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Alex: "Feel the beer. Feel the wine. Get on up, it's drinkin' time."

Tipping Forties (September 15, 2009 – May 27, 2012) were a group of young gentlemen in Arizona that enjoy the drink. They also enjoyed making Let's Plays.

Originally a team of three guys named Ryan, Benson and Mike, they started out on the Something Awful forums under the handles Kuvo, topiKal and bandunk, respectively, with a well-received LP of Final Fantasy X. Following that up with an additional let's play of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and adding Alex (a.k.a. Marvelis) to the team, they came into full-swing. Towards the end of their run, Marvelis retired from LP, leaving the original three to book-end the show with Final Fantasy X-2.

The guys also had a few non-LP projects - in addition to various skits, they made a weekly podcast, comedy series called Lunch Break, and a full-length movie, High Low.

In May 2012 they announced their breakup, which meant the end of the podcast as well as everything else that had the T40 name on it. However, Ryan still does Let's Plays with a new crew, and streams together with Bandunk and Kevin (AKA Benson). They also have a new show where they riff Netflix movies. Links below.


Tipping Forties has Let's Played the following:

Let's Plays Kuvo produced Post-Breakup:

Other Projects:

Stream Channels:

  • TippingForties - now abandoned, but the T40 weekly streams as well as the Webathon are archived here.
  • Cooking with Gas - Ryan's, Benson's and Bandunk's shared channel, put together after the Twitch Cops banned Ryan's old channel for streaming anime.


Tropes:

    The Guys 
  • Accentuate the Negative: Some of the Let's Plays, but mainly the podcast.
    Alex: On this podcast we normally talk about things we like, things we hate, stupid people... but the only thing we like is hating stupid people.
  • The Ace: Alex is the most skilled at games out of the four, and likes to remind the other guys of it.
  • Can't Hold His Liquor: bandunk was always the most noticeably drunk at the end of each session.
    • Ryan took to being the most noticably drunk in the middle of a session, although this may just be because of his drink choice.
  • Catchphrase: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
    Ryan: "Good work X, you did it."
    Benson: "You're not winning any awards here."
    Alex: "Fuck this game!"
  • Challenge Gamer: Benson has held the world's fastest speedrun time in Ninja Gaiden.
  • Demoted to Extra: Alex has largely stayed off the grid since the breakup, only appearing on Ryan's stream once in a while.
  • Drunken Song: Done very commonly, most notably by bandunk. It seems to me...you lived your life like a candle in the wind.
    • "YA YA YA YA YA!"
    • "TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDING DIRTY. TRYIN' TO CATCH ME RIDING DIRTY"
    • "CAT'S IN THE CRADLE AND THE SILVER SPOON, LITTLE BOY BLUE AND THE MAN ON THE MOON"
      bandunk: "Why is that song so relevant to every game we play?"
      Benson: Because every one has something involving their fucking dad!
    • Benson also challenged fans to make a collection of every drunken song they've ever done. Considering how often they sang and how many videos they have (5 videos a week nearly every week for almost three years, with little to no invokedSchedule Slip), it would be quite the challenge.
  • Easter Egg: How they hinted at new LP's. Ryan would hide images in the programming of their website that give small hints, leading the thread to hunt and guess.
  • Every Episode Ending: So what did we learn today?
  • The Faceless: Ryan was this for most of their run, until they started doing the streams. Before that, he would always be either behind the camera or obscuring his face with something whenever the gang appeared in pictures/videos.
  • Fan Art: They've generated quite from the SA forums, ranging from MS Paint humor to actually decent pieces to even music. Check the LP Archive of FFX for a good amount of it.
  • Fantastic Racism: The Forties don't like robots. Or furries. Though being Goons, the latter's unsurprising.
  • Flanderization: Drinking became a more and more important gimmick as the Forties have advanced. In the beginning they were hecklers who occasionally had a few, a year later they had drinking games and verged on cirrhosis. Not that anyone's complaining.
    • Note the GoldenEye (1997) LP, where drinking conditions were basically what you were watching it for. When they played Shenmue, they didn't use them at all, so they could get back to their roots. Curiously, they ended up drinking way more without the conditions.
      • This Trope has now been reversed in near enough it's entirety. The T40's haven't used their what are we drinking catchphrase in years and with the exception of the final episode celebrations they rarely get as blind drunk as they used to - in fact they've potentially changed so much you could near enough apply the Early-Installment Weirdness Trope to them.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble:
    • Sanguine: Benson (topiKal)
    • Choleric: Ryan (Kuvo)
    • Melancholic: Alex (Marvelis)
    • Phlegmatic: Mike (bandunk)
  • Halloween Episode: Every Halloween, the crew would record an episode where they played a different yet similar game to the LP in progress:
  • Hard-Drinking Tropes: And how.
  • It's Easy, So It Sucks!: invokedBenson and Alex both hate games where it's impossible to die, like BioShock and Fable II.
  • Jerkass: Alex. On a background noise in one of the GoldenEye (1997) videos:
    topiKal: "Ryan's neighbors have chihuahuas that are really annoying and bark all the time. Maybe that's what you're hearing. I hate those dogs."
    Alex: "I have caught many scorpions in our house and I always throw them over the fence for the neighbor's dogs to play with. They have less dogs now than a year ago."
  • Larynx Dissonance: Anyone who voices a female or young character... except bandunk.
  • Let's Play
  • Local Reference: Plenty are made to the Phoenix area, and a few to upstate New York where Benson and bandunk grew up. HOOOWE'S CAVEEERNS!
  • MST: The style of the LP's. The guys drink while playing bad/silly games and make fun of what they see and each other.
  • Naming Conventions: The first video of an LP is named The [x]ing Game. For instance, Final Fantasy X's first episode is named (yes, that one).
  • Non-Action Snarker: bandunk tends not to play in any of their single-player Let's Plays, choosing rather just to lampshade and snark at-will. Broken for the New Vegas LP, in which bandunk does take the wheel. He's not particularly good at it.
    Alex: "bandunk's pretty sad that he died to a gecko."
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Alex loves to recount the time he saw Shaq eating chicken in person.
  • Once per Episode: Many of the videos end with bandunk being cut off mid-sentence.
    • "What are you guys drinking?"
    • "So what did you learn?"
    Ryan: "Hello and welcome to Let's Play X, I'm Ryan or Kuvo."
    Benson: "I'm Benson or Topikal."
    bandunk: "I'm Michael or Bandunk. Tipping Forties DOT COM."
    Alex: "I'm Alex AND Marvelis."
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: While most of the gang has taken to going by their real names, Michael still tends to be called bandunk.
    Alex: "We always call him Mike outside of Let's Plays but I think bandunk is like an insulting word towards Mike because he is often found fucking shit up (fuck bandunk). It just sounds better to say "bandunk" when blaming Mike for something. "Who the fuck just did that?" "Fucking bandunk did it."
  • Running Gag: Fuck Bandunk.
  • Refuge in Vulgarity: Very commonly invoked by bandunk. Wifedunk can sometimes be heard in the background going "oh my god, Michael" whenever he tells a particularly raunchy joke.
    • In the Mario Party 8 LP, he brought up something so disgusting that Ryan had to bleep it in the video (see Sound-Effect Bleep). It's been years since they recorded that episode and all ex-40s still refuse to reveal what the bleeped audio was.
  • The Show Must Go On: Lost or defective recordings, broken equipment, corrupted save files, or (in one case) food poisoning never stopped them from their surprisingly good schedule track record. They even continued streaming after the band broke up.
  • Silent Partner: Silent Roommate. Sort of.
    Ryan: "What do you think of this game Silent Roommate?
    Silent Roommate "..."
    • Silent Roommate finally broke his vow of silence when he guest starred on the podcast.
  • Slash Fic: During the FFX LP, the guys would read slash fiction about the characters to pass the time during the boring to watch temples. This became a common theme throughout their run.
  • Special Guest: Bandunk's Wife and Silent Roommate. Since episode 79 of ToS, Benson's Girlfriend.
  • Spoof Aesop: Every episode each member has to give one.
  • Team Pet: Used to be Old Kentucky the cat, before Ryan and Alex moved away from where the cat lived. After Benson moved to LA, Bianca's bird has become this.
  • Title Drop: Done in reverse; the Forties, after saying or hearing a particularly funny quote, will often mention that that will be the title of the video.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2. The Forties are certainly not very nice to each other. Of course, that's part of the fun.
    Final Fantasy X 
    Metal Gear Solid 4 
    Tales of Symphonia 
    Fugitive Hunter 
  • America Saves the Day: The general attitude for this LP.
    bandunk: "If you suspect that you are a terrorist, you might be a terrorist. If you know you're not a terrorist, you are a terrorist. If you want to kill terrorists, then you are a freedom fighter."
  • invokedSo Bad, It's Good: They consider the game to be this.
  • Unnecessary Combat Roll: Seen frequently.
    • Lampshaded by Benson when he pointed out that you couldn't hit them when they rolled, but they couldn't hit you either so it was pointless.
    Benson: "He John Woo'd!"
    Golden Eye 007 
    Shenmue 
  • Big "NO!": From Ryo, right in the beginning.
    Benson: "Damn, that was a big no!"
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: They love Tom. He reminds them of someone they love.
  • Hypocrite: Barely a minute passes between Ryo chugging a whole soda so fast that he cringes from the carbonation and him chastising the kitten for doing the same with her bowl of milk.
  • No Indoor Voice: "HEY MISTER!!!"
    • Tom and Goro, full stop.
    Ryo (to Goro): "You know about the Mad Angels?"
    Goro: "HEY! Bro, didn't I ask you not to say that so LOOOUUUDDDD!"
    Ryo (to Tom): "Do you know of a group called the Mad Angels?"
    Tom: "Oh NO! They are very dangerous, man!"
    Benson: "Why does everyone scream as soon as you mention them to 'em?
  • Schedule Slip: {{Invoked|Trope]] and Averted. After getting their save-file corrupted, Ryan sat down and played the entire game up to that point again; it took him six hours to get back to where they left off.
  • Shaving Is Science: Invoked for a joke involving Ryo cutting himself while shaving.
  • Signature Move: One of the reasons Ryan loses so badly to both Ass-Less Chaps Man and Smeagol is that the Windmill kick has become this for him, a move in which he learns far too late is devastating against random mooks but almost useless against bosses.
  • We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: During episode 19, the guys noticed and commented on a problem with the VMU... and then their save file got corrupted. Ryan bought another controller and spent 6 hours playing through the entire game up to the point where it happened to avoid Schedule Slip.

    New Super Mario Bros. Wii 
  • Drinking Game: Had them drinking whenever one of them dies, someone kills another or when one of them uses a continue. We're not sure how they survived that.
  • Griefer: Everyone at every possible moment, which is par for the course.
  • invokedIt's Easy, So It Sucks!: Alex got mad at Ryan whenever he used the Star power-up in New Super Mario Brothers, because it made the game too easy and "like Sonic".
  • We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: During episode 7, Bandunk's Wii Remote died on them. We then got to see Alex and Benson going to Target to buy him a replacement.
    Scott Pilgrim vs. The World 
    Vanquish 
    Fallout: New Vegas 
  • Big "NO!": Alex, when bandunk threw out the minigun to make room in the inventory. The whole crew would do it whenever he passed up a Confirmed Bachelor speech check.
    Benson: "Man, you could've fucked a black guy! Can you imagine how big his dick would've been?"
    bandunk: "Job still got done."
    Ryan: "I'm disappointed in you, Bandunk."
    Alex: "I fuckin' hate you, Bandunk. Fuck Bandunk.
  • Chekhov's Gun: While wandering around in New Vegas, bandunk managed to find a Lucky 38 VIP Keycard and states that he knows what has to do. Upon confronting Mr. House, rather than doing any quests for him, he uses the Keycard to instantly gain access to the Control Room, where he deactivates him, thereby cutting off an entire quest line before it even started.
    Ryan: "You broke everything!"
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Raddunk, the gang's player character.
    Benson: "Raddunk is not only a sociopath, but he might be the greatest character in any of the games we've played. He is consistantly completely insane, completely unpredictable, and has multiple voices in his head telling him what to do and who constantly contradict each other. He is the perfect character for Tipping Forties and I declare him as our mascot. He's wonderful."
  • Consummate Liar: Thanks to Raddunk's high Speech stat, everyone trusts him despite being a crazy old man in a spacesuit. He tricks a young girl into running straight into artillery fire, gains entry into an NCR base by claiming to be part of the "NCR Space Division", makes Mortimer spill the beans about the White Gloves' secret cannibal plot within minutes of meeting him, and tells Caesar that his brain tumor is actually a case of "intra-cranial blastoma fibrolosis".
    Alex: "I think Raddunk should start a cult, because everyone believes him no matter what."
  • The Chew Toy: Cass and Boone. Benson calls for killing both more than once.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Episode 56. Because bandunk was playing L.A. Noire at the time, he kept holding down the R2 button in NV, thinking it'd make him move faster.
  • Depraved Bisexual: Raddunk.
  • Drinking Game: Due to the nature of the PS3 version, they would all take a shot if the game broke. If a quest broke, only bandunk had to take a shot because he was the one who wanted to play on PS3.
  • invokedEnsemble Dark Horse: Yes Man.
    Alex: "You notice that he's the only character in the game we pay attention to and don't talk over?"
    Benson: "Well, why would I talk over him? He's Dave Foley. I have no problem talking over Matthew Perry."
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Gay??: The crew picks the Confirmed Bachelor perk for Raddunk early on, so that he can flirt with other gay men and bypass certain tasks. However, bandunk still maxes out his Speech stat and always picks the normal speech option so he can get EXP points. They end up going the entire game without a single gay speech check.
  • Loads and Loads of Loading: Episode 17.
  • Moment of Silence: In Episode 41, the crew takes one to remember the recently passed Macho Man Randy Savage.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: During the final battle for the Hoover Dam, The Boomers arrive in the stealth bomber Raddunk salvaged for them and blow up the Legion fortifications. Raddunk, however, is too busy staring at Caesar's Fort in the distance to notice that this is even happening.
  • Refuge in Vulgarity: As Raddunk tries to employ a ghoul as a prostitute, Benson and Alex try to gross each other out with jokes about what sex with her would be like.
  • Too Dumb to Live: While doing quests for the Brotherhood of Steel, Raddunk finds himself unable to talk to Elder Macnamara to find out his next objective. Not realizing that he's supposed to talk to somebody else, the 40s assume the quest broke, blow the whole base up and leave.
    • The boys frequently lampshade just how ridiculous it is that so many people put their trust in a heavily armed stranger wearing a spacesuit; but Janet takes the biscuit for deciding with no real evidence at all but Raddunk's word to run headlong into an artillery barrage.
  • We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Ep 46, where the gain on the audio recorder was set way too low and made the guys barely audible.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Bandunk decides to play the game his own way.
    • To elaborate, one accidental trip to H&H Tools lead Bandunk to formulate the happenings in the video above, much to everyone's surprise.
    Raddunk: Hi! I win! Yaay!
    Little Big Planet 2 
  • Audience Participation: They asked people to either create or recommend custom levels for them to play.
  • Call-Back: For each episode, each player would be wearing a new costume. Character-themed costumes included Wakka, Raddunk, Lloyd, and others. A fan also sent them a custom level that was a medley of things from all their previous games, but sadly a physics glitch prevented them from making it to the end.
  • Griefer: Most prominently in the custom level episodes.
    Fable 2 
  • The Chew Toy: ** Hammer. They mock her tiny head and uninteresting personality throughout almost all of her screen time.
    bandunk: "It's like if you took a skinny woman's head and put it onto Triple H."
  • invokedEnding Fatigue: Started kicking in around the last third, as the team quickly ran out of funny side things to do and started doing more and more of the (boring) main quests. The pace picked up again for a few episodes, though, as Alex tried to start a family.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Every time Alex tries to attract a woman, he ends up attracting several men in the process.
  • Kick the Dog: Done literally to Juiceman the dog in Fable II by Dean the Househusband. Alex swears revenge, and guns him down in the street the next time he runs into him. A fan later makes a donation to T40s as a bounty on Dean.
  • Shout-Out: When the Spire is first introduced.
    Alex: "Oh, The Matrix."
    Benson: "You gettin' any Half-Life 2 flashbacks here?"
    Bandunk: "I feel like I'm playing flOw."
    Alex: "...We all made different references."
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Plenty.
    Final Fantasy X- 2 
  • Book Ends: Final Fantasy X was their first LP, its sequel was their final one.
  • Critical Existence Failure: The end of the life of their copy of Final Fantasy X-2 after they all unanimously agreed it was one of the worst games they had ever done a Let's Play of.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The group is fighting a trio of Blue Orbs. Assuming Blue means ice (when it actually means water), they try fire magic. When that doesn't work, the group doesn't know what to do, despite the fact the Orbs constantly cast water spells. They died two or three times in that one fight. Even after finally winning, one of them complains about fire not working.
  • We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Ryan's beaten-up PS2 would crash the game every time they got a game over.
    Grab Bags, Streams & Misc. 

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