Rufus lad, you're not supposed to be the one holding the camera.
World's Greatest Adventures is a series of sketches created by Goblin Studios, available on YouTube
, and currently in its second season.The short skits see the delusional, megalomaniac "world's greatest explorer", Rufus Hooter Talltales. Invariably, Talltales begins with extravagant claims about his latest adventures or discoveries, only for buffoonish editing mistakes and his own stupidity to expose his senseless boasting for what it is.
Be warned, Rufus himself may be a fraud, but he inhabits a genuine World of Weirdness. Be prepared for aliens, wizardry, and living hats!
World's Greatest Adventures features examples of:
- Adventurer Archaeologist: Talltales claims to be one in Episode 3. Please don't notice the fence and obvious modern buildings in the background of his "undiscovered ruins". You'll just upset him.
- Adventurer Outfit: R. H. Talltales has an off-kilter variation on the Archaeologist, with the wide-brimmed Fedora of Asskicking and the satchel, but a goofy short-sleeved striped shirt instead of a jacket and long unruly hair and beard instead of Heroic Stubble.
- Alien Invasion: Rufus has to deal with one (a real one) in Episode 20. Hilariously, it happens to be on a vacation day, and so our normally adventure-obsessed hero is extremely reluctant to have anything to do with it.
- Aliens Steal Cable: Warlord Cassius (from Mars) has watched the series itself, and made the mistake of believing every little thing Rufus Hooter Talltales says about himself. As a result, he believes Rufus to be the Earth's champion and wants to fight him for supremacy over the Earth.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Invoked for Talltales, who is too much of a Cloud Cuckoo Lander for his bad acting to even resemble anything someone with an ounce of sense might put out.
- Bag of Holding: Rufus's "trusty toolkit" (the small pouch he wears around his neck) contains whatever the plot demands. It has so far produced a brush three times its size, a diary, a working alarm clock and a goblet.
- Bold Explorer: What R. H. Talltales claims to be. Of course, your mileage may vary…
- Chased Off into the Sunset: Talltales's customary fate once his lies are exposed by circumstance. In a twist on the classic trope, the camerawoman herself is the one chasing him.
- Christmas Episode: Episode 17 (which aired, and takes place, in September) serves as one, thanks to Rufus's inability to read a calendar.
- Combat by Champion: In Episode 20, Rufus Hooter Talltales finds himself an unwilling participant in one of these, due to his endless bragging making the alien invaders mistake him for the Earth's greatest champion.
- Continuity Nod: Episode 15 shows the Aztec Pinecone of Gold from Episode 3, and Episode 23 brings back the sets of Episode 15, Episode 16 and Episode 22.
- Dowsing Device: Talltales attempts to use one in Episode 9… and promptly breaks it.
- Earth Drift: Started out with the unspoken assumption that Rufus was from the real world, and all the outlandish things he raves about are fake. However, starting with Episode 4, and culminating with Gordon's Living Hat status in Episode 10, it gradually became clear that Rufus's world is a bona fide World of Weirdness — which doesn't mean Rufus doesn't make his tall tales up, but they're not as implausible as they sound in our universe.
- Flying Saucer: The Martians get around in a standard-looking house-sized, black saucer.
- Fountain of Youth: Rufus finds it in Episode 23. It's a sink. One tap for aging water, one tap for rejuvenating water. Guess which one he drinks from.
- Galactic Conqueror: Warlord Cassius is one, albeit not a particularly powerful one. The dictator of the Tharsis Quadrangle on the Planet Mars, he intends to take over the Planet Earth, and then, the universe. (Fortunately, he is
Lawful Evil, and will not take over Earth until he has bested its champion in a square fight. Less fortunately, his designated champion of Earth is Rufus.) - Harmless Electrocution: Episode 13. Rufus Hooter Talltales. An electrified fence. A lot of stubbornness. 'nuff said.
- Heads or Tails?: Episode 18 of World's Greatest Adventures begins with Rufus trying to use this method to decide where to go next on an exploring venture. (He keeps losing the coin in the foliage, and ends up landing it in a bush of nettle.)
- Inept Mage: Rufus can, surprisingly, perform actual magic. It is, however, terrible and near-useless.
- In-Universe Camera: Every episode is supposedly a video Talltales and his unseen assistant create themselves to 'promote' Talltales's latest 'heroics'.
- Jump Cut: One of the many editing idiosyncrasies Talltales has his camerawoman to blame for.
- Lawful Evil: Cassius (the alien from Episode 20) is prepared to call off his people's Alien Invasion if Rufus wins his duel fair and square.
- Little Green Man in a Can: The Martians appear to be this — Cassius clearly is, at least.
- Living Hat: Turns out Rufus's Fedora of Asskicking is one. Called Gordon.
- Mascot: Rufus appears to be one for Goblin Studios, as he introduces the YouTube channel's trailer.
- Miles Gloriosus: R. H. Talltales himself is, naturally, a massive example.
- Medium-Shift Gag: The entire Season 2 seems to be built around this trope. Thus episode 1 is told with stop-motion puppets (because Maggie had accidentally activated the camera's puppet filter), episodes 2 and 3 are in chalkboard-like 2D animation, etc.
- Milking the Giant Cow: Rufus is prone to it when boasting of his discoveries.
- Multicultural Alien Planet: Even though Warlord Cassius is a pretty clichéd evil Martian warlord, Mars itself is not presented as "the planet of the evil warmongering aliens": Cassius is only the ruler of the Tharsis Quadrangle. There are presumably other nations on Mars, less interested in dueling questionably-competent Earthlings for planetary supremacy.
- Noisy Robots: Cassius's armor makes an electric, whirring noise when it moves.
- Repeat Cut: One of the editing mishaps that keep screwing Talltales over.
- Reveal Shot: Used in Episode 1 to reveal that the springs Talltales has 'discovered' are actually a tourist resort.
- Rugged Scar: In one of his silliest moments, Talltales claims some mosquito bites on his arms are scars sustained during his globe-trotting adventures.
- Shout-Out:
- Episode 2 mentions the Incredibly Deadly Viper.
- In Episode 3, Talltales justifies the idea that "adventurer" and "archeologist" are the same job by mentioning Professor Jones.
- The Nth Doctor: Used straight with props for the Living Hat Gordon, who turns from a straw hat to a velvet hat after falling in a time vortexnote . Complete with Doctor Who-esque golden light and sound effect. Episode 0 and Episode 24 reveal that this was Gordon's original appearance, and the straw hat was already the product of a regeneration.
- The Stinger: The series has used infrequent stingers to punctuate jokes from the episode proper. The Season 1 finale ends on a more sinister one, showing that Warlord Cassius is planning something.
- Teleportation: The aliens have a teleportation beam at their disposal, which they use to abscond a reluctant Rufus to Mars.
- Time Travel: Episode 5 has R. H. Talltales travel "centuries… no… wait… millions of years" back in time to meet dinosaurs, all through the magic of editing — no, wait, time travel.
- Tin-Can Robot: Warlord Cassius's robot-suit is a blocky, three-feet-tall… thing with hand-less tubes for arms. (Quite obviously made of cardboard, too).
- Toontown: Season 2 sends Rufus to Cartoonland in a teleporter accident; it's a cartoon world with a simplistic chalkboard-like artstyle, and Toon Transformation applies.
- Toon Transformation: Rufus is turned into an animated stick figure when in Cartoonland.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Best guess is Talltales speaks some sort of slurry British accent normally and is trying to sound American with only the vaguest idea what an American accent is. (It is, of course, entirely intentional.)
- World of Weirdness: Rufus Hooter Talltales may be a delusional Cloud Cuckoo Lander, but his world is gradually revealed to be bonkers in its own right. Werewolves, aliens, actual wizardyr, and regenerating hats.
