A page for tropes that apply to the Ghouligans themselves.
Ryan Bergara
"I've lived my life by one adage, and that's don't fuck with demons."
A strong believer in the paranormal, Ryan is the show's main host and producer, who gives the rundown of each case and its various theories every episode. Easily spooked, he nonetheless remains resolute in his quest to collect solid evidence that proves what he believes is real. Viewers who believe in the paranormal and follow Ryan's theories are called "Boogaras", a name he coined himself after several iterations.
- Agent Mulder: To Shane's Scully. He believes in the paranormal, including aliens, ghosts, and most other unexplained phenomena.
- Ax-Crazy: Has said several jokes involving Shane being murdered which come out much darker than he probably intended.Shane: He has threatened to kill me a lot. I think eventually he will start murdering people when he runs out of ideas for True Crime.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: In the Villisca Ax Murder episode, he says ghosts are real but unicorns aren't, to Shane's frustration.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: An interesting case, as Ryan himself is not very short (he's 5'9 and 3/4)- it's just that Shane is quite tall (6'4). This leads to much teasing, naturally.
- Butt-Monkey: Due to being the one who gets genuinely scared at haunted locations. It's clear that both Shane and the camera crew find pretty much all of his freak-outs to be hilarious.
- Catchphrase:
- Creepy Monotone: Ryan's "theory" voice, which he uses to narrate each of the episodes. It is often mocked by Shane.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, particularly when talking to Shane.
- Determinator: He will find proof that the supernatural exists, no matter how many terrifying situations he has to put himself in to do it.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Occasionally attempts to defend a more outlandish theory to prove Shane wrong, only to realize halfway through just how outlandish the theory is.Ryan: I'm not saying that there's lizard (people)– aw fuck, I guess that is what I'm saying.
- Lovable Coward: Ryan's sheer terror during episodes where he and Shane go to supposedly haunted locations is a major source of the show's comedy.
- Lovable Jock: Loves sport, his biceps are astounding and he was in a frat in college, but he’s also adorable, skittish in the SPN seasons and can talk forever about what he’s interested in.
- Nice Guy: In True Crime, he puts up trigger warnings for suicide talk or topics of violence against women or children.
- Nervous Wreck: Not usually, but in a location that's rumored to have demons? Absolutely. Shane being... well, Shane doesn't help.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Neither of them is particularly couth, but Ryan really stands out.Shane: We swear a lot on this show.
Ryan: Yeah I guess we do... Who gives a shit, right? - Split Personality: Parodied...we hope. He blacks out and sometimes becomes an aggressive dominating con-man called Ricky Goldsworth.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Became a lot more aggressive and unapologetic when dealing/communicating with spirits in the fourth season of Supernatural, which is lampshaded by Shane in "The Spirits of Moon River Brewing".Shane: I feel like this season you've gotten very aggressive.
- People have also noticed it in True Crime, where he chooses more than a couple of cases that are still active and have a very real chance of getting them in trouble.
- Became a lot more aggressive and unapologetic when dealing/communicating with spirits in the fourth season of Supernatural, which is lampshaded by Shane in "The Spirits of Moon River Brewing".
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Shane – though they disagree on many things, Ryan clearly does have a strong friendship with Shane, and has even stated on one occasion that if Shane died, he'd probably cancel the show.
Shane Madej
"Hey there, demons, it's me... ya boi."
- "Let's boogie, boys."
The resident skeptic of the duo, Shane is the show's co-host who moonlights as a comedic goldmine. Grounded by his beliefs, Shane appears utterly fearless in the face of ghosts and demons, often attempting to goad them into performing violent acts against himself (and sometimes Ryan), to no avail. Viewers who do not believe in the paranormal and follow Shane in his views are known as "Shaniacs".
- Absurd Phobia: Shane, who remains unafraid even while confronting possible demons and/or ghosts, is scared of being forced to do drugs (particularly heroin), even going as far as to present someone walking up to him and sticking a needle in his arm as his worst nightmare. While the fear itself is understandable, Ryan makes fun of its ridiculous specificity.
- Exaggerated in the Villa Montezuma episode, with Shane claiming to be afraid of avocados and the Monster with 21 Faces episode where he says that anyone under 23 scares him.
- Agent Scully: To Ryan's Mulder. Shane thinks that most paranormal occurrences are complete and utter bullshit, and refuses to change his opinion on the matter until presented with irrefutable evidence. In a Q&A towards the end of season two, he mentions that people were getting annoyed with him and wanted to be less of a "patronizing dick" about it.
- Badass Normal: If his Badass Boast directed towards the Goatman is anything to go by.They're gonna put my name in graffiti. Children will come here and tell tales of me!
- Big Eater: In the Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti episode, they both finish off a 1.5 pound "Bigfoot burger". Ryan looks nauseated and exhausted from the effort. Shane pats his lips with a napkin like he's just eaten a tea sandwich.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: He's 6'4 to Ryan's 5'9 and 3/4, and often has to crouch beneath low ceilings and duck under doorways. Naturally, he's made fun of for it.
- Bring It: Where Ryan will usually react to scary situations with fear or apprehension, Shane will flat out dare supernatural beings to harm him because he doesn't believe they exist and can't hurt him.
- Catchphrase:
- "No."
- (sigh)
- Cloudcuckoolander: He doesn't believe in ghosts, but he's a very strange person despite that. His exploits include insisting that you can eat a pickle from a pond "if it's fresh", putting insane amounts of effort into his Hot Daga series, cheerfully talking to ghosts despite not believing in them, attempting to seduce a dead woman with his belly button, dancing on the Goatman's bridge and yelling it's his bridge now, etc. Lampshaded by Ryan in "The Puzzling Disappearance of Agatha Christie" episode.Ryan: You, I've said this before, are a strange man.
Shane: Guilty as charged. - Comedic Sociopathy: On occasion.Shane: If you're gonna kill a bunch of people, you might as well have some fun with it.
- The Chew Toy: If Ryan is the Butt-Monkey of Supernatural then Shane gets his turn in True Crime, usually getting tormented by Ricky. Lampshaded in the Russian Spy episode.Shane: I don't like this bit, Ryan.
- Deadpan Snarker: His specialty.Shane: Say lizard people out loud.
- Death Seeker: He threatens demons and ghosts so much that Ryan claims he is this. Shane hasn't denied it.
- The Gadfly: Shane openly admits in the "Spontaneous Human Combustion" episode that he's this, saying "At least one of us is doing it".
- Hates Rich People: It's a Running Gag that he really hates rich people, and will cheer on any crimes that target them specifically. If the target is a corporation instead of a specific person, even better. Ryan even says he has "a Robin Hood complex."
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: There’s a whole meme about how he “dresses like a lesbian”, and way back in The Test Friends, he got Dragged into Drag with a bright yellow and pink cheerleader outfit, and he really couldn’t have cared less.
- Moment Killer: He frequently ruins a spooky or tense moment in a haunted location by cracking a joke. Tropes Are Not Bad, as this is part of what keeps the series from getting too creepy for a lot of people.
- Nerves of Steel: He remains unfazed in the most horrible locations – even when wandering through decaying asylums, he'll ignore any strange happenings in favor of commenting on the décore.
- Subverted in the Keddie Cabin episode, where he appears ill at ease while visiting the location. Justified, as they were openly being watched by at least one resident of Keddie.
- Subverted outside the show, where he has described himself as being "timid". He just doesn't believe in the supernatural and thus old buildings are just old buildings to him.
- It wasn't shown in the episode, but the screech in the body chute during Waverly made him break and run.
- He also explained in Here What You Do’s third episode that he’s pretty shy, bad at confronting and gets flustered socially, and that yelling at ghosts is him just bored out of his skull and comfy being loud cos he’s with Ryan and the close friends crew.
- Nice Guy: In the Hannah Williams Postmortem, he admits that he had refrained from his usual snarky skepticism during the review of evidence in the main episode because Hannah, his friend and colleague, was crying.
- Nightmare Fetishist: He's usually delighted by some of the grislier cases, and is usually the one to crack the darker jokes.I love the thought of someone getting eaten by crabs.
- "No. Just… No" Reaction:
- His response to some of Ryan's more squirrelly ideas... or pretty much anything that suggests the supernatural may exist.
- Less comically, his response to nearly everything about the JonBenét Ramsey case is this, combined with "ewwwwwwwww."Shane: (facepalming with both hands) I know everybody wanted to hear about this case, but I don't wanna anymore...
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Occasionally will admit to being put off by certain locations or cases.
- Seems to be completely miserable during the JonBenét Ramsey episode, as it involves the death of a child and numerous disturbing theories.
- Similarly during the Ken Rex McElroy video, which goes into detail about the atrocious acts committed by this man – he outright states that he's glad McElroy's dead, something Ryan wholeheartedly agrees with.
- During the Eastern Penitentiary episode, Shane seems a bit off. Turns out, he ate 2 spicy hotdogs that unfortunately left him feeling a bit worse for wear.
- In the Almost 70th Episode Retrospective, it's revealed that during the Waverly Hill episode, Shane heard a croaking in an underground tunnel that freaked him out enough to bolt away from the cameraman and towards Ryan while shouting "Nope!". The cameraman himself lampshades how freaked out he was when he saw Shane scared, for what was the first time in the series.
- Many viewers pointed out that Shane was quiet during the review part of the Hannah Williams episode, to which he responded in the Postmortem:I also try not to be an asshole sometimes and, uh, Hannah was crying... I was like, this means a lot to her. I'm not gonna do my usual [mocking himself] "whoa don't you ever know what a house makes noises like?"
- Only Sane Man: Generally sees himself as this, since the theories Ryan presents him with can be pretty outlandish.
- Phrase Catcher: "Shut up, Shane."
- Sarcastic Devotee: Frequently teases Ryan about his fear of the supernatural and doesn't believe in any of it, but willingly follows Ryan around the country (and sometimes out of it) in search of ghosts.
- Tempting Fate: Constantly shouting at ghosts and demons to kill him, frequently adding gruesome and specific detail to his requests.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ryan – regardless of how much they argue, their friendship remains strong throughout, with Shane often attempting to calm Ryan down during unsettling interludes.
- Wasn't That Fun?: Frequently reacts to strange or unsettling events that could be attributed to supernatural causes with excited curiosity or outright glee.
- Wild Hair: As it gets longer, it can go between eccentric hipster professor or electric shocked sometimes in the same video.
