History WebVideo / CommodoreHustle

* GilliganCut: Many times.
-->'''Matt:''' I think that's the trick with customer service. You just need to know what to say.
-->''(cut)''
-->'''James:''' Screw you too! Asshole!
* GroinAttack: Played straight and played with during the first season, where Geoff's objection to WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun is their reliance on this in their comedy.

* ShoutOut: In "The Bee Team", Graham's sister Kate remarks that "[[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire there must always be a Stark]] in the Moonbase"

* SeriousBusiness: The after-credits scene of "[[https://youtu.be/ewmGGRCRKlE?t=8m42s Strange Brew]]" has a woman none of them have met before come in and give them a ''Magic'' version of Blake's speech from ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss'' about them not preparing enough for an upcoming prerelease (which is about as non-competitive as ''Magic'' gets).

* ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping: A very specific kind in [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/loadingreadyrun/2564-Santa-Secrets Santa Secrets]], where everybody except James and Morgan buys everybody else a Magic: The Gathering booster pack. Hilariously, Morgan's gift, the only one which was bought from a convenience store (some glass baubles to use as Magic counters), was the only gift which was appreciated by its recipient (James). Further played with in that James hadn't bought it himself because he could only find it at the card shop at a huge markup; Morgan got the same thing for a dollar.

** Also his explanation for why they are watching WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic. Quotes the trope name verbatim, in fact.

** Alex apparently keeps a bunch of magic cards concealed on his person, and a [[ItMakesSenseInContext bandoleer or two of soda cans.]]

* LocalReference: In Friday Nights the crew heavily favors the Canadian Highlander format of Magic, which is pretty much exclusive to Victoria and to the Yellow Jacket store specifically.

* OneHourWorkWeek: Beej makes his money by renting out properties, which explicitly doesn't take up much of his time and is why he can hang around with the crew instead of working. Presumably he does his actual work during Friday Nights episodes, since he doesn't play magic and at most appears in cameos in them. Ian's storyline is based on this; his job is nebulous and leaves him a lot of free time during the day (it apparently mostly involves presenting at industry conventions), but by his third appearance it's a plot point that he's been neglecting his job to hang around with the crew.

** They are now heavily into MagicTheGathering.

* ContinuityDrift: For most of it's run ''Friday Nights'' was presented as just Magic-related stuff the ''Hustle'' crew got up to on the side. In 2018 they started to drift apart[[note]]very ''early'' in 2018 -- the first 2018 Commodore Hustle mentioned them having bought a door for a gag in Friday Nights[[/note]]; for example, the ''Friday Nights'' version of Ben is just a random player they know instead of part of the crew.
* CouchGag: The ''Friday Nights'' opening sequences features the cast in custom ''Magic the Gathering'' joke cards whose details change each episode. In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt--dN3uxsQ Unusual]]", an episode focused around official joke set "Unstable", these cards are reasonably balanced and wouldn't look mechanically out of place in an official set. In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0USlyIy8vXQ The Exile Zone]]", an homage to [[Franchise/TheTwilightZone exactly what you're thinking of]], instead of featuring the ''cast'', the opening consists of un-edited cards thematically appropriate to the episode.
* CurbStompBattle: When the crew gets back into [[MagicTheGathering Magic]], we get a montage of Jer, Graham, Matt, and James trying to play against Alex.

* EntertaininglyWrong: The main joke whenever Beej shows up is that he knows absolutely nothing about magic. For instance, he doesn't know about sets so he sorts cards by collection number and then color (in alphabetical instead of WUBRG order). He also shows up once in a variant of the "phases" shirt, only the phases are replaced by random nonsense.

** Alex's sleight of hand in "It's Magic" starts out realistic (using real card tricks), then gets increasingly ridiculous until he is somehow able to replace his entire [[MagicTheGathering MtG]] deck with a red one.

--->'''Graham:''' Well, you still cheated at Magic. The game.

* SeriousBusiness: The after-credits scene of "[[https://youtu.be/ewmGGRCRKlE?t=8m42s Strange Brew]]" has a woman none of them have met before come in and give them a Magic version of Blake's speech from ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss'' about them not preparing enough for an upcoming prerelease (which is about as non-competitive as Magic gets).

* NoFourthWall: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlJnSCfYns Graham following up]] eleven cups of coffee with what Heather calls "The Coffee of Life" causes this to occur, resulting in the RecursiveReality moment below, along with a brief break into the Loading Ready Live stream.

* RecursiveReality: In [[https://youtu.be/qYR7EZVW19g?t=3m21s one scene]], Graham reveals that he's editing the very scene he's talking in.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Alex wanted to step out of LRR projects to focus on his own work, and thus asked to be written out. Thus, in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGHvPdXVtIs Lockdown]]", he is written out by [[spoier:fading from existence after spending a GroundhogDayLoop trying to beat the turn 1 Steppe Lynx that defeated him at the beginning.]]

* CouchGag: The ''Friday Nights'' opening sequences features the cast in custom ''Magic the Gathering'' joke cards whose details change each episode. In "Unusual", an episode focused around official joke set "Unstable", these cards are reasonably balanced and wouldn't look mechanically out of place in an official set. In "The Exile Zone", an homage to [[Franchise/TheTwilightZone exactly what you're thinking of]], instead of featuring the ''cast'' it is actual cards thematically appropriate to the episode.

* KlingonPromotion: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WWfKhjIbGk Monarch]]", the crew plays with the monarch mechanic, but take it UpToEleven by having the roleplaying their monarch status and keeping at it beyond games. The status gets passed from person to person as each member challenges and defeats the crown holder.

* NoFourthWall: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMlJnSCfYns Graham following up]] eleven cups of coffee with what Heather calls [[ShoutOut "The Coffee]] [[Franchise/Dune of Life"]] causes this to occur, resulting in the RecursiveReality moment below, along with a brief break into the Loading Ready Live stream.

* ContinuityDrift: For most of it's run ''Friday Nights'' was presented as just Magic-related stuff the ''Hustle'' crew got up to on the side. In 2018 they started to drift apart; for example, the ''Friday Nights'' version of Ben is just a random player they know instead of part of the crew.

* CouchGag: The ''Friday Nights'' opening sequences features the cast in custom ''Magic the Gathering'' joke cards whose details change each episode. In "Unusual", an episode focused around official joke set "Unstable", these cards are reasonably balanced and wouldn't look mechanically out of place in an official set.

* KlingonPromotion: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WWfKhjIbGk Monarch]]", the crew plays with the monarch mechanic, but take it UpToEleven by having the monarch status persist beyond games and roleplaying accordingly. The status gets passed from person to person as each member challenges and defeats the crown holder.

* OverworkedSleep: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzUKA0yLUVg Merfolk Surprise]]", Cam gets over-excited over fine-tuning his Merfolk deck, looking very disheveled and sleep-deprived the next day. When he realizes that he's overly skewed the deck towards control[[note]]"This isn't Merfolk, it's Turbo-Fog!"[[/note]], he crashes immediately.

** "Monarch" starts with the crown holder losing it after being bested in different formats of ''Magic'', but then as the episode progresses, each successive monarch loses their status in simpler games, until the crown ends up being literally stolen.
* SeriousBusiness: The after-credits scene of "[[https://youtu.be/ewmGGRCRKlE?t=8m42s Strange Brew]]" has a woman none of them have met before come in and give them a Magic version of Blake's speech from ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss'' about them not preparing enough for an upcoming prerelease (which is about as non-competitive as Magic gets).

* BookEnds: The first episode of ''Friday Nights'' original run starts off almost instantly with Paul asking how to play ''Magic: the Gathering'', with Jer running into the room out of nowhere to help out, much to Graham's confusion. The season finale ends similarly, only difference being that Paul asks how to draft.

* CallBack:
** Practically every punchline in the second half of "Mustache You a Question" is a callback to the first half. The biggest stinger is probably the one about YourMom.
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMO8gCWlnPE Friday Nights: Brewmaster Showdown]]" is filled with these, including the aftermaths of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO9OHUGIAhI White Loxodon Exchange]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQfQH-6GLrk A Very Friday Night]]".
** The ultimate example is in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYR7EZVW19g Amon-Cats]]", where Kathleen playing Steppe Lynx on turn 1 gives Alex flashbacks all the way to him getting curb-stomped in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnV2ewAXgvs It's Magic!]]" and he concedes immediately. The episodes are ''7 years apart''.

* CurbStompBattle: When the crew gets back into [[MagicTheGathering Magic]], we get a montage of Jer, Graham, Matt, and James trying to play against Alex.
-->'''Alex''': Swing for 37...
-->'''Alex''': And I mill your whole deck...
-->'''Alex''': Six makes ten poison counters...
-->'''Alex''': Now you can't cast spells, ever.

* CreditsGag:
** Occasionally, such as with "Sir James von Landlord" in "The Arms Race", and Kathleen as "Anchor-Wrangling Technician" in "Sickness", both referencing events from the episode.
** The Friday Nights intro features the cast in custom ''Magic the Gathering'' joke cards whose details change each episode. In "Unusual", an episode focused around official joke set "Unstable", these cards are reasonably balanced and wouldn't look mechanically out of place in an official set.

---> '''Graham''': It's like what Jer does with the dice and the bits of paper, except that the people Jer hangs out with look down on these guys.

--->'''Matt:''' Maybe it's because of my ''PENIS!''

--->'''Jer:''' Isn't that the kind of thinking that lead to the nuclear bomb?
--->'''Paul:''' Gee, I hope so.

--->'''Matt:''' I think that's the trick with customer service. You just need to know what to say.
--->''(cut)''
--->'''James:''' Screw you too! Asshole!

--->'''Bill:''' You put way too much thought into this!
--->'''Morgan:''' Oh no, it just comes naturally. [[HehHehYouSaidX Ha.]] ''Comes''.

--->'''Alex:''' Hey James, you wanna play Bros Twisting Bros?
--->'''James:''' (backs away) Is this another trick question?

* InsaneTrollLogic: The Friday Nights episode ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYdKMzXiiAg Jeskai Mysteries]]'' has Kathleen try to find Cam's missing deck by, after first making sure he hasn't left it in his bag again, following a series of "clues" that start with looking for it at the Victoria Bug Zoo because it had [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386589 Mantis Riders]] in it. Somehow this does lead her to the "culprit" who's been calling Cam all day - but he left his phone in the bag.
--> '''Kathleen:''' Don't you see? [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386689 Swiftwater Cliffs!]] A clue! To the beach!

--->'''Graham:''' Oh, hey, Landlord James.
--->'''Landlord:''' [[LampshadeHanging Why do you guys always have to call me that?]]
--->'''Paul:''' We already have a James, so...
--->'''Landlord:''' Well, how about "Sir James von Landlord"?

* OverworkedSleep: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzUKA0yLUVg Friday Nights: Merfolk Surprise]]", Cam gets over-excited over fine-tuning his Merfolk deck, looking very disheveled and sleep-deprived the next day. When he realizes that he's overly skewed the deck towards control[[note]]"This isn't Merfolk, it's Turbo-Fog!"[[/note]], he crashes immediately.

* SerialEscalation:
** Alex's sleight of hand in "It's Magic" starts out realistic (using real card tricks), then gets increasingly ridiculous until he is somehow able to replace his entire [[MagicTheGathering MtG]] deck with a red one.
--->'''Graham:''' I need you to be straight with me. Is magic real, and are you a wizard.
--->...
--->'''Graham:''' Well, you still cheated at Magic. The game.
--->'''Alex:''' ''(reading a book; all cards have vanished from the table)'' Did I?
** James pulls some similar maneuvers in his conversation with Jer about the spending limit, opening a large pile of boosters and sending a text message to Matt, each in the space of a few seconds while the camera is pointed at Jer.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0qQoWdjnms Friday Nights: Speechless]] opens with Graham losing his voice across several back-and-forth cuts in less than a minute, with his problem worsening with each cut.
* SeriousBusiness: The after-credits scene of "[[https://youtu.be/ewmGGRCRKlE?t=8m42s Friday Nights: Strange Brew]]" has a woman none of them have met before come in and give them a Magic version of Blake's speech from ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss'' about them not preparing enough for an upcoming prerelease (which is about as non-competitive as Magic gets).

----

* BottomOfTheBarrelJoke: In-universe. While the show itself rarely reaches for ToiletHumour and the like (despite the ongoing GroinAttack plotline in Season 1), the 'Hustle version of WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun is heavily implied to resort to low-brow humour way too quickly and easily.

* OneHourWorkWeek: Beej makes his money by renting out properties, which explicitly doesn't take up much of his time and is why he can hang around with the crew instead of working. Presumably he does his actual work during Friday Nights episodes, since he doesn't play magic and never appears in them. Ian's storyline is based on this; his job is nebulous and leaves him a lot of free time during the day (it apparently mostly involves presenting at industry conventions), but by his third appearance it's a plot point that he's been neglecting his job to hang around with the crew.

* LocalRefference: In Friday Nights the crew heavily favors the Canadian Highlander format of Magic, which is pretty much exclusive to Victoria and to the Yellow Jacket store specifically.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMO8gCWlnPE Friday Nights: Brewmaster Showdown]]" is filled with these, including the aftermaths of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO9OHUGIAhI White Loxodon Exchange]]" and "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQfQH-6GLrk A Very Friday Night]]". The ultimate example is Kathleen playing Steppe Lynx on turn 1 giving Alex flashbacks all the way to him getting curb-stomped in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnV2ewAXgvs It's Magic!]]" and he concedes immediately. The episodes are ''4 years apart''.

* RecursiveReality: In one scene, Graham reveals that he's editing the very scene he's talking in.
* RedOniBlueOni: Paul and Graham respectively; Graham, while not completely sane, is much more down-to-earth than Paul, who is very separated from reality.
** Other pairs that form during the course of the first season: Kathleen and Jer, Morgan and Bill, Matt and James. Only the last one transitions into future seasons, as Morgan and Bill stop appearing and Kathleen and Jer don't interact nearly as much.
* ScoobyStack: At the beginning of "The Gay Chicken", Kathleen, Alex and Kathleen's cat do it to prove that there is no room in Graham's house for another guest.

* SerialEscalation: Alex's sleight of hand in "It's Magic" starts out realistic (using real card tricks), then gets increasingly ridiculous until he is somehow able to replace his entire [[MagicTheGathering MtG]] deck with a red one.
-->'''Graham:''' I need you to be straight with me. Is magic real, and are you a wizard.
-->...
-->'''Graham:''' Well, you still cheated at Magic. The game.
-->'''Alex:''' ''(reading a book; all cards have vanished from the table)'' Did I?

---> "I'm watching all the good [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Gen]] movies."
---> "See you in [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact one hundred and eleven minutes]]."

* VerySpecialEpisode: Discussed; proposed as a way to explain how Paul's character in their Warriors of Darkness videos lost his beard.
** This conversation doubles as a TakeThat at ''Franchise/{{Degrassi}}''.