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"We're like gods, except we descend from the upstairs attic rather than heaven. So you can pray in silence, but if you're too loud, we're gonna stomp on the floor and tell you to shut the fuck up."
Lewis

BrainScratch Commentaries is a commentary group on YouTube, created by Nayrman214 (Ryan Malis) and comprising of himself, The One True Nobodynote (Lewis Medeiros), ExandShadow (Ted Wiesen) Some Call Me Johnny (Juan Ortiz, though some call him Johnny). "Inspired" by Hellfire Commentaries, the quartet perform video game commentaries, as well as occasional movie commentaries and "random rambles," ranging from discussions of various irrelevant topics to the lampooning of the list-based opinions of such well-known gaming media outlets as IGN and GameSpot. Known for their professionalism as might Ray Charles be known for his accuracy at the shooting range, these four up-and-coming commentators aim to provide various laughs at any cost — even at the price of their own intense boredom and sanity. As such, there is nearly as much padding in their commentaries as there is in the games they routinely lambast.

Ryan could be considered the "brains" behind the operation, as he was the one to come up with the hair-brained idea. He then pitched this hair-brained idea to Lewis, a fellow member of Find The Computer Room's forums, who then invited Johnny of the Super Gaming Bros. to take part. Sometime around 2010 or so, the trio became a quartet when Ted was made a permanent fourth member to add "youthful innocence to the jaded old men" in the group, as well as some cerebrally awful puns. In addition to our four main commentators, the team occasionally invites along a guest to join in the fun as an additional commentator — sometimes planned, sometimes at complete random. The full list of commentators can be found at the Character Page.


What trope are we at?

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    A-B 
  • Aborted Arc: Devil May Cry 4, as a result of the crew having nothing to say after 3 parts (see F-Zero GX and Portal 2) out of about 44 parts of raw footage. May eventually be subverted; upon uploading the RAWs for the DmC reboot, Lewis mentioned the group would eventually cover DMC4...though "eventually" for BSC is often very literal.
    • In several videos from 2013, Ryan shows some footage from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" and Jak and Daxter but runs into some glitchy problems, thus making the games unplayable. We have yet to see either of the games on the channel, although, knowing how long it takes for the gang to record certain things, they could still be recorded. Jak and Daxter has since been redone, but Sands of Time'', as of September 2016, has not.
    • Mario Party 1 ended up becoming this due to Technical Difficulties after half the board was finished. Ryan took the first half due to this reason.
    • The guys were originally going to do a commentary on Trauma Team, and Ted even recorded the entire game. It ended up being more than 60 parts, and, as of the Trauma Center Second Opinion commentary, it was cancelled.
  • Actually Pretty Funny:
    • Whilst commentating on Dragonball Evolution, a movie the entire team deemed an undiluted cinematic incarnation of fecal matter, all three commentators had to admit that Goku's hair gel gag was actually pretty funny.
    • During the Gex: Enter the Gecko commentary, none of the four really found Gex himself funny. However, they did admit that his quip about New Jersey being a TV wastelandnote  was pretty funny and timeless.
  • Afraid of Needles:
    • Lewis explains why he hates needles in Part 14 of the F-Zero GX commentary.
    • During the third reading of this very page, Lewis attempted to reject this trope stating "I am not a character!" Our character page would beg to differ.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Lewis's computers keep dying on him, resulting in his absence in several commentaries, much to many fans' disappointment.
    • Problems with YouTube, such as the video freezing, can often interfere with recording, causing a member of the group to have to ask "What time are we at?" once they've managed to get the video to reload. This became incredibly prominent in the Paper Mario playthrough, with some cases where both Lewis and Johnny suffered from the issue multiple times each in a part; much to the others' frustration.
  • Alliterative Title: Mostly when concerning with Lethal Lava Land of Super Mario 64. Titles are: "Lethal Lava Land Lacks Lethality Lips Lewis" and "Coins Contaminate Character, Cannot Contain Coin Collecting Compulsion".
    YouTube Commentator: That's a lot of Ls.
    • Subverted in Kirby's Return to Dreamland: "I couldn't think of a funny title that had an all "L" alliteration for lava lands."
    • Used again in Super Mario Sunshine Part 14, entitled "Lethal Lava Land's Lethality Legitimate, Lacks Level Layout".
    • Used yet AGAIN in Paper Mario Part 24: "Lethal Lavalava Land Liquidates Lame Losers". This is becoming a Running Gag.
    • Used once more in "Super Mario Galaxy" Part 13: "Dusty Desert Dons Dickish... Walls—Dammit!"
    • Viewtiful Joe is no exception, although it's very similar to the one in Super Mario Sunshine: "Lethal Lava Landpipes Legitimize Lackluster Layout".
    • Used again in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped Part 8, which is a repeat of what happened in Super Mario Galaxy: "Future Frenzy Frankly Frickin'... Blows—FUCK!"
    • Used again in Super Mario Galaxy 2 Part 30: Toy Time Troubles Terrorize Ted.
    • Used again in Wario Land 4 Part 9: Lethal Lava Land's Cold Cold Cave.
    • Brought back in Part 19 of Super Mario Odyssey is Big Bad Bowser's Boss Boxing Barrage.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The infamous scene from Zero Wing was referenced towards the end of the F-Zero GX playthrough.
    • And again at the hilarious Engrish after Gradius III's credits.
  • Anachronic Order: Most playthroughs are prerecorded months before they even get uploaded and are not posted in the order they were made.
    • The first part of Sonic '06 to feature Lewis's return after so long was the last one recorded for the playthrough.
    • The crew had to rerecord parts 1-12 of the Super Mario Galaxy commentary in Audacity after having recorded the later parts, due to problems with the Skype recorder.
  • Analogy Backfire: Ted makes Johnny a comparison of Sonic Genesis as one of Johnny's brothers being hit by a truck and Big Rigs being the same, just the brother replaced by a egg and nobody giving a damn. Johnny doesn't even care since the truck is the Big Rigs. Knowing how Big Rigs is played, the truck will just pass through both the brother and the egg.
  • Angrish: Johnny in part 17 of the Portal 2 Co-Op commentary.
    • Sonic Genesis... seriously, just watch part one and watch Johnny lose his fucking mind! Ryan even tries to lampshade this:
      Ryan: So how are we going to keep this rage up for four more parts?
      Johnny: I will find EVERY excuse I can!!!
    • By the end, Johnny has a near melt down in Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 when he gets stuck in a loop. (One also has to wonder what would have happened had he not broken it eventually...)
    • Ted in Part 3 of the Mega Man: The Wily Wars commentary after Johnny refills his weapons energy by intentionally losing a life after ignoring the Weapon Tanks that were right in front of him earlier in the part.
  • Anti-Climax: The only way to describe the epic showdown with the optional boss in Symphony of the Night, ending it with "AND THEN HE DIED".
  • Anything but That!: When playing Needle Man's stage to fight Doc Robot in Mega Man 3, Ryan fails to make it across a large chasm before his energy for Rush Jet runs out. Hilarity ensues.
    • The entire crew's reaction to Sonic Genesis. Johnny in particular had this reaction to Labyrinth Zone, which is already slow-paced without the slowdown Genesis provides. He nearly bailed at this point.
      • It is worth mentioning that Johnny had previously attempted to do a let's play for Genesis on Super Gaming Bros. for April Fools' Day with Elliot, with Labyrinth Zone being enough to break Johnny and cancel the April Fools run.
  • April Fools' Day:
    • On April Fools Day 2015, the group did a commentary on Link's Crossbow Training.
    • On April Fools Day 2016, during Session 10 of the Pokemon HeartGold Nuzlocke, Ted decided to stream the above game instead.
    • On April Fools Day 2018, the guys played through Oregon Trail.
    • On April Fools Day 2019, they did a video on Tetris 99.
  • Artistic License – Linguistics: Johnny finally learned how to pronounce "chasm" during the TV Tropes episode.
    • Ted mispronounces the aforementioned word in the second and third TV Tropes episodes, as well as "obvious" in the latter.
    • He also combines "insignificant" and "inconsequential" into "insiconsequential" in part 2 of Sonic Genesis.
    • Again, Ted somehow manages to combine dramatically and drastically into "dramastically" in part 13 of Pokemon Crystal.
    • Ted coins the term "satisfication" in part 5 of Metroid Fusion.
    • Ted combines "salvage" and "scavenge" into "scalvage" in part 10 of Pikmin.
    • Ted then combines "slower" and "slowed" into "slowered" in part 2 of "Touhouvania 2".
    • Ted yet again did it in a strange case in Metroid Prime where he mixed up the names of the Chozo Ruins and Phazon Mines creating the name "Chozo Mines".
    • Lewis discovers the proper pronunciation of "awry" during their commentary of Sonic '06.
    • Johnny manages to screw up his grammar in Part 1 of Sonic Genesis and ends up saying at one point "A fuck ton of lot". He does this again in the Super Mario Bros. Retrospective.
    • He also mispronounces "fjord" in Part 8 of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!.
    • Ryan gets in on the fun with a goof of "colorful" in Part 5 of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, turning it into "colorfur".
    • A humorous example, Ted asks Emile if he's "StreetPass masturbating" again, with Emile making the new word "StreetPassturbating".
    • When Ted gets lampshaded by the others, he frequently responds by talking even worse.
      Ted: I are talking English very good.
    • Lewis combines "revelation" and "realization" into "revalization" in the third TV Tropes reading.
    • You know what, let's just say nobody in this group speaks with perfect English and leave it at that.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Johnny's examples of Super Mario Land's Japanese enemy names.
    Johnny: The Koopa Troopas are called Nokobons, the Chibibo is the Goomba, and this weird ass creature known as Princess Daisy is Princess Peach.
    • Inverted during Sonic Genesis; while listing off the problems with the game, Johnny starts off with lesser problems before getting to the worse ones.
  • The Artifact: The group used to upload all of their RAW parts onto a separate channel called "BrainScratchArchives", before eventually switching to sending the parts to each other as video files (so as to circumvent the infamous "What Time Are We At?" problem that resulted from videos freezing). The channel itself is still up to this day, but hasn't been updated since 2013.
    • Lampshaded in the Sonic Adventure 2 revisited playthrough, where the group jokes about uploading one of their parts to a secret location in theme with Eggman's base being in a supposedly "top-secret" location, which prompts Ted to ask if the Archives channel is still up.
  • Ascended Extra: After being added at complete random in the Resident Evil 4 commentary, Ted became the fourth member of the group after Lewis' computer died yet again.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Ted was a big fan of Brainscratch before he became a guest commentator and then (due to Lewis' computers dying on him so much back then) the official fourth member of BSC.
    • Amanda, Andrew, and Matt are also big fans that later became guest commentators.
    • Of course, being a fan won't make you a guest commentator, they must come to you first... so for the love of Arceus, don't spam up the Discussion tab on the channel with questions regarding it. That just makes you look like an imbecile.
  • The Atoner: Ryan mentioned he'd personally apologize for Wario World, and he made a 100% full playthrough of Wario Land 4 two years later to make up for it.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: In Episode 5 of Sonic 4 Episode II, Johnny managed to get a shield, invincibility, and unleash Super Sonic... unfortunately, aside from an awesome show of effects, only Super Sonic was of any use of the three things.
    Ryan: It's Nuclear Sonic!
  • Banned in China: [[Invoked]]They joked about the bear head, which looks like Winnie the Pooh, in Part 6 of Dead Rising, which gets would get them banned in China due to memes involving Winnie the Pooh and the President of China, Xi Jinping.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For/I Wished You Were Dead: In the Eva 2.22 commentary, Lewis voices his opinion of Asuka's attitude:
    Lewis: This lady has not earned her massive bitch of an ego, and if her head gets ripped off, I will laugh.
    Ryan: Not in this movie, anyway...
    Lewis: Wait, that happens?
    Ryan: Kind of...
    Johnny: After the research I've done, she goes through a lot of shit...
    Lewis: Oh, good! I'll laugh a lot then!
    Johnny: And then you'll feel guilty.
    Lewis: No I won't.
    [...]
    Lewis: (after Asuka's "death" scene) ...you may notice I'm not laughing right now.
  • Berserk Button: Sonic Genesis for all of them, but the amount of anger Johnny (who is normally a very calm and kind individual) displayed in the final part takes the cake by a landslide.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog, particularly for Johnny. Ted was willing to somewhat defend it until he was made to record it.
    • The way Lewis did the Brock Gym battle for Ted.
      Ted: Just LOW KICK!
    • Bringing up having or getting a shiny also seems to be this Ted, but only on videos or topics related to Pokémon. Otherwise, he has stated that he won't care.
    • Gen IV of Pokemon, mostly for Ted. Ryan somewhat less so, and Johnny is relatively indifferent about it. Ryan and Johnny will occasionally find amusement in Ted's over-the-top anger, like when he saw Gen IV on Nintendo Power's Top 285 games.
    • Fans asking to guest star in a commentary is this for all four of them.
      Lewis: We come to you, you don't come to us.
    • Lewis (and sometimes Ted) whenever Johnny or Ryan misses a collectable item (coins, Red Rings, etc.) in the recording.
    • Lewis gets very, VERY angry when he sees his fellow commentators being attacked or condemned by haters.
      Lewis: If you say disrespectful things about my friends, you should know that the only thing stopping me from breaking your nose is distance.
  • The Bet: The whole reason The Legend of Zelda playthrough was made was a bet from Johnny that Ted would earn his Month of Pokémon if he could beat it without using cheats. It turns out Johnny just wanted to pick on Ted as he was going to do Month of Pokémon anyway.
  • Beyond the Impossible: "I wall-jumped in a game where you can't wall-jump!"
  • Big "WHAT?!": In Sonic Genesis part 5, after Johnny recovers from a game over, he has Sonic standing on the edge of one of the crushers that was rising up. Sonic immediately loses a life by just standing on the crusher without even getting crushed in the first place. The entire group collectively lets out a huge "WHAT?!" from seeing such huge bullshit occurring.
    • Clement in Sonic 4: Episode 2, when he discovers that there's a hidden shield before the final boss fight, after having tried so many times to defeat it without getting hit in order to unlock an Eggman costume for his Xbox Avatar.
    • In episode 1 of the Superman 64 commentary. Normally when you fail to destroy the two cars after the first set of rings, you have to restart from the beginning of the ring maze. However, when Lewis destroys the first car but is unable to move, then hands the controller to Ryan when the timer runs out, it starts at the beginning of the car section. Everyone gives the appropriate reaction.
  • Big "WHY?!"?!: Within the first 5 seconds of the Metroid: Other M playthrough, all 4 can't help but exclaim Why?! at the same time.
    • All 4 are willing to admit that while the game had potential to be good, there are too many things the game does wrong.
      Lewis: The game has its qualities, like...bear with me they're there. The story is not one of them.
      Ted: It's so frustrating cause this game clearly does have a lot of very strong points too...
      Johnny: This hits me harder than '06.
  • Black-and-White Morality: Invoked by Ryan. Very rarely is a game, movie, etc. just "okay" to him. Either something "suuuucks" or is "AMAZING!"
  • Blood Knight: Ryan in the New Super Mario Bros. Wii playthrough.
  • Boldly Coming: Captain Kirk tries this on the Pikmin in the Pikmin 1 commentary. According to him, "they did not seem to respond well."
  • Book Dumb: Johnny, while a genius in terms of what makes a good game, a highly skilled animator, and a master player at what he likes, isn't the brightest guy in terms of academic/"book" facts, a minor example being that he didn't know that New Hampshire had no sales tax until Ted outright said it, despite the state being universally known for that. Even he admitted one time that Matt (a member of Johnny's LP channel, the Super Gaming Bros.) is The Smart Guy of his group.
  • Born Lucky: Ryan has some incredible luck during the Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels playthrough; some examples include killing an enemy by jumping under it and making a wall jump. note 
    • This little gem from the battle in the last gym of Pokemon Crystal.
      Ryan: What's that? You're about to bring out your Hydreigon that's ten levels higher than me and I only have my Samurott with Blizzard... oh what's that? Your attack misses... what's that? Blizzard hits for super-effective plus Critical Hit damage and I one-shot you?
    • Lewis got 2 Hidden Blocks, both of which contained Stars, in Mario Party 2 (much to Ryan and Ted's dismay and Johnny's amusement).
  • Brain Bleach: During the Arkham Asylum commentary, Joker makes the quip about scaring Batman by revealing himself in a thong, and gained the appropriate reactions from Ryan, Lewis, the viewers, and anybody who has played the game.
    • The guys have a similar reaction during the Super Mario Sunshine commentary when it's revealed that Peach is Bowser Jr.'s mother, which is only possible if... The fact that Bowser Jr. is wrong does not change the wrongness of it.note 
    • Playedfor Laughs: Emile's reaction on part 15 of Super Mario Galaxy, after being show a picture of "gumball Sonic".
      Emile: [while laughing] Oh my God! Why you show this to me!?
  • Brick Joke: During the Subspace Emissary commentary, after the Rayquaza fight:
    Johnny (As Diddy Kong): "The good games are this way Fox!" Then when you play as Fox and Diddy Kong later in the game:
    Ted (As Fox): "Hey Diddy Kong! You said the good games were this way!"
    • In part 12 of the The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask commentary, the crew discusses a possible remake of the gamenote , and Ted says he doesn't think it'll happen, while the box art appears onscreen. At the beginning of part 26, Ryan brings this up to Ted:
      Ryan: Hey Ted, hey Ted.
      Ted: What?
      (Majora's Mask 3D box art appears onscreen)
      Ryan: How about that Majora's Mask 3D?
      (Ted sighs heavily in exasperation while everyone else laughs)
      Ted: God-damn it...
  • The Bus Came Back: After Lewis's computer crashed for the second time, Ted stepped in to replace him once again. Lampshaded in the Symphony of the Night and Tetris commentaries.
    Ted: Lewis is here, that means I'm out of the job.
    Ryan: Damn right Ted, get out of here.
  • Butt-Monkey: Ted, if the Pokémon Y livestream, Mega Man X3 and The Legend of Zelda commentaries are anything to go by.
    • Lewis could also be considered one, be it for his constant technical problems, not having a job, or not recording anything for the channel for a long while. On one of his attempts to record something, his computer once again crashed, causing the playthrough to be hijacked by Johnny. To be fair, Lewis HAS recorded a few games, predominately the Devil May Cry series and Catherine, the latter of which was uploaded to the main channel a year after much of it was recorded.
    • Something of a more unpleasurable case, but for a while the Fan Dumb often used Ted as reasons a playthrough was bad. It seems Amanda was the target for a while, and TypingBlank also got some of the Fan Dumb on him for his stuttering (which mind you, he really has no control over).
    • Poor, poor Donnie was painfully this in the HFC Vs. BSC Mario Kart 8 races. In the Smash 3DS stream, he himself eventually starts to beat down on himself, until Johnny tells him to shut up and grow a backbone. Not in a mean way.
  • Buffy Speak: Lewis has a moment of this in Part 14 of Sonic Adventure, when in trying to come up with a analogy for Knuckles' spazzing victory animation, can only come up with "fucking spaz... thing."
    • Actually, Lewis tends to do this a fair bit; the early parts of the Devil May Cry commentary come to mind.
    C-E 
  • Call-Back: During the Portal playthrough, when Lewis pauses after dying, Ryan says "pausing won't save you". This is word for word what Johnny said to Ryan during the The Lost Levels play-through.
    • And again during the Mario Kart 64 play-through, when Ted pauses after falling off a track, Ryan again says "pausing won't save you".
    • Johnny and Ryan occasionally repeating commentary from Sonic 1 when playing Sonic Genesis... when they weren't flying into a rage.
    • During a particular surreal dream scene in a train during the Eva 2.22 commentary, Lewis suggests that the G-Man is talking to Gordon Freeman in a nearby traincar. In the Final Fantasy VI commentary they did later, Lewis brings up the same point again for a ghost train, and Ryan calls back to the former scene in response.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Ryan tends to do this, especially during the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World commentary.
  • The Cameo: Junkles and Knuckers, who appear in Sonic 3 and Knuckles by the use of Knuckles, all Super Emeralds, 50 rings, and YouTube's framerate issues.
    • Mark in Portal 1, telling Johnny that the possum's back.
  • Captain Obvious: Practically everyone; for example, Ryan points out Maria's unfortunate concussion in the Castlevania: Rondo of Blood commentary.
    • During the Sonic 2006 commentary, the crew constantly points out all of the areas in which the characters point out the obvious. This bashing leads to major laughs throughout the commentary from both the commentators and the viewers.
  • Captain's Log: Parodied by Ryan throughout the Pikmin commentary.
  • Cell Phones Are Useless: During part 4 of the Mega Man 6 commentary, Ryan had a very hard time hearing Clement and Johnny due to choppy call reception. The trio then dubbed this as "Worst Part Ever" in the part itself while still retaining the title "Sorry, what was that? I can't hear you!"
  • Chekhov's Gun: The single coin Ryan stole from Johnny in Mario Party 4? It helped him win the "Most Coins Held At Once" section from Ted.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Pretty much every member. It should be noted that the group can't go a single part without saying a curse word.
    • At one point, they read this and pledged to work on it. Not much progress.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Johnny retells the story of when he was playing Super Mario Land on the subway train, finished it before the destination, and self-agreed to record it for a commentary using a Super Game Boy. Ted then asks if Johnny actually brought a Super Nintendo to a subway.
    • Ted spoils the ending to Super Mario Bros. 2 in where the game was all a dream. Johnny then tells Ted that because the game is over twenty-five years old, there is no need of a "Spoiler Alert". Ted then starts spoiling all the endings of movies produced over twenty-five years ago, ending the list with Luke is Darth Vader's father.
    • In Brawl part 5, Lewis calls Ted's character, Wario a fat bastard. Ryan's response?
      Ryan: Who said the captain's fat?
  • Companion Cube: Johnny, Ryan and Lewis were totally infatuated with the Companion Cube in their Portal commentary. Lewis names it "Biffalo the Third", much to Johnny's confusion.
    • The pretzel bag is another example. Played for Laughs, of course.
    • Lewis considers Mario's pineapple to be one as Mario was seen playing helicopters with it, even though it was just Ryan looking for a way out.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Most of the time, if Lewis has not played the game being commentated on, he does this. Otherwise, he just comes off as ignorant.
    • Subverted when Lewis says that while his PC is getting repaired the other 2 can commentate on games he has no interest in (Mega Man 6, etc).
    • Ryan is almost as critical of Gen 3 (specifically the Hoenn games) as Ted is of Gen 4, even though he hasn't touched them.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Ryan (rightfully) accuses the AI of cheating in Pokémon Crystal when Ted took on Lance. Johnny even made a joke about him using Missingno to use a glitch off-screen.
    • Brought up again in LeafGreen about how Lewis complains about how the AI will ALWAYS inflict Status Conditions on you in battle, yet when you try to do it against the AI, you'll fail more often then you should statistically.
    • Played with in Mario Party 2 where the crew's first game ends with Lewis winning as Princess Peach, causing the crew to accuse Lewis of winning only because he picked a cheating whore as his character of choice (Lewis didn't win any of the mini-games, nor did he get the most coins, but he got 2 stars from hidden blocks and a 3rd one for landing on happening spaces the most).
  • Constantly Curious: Ted in the Batman: Arkham City playthrough, or basically any game he hasn't played. Justified, since he obviously has no experience with the game in question (and thus, has no experience with its mechanics).
    • Practically every member becomes this whenever a game one of them hasn't played is commentated on. Ted's constant questioning is just the most prevalent, as he always ends the questioning with an "okay" that sounds exactly the same each time he says it.
    • Johnny in particular sounds like a news interviewer when he is the one doing the questions.
  • Convenient Replacement Character: For a while Ted was this, as him becoming an official member coincided with Lewis's forced hiatus due to technical issues, allowing the group to remain a trio. This is no longer the case after Lewis's return, as Ted was kept on and the group became a quartet.
  • Cousin Oliver: Ted, to some extent; he's significantly younger than the rest of the crew. Ryan sometimes lampshades this by saying "KIIIIIIIIIID!" whenever a reference is made to something Ted's never heard of because he was born too late to have ever seen it.
    • Elliot, who's the youngest commentator to date, but hasn't shown up in quite a while.
  • Crossover: For a long time, FastestThingAlive did qualify for this, but he's become somewhat of a regular. With FTA's return as a regular to HFC, his appearances could count as a crossover again
    • And once he was booted off of HFC due to internal conflicts, he became just guest commentator for BSC.
    • Perhaps the TRUE crossover came from the Super Mario Galaxy Race between NTom64 (of Hellfire Commentaries) and Johnny.
      • This can also be seen in Tom's 2013 New Year's update video, where he mentioned Johnny had given him advice regarding video scheduling.
      • Besides that, Tom has also expressed interest in joining the group for a possible Jak and Daxter commentary.
    • Johnny appeared in the Hellfire Comms playthrough of Sonic Labyrinth, and is believed to be appearing in Sonic & The Secret Rings.
      • The entire BSC crew also appeared in several film commentaries during the Hellfire Comms Disney-thon in December 2013.
      • The crew appeared in Tom's many, many videos involving Mario Kart 8 racing Tom and each other.
    • Any commentary with Johnny plus Elliot or Matt, as the three also collaborate as the Super Gaming Brothers.
    • Chuggaaconroy appears in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl multiplayer videos after part 6. He later comes in and joins the group on Super Mario Galaxy.
  • Cruelty Is the Only Option: If the Mega Man commentaries are any indication; Ryan's motto seemed to be "If I have to suffer playing through this part of the game, you have to suffer watching it!" Cue the screams of Lewis and Johnny in the background. He's gotten better.
  • Curse: The Sonic '06 commentary has killed both Clement's (is fixed) and Lewis' (replaced) computers.
  • Cursed with Awesome: In Part 4 of Mario Kart 64, Lewis tells the others the story about one day in his younger years where a group of kids were mocking him... by throwing money at him. This made the other commentators wish that they were bullied like that.
    Lewis: I don't know why they found it amusing that I kept chasing the quarters they were rolling along the floor.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The crew resorts to this. A LOT.
  • Determinator: Anyone who can play all the way through Sonic '06, with their sanity intact even, is one. note 
  • Department of Redundancy Department: Lewis. Many, many times. Clement during Sonic Lost World.
    Lewis: If you die, I'm going to kill you!
    Lewis: And of course the loops are automatic. Of course.
    Lewis: It's a glowing blue box. That glows.
    Lewis: That's just a general complaint about RPGs in general really.
    Clement: Yeah the 3DS version's literally a boss rush in the 3DS version.
  • Despair Event Horizon: The end of Waluigi Land in Mario Party 3 by Ted, "There is nothing good in the universe, there is nothing halfway decent that comes along every once in a while, there is only pain". Granted, they were playing Mario Party, and Waluigi had somehow managed to spend that entire match going round in circles and still win.
  • Discretion Shot: A preferred editing method of Johnny whenever he completely fucks something up, as in Sonic 4, for instance.
  • Dissimile: Lewis gives one by describing Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
    Lewis: It's like Super Mario Brothers 1 except you die.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: As of Mega Man 10, they've all done it at least once.
  • Doppelgänger: Fake Ted, who took the username "Exandshadow" on the Nintendo Network after hearing that Ted had not gotten a Wii U yet. He appeared in the Mario Kart 8 livestream to beat Ted in almost every race that night, and ended by exploiting a bug that caused everyone in the room to disconnect, right before Rainbow Road 64 was picked.
    • He appears again in the Smash 4 Wii U livestream, much to Ted's dismay.
  • Do Well, But Not Perfect: With a bit of luck, the person with the most votes has to play I Wanna Be the Guy. Ted later added that the one with the least votes has to play Kaizo Mario World. Lewis better watch out here.
  • Drinking Game: Has its own page.
  • Dull Surprise: Ryan has a tendency to sound rather bland sometimes. He lampshades it by saying he needs the other two because "I'm boring".
    • TypingBlank is also this (when he speaks). He also commented the reason the guys brought in Amanda during the Super Mario Sunshine commentary is that "I was so boring they brought in someone else".
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The early days of Brainscratch are quite different compared to more recent recordings.
    • Only Johnny, Lewis, and Ryan made up the group while Ted didn't come around until the Resident Evil 4 commentary. The group in the early days also focused more on the game being played in the recording during the commentary.
    • The audio quality from everyone's microphones were garbage since no one had better quality headsets until later on. It was so common for people to randomly disconnect from Skype and YouTube freezing on people that "What time are we at?" became a Running Gag until everyone got better computers and internet.
    • The group referred to each other by their online names since they first came to knew each other through the Internet. So Lewis was known as "Solaris", Ryan was "Nayrman", and even Ted was often called "Exand" in his early appearances. Eventually they all became close enough friends to just call each other by their real names, and Lewis would later phase out his "Solaris Paradox" handle entirely.
  • Easy-Mode Mockery: A case of a Pun, of course, but during the Mirror's Edge run of the game, TypingBlank calls out Ryan for playing the game on Easy difficulty.
    • Ryan calls out Johnny for using the Konami Code in the Gradius 3 playthrough a lot.
    • Subverted in Touhouvania 2 where Ted was surprised that the extra boss/stage Andrew had problems with was played on easy, when the other levels were on normal.
    • Ryan once again gets called out on it, this time by Ted in The Last of Us. However, Ryan explains that he did this simply to make the game move along faster, since it was going to be a long playthrough no matter what.
  • Elephant in the Living Room: Averted by Johnny in the Portal commentary, when he mentions that a possum is in his room and calls it to everybody's attention. This was also said in their commentary of Mega Man 4 when they made fun of this trope.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Ted "The Kid". "Tedoof", during the Pokémon X and Y Livestream. The name should tell you all that you need to know. (Also responsible for the world's fastest fan-art response of all time, which, needless to say, had the commentators in stitches.)
  • Epic Fail: Johnny's encounter with Storm Eagle during the Mega Man X playthrough. He didn't die during the fight, but to be taken down to an inch of his life by what's considered one of the easiest bosses in the Mega Man X series was fail enough to stand as an example of this trope.
    • Whenever a similar occurrence of Epic Fail occurs, the above example is referenced as a Running Gag by quoting the words "It's STORM EAGLE!"
    • Ryan surpassed (or would it be sank lower than?) Johnny since he was killed by, of all the Robot Masters, Toad Man.
    • Lewis somehow manages to get crushed by a ring box during the Knuckles run of Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
    • Lewis losing in less than three seconds (PING!) at Special Stage 3 of Sonic 1. Even though the stage is considered difficult, he didn't touch anything on the controller/keyboard at all.
    • Johnny getting shot and killed by Turrets through a portal in the Portal 2 playthrough, Part 10.
    • The multiple deaths in parts 1 and 2 of the Legend of Zelda playthrough, mostly due to Ted not being familiar with the game.
    • At the end of part 14 in Kirby's Return to Dream Land, they manage to get a game over. It was Lewis's fault said game over occurred.
    • And add Part 15 of Return to Dreamland as a WHOLE to that.
    • Ted's first Pokémon HeartGold Nuzlocke attempt which prematurely ended on only the second session, when Ted completely forgets that trying to go to Ilex Forest triggers a Rival battle. Being completely unprepared for this, Ted ends up losing the battle and blacking out, thus effectively getting a Game Over and having to restart the run.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Ted will make nearly any terrible pun you can think of... ...EXCEPT for Bee Puns. He absolutely hates Bee Puns. To the point he'll call out others for using bee puns.
    • Oddly, he had no reaction to the "Bee-having" pun used in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. Though it's possible that he didn't notice because of his complete lack of interest in the game.
  • Evil Laughter: All of the main members, excluding Ted, can pull one off very well.
    • Ted manages to pull off a glorious evil laugh upon realizing the new Horde Battles from Generation VI will allow him to gain a ton of experience by grinding Audinos.
  • Evil Overlord List: Read aloud by Ryan and Lewis in "How to be an Evil Overlord".
  • Exact Words: In the second and third reading of their TV Tropes page, Lewis questions the trope Fridge Logic as of how fridges are capable of bringing logic.
    • During the Pokémon Y livestream, Ted warns Johnny against using Torchic's Ember to catch a Combee, pointing out that it will get killed. Johnny uses it anyway and OHKO's the poor bee. When Ted tries to have an I Told You So moment, Johnny reminds Ted that he used the word "killed", the Combee only fainted.
    • The reason why Ted hates the "half full/half empty" saying, since technically the cup is 100% full (as in half liquid and half air). note 

    F-H 
  • Fan Art: BrainScratch has its own DeviantArt page.
  • Fan Boy: The guys are all fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy, and Super Smash Bros. series, the last of which will always be referred to simply as "Smash" and will always be met with insane hype and praise when mentioned.
    • Johnny loves the Metroid and Castlevania series, and also has an extreme love for Super Mario World.
    • Ryan, Lewis, and John all love the Resident Evil series, while Ted has only played 4, which he ordered live at the advice of the others during their retrospective on the series.
    • Ryan and Johnny are big fans of Cowboy Bebop, and have stated that they have persuaded Ted to start chewing through it. Lewis is a fan of Naruto. Ted seems to have a soft spot for the Pokémon anime because it introduced him to gaming in general.
      • They all enjoyed Attack on Titan, though only the anime. None of them have stated that they read the manga, though considering Ryan's track record as the "anime guy" of the group, it is entirely possible that he has. It should be noted that Johnny's enjoyment of it was somewhat hindered because he didn't know that it was an incomplete adaptation until someone told him.
    • Lewis loves the Persona series, which he frequently references during commentaries, much to Johnny and Ryan's confusion. Ted has also stated his enjoyment of the Shin Megami Tensei series.
    • Ted is a big fan of the Ace Attorney, Banjo-Kazooie, Dragon Quest, Paper Mario, Pikmin, and Pokémon series, and loves Sonic Adventure 2 more than any other member, which he admits might be due to nostalgia, being the first Sonic game he ever played as a child. He has also gone on record and said that he likes "pretentious Indie shit that nobody's ever heard of," leading to occasional jokes that he is a hipster.
    • Considering he has recorded all the Mega Man games up to this point, it is safe to assume that Ryan is a big fan of them. His old YouTube username even sounds like a Robot Master!
    • Matt has a hard on for the Devil May Cry, Persona, and The Legend of Zelda series.
    • Big Al is a HUGE fan of Wreck-It Ralph, having admitted to seeing it 20 times, always cosplaying as the titular character at every con he goes to (which people who follow him know is A LOT) frequently quoting characters, and bringing up obscure trivia related to it during their commentary.
    • They all (besides Lewis since he doesn't care about Nintendo) seem to REALLY like the GameCube controller, insisting on using it as their control scheme whenever possible.
      • Ryan and Johnny are called out on this by Ted while they are gushing over the special GameCube controllers and adapters for Smash 4 Wii U. He states that eventually, likely with the next game after 4, they will have to stop using the GameCube controllers for Smash, to which Ryan responds "don't care, GameCube controllers."
  • Fan Sequel: Sort of. Sonic Colors 2: The Quest for Coffee, as if Sonic needs any more.
    Ted: Sonic goes up to Knuckles.
    Ted (as Sonic): Hey Knuckles you have some coffee?
    Ted (as Knuckles): Yeah man, here you go.
    Ted: And thus the game ended.
    Johnny: Easiest game ever!
  • Fate Worse than Death: In Sonic Colors, Ryan left two robots alive in Act 2 of Tropical Resort out of a huge horde of Egg Pawns, jokingly saying he left them to mourn the deaths of the other ones.
  • Foreshadowing: In Part 4 of the Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric commentary, Clement mentions how because of the game's lack of autosave during the middle of a level, if the power were to ever go off, the player would have to start the level all over again. In part 18, while Lewis didn't suffer a power outage or anything like it, his game ended up crashing, causing him to have to replay the final level all over again, despite having been almost beaten it. Lewis even quips about how something like that will happened to him in a future part.
  • Filler Arc: Ryan admits that the Wario World playthrough is this.
    • F-Zero GX could be this, as it was almost entirely Seinfeldian Conversations (Due to Johnny being high off painkillers), boredom, and Sanity Slippage.
    • In the third TV Tropes reading, Ted says he considers the Ib playthrough this, but Lewis debates it.
    • Not an arc per se, but in the final part of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, the guys acknowledge that the raw is much shorter than usual, so they decide to continue talking until the part is the usual length.
    • Touhouvania 2 has Parts 6 and 7 dedicated to nothing but four small (read: eight minutes each) cutscenes that has barely anything to do with the main game. Part 7 has the crew almost ignoring it, going into various tangents, and Andrew was quiet for most of the part.
  • First-Name Basis: In the beginning, the crew would almost always address each other by their user names. Nowadays, since becoming closer, they ALWAYS call each other by their real names. It has gotten to the point that some newer fans might not even know that they all have individual channels.
    • May also be influenced by the fact that Lewis and Ryan haven't uploaded any footage to YouTube on their own channels for a few years now (as Ryan is trying to be more professional with the comm channel and Lewis couldn't be bothered to due to class), and it'd be too awkward to call Johnny "Somecallme" or some other nickname. Ted at least tries to keep his solo channel active, but is at best sporadic with uploads.
    • Lewis, while having become active on his own channel again, appears to have dropped his "Solaris Paradox" moniker entirely.
  • For Science!: Al's answer to every single question asked in the Metroid Fusion and Sonic Colors commentaries.
    • Ted invokes the trope during the group's Let's Play of Kirbys Return To Dreamland. Playing as Kirby, Ted inhales Johnny and spits him into an Advancing Wall of Doom that stops it for a brief half second. Ted also inhales Ryan and spits him through a water stream with a fast current so he can press a switch on the other side.
  • Four-Man Band: Although the group is more often of five now (six including Clement), after Ted joined, they were this for a while (and this still applies when they don't have any guests).
  • Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Ryan is the Cynic, Johnny is the Optimist, Ted is the Realist, and Lewis is the Apathetic.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Ryan is Choleric, Lewis is Melancholic, Johnny is Phlegmatic, and Ted is Sanguine.
  • The Gadfly: During the Pokémon LeafGreen play through, Johnny purposely knocks out nearly every legendary Pokémon he fights (except for Deoxys, Mewtwo, and Articuno) just to get a reaction from the rest of the commentators, mostly Ted. Johnny also used cheats to force a shiny Tentacool to appear and he goes to knock it out, again just to annoy Ted.
    • He also stopped Charmeleon from evolving, deliberately for the sake of a reaction... and then replaced it with a Vulpix in the next part.
  • Gender Bender: Used in the Pokémon LeafGreen thumbnail.
    • Returns in full force for the Shantae playthrough.
  • The Ghost: Lewis's brother, who he frequently mentions as being in the same room while he's commentating. Sometimes he'll be playing a video game, and Lewis decides to watch that instead of the actual video. He also had to shush him from opening drawers at one point in the Batman: Arkham City playthrough, because the noises he was making were being picked up by the mic.
  • Gilligan Cut: Discussed in the Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric commentary:
    FTA: My favorite thing was Lewis on Twitter was like 'Oh, all you idiots, buying this game day one, I'm going to wait two months.' And then two hours later, 'So I bought the game.'
  • A Good Name for a Rock Band: In Part 7 of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Johnny finds the name Wigglers more suited as a band name, although there is a band similar to it (think kids band).
  • Grammar Nazi: The sheer number of edits made by Lewis while he was tinkering with this wiki page... if wiki edits could kill, the world would have ended that night.
    • Lewis also displays his language-dictatorship ambitions during commentaries, as well. Such as that time during the F-Zero GX commentary where he got on Johnny's case for saying "vampirish" instead of "vampiric." As it turns out, "vampirish" is a real word.
    • In the Sonic '06 commentary, Lewis said "fastly" instead of "quickly", but no-one called him out on it. Then again, he corrected himself shortly afterwards. It should be noted that in that same part, Lewis said that "Sonic does it, by the power of teleportion".
    • The intro crawl for the Sonic 4 commentary (see the below example of "Incredibly Lame Pun") was redone many, many times as Lewis fussed over inconsequential grammatical aspects and wording issues. Ryan finally snapped, refusing to do it again. To this day, Lewis swears his original text was funnier.
    • In Shantae, Ted calls out the Warp Squid saving dialogue for saying "I bet it misses it's mommy!" Lewis and Ted then both state their annoyance with people who make this common mistake.
  • Gratuitous French: Averted with Ted. He knows how to speak French, presumably because it was his language class in high school, but prefers not to due to possibly messing up and invoking this trope or coming off as pretentious.
  • Groin Attack: How Ryan administers the coup de grâce against Turbo Man in Mega Man 7.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: The guest commentators.
    • Also invoked by Emile during the Brawl Tournament at MomoCon. He completely and utterly DECIMATED the main crew in every match once he showed up. The only one that could even put up a fight was Ryan.
  • Guide Dang It!: Discussed in Rogue Leader during the "Raid on Bespin" level.
  • Hell Is That Noise:
    • The random Mario sound effect in Part 10 of the Super Metroid commentary.
      Lewis and Johnny: What the fuck was that?
    • Basically anything that comes within the borders of Ryan's PC mic, although it has been stopped by him buying a headset... mostly.
    • That damn dog that barks at times and is picked up by someone's mic. You can tell it's the same dog, too. The worst part is that nobody acknowledges it.
  • Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The crew use normal names in most of the games they play and they use each other's names in Pokémon. In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, they give Link several names, such as Bort, Gary Oak, Batman, and then finally settling on Dumbfuck.
  • Heh Heh, You Said "X": After Ryan and Ted bicker about lives and continues in the end of part 12 of Paper Mario, Lewis just cuts them by pointing out the innuendos of what they were saying. Johnny follows suit.
  • Hijacked by Jesus: In Sonic Colors, Johnny states his favorite version of Aquatic Park's music track is Act 2's version of it... so what does Ryan do in Act 2? He uses the Blue Wisp with the music they dubbed "the Seinfeld music" for the majority of the level, effectively robbing Johnny of the opportunity to listen to it, which aggravates him.
  • History Repeats: Lewis recorded almost all of Sonic 06 but had computer problems, so Johnny finished the rest of the game. Two years later, Lewis recorded the beginning of Pokémon LeafGreen but, due to computer problems, Johnny had to record the rest.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: During the The Legend of Zelda commentary, Ted makes a justification that any jump-cut or overly long Pause Screen showing is basically him looking at a guide. This goes all well until Part 3 where at the last few seconds of the video, he jump-cuts, in front of the next dungeon he's supposed to go. Ted tries to explain that jump-cut as a new recording, but the damage has been done.
  • The Hyena: Johnny admits to laughing at menial things a lot.
  • Humiliation Conga: The last turn in Mario Party 4 Midway Madness, directed at Ted.
  • 100% Completion: Their goal for Kirby's Return to Dreamland, but frustrations during one of the final levels caused them to move on.
    • They also plan to do this for Super Mario 3D World, planning on going back to any difficult Green Stars after they beat the game.
    • Depending on how much time it takes for a game, they may or may not show completion when commentating on the game.
    • Averted with the LittleBigPlanet playthrough, which Ryan just intended to be a straight-forward romp so that they had ample time to play other games at Momocon. Later in the playthrough, they even started skipping levels that they got a Game Over on, just to keep things moving.
    I-L 
  • Ignored Aesop: The F-Zero GX commentary strongly implies that doing commentaries over racing games will result in extreme boredom, as the three kept saying that they should never do it again. Come to Mario Kart 64, where Johnny immediately says, "Have we learned nothing from F-Zero GX?"
  • I Hate Past Me: Not much hate, but they mostly try to communicate with their past selves to move on, stop sucking, or look at the obvious.
    • Subverted in the Paper Mario playthrough, where Ted tries to explain a puzzle, only to realize he currently couldn't remember it. He's pleasantly surprised to see that his past self was able to get it right.
      Ted: I wonder if past me knows where I left the car keys.
  • I Meant to Do That: Anytime a screw-up somehow benefits on their progression, Johnny/Lewis will mostly say, "Yeah, that was intentional."
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: In part 9 of Super Mario Galaxy, after an awkward silence coming out of Ghostly Galaxy, Johnny declares the commentary is "dead".
  • Indecipherable Lyrics: In part 4 of the Super Smash Bros. commentary, Ryan and Johnny sing along to the Brawl theme song in a "misheard lyrics" style. The lyrics are shown on screen when the song plays again at the end of the commentary.
  • In Harm's Way: Johnny repeatedly states that he is reckless during the Mega Man X games, causing him to put himself in danger or close to getting killed a few times.
  • Insistent Terminology: They're not Lets Plays, they're commentaries. Justified because of the way they do their playthroughs; one records raw footage, and they commentate over the raws.
  • The Internet Is for Porn: Brought up during the Touhouvania and Ocarina of Time commentaries.
  • Is This Thing Still On?: Inverted in Part 9 of Super Mario 64. During the first two minutes, Lewis was thinking why were the others ignoring him (and ruining his Sonic 3D Blast fire joke), until he finds out the mic was in mute. Johnny was wondering before that where he was.
    • Played straight occasionally when the crew forgets that the part is over when they're talking about a different topic.
    • In part 1 of the Shadow the Hedgehog commentary, Amanda was writing down topics she would want to talk about during the commentary and thinking out loud from time to time (for which she was called out by Johnny) for entire six minutes before realizing they were recording.
  • Japanese Ranguage: During the latest TV Tropes reading, Ted accidentally says Incredibly Rame Pun. The others find this rather amusing.
  • The Juggernaut: Ryan's preferred method of going through a stage in a classic Mega Man game; plow through absolutely everything no matter how much damage he takes.When he gets to the Robot master, however...
  • Jump Scare: A couple happen during the Ib playthrough. They manage to startle Ted and Amanda pretty good.
    • Also that Jynx jump scare in the "Pokémon LeafGreen" commentary in The Rock Tunnel.
  • Killed Off for Real:
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: During the No More Heroes playthrough, Ryan displayed a bizarre and extremely pointless compulsion to activate every fire extinguisher in the building on his way to a certain boss, and yet he disregarded the more useful wrestling masks.
    • Lewis is more practical — he's only a raging klepto when it comes to things you can actually collect, although they may still be completely pointless, as are the Silver Medals in Sonic the Hedgehog 2006... and he'll still probably have a compulsive urge to collect them and not quite be able to suppress it.
    • Johnny, however, states that he is the anti-klepto of the group, as he completely ignores the Red Star Rings during the Sonic Generations playthrough, even if they were right next to him. Which repeats itself in the Sonic 4: Episode II playthrough.
    • The basic rule of thumb between the two: Ryan collects useful things (Riddler trophies and Joker teeth), whilst Lewis collects pointless things (extra lives and continues in Sonic 3 and Knuckles, which has a save function).
    • Ted's reactions to Johnny ignoring expansions in Metroid Fusion show that he, too, is a klepto.
    • Ryan is shaping up to be an aversion of this as of Spyro the Dragon.
  • Large Ham: Who else but Chuggaaconroy.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Ted gives some rather forced-sounding screams when the group comes across a wild Bidoof in the Pokémon Y livestream. They proceed to catch a female and nickname it Ted, which quickly garners fanart that Johnny keeps onscreen for the rest of the livestream.
  • Last-Name Basis: Clement. His first name is Jamie by the way.
  • Laughing Mad: When Ted genuinely laughs instead of faking it, his laughter is rather high-pitched and somewhat childish. More than a few people have compared it to The Joker.
  • Lazy Bum: Where the crew is known for their unprofessionalism, Ryan seems to be the only one that cuts corners on required material. (See the Super Mario Sunshine and New Super Mario Bros. walkthrough, to name a few.) And when he doesn't cut corners, he usually leaves in useless footage that goes on much longer than needed. (See Madness Mantra below.) Ironically enough, since becoming partners, Ryan seems to be trying to be a tad more professional, always introducing and maintaining more order during discussions, having Nathan cut down parts he recorded to save time, and outright said that Johnny's gaming hobby is a "career now," though that could be referring to Johnny's two singular channels, which are also partnered.
  • Legacy Character: Biffalo, and all of its incarnations.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: In Part 4 of The Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation commentary, Ted completes Monster Madness 3 without getting the 'D' in order to fully complete it. Upon his second visit to the level, he managed to utterly dominate it, accomplishing a no-death run, along with managing to get the missing 'NERD' letter, despite the fact that Ted himself claimed Monster Madness 3 to be the hardest level in the game. And while the commentary was recorded after Ted's playthrough, you can just feel how angry and determined he was while playing through the level.
  • Let's Play: It's not; some people would assume it's one due to how the voices match the gameplay, especially Ryan's.
    Matt: For those who see this as a Let's Play, HA!
  • Let's See YOU Do Better!: Several commentaries show Ted mainly criticizing Johnny and Ryan from not getting easy-to-get items, high ranks, or other mundane things, which results Ryan telling Ted to do a 100% run of the same game for his channel. Ted denies doing so because "he has other games to do".
    • Ryan does this again in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, this time towards Matt. Despite all the odd requirements, Matt is determined to accomplish his goal.
    • During Ryan's play through of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, he misses numerous secret rings and fails at the special zones many times, which greatly annoys Lewis to no end. Ryan tells Lewis that he refuses to deal with Lewis' whining until he can record himself playing the game. Not only does Lewis take up the challenge playing as Knuckles, but he goes out of his way to show off every secret ring and rubbing it in Ryan's face each time.
  • Limited Sound Effects: Behold the majestic and multi-talented Ryan as he lends a much-need dose of ambiance to an epic showdown between Leon S. Kennedy and a squad of zombie cultists.
  • Like Is, Like, a Comma: Ted and the word "Uh". Most notably in Part 46 of Thousand Year Door. It's also an example of Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic.
  • Live Episode: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kirby's Return to Dream Land, Mario Party 1 through 4, Super Mario 3D World, and Rayman Legends.
  • Ludicrous Speed: In order to get through the second Sky Chase subgame in Part 11 of the Sonic Adventure playthrough without having to jump cut, Johnny interrupts the in-game footage with Lord Dark Helmet shouting "Ludicrous Speed GO!" Johnny then speeds the video up around 300% and adds the plaid look directly from the movie. According to Ryan, Lewis has never seen Spaceballs. However, during the actual reference sequence, Lewis quotes the movie. Whether this moment is left over idiocy from Ryan's Sonic and Tails run of Sonic 3 & Knuckles is unknown.
    M-Q 
  • Madness Mantra: Lewis nearly goes insane while watching an entire full-length part of Ryan farming for Rush Jet energy in Mega Man 3, to the point where he had delusions of Drawing magic in Final Fantasy VIII.
    Lewis: Come on, Squall, you can do it, just thirty more Death spells until you're immune to Level 5 Death forever! Draw! Draaaaaaawwwwwww!!!
    • This happens again during the No More Heroes 2 "parking lot" section, although the madness was not so severe. Although that was scripted.
    • And comes back in full force during the F-Zero GX gameplay. Below is just a small sample:
    • And again in the commentary for Mega Man 4, where Ryan is farming for energy drops when he thought he edited it out.
    • The Portal 2 Co-Op Commentary after the first two parts or so.
    • During part 15, Johnny gets so bored out of his mind that he starts playing Sonic R music, the theme from Jeopardy, and the Mii Channel theme, trying to not go insane.
    • Level 9-7 of the New Super Mario Bros Wii commentary.
    • The "chuckster" level in Super Mario Sunshine. Ryan even juxtaposes "Fuck this level" with his failures. Johnny also mentions this trope.
  • Manchild: Pretty much the whole crew.
    • Johnny admits this.
    • Matt calls the crew out on this for singing the Winnie the Pooh theme song in Part 5 of the Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest commentary, immediately after which Ryan begins to sing the My Little Pony theme.
      Ted: But he's so adorable.
      Matt: Not when you're twenty, and not when you're a man.
      Ryan: [singing] My Little Pony...
  • Man With A Thousand Voices: Out of the four commentators, Johnny has done the most imitations, his most famous probably being 'Manic-Depressed Luigi'. He's done many accents and voices for characters in-game, or as a joke.
    Ryan: Isn't that right Mr. Invisible Pink Unicorn?
    Johnny: [in a deep accent] Yes Ryan, you tell them motherfuckers!
    Johnny: [using his normal voice] Mr. Unicorn, you can talk!?
    • During the Pokémon Yellow commentary when a Dragonite is sent out to battle in the Elite Four:
      Johnny: [imitating Barney the Dinosaur] Oh, I'm gonna get gangsta up on these bitches! A stranger is only a friend you haven't met yet.
      Johnny: [using his normal voice] What the hell are you teaching our kids?!
    • His Big the Cat impersonations are spot on, and quite hilarious with the shit he comes up with.
      Johnny: [as Big] Froggy! If this about that I shoved you up my ass, I was really drunk! Get back here you fucker!
      Tails: Sonic let's hurry, we need to find the Chaos Emeralds!
      Johnny: FUCK the Chaos Emeralds! I need to find Froggy!
    • He has sung parts of the Trololo song to the point that he does sound like, if not close to, Edward Khil.
    • However, the most popular and hilarious voices he has done thus far seems to be of Luigi. From Luigi's Mansion to the Mario Party live playthroughs to introducing the Super Mario Bros. movie and also to his livestream of New Super Luigi U, the jokes they come up with seem to be naturally funny
      Johhny: [as Luigi in Mario Party 2] Go ahead, go for it, go for it. I fucking dare you. I'm going to bash the shit out of the button. You can't hold Luigi (Ryan: NO!)! No one can hold Luigi! Luigi decides when Luigi goes or fails. Try it again. I dare you, I double dare you, motherfucker! YOU CAN'T GRAB LUIGI! Why aren't you going after the fucking monkey!? Your mother's a fucking ham sandwich!
      Johnny: [Luigi in Luigi's Mansion] Mario, are you in there?! Are you? Good. Stay there.
      Johnny: [Luigi in Mario Party 4] God, it's me Luigi. If you have any sense of reason, you will keep that ball away from the purple fuck that lives wit- FUCK YOU GOD, I disown you! I'm going to meet with Lucifer, first thing in the morning!
      Ted: [as Toad/Lucifer] You know I'm right here. We can talk right now if you want.
    • Spax. Unfortunately, every single one of them is ear raping and/or annoying.
  • The Many Deaths of You: Ted gets his ass kicked hard in The Legend of Zelda.
    • Ryan suffered this in the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels playthrough, considering he edited out a good number of his deaths.
    • Ryan dies a fair amount of times during Mirror's Edge. Causes of death include: Missing a jump, falling from a great height (or what the game thinks is a great height), gunfire, losing in melee combat, missing a QTE, and getting hit by a train. Keep in mind he was playing on easy mode.
  • Miles Gloriosus: Mere inches away from losing his final life (and the points he'd amassed throughout the game), Ryan cowardly hovers on the sidelines during the final boss battle of the multiplayer Turtles in Time Re-Shelled playthrough. He steals the last blow after all three other players wear the final boss down, celebrating his status as the designated winner.
    • Does it again on the Pokémon Crystal commentary when he brags that he (Gastly) was the reason why they defeated Miltank.
    • And again in the Pokémon Crystal commentary when he says that he (a Haunter this time) was why Ted defeated Poliwrath.
  • Mind Screw: Johnny and Ryan do this to Lewis during the The Lost Levels commentary when Lewis' video won't load, making up several things that are happening, including Bruce Lee coming on the screen for some reason.
  • More Dakka: Referenced at least twice in Resident Evil 4.
  • MST3K Mantra: Invoked by Clement's line, "It's A VIDEO GAME!", sums this trope up to a tee.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: The Sonic Genesis commentary begins with Johnny giving an Evil Laugh in sadistic glee for the hell he is about to put everyone through... until he suddenly starts desperately screaming "What are we doing? What are we doing!?"
  • Name and Name: According to Ted in FindTheComputerRoom's Skype Sanctuary, his username ExandShadow was based on what was originally a review show starring two characters Ex and Shadow (it was back when liking Shadow as a character without coming across as an unoriginal 12 year old was acceptable), but because he never uploaded the video, Ex and And were merged. This explains why Ted himself pronounces it as "Ex-and," while most others mispronounce it as "Eg-zand."
  • Never Learned to Read: TypingBlank, unfortunately, as he repeatedly stumbles through reading these tropes during the special episode.
  • Never My Fault: The entire crew gets a Game Over in Kirby's Return to Dream Land several times in level 7-2, with Ryan angrily blaming Ted for the fuck ups. While the entire team did share some parts of the blunders, Ted screwed up the most by rushing blindly into blocks that crush him or his teammates. Ted refused to admit that it was entirely his fault. But he did admit to sharing some of the blame. Important to note, this was one of the times the fanbase actually defended Ted.
  • Nice Guy: To Johnny, Ryan, Lewis, Clement, and Amanda. The BSC may be snarky and foul mouthed, but they are generally friendly and respectful to one another.
    • Additionally, midway of the BSC Smash 4 Direct impressions video, Amanda had began crying and John immediately turned it around for her by yelling her she has friends who support her.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: "Super Machine Gun Table Attack!"
  • No Indoor Voice: Elliot in the Scott Pilgrim commentary.
    • Kind of ironic, considering in several of Johnny's LPs, he sounds and comes across basically like a stoner more than anything else... not that he has ever gotten high.
    • Spax during the SNES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time commentary.
    • Amanda in the Shadow The Hedgehog commentary, or basically anything she is in.
    • Chuggaaconroy (no surprise there) in the Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament.
    • Everyone during Mario Party.
  • Nostalgia Filter: Both Ted and Amanda considered Shadow the Hedgehog okay when they first played it, but are now kicking themselves for ever liking it after the playthrough.
    • Nostalgia affects each member differently. It causes Ryan to have odd preferences (Super Mario 64 over Super Mario Galaxy, not caring for Super Mario All-Stars on Wii), Johnny to treat games more favorably overall (praise Yoshi's Island and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! greatly, despite being usually considered "meh"), Ted to do anything in his power to defend a game, even with glaring flaws, and to sometimes have a double standard (defending Sonic Adventure 2 and Pokémon Gen II tooth and nail, but bashing Sonic Lost World and Pokemon Gen IV, respectively, even though they share many of the same problems), and it causes Lewis to memorize games he played back then to the nth degree (Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and classic Sonic the Hedgehog games).
  • Not What It Looks Like: Ted near the end of Part 5 of the Sonic Colors commentary, the part where he "fangasms" multiple times towards Planet Wisp's music.
    Ted: Hold on guys, I've got to clean off my computer screen.
    Johnny: That's fucking disgusting! You had pants on!
    Ted: I spilled Coke on it guys, what were you thinking?
    Ryan and Al: Oh.
    Ted: I'm just not careful with my soda, that's all.
  • Non-Action Guy: Lewis falls into this nearly every time the group gets together to play a game; he doesn't play aggressively, gets himself defeated a lot, stays out of the fray most of the time, and tends to bumble his way through things. Lewis does sometimes win in competitive games, but usually due to sheer luck or mistakes made by the others.
  • Now, Buy the Merchandise: At the end of their Fifth Anniversary Look Back, they discuss the idea of selling merchandise. A popular one among the kids is "Brainscratch the Flamethrower".
Johnny: I hope they never fix this shit.
  • Oddball in the Series: Their Let's Plays of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ROM hack Sonic 2 The Lost Worlds and the Koumajou Densetsu games stick out for being their only Let's Plays dedicated to fan games instead of official or indie games.
  • Oh, No... Not Again!: During Ring Man's stage in Mega Man 4, Ryan repeatedly runs back and forth across the gaps to recharge Mega Man's health meter or farm lives. The rest of the crew and guests end up moaning in despair, fearing a retread of his Mega Man 3 fiasco. Fortunately, he doesn't really grind that long.
    • Deliberately invoked in the Mega Man 5 playthrough.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: The guys are convinced that Kirby is one.
  • Once per Episode: Lewis, Johnny, and Ryan make a shit ton of Sonic references.
  • One-Episode Wonder: The only playthroughs that have one part each are Tetris and Pokémon Black & Blue.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Johnny's real name is Juan, but everyone (including his brothers and Johnny himself) just say Johnny.
  • Only Sane Man: Lewis seems firmly rooted in reality, as he constantly nitpicks or rants about anything in games that wouldn't make any logical sense in the real world.
    Lewis: Why is the block flipping when we're just pushing it flat with our hands like this?
    Johnny: I'm just gonna have to ask you to shut up right now.
    • Ted seems to be following in his footsteps.
  • Original Character: Junkles and Knuckers from Sonic 3CD & Knuckles & Knuckles.
    • Pretzel Bag could also count for this, as well as the many incarnations of Biffalo.
    • Ted had two; Ex and Shadow... though they seem to have been lost to the ages.
  • Out of Order: The Sonic the Hedgehog commentaries, compared to other video game series where those are talked about in order of publication.
  • Overly Long Gag: Amanda screaming "WHAT THE FUCK!?" in response to Shadow the Hedgehog revealing that the titular character was made from the blood of the Big Bad. While the crew was losing their patience, Gareth pointed out that it wasn't funny when he did it.
  • Pet-Peeve Trope:
    • When it comes to co-op games, Ryan absolutely loathes griefing since he finds it incredibly annoying and stops the team's progress. He mentions his hate for griefing during the group's Super Mario 3D World run and asks the others to keep griefing to a minimum. Ryan also tells Johnny that he's glad that Matt (Johnny's friend) wasn't playing because he knew Matt would be griefing the entire time as he did in SGB's let's play of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. U.
    • Ted goes absolutely nuts whenever anyone blatantly ignores items or power-ups in the game since he believes that every item, no matter how little of a purpose they serve, all have some use and should be picked up. Ted gets on Johnny's case a lot for ignoring items during the Metroid Fusion commentary and he also gets annoyed in the The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask commentary when he hears Johnny and a few others don't bother collecting maps for the regions of Termina. Ted has been compared to Lewis with their kleptomania many times; Lewis collects everything in the game for the sake of collecting them while Ted collects stuff that are helpful to him, even if he won't ever use it.
    • Desert levels. Whenever a level that uses this trope shows up, one or all of the commentators will likely break into a tangent on how dull they are. Doubly so if it's the second world/area of a game as seen in a lot of Nintendo games.
      Lewis: And that's why I generally tend to lose interest in Nintendo games by the second world. I dislike desert themes.
  • The Perfectionist: Lewis, who tends to go after every ring he sees in both his Sonic 1 playthrough and during most of his recording of Sonic '06. Seems to have lightened up during his Knuckles run of Sonic 3 & Knuckles (besides getting perfects in special stages and amassing extra lives and continues).
  • Person as Verb: Pulling a Ted, which usually involves making a lame argument, and then telling someone to shut up when you can't defend them.
  • Poor Communication Kills: 90% of the entire reason for the deaths and frustrations in the Portal 2 Co-Op playthrough.
  • Pun-Based Title: At the insistence of Lewis, Ryan included a Star Wars intro crawl in the first part of the Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I commentary, titling the Episode, "The Fandom Menace."
  • Pungeon Master: Both Ted and ParanoiaSonik. Unlike the former, the latter makes some well timed puns in the Mega Man X3 commentary.
  • Punny Name: TypingBlank, or according to Pokémon Crystal, "Typing ".
    • Part 18 of Paper Mario playthrough the guys make a fuckton of Shy Guy puns.
  • Put on a Bus: Ted lampshades this during the Tetris commentary, saying now that Lewis is back he doesn't need to be there.
    • Played straight with Spax3 who hasn't been featured as a guest since Turtles in Time.
    • Lewis was gone during the Demon's Crest commentary, though according to Ted it was because he got sick and couldn't record.
    R-S 
  • Rage Breaking Point: Sonic Genesis was already infuriating Johnny with its slowdown, screwed momentum and screen-crunch, but when the game registers touching the side of one of the final boss's pillars as getting crushed (right after a cheap game over at that), that was the last straw...
  • Rapid-Fire Comedy: Most of the time when there isn't any silence going on. The best form was Ryan's "Captain's Logs" in Pikmin.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: Many people, even the commentators, thought that the Sonic Genesis videos were being manipulated by Johnny. They weren't. The game's just that slow, broken, and indecisive about its speed.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Johnny gives out these during the Portal 2 Co-op and Sonic Genesis play-through. The former due to being extremely boring (mostly because of Ryan and Lewis's dicking around) and the latter due to being a bastardization of the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
    • Johnny as Luigi gives one to Ryan as Wario during the crane game in Mario Party 2 after Ryan tries to grab him.
      Johnny (as Luigi): Go ahead, go for it, go for it. I fucking dare you. I'm going to bash the shit out of the button. You can't hold Luigi (Ryan: NO!)! No one can hold Luigi! Luigi decides when Luigi goes or fails. Try it again. I dare you, I double dare you, motherfucker! YOU CAN'T GRAB LUIGI! Why aren't you going after the fucking monkey!? Your mother's a fucking ham sandwich!
      • And then Wario finally grabbed him, but he still lost the minigame since Donkey Kong (Ted) was still there.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Johnny and Ted are both the red to Ryan and Lewis' blue.
    • Inverted in the older videos. Ryan was the red to Johnny's blue with Lewis in-between.
    • Whenever they're in the same commentary, Gareth is the red to Clement's blue.
  • Retroactive Wish: Inverted. Anytime Johnny talks about a game he once played before that he loves/hates, the viewers will immediately ask him if he can record it for a commentary. Discussed in the Touhouvania commentary.
  • The Rival: Hilariously in Mario Party 4 and Mario Party 3, Ryan's Waluigi is the rival of Johnny's Luigi.
  • Rule 34: An obvious joke that Lewis in particular exploited whenever possible. One example occurred during the Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels) commentary.
    Lewis: Let's see... furry porn, veggie porn, munitions porn, weather porn, and now... uh, fire porn?
    Johnny: Wait, why fire porn? Who mentioned fire porn? How do you fuck fire?!
    • Revisited again by FTA on Mega Man 8 during the Grenade Man mid-boss battle.
      Gareth: There are people who legally marry horses, but that's not nearly as fucked up as robot porn.
    • At the end of the LeafGreen commentary, when Amanda hesitates to admit that she prefers Platinum to the Gen I remakes out of concern for what Ted thinks, Johnny tells her to fuck what he thinks and express herself. This begins a conversation about whether or not fucking an abstract concept like a thought is actually possible, and they presume that some hentai exists for it.
  • Running Gag: Certain gags and themes show up repeatedly across a number of videos, such as Johnny's Old Shame, or Lewis and his constant Sonic references.
    • "Shut up" whenever Ted is losing an argument, most notable in the Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric commentary.
    • Someone pausing the game as they die, leading another to say "pausing won't save you": see Call-Back above.
    • An outburst of the word "NUCLEAR!" whenever there's a quibble about pronunciation.
    • Lewis and his arguments with some guy on the Sonic Retro forums comes up a lot.
    • "EAT A SNAKE!"
    • The legacy of Biffalo in all his/its incarnations.
    • Starting in the Pokémon Crystal commentary, anytime someone is interrupted by a phone call or some other third party (usually happens to Ted), the group (mainly Ryan,) pretends that the Pokémon Fan Club President is harassing him on the phone, rambling about his Rapidash.
    • In the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night commentary, whenever something doesn't make sense, Johnny says it's okay cause "This castle is a creature of chaos, it may take many incarnations."
    • Ted adding Sonic's Final Smash shout from Super Smash Bros. Brawl almost every time the move Supersonic is used in the Pokemon Crystal commentary.
    • Ted naming the Pokémon he catches and intends to use during a Pokémon playthrough after various members of the group. It should be noted that every time he does this, Johnny gets pissed off.
      Johnny: You made ME a FUCKING YELLOW RAT?

      Johnny: You made ME a FUCKING BUG?
    • Whenever an Electrode is encountered, Guile's Theme from Street Fighter plays. A soundbite of Guile saying "Sonic Boom" whenever Electrode or any Pokémon that knows the move uses it is also used.
    • Whenever Arceus is brought up, Ted or Ryan will usually joke about the struggle Game Freak probably faced coming up with legendaries after establishing one as God of the series.
      Ted/Ryan: Pokemon Gen 5... fuck...
    • Johnny bringing up that they canceled the Devil May Cry 4 playthrough during the Portal 2 Co-op while bored out of his mind.
    • Lewis bringing up Naruto during the Final Fantasy 6 commentary.
    • Wario World: "I got a million dollar contract."
    • "Captain's Log. Stardate: Now."
    • On The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Ryan inserting clips of Grooseward Gourd in when cutting or when someone hits on Link.
    • "It's magic! Ooh! With whimsy!"
    • Lewis bringing up Persona seems to have become this since Sonic Riders.
    • The Jesus Barrel in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
    • Ryan blaming Ted for everything in Kirby's Return to Dream Land.
      Ryan: You don't deserve that!
    • Ryan saying "D'oh!" in the style of Wario every time the character he's playing as gets injured or messes up in both Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Mario Party 2. YMMV, but some might call this one an Overused Running Gag...though arguably, it's not quite as overused as "D'oh, I missed!".
    • During the Final Fantasy VI commentary, they almost always shout a character's name (due to it being in all caps by default). Early in the playthrough, they even state that it will likely be the running gag for that run.
    • Throughout the playthrough of Resident Evil 4: Wii edition, whenever somebody made a particularly terrible joke, pun or innuendo, Johnny would follow it up with The Fozzie Laugh.
    • Ryan and Johnny frequently reference older TV shows and other things from their childhood, which tend to go over the head of Ted (who is younger than both of them). This prompts Ryan to exclaim "Kiiiiiiid!" while Johnny bemoans how old this makes him feel.
      Johnny: Ted, I just felt a little bit of hair fall off of my head!
    • In Metroid Prime, Johnny enforced one in that they have to make Samus think to herself in the elevators.
    • Lava Levels Legitimatize Long Lengths of Loquacious ... uhhh ... Alliteration.
    • Lewis having issues with YouTube throughout the recording of the Paper Mario commentary. Lewis having issues with YouTube in general.
    • Ted asking Ryan what the "strange contraptions" in 90's movies are, like pay phones and landlines.
    • Christopher Walken.
    • The incomparable Ronald Raquel.
    • Whenever Lewis's call randomly drops, we get: "Lewis? Lewis! Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiissssssssss!!!!!!!"
    • "UNLIMITED POWAH!!"
    • Ted saying he can't play games on Steam or his PS3 because he needs to play Paper Mario: TTYD again.
    • Ted singing "Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions".
    • Ted's TV.
    • This seems to be a favorite style of Ryan, who will often repeat the same word or joke over and over again until he gets a reaction, and sometimes continues after that.
    • Ryan unfavorably comparing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword to pretty much anything throughout recent playthroughs, much to the fanbase's anger. The frequency of this happening was even acknowledged and played off as a joke by FTA during the 'Sonic Boom' commentary.
    • The Lewis Call has recently become one, as has The Clement Call (which is the theme to Dudley-Do Right).
    • Gack!
    • In the Rayman Legends let's play, whenever the group goes downward in a vertical section, Johnny attempts to speedrun the section by diving down ahead of everyone while shouting "HYPE!".
  • Sanity Slippage: The entire F-Zero GX commentary due to the lack of things to commentate about.
    • Before that was the infamous Mega Man 3 part 7-8, where, due to Ryan's almost nonexistent editing skills at the time, had Mega Man grinding weapon energy for two parts. This caused Lewis to hallucinate drawing magic. Thankfully, Ryan has learned from this experience and has begun editing more often.
      Lewis: "Come on Squall, you almost have enough death spells to be immune to level 5 death forever! Draw! DRAW!"
    • Johnny suffers this in the Portal 2 co-op commentary for the same reasons as the F-Zero GX commentary. He even "breaks" at one pointnote  due to Lewis and Ryan's screwing up on a somewhat simple puzzle.
    • Johnny also suffers some by the end of Sonic Genesis.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: A Running Gag, mostly done by Ryan in Resident Evil 4.
    "SWIPE! SWIPE! SWIPE!"
  • Say My Name: Played for Laughs during the Final Fantasy VI commentary, where the GUYS would keep SHOUTING the characters' NAMES because they were CAPITALIZED.
    • This also appears in the video where they read IGN's Top 100 RPGs list with their repeated cries of "LEWIS!" whenever a game comes up that they know nothing about but him.
  • The Scrappy: Invoked by Ryan, who immediately referred to TypingBlank as such at the beginning of the Mirror's Edge commentary.
  • Seinfeldian Conversation: Various instances have the commentators lead into these things, or have them so bored that they end up here anyways.
    • In Sonic Rush, they start talking about the music in the game, and eventually it delved into how Ted likes to sleep on his side. Comically, in the same stage in Blaze's story, they talk about wearing high heeled shoes.
    • Portal 2 Co-Op is littered with these.
    • In part 12 of the Luigi's Mansion commentary, the crew goes on a tangent about Trick-or-Treating and Fast food restaurants of all things.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: During the crew's round of Mario Party 3 in Momocon 2018, Lewis and Ted were beating Ryan and Johnny, with Lewis gaining a considerable lead in stars. For years, Ryan would always be the one who won the Mario Party sessions, but Lewis taking the lead generated a lot of excitement from the viewers. After a few parts, the game suddenly freezes and effectively kills the game for everyone. Some viewers joke that the game glitched out simply because Waluigi (Ryan) was losing and was going against the status quo. What makes the whole thing worse was Ted insisting in the first part that they didn't need to have the game save after every turn.
  • Shipper on Deck: During an interview with Sonic Paradox, the crew found out that the viewers had shipped Ted with Amanda, Ted with Lewis, Johnny with Lewis, and Johnny with Ryan. They were not only disturbed by the pairings, but also by the fact that their fans were shipping real people.
    • During the same interview, Johnny questioned why pairings in the internet are called ships, giving Lewis an interesting idea.
      Lewis: From now on shipping will be known as boating. I boat Naruto×Hinata!"
  • Shout-Out: brentalfloss, Hellfire Commentaries, Big Al, Clement, The Nostalgia Critic... this list could go on.
    • And of course, the numerous (for a while pretty much once a video) Sonic references.
    • A shout-out to Junkles was made by Ryan during the Sonic CD commentary (after a stutter of words by Lewis).
    • Ted and Johnny in Part 3 of the Metroid Fusion commentary mentioned two particular lines from the Dig Dug episode of Sonic for Hire.
      Ted: Now we can go rape that village!
      Johnny: Yay, monster rape!
    • The guys bring up Chuggaaconroy a lot during Pokemon Crystal, Pikmin, and Super Mario Sunshine.
    • Johnny will sometimes quote someone who commented on the RAWs (Which sadly won't happen anymore due to copyright stringency).
    • The constant use of clips from Ukinojoe's Groose: Grooseword Gourd in Ocarina of Time.
  • Sir Swears Alot: Big Al and Matt.
    • Johnny can be pretty foul-mouthed at times, as well...but so can everyone in the group.
      • In fact, of all the people involved for the commentary of Sonic Genesis, Johnny is the most aggressive about its poor quality, swearing left and right. One wonders just how vulgar he'd be if he had to record Ghosts 'n Goblins.
  • The Smart Guy: Ryan. Oftentimes he will bring up a scientific explanation to whatever topic is at hand, such as Spike being able to survive in space due to internal pressure. He has stated the only class he ever failed was Programming (or coding, whatever), implying that he survived Calculus with one of The Four Horsemen of Georgia Tech.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Amanda is the only female member of the BrainScratch crew, if only a frequently used guest. This reached a head when there was a period that she seemed to be brought in for EVERYTHING, leading some fans to assume that they were bringing her in JUST to have a girl.
    • Lampshaded in the Pokémon Crystal playthrough, where the last Pokémon captured, a Skarmory, is nicknamed "The Girl".
    • Averted in the Pokémon Y First Impressions video where Amanda appears with MasaeAnela together.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Tropes: The Sliding Scale of Lewis to Not-Lewis.
  • So Unfunny, It's Funny: Johnny says that Ted's terrible puns are amusing to him in the Pikmin commentary.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Part 19 of the Ocarina of Time commentary has the music during the fight against Phantom Ganon replaced with the cheery and upbeat music from Mario Golf/Tennis to go along with Ryan's "tennis racquet" weapon.
  • So You Were Saying...?: Lewis makes a solid argument about Super Mario 64's power-ups being highly situational and gimmicky, only for Ryan to completely ignore him by pointing out the goofy music (the theme played in the Vanish Cap cavern) played during his rant.
    • Again this happens when Lewis tries to explain about the CGI cutscenes involving the Xbox 360 port of Sonic Adventure, Johnny interrupts him remarking at how slow Dr. Robotnik is crashing down near Tails.
    • Also, the name of this trope is also played straight and inverted in many commentaries when they are recording many parts in a row, usually done by Lewis.
      Lewis: As I was saying before the end of the last part.
  • Spork: Catchphrase used in some of the earlier videos. It didn't catch on.
  • Squee: Ryan has one at the start of Metroid Prime.
    • The Adam West Batman skin for Batman: Arkham City, as well.
  • The Stinger: After the closing of their discussion on Momocon 2016, the video ends with a video of the group headbopping to the Mario Party 2 menu theme, hinting at another board playthrough of the game.
  • Story Arc: In the Tails portion of the Sonic Adventure playthrough, during the flashback of Tails meeting Sonic for the first time in part 10. The gang quickly comes up of a story of how Sonic had stolen a penny that he, Tails, himself found.
    Ryan: Angst, angst, oax, angst.
    Lewis: Sadness, more angst. Oh, a penny. [Sonic then runs past in front of Tails]
    Ryan: And now it's gone.
    Johnny: He took my penny, that was my penny! Hey! I'm talking to you! I didn't think he heard me. I'm gonna chase that fucker. [Tails begins following Sonic smiling] My penny! Gimme back my penny! It was mine!
    Lewis: I saw it first!!
    Johnny: HEY! YOU BLUE FUCKER!
    Lewis: Sonic, your shoes are untied!
    Ryan and Lewis: I don't have shoelaces, you dipshit.
    Johnny: [the flashback ends] We completely shitted on that flashback.
    • And later in the Sonic Colors commentary:
      Ryan: You still owe me that penny, Sonic, so the bet is mute. I mean moot.
    • Culminates in the Wario World commentary, where Tails' missing penny prevents Wario's castle from being as much as Mario's million dollar contract.
    • "The Not-Lewis Chronicles", named after a set of commentaries that Lewis never appeared in. They ended in Part 3 starting at the Pokémon LeafGreen Commentary.
    • Not exactly Story Arcs but everything before Metroid Fusion could be considered the Classic-Era Brainscratch as that was the game which started the trend of generally more um... "professional" commentaries.
      "I prefer classic Johnny. He had hair."
  • Stuff Blowing Up: When Johnny beats the Omega Metroid in Metroid Fusion, he starts to shoot missiles at random places when waiting for the ending to start, while everybody is chanting "BLOW SHIT UP, BLOW SHIT UP, BLOW SHIT UP!"
  • Suddenly Voiced: They will give any inanimate object, creature, or silent character a voice.
    Ryan: Wait a second, why did I give the bug creatures from Resident Evil 4 a voice?
    Johnny: Why did I give the Metal Box a personality?
  • Suckiness Is Painful: Ted actually got a headache (yes, a real one) from the Sonic Genesis commentary. So did several of the viewers; the screen crunch, horrible frame rate, and randomly disappearing/reappearing objects/backgrounds are akin to the Virtual Boy in how they assault a person's eyes.
  • Suspiciously Similar Songinvoked: The group finds one to "Take On Me" in TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan.
    T-Z 
  • Take That!: Everyone likes to take jabs at each other either by the commentator's gameplay or whatever they said. Ryan seems to be a target of this; however, he shrugs it off and tells them to "shut the fuck up".
    • The entire commentary for Sonic the Hedgehog: The Lost Worlds is one big Take That against it (and other similar ROM hacks) for its amateur design.
    • Guest commentator NTom64 takes a potshot at Egoraptor in Part 13 of the The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask commentary.
    • Ted in the The Legend of Zelda playthrough compares the Book of Magic item (which makes the Magic Rod gain a fireball effect) to The Twilight Saga, prompting Lewis to say that it explains a whole lot.
  • Talk About the Weather: Parodied by Ryan's "How about that local sports team?", coined during the F-Zero GX commentary, to which Lewis responded "No! I hate sports!"
  • That Came Out Wrong: Lewis during Part 1 of the Sonic: The Lost Worlds commentary.
    Ryan: There you go again, right next to the checkpoint.
    Lewis: Well it doesn't matter, I have a portable checkpoint in my pants.
    Johnny: ...I'm sorry, did you just say that out loud?
    Lewis: I didn't mean what you think I meant.
  • That One Level: In-Universe, Ryan cannot stand "Imperial Academy Heist". Mainly due to how hard and unfair it is. It got to the point where he got a game over near the end of the level and decided to skip it claiming that Wedge came back to life via the force due to him being important to the plot.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: During Captain Falcon's entrance on Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Ryan edited in the song "The Meaning of Truth", the theme song from the F-Zero Anime, along with the galaxy size explosion.
    • This was used again during the boss fight against the Blue Falcon in their Shadow the Hedgehog playthrough. The episode was named after the song and also had a parody of the anime's ending cutscene at the end of the video.
    • Subscriber Runner Guitar has been working on an "Un Official" Soundtrack for the group under the name "BRAIN Dead and Reborn", but as of the time of this trope being written, they have not been used on any video yet. Though Johnny has hinted about making an intro using his own theme.
    • He seems to also be doing some live arrangements if said tracks with real instruments, since he believed the original versions were not good enough and the group deserved better.
  • There Are No Girls on the Internet: As it turns out, this trope plus The Internet Is for Porn equals a whole lot of Squick.
    Gareth: Aw man. Awwww mannnn. AWWWWWW MAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!
  • The Quiet One: Lewis during the crew's play through of Kirby's Return to Dream Land. The rest of the crew lampshaded how Lewis was unusually quiet most of the time and Lewis stated he was very focused on playing the game since he can't play and talk at the same time without screwing up. This also happens during many other commentaries. If the group is commentating over a game that Lewis is indifferent to, he comes off as very tired or bored, and often goes whole parts only speaking once or twice (often just an apathetic "yup,") or not speaking at all. Subverted, however, when they're discussing games he likes. In these cases, Lewis is MUCH more lively and talkative, often dominating the entire conversation.
    • TypingBlank becomes this in Super Mario Sunshine.
      Lewis: HE SPEAKS! HE SPEAKS!
    • Ryan seems to be becoming this in more recent commentaries. Lampshaded by Gareth in the Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric playthrough.
  • Third-Person Person: Almost every time he posts a channel comment with their joint YouTube account, Lewis forgets to sign his name as part of the comment. He then remembers, comes back, and adds an additional comment reading "...said Solaris" to clarify who posted the comment.
    • Ted appears to have done this as well.
    • So has Johnny, once in a while; though his writing style tends to give it away anyways.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: The boys open the Sonic '06 commentary this way. Nearly every part of the commentary has moaning in the description.
    • They weren't too thrilled about playing Shadow the Hedgehog, either.
      Ted: (starting off chipper) Hey guys! It's that... *sighs* (normal voice) I can't even pretend to sound enthusiastic. Here's Shadow the fucking Hedgehog.
      Johnny: (bitterly) Oh boy! It's the one a lot of you have been waiting for! ...You sick assholes.
    • Every episode of the Sonic Genesis Commentary.
  • Token Nonhuman: Pretzel Bag, Biffalo, Sterrence... the list goes on.
  • Took a Level in Badass: When the guys played Mario Party 2 and 4, Lewis was quite bad, ending usually in dead last and making some pretty big mistakes (he won the first board of 2 purely to dumb luck) and most of his Stars were hidden block rewards. Come Mario Party 3, Lewis is FAR more competent and aggressive, and takes second place twice (he'd have won one of them if not for a bit of bad luck), with nearly all of his Stars being earned (including a nicely-done bit of stealing Ted's coins with a Bowser Suit and buying a Star on the same turn thanks to a high roll).
  • Top Ten List: The guys frequently read aloud and make fun of IGN's "Top Whatever Lists", as well as other types of lists, such as from Nintendo Power's final issue.
  • Tropes Are Not Bad: Ted references this in response to Lewis ranting that he is not a character.
    Ted: Tropes are-Tropes Are Not Bad, Lewis...which is, ironically, another trope.
  • True Companions: John states during the Sonic 06: Very Hard Mission video that he considers the crew the greatest friends he has ever made.
  • Un Evil Laugh: Ted. Lampshaded by Ryan.
    Ryan: You need to work on your evil laughter.
  • Unsound Effect: In the Castlevania: Rondo of Blood commentary, Johnny took the liberty of adding subtitles to the cutscenes. In the very first cutscene, when a woman screams after being sacrificed, the subtitles read "*woman screaming*".
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Iwasaperson seems to be the least interested in the So Bad, It's Good cutscenes during Link: The Faces of Evil.
  • Verbal Tic: Ted has "If that makes any sense," which is said whenever he is done with an explanation (which often derail into rambles after a certain point,) and isn't sure if it made sense (obviously).
    • Johnny has "X did so many things right for me" and "the definitive version," the former of which is said whenever he goes on about a game, movie, etc. that he is particularly fond of. The latter is used whenever John talks about what he believes is the best version of a game or movie (obviously,) and is also used a lot to the same effect on his main review channel.
    • In his own reviews, Johnny also has "*noun* itself/himself/herself." This is more of a scripting habit, and not something he says without thinking.
    • Also, Johnny going "OHH!" in his Christopher Walken voice. He admitted in the Crash Bandicoot 2 playthrough that it's becoming a habit.
    • Ryan's small chuckle when he finishes a sentence.
    • Lewis says "Oh man." a lot.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: The playthrough of New Super Mario Bros. Wii has Toad always being thrown into enemies or pits.
  • Walking Disaster Area: The guys theorize that Samus is this, seeing as how pretty much every planet or ship she lands on ends up exploding. Whenever someone points out that Tallon IV didn't explode, Ryan adds "Yet..."
  • Watch It Stoned: The painkillers Johnny needed to take, after a trip to the emergency room, caused for some... questionable content during the F-Zero GX commentary.
  • We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: In part 4 of Sonic 4: Episode II commentary , Ted's Skype screws up a lot leading to him often not being able to finish his sentences several times. This episode is appropriately titled "Ted Vs Skype (Round 38)".
    • Johnny and Clement's Skype screw up a lot during the Mega Man 6 commentary, leading to one part of it to be called "The Worst Part Ever".
    • In fact, this has happened so often that it's sort of become a Running Gag (especially for Lewis).
  • We Cannot Go On Without You: Ryan hosts and records all of the Skype chats, so him dropping out will cause the crew to start all over the part they were in.
    • In the 12/19/13 livestream, it's decided for each Project M match that whoever loses first will be replaced by someone else in the next match... except for Johnny, who needs to be in every match because he's the one recording them for the stream!
  • We Want Our Jerk Back!: A lot of the fans were missing Lewis from the commentaries after his computer crashed.
    • And after Lewis vanished from most of Pokémon Crystal and both Mega Man 7/X3, this happened again.
    • And again when Lewis wasn't part of Metroid Fusion, Mega Man 8, Sonic Colors, Sonic Genesis, and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.
  • Wham Line: The reactions of Ryan, Clement, Ted, and Paranoiasonik when Johnny said he preferred Mega Man X6 to Mega Man X3. (Especially Clement.)
    • The reactions of everyone in the Mike Pollock interview, when Mike said that he did a lot of hentai voicework early on.
    • Their reactions of FTA's preference of Shadow the Hedgehog to Sonic Heroes.
    • The rest of the crew's reaction when Ted mentions that he never tried a Twinkie.
    • Lewis casually admitting that he's never played Super Mario World during the Super Mario Bros. 3 playthrough.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: In the fifth part of the Sonic Genesis commentary, Ted reveals to everyone his superpower: Physically making people unable to open food wrappers.
    • According to him, it was either that or stairway beams (which would have been only slightly more useful, as Ryan points out.)
      Ryan: So, what would my incredibly useless power be?
      Ted: I dunno.
      Johnny: Climb ladders faster.
    • He also has the power to give back three seconds of anyone's time by shooting exploding magical timey-wimey energy out of his body to everyone hearing him at the moment.
    • Ted also says that he somehow earns useless powers a frequent rate, but he only had use for a couple of them.
  • What the Hell, Parents?: The boys' response to the revelation that kids are watching their videos.
  • What the Hell, Player?: Ted is prone to saying this to Ryan/Johnny when they're killing innocent enemies who weren't doing anything to them. The usual response is, "They're in my way".
    • They also get on Johnny's case for defeating Legendary Pokémon instead of capturing them, as well as a Shiny Tentacool Johnny encounters outside of Cerulean Cave. note 
    • The entire The Legend of Zelda playthrough becomes this after Johnny reveals that the bet he made with Ted (that Ted would earn his Month of Pokemon 2 if he beat the first Zelda without savestates) was nothing more than John screwing with Ted; he was going to do a Month of Pokemon 2 anyways.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: In the intro cutscene of the Sonic Riders Hero story, the gang wonders why the Babylon Rogues don't just run over Sonic and friends.
    • In the F-Zero GX commentary, when Samurai Goroh challenges Captain Falcon, Lewis lampshades this.
      Lewis: Just run them over!
  • A Winner Is You: Invoked in part 4 of Wario World, where Ted claims that Banjo-Tooie is the origin of the Hailfire Peaks trope, while the other commentators say that it's only the Trope Namer. Turns out Ted was right, though, and he proceeds to state "A winner is me" in victory. Although, as he later pointed out in one of the TV Tropes readings, Ted was actually WRONG.
    • Played with in Paper Mario when the guys bet on when Lewis' Skype will drop again, Ted wins as soon as Johnny loses and states "A WinRAR is me!".
  • A Wizard Did It: According to Johnny and Ryan, this is the undeniable answer of how Batman does the millions of illogical things throughout Batman: Arkham Asylum.
    • On similar logic, the reason that the bad guys started to dance with Michael Jackson in Moonwalker is because he's Michael Jackson.
  • Writing Around Trademarks: Lampshaded in their E3 2014 discussion when talking about the relation between Destiny and Halo (both made by Bungie studios, and Microsoft has the Halo trademark).
    Ted (to Johnny): So if Retro came up and announced Schmetroid Schmime, how would you feel?
  • You Monster!: Johnny's reaction when Ted reveals he wouldn't mind being reincarnated as a Tapeworm.
    • Ted's reaction when Lewis wonders if Pikmin can be baked and eaten like carrots.
    • Ted's reaction to Johnny for revealing that he killed the dog in his personal playthrough of Shantae, and in the sequel, it is in the underworld. Subverted on Ryan, he knew he could do it, but he loves dogs, so he didn't during his time.
  • You're Insane!: Everyone's response to Gareth claiming that Shadow the Hedgehog's Lost Impact is his favorite level in the game.
  • Zerg Rush: Ted's favorite method of disposing with larger enemies in the Pikmin commentary.

Johnny: So, this TV Tropes shit is ruining my life.
Lewis: Oh, it's the end of the part.

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