History Podcast / TheThrillingAdventureHour

** "Wishing Hell": Nightmares the Clown's attempts to frighten Sadie Doyle fall short because she finds clowns, even {{Monster Clown}}s, hilarious. He decides to show her his true form, that of a giant spider. Frank exclaims that Sadie is deathly afraid of spiders, only for Sadie to correct him and point out ''giant'' spiders don't scare her, only regular teeny tiny spiders due to how they can creep up on one [[TheAlcoholic when they're going through their liquor cabinet, innocently trying to collect a bottle]]. She pleads with Nightmares ''not'' to turn into a teeny tiny spider lest she ''actually'' become afraid. Nightmares does exactly that, and promptly gets stomped on by Frank.

* WeddingDay: [[spoiler:"Marshal on Mars", the segment finale of "Sparks Nevada", has Sparks marry Ginny West.]]

* BiTheWay: Sadie only has eyes for her husband, but she's been tempted by female succubi several times over the course of the show.
** Frank, as well. From Werewolf Of Wall Street:
-->'''Frank''': Sadie, is there something I should know about this fellow's knowledge of our bedroom?\\
'''Sadie''': I don't know, Frank, is there?

* {{Expy}}: Phillip Fathom is largely an underwater version of Franchise/{{Batman}}, with a voice straight out of ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' and all the hamminess of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Creator/AdamWest Series/{{Batman}}.

* EvilCounterpart: "Nazis Fall on Yancy Street" introduces the Red Baroness, who Amelia tells Dorothy Parker as the closest thing the Nazis have to her. In "This Cockamamie Future" it's claimed that she is supposedly the daughter of the Red Baron.

* EvilCounterpart: "This Cockamamie Future" introduced the Red Baroness, supposedly the daughter of the Red Baron and described by Amelia as her Nazi counterpart.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Croach the Tracker. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer No, really.]] The coming-of-age ceremony for Native Martians is called a bar mitzvah and their sacred winter festival is Hanukkah. [[spoiler: Actually, "hanukkah" is just their name for the first Sunday of any month- Croach just missed the point of all the Christmas stories that Sparks and Red were telling him.]]

* BatmanGambit: Sparks Nevada can be prone to these. Hilariously [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in "The Robot Rogues in 'Distrustified'":
-->'''Alloy Roy''': [[LetMeGetThisStraight So hang on. Your plan was what, exactly?]] That I'd share the file with my gang, and they'd post it to a listserv, and there'd be a robot free-for-all, and my gang would be whittled down t' ''two'', due to the infightin' in said free-for-all, and you'd get the drop on what's ''left?'' That's ''tenuous!''
-->''(beat)''
-->'''Sparks Nevada''': Yes. ... That's it exac--I mean not ''exactly''. [[RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic A lo--a lot's goin' on--]]I mean you got some of it, um, broad strokes I guess but--it's actually--it's simultaneously more ''and'' less complicated than what you said? So... I mean is this a conventional way to--have--you know what? I don't owe you this! [[KillHimAlready Gimme my guns!]]

* {{Bifauxnen}}: Betty, possibly; in "Lights, Camera, Murder!", a {{Jerkass}} actress mistakes her for a man. Desdemona says she "merely chooses to dress like one";

* MasterOfDisguise: Using her acting skills and elaborate disguises, Desdemona is able to completely change her appearance into someone else entirely.

Had a crossover episode with Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale at SDCC 2014!

** Based on the crossover with Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale, it might share a universe with Night Vale as well. Or not. It's never made clear if anything that happened was canon.

** Patriot Brand Cigarettes, the primary sponsor for the Thrilling Adventure Hour and primary source of DeliberateValuesDissonance.

* CelebrityEndorsement/CharacterCelebrityEndorsement: The Thrilling Adventure Hour is (very often) brought to you by [[BrandX Patriot Brand Cigarettes]], usually by one of the characters in the show.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The Thrilling Adventure Hour doesn't only bring back the style of popular radio shows from the 40s and 50s, it also brings back several tropes that would no longer be acceptable to modern audiences. The most egregious example of this is the sponsorship of Patriot Brand Cigarettes, whose constant advertisements would ''not'' go over well in a show with large child audiences.

* StepfordSmiler: Dan Bucatino gradually becomes this over the course of his ads. When they begin, he's advertising his office supply business and talking about his family before getting interupted by the King of Coffee. As the ads progress, Dan's life takes several turns for the worse: [[spoiler:he has a "health scare", his wife leaves him after cheating on him, his brother/business partner goes on a cruise with his wife]]. And yet, he and his family continue to put on the display of happiness.

''[[http://thrillingadventurehour.com/ The Thrilling Adventure Hour]]'' (originally "The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour") is a live audio theater production [[{{Retraux}} in the style of old time radio]]. The show has run monthly since 2005, when it was performed at M Bar in Hollywood until 2010, after which the production was moved to the Largo, a theater also in Hollywood. Starting in 2011, past segments were distributed as a podcast (except for the M Bar versions, which have not been made available to the public). In 2015, the monthly live shows were closed and the podcasts ended, though the makers of the show have also made a live show DVD and a number of graphic novels based on the podcast, including an anthology published by Archaia and two limited series published by Creator/ImageComics. However, in 2016, some podcast episodes of the live shows were released continuing the series after the SeriesFauxnale of some of the segments. New studio-recorded content and some previously unreleased material were released starting in October 2018.

''[[http://thrillingadventurehour.com/ The Thrilling Adventure Hour]]'' (originally "The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour") is a live audio theater production [[{{Retraux}} in the style of old time radio]]. The show has run monthly since 2005, when it was performed at M Bar in Hollywood until 2010, after which the production was moved to the Largo, a theater also in Hollywood. Starting in 2011, past segments were distributed as a podcast (except for the M Bar versions, which have not been made available to the public). In 2015, the monthly live shows were closed and the podcasts ended, though the makers of the show have also made a live show DVD and a number of graphic novels based on the podcast, including an anthology published by Archaia and two limited series published by Creator/ImageComics. However, in April of 2016 podcast episodes of the live shows were released continuing the series after the SeriesFauxnale of some of the segments.

** The Algonquin Four (Creator/DorothyParker, Creator/HarryHoudini, UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson and Robert Benchley) are an obvious parody of The Comicbook/FantasticFour, having similar superpowers. Dorothy Parker doubles as a parody of both The Thing and [[Comicbook/{{Hulk}} The Incredible Hulk]].

** The Algonquin Four (Creator/DorothyParker, Creator/HarryHoudini, UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson and Robert Benchley) are an obvious parody of The Comicbook/FantasticFour, having similar superpowers. Dorothy Parker doubles as a parody of both The Thing and [[Comicbook/{{Hulk}} The Incredible Hulk]].

In addition to the regular "[=WorkJuice=] Players", guest stars have included Creator/NeilPatrickHarris, Music/WeirdAlYankovic, Creator/JKSimmons, [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy]], Music/PaulAndStorm, [[Series/{{Community}} Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown]], Creator/PatrickWarburton, [[Series/ParksAndRecreation Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza]], [[Series/TheState Tom Lennon]], Music/GarfunkelAndOates, [[Series/{{Nerdist}} Chris Hardwick]], [[ComedyBangBang Scott Aukerman]], Creator/AmyAcker, [[Series/{{Mythbusters}} Adam Savage]], [[Literature/CompleteWorldKnowledge John Hodgman]], [[Series/FreaksAndGeeks Samm Levine, Martin Starr, Linda Cardellini]], and countless others.

-->"I feel like I have arrested all of you, or Red has. What is ''wrong'' with the jails?

* BadassCrew: While Sparks Nevada and Croach began as a duo similar to Franchise/LoneRanger and Tonto, they gained several allies as the segment progressed, including Cactoid Jim, the Red Plains Rider, Pemily Stalwark and the Barkeep, eventually forming a formidable force.

** [[CaptainPatriotic Jefferson Reid]], together with his KidSidekick Brownie Finn, bear a remarkable similarity to [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and ComicBook/BuckyBarnes, not just as patriotic figures, but also with regard to their plot. Just like Barnes fought with the Captain until his supposed death during a mission, Finn is killed saving Jefferson fighting Nazis and buried. But later ''(spoilers for parts of the comic lore and [[Film/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]] follow)'', [[spoiler:he is resurrected by the Nazis and brainwashed into working for them, similar to how Bucky became the Winter Soldier in both the comics and [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier the second Captain America movie]].]]

* MacGuffin: Lampshaded. A bottle of whiskey that kicks off a ''Beyond Belief'' story comes from the [=MacGuffin=] distillery.