Line #24 Creator/BrianDavidGilbert


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3_5akb4l_400x400.jpg]]
2
3	->'''BDG's mom:''' This is a lot of research into things that really have very little meaning.
4
5	Brian David Gilbert, better known by his initials BDG, is an internet content producer who first rose to prominence when he joined Polygon and produced the ''{{WebVideo/Unraveled}}'' series, where he dug into (and sometimes fabricated) the lore behind some of the most beloved video game franchises, while also [[DoubleMeaningTitle slowly going insane]]. After producing three seasons, BDG left Polygon to create new works. Karen Han often co-writes and -produces his videos.
6
7	A full list of BDG's work can be found on his [[https://www.briandavidgilbert.com website.]]
8	----
9	!!Works with pages on the wiki:
10	* ''WebVideo/DancesMoving''
11	* ''WebVideo/{{Unraveled}}''
12	* ''WebVideo/GillandGilbert''
13	----
14	!!Brian has also appeared in:
15	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTimeFionnaAndCake'': The Winter King
16	* ''VideoGame/KrakenAcademy'': Protagonist
17	* ''VideoGame/{{Starfield}}'': Phil Hill
18	* ''WebVideo/UmActually'': Himself as Fact Checker
19	----
20
21	!! Tropes exhibited in BDG's work
22	* ActualPacifist: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iTAkRHGbuM Pumpkin Cowboy,]] tragically. [[spoiler:While the song leaves it ambiguous if Cowboy Cat was accidentally stabbed by his own knife when Pumpkin Cowboy tackled him, or if Pumpkin Cowboy really did kill him in the heat of the moment, the poor gourd is so heartbroken at taking a life -- any life -- that he weeps beside his fallen enemy, then vanishes into the West, never to be seen again.]]
23	* AerithAndBob: 2winz^2. The members are [[{{Hipster}} TBD]], [[HollywoodHacking AtSign]], [[AnimeHair Juunyur]] (presumably pronounced "junior"), and [[OnlySaneMan Dale]].
24	* AuthorAppeal:
25	** A lot of his short form [=YouTube=] content centers on interests of his, such as Old Bay Seasoning and especially Jorts. BDG even describes himself as a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx3ORAO1Y6s jorts enthusiast.]]
26	** He often uses English academia to explain the topics on ''Unraveled,'' even if it barely makes sense.
27	** If he can work dancing (especially interpretive dancing) into his works, he will, as seen with the dream ballet in Ultimate Pokérap, the dance break in "Shingle Jingle," and of course, ''WebVideo/DancesMoving,'' which centers around dancing and ends with an interpretive freestyle dance number.
28	* BandOfRelatives: Parodied with 2winz^2 in "Just One Day," a band made of four brothers. One brother, Dale, is only in the band because their mom forced the other brothers to let him join, and the other three brothers sing about how much they wish he was out of the band, despite him being the only one capable of actually managing the band. By the end of the song, they kick Dale out, but all need to rely on their mom to send money.
29	* BaitAndSwitch: "It's Nesting Season" starts off discussing how the bird who nests outside Brian's window spends a lot of her energy trying to fight her reflection, and seems to be setting up a moral about how you should consider if your anxieties are creating problems for you that aren't actually real. Then BDG says maybe the bird knows something he doesn't, actually, and spends the rest of the song fighting ''his'' reflection.
30	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The other three members of 2winz^2 ''did'' say they would give up their money, sponsorship deals, etc, if they didn't have to deal with Dale anymore. When they actually get what they want by insulting Dale until he quits, the next couple lines suggest they did in fact lose most of that stuff (as they have to rely on their mother for funding), because Dale was the reason they got it in the first place.
31	* BittersweetEnding: "Pumpkin Cowboy" ends with the titular character saving his cattle and the town from Cowboy Cat, but in taking the scoundrel's life (either [[AmbiguousSituation accidentally or deliberately]]) he finds that he can no longer live with himself and so rides off into the sunset, leaving only his legend behind.
32	* BoyBand: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdVgPCM5wEk Just One Day]]" is a parody of boy bands, with [[BandOfRelatives four brothers]] named TBD, [=AtSign=], Juunyur, and Dale singing kitschy love songs while bragging about their wealth. They're not very responsible with their money and blow it on frivolous fashion and luxuries, even though Dale keeps trying to warn them about going broke.
33	* BreakingTheFourthWall: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZy8BbMz_U "Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan '97,"]] [[spoiler:the dad eventually speaks directly to Jake and tells him to stop watching the tape over and over again because it won't explain anything or bring him peace. At one point he says "Jake? you're not..." and looks confused, which implies that he realizes ''you'', the viewer, are watching him.]]
34	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Practically every verse of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml7bK1jg69I "We Like Watching Birds"]] lists several normal things the narrators like about bird-watching, like enjoying how cute and clever birds are, and then one ''not'' normal thing, like stealing chicken bones out of an Applebee's trashcan to offer to their one-eyed robin god.
35	-->We like watching birds, which is good because we have no choice!
36	* BrickJoke: Used often in BDG's work, especially in Unraveled, with one notable personal channel example. In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkPNOD2wlp8 my hair: a comprehensive tutorial]], Brian starts to say something, but then leaves it for later. Text slides over the screen saying "HE'LL TALK ABOUT IT LATER" with beautiful singing over top of it. [[spoiler:Later, Brian finally says it, and "HE'S TALKING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW" is sung.]]
37	* CallASmeerpARabbit: In "a dream i had the other day", the "normal" kind of hamster is giant and looks just like a raccoon, per the dream universe's logic. (The raccoon-puppet-hamster-thing is also, somehow, BDG and Karen's son.)
38	* {{Camp}}: BDG has extensive experience in musical theatre, so much of his content involves breaking out into impromptu song and strange tangents.
39	* ChristmasCreep: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zUh7tWXK1I "It's November 8th"]] has Brian chastise his roommates for playing Christmas music in early November... but he quickly gets sucked into the Christmas spirit himself, ditching his annoyance for colored lights and a tiny Christmas tree.
40	* CuriosityKilledTheCast: Trying to track down Dorian Smiles in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfu39l0kxg "Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss"]] [[spoiler:gets the main character possessed or assimilated or ''something'' by the copy of himself he finds in the woods.]]
41	* DeadSparks: "Don't Tell Your WIFE About This Game!" deconstructs the implication of the titular mobile game ad: the player needs to turn to erotic mobile games because he hasn't tried to have a sexual relationship with his wife in two years. They don't even really talk much anymore, so he'll do anything to distract himself so he doesn't have to suck it up and break up with her.
42	-->Because when you said I do, you didn’t do it with enough follow through\
43	And though the match has been made the text that’s displayed Says you’re still in the queue\
44	And you will find any explanation to keep your mind from the truth\
45	[...]And the build that you’ve built together is falling apart\
46	And you want to go back to a previous save, but you’re too proud to restart
47	* TheDissTrack: 2winz^2's song ''Just One Day'' starts out like any other BoyBand song but quickly pivots into the other three complaining about how much of a loser their fourth member Dale is.
48	* FreezeFrameBonus:
49	** The brief shots of various bird species in "we like watching birds" are accompanied by facts about that bird's species, which get progressively more comical. The shots also assign bird names to things that aren't even birds, like a turtle and a statue of a pig. Apparently an American goldfinch lent Brian his truck to help him move one time, and Brian really hates a Canada goose named Sebastian.
50	** In "that feeling when you bite into a pickle and it's a little squishier than you expected," the book Karen's reading changes every time the shot cuts between her and Brian.
51	** In "Don't Tell Your WIFE About This Game!", a brief glimpse at the phone at the end has a shot that says the game could be downloaded from the cloud, meaning the player had already downloaded the game in the past.
52	* FullNameBasis: Almost always refers to himself by full name or his initials, and others have followed suit.
53	* HereditaryHairstyle: It's lampshaded (and invoked) in the "Siblings" video that Brian and Laura have very similar hairstyles. When Patrick joins in the "sibling dance," his short hair gets replaced with a wig that's similar to his siblings' hair.
54	* ICantHearYou: In "Just One Day," Dale tries to record a verse warning his brothers to stop wasting their money, but TBD drowns him out with a blender.
55	* ImposedHandicapTraining: In order to be like [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Rock Lee]], he wore ankle weights in middle school. This is what has led to his excellent jumping ability.
56	* ImprobableAntidote: In "shingle jingle," his doctor says the cure for shingles is to burn sage, avoid the number six, run under a bridge holding a cat, and tie a leek to his affected area. And take pills and sleep, of course.
57	* InkBlotTest: "Beautiful Mind" has BDG playing a psychiatrist and giving Creator/TomCardy an inkblot test, to which he gives absurd, abstract answers. Then they switch roles and it turns out that Brian ''also'' sees the same things.
58	* InterfaceSpoiler: Lampshaded in his "Hair tutorial", where by the time he's finished showing how he styles his shoulder-length hair, it's only halfway through the video. He signs off and lets the outro screen roll for a few seconds... before pointing out there are still ''many'' more minutes left in the video and so much left for him to do.
59	* KillerRobot: One of the songs in the ''AAAH!BBA'' album is performed by a murder robot.
60	* LargeHam: In most of Brian's works, he gets very enthusiastic, turning any situation into a theatrical revue or a reason for a mental breakdown. Many ''Unraveled'' videos in particular devolve into him screaming about the complexity of the subject.
61	* MoodWhiplash: His application to Polygon uses this, starting off with a typical "beginning editor" opening and slightly poor mic quality as he introduces himself... before ''immediately'' streamlining into an upbeat, jumpy song with much better mic quality as he shows off his skills with editing and his comedic skill.
62	* NotBloodSiblings: Subtly skewered in the ''AAAH!BBA'' cover of "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" as sung by Dr. Frankenstein, which opens with Frankenstein writing to "my dearest sister slash wife". [[note]]In the book, the Frankenstein family raised Elizabeth, who is either a foundling or Victor's actual cousin depending on which edition you're reading, essentially as a very early start on matchmaking her and Victor. Which works.[[/note]]
63	* NothingIsScarier: We never do learn the significance of [[spoiler:the masked, hooded figure]] that appears at various points of "Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan '97", though most viewers theorize that it [[spoiler:symbolizes the father's looming mortality, be it symbolic of his specific ''cause'' of death or simply a Grim Reaper-like figure]].
64	* NotSoAboveItAll: The "Siblings" video depicts Brian and Laura's older brother Patrick as much more busy and serious-minded than his younger siblings. When they beg him to join them in their "sibling dance," he turns them down, explaining how stressed out he is at work... then turns around wearing a wacky wig and joins them in the dance anyway.
65	* ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation: PlayedForDrama in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfu39l0kxg "Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss."]] Brian's character doesn't know what the spreadsheets he works on are for and doesn't even know who his boss "Dorian Smiles" really is; he simply repeats how he's making $20K every month by being his own boss and how great it is. [[spoiler:He gets tired of not knowing and attempts to find out. This goes poorly for him.]]
66	* OnlySaneMan:
67	** Dale is the only member of 2winz^2 who's concerned about the band's financial issues and tries to keep them from going broke by making frivolous purchases. Unfortunately, the rest of the band doesn't listen and just rags on him for being a buzzkill, and he gives up on them when TBD drowns out his cautionary verse with a blender.
68	** When 2winz^2 performs background vocals on ''AAAH!BBA'', Dale is the only one to question the wisdom of allying with a KillerRobot to make an {{Music/ABBA}} cover song. His objections are again completely ignored.
69	* PerfectlyCromulentWord: In "that feeling when you bite into a pickle and it's a little squishier than you expected," Brian can't find the right word to describe the titular feeling, so he invents the word "zjierbness" for the occasion. Karen soon picks it up.
70	* PirateSong: One of the songs on the ''AAAH!BBA'' album is a sea shanty cover of "SOS" performed by [[Literature/PeterPan Captain Hook]].
71	* PsychologicalHorror: A recurring theme in Brian's work, both PlayedForDrama ''and'' PlayedForLaughs.
72	* RussianReversal: The last lyric of "we like watching birds" is "We like watching birds, and the birds like watching you too!"
73	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Dale quits the band in the middle of recording because none of the other band members are listening to his concerns about their growing debt.
74	* SexSells: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwE1fZmIkss Don't Tell Your WIFE About This Game!]]" parodies mobile game ads that use attractive women to lure in customers, with Brian dressing as the attractive women. It ends up unexpectedly PlayedForDrama as the prospective customer is in a dead-end SexlessMarriage and using the game to distract himself from his relationship woes.
75	* ShownTheirWork: Although his work is often comedic, especially in ''Unraveled'', it constitutes a large amount of work and often draws from his background in musical theatre and education in creative writing when discussing such varied topics as global mythology, literary constructions, and [[InnocentInnuendo his knowledge of feet]].[[note]]metrical feet, that is.[[/note]] Or taking an entire year to read every single ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}'' novel so he can give book reports on each one.
76	* SickEpisode: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it8vJ03E8c8 "shingle jingle"]] is about Brian's experience having shingles.
77	* SingleStanzaSong: ''RGSS'' consists entirely of repetitions of the phrase "roasted garlic summer sausage."
78	* StepfordSuburbia: The setting of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2f37Vb2NAE "Welcome to the Neighborhood!"]] The homeowner's association imposes strange, overly-arbitrary guidelines on the neighborhood, somehow possess intimate knowledge of the POV character's lifestyle (including ''the thread count of their bedsheets''), and takes the liberty of canceling their news subscription (presumably due to its grim contents). [[spoiler:And when the POV character kills their neighbor, an identical "new" neighbor appears the next morning, somehow cloned through the strange bathtub setup outlined in the HOA pamphlet.]]
79	* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: "Beautiful Mind" is about how Brian and Creator/TomCardy somehow can see the exact same complex, impossible things in an InkBlotTest as each other, to the point where they simultaneously call out one blot as "a lawyer and a barber barter baubles underwater and the lawyer and the barber disagree on the fee".
80	* StylisticSuck: His video cover letter for Polygon begins with an amateur-looking Windows Movie Maker intro card and segues into a low-frame-rate video filmed with his webcam... then it's subverted when he leaps into his musical number and shows his ''actual'' prowess in editing and performance.
81	* SuddenlyShouting: BDG can go from a relatively mellow educational tone to bombastic shouting in a matter of seconds to ham it up for comedic effect. Especially pronounced in the ''Sonic'' ''Unraveled'' episode as he becomes increasingly obsessed with the {{Cult}} he's forming around Sonic the Hedgehog.
82	* SurrealHorror: Several of BDG's videos on his personal channel [[note]]Namely [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx3ORAO1Y6s how to make jorts]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfu39l0kxg Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZy8BbMz_U&lc=UgzYwd3NMdCiuVUBCAZ4AaABAg.9KR_QunJRi79KSKsD5YCFn Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan '97]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2f37Vb2NAE Welcome to the Neighborhood]][[/note]] start out as regular videos, but slowly devolve into bizarre situations that would make anyone reasonably unsettled. On top of that, these videos are often drenched in [[WorldOfSymbolism metaphors and symbolism]]. They're collected in a playlist appropriately titled [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrzMhRx_AuP0DT2k6TtwNEdB5G_bqxkvR bdg's scaries]].
83	* SurrealHumor: His short-form comedy often begins as a seemingly normal video, then devolves into strange niche circumstances that don't make much sense, often with strange flashy effects. For example, his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3eotWyZv5c "It's time to get good at darts"]] video goes from Brian practicing darts during quarantine to a creepy sequence with old-timey footage and a robotic voice declaring that by the year 2053, every construct of the world will revolve around darts. He establishes his sense of humor in his video cover letter for Polygon by duplicating himself to create a "twin" and then quickly editing him out.
84	-->"When my twin and I make videos, here's the basic gist: I would edit in Premiere, and he would not exist!"
85	* TemptingFate: In the ''AAAH!BBA'' Frankenstein song, the doctor declares that he can think of absolutely no consequences his plan to make a person might have. Five seconds later...
86	-->'''The Creature:''' Why have you created me? Just to suffer? Aaaargh!
87	* TyrannicalHomeownersAssociation: The video "Welcome to the Neighborhood" features an HOA that imposes strict rules about door color, garage condition and garbage. They also police what shows you watch, cancel the main character's news subscriptions (giving them the "HOA News" in its place), and even seem to know the thread count on the main character's sheets (having rules about that as well). It's heavily implied that they're a cult.
88	* TheUnSmile: After spending the entire video of "Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss" having a neutral expression save for a brief moment of concerned laughter at the absurdity of the situation, Brian spends the last 30 seconds of the video smiling at the camera [[spoiler:after an implied KillAndReplace by Dorian Smiles. Eventually he repeats "Why don't you join me?" several times, but his lips stop mouthing the words as [[SlasherSmile his smile grows wider]].]]
89	* WeaksauceWeakness: PlayedForLaughs in "the rollerblader's world is limitless". He talks about how since he's taken up rollerblading, he can do anything and go anywhere, only to [[spoiler:crash onto some grass and immediately become helpless.]]
90	* WhamLine: A comedic bit in the "Just One Day" video. The song up to this point has been a typical BoyBand love song about some girl, but then TBD suddenly starts singing about how he dislikes his co-member Dale. Then the rest of the song shifts to making fun of Dale.
91	-->'''TBD:''' I got money and fame and fancy clothes, I got a cat food sponsor deal\
92	But I'd give it all up... if I could have just one day...just one day... I'd give it up for one day ''without Dale''!
93	* WipeThatSmileOffYourFace: When Brian finally meets Dorian Smiles toward the end of "Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss," [[spoiler:the latter is revealed to be a replicant of Brian who covers his mouth upon seeing him, and Brian follows suit. When Dorian pulls his hands away, he flashes a smile at Brian, who is missing his mouth when he reacts in horror. The next time we see Brian, it's greatly implied to be Dorian Smiles given he is constantly smiling, leaving the real Brian with an UncertainDoom.]]

Context Creator / BrianDavidGilbert