This is Bob (rus. Знакомьтесь, Боб) is a Russian science-fiction YouTube web-show created by unnamed authors from St. Petersburg in 2016, starring a quiet, naive guy named Bob (or rather many clones of him), who's a subject to many educative experiments on various topics, ranging from how to survive the 32 800 ft. fall without a parachute to how to run an entire mine field without losing your limbs. Like many shows from the 2010's, it has a Myth Arc spanning the entire show, telling a story about two scientists named Tom (nicknamed the Speaker) and Robert, who build their own laboratory called BobSoc, but due to an accident involving Robert's latest hit invention called X, he acquires over 300 powers and abilities, disappearing but not before warning his friend about The End of the World as We Know It, forcing Tom to find the blueprints of the device in one of the clones.
The first clone ever created, Scarred Bob, survives by a lucky accident, and tries to take down his creator with other clones, ultimately failing and later joining Tom on the adventures to take down Robert and... There's too much to explain, really.
The show first premiered on December 5, 2016, spanning seven seasons, becoming a hit starting with it's second season, and suffering a Seasonal Rot starting with its fourth season.
The show's success led to the creation of an identical show called Meet Arnold, created by Ukrainian authors for American audience, which caused controversy, despite Arnold becoming very popular in USA.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: The season 4 finale reveals that none of Robert's clones had the X blueprints, and that all of Tom's searching were pointless.
- Anti-Hero: He murders clones of Bob (and later alternate Roberts who all look and sound like the clones), all the while trying to save the world from an unknown disaster.
- Badass Bookworm: Both Tom and Robert, who possess unbelievable intelligence and various awesome technology.
- Scarred Bob as well, who takes after his genetic material, being a great leader and inventor.
- Big Damn Heroes: Scarred Bob and his team of clones, who attempt to stop Speaker's tyranny in the season 2 finale. They all die, except for their leader.
- Big Damn Movie: Parodied in a non-canon episode, where Bob, who's parodying RoboCop, fights Tom, who destroys the town riding a giant cat.
- Brainy Brunette: Robert and some of his clones.
- Catchphrase: Tom has one that he says every time in the beginning of every episode of the show:Hello! This is Bob!
- Character Development: For 6 seasons, Tom had always blamed Robert for all the trouble he himself caused, like killing Scarred Bob when he actually did it. In the season 6 finale, however, he realizes rather quickly that his ego and envy are his most fatal flaws.
- Dead Alternate Counterpart: Tom murders many alternate versions of Robert in seasons 5-7, and later they murder Tom's alternate versions after mutating in season 7.
- Ditzy Genius: Tom, who has many mistakes in his calculations.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Tom has known Robert since childhood, and always envied him, blaming him for everything.
- Idiot Savant: Many Bob clones (and later alternate Roberts) are Too Dumb to Live, blatantly following everything Tom says to them. However, most of them actually see through his charade, trying to murder him. However, most of the time, they are literally this, dying from his hands shortly afterwards.
- The Multiverse: Is explored heavily in season 7, with all of the episodes taking place in bizarre alternate worlds.
- Role Swap AU: In one of the season 3 episodes, Bob travels to an alternate reality where he experiments on Speaker clones.
- The Speechless: Bob clones are unable to speak, and can only babble or use sign language, only being able to speak with a certain device similar to a hearing aid. This is surprisingly subverted in some of the episodes in which Bobs can sing without the device.
- Suddenly Speaking: Related to the above, Bobs speak during the season 3 and 4 Christmas Episode, and one who is able to speak without the device in season 7.
