History Main / QuirkyWork

* The entire [[ExploitationFilm Ozsploitation]] genre, as chronicled in the documentary ''Not Quite Hollywood'', after [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications the R-18 rating]] was approved in 1971.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'' makes it obvious right from the title. Rooted in nostalgia for TheEighties, it is a homage to similar works of the past, particularly Creator/StephenKing's Americana-based horror novels and the family adventure films of Creator/StevenSpielberg and Creator/AmblinEntertainment, combined with dollops of Creator/HPLovecraft, ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', and ''Franchise/SilentHill''.

* ''Series/TheFuccons'' (''Oh! Mikey'' in Japan) is a parody show featuring a StandardFiftiesFather, HouseWife, and [[TheAllAmericanBoy their son]]... With all the characters being played by mannequins whose faces never change. And [[EverybodyLaughsEnding raucous laughter]]. [[https://youtu.be/BHsWokO35jA Yeah]].

* In the same vein as ''Téléchat'', we have ''Series/{{Telefrancais}}'', a show produced by [=TVOntario=] for the purpose of teaching French to English-speaking children that features, among many other oddities: a talking pineapple puppet that lives in a junkyard and looks like a rejected Furby, a fourth-wall breaking ''annonceur'', and ''Les Squelettes'', a musical group consisting of singing, dancing, instrument playing skeletons who will occasionally perform a number on ''the outside of a moving plane''. It was also made in TheEighties.

* Most American Christian media can come across this way to secular people, or even other Christians. Sometime in TheSeventies, evangelical Christians in the US became deeply enraptured by the concept of [[TheMoralSubstitute creating alternatives to "secular" pop culture]]. This grew to encompass literature (the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series is one of the most visible examples), [[ChristianRock music]], movies, video games, dating sites, and more, to the point where it eventually became an entire separate subculture. ComicBook/ChickTracts also fit the bill.

** The ads have attracted a fandom made up of (possibly) cat lovers, [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom furries]], and stoners, who have been known to comment on Website/YouTube calling the series of ads "trips through Psychedelic Kitty Land". In other words, aw!

* ''Brain Wall'', known to many American Website/{{YouTube}}rs as simply "Human Tetris". It lost much of its charm when adapted for Fox as ''Hole In The Wall''.

* ''WebVideo/CookingWithDog'', a Website/YouTube program featuring a woman demonstrating how to cook simple Japanese dishes [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "hosted" by a dog]] with a thick Japanese accent. Equal parts weird, cute, Japanese, and useful.

* The ''WebVideo/ItalianSpiderman'' series on Website/YouTube is filmed in English, dubbed into Italian and then subtitled back into English. As well as being a parody, its plot is fairly nonsensical, and it features various wonders such as surf-offs derailed by attacking penguins, and detachable exploding boomerang moustaches.

* ''The WebVideo/FilthyFrank Show'' (made by George "Music/{{Joji}}" Miller, the self-proclaimed "Creator/EdWood of Website/YouTube") relies heavily on SurrealHumor and tends toward the extremely random, [[EqualOpportunityOffender offensive]], and often downright {{gross|OutShow}}.

* Some Japanese Website/YouTube channels that review toys for kids are this, because the reviewer will often put the toys into weird situations. If the channel is hosted by children, sometimes it shows the kid hosts doing weird things. For example, [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=WrcVhSiV54c this video]] features a young girl named Mari watching an episode of ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure'' enacted by plush dolls involving a unicorn Oshimaida that defeats not only the main team, but the ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'' girls. Cure Yell [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks the fourth wall]] and tells Mari (who Yell somehow knows the name of) that the show cannot continue until the girl buys the new merchandise from the show. After a brief scene where the girl goes shopping to find the merchandise, she is sucked into the show and defeats the unicorn. [[spoiler:It's then revealed to be AllJustADream, and her dad surprises her with the merchandise she got in the dream]].

* The Website/YouTube channel ''[[https://www.youtube.com/c/Berdboi/videos Berd]]'' consists of short (ranging from one ''second'' to just over 1 minute) StylisticSuck animations, starring WebAnimation/{{kiwi}}-esque bird characters and a large dose of SurrealHumor. If you're wondering about the 1-second videos, they're mostly from the "skunk second" series, where each episode is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin just a picture of a skunk with a second-long voiceover of someone saying "skunk."]]

* One aversion. Up until early 2020, television footage from the Far East showing Japanese, Korean, Chinese etc. people going about their everyday business in cities or on mass transport - whilst wearing breathing masks covering mouth and nose - was taken in Europe and the USA as yet more proof of how weird places like Japan were. [[Usefulnotes/COVID19Pandemic And then in 2020...]]

* The Website/SCPFoundation's NewWeird trappings regularly lead it into this territory. Among the less surreal things the titular organisation deals with are [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3081 a species of giant human hands that can be milked like cows]] to an [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-426 alien disguised as a toaster that forces people to refer to it in first person]].

* ''ComicBook/GiraffesOnHorsebackSalad'' is a [[SurrealHumor surrealist romantic comedy]] by Creator/SalvadorDali, an adaptation of a never-produced film starring [[Creator/MarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]. The only true surprise here is that it's not even ''more'' quirky than it already is.

* ''ComicBook/GiraffesOnHorsebackSalad'' is a [[SurrealHumor surrealist romantic comedy]] by Creator/SalvadorDali, originally intended to be a film starring [[Creator/MarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]. The only truly surprising thing is that it's not even ''more'' quirky than it already is.

** ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'' is freaking mind-bending. It takes place in a 3D holograph made by the friction of two overlapping universes (What, you've never heard about the Holographic principle?) of fascism and anarchy. The story follows the Invisibles, anarchistic chaos magicians, as they do things like fight bacterial gods, seek for the chalice that contains the shit and pus of Judas twitching during his suicide, try to beat a GeneticAbomination designed to be a fleshsuit for the Archons and was supposed to marry Lady Di or travel from reality to fiction (Yes, [[{{Metafiction}} from reality to fiction]].

* Sakeru Gummy's ''Advertising/LongLongMan'' series of commercials is unique in that it employs a narrative that could easily qualify it as a SoapOpera - it's about a woman who's torn between the affections of her boyfriend, who loves to share his Sakeru Gummy candies with her, and the "Long Long Man", who [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything prefers a longer version of said candy]]. Since the commercials originally aired, they've gathered some attention from Western viewers as another example of Japanese weirdness.
* ''Advertising/UFOKamenYakisoban'' is an AffectionateParody of tokusatsu series such as ''Franchise/KamenRider'', starring Yakisoban, a superhero with the power of noodles and sauce who hailed from the Yakisoba Planet. The ads were so popular he even got a tie-in video game, a direct-to-VHS movie, and many pieces of merchandise.

* Danish candy company [=BonBon=], [[https://imgur.com/a/7NTK9 which had weird and\or disguting names]] such as Dog Farts, Pee Diapers, Rotten Fish and Ant Piss - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35-rPHI1ky8 just look at these commercials!]]. Some were dropped, but not all, given an attempt of the parent company to drop all the naughty names led to fan outcry and their restoration. They're even known internationally for theme park [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BonBon-Land BonBon-Land]], which has statues of the mascots and attractions based on them (for instance, the Dog-Fart Roller Coaster, which includes speakers with fart noises and a feces in the scenery).

With particularly unusual works, viewers may end up feeling that their creation seems to have involved large amounts of hallucinogens, cocaine, crack, or any other illicit substance that makes [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible people think really weird ideas are also really good ones]]. In most cases, the creators were actually sober, but sometimes ArtisticStimulation ''was'' involved.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Llanargollen}}'' is a wabbit[[note]]Weird British Thing[[/note]] ([[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} sort of]]) about a man solving mysteries in a live-action world with an [[RogerRabbitEffect animated doggy sidekick]] in the small, titular village. You'd think it sounds awfully a lot like ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'' (and you're right), but what's especially weird about it is what it contains. From [[FlyingCar flying bikes]] to [[EverythingTalks talking handbags and singing letter stamps]], and with the main cast comprising of a {{pirate}} and {{wizard|sAndWitches}}, this show is nothing short of a Welsh MindScrew.

* ''WebOriginal/MushroomLand'' is a Polish web video series that seems to be some cross between an educational children's television and [[MushroomSamba a heavy trip on hallucinogens]]. Or a product of a damaged child's mind. [[MindScrew Or who knows]].

* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan''. As expected of a story where madness is a central theme, there’s a lot of weirdness and psychedelic imagery to be found in it. What makes things even more complicated is that something, the weird things we see in the story aren’t even real, they’re just part of someone’s dreams or imagination, so it can sometimes be pretty hard for the reader to tell what’s real or not. This goes for its sequel series, ''Shade The Changing Girl'' and ''Shade The Changing Woman'' too.

* Creator/AAPessimal uses the canonical country of Agatea as the launch-pad for all those things Japanese which Western observers find to be culturally strange or impenetrable. There is a fashion in Ankh-Morpork, for instance, for imported Agatean illustrated novels of the sort popularly known as {{Man|ga}}-Gi comics. The canonical character of Miss Pretty Butterfly (Koukouchou-sama), now Principal Tutor in Agatean Studies at the Assassins' Guild School, who is used as a walking illustration of stereotyped "Japanese" culture and society. Depending on her mood, her hair can go through all the classic Japanese styles, such as HimeCut, OjouRinglets, OdangoHair, and many others, from day to day.

[[AC:'''WTF''' (Weird Thing from France)]]

* ''Comicbook/{{Archie}}’s Madhouse'' is a series of weird and fantastical stories based on the Riverdale gang, fitting it snugly this category. ''Madhouse'' was also a springboard for the equally bizarre ''ComicBook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''.
* ''Comicbook/{{Madman}}''. It's hard to place it in one particular genre or the other. Usually, it's every genre all at the same time.

* ''Comicbook/HermanHedning''[[note]]lit. "Herman the Heathen" but called Marwin Meathead in English editions.[[/note]], a weird ReferenceOverdosed Swedish comic with the sickest sence of humor you are likely to encounter. You have to wonder what the hell is going on inside Jonas Darnell's head.

* ''Series/LazyCompany'', a French TV ([[CerebusRollerCoaster mostly]]) comedy about four hapless [=GIs=] during the Battle of Normandy, featuring a Franchise/CaptainAmerica ersatz, Hitler disguised as a nun, mad scientists, a friendly Japanese pilot, and general wackiness all over the place.

* A few Turkish films from the 1970's were pretty (in)famous for their [[SerialNumbersFiledOff blatant plagiarism of characters and effects,]] [[SpecialEffectsFailure practically no budget for the effects they didn't steal]] and [[RandomEventsPlot some really bizarre plots]]. This resulted in such films as ''Film/ThreeBigMen'' (where ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and Wrestling/ElSanto fight Franchise/SpiderMan, who has become a murderous thief), ''Rampage'' (A.K.A: ''Turkish Rambo'') and ''Film/TheManWhoSavesTheWorld'' (better known as ''Turkish Star Wars'').

A quirky work is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a piece of media that's oddly endearing (or simply perplexing) in its utter oddity. Quirky works often consist of SurrealHumor or are a GagSeries, or in darker cases, SurrealHorror. The plot may hinge on bizarre transformations, freakish-looking creatures, and nonsensical actions that only seem to make sense in realms of logic ''far'' removed from your own.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Most of the setting and plot elements are completely bonkers and can generate WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs reactions from first-time readers.

* ''Adam and Paul'', a more-or-less plotless dark comedy about two heroin addicts (modeled on [[Theatre/WaitingForGodot Didi and Gogo]] and Creator/LaurelAndHardy) who spend a day wandering around Dublin trying to scrape money together to buy a fix. There are AmusingInjuries, an encounter with a patriotic Bulgarian, lots of dialogue that goes absolutely nowhere, and a generally weird and tragicomic tone.

* The ''Literature/CompleteWorldKnowledge'' trilogy, which consists of books with {{Long Title}}s, filled to the brim with "100% false" facts, though the appendices in the paperback versions acknowledge the fact that occasionally a truth manages to end up in one of them by accident. In addition, the page numbering does not restart in later books in the series, instead picking up where the previous one left off. [[Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire The second book]] also serves as a page-a-day calendar, which among other things reveals an EscalatingWar of bizarre precipitation between Richmond, Virginia, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the late 1970s.

* ''Film/{{Zardoz}}'', where the weirdness is enhanced by Creator/SeanConnery [[WTHCostumingDepartment in an orange nappy.]]

* There is a particular genre of British scifi/fantasy/horror which makes up for having no effects budget by filming at nice homes and focusing very intently on very ordinary objects with some spooky music, until eventually the very fact that [[NothingIsScarier you see nothing clearly menacing becomes unsettling]]. Some examples include ''Series/SapphireAndSteel'' (the wall is haunted), ''The Owl Service'' (the plates are haunted), ''Film/TheStoneTape'' (the stairs are haunted), etc. It's very British.

* ''Men With Brooms'' is possibly more Weirdly Canadian than ''Kids in the Hall.'' It's a sports comedy about curling, that also features [[Series/DueSouth Paul Gross]], Leslie Nielsen (as a retired curling guru and hallucinogenic mushroom enthusiast), a guest appearance by Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip, a bagpiper in a kilt with no explicit connection to the plot, and a running gag involving beavers.

** A western example is the short-lived Yggdrasil 'green' motorcycles. We can't link to an example, unfortunately, as the website has been down. If you've played or seen screenshots of the game series ''XtremeG'', they resembled those cycles but only went about 140-170kph and were sold in small numbers in mainland Europe as an environmentally conscious alternative to move from point A to B. They were cheap to buy, but annoyingly expensive to maintain, and attempts to sell them elsewhere were met with confusion and head scratching elsewhere (and even at home) due to the way-too-futuristic designs and odd seating arrangement. (ridden as if you were straddling a rocket [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Wile E Coyote]] style).
** Microcars/small cars in general and Smart cars in particular may also be seen this way in North America. This is caused by Japanese and European car makers not bothering to sell their microcars and more left-field models in North America in a [[SelfFulfillingProphecy self-fulfilling cycle]] of lack of demand from lack of products from lack of demand... Conversely, a lot of places in the rest of the world perceives their relative absence and the preponderance of big sedans, pickup trucks, [=SUV=]s and even the aforementioned ''American muscle cars'' for city dwellers as just as strange. The last few years have however seen [=SUV=]s getting commonplace ''everywhere'', from America to Europe to even ''Japan''[[note]]Mind you, Japan has many [=SUVs=] of varying sizes, so [=SUVs=] aren't that all weird there as long as it isn't too big.[[/note]], so the trend might be changing.

** In one of his solo feature-length DVD releases, Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson has also introduced many British and American gearheads to this [=DOT=] (Dutch Oddity of Transportation), the Vandenbrink [[https://youtu.be/zb-MIuXTlEs Carver]]. It was subsequently reviewed on ''Top Gear'' proper by the Hamster [[https://youtu.be/TK4wzBYmTIo here]].

** French car makers have long had a reputation for quirky and advanced design and engineering. In particular, the Citroen DS was way more futuristic and technologically advanced than many other cars when it was first sold in 1955. The same was said for the Citroen SM when it came out in 1970.

* ''The Adventures of Captain Vrungel'': A Soviet [[OffModel inconsistently animated]] mini-series about an [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits old seadog, a handsome young sailor and a dishonoured tramp]] participating in a regatta around the globe while getting chased by two [[GratuitousItalian hilariously gratuitous]] [[TheMafia Mafiosi]] and a Franchise/JamesBond CaptainErsatz looking for a priceless MacGuffin in a [[SenselessViolins cello case]]. [[HilarityEnsues Squirrels, robo-dogs, exploding volcano island saunas, house domino and lots of champagne ensue]]. This is an adaptation of a much earlier children's novel of the same name. Most of the weirdness and hilariousness was preserved (and even added, in case of the James Bond character).