the Pontypandy Day of Rest.
- Shout-Out:
- In "Heads Up", Elvis is seen reading The Little Prince.
- In "Lightning Flu Blues", Sam plays Longleaf Valley on his phone.
- In "Lift Life", Briar claims that they keep their pace in CPR by thinking of the Dark Side March.
- The Mermaid Girls franchise that Sarah enjoys shares some similarities to Sailor Moon, mainly with the colour-coded Five-Man Band, the emphasis on female friendships, and having an elaborate Transformation Sequence.
- In "Sarah's Mermaid Adventure", Mermaid Flora's Transformation Name Announcement is "Growing better all the time!", while Mermaid Shimmer's is "Shining bright to find my way!".
- Ship Tease: Between Sam and Elvis:
- In "Heads Up", they fall asleep in the same bed.
- In "No Power, No Problem", Sam agrees to crawl into Elvis' bed for warmth when the power goes out. Elvis snuggles up to him and presses his ear to his chest, trying to hear Sam's heartbeat.
- In "Lightning Flu Blues", after finding Elvis throwing up in the bathroom, Sam sits with him until he's done, then brings him back to bed and holds his hand to ease his nerves. Later, when a fire breaks out on the street they live on, Sam's first worry is that Elvis is in danger. He's immensely relieved when he finds him safe and sound, and holds him with their foreheads pressed together.
- In "Sam's Promise", Elvis has a dream of being stuck in a fire and unable to reach and rescue Sam. Once he wakes up, the two hold hands, as Sam promises he will come home safe that night. He, along with Penny and Briar, makes good on this promise, and in the end, Sam and Elvis snuggle up on the couch.
- In "How Not to Camp", Elvis gets very excited to hug Sam, and Tom even wingmans for him by giving him tips.
- In "Sign of the Maze Monster", Elvis stealth-flirts by finger-spelling the word "love" when Sam enters the room.
- In "Wellness Check-In", they are once again sharing a bed.
- Sick Episode:
- In "To Melt This Aussie's Heart", Ben suffers from norovirus.
- In "Lightning Flu Blues" and "Sam's Promise", Elvis is knocked out with the flu.
- In "Runaway Raft" and "Sign of the Maze Monster", Tom suffers from pneumonia.
- Sleep Cute: At the end of "Heads Up", Sam and Elvis fall asleep curled up together in one bed.
- Soup Is Medicine:
- In "Heads Up", Penny makes soup for dinner as it will be easy for Sam to eat while woozy from a concussion.
- In "Sam's Promise", Svetlana gives Sam a chicken soup recipe, which he makes for a sick Elvis.
- Terms of Endangerment: In "Sarah's Mermaid Adventure", Count Slither mockingly calls Sam "Little Red" while gloating about how the fire service won't be able to escape his trap.
- Valentine's Day Episode: "Valentine's Daze", in which Pontypandy holds a Valentine's Day festival, and predictably the barbecue starts a fire.
- V-Sign: In "Valentine's Daze", one of the college girls makes V signs while posing for a picture next to Jupiter, much to Station Officer Steele's chagrin.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Invoked in "Lightning Flu Blues"; Elvis covers his face to prevent Sam from seeing him throw up.
- Working Through the Cold: In "Runaway Raft", Ben notices that Tom has a fever in the morning and suggests he take a sick day, but Tom insists on powering through it, based on the idea that other people need him. However, later his illness (revealed near the end to be pneumonia) worsens, and Krystyna has to call Helen to handle things.
