Web Video / Sandwich Family

Sandwich Family is an ongoing satirical drama series by Caroline Easom. The first video of the series was uploaded on December 1st, 2023.

The series follows the family behind the fictional family vlog channel, The Sandwich Family, and takes a sledgehammer to the concept of that type of channel. It shows the dark reality behind that type of production and the effect it takes on our protagonist, Lil Sandwich, who is a 6-year-old boy with a lisp played by a 13-year-old girl. His siblings are the Six Sandwich Sisters: Snazzy^note Rebecca, the "entertainer", Sunny^note Emily, who edits, Smiley^note Ella, who attends beauty pageants, Skippy^note Kate, the prankster, Silly^note Eliza, the sick one and... oh, that's it.

The series received acclaim across the internet for calling out the often-abusive practices of family vlog channels. Eastom, the writer, director, and sole actor was featured on ABC News to discuss the series.

This series contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Mrs. Sandwich. Where to begin?
  • Even before the channel took off, she was implied as very controlling, seeing as how an only 11-year-old Sasha had to nervously ask if she could ask a question before saying anything.
  • And then, the channel started. She forced Sarah Grace to humiliate herself as Lil Sandwich, making her pretend to be a 6-year-old incontinent boy with a lisp as a teenaged girl, spread misinformation and slandered Sasha's character after she left and attempted to speak up about the conditions, baited sympathy by forcing react videos out of the Delicate and Sickly Silly, forced Smiley (intentionally or not) to hide her homosexuality with the First Date series, and made Skippy out as a Jerkass prankster when she really came up with the prank ideas, to name a few.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The Six Sandwich Sisters: Snazzy, Sunny, Smiley, Skippy, Silly, and Sasha.
• Adults Are Useless: Subverted, for the most part. In a series with so much of the focus on the Abusive Parents aspect, the other adults in this series are pretty competent.
  • The babysitter was able to get to Lil Sandwich and tell her the news about Sasha.
  • The doctor, while originally not listening to Silly, was able to diagnose her with Lupus and stand up to Mrs. Sandwich.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  Emily: And the best part is we're gonna be set for years when we turn 18 and get our portion of everything we've made on the channel, and we've made a lot on this channel!
  Sarah Grace: But you've been 18 for a while now. You're 23, Emily.
  • Also, this one from later on:
  Mom: That money benefits you [Emily] too, you know. Do you want to go back to eating bologna sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner again?
  Emily: Yeah. If it meant I could have you back, I would have bologna sandwiches for the rest of my life.
• Author Appeal: Caroline Easom has spoken out against family vlog channels much like the Sandwich Family before, and it's an issue she's very passionate about.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • There are a few episodes in a row after Sasha's reveal that focus around Sarah Grace's interaction with her sisters, and it has a good share of these moments.
  • Silly coming to talk to Sarah Grace before she leaves to live with Sasha, too.
• Beauty Contest: Smiley does pageants, which means she gets to act her real age as they check her birth certificate there.
• Believing Their Own Lies: The Sandwich Family stick adamantly to the claim that Sasha is lost at sea.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Mrs. Sandwich's presence is always felt throughout the house, and it leads to an oppressive environment.
• Blatant Lies: Mrs. Sandwich is prone to this.
  • She says that the Sandwich Family is broke, throwing Sunny under the bus.
  • She says in a video to the audience that she encouraged Lil Sandwich to take a break.
    • Sarah Grace sums it up best: "Well, she's lying, but that's what lying liars do, I guess."
• Blunt "Yes":
  Emily: You're right, mom. Adoption can never be selfish. Just because you're doing it for attention, validation, and money doesn't make it selfish, right? Like, what do people expect you to do? Get a job?!
  Mom: Exactly.
  Emily: (sighs, visibly frustrated)
• Breather Episode: The episodes after The Reveal about Sasha where Sarah Grace interacts with her siblings, while not without minor reveals, are these compared to the drama of the previous episode.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Lil Sandwich was apparently so scared by The Grinch breaking in that he wet his Christmas jammies.
• Calling the Old Man Out: This happens a few times throughout the series, and is a major Catharsis Factor each time.
• Cerebus Syndrome: While some sequences in the early episodes can be read as Black Comedy, the series gradually gets darker and more serious as it goes on.
• Crappy Holidays: Holidays are typically like these for the Sandwiches. One episode has Sarah Grace saying her hate for Christmas because she never gets to keep the presents and the shoots are grueling.
• Cross-Cast Role: In-Universe, 13-year-old girl Sarah Grace plays 6-year-old Lil Sandwich.
  • Also in Real Life as Easom plays Mr. Sandwich and the doctor, both male roles.
• Deconstruction: A particularly brutal one of the family vlog channel. It shows the toxic nature present behind the scenes of many channels like this and the effect is has on the actual children.
• Delicate and Sickly: Silly. Though she amps it up for the video, it's strongly implied throughout the series that she is actually very sick. It's revealed later that she has a treatable case of Lupus.
• Establishing Series Moment: The first episode drops this line at the end, immediately recontextualizing the video so far and setting the tone for the rest of the series:
  Sarah Grace: (suddenly drops lisp) Do you mind if I use my regular voice or do I have to keep using my video voice?
• Foreshadowing: Ella says she loves "checking out the girls" at beauty pageants and is visibly saddened when talking about her "first date" series, where she goes on blind dates with guys while being filmed. This is setup for the fact that she's a lesbian.
• Friendless Background: All of the Sandwich Family faces this.
  • Before the channel, Mrs. Sandwich was teased for being poverty-stricken, pregnant, and having many children. Sasha was also teased for having a lot of siblings, with the bullies referencing 19 Kids and Counting.
  • After the channel took off, Sarah Grace was teased for her online persona as Lil Sandwich, and the family is now even more socially isolated due to their popularity.
• Hate Sink: Mrs. Sandwich. If you, while watching, took a shot every time you found yourself screaming at her, you'd be dead before the series was over.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: While Rebecca is reading the comments, she comes across one that calls her "the ugliest of the Sandwich Sisters", to which Sarah Grace replies "we all look the same!"
• Malicious Slander: Sasha was subject to this after she left, with the parents claiming she was threatening her siblings, doing drugs and stealing money from the family to pay for it, and refusing to go to rehab.
• Meaningful Rename:
  • Each member of the family has their normal names and YouTube names. All the YouTube names start with S.
  • After Sasha left the family, she appropriately removed the "Sandwich" from her name.
• Minimalist Cast: There's one person in total involved in the series: Caroline Easom.
• Mood Whiplash: A lot of early episodes revolve around an opening with Sarah Grace playing Lil Sandwich and then the mom cutting her off, establishing a darker tone.
• Never My Fault: A common defense of Mrs. Sandwich. She is quick to always blame other people or redirect the issue off of her.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: A brand equivalent. In one video, Lil Sandwich is sponsored by "Improved Assistance"^note Better Help.
• Out of Focus: The babysitter disappears for a little while after Sarah Grace meets Sasha. She comes back after Silly leaves to live with Sasha.
• Out of the Frying Pan: Before the YouTube channel, the Sandwich Family was still in a terrible situation. They were poverty stricken, having to share already cramped quarters while the father works 3 jobs and Mrs. Sandwich is pregnant. Then, they started the channel, and childhoods were ruined in a different way.
• The Prankster: Kate deconstructs this notion of family vlog channels having a designated prankster character.
  Sarah Grace: Those [pranks] were all Mom's ideas.
  Kate: Yeah, but it's still me everybody hates.
• The Reveal:
  • There is a seventh sister named Sasha who spoke out against the family after running away.
    • The babysitter is a friend of Sasha's and has been getting to know the family to tell Sarah Grace this information.
  • The parents are intentionally keeping the money away from the kids, even when they turn 18.
  • Silly has a treatable form of Lupus.
• The Runaway: Sasha, who ran away after discovering the family had no plans to give the kids money when they grew up.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: As Mrs. Sandwich puts it:
  Mom: Nothing's illegal if you have enough money!
• Shout-Out:
  • Some bullies teased Sasha by calling her 19 Kids and Counting.
  • Also, Sasha's apparently lost at sea like Tom Hanks in Cast Away.
• Speech Impediment: Sarah Grace has to emulate one for Lil Sandwich.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sasha accidentally started this whole thing in the first place, suggesting to her parents that they should be a show like 19 Kids and Counting.
• The Voice: The babysitter is never shown onscreen.
• Wham Line:
  • This whole conversation has wham line after wham line:
  Sarah Grace: Well, there's also Sasha, but we really don't talk about Sasha because... it's just too sad to talk about her.
  Babysitter: Oh yeah, because she spoke out against your parents?
  Sarah Grace: ...what?
  Babysitter: What?
  Sarah Grace: (Beat) Sasha's lost at sea. Sasha is lost at sea! Sasha went sailing [4 years ago] and she hasn't been seen since. She's probably on an island somewhere like Tom Hanks in Castaway. That's what my mom says. My mom is always saying that, c-cause Sasha's lost at sea.
  Babysitter: (not convinced) Okay.
  Sarah Grace: (Beat) If Sasha's not lost at sea, she would call me, so she's... she's lost at sea.
  Babysitter: Maybe she tried to call you. Maybe your mom wouldn't let her.
  Sarah Grace: (whispering) Who are you?
  Babysitter: I'm a friend of your sister's. I've been wanting to tell you everything for a really long time, but I—
  Sarah Grace: Not here. She's always listening.
  • Also, when Sasha reunites with Sarah Grace, she drops this bombshell:
  I was 21 at that point, and I had been talking with mom and dad about wanting to move out, get my own place, and I had been asking about the money that they had set aside for me, but the night I left, I overheard them talking to their lawyer... They were making sure that legally, they didn't have to give any of us anything. Ever.

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