Web Animation / Your Favorite Martian

L to R: Axel Chains (drums), Puff-Puff Humbert (lead vocals)^note Ray William Johnson himself, also the only "real" person in the band, DeeJay (DJ), Benatar (guitar).

"We're a fake cartoon band who writes comedy songs. We're 100% super-duper serious about the subject matter of our songs. Yes, our balls really are the size of the earth's moon. Yes, we really do drink the tears of baby orphans. Yes, we really have sexual relations with zombies. No, seriously."

— Former channel description

In 2010, Ray William Johnson was a juggernaut on the internet thanks to his show =3, with his channel quickly approaching the title of the most subscribed channel on YouTube. On June 30th of that year, a channel under the name "Your Favorite Martian" uploaded a mysterious video titled "be patient", suggesting Johnson was planning something big.

On December 24th, a song released under the same artist name as the channel titled "My Balls" was released on iTunes with little fanfare. It wasn't until a fully animated music video for the song came out, released on January 26th, 2011, that it became a viral hit overnight. In it, fans of =3 were introduced to a fictitious animated band similar to Gorillaz that sang absurd, irreverent, raunchy and, above all else, vulgar songs. The band would go on to release a new music video every other Wednesday for nearly two years.

During its first two years of existence (and eventually the only active years of its original run), Your Favorite Martian was one of the biggest music channels on YouTube for its time, reaching 2 million subscribers in a time in which you could count the number of channels with more than 1 million subscribers with your fingers. Unfortunately, however, the project was retired in September 2012 due to Maker Studios restricting Ray's musical creativity and threatening to stop funding his music if he decided to make a new album away from Maker. Ray stated that his band did plan to make new music over the next 8 months, but nothing ever came of it after their final music video, "BOOM HEADSHOT".

Eventually, on May 15th, 2022, Ray announced that he had reacquired the rights to Your Favorite Martian and would be reviving the band, later revealing the group's redesigns with a sequel to "Orphan Tears" titled "Orphan Tears Part 2" which was uploaded to YouTube on May 31st, 2022.

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Your Favorite Martian provides examples of:

• Affably Evil: Exploited in "Club Villain". Puff is allowed into the titular club, and uses his politeness to get himself laid.
• All Just a Dream:
  • The events of "Take Over the World" turn out to just be Wilton's dream, as the visuals rewind until we see him sleeping on the job.
  • This also applies to "Verified", as the last seconds of the song are Puff's grandma telling him to get up and cut the grass. The Music Video even shows Puff's phone was really just at 1%.
• Americans Are Cowboys: In "The Stereotypes Song", the American stereotype is wearing a cowboy hat along with a Star-Spangled Banner shirt.
• And That's Terrible: In The Stereotypes Song in which he jokingly sings about stereotypes, he mentions Scotsmen humping sheep, and at the end he adds, "But seriously, don't hump any sheep."
• Art Evolution:
  • The video for "Whip Yo Kids" and the videos onward have much more fluid animation and professional art than the previous music videos.
  • When the series was brought back in 2022, the artstyle went through an overhaul, like giving the characters lightning shades for example
• Art Shift:
  • "Tig Ol' Bitties" switches to a style reminiscent of paper cutouts during the segments in which the boys are in school.
  • "Puppet Break-Up" is a live-action video but with the band members as Muppets.
  • "We Like Them Girls" is animated entirely with LEGO.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Benatar went from being the band's silent guitarist to getting as much singing time as Puff himself, singing more than Puff in "Friend Zone", "Complicated", "Jupiter", "Somebody That I Used to Know", and "Bartender Song". According to Ray himself, Axel was expected to sing at some point as well before the project ended.
  • Cartoon Wax only appeared in two music videos ("Orphan Tears" and "Stalkin' Your Mom") during YFM's original run. When YFM was revived in 2022, he not only appeared in six music videos, but was given a very prominent role alongside Puff when it comes to a specific song's topics.
• Bad Santa: Santa in "Santa Hates Poor Kids", who is depicted as a pedophile (and anti-Semite) who never gives anything nice to poor children.
• Band Toon: Your Favorite Martian: The Series, which is a parody of more traditional band toons, only with a lot more sexual jokes and NSFW language.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: In "The Stereotypes Song" in which he jokingly sings about stereotypes, he mentions Scotsmen humping sheep.
• Bigger Is Better: "My Balls" is a song where Puff brags that his balls can win back his ex-girlfriend (the person he's singing to).
• Buxom Beauty Standard: The subject of "Tig Ol' Bitties".
• Call-Back: "Tig Ol' Bitties" makes a reference of how Puff Puff still has the same fixations as he did in "My Balls": "Like my balls—real big!"
  • Brain Rave is full of these, from mentioning Orphan Tears once again, to showing Puff Puff's old girlfriends from Tig Ol' Bitties and Zombie Love Song, to many references to YFMTS, and even more.
• Cargo Cult: In "Algorithm God", the band are portrayed as worshipping algorithms as a god that needs to be appeased.
• Cerebus Syndrome: By halfway through their post-Art Evolution era of original songs, it became far more common for their songs to be more serious in tone, especially compared to their ball-bragging roots:
  • Compared to a lot of their other work, "Alien" is a lot less funny and a lot more serious.
  • Same goes for "Friend Zone" and "Complicated". "Friend Zone" has the occasional sight gag and one or two amusing lines, but "Complicated" has neither - both are songs about unrequited love.
  • Same also goes for "Take Over the World". Like "Friend Zone", it has one or two sight gags and amusing lines, but it's mainly about being stuck a job you hate and dreaming about chasing your own goals.
  • The Unoffical Smithers Love Song is about Smithers love for mr burns, however it is more sad than many of the songs as Smithers and Mr Burns get injured in their limo by a car crash and spend time in hospital
  • The original (since retconned into part 1) "Orphan Tears" was a silly song about a Mushroom Samba caused by the titular Fantastic Drug, and left some room to interpret it as a normal hallucinogen with a Black Comedy name and jingle attached to it (especially as the main characters don't seem too concerned about where it comes from). Parts 2 and 3 make it clear that it is in fact made of tears from caged orphans, and have the main characters decide to save them.
• Chick Magnet: DeeJay (Fat black guy), bordering on Kavorka Man.
• Chekhov's Gun: Benatars "unholy acoustic diarrhea song" in episode 3 of YFMTS; it's usage as a Brown Note to the band is rebrought up when Puff orders Benatar to play the song when there cornered; because not even the undead can stand it, allowing the band to escape.
• Colossus Climb: "Booty Store" has a moment near the end of the video where they are standing on a giant woman while she's propped up on all fours. Considering the subject matter of the song, it should come as no surprise that they are specifically perched on her butt.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In "Grandma Got a Facebook", all of the people that Puff's Grandma friends are from "Club Villain" and "The Stereotypes Song".
  • Mr. Douchebag shows up in "Friend Zone" and "Just A Friend".
  • In "Robot Bar Fight", the Terminator does a dance we first saw on Mr. Douchebag.
  • In the remix for the Mike Posner song "She Looks Like Sex", among the ugly woman in the place is Oprah and a fat trucker from "Epileptic Techno" and the Wet-Dog-headed girl from "Dookie Fresh".
  • "And I'll rage, just like the nerd."
  • "Brain Rave" pretty much overdoses on this trope, the thoughts displaying multiple characters and moments from YFM's past and present.
• Cover Version: Of one of the ending themes to Equals Three, "Stalkin' Your Mom". They even did covers leading up to what was intended to be the January 2013 release of their album. They've done:
  • "Just a Friend" by Biz Markie
  • "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye
  • "Fight For Your Right (To Party)" by Beastie Boys
  • "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminem
  • "Jump Around" by House of Pain
  • "Bartender Song" by Rehab
  • "High Voltage" by Linkin Park
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Superman is this in "Text Me Back".
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Puff lets out his inner Eminem during the verses of "Alien," which is itself about bullying and isolation. Now, compare that to a song like "Booty Store..."
  • "Text Me Back" is a pretty dark song, but just listen to it without watching the video to see how much darker it becomes.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • "Transphobic Techno" is one for DeeJay- no one else in the band makes an appearance.^note Though when Dee Jay had a singing part, it was still Ray with a pitched down voice so this is averted for the actual cast
  • Benatar gets this in "Friend Zone", where he acts as the protagonist and sings some verses and the chorus, and "Jupiter", where Puff only does the backup vocals.
• Deconstruction:
  • "Transphobic Techno" seems to offer a suggestion to why club music repeats the same words over and over again.
  • "Friend Zone" deconstructs Stalker with a Crush. The song itself is presented as very romantic, but the lyrics suggest Benatar is obsessed with his best friend to the point of building a shrine to her and changing religions, even though she already has a boyfriend and has shown that she isn't interested in him at all. This lyrical dissonance is intended, showing that Benatar believes what he's doing is not only socially acceptable, but romantic.
• Demoted to Extra: DeeJay went from being the second singer behind Puff and actually having his own song to mixing beats while Benatar took his place.
• Dirty Old Woman: Puff's grandma, AKA Slutty McButtSex, in "Grandma Got a Facebook."
• Disney Acid Sequence: The music video for "Orphan Tears" (renamed to "Orphan Tears Part 1") involves a lot of trippy visuals due to Puff, DeeJay, and Cartoon Wax drinking "Orphan Tears" that causes a series of hallucinations.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Benatar and Axel started off looking very similarly, with the same features, facial expressions, same hairdo (except Benatar's was blonde and had shorter hair), and the fact they were both just background characters. With the new art style, Axel retained the hairstyle, facial expression, and background character status but his muscles grew larger, while Benatar turned into a more Pretty Boy type with softened features and also gained more prominence in the band.
• A Dog Named "Dog": The band's fictional DJ is named DeeJay.
• Domestic Abuser: It's implied that the boyfriend from "Friend Zone" is this, considering that he's the douche bag from one of their previous songs and because Puff explicitly calls him a douche.
• Double Subversion: Puff may have made up the story of "Robot Bar Fight", but as the lights are turned off in the video, his eyes light up.
• Drugs Causing Slow-Motion: In "Orphan Tears", DeeJay remarks that "everything's in slow-mo" after drinking the titular Fantastic Drug.
• Epileptic Flashing Lights: Some music videos have a fairly painful amount of flashing lights, like "8-Bit World" and "Transphobic Techno". One of the song is even called "Epileptic Techno".
• Even Evil Has Standards: Chris Brown is kicked out of a Villain's Club, whose denizens include Jason, Voldemort and Charles Manson.
• Fantastic Drug: "Orphan Tears", which is characterized as a mix of a strong alcoholic drink and acid.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Faking big breasts?! Unforgivable! (Okay, for some guys this is the most evil thing ever, but still...)
• Female Angel, Male Demon: The cover of "Love the Way You Lie" has a female angel and male demon, the wearing a skimpy teenage outfit and the latter wearing relatively work-oriented clothing, in a troubled relationship with each other.
• Finishing Move: Several in "Fight to Win".
• Flipping the Bird: One of the titular character's misdeeds in "Mr. Douchebag" is cutting DeeJay off in traffic then flipping him the bird.
• Freudian Excuse: In Take Over the World, Wilton works in a crap job and gets mistreated.
• Gargle Blaster: The titular "Orphan Tears", which causes anyone who drinks it to descend to madness.
• Giant Woman: The video for "Booty Store" features a gigantic redheaded woman in pink underwear. She's pretty much just there to be a Strange Stage as the band plays on top of her ass.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: Shitty G's girlfriend gets one of these in "Bartender Song".
• Homoerotic Subtext:
  • "The Unofficial Smithers Love Song". Enough said. Less "subtext" than "text".
  • We get a clear shot of R2-D2 and C-3PO kissing in Robot Bar Fight, before they are interrupted by a gun-toting WALL•E. It's a long story.
• Hurricane of Puns: "Bottles of Beer" has named 29 different beer brands name-dropped in the lyrics.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In "Fight to Win", both Puff and guest rapper DeStorm claim that fighting games like Mortal Kombat don't make them violent. They then proceed to kick each other's asses over the last nacho.
  • In "Club Villain", a few real-world villains appear. Chris Brown, infamous for numerous accusations of physical abuse towards women, is kicked out but Charles Manson, a cult leader and mass murderer who commanded his followers to murder innocent people, one of whom was a pregnant Sharon Tate, is allowed to stay.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: The basic premise of "Fight to Win".
• Ironic Name: Mr. Brock Douchebag. While the song calls him, well, a douchebag for the several actions he's committed, the pilot for YFMTS actually reveals he's a genuinely nice man outside of the song and seems to have a stable life. He even lends a hand to Puff, someone who antagonized him with an entire song, to help him learn the ways of the douche.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: The Mom from "Stalkin' Your Mom".
• In Da Club: Examples include "Club Villain", "Orphan Tears", "Transphobic Techno" and "Epileptic Techno".
  • "She Looks Like Sex" and "White Boy Wasted", to a lesser extent.
• Just Friends: "Friend Zone", obviously.
• Lady Killer In Love: The subject of "Gentleman's ballad", in which Puff describes his lustful nature and desire to devote himself completely to the object of his affection, which includes deleting phone numbers and giving up pornography.
• Madness Mantra: The repeated "Bitch got a penis, bitch got a penis..." from "Transphobic Techno" is all DeeJay can say after undergoing Sanity Slippage following multiple Unsettling Gender Reveals.
• Mistaken for Racist: From the "Dookie Fresh" music video.
  Puff: To be honest she smells like an Indian.
  Indian Guy: Hey, that's not funny!
  Puff: (stammers) No, no I mean like Indian food. Like curry smells bad. Indian food!
  Indian Guy: You're a dick!
• Mood Dissonance: For no obvious reason, the girl in "Tig Ol' Bitties" smiles after she gets yelled at by Puff (who is referred to as Your Favorite Martian in the song); she was faking sadness.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • "Alien" is not a comedic song at all, it's an anti-bullying song.
  • "Friend Zone" and "Complicated" are pretty straight love songs with very little comedy.
  • "Take Over the World" is less comedic, more reminding you that there are greater opportunities out there for you.
  • Hell, all but four songs since Friend Zone have been serious (not counting covers).
• Mushroom Samba: "Orphan Tears" is a song describing the effect of the titular drug on Puff, DeeJay, and special guest Wax. Needless to say, it's extremely trippy.
• Mythology Gag: In "Whip Yo Kids", a reference is made to the very first song his earlier band, Fatty Spins, put on YouTube titled "Doin' Your Mom".^note This song was used in Ray's old show, Capitol Hill Gangsta, as well as for much of the early =3 episodes
• National Stereotypes: "The Stereotypes Song" is all about these.
• Once More, with Clarity: Throughout "Text Me Back", Lois is seen with three different men, driving Superman crazy. The ending reveals they were just people assisting her for their anniversary.
• Origins Episode: A variant. Episode 10 of YFMTS turns out to be where Puff got the idea and inspiration for "Tig Ol' Bitties".
• Our Zombies Are Different: "Zombie Love" proves (unintentionally) that zombies have emotions as well.
• "Pachelbel's Canon" Progression: Used for the entirety of "The Unofficial Smithers Love Song", as noted in the video's description: "Yes, that familiar progression you're hearing is Pachelbel's Canon in E. It's commonly used as a wedding song. Get it? :)"
• Power-Up Food: In "Orphan Tears Part 3", Puff discovers that Bill Cosby eating pudding gives him super strength and super strong.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Oprah's purpose when she appeared in "Epileptic Techno".
  • In "Alien": "All a bully needs is a FUCKING EXCUSE!"
• Real After All: In Orphan Tears 2, it's revealed that DeeJay seeing Bill Cosby in his underwear wasn't a hallucination. Cosby was actually behind the production of Orphan Tears and captured orphans to continue production.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Mr. Douchebag". Bonus points for it being in song.
• Rock Me, Amadeus!: Mozart's "Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K 331, third movement " is used for the instrumental of "Rich People Shit"
• Running Gag: A currently surfacing one as of Generation 2 seems to be Puff's old designs making background appearances.
• Screw Yourself: "Date Myself" is about Puff, well, you can probably guess for yourself.
• Security Cling: Benatar's friend does this to him when they encounter a knife-wielding clown in a haunted house.
• Shout-Out:
  • To many well-known Big Bads in "Club Villain".
  • To Monty Python and the Holy Grail in "Tig Ol' Bitties" at 1:54.
  • And Family Guy at the end of "Tig Ol' Bitties".
  • "Stain on my shirt - mom's spaghetti" in "Tig Ol' Bitties".
  • Wax claims he was "feeling like Dorothy" when he was spinning around in the black hole in "Orphan Tears".
  • To a bunch of robots in "Robot Bar Fight".
  • Maya Angelou of all people in "Take Over the World".
    • Not to mention the not-so-subtle reference to Pinky and the Brain.
• The Something Song: "The Stereotypes Song".
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The mellow song "Bartender" plays over a rather over-the-top bar fight.
• Stalker Shrine: Benatar has one of his friend.
• Stock Footage: With many of YFM newer music videos, the chorus, as well as the actions of DeeJay, Axel, and Benatar rely on this.
  • Was subverted in "Alien" until the animations appear again in "White Boy Wasted"...
• Strange Stage: In "Booty Store", the band performs on a giant, scantily clad redhead. For reasons that should be obvious, they are playing on her butt.
• Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: "Booty Store", and it's not just about one butt either, it's about an entire STORE of butts. They sell everything from "cute and snooty" booty to "Kardashian" booty, and then some.
• Stylistic Suck: It's actually intentional that the lyrics of "Transphobic Techno" repeat over and over and over and over and over and over and over and...
• Take This Job and Shove It: The aptly titled Eff This Job is about this.
• Take Over the World: TAKE OVER THE WORLD
• Take That!:
  • To Chris Brown in "Club Villain", who is kicked out for being too evil.
  Puff: "Chris Brown? Somebody needs to throw that guy out of the club, seriously!"
  • "The Stereotypes Song" is dedicated to calling out stereotypes about most major world countries.
  • In "Tig Ol' Bitties", DJ saw Twilight - immediately afterwards, he says "Bummer!"
  • In "Eff This Job", the manager of La Merde is named Mr. Maker, as a reference to Maker Studios and their involvement in YFM's cancellation. Wax even mentions in his Yelp review a rumor that Mr. Maker takes away things from people and doesn't give them back after 10 years or so.
  Wax: "Hope he can 'manage' my ass walking out the door!"
• Unplugged Version: They did one for "Alien".
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: In "Transphobic Techno", DeeJay has multiple sexual encounters with transgender women, and he screams in horror when he notices the bulge in their underwear. The video begins In Medias Res with him having undergone severe Sanity Slippage and being locked in an asylum after seeing all of these penis-having women, and the song's Looped Lyrics ("bitch got a penis, bitch got a penis...") are his Madness Mantra. Subverted in the end, where it's revealed that the bulge in their pants weren't from a penis after all.)
• Unusual Euphemism: "Partying" for "having sex".
• Vocal Tag Team: The band started out with vocals almost entirely by Puff-Puff (voiced by Ray William Johnson), but as time went along, guitarist Benatar (voiced by Jesse Cale) began singing more and more. About halfway through its lifespan of biweekly releases, the tradition of Puff-Puff rapping the verses and Benatar singing the chorus became more and more established. Benatar even sang lead the entirety of one song. By the end, Benatar sang just as much as Puff-Puff, if not more.
• Wham Line: From part two of "Orphan Tears": "Those aren't pigs, those are actually...little children?"
• Weaksauce Weakness: Implied to be a shared one among douchebags. Should a douchebag want to revert to a normal person, they must read the entirety of a hard book such as Harry Potter from cover to cover.
• Yandere: "Text Me Back" is possibly one of the most prominent example of this trope ever.
  Puff: "I had a dream that I killed you. I'm not certain what it means. I didn't say that I would do it. I said it was a dream. Anger is the lone emotion flowing through my veins. Knowing you, I may spend the night going through some pain. Call me insane, call me obsessed, the fact remains, I'll rage unless you text me back"

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