History WebVideo / OddityArchive

You can find the show on its [=YouTube=] channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/OddityArchive here]]. Oddity Archive was featured in [http://web.archive.org/web/20180321152130/https://thezerolevel.com the now-defunct site Channel Zero[ which shut down mysteriously back in 2018.

You can find the show on its [=YouTube=] channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/OddityArchive here]].

''Oddity Archive'' [[https://www.youtube.com/user/OddityArchive is a webseries]] regarding past technology and the odder, often [[NightmareFuel scarier]] but relatively obscure parts of film, television and music, occasionally making riffs on certain things.

* TheCameo: WebVideo/{{Techmoan}} appears in an interview in the Episode 200 special, "Behind the Box".

* StupidStatementDanceMix: "Employee Training Videos Vol. 2 (Loss Prevention)" ends with a remix of the music from one of the videos using some of the dialogue from one of the shoplifters.

** Ben briefly shows his full face at various points in Episode 227 following his "Vampess" transformation.

* {{Corpsing}}: In "Mystery 8mm Films/The Ballad of Ben & 8mm", Ben cleans and plays two mystery reels of 8mm film that he never looked at before. The first one seems to be a nature film of some kind.[[note]][[spoiler:Hilariously, THAT film turned out to be porn, too!]][[/note]] The second one [[spoiler:turns out to be porn.]] Ben promptly loses his shit upon discovering this.

'''Ben:''' NO, NOT YOU, THE ''GOOD'' ONE!

--->'''Ben''': What, no scary logo?!?! Rip-off!

** When Ben looks at the Oddyssey 2 Voice Module he says that the voice it produces is a lot like Max Headroom to which he remarks "The real Max Headroom, not the hijacker."

** Ben played this up initially, but it would later be toned down quickly, because the pain from the aforementioned car accident affected him too much to continue that attitude.

*** In episode 222 ("Record Ripoffs Vol. 11 (‘80’s Hits: Woodgrain & Neon)"), it was revealed that this cover originated on a 1987 album titled ''Box Office Blasts: Latest Movie Themes'', recorded by the Movin' Dream Orchestra for Denon Records and released only in Japan.

* MisplacedNamesPoster: An accidental one occurs in "VHS Vault Vol. 4 (VCR Games)", when a caption reading "billiard room" appears in front of a character.

-->'''Ben''': No, it's not, i-it's "Billiard Room", I could see it there right on the screen! Oh, everybody in ''Clue'' IS a compulsive liar, so I shouldn't be surprised.

->[[TheStinger That's it for today's Archive. Join us next time when we ponder why TV Tropes]] seems almost intentionally designed to [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife ruin your life]].

In June 2015, the fandom entered into a collective panic following the season three finale, wherein Ben claimed the higher-ups in the geek community got ''Archive'' cancelled, as it was "obsolete". Ben soon took to social media to assure fans that the show was not, in fact, ending, and that regular episodes would resume sometime mid-July. Sure enough, normal "broadcasting" resumed on July 16, 2015.

* SeriesFauxnale: "The Death of Analog TV" is set up as one of these. [[note]]However, because ''Archive'' was never in any danger of ending, this trope doesn't straightly apply.[[/note]]

* YouWannaGetSued: When Creator/Disney or Chicago's WGN channel are mentioned, Ben often bleeps them out to avoid invoking them directly, and their names are usually blanked out when they appear on screen. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that, as Ben notes in an episode of "Ask the Archive", Disney and WGN can be a bit litigious when it comes to copyright, and referencing either entity directly could result in the offending episode being pulled from Website/YouTube.

** Ben's ''Cat Sitter'' VHS opens with a warning stating it's coated with a substance called "KTC", which apparently damages the VCR if it is copied. He does a series of tests to see if it really does. It doesn't.

** "Interstitials" features the [[ItMakesSenseInContext (fake)]] book ''Don't Mime If I Do'', written by [[NightmareFuel "R. Wirst Nitemayer"]][[note]]"Our worst nightmare".[[/note]], and published by "Munnee, Hungree & Bastards Inc." [[note]]"money hungry [&] bastards"[[/note]].

** Ben would outright state that his birthday is (Presumably) November 12, as it was the original date Episode 206, "Benny's Birthday Bash" was uploaded. In the episode he states that he would likely just say that he is turning 29 that year.
[[note]] For those of you keeping up at home, that would make his (presumed) birthdate November 12, 1985.[[/note]]

* EmergencyBroadcast: The main focus of episodes 2 ("Emergency Broadcast Salute, Vol. 1"), 51 ("Weather Warnings"), and 159 ("Emergency Broadcast Salute, Vol. 2"). In the first of those episodes, Ben describes how the Emergency Alert System started as an nuclear attack warning system called CONELRAD before expanding to also report on severe weather; in the second, he puts more focus on said severe weather broadcasts; and in the third, he gives what little information he could find about international emergency broadcast protocols, such as those in Japan and Canada.

--> '''Ben:''' I could never remember the words to that damn song, anyway.

-->'''Voiceover''': Theprogramportionofthistapehasbeencoatedwithanewsubstancecalled[=KTC=]topreventillegalcopying. [=KTConlyreactswhensubjectedtothemagneticheadfluctationcasuedbytherecordmode.=] Ifyouhavealreadystartedtorecordthistape, wearerequiredbylawtoinformyouthattheKTCprocessmaydamageyourVCR. [=KTCwillnotaffectyourVCRintheplaymode.=] [=ThetapecoatedwithKTCdoesnotbeginforanotherfifteenseconds.=] [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Stop. Recording. Now.]] Thankyouforpurchasingthisvideo. Enjoytheshow.
-->'''Ben''': I guess John Moschitta wasn't available.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: Sometimes used with the more absurd oddities.
** Awkward edits in the source material would be disclaimed with "NOT OUR EDIT".

** "Teknikel Diffikultees" revolved around this.

** #8 was "Day by Day", a track from the obscure "8-track rip-off" ''Themes from "Theatre/Godspell"'' by an uncredited organ combo first played on Episode 55, "Return of the Son of Record Rip-Offs (or: Record Rip-Offs Vol. 3)", which Ben often used on subsequent episodes as "montage music".

** #6 was "We're Stayin' in Tonight", from RCA's "Introduction to CED" video featured in Episode 92, "[[UsefulNotes/CED Capacitance Electronic Discs]] (or, CED's)".

* EmergencyBroadcast: Episode 51, "Weather Warnings".

** Janet Greene's "Fascist Threat" is used twice as a method of [[ItMakesSenseInContext forcing people to join the Republican Party,]] because it is just that bad. [[note]]This mainly more of a joke than anything -- Ben seems to think Janet Greene's work is relatively decent for conservative folk music (not that this is presented as any great honour).[[/note]]
** This is also the case with the "Italian Dance Party" record's rendition of "Arrivederci Roma". It leads Ben to do some... [[NoodleIncident unpleasant-sounding things]] before redacting his prior panning of the album.
** Ben seems to regard the musical sting for the Protect and Survive shorts as this, leading him to later dub other uncanny-synth jingles trying to sound futuristic as having "Protect and Survive Syndrome".

** He issues a more serious one at the beginning of "Protect and Survive" due to its discussion of nuclear war and its GallowsHumor.

** #8 was "Day by Day", a track from the obscure "8-track rip-off" ''Themes from'' Godspell by an uncredited organ combo first played on Episode 55, "Return of the Son of Record Rip-Offs (or: Record Rip-Offs Vol. 3)", which Ben often used on subsequent episodes as "montage music".

** #6 was "We're Stayin' in Tonight", from RCA's "Introduction to CED" video featured in Episode 92, "Capacitance Electronic Discs (or, CED's)".
** #5 was "V.D. is for Everybody", the jingle from the PSA of the same name featured in Episode 45, "Public Service Announcements (or, PSA's)", a still of which is still part of the opening sequence to this day.

** #2 was "Cyclotron" by Keith Mansfield, used in a [=Tele1st=] startup countdown shown in Episode 11, "Pay TV (but Not Cable or Satellite)".

* FakeBoobs: Ben accuses a woman in a phonesex ad of this trope in "1-900-ARCHIVE".

** "Interstitials" features the [[ItMakesSenseInContext (fake)]] book "Don't Mime If I Do", written by [[NightmareFuel "R. Wirst Nitemayer"]][[note]]"Our worst nightmare".[[/note]], and published by "Munnee, Hungree & Bastards Inc." [[note]]"money hungry [&] bastards"[[/note]].

* WeInterruptThisProgram: Episode 190, "Special Bulletins (or, We Interrupt This Archive)", is all about these. Many of the famous ones get covered: the Hindenburg disaster ("Oh, the humanity!"), the Pearl Harbor attacks, D-Day, the JFK assassination, 9/11, the Port Kaituma shootings which preceded the Jonestown mass suicide, the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt (featuring Frank Reynolds' infamous "all this information!" outburst), Princess Diana's death and Air Florida Flight 90.

-->"I had a classmate who got a record deal.....with Creator/EpicRecords, for his band.....and that band was called '''Music/TheFray'''."

* YouWannaGetSued: When The Walt Disney Corporation or Chicago's WGN channel are mentioned, Ben often bleeps them out to avoid invoking them directly, and their names are usually blanked out when they appear on screen. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that, as Ben notes in an episode of "Ask the Archive", Disney and WGN can be a bit litigious when it comes to copyright, and referencing either entity directly could result in the offending episode being pulled from Website/YouTube.

In April 2012, Colorado resident and former folk musician Ben Minnotte became the victim of a car crash that left him with neither a job nor wheels, and with a damaged ribcage. Trying to find ways to cope so he can think less about his pain, he decided to look back on his childhood curiosity with technology and make an article about the ''Series/MaxHeadroom'' incident in June 2012. However, he discovered that his humor barely made any sense written, so he decided to make a one-off podcast. But then that was scrapped as well since there's a whole ''video'' component to the whole thing. So what did he do? He decided to try his hands out at being an internet CausticCritic towards this [[BuffySpeak stuff]]. And, thus, the ''Oddity Archive'' was born.