History YMMV / InsideJob2021

** J.R. seems to teeter between PointyHairedBoss, BadBoss, and ReasonableAuthorityFigure. While he does embezzle from the corporation, his criticisms of Reagan's leadership skills are accurate as she later admits, he honors his word [[spoiler:to promote her when she corrects her flaws]]. He also doesn't seem to be a complete idiot [[spoiler:as shown when he tricks Oprah during the Shadow Council trials]]. Rand describes him as TheStarscream who staged a coup against him and painted Rand as one day away from a nervous breakdown - which is true, given Rand got ousted from his position as CEO in the first place due to trying to blow up the sun along with the other erratic behavior he's displayed throughout the series, this can be viewed more as J.R. accurately summarizing his alcohol addict of a former partner's character he's known since college rather than the biased and unjust smear campaign Rand would rather view it as. It's hard to know if J.R. is actually an Icarus that flew too close to the sun, or a face for the company that got BornLucky.

* HarsherInHindsight:
** It's treated as a SugarWiki/AwesomeMoment for Brett that he did 38 weeks of fraternity hazing in case he wanted to join every Yale fraternity, and he uses it to help get himself and Reagan past Secret Service while establishing him as being MadeOfIron and TooKinkyToTorture. "Blue Bloods" has him reunite with his frat bros...[[spoiler:who ended up seeing Brett as a joke and ProfessionalButtkisser rather than a friend]].
** All the heartwarming moments between Reagan and Rand from "Buzzkill" and "Mole Hunt" ultimately become harder to look back at when [[spoiler:the season one finale revealed that Rand was erasing Reagan's memories of her only friend so she would continue to focus on her studies and was ultimately just using her as pawn to regain control of Cognito Inc.]]
*** On that note, in "Mole Hunt" specifically, Reagan is forced to choose between her friends and her dad, [[spoiler:and she chooses her dad]]. The finale would ultimately show that, [[spoiler:whatever their faults, her friends do care about her, whereas even if Rand does care about her, it's as a tool first and a daughter second]].
*** And again, "Mole Hunt" has Rand proudly proclaim "[=#RandInnocent=]" as a joke. [[spoiler:While he is innocent of what they were accusing him of, even by Cognito's standards, he is a horrible person]].
** In "The Brettfast Club", Reagan expresses that [[EveryoneHasStandards she is uncomfortable with brainwashing an entire town just to sell them recalled products]]. As mentioned above, [[spoiler:the season finale reveals that she herself is a victim of brainwashing courtesy of Rand]].
*** On that note, Reagan coming within a hair of erasing Rafe Master's memory of every woman he has every dated in "Ghost Protocol" is a bit more uncomfortable considering [[spoiler:Rand did erase her memories of someone (that being her best and only childhood friend)]].
** In the episode "Clone Gunman", as part of the cover up for the ROBOTUS fiasco, Glenn says he had to "reheat the cold war". Only a few months after season 1 released, not only would Russia launch an invasion of Ukraine, but as a result, a very long list of companies pulled out of or pulled support for Russia, one of which being Netflix itself[[note]]see [[https://www.investopedia.com/nearly-330-companies-have-withdrawn-from-russia-5221814 here]] for a list of companies that pulled out as of early March 2022[[/note]].
** In the first episode of season 2, Reagan calls [[spoiler:Rand's takeover of Cognito Inc.]] "the most damaging mid-life crisis since Elon Musk". At the time the season was released, Elon Musk had recently bought Twitter and made a series of decisions that were widely considered to be running the site into the ground, including firing most of the staff (allegedly targeting people who criticized him).
** In another case of the ProductionLeadTime causing a joke to come with far more baggage than planned, while under the effects of deep Catholic guilt, Ron confesses to have been the one to tell Music/KanyeWest about politics. By the time season 2 came out, Kanye went from making a handful of odd and problematic comments to becoming a full-blown anti-Semite, accusing Jewish people of running the world from the shadows and praising Hitler, comments that got increasingly aggressive culminating in friends and business partners cutting ties with the rapper, as well as him announcing his intention of running for president with noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes as a member of his crew. Even worse, when Kanye proclaimed his antisemitic and pro-Nazi views during an appearance on ''Infowars'', ''Alex Jones'', who the show had mocked as a loathsome, delusional loser in "How Reagan Got Her Groove Back", was horrified and tried to get Kanye to take his comments back.

* HoYay: The show has a decent amount of this from its male characters:
** Myc and Andre form a ThoseTwoGuys pairing and tend to hang out often, which goes so far as for the two to excitedly anticipate in engaging in orgies. Andre even contracts mushroom herpes in "Blue Bloods" from the massive Lizard-people orgy, and its unclear whether Myc gave it to him directly and that Andre was too intoxicated to remember.
*** In "My Big Flat Earth Wedding", Myc pushes Andre's face closer to him so he can lick his secretions off of his skin to get him high. The entire time, Myc is giggling and encouraging him while Andre is visibly sweating, and while its meant to get Andre high enough to find Reagan, it certainly ''looks'' as sexual as it sounds.
*** Also, earlier in the scene, Andre found one of Myc's amputated tentacles to suck the chemical from directly, which was mentioned in an earlier episode to be one of Myc's ''penises.'' And Myc said this ''explicitly to Andre.''
** Brett's ploys for positive attention from men in his life certainly can be interpreted in a romantic lens, particularly his interest in Rafe Masters, in which he goes above and beyond to follow him around and help him discover Reagan's "murderer". It definitely plays out like a one-sided crush.
*** In "Blue Bloods" Brett insists that his college frat brothers both haze him to get him further into the frat, which involves stripping down to nothing and getting spanked with a paddle while trapped in a pillory. [[TooKinkyToTorture He also seems to be way too calm about it.]]
** Rafe himself has this with Dr. Skullfinger in perhaps the most overt example. Other characters note how the FoeYayShipping dynamic looks from the outside, as Rafe and Skullfinger both exchange innuendoes, and, later, Skullfinger even ''relates'' to Reagan [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything as if they are both talking about the same toxic ex-boyfriend.]] Later on he realizes that he and Rafe are "meant to be" and the two engage in their hero/villain dynamic, with Skullfinger describing burning off Rafe's testicles and [[NightmareFetishist Rafe sounding far too happy about it.]] To make it stranger, [[AnythingThatMoves Andre]] decides to sit and watch.
** Glenn notably feels attracted to Brett according to Myc ([[HaveImentionedIAmHeterosexualToday though he fervently denies it]]), and supposedly has had sexual fantasies involving ''all'' of his coworkers. He describes Brett as "Fox News anchor beautiful" and seems to both envy and lust after him on occasion.
** J.R. and Rand are described as having a sordid history already, and when Rand threatens to expose that J.R. has a weird looking dick, J.R.'s only response is that they ''both'' have weird dicks, which directly implies that they've been in a situation where they've seen each other's penises. Make of that what you will.
*** Downplayed as Part 2 reveals that they discovered they each have weird looking dicks when they were in a communal university dorm shower, but that doesn't necessarily mean they haven't been in raunchy situations afterward,

* UnintentionallySympathetic: In "Ghost Protocol", everyone tells Reagan that she should just go and ended things with Rafe Masters instead of ghosting him/[[spoiler:faking her death]]. However, not only is Rafe a trained killer, but he also very unstable and very creepy (not only does he break down crying at the thought of woman he had a one night stand with breaking up with him, he talks about moving to her city and having kids with her). In fact, Rafe only becomes creepier after Reagan [[spoiler:faked her death]], to the point he reveals that he [[spoiler:bugged Reagan's phone and he has done the same with every woman he has every dated]]. Even if ending things with him face to face turned out to be the right call, Reagan is very justified in wanting to avoid him at all costs, especially since in some ways Rafe's behavior frighteningly resembles the behavior of real life stalkers.

* EvilIsCool: The Shadow Board/Council might be super creepy and responsible for a ConspiracyKitchenSink that regularly make the place an exponentially worse place to live, but their unique costumes, EvilSoundsDeep {{Badass Baritone}}s, and subtle RealityWarper powers make them also ''super'' intimidating and fascinating.

* HilariousInHindsight: Gigi saying she refused to rig the Oscars for Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio by saying "If [he was] the best, [he] would have won!" becomes even funnier come "Whoas-Feratu", which revealed Leo is a vampire and the most vicious of his circle of vampire actors at that. Gigi dissed a vampire!

** J.R. seems to teeter between PointyHairedBoss, BadBoss, and ReasonableAuthorityFigure. While he does embezzle from the corporation, his criticisms of Reagan's leadership skills are accurate as she later admits, he honors his word [[spoiler:to promote her when she corrects her flaws]]. He also doesn't seem to be a complete idiot [[spoiler:as shown when he tricks Oprah during the Shadow Council trials]]. Rand describes him as TheStarscream who staged a coup against him and painted Rand as one day away from a nervous breakdown - which if true, given Rand got ousted from his position as CEO in the first place due to trying to blow up the sun along with the other erratic behavior he's displayed throughout the series, this can be viewed more as J.R. accurately summarizing his alcohol addict of a former partner's character he's known since college rather than the biased and unjust smear campaign Rand would rather view it as. It's hard to know if J.R. is actually an Icarus that flew too close to the sun, or a face for the company that got BornLucky.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience:
** Reagan has several traits that suggest she might be on the autism spectrum: hyper-focus on her interests, NoSocialSkills, and obsession with routine ("TIME CARDS!"). To the point where her mom straight up says she thinks Reagan has Asperger's. She has difficulty making eye contact, alienates her coworkers frequently due to her lack of tact, and when Brett attempts to hug her she panics and reflexively punches him in the face. In addition, she takes a lot of Adderall, a medication typically used to treat symptoms of ADHD or narcolepsy.[[note]]Though it's also used off-prescription by neurotypical workaholics pulling all-nighters.[[/note]]
** Brett may or may not have some sort of intellectual disability, since he responds to the question of if he has brain damage by saying that it's something not even his doctors can figure out.

** The opening credits shows a member of Myc's species interacting with ancient apes, the latter of whom pick a piece off of the living mushroom and eat it. While this is clearly a riff on ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', it could also be a reference to the [[https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/stoned-ape-hypothesis.htm Stoned Ape Hypothesis]], which posits that psychedelics like psilocybin may have contributed to improving ancient human neocortices, helping humanity's ancestors develop what we would now refer to as sapience. [[FridgeBrilliance Which was also the purpose of the monolith.]] [[spoiler:The psilocybin connection is even made canon to the series' universe as of Season 2, where it's revealed that humanity's apelike ancestors eating mushrooms allowed their intellects to evolve and eventually lead to humanity evolving from them]].

** In another case of the ProductionLeadTime causing a joke to come with far more baggage than planned, while under the effects of deep Catholic guilt, Ron confesses to have been the one to tell Kanye West about politics. By the time season 2 came out, Kanye went from making a handful of odd and problematic comments to becoming a full-blown anti-Semite, accusing Jewish people of running the world from the shadows and praising Hitler, comments that got increasingly aggressive culminating in friends and business partners cutting relationship, as well as him announcing his intention of running for president with noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes as a member of his crew. Even worse, when West proclaimed his antisemitic and pro-Nazi views on Infowars, ''Alex Jones'', who the show had mocked as a loathsome, delusional loser in "How Reagan Got Her Groove Back", was horrified and tried to get Kanye to take it back.

** J.R. seems to teeter between PointyHairedBoss, BadBoss, and ReasonableAuthorityFigure. While he does embezzle from the corporation, his criticisms of Reagan's leadership skills are accurate as she later admits, he honors his word [[spoiler:to promote her when she corrects her flaws]]. He also doesn't seem to be a complete idiot [[spoiler:as shown when he tricks Oprah during the Shadow Council trials]]. Rand describes him as TheStarscream who staged a coup against him and painted Rand as one day away from a nervous breakdown - which if true, given Rand got ousted from his position as CEO in the first place due to trying to blow up the sun along with the other erratic behavior he's displayed throughout the series, this can be viewed more as J.R. accurately summarizing his alcohol addict of a former partner's character rather than the smear campaign Rand would rather view it as. It's hard to know if J.R. is actually an Icarus that flew too close to the sun, or a face for the company that got BornLucky.

* AcceptablePoliticalTargets:
** Creator/JoeRogan seems to be one, as he is one of the few celebrities called out more than once. Notably, despite almost every conspiracy being true in this universe, he is still spoken of as a liar and a nutcase. Also, he stalked Mycc until he used the Ghost Protocol to throw him off.
** Alex Jones gets called out at the beginning of season 2, with both Reagan and Ron, representatives of Cognito Inc. and The Illuminati, both disgusted at him for thinking that a school shooting was faked.
** Music/KanyeWest gets a few jabs for the... controversial views he's been developing as he makes his way into politics.
* AcceptableTargets:
** Billionaires, celebrities and powerful people get quite a few jabs directed towards them. Jeff Bezos in particular gets a savage roasting. He is made out to be a vain, petty, UngratefulBastard, oblivious to the plights of others before being EatenAlive by a kraken.
** Flat Earthers are the only conspiracy treated with outright scorn, and Rand is only egging them on to win a bet with J.R.

** J.R. seems to teeter between PointyHairedBoss, BadBoss, and ReasonableAuthorityFigure. While he does embezzle from the corporation, his criticisms of Reagan's leadership skills are accurate as she later admits, he honors his word [[spoiler:to promote her when she corrects her flaws]]. He also doesn't seem to be a complete idiot [[spoiler:as shown when he tricks Oprah during the Shadow Council trials]]. Rand describes him as TheStarscream who staged a coup against him and painted Rand as one day away from a nervous breakdown. It's hard to know if J.R. is actually an Icarus that flew too close to the sun, or a face for the company that got BornLucky.

%%Zero Content Examples are not allowed on wiki pages and have been commented out. Please add sufficient context before uncommenting.

*** The name itself alludes to the UsefulNotes/{{CIA}}'s mind control project, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra MKUltra]]. There are also two road signs for "Isbell Blvd." and "Gottlieb Ave.", referring to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Gottlieb Sidney Gottlieb]], a spymaster at the CIA in the 1950s and 60s who was responsible for the [=MKUltra=] project, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_Isbell Harris Isbell]], a pharmacologist who also worked on the project.

* ShipSinking: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]]. Here’s what Shion Takeuchi, the creator of ''Inside Job'', [[https://www.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/qww90n/comment/hl5jdz5/ had to say about the possibility of Reagan and Brett getting together.]]
-->'''Shion [=Takeuchi=]:''' Brett and Reagan's relationship is strangely and platonically more intimate than a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. It's also a pretty unique dynamic, moreso than a romantic relationship. I wouldn't try to turn it into one unless there was something really interesting to explore.

** In another case of the AnimationLeadTime causing a joke to come with far more baggage than planned, while under the effects of deep Catholic guilt, Ron confesses to have been the one to tell Kanye West about politics. By the time season 2 came out, Kanye went from making a handful of odd and problematic comments to becoming a full-blown anti-Semite, accusing Jewish people of running the world from the shadows and praising Hitler, comments that got increasingly aggressive culminating in friends and business partners cutting relationship, as well as him announcing his intention of running for president with noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes as a member of his crew. Even worse, when West proclaimed his antisemitic and pro-Nazi views on Infowars, ''Alex Jones'', who the show had mocked as a loathsome, delusional loser in "How Reagan Got Her Groove Back", was horrified and tried to get Kanye to take it back.

** Flat Earthers are so far the only conspiracy treated with outright scorn, and Rand is only egging them on to win a bet with J.R.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: One could argue the relative lack of advertising and awareness of the show and the collapse of Netflix Animation were the prime factors behind it's eventual cancellation.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: One could argue the relative lack of advertising and awareness of the show and the collapse of Netflix Animation were the prime reasons behind it's eventual cancellation.

** In another case of the AnimationLeadTime causing a joke to come with far more baggage than planned, while under the effects of deep Catholic guilt, Ron confesses to have been the one to tell Kanye West about politics. By the time season 2 came out, Kanye went from making a handful of odd and problematic comments to becoming a full-blown anti-Semite, accusing Jewish people of running the world from the shadows and praising Hitler, comments that got increasingly aggressive culminating in friends and business partners cutting relationship, as well as him announcing his intention of running for president with noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes as a member of his crew.

* StrangledByTheRedString: Reagan in Part 2. [[spoiler:With Ron. Goes from SlapSlapKiss in Episode 1, to SheIsNotMyGirlfriend in Episode 2, to ''desperately'' trying to get a RelationshipUpgrade in Episode 4, to considering throwing away her entire career, friendship with her crew ''and'' the promise of uncovering the Robes' secrets to go run away with Ron in Episode 8. Part 2 is effectively a RomanceArc with the usual shadow government antics as the B Plot, but with so many cut corners for Reagan it's distracting.]]

** In the first episode of season 2, Reagan calls [[spoiler:Rand's takeover of Cognito Inc.]] "the most damaging mid-life crisis since Elon Musk". At the time the season was released, Elon Musk had recently bought Twitter and made a series of decisions that were widely considered to be running the site into the ground, including firing most of the staff (supposedly targeting people who criticized him).

** In another case of the AnimationLeadTime causing a joke to come with far more baggage than planned, while under the effects of deep Catholic guilt, Ron confesses to have been the one to tell Kanye West about politics. By the time season 2 came out, Kanye went from making a handful of odd and problematic comments to becoming a full-blown anti-Semite, accusing Jewish people of running the world from the shadows, comments that got increasingly aggressive culminating in friends and business partners cutting relationship, as well as him announcing his intention of running for president with noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes as a member of his crew.
** A few weeks before season 2, Creator/MatthewPerry released a autobiography where he seemed to twice wish Creator/KeanuReeves had died instead of friends of his (he would apologize and claim that he just stupidly put a random name in for a joke). In the second episode of season 2, Reagan's mom Tomiko would start dating Keanu only for it to turn out that he is a vampire. While it seemed like he was planning on draining Tomiko's blood, [[spoiler:only for it to turn out that [[GoodAllAlong Keanu genuinely fell for Tomiko and wanted to save her from the other vampires among Hollywood's leading men]]]].

*** On that note, Reagan coming within a hair of erasing Rafe Master's memory of every woman he has every dated in "Ghost Protocol" is a bit more uncomfortable considering [[spoiler:Rand did erase her memories of someone (that being her best and only childhood friend)]]
** In the episode "Clone Gunman", as part of the cover up for the ROBOTUS fiasco, Glenn says he had to "reheat the cold war". Only a few months after season 1 released, not only would Russia launch an invasion Ukraine, but as a result, a very long list of companies pulled out of or pulled support for Russia, one of which being Netflix itself[[note]]see [[https://www.investopedia.com/nearly-330-companies-have-withdrawn-from-russia-5221814 here]] for a list of companies that pulled out as of early March 2022[[/note]].
** In the first episode of season 2, Reagan calls [[spoiler:Rand's takeover of Cognito Inc.]] "the most damaging mid-life crisis since Elon Musk". At the time the season was released, Elon Musk had recently bought twitter and made a series of decisions that were widely considered to be running the site into the ground, including firing most of the staff (supposedly targeting people who criticized him).
** In another case of the AnimationLeadTime causing a joke to come with far more baggage than planned, while under the effects of deep Catholic guilt, Ron confesses to have been the one to tell Kanye West about politics. By the time season 2 came out, Kanye went from making a handful of odd and problematic comments to becoming a full-blown anti-semite, accusing Jewish people of running the world from the shadows, comments that got increasingly aggressive culminating in friends and business partners cutting relationship, as well as him announcing his intention of running for president with noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes as a member of his crew.