Funny / Sarah Z

• In her Q&A video, she chooses to plug her Patreon with "if you want to be my Sugar Daddy..."
  • Same video, one question she is asked is if she's Canadian.
    "Guilty as charged, eh."
• In JK Rowling & Authorial Intent, a discussion on Shakespeare has her randomly declaring that the Gnomeo & Juliet films were the best adaptations of his work.
  "You cannot change my mind."
• In What Is (And Isn't) Queerbaiting, she mentions she went as long as possible without mentioning Steven Universe "because I really didn't want the comments to become a god-damn blood bath".
• When discussing how women are pressured to look prettier in the work place, she takes the time to remark "you're probably not going to get a promotion for wearing heels on the job as a female welder..."
• Sarah describing a random message she got on a video made (at age thirteen!) after she cut her hair. A complete stranger telling her that changing her hair would be bad for her brand.
  "All while I'm sitting there going 'sir, what do you expect me to do with this information?' Obviously, I'm not going to un-cut my hair!"
  • In the comments of the above video, one says "Theory - Sarah is the mug and the girl is being controlled by it". The lady herself found it Actually Pretty Funny.
• It takes Sarah a while to regain her composure in order to say, out loud, that the Once-ler fandom started shipping him with himself.
  • In the same video, Sarah notes how many fan communities have nicknames, stating that "Doctor Who fans are called 'Whovians', Glee fans were called Gleeks, Star Trek fans are called Trekkies and K-Pop fans are called terrifying.
  • Sarah's thoughts on "How Bad Can I Be?":
    Sarah: And the Onceler's transformation into villainy is signified by a snazzy costume change and a Villain Song that...kinda slaps, if we're being honest? Look, every other song in this movie is unmemorable, but you're lying if you say this one doesn't get stuck in your head sometimes. (cut to Sarah's Animal Crossing avatar cutting down a tree with the song playing)
  • Sarah notes some of the characters people are bringing up as potential "new Oncelers", including Raymond from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), Nagito Komaeda from Danganronpa, Sans from Undertale and Guzma from Pokémon. She goes on to point out that this claim is dubious because none of them have reached the same levels of bizarre as the treatment of the Onceler—she proceeds to comment that Sans is the only one who comes the closest.
• Her one hour and forty-five minute video on the Destiel kerfuffle becomes hilarious when you look at her Twitter and discover that it was supposed to be only 30 minutes long, but kept having to be amended due to the frequent new developments taking place.
  • Indeed, it's becoming a running gag on her Twitter that she intends to have shorter videos, and they keep spiraling out of control, with her posting stats of her scripts with estimated lengths of speaking time pushing around an hour or more.
• "The JohnLock Conspiracy"
  • Her reference to H.Bomberguy's video essay on Sherlock prompted the man himself to come over and comment "SECRET GOOD FOURTH SHERLOCK EPISODE".
  • The way "Blossom's" voice is read in such a hilarious yet horrifyingly hammy way, with "Hall of the Mountain King" playing in the background.
  • The "abridged summary" of M Theory - about fifteen seconds of high-speed scrolling through PAGES of text.
• Sarah's reaction to describing how Dashcon tried to compensate people who had donated out of their own pocket to save the event - a chance to win an autographed photo and an extra hour in the ball pit.
  • A bit later, when talking about the infamy of said ballpit, her tone when uttering the words "This...ballpit" can only be described as "contempt". Honestly, can anyone blame her?
• "Everyone is Into Twilight Again"
  • Sarah recounts how she had been a member of a Facebook meme group called "Harry Potter is Better Than Twilight", which later went on to post the status "We were wrong" in 2020 after JK Rowling's transphobic tweets.
  • Describing The Lighthouse as a Slice of Life movie.
  • While showing examples of the "Still a Better Love Story Than Twilight" meme that were clearly not meant to be taken seriously, she stops herself after bringing up the cabbage seller/his cabbages from Avatar: The Last Airbender and says that one is true.
  • Recapping 12-year-old her's experience seeing Vampires Suck in cinemas.
    "I was so baffled as I stared at my screen and not a single funny thing happened. It was deeply disillusioning."
• Her ultimate summary of the video at the end of The Author of My Immortal Emailed Me... leads to her repeating the name "Toby" so many times, due to all the sock puppetry, that it stops sounding like a word by the time she concludes. Also includes a photoshopped image of "Oops! All Toby!" over a box of Cap'n Crunch.
  • Early in the video, she discusses her interview with Toby and repeatedly points out how many times he dodged one of her specific questions. Eventually, Sarah's normally calm demeanor starts to break:
    Sarah: HE STILL DIDN'T ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!
  • "Bless you, Taylor. Unless you're actually Toby." Text note on screen: "Note from the future: She's 1000% Toby, keep watching."
• "Tumblr's $6000 Scam: The Story of All or Nothing":
  • Sarah (discussing more broadly the issues of how different types of queerness are portrayed in media) snarks about how Irene Adler in BBC Sherlock is a lesbian except for Benedict Cumberbatch. Then she pulls out a brightly colored notebook that reads BI AGENDA on the front and checks off "daily Irene Adler rant".
• "How the Internet Turned On the McElroy Brothers"
  • When discussing the way non-binary characters in The Adventure Zone: Graduation tend to state their preferred pronouns (they/them) while other characters do not, making it feel like the story is othering them and in turn making their presence feel tokenizing, this bit:
    Sarah: Anyway, I'd like to note that my very trans trans co-writer Emily (she/her), who is trans, wrote that section. [breaks down in laughter] She wrote that joke too! I'm not actually tokenizing her, she wrote- she wrote this whole thing! Fuck!
• "A Brief History of Homestuck"
  • Sarah's summation of a select bunch of Trolls, when pointing out that the Trolls are easily identifiable based on their designs:
    Sarah: (about Karkat) This one is angry, (about Sollux) this one is shy, (about Vriska) this one never did anything wrong...
  • Sarah explains what Viz Media is behind when she announces that they bought Homestuck in 2018, things like One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, JoJo, Dragonball—
    Sarah: Wait, what does the script say? "One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, JoJo, Dragonball, all these fun series that I get to make Sarah say so that she sounds like a fucking weeb. Thanks for that Emily! Thanks a lot!
    Emily (via captions): you're welcome
  • When describing Troll Romance, Sarah refers to Kismesis as "whatever it is Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus have going on".
  • She describes Dante Basco as "Best known for playing Prince Zuko from the Zutara ship".
  • A blooper video has several takes of Sarah drinking Faygo and hating it, describing the taste as "clown tears".
    Sarah: I guess in some ways, Homestuck 2 is like this Faygo. You know, it started out kind of good and sweet, and now I've been drinking it for FIVE HOURS OF FILMING and I don't like it anymore!
  • When discussing why Vriska felt close to home for so many people, she mentions that none of her viewers have had all of their loved ones gruesomely murdered... or at least she hopes they haven't, and apologizes if any of them had.
• "Homestuck Sent Me A Legal Threat, And Then It Got Worse":
  • The emails from Cindy at What Pumpkin are narrated in a comically flamboyant voice courtesy of Maggie Mae Fish.
  • After Sarah reads the legal threat from What Pumpkin, she drives out to a deli, buys another bottle of Faygo, and mixes it in her kitchen with liquor and vodka, with a hilariously serious expression on her face as she shakes it.
    • Also her tone of voice as she reacts to having received the letter: "...Well then."
  • When a Homestuck writer mocks Sarah and Emily for being "cis women" talking about trans representation, Sarah declares that Emily (who is a trans woman) has now become cis. She then calls Emily, who speaks about how much she gets to do now that she's cis, and explains her plans to attend a gender reveal party in Florida. Sarah tells her to blow some stuff up at the gender reveal party for her, because "we love that shit."
  • Sarah begins to criticize Hussie's lackluster answers to her questions by misnaming all of their works.
    "Okay. Andrew. Andrew Hussie. Andrew Hussington. Founder of Which Pumpkin. Creator of Homestick."
  • After the video released, as a sly dig back at What Pumpkin's legal threats and condescending tone, she revealed she was accepting preorders for a mug labeled "Young, Dumb, and Full of Libel".
• "The Rise and Fall of Teen Dystopias"
  • The Dramatic Readings of all the increasingly-ridiculous dystopia concepts that came out in the wake of The Hunger Games becoming a phenomenon.
  • "Oh, God, oh no, not the Spore Wars!"
  • All the "Trademarked Words" used to demonstrate how using generic and capitalized words can sound silly in dialogue :
    Sarah: Even In a dystopia, I can't imagine being like: Yes, I'm really excited to go home and watch The Video Essay™.
  • When talking about Divergent, she mentions the potential of the premise - society's obsession with forcing people to conform to rigid binaries and categories - and then asides that the viewer can probably guess her trans co-writer Emily wrote that part.
  • In general, Sarah's exasperation with Divergent as a whole is amusing, especially when she describes its popularity before cheerfully outright saying that it's terrible.
  • The Handmaid's Tale is mentioned as being the only dystopia story that remained popular during the Trump administration, especially its Hulu adaptation. Sarah then says she has her own opinions about that, but she's not going to share them, because she's already gotten a legal threat from Homestuck and she doesn't want to get one from the Church of Scientology, too.
• "What Went Wrong With Dear Evan Hansen?"
  • Many of the ways Sarah describes Ben Platt's awkward performance in the film version, notably describing him as "hunching over to look younger but instead just looked like a dog who swallowed a bee".
  • Sarah jokes about how RuPaul accidentally misnamed Evan "Dear" and occasionally calls him such throughout the video.
  • Sarah's bewildered response to the fact that one of the reasons the original stage production for Dear Evan Hansen wasn't cancelled due to its Troubled Production was, apparently, "We just can't do that to Ben Platt!", which Sarah likens to Ben being some sad Victorian orphan they adopted.
    Sarah: We cannot take sickly Benjamin's traveling stage show from the township! Not when he is consumptive!
  • In Sarah's defense of Evan, they can't resist joking about the "I am literally neurodivergent and a minor" meme.
  • Sarah also notes how the desire to see Evan "punished" for his actions comes off as a bit disproportionate in some ways, leading to this:
    Sarah: I don't really agree with this point about "punishment" — mostly just because it doesn't have to be morality play where ye all must come see evildoers punished for their wickedness, and also just like... what do you want? The guy loses his girlfriend and no longer gets to reap the benefits of being part of that family anymore. Do you want him to go to child jail too, like... What?
  • The one good thing Sarah can say about the film version of the musical is that James Corden isn't in it.
  • Sarah refers to "Speechless" from Aladdin (2019) as "The Girlboss Song from Aladdin".
  • On the point about Connor appearing as a ghost throughout the stage production:
    Sarah: Keep bringin' the kid on stage. Even if he's dead. I mean, to be fair they did this in Heathers too — she fuckin' dies in the movie because it's film, you can just tell your actor to go home, but in the musical she pops up as a ghost... she's Veronica's conscience... you do that, you do that on stage... classic difference of mediums- I hit my mic. (laughs)
  • When talking about The Last Five Years, which is about a break-up, Sarah notices that the script is veering into a very... aggressively personal sounding rant and notes that Lady Emily had just recently gone through a break-up herself and it's bleeding into the script.
• "Why the Mean Girls Musical Doesn't Work"
  • Sarah goes on a rant about how her school production of Legally Blonde blew its budget on renting a golf cart that appeared for about twenty seconds that none of the students could drive, and then their next production had to go fully minimalist with no props, citing it as a traumatic experience.
  • Sarah has some guest stars read what she considers to be the stupidest lyrics from the Mean Girls musical, all in a straightforward manner while Eine Kleine Nachtmusik plays in the background.
  • Sarah also has to grumpily say how annoyed she feels at having to clarify that the musical, adapted from a film made in 2004, is set in "the modern day" and how old that makes her feel. She was 23 at the time the video was made.
  • She also has a Take That! to the musical giving Janis a Girliness Upgrade.
    "It's 2021! I won't stand for Goth erasure!"
  • When informing the viewer that the musical added in an Anvilicious moment in "Stop", where Karen had nude pictures spread around after she texted them to a boy, she describes it as "a fucking buck wild thing to introduce out of nowhere and play off as a joke."
• "That Time The Sherlock Fandom Invented A Character"
  • Sarah reading out Emily's excitement in the script towards writing about Dragon Ball and hearing Sarah read it.
    Sarah: And what's interesting enough, is that sometimes these decentralized works and parts of fandom can escalate to the point of just being wild misinformation on the Internet. And for this, we have to look at the Dragon Ball fandom. And...hold on, sorry, what does this say? (inhales) Ha ha, ha ha, ha ha, I get to write about DBZ on this channel, and now Sarah has to read it aloud, and pretend that they know what they're talking about, ha ha ha ha ha ha, this is great. I can't believe Sarah is paying me to force her to say Dragon Ball shit, ha ha ha ha ha ha, cool. Thanks, Emily.
• "The Rise And Fall Of Geek Culture"
  • "Young Sheldon, the spinoff prequel series that is actually a murder mystery about young Sheldon solving a new case every week. And you can't prove me wrong on that, because no-one has actually watched Young Sheldon."
  • She highlights two geek t-shirts, one of which is the Drive (2011) poster just with Han Solo and the other with Beaker from The Muppets as The Incredible Hulk (or 'The Incredible Meep'). Then pictures of Emily wearing both t-shirts are shown.
    "Which are both t-shirts that my co-writer Emily had in high school. Yes she has been executed for her crimes. May she rest in peace on her own channel."
  • Sarah also doesn't let herself escape unscathed either, sharing a video of her at a 2012 convention and owning up to saying the word "nerd-gasm".
• "Bingewatching Is Kinda Bad For TV":
  • She describes Breaking Bad as "an Odd Couple style comedy" in which Walter and Jesse experience "wacky Hijinx through get rich quick schemes".
  • As in the Twilight video, she takes a shot at film students again by referring to David Fincher as "that one film student's favourite director".
  • When mentioning the Netflix-exclusive fourth season of Arrested Development, she takes the time to say that Emily "wants you to know is 'Good Actually'".
  • At one point, she shares a blooper where what sounds like a big truck in her neighbourhood blares its horn loudly, and she goes "fucking hell!" - and once YouTube introduced a feature where you could see the most replayed part of any video, naturally that was the most replayed part of this one.
• In her "Sacrificial Trash" video, she parodies the content warnings made about High Guardian Spice having "mature content" when the actual show was mostly light-hearted. By the end, she's almost breaking into laughter:
  Sarah: [with intense rock music in the background] Content warning: are you ready to get fucked up?! This show is gonna be so edgy, it's gonna blow your tits right off!
• "Bad Cinderella: An Edgy Autopsy"
  • Sarah discusses The Reveal of Prince Charming faking his death to be with his gay lover, Sarah discusses one reason why this is funny:
    "...remember what I said earlier about Cinderella vandalizing the Prince Charming statue by putting it in flamboyant colors and putting a bra and a penis on it? Before, that was just tasteless, but with the reveal that Charming is actually gay, that now classifies as a hate crime. Bad Cinderella isn't bad because she's a goth, Bad Cinderella is bad because she's homophobic."
  • Sarah criticizes the show for having very passive characters. While giving examples of active characters, she gives one for The Lion King (1994).
    "...Pride Rock is safe because Simba chooses to come back and fight Scar and trigger the events leading to the weirdly hot lion boy being in the second movie, please tell me it's not just me, he's hot, right.
    (On screen: "Editor's Note: Sarah, I grew up on DeviantArt. I can assure you that it's not just you")
  • After praising the interactions between the stepmother and queen in a musical number in the Broadway version, Sarah goes into a very explicit hypothetical scene for the show she made up.
    "There's a version of this show I'd like to imagine where after this number they're both like standing nose to nose and they're so mad at each other, but they know that the other person is the only individual who can ever truly understand them and so despite their mutual hatred they go in for this passionate kiss and then the stepmom like ferociously shoves all the makeup and hair products off of her counter so they have room to fu-(''a very long censored bleep'')."
    (This video has been removed for violating YouTube's policy on violent or graphic content. appears.)
  • Sarah compares Bad Cinderella to Wicked, a show that is a Darker and Edgier stage adaption of a piece of media aimed and children, and wonders if she would be as obsessed with Bad Cinderella as she was with Wicked if she was a teenager again. She thinks back to a time she made Self-Insert fanfiction of the show.
    "I made self-insert fanfiction where me and an insert of my best friend got isekai'ed to Oz. I wrote one about Elphaba learning about a plot to assassinate Glinda and a Dorothy redemption arc, and the villain was like a working class person who thought Glinda was hoarding his wealth, and you know what, actually, in retrospect, that guy was right. I support the assassination plot, actually."
    (On screen: "I support the assassination plot, actually." - Sarah Z)
  • After finding Carrie Hope Fletcher in Heathers, Sarah calls her "the Forrest Gump of musicals."
  • Sarah calls Ride the Cyclone "kind of a reverse Cats."
  • "Like, don't get me wrong. A lot of musicals are just liked because they are catchy and they have a lot of soundbites you can clip into an out of context TikTok and lip-sync to while dressed like Komaeda..."
  • Sarah says this about Jordan Dobson's Prince being Hollywood Homely:
    "The show keeps tryna be like, 'look at this fucking uggo who isn't as buff as the other buff guys' and it's like, 'Ah yes, how brave. Finally we have media that stands up and says you don't have to be a 10 to be deserving of respect, you can also be a 9!'"
  • Sarah rant of Cinderella's transformation being under-dramatic:
    "Like, if you're going to have a campy, over-the-top, plastic surgery fairy in your show, make her a bit fucked up, you know? Like, unironically The Little Mermaid, which came out 33 years ago articulated this better by having Ursula take Ariel's entire fucking voice. Have the plastic surgery fairy take more from her than just the necklace. Or have it be kind of visceral even if you're still being over the top. Give me blood leaking out of her heels, some fucked up scars, a latex mask that's so stiff she can't move her face, body parts strewn about, I don't know man, give me anything! Make her bleed. We demand blood!"
  • Sarah's critique of the show's shallow social commentary after suggesting Cinderella be an actual rebel has this:
    "I'm not going to sit here and pan this musical for the fact that it doesn't depict a hammer-and-sickle wielding Cinderella decapitating the Queen live on stage just because I think monarchy is bad, I mean that would rule…but like, (laughs) I do get that this isn't what the show is about."
• From "I Was Wrong About Queerbaiting":
  • Sarah comments that she was going to release the video on Pride Month, but Bad Cinderella ended up taking over her brain, so she likens this video to her coming out as bi to her mother: Long overdue and met with confusion but hopefully also accepted.
  • While talking about the constant misuse of the term queerbaiting, Sarah is baffled at the fact that Marvel movies are listed among them.
    TikTokker: It's the queerbaiting for me.
    Sarah: Wha... NONE OF THEM EVEN LIKE EACH OTHER!
  • When Sarah talks about "Larry Stylinson":
    • She refers to it as "the ship between Harry Styles and one of the One Direction boys with an L name", going on to say that she always looks up who it is and promptly forgets him.
    • When she mentions how there was a campaign to buy One Direction from their manager so they could be together, she notes that she likes the idea in terms of role reversal of a popular fanfiction plot: Now One Direction is sold to you!
  • When listing off celebrities accused of queerbaiting, Sarah caps off the list by noting that she would need a full conspiracy theory board to fully explain why Taylor Swift is so often accused of queerbaiting.

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