Web Video / The Isle of Rangoon

The Isle of Rangoon is a web riff/review puppet series created by Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop. The main series centers around Starchibald and Sunny Jim, two "Rangoons" (puppet creature things from the titular isle) reviewing cheap movies and riffing on public domain shorts, the latter of which are frequently forced on them by the faceless "Mysterious Malefactor". Also present are recurring characters like Trent the Human (Starch's long-suffering roommate) Zeus (deliverer of many a Deus ex Machina), and Old Man Cthulhu (a crotchety Elder God who spends his days answering your questions).

They are affiliated with RT Gomer Productions and The Rosen Hacker.

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The Isle of Rangoon provides examples of:

• Bait-and-Switch: When it's announced that "What's It to You" is going to be the short turned against the Rangoons and Linkara, the scary music plays... and then Linkara shouts, "THIS IS GREAT!" ("What's It to You" is legendary among fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as "the lost episode", and Linkara is a well-known fan of the series.)
• Big Eater: Sunny Jim
• Butt-Monkey: Trent the Human, according to Word of God during the Torchy the Battery Boy commentary.
• The Cameo: David Willis, of all people, shows up briefly in a few videos (which makes more sense if you know that Troop and Sepelak are fellow administrators of TFWiki.net and all three work on Transformers Fan Club comics). The end of the "What's It to You" riff also features a slew of cameos from other reviewers.
• Caption Humor: Heavily abused during the Mega Piranha review, as a way of mocking the film's habit of introducing every single character and location with a freeze frame and caption.
  Starchibald- Nervous Lizardy Thing
  Sunny Jim- Fluffy Garbage Disposal
• Couch Gag: Every riff and review features a varying humorous caption at the start of the intro.
  "...and we're here to say..."
• Crapsack World: Rangoon. There are massive, open sulfur mines, the leaders are chosen at random, the inhabitants aren't allowed outdoors (they have to make do with matte paintings), and it only has one college - community, and pass-fail at that.
• Crossover: They've done quite a few riffs with other Internet reviewers:
  • "What's It to You" with Linkara
  • "What To Do in a Gas Attack" with Diamanda Hagan and The Omega
  • "The Haunted Mouth" with Obscurus Lupa
  • They've also done reviews of Transformers-related media with Vangelus, and a special review of "Rainbow Connection" with DJ Soundbite
• Cult of Personality: The Rangoons revere Jim Henson as their quasi-Creator. Henson's birthday is basically their Christmas.
• Ear Worm: Weaponized in the riff of "Torchy the Battery Boy". Torchy attempts to drive Starch and Jim to madness with his theme song, before Jim retaliates by singing "Bacon Pancakes" at Torchy and threatening to use several other infamously catchy songs until Torchy leaves. It has the unfortunate side effect of getting "Bacon Pancakes" stuck in Starch's head.
• Exact Words: When the Mysterious Malefactor lets the Starchibald and Sunny Jim pick what they want to watch, Sunny Jim suggests the Film with the Clueless Goofball Male Lead, A Real Heavy Seventies Vibe, A Tree and A Talking Raccoon. This causes the Mysterious Malefactor to begin laughing, with Sunny Jim realizing he was not specific enough, leading to the Mysterious Malefactor showing them "Ricky Raccoon Shows The Way".
• Extreme Omnivore: Sunny Jim. He even ate his own external backup drive! In "Speech: The Function of Gestures", he even implies that he's eaten one of his cousins.
• Expy: Starchibald and Sunny Jim are clearly modeled after Kermit the Frog and Cookie Monster, though their personalities are nothing like those two.
  • Doctor Why, an ultra-knowledgeable time-and-space-traveling blue puppet modeled after the Doctor (in particular Tom Baker's version).
• The Faceless: The Mysterious Malefactor
• Fish Eyes: Starchibald will temporarily display this whenever he starts to lose his sanity. Which is sadly very often.
• Hated Hometown:
  • Both Starchibald and Sunny Jim feel this way about the titular Isle of Rangoon. From how it's been described, they have very good reason to hate it.
  • Sunny Jim even considers having Diamanda Hagan take over the island during the "What To Do in a Gas Attack" riff, figuring it wouldn't be any worse than what it's currently like. Diamanda herself rejects the offer, stating that it wouldn't even be worth building up the island just so she could destroy it.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Starchibald.
• Insane Troll Logic: During the "Torchy the Battery Boy" riff, Sunny Jim explains that, according to Moral Guardians, magic is real and you can learn it by watching children's cartoons. Jim exclusively watches children's cartoons, so therefore he must be a wizard.
• Malaproper: Sunny Jim has a tendency to butcher phrases. Examples include "Get with the pogrom," "shift the paradox," and wishing everyone a "Meryl Streepmas."
  • Starchibald is also prone to this. Notably, at the end of the "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" riff, he wishes the audience a "Happy Hollandaise." (Though, to be fair, he was heavily medicated at the time.)
• Mushroom Samba: The result of Sunny Jim eating the Ratatoing DVD.
• Nervous Wreck: Starchibald. God only knows how many meds he is on.
• Perverse Puppet: Not the Rangoons themselves (usually), but rather any marionette featured in the shorts they've riffed on. Especially Torchy the Battery Boy.
• Reality-Breaking Paradox: The ending of the "A Day Without Numbers" riff.
  Starchibald: Hey, aren't numbers the fundamental constant of the univer-
  • During the Elf Bowling review, the Rangoons accidentally break reality by using a clip from one of their own riffs to riff the film. Fortunately Doctor Why is on hand to fix the issue.
• Running Gag:
  • Their riffs of the Col. Bleep cartoons always begin with a comic variation of the opening to Series/60Minutes.
  • Asking if the characters can see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
• Sarcasm Failure: During the Elf Bowling review, a scene where the villain meets up with a mobster penguin (and repeatedly slaps him with a fish), is introduced by Starchibald as "something we cannot even quip on, and must present as is."
• Shared Universe: Thanks to crossovers and cameos, they're part of the Reviewaverse.
• Sick Episode: Starchibald during the "Elf Bowling" review.
• Superhero Paradox: Linkara states that this is why he won't help the Rangoons get rid of the Masked Malefactor; once they do that, stronger, more dangerous villains are just gonna start coming out of the woodwork. Better they just enjoy the easy stuff while they can.
• Take That!:
  • In the The Dover Boys video, Starchibald mentions that it's easy to get woefully out of touch, using Doug as his example.
  • During the The Dover Boys riff itself, after the boys knock themselves out:
  Sunny Jim: Actual footage of Vic Mignogna and his lawyers in court.
• Too Dumb to Live: They believe the kid from Rocky the Raccoon Shows the Way is this.
  Kid gets on bike so that Rocky can teach bike safety
  Starchibald: Ten seconds later, the kid gets tangled up in the bike chain.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Two of Sunny Jim's Halloween costumes thus far have both been of female characters: Ms. Pac-Man and Diamanda Hagan.
• Wing Ding Eyes: During the Mega Piranha review, Jim sticks a battery in his mouth and gets electrocuted. When he gets back up off the floor, his pupils have turned into plus and minus signs.
• World of Weirdness: The Reviewaverse. Jim and Starch are Muppet-like creatures from an island populated by many other Muppet-like creatures. And there's even more weirdness in the rest of the show.