"If you think you've got problems...you've never met Karl Berenger."
Remember, anything goes in Nighttown.
The Meat Blockade is a serialized radio show depicting the strange and surreal journeys of Karl Berenger, a self-proclaimed writer and misadventurer. As a Surreal Humor podcast debuting in 2014 and written by the Hennessy brothers, this is a collection of ongoing bizarreness detailing the misfortunes of the young man Karl Berenger as he become stranded in Nighttown and is desperately searching for a way home after being mislead by his friend to meet up with a group of girls. What follows are events that leave poor Berenger hopelessly lost in an all too dangerous and equally strange town.
The episodes can be listened to here
and the blog followed here.
This podcast contains the following tropes:
- The Bartender: Bertrand works as this in Club Lux Aeterna and so far has a hard time holding in his laughter at the mere sound of Berenger's name.
- Berserk Button: It's Chief Inspector Fry. Chief. Chief.
- British Stuffiness: Chief Inspector Fry has a fitting British accent and he's nothing short of stuffy about his title.
- Butt-Monkey: Karl just can't catch a break. If he isn't being ridiculed he's either running for his life, being harassed, abandoned, or being treated to a number of misfortunes.
- The Chew Toy: So far Berenger has had to put up with being whipped, restrained by a grown man, crowded by zombies in a ditch, force fed lam scrotum, and chased by a monster.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Plenty of these from Karl whenever he gets agitated enough.
- Crapsack World: It never seems to matter where Berenger goes, he’s always bound to run into regular assholes, crazy assholes, and maybe a few inhuman assholes.
- Dissonant Serenity: Anything Smoothy Juicy says is unnervingly calm, even if he's attacking people or being attacked.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Chief Inspector Fry hates being called Inspector Fry almost as much as Mr. Pedroast really doesn't like being called Kathy.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Mr. Pedroast can jump from pleasantly cheerful to violently upset in only a few seconds if you happen to say something he doesn't like.
- False Friend: So far Max hasn’t proven to be all that kind seeing as how he abandons Karl in the middle of the street, lies about meeting up with a group of girls that led Karl out in the first place, and is the reason why all the heinous rumors about Karl are out and about.
- Force Feeding: Karl is forced down the Chef Surprise which is a sizzling hot, living, and acidic sheep scrotum.
- Funny Foreigner: Mr. Pedroast comes from a small island but has no idea about the name due to it being exploded some time ago.
- Kafka Komedy
- Lethal Chef: Mr. Pedroast's brother Ramone is some form of grotesque creature that only specializes in the Chef Surprise: an acidic sheep scrotum.
- Malicious Slander: Max is the one behind all the rumors about Berenger and has no real explanation upon doing it for his own amusement. These rumors are so bad that it normally involves a number of bodily fluids a broom handle and cottage cheese.
- Only Sane Man: Berenger is about the only person that one could consider a decent human being so far and has a greater deal of sanity compared to...everyone else.
- Papa Wolf: Jessica's father seems to be this and is willing to tear the whole town apart if it means finding his missing daughter.
- Sadist Show: The whole show revolves around Karl's unending torment...and how fun it it is to laugh at it.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Karl does have a tendency to drop a number of swears whenever he becomes agitated.
- Surreal Humor
- Unlucky Everydude: Take a good guess.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Though it is purely audio based, Karl vomiting up the sheep scrotum is done up with incredibly detailed sound effects.
- World of Jerkass: There hasn’t been a single sane or polite person Karl has come across yet.
"Don't let the index hit you on the way out, Berenger."
