Trivia / Big Grande Teachers' Lounge

• Acting for Two: The episode "Preachers, Bleachers, Beachers, Teachers (Barge), Van Thieves, and Creatures Lounge" features the four hosts each playing six characters apiece all at once; things get hectic quickly.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Unless explicitly stated otherwise, every character played by Dan Lippert, chiefly among them Todd Padre, is Jewish.
  • Zig-zagged with Sam Weatherman, who is inconsistently referred to as being Jewish while being played by the Jewish Ryan Rosenberg.
• Celebrity Paradox: The failed How I Met Your Mother spinoff How I Met Your Dad is referenced a few times, which Bill Cravy's actor Drew Tarver starred in.
• Creator Backlash: The minisodes "Don't Listen To This One" and "SERIOUSLY Don't Listen" are named such due to the hosts being dissatisfied with their quality.
• Creator's Favorite: Both Jon Mackey and Ryan Rosenberg have named Todd Padre as their favorite among the teachers.
• Creator's Pest: Howard's death and absence for a season was caused by his actor Jon Mackey growing frustrated with how much of a pathetic wet blanket Flanderization had turned him into and wanting to start from a clean slate with a new character. The other three's awareness of this caused them to immediately kill off his intended replacement character by the end of his debut episode just for kicks. Mackey seemingly came to terms with Howard's place as the teachers' designated loser, as he was brought Back from the Dead just one season after he had been killed off and has remained one of the four hosts ever since.
• Irony as She Is Cast:
  • Bill Cravy is made out to either be an Armored Closet Gay or a Depraved Bisexual. His actor Drew Tarver is openly bisexual.
  • Todd Padre, a hack actor, is played by Dan Lippert, an exceptionally talented improviser.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Many of the guests are fellow actors and improvisers who have collaborated with Big Grande in the past. Notable examples include honorary Sixth Rangers Mary Holland and Carl Tart, Lauren Lapkus, whose podcast the prototype versions of the teachers originated on, and Comedy Bang! Bang! host Scott Aukerman, who has featured the group (most frequently Drew Tarver) numerous times on his own series.
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • Bill leaving the show to peddle the Beef Diaper was caused by Drew Tarver beginning shooting for the second season of his series The Other Two.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic forced the show to be held over video chat, causing all of the episodes made during it to either be set in the past to justify their poorer audio quality or to take place during the pandemic itself. Production shut-downs also forced The Other Two on indefinite hiatus, allowing Drew Tarver to return to the show sooner than anticipated.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Howard, the designated Butt-Monkey of the group, is played by Jon Mackey, the designated Butt Monkey of Big Grande; Howard being the Butt Monkey at all is more a natural consequence of being played by Mackey than anything having to actually do with his character.
  • Bill is occasionally mocked by the other teachers (and even sometimes himself) for his short attention span and tendency to ignore input outside of his own. This is always done as a Leaning on the Fourth Wall jab at Drew Tarver's own bad habits as an improviser.
  • Guitar George is noted to be the hosts of "The Creatures' Lounge"'s mentor. His actor, Matt Besser, was Big Grande's improv teacher.
• Transplant: The character Tater from "The Teachers' Barge" is Drew Tarver's Crazy Homeless Person character Toast, which he performed on and off during various live shows, in all but name.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: As an improvised podcast, the four hosts just roll with whatever happens. They take a few minutes before every recording to recap the broad strokes of the previous episode and then wing it from then on, with certain plotlines sticking around longer than others depending on how the hosts respond to them. Of note was the character Cheetahman, who began life as an offhand line by Bill before evolving into a season-spanning plot due to how amusing the other three found the concept.
• Write What You Know: An unintentional example, but the teachers' tendency to end up becoming involved with the Hollywood film and television industry is a side effect of the four hosts all being working actors and writers, making it the easiest pool of concepts for them to draw from. They often mock their Small Reference Pools as a result.