Join the Pizza Time Pizza family today!
"Pizza Time Pizza is not a cult."
There's a new pizza restaurant in town, and unlike Papa John's and Pizza Hut, they are not a cult. They use fresh, homegrown ingredients, and there is a 100% chance that you will die if you do not consume some of their delicious pizza today. All the missing people you may have heard about have nothing to do with them. Join the Pizza Time Pizza family today and kill your parents. Kill your parents. Kill your parents.
Pizza Time Pizza is a Black Comedy about a strange pizza place that is definitely not a cult, starting as a series of bizarre ads before growing into a story. It includes a separate website with secret videos and some Leaning on the Fourth Wall here and there. The series was made by Alex Bale, a YouTube filmmaker who mainly produces Black Comedy shorts. He would later go on to develop the Sponge Bob Conspiracy series.
The series playlist can be found here
and the website is here.
These tropes are not a cult:
- Ancient Evil: The Pizza Man is hinted to be this. There's no telling just how long he has been jumping hosts.
- Anti-Humor: The signature early humor, in line with Alex Bale's usual comedic work.
- Arc Number: 14, which tends to pop up in secret videos. The implication is this is how many people have been killed when The Ascension finally occurs.
- Arc Symbol: The eye in a hand. It's a symbol that's appeared previously in Alex Bale's other videos, but it finally has significance here. It's the symbol that The Pizza Man makes in his host's hand to jump bodies.
- Big Bad: The Pizza Man is this. He is the founder and leader and worshipped being of Pizza Time Pizza and reason for the events of Promos as he possessed Alex.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Julian becomes the new host for The Pizza Man and Alex is killed. One secret video also reveals the cult has a massive freak out when The Pizza Man abandons them.
- Bad Liar: Pizza Time Pizza ads are very bad at making you think they're not a cult. Averted in-universe as people just think it's viral irony marketing.
- Blood Magic: The Pizza Man carves an eye in the host's hand for the host jump spell, suggesting the current host bleeding is necessary for the spell to work.
- The Cameo: Jodi and Austin as illusions in Alex's mind in Pizza Time Pizza 8 and 9.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to Alex Bale's previous full series Promos.
- Dark Parody: Most pizza commercials don't end with a voice telling you to kill your parents.
- Death as Comedy: A few videos play with this, most notably the Halloween message.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The title is this, as it uses the word "pizza" twice.
- Enemy Within: The Pizza Man is some sort of entity that needs to exist alongside a human host. It acts as a dark reflection of the host, even taking some of their personality traits and skills as its own.
- Evil Wears Black: The Pizza Man, being Alex's Superpowered Evil Side and responsible for the entire conflict of the series, starting the titular group, wears a black shirt in Alex's mind.
- Faux Affably Evil:
- The adverts for Pizza Time Pizza show the Pizza Man as nice and someone to be idolised, hiding the group's true nature as a cult.
- The Pizza Man in person has moments of this. He talks with Julian normally for the most of Pizza Time Pizza 8, before noting that if Julian doesn't stay out of his business, he will kill him and everyone he cares about.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Pizza Time Pizza 4, which introduces a proper story through live-action segments following a girl named Jessica O'Brien trying to join Pizza Time Pizza. The rest of the series has segments like this.
- Gory Discretion Shot: In Pizza Time Pizza 10, after The Pizza Man jumps hosts from Alex to Julian, Julian, under the control of the Pizza Man, shoots Alex, resulting in a few drops of blood splattering Julian's face.
- Hearing Voices: A ruse by the cult leader to make his followers think he speaks for The Pizza Man. The irony is that Alex really does hear the voice of The Pizza Man, but it's The Pizza Man himself doing the ruse.
- Hope Crusher: In order to keep them loyal and stomp out any rebellious thoughts, The Pizza Man does this to Noah by pressuring him into killing Jessica, and Julian to see if he would kill of his own free will and make a suitable host by teasing him with Jessica's death.
- Horror Comedy: Starts out comedic, being a parody of Pizza adverts that makes fun of all the tropes, but slowly becomes more and more horror-based, with the final episode being entirely serious.
- Insane Troll Logic: A common tactic of the cult and The Pizza Man, making random points that claim to prove Pizza Time Pizza is not a cult, such as that Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer and that a hat is both not a cult and not Pizza Time Pizza.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Jessica is killed to punish Alex for his disobedience and trying to reveal The Pizza Man through Julian.
- Kill the Host Body: Julian tries this on Alex's request. Turns out The Pizza Man foresaw this and didn't put any bullets in the gun.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Pizza Man made an entire response video to YouTuber Inside A Mind, who covered the series.
- Madness Mantra: In one of the last secret videos, some of the cult members start wildly typing "IT'S NOT A CULT!" over and over.
- Mark of the Beast: The eye in the hand. It represents The Pizza Man, who carves an eye in the current host's hand in order to jump into a new host.
- Mood Whiplash: In episode three. After two people talk about being friends, one of them mentions that some missing people are nothing to do with Pizza Time Pizza, worrying the other person. They then continue talking about having fun.
- Returning Big Bad:
- Alex from Promos, who previously was a Villain Protagonist kidnapper that was placed in jail at the end of the series, returns as the Pizza Man's host in this series.
- The Reveal:
- Pizza Time Pizza 6 reveals this is a sequel to Promos, both series sharing the same protagonist and antagonist.
- Pizza Time Pizza 9 reveals Alex is possessed by The Pizza Man, an evil entity which may have been responsible for some of his more extreme actions in Promos.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Jessica O'Brien. She is indoctrinated by the cult, goes missing and then returns in Episode 7 to get killed to prove Noah's loyalty to the Pizza Man.
- Split-Personality Merge: Played With. The implication in this series is that Alex was being influenced by one in the past during Promos, but the two weren't entirely separate, meaning they split later. It takes time for The Pizza Man to take over a host entirely, unless they're willing to kill of their own free will.
- Split-Personality Takeover:
- Alex allowed The Pizza Man to take over to save him from dying in prison. He now has trouble regaining control.
- By series end, it seems that The Pizza Man completely takes over Julian, being a host that's willing to kill of its own will.
- Stealth Sequel: To Promos. At first it seems to be a new series, but Julian, the Hero Antagonist of that show, appears as the main protagonist of Episode 6, before it's revealed the Pizza Man is Alex Bale, the Villain Protagonist of Promos.
- Stylistic Suck: The Pizza Man's avatar is a stock photo with the water marks left in, which helps sell their ads as purposefully bad viral marketing.
- Surreal Horror: Mostly Downplayed,But gradually increases in surrealism as the videos progress
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Pizza Time Pizza 3 features a segment with a song that explains how Pizza Time Pizza is not a cult, being extremely insistent on that fact, also mentioning that some missing people are nothing to do with them.
- Villain-Possessed Bystander: The case for Joseph Goodwin. He was possessed by the Pizza Man, before kidnapping Alex so he can be possessed by the Pizza Man. He has no significance besides that, and to show that the Pizza Man jumps from hosts to hosts in a specific way.
- Wham Episode:
- Pizza Time Pizza 6, featuring Julian as the main protagonist, revealing that the series is a Stealth Sequel to that show, and revealing the Pizza Man's identity as Alex from that show, both further cementing it as a stealth sequel and revealing who the main villain is.
- Pizza Time Pizza 10, where it is revealed that Alex is possessed by the Pizza Man, who jumps from host to host in a specific fashion. It also reveals the meaning of the eye hand symbol and ends the series on a cliffhanger as the Pizza Man jumps to Julian.
- Xanatos Gambit: If his second host (Julian) managed to escape, The Pizza Man would still have a cult at his disposal, plus it wouldn't be hard to keep the other one in line. It would just be a minor setback as he went looking for a replacement, assuming the Ascension isn't time sensitive.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Alex is shot and killed after The Pizza Man jumps to Julian, with him no longer being needed as his only role was to be a host for the Pizza Man.
