A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, three young women set out to find out just what the meaning of Stonehenge is through the art of parody...
The Frauds are three young women from the United Kingdom, consisting of Catherine 'Cat' Stone, Leah Mills and Stephanie Downes. Their comedy consists of mostly sketches and music, and they are most well known for their I Kveld Med Frauds series available on YouTube, notably produced with little to no budget, parodying the work of Norwegian comedians Ylvis, in which they are known by their titles of The Bård, The Calle, and The Vegard, respectively.
Their IKMY parody series, I Kveld Med Frauds, contains examples of:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: During The Calle's takeover during Episode 1 of IKMF, The Calle goes from just a sharp-tongued sidekick to handcuffing the 'brothers' to their sofa and poking them with sticks in their sleep, even going as far as to root out an embarassing video of them from their youth and play it to 'the world'. Naturally, they are not amused, but after taking back their show manage to recover quickly (barely even scolding The Calle).
- Don't Go Into the Woods: Their The Fox parody contains this in bucketloads; no surprise, since it's also obviously parodying The Blair Witch Project.
- Fanservice: The Easter Egg after the credits of Episode 2 is essentially a subversion of this; not only is it a parody of the original Ylvis Saxobeat video, which was supposed to parody sexual music videos, but it's also very obviously sending up Ylvis' high-budget show. At one point, a scene is filmed in a toilet. However, it is all young women pouring water over themselves...
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Vegard is often portrayed as Genre Savvy, Crazy-Prepared and pragmatic; contrasting The Bård, who upon becoming supernaturally lost in the woods with a monster stalking them proceeds to drink all the water, chase off her 'brother' and sulk for pizza. This is a Flanderization of the Ylvis brothers' real life Sibling Yin-Yang personalities.
- Found Footage Films: The Fox is one long homage to this, set as a Mockumentary going behind the scenes of the Ylvis brothers' viral video shoot.
- Funny Background Event:
- The Vegard is neither as loud or as charismatic as the others - however, she can be seen in many shots reacting with consternation, irritation or downright terror to a suggestion made by one of the other two.
- Her reaction to the Weekly Prize winning letter sums it up; her moment of horror is quickly wiped by a showbiz smile, but it's there.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Averted. They do randomly go into Norwegian occasionally, but the original show is often presented in Norwegian with gratuitous English.
- Hammerspace: At one point, The Vegard and The Bård are handcuffed on the floor. The Vegard proceeds to pull a corkscrew from nowhere, and start using it as a tool to let her 'brother' out of his handcuffs...
- Handy Cuffs: ...which are in front of them, meaning either of them could've simply stood up and punched The Calle. Their legs aren't even bound.
- Jitter Cam: An unfortunate side-effect of no crew, and only one tripod. Also used in The Fox to enhance the Found Footage feel, but this time it was on purpose.
- Large Ham: Leah has this in spades; potentially a side effect of playing the notably rambunctious Calle.
- Meaningful Background Event: Their Fox parody shows The Calle in several background shots, as often accompanied by eerie static as not.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: There was originally
a fourth Fraud; however, the group parted ways midway through filming, necessitating a rewrite of large parts of the script, song lines needing reallocated, and occasionally reaction shots addressed offscreen. - Sexy Discretion Shot: Just as the camera goes to cut to Calle Bader, the screen cuts to the SMPTE colour bars and text mocking the audience for expecting Leah to actually take her clothes off.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Said almost verbatim by The Bård when she and The Vegard discover that the terrifying monster in the woods was The Calle all along, accompanied by an epic Facepalm. The Vegard, to contrast, goes with Dull Surprise.
Their original comedy contains examples of:
- Le Film Artistique: One of their original characters, Nevaeh Wittgenstein-Satre, a Prima Donna Director, likes to make films that she thinks fit into this category. They are often more Surreal Horror.
