Evil aliens foolishly invade a World of Ham to assassinate the titular, um, sock...
Wait, let's try this again.
In a crazy suburban world, two friends - Ronnie Cordova, a kung-fu master in a maroon leisure suit and Burger, a cyborg in what appears to be a prison outfit with a rocket-powered robotic fist have somehow fallen into the task of caring for Sockbaby - a sentient sock. Who is actually the sock incarnation of Jesus, destined to die (again) for the sins of the Sock-People. When attempting to go get some lunch, Ronnie and Burger are assaulted by jive-talking demonic aliens...
It's as weird as it sounds. And it's awesome.
The fourth film in the series (Sockb4by) guest stars Doug Jones (with a cameo by Napoleon Dynamite in a wetsuit), gives us some more details of Ronnie's origin, and shatters the law that the fourth movie in a series is always horrible.
Written by Doug TenNapel, directed by Doug TenNapel and John Soares.
This short film series provides examples of:
- Alien Blood: In Sockb4by, one of the Man-I-Two twins (the Heder brothers) blood is orange, the other's is yellow.
- Also, Doug Jones' blood is black.
- And the first mook (the one that gets his hand caught in the blender) has pink blood.
- All There in the Manual: Subverted. While clarification about the Sockbaby universe has been done on Doug TenNapel's forums,
he has stated that everything you need to know about the films is right there in the movies. There's still no explaining that first scene, though... - Applied Phlebotinum: Sockbaby brings Ronnie back to life with some sort of pixie dust after his fight with Lord Opticord.
- Arc Words: "Hello!"
- Artifact Title: Sockbaby is nowhere to be seen in Sockb4by.
- Art Shift: Ronnie's plasma pill-enduced energy blast that explodes one of the greys is shown in an animated sequence. Things switch back to normal to show us his disembodied legs stumble about and collapse.
- Also, Ronnie's lungs in Sockb4by.
- As Himself: Doug Jones.
- As You Know: Parodied when, right at the start of Sockbaby 2, Burger summarizes the entire previous episode for Ronnie.Burger: "In case you didn't notice, a grey just tried to kill Sockbaby."
- Ass Kicking Pose: Frequently. Ronnie loves to pose.
- Badass Boast: Absolutely all over the place. Lord Optichord has an amazing one."We don't kill Sock Baby to "win". There is no "win". I kill Sockbaby...to break the heart of God".
- Blood from the Mouth: Done
hilariously badly. (Of course, that was the whole point.) - Bond One-Liner: "Stupid foe... now you ain't no mo'!"
- Book Ends: "Hello, what's with no hello?"
- Brick Joke:
- Burger tells a man who claims to be Ronnie's father that he's lying, "Because Ronnie's father is black!" Sure enough, we see at the end that Ronnie's real father was black.
- The grey Ronnie launches into the sky in Sockbaby 2 finally plummets back down to rejoin Davis in Sockbaby 3 looking none the worse for wear.
- Bring It: Ronnie Cordova makes a few of these moves.
- The Brute: A Two-Ton Chum-Chum.
- Butt-Monkey: The grey who meets the business end of Burger's Power Fist. First, he gets hit so hard he pukes blood, then he recovers just in time to get launched into the stratosphere, then finally he plummets back to earth, only to immediately get beaten senseless with Ronnie's medallion.
- Chekhov's Gun: The sock full of dog poo.
- Carry a Big Stick: The Chum-Chum again.
- Catchphrase: Davis: "Sham Bam Bamina!" Ronnie interrupts him the second time, to Davis' considerable rage.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Doug TenNapel, who wrote the thing.
- Confusion Fu: Optichord's weird dancing strikes look so silly that Ronnie rolls his eyes, but his expression turns to "Oh crap" when he realizes it's so he can slash him with his nails.
- Cool Shades: Ronnie's mirrored aviators.
- Creator Cameo: Doug TenNapel as Lord Optichord. He is HUGE.
- Creator Thumbprint: Ronnie graces us with TenNapel's signature scream of "Ripoff!"
- Double Take: Burger, upon first spotting the Two-Ton Chum Chum.
- Embarrassing First Name: "My name is Davis." (*snicker*)
- Enemy Mime: The greys wear black and white facepaint.
- Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: In Sockb4by, even Ronnie's next door neighbor is one of the mook squad that attacks him.
- Evil Is Petty: "Ah-hahaha! Dog poop! That's a good one!"
- Evil Sorceror: Lord Optichord apparently uses dark magic to warp reality and summon adversaries for Ronny to battle from the dark place he resides. He also has an arsenal of magical artifacts at his disposal, including a "magic doorknob" that he uses to travel to Earth.
- Excuse Plot: The entire conceit of the series is simply an excuse to watch incredibly well choreographed amateur fight scenes between Ronnie and whoever has decided they've got a beef with him today.
- The series website even rolls with this idea, summarizing each episode entirely in relation to how increasingly unsuccessful Ronnie and Burger's efforts to get lunch are.
- Giant Mook: The "Two-ton Chum-Chum" that appears in part 2 and starts seriously kicking Ronnie's ass until Burger brings some sort of demon to life with a paper puppet to eat it.
- Glasses Pull: Ronnie, right before getting yanked out of his car again.Ronnie: *whips 'em off* ...ah criminy.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: When Ronnie takes the plasma pill. It also signals Burger summoning the demon wolf thing to kill the Two-Ton Chum Chum.
- The Greys: They use the name, at least. Otherwise, they're mime-looking, suit-wearing, kung-fu-fighting humans.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Burger wears a pair of swimming goggles - for no apparent reason.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Ronnie and Burger
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Lord Optichord summons a pile of dog poop to distract Ronnie long enough for Davis to make another try at Sockbaby. He ends up trying to strangle the sock Ronnie wiped his shoe with, having mistaken it for Sockbaby.
- Jive Turkey: Davis mocks Ronnie and Burger by calling them "Foolish honkeys!" Seems to be a thing among the Greys, since Optichord also gets in on the fun.Lord Optichord: "Ronnie, you can't take care of this baby. He will cramp your style."
- Kung-Foley: In universe, no less! Ronnie's posing causes random snaps and musical stings to occur. In Sockbaby 2, when one pose results in a hoedownariffic musical sting, Burger tells him to cut it out.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Doug Jones, to Ronnie.
- Megaton Punch:
- Burger's main fighting technique with his robot arm, as one grey learns the very, very hard way.
- That same grey gets a plasma pill enhanced uppercut from Ronnie that launches him into the sky so hard he doesn't land until the next episode.
- My Car Hates Me: Ronnie's car refuses to start, giving the greys time to make their second attempt on Sockbaby.
- Never Say "Die": How Ronnie sums up electrocuting Davis and then breaking his neck."Davis is gone... forever!"
- No-Sell: The Two-Ton Chum Chum's specialty, being totally unaffected by Ronnie's Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
- Not My Driver: Davis gets the drop on Burger by slipping into the drivers seat while the cyborg is distracted by Ronnie's fight.
- Old Master: Master Cordova
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Lord Opticord is the toughest opponent.
- Rule of Cool: Every. Fight. Scene. Period.
- Screaming Warrior:
- Davis, for a very, very undignified definition of screaming.
- While he's much more composed, the Two Ton Chum-Chum still spends his entire time on screen shrieking and bellowing incoherently.
- Serious Business: "Hello... what's with no hello?"
- Sharp-Dressed Man: The Greys wear matching black and white suits, complete with fedoras.
- Shout-Out: "And I'll form the head."
- Silly Walk: Every time Davis retreats, he does so with an astoundingly silly run. He's a bit more composed the first time.
- Sins of Our Fathers: "Your real father killed my real son. So I'm here to return the favor!"
- Species Surname: Davis is referred to by Lord Optichord's henchman as "Davis the Grey."
- Stock Scream: The Wilhelm Scream.
- Toilet Humor: One of the few works out there where a pile of dog poop is a major plot point. TWICE.
- Trash Talk:
- "Go tell your alien brothers... THAT RONNIE CORDOVA SAYS THEY'RE GAY!"
- "'Ha ha' all you want! For soon, you WILL cry like babies!"
- Underwear of Power: In Sockb4by, the mooks all wear black wetsuits with white briefs on the outside.
- Un-Cancelled: The Channel101 audience didn't vote it back, but Tennapel was encouraged to continue.
- Variable-Length Chain: Ronnie can use his leisure suit neck chain as a(n apparently electrified) weapon. Lord Opticord turns it against him after it's used on him - and they both apparently die...
