Doomsday Arcade

Doomsday Arcade is a comedy web series shown on The Escapist. The show tells the harrowing tale of two average civilians named Michael Lunds and Michael Shanks who are trapped in the middle of a shocking doomsday scenario: Video game characters NPCs have found a way into the real world and are out to win their freedom from the oppressive Users users. On the way, they not only exact their Genre Savvy-ness on various game characters, new and old, but also discover that there might be a deeper reason behind the invasion which revolves around them.

Let's be honest, though, you're really in it for the puns and references. Especially the numerous lampshade hangings of not only these puns, but also various game cliches in general. In short, this is one to watch...

Tropes used in Doomsday Arcade include:

• Author Avatar: Shanks, who pointedly directed, wrote, and starred in the series (as himself). Narcissism has indeed reached new, staggering heights.
• Badass: Many people, but special mention goes to Bruce and Billy Mitchell.
• Black Comedy Rape: The G-man has a restraining order against G. Freeman.
• Bond One-Liner: Often. Taken to extremes in the penultimate episode.
• Brick Joke: Duke Nukem - viewers are going to LOVE how much of a time gap there is in this brick joke...
• Brought Down to Normal: Though neither are quite aware of it.
• Butt Monkey: Poor, poor Toad
• Catch Phrase: "That's it, YOU'RE FUCKED!"
• The Cameo: Episode 21 features Graham Stark and Paul Saunders, who show up to brag about how much more popular they are. Almost immediately afterwards, the outtake reel episode was posted, including clips from Graham's raw footage in which he apologizes for acting like a dick.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Lund after being kicked from the server in episode 1.
• Cultural Cringe: Zigzagged with Bruce, who is an enormously silly Aussie stereotype, but also the series's most Badass character and one of its most effectual heroes (the most effectual, in fact, if you ignore all the things the Michaels do by accident).
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: The Michaels...sometimes.
• Explosion Propulsion: During a sequence where Lunds and Shanks are trying to breach the NPCs' stronghold (which is being guarded by the RED Team), Shanks attempts to rocket jump onto the roof. He ended up getting his legs blown off.
• Face Heel Turn: Lund
• Facing the Bullets One-Liner: "By the order of sweet mother Australia, I'm placing you under CARDIAC ARREST!
  • "No, really, that's a dick move."
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: The GFYA and Lund, but subverted with a genuine Tear Jerker of a line: I couldn't lose another friend
• Fridge Logic: If Lund and Shanks know all about Fallout3, how come they don't know a thing about Rapture, from a game which came out before Fallout 3?
  • Err...maybe they just never wanted to play Bioshock? Just because the game came out earlier doesn't exactly mean that they've definitely played it
• Heroic Sociopath: The Michaels and Bruce.
• Ho Yay: Parodied and messily resolved with Shanks' Music Video in the finale.
  • Shanks also has a shrine, framed picture, and a bit of a stiffy for Gabe Newall.
    • "There's nothing wrong with that"
• Humanoid Abomination: The Dicelord. He's like a really manic Slender Man.
• Hurricane of Puns: The ENTIRE SERIES, with special mention to Episodes 3, 5, and 24.
• I Have Many Names: The Dicelord, in his introductory speech, says he goes by many names, including The Creator, The Dungeon Master, and Richard Gariott.
  • Which is a little weird, because Richard Gariott was in the room with him at the time.
• Idiot Ball: The Michaels tend to juggle this thing between each other and hold the thing tightly between themselves at some instances.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: The first one of many puns...

Mario: "I have a dream...cast.

• Killed Off for Real: Laser Cat, The GFYA, Bruce, Gary
• Land Down Under: Bruce is every single Australian stereotype crammed into one person and turned Up to Eleven. And then, he karate-chopped his heart out and replaced it with a live grenade.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Michaels are being hunted because of their suppressed memories of working on Polybius.
• Made of Iron: There's a reason for that though.
• Mukokuseki: Whiskers on Kittens.
  • This technique backfires with Lund. Twice.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Colonel Nefarious - a name you can finally trust.
  • Which is why it is surprising that he doesn't.
• Nightmare Fuel: Ironically enough, Cooking Mama is brought in to cook the body of the dead Alex Mercer so that the Michaels can find the location of the Resistance's HQ. It turns out, however, that she tried to poison them. It didn't work, but she got REALLY mad afterwards, complete with flaming eyes.
  • Not to mention that one bit in the Bioshock episode where she stabs a man in cold blood and maintains her sociopathic smile throughout.
• Noodle Incident: The only clue as to what GFYA stands for is a fist being rammed through something wet. They eventually reveal it as Go fist your arsehole!
  • Not forgetting of course The Man Upstairs: more of a noodle character since in the series finale there's quite a long skit about how they're not revealing his identity because he's never going to meet people's expectations. Also kinda counts as a Lampshade Hanging
• Offing the Offspring: Odd meta example, Shanks' father actually played some of the series' roles, some of which had him trying to murder his son's character.
• Overly Long Gag: Anyone who was in the middle of a combat situation would not load an old-fashioned gun extremely slowly.
• Power Perversion Potential: Attempted in Episode 2; poor, poor Russian Bride.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Michaels start one to avenge some innocent random dude they assume was messily killed by the NPCs in a room they teleported in, completely unaware that they had accidentally telefragged him upon entering.
• Samus Is a Girl: Gary the Red Pyro; Her Parents were dickheads.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Verbose Matt
• Shout-Out: So many. Some are blatantly obvious, but some are rather subtle, such as Lord British going into space and the urban legend-based arcade game Polybius.
  • From the dream sequence based off Command & Conquer -

"Look at this report! It makes no sense! No periods, no commas, no punctuation! Take it back!" This is fuelled further by the likelihood of the man with the report being Yahtzee.

• Take That: Michael Atkinson and Alyx Vance.
  • The former is understandable, considering the Australian origins of the show.
• Taking You with Me: Bruce to Kratos, using his grenade heart.
• The Un-Reveal: The Man Upstairs - this fact is also lampshaded.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: "I see no other possible outcome."
• Wrong Genre Savvy: The Michaels...very often.