The Crew
Graham Stark
Co-founder of Loading Ready Run, writer, actor, camera man, one of the other hosts of Unskippable, and an anchorman on ENN/Checkpoint as well as the host of the Phailhaüs/Feed Dump! He is most often portrayed as the leader of the gang.
Tropes associated with Graham:
- Awesome McCoolname: Lampshaded, Graham is very much aware that he shares a last name with Iron Man and The Lords of Winterfell.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He really gets into his games, especially in Commodore Hustle.
- The Hero
- Occasionally borders on Anti-Hero in Commodore Hustle, due to his abusive nature toward Matt before the latter moved out.
- Important Haircut: Enforced. Graham was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2022; he would opt to shave his head during chemotherapy.
- Straight Man: Originally was this for the group. Over the years it's been largely split between Graham and James, while the other is either absent or Not So Above It All.
Paul Saunders
Co-founder of Loading Ready Run, one of the hosts of Unskippable, a writer and actor within the crew. He is usually portrayed as an upgrade-obsessed man of science.
Tropes associated with Paul
- Mad Scientist: Paul does edge into this at times, though it's usually not malicious.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Invoked; The Commodore Hustle version of Paul noted during "Blame James" that the Canadian government prefers he not keep documentation to his creations around. Given that he's created a shade of beige so potent it acts as an emotion suppressor and a biological weapon (which got his funding rescinded for a time), this is absolutely justified.
- The Professor: Was more of this in the group's earlier days, with it being more downplayed in recent years.
- Reality Warper: In Commodore Hustle, he has instant access to Hammerspace at all times and is capable of moving from one side of a room to the other, donning a lab coat in the process, via Offscreen Teleportation.
- The Smart Guy: Pretty much this for the group; he's the one who generally deals with technical and scientific issues.
Kathleen De Vere
A writer and actress within the team and an anchor on ENN/Checkpoint, Kathleen was a latecomer into the LoadingReadyRun circle and thus has a slightly askew sense of humor compared to the rest of the group. She is generally no more sane than most of the cast, and has a massive obsession with cats in her Commodore Hustle incarnation.
Tropes Associated with Kathleen:
- Crazy Cat Lady: "So instead of having children, I'm going to get more cats!"
- Token Girl: For a time, between Tally's departure and Heather and Cori joining the crew.
- 20 Bear Asses: Kathleen always refers to RPG fetch quests by this trope name.
James Turner
Producer, Editor, and shipping guy, on screen, James is another voice of reason, usually, when Graham's eccentricities are in the way. His wiki page tells him he is a sensible guy. Also known as The Fixer. He's also always the policeman.
Tropes Associated with James:
- Gay Bravado: Seems to have picked this up after Morgan dropped it off.
- The Lancer: To Graham and Paul in the Commodore Hustle segments.
- Only Sane Man: As a result of being the most consistent Straight Man of the bunch, James comes off at this more often than not.
- Straight Man: Largely inherited from Graham. James tends to be the single most grounded of the group, and it's not easy to irritate or rattle him.
- Team Dad: While Graham and Paul may be the leaders, James is the one who tries to fix problems, keep everything on track, resolve disputes, and coordinates everyone as the producer.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2, this is the nature of 95% of James and Matt's interactions with each other to the point where James threatens to kill Matt for visiting his home and Matt haunting James's nightmares.
Alex Steacy
Mostly working as an actor and editor, Alex lived in Toronto (rather than British Columbia with most of the crew) until recently and thus was not a large part of the show; but since has returned and increased his part enormously, thus elevating him into being a fully fledged cast member, apart from some time away to focus on his own efforts. In addition to his Commodore Hustle version as the genuine weirdo of the pack, he also instigated the Crapshots series of ultrashort web videos, although these days they're a full crew effort. He also has become one of the crew's most avid and popular streamers with his series IDDQ Derp and Watch + Play.
Tropes Associated with Alex:
- Cloudcuckoolander: Alex genuinely seems to operate on different rules of logic than the rest of the crew.
- Crazy-Prepared: In cHustle, he has a surprising amount of things in his toolbelt. In Desert Bus, he had a surprising amount of useful things on hand at all times. Like Canadian Dry club soda. Roadquest continues the trend, seeing him buy a survival kit in a tin.
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Chaotic Neutral - Goggles Do Nothing
- Reality Warper: Does plenty of this in "It's Magic". Also does a bit of it in the beginning of "Secret Santa", though mainly as a Call-Back.
- The Trickster: If his magical ways in cHustle have indicated anything.
Matt Wiggins
Actor and guy in charge of networking, Matt is usually portrayed as a self-centered and short-tempered nobody who always comes out on the bottom. Although that is his personality in the shows, he is popular among viewers because he is usually the person who takes the fall and enjoys doing so and tends to go an extra step whether in the sketch or earning money for Child Play during Desert Bus. He joined the crew in the later part of high school and melded in with the group, since then he has been a pivotal asset.
Tropes Associated with Matt:
- Butt-Monkey
- Heel–Face Turn: During Desert Bus, Matt gained villain status by refusing to goth it up, but earned a place as a hero by performing Gay Bar.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: He is also Ganondorf, endboss of Desert Bus 5.
- Jerkass: In commodoreHUSTLE only, though, not real life.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
Word of God states that WebVideo/CommodoreHustle Matt is actually a decent guy under the asshole exterior
, but he rarely gets a chance to show this. - Periphery Demographic: In-universe;note he's a brony, which becomes a plot point in the commodoreHUSTLE episode "Pony Time".
- Playful Hacker: While not part of his commodoreHUSTLE variant, Matt's often the first choice to play a computer hacker, such as Crash Override.
- The Smart Guy: Was this in early episodes of commodoreHUSTLE, though only because he did extensive research and work on things...when there was a much shorter, easier solution that he ignored. This was dropped shortly.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Not always the protagonist, but gets the lead here and there in commodoreHUSTLE. Rarely shifts out of this mode.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2, this is the nature of 95% of James and Matt's interactions with each other to the point where James threatens to kill Matt for visiting his home and Matt haunting James's nightmares.
The Contributors
Tim Sevenhuysen
After bribing his way onto the set of Desert Bus for Hope with a chocolate cake, Tim became a part of the LRR family. Despite some similarities in appearance, he is not a hideous genetic creation created by combining Jer's and Matt's genetic traits. Sadly, recently left the crew to finish his masters, amongst other things. Godspeed, Tim. We all miss you.
Tropes Associated With Tim
- Ascended Fanboy: One visit to Desert Bus for Hope, then a few casual meetings, and he became a new crew member. Although it took a while for it to be "official". And by then he had to depart. Darn.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Tim loves to make puns.Fan: What is your mad scientist character named?Paul: I dunno. Probably something "Hypno-". Doctor HypnoFlex.Tim: He walks with a limp.
- Put on a Bus: He went to get married, explained away in commodoreHUSTLE as him realizing the crew were horrible people.
- The Bus Came Back: He still appears occasionally in videos, though not as often as he did before. In a nice Continuity Nod, however, in commodoreHUSTLE, he's only been willing to speak to Tally. Apparently, he still considers the LoadingReadyRun crew to be horrible people.
- Stockholm Syndrome: In his commodoreHUSTLE variation, Tim developed Stockholm Syndrome after being tortured by Kathleen and Paul. Played for Laughs.
Morgan vanHumbeck
Surely the most manly member of the crew, Morgan is perhaps best known as the host of MAN COOKING, but also acts in a variety of parts. He often gets roles of sex-obsessed but slightly pathetic characters or a the victim of the skit's absurdity.
Tropes Associated with Morgan:
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: His appearances have decreased significantly as of late, to the point where he was even taken out of the commodoreHUSTLE credits. Unlike Tim, though, there has yet to be an explanation.
- He reappeared in a recent LRR video, "Giving It", where his absence was very subtly lampshaded by his character being said to have mysteriously disappeared for a few months at the start of the video.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Sometimes, but less often of late.
- Casanova Wannabe
- Gay Bravado: Morgan has a propensity for "misplaced gaiety", mostly aimed at making the others uncomfortable.
- Handsome Lech
- Heavy Sleeper: The only way to wake him up is by uncapping a sharpie in his presence. Anything else, including blowing an airhorn in his ear, just won't do it.
- Large Ham: Morgan isn't exactly known for his subtlety. Many of his recurring characters and features (particularly, but not exclusively, "Space Jump" and "Man Cooking") are hams of the highest order.
- Memetic Mutation: Invoked, for the purposes of commodoreHUSTLE's "Viral" segment, like so. The Space Jump in question is an ability in Super Metroid allowing the player to effectively fly, and makes traversal of the levels much easier. In the fake viral, Morgan sits by while Matt steadfastly refuses to use Space Jump, and apparently gets so angry that the veins stand out in his neck.I don't know if you noticed, but you've got fucking space jump! Just use the Space Jump! If you used Space Jump you would have beaten this site already. For the love of God, use Space Jump right now! Just use Space Jump!
- Plucky Comic Relief
- The Slacker
- Testosterone Poisoning: MAN COOKING.
- Those Two Guys: With Bill in Commodore Hustle and in most normal sketches such as "Small Time". Word of God even states that Bill wouldn't be in sketches without Morgan
Jeremy Petter
Writer and actor; often playing roles which portray him as an uber-geek (He's the most enthusiastic table-top role-player of the crew, although many others dabble), but also has a regular role as an investigative reporter for ENN/Checkpoint. Frequently is used as a TV show host, as well. Sadly, left the crew in 2011 to finish his university degree. He has not ruled out returning once he has it, and still makes occasional appearances in videos still - though not as often as before.
Has a thing for ducks.
Tropes Associated with Jer:
- Demoted to Extra: Of his own accord. And a promotion back to crew member is hoped for by the fans.
- He still appears frequently in commodoreHUSTLE, though likely only because those videos are much less frequent than their regular, weekly videos.
- He also has a bi-weeklynote stream show as part of LoadingReadyRun Streams entitled 'The Book of Passwords'. Note that Jer's is the only show with a bi-weekly schedule slot, leaving him still the least-frequently appearing of all the 'regular' cast-members.
- Dungeon Master
- Killer Game Master: To a ludicrous extent. His players never survive the first round of combat, with the sole exception because his dice have been tampered with. This trait backs off to more reasonable levels after the first season.
- Ninja: He was only one for like two videos but it becomes important when Bill returns as a ninja hunter.
- Proud to Be a Geek
Bill Watt
Bill is not actually named Bill. A very tall man, Bill worked with the crew mostly as an actor, and of late had been reducing his involvement. In his Commodore Hustle incarnation, he mostly appeared in league with Morgan. He tragically passed away on January 19th, 2016, after a long struggle with Huntington's Disease.
Tropes Associated with Bill:
- The Big Guy
- Demoted to Extra: After being a main crewmember for the first six years, he'd only been in two videos since 2010, one of which was an uncredited cameo. He was however a staple of Desert Bus, as is his mother.
- Extreme Omnivore
- Heavy Sleeper: Nothing short of the presence of a ninja, or Morgan threatening his life, would wake him.
- In Memoriam: The kitchen in Moonbases Delta and Mark V were officially named the Bill Watt Memorial Food Zone.
- Jerkass: His characters were usually this, but he himself was a decent guy.
- Those Two Guys: In an LRRcast it was said that Bill almost never appeared in a video unless Morgan was there with rare exceptions, especially in commodoreHUSTLE.
- The Unfettered
Tally Heilke-Petter
Most often an actor but sometimes a writer in the group, Tally is also a lead organiser on Desert Bus for Hope, to which she brings not only considered organization but also her formidable crafting skills. When in sketches, she often plays the more innocent member of the cast. She's also one of the best singers in the group.
Tropes Associated with Tally:
- Cat Girl: Desert Bus 3, with Kathleen.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Has begun to take on elements of this as of Santa Secrets and it's on full blown display in The Bee Team.
- A good example of this is when she thinks lactose intolerance and bee allergies are myths in the latter Hustle episode.
- Cuteness Proximity
- MacGyvering
- Naïve Newcomer: Tally was "corrupted" into D&D by Jer, and can act in this role for that.
- What Does This Button Do?
