Theatre / Be More Chill

In which Jeremy learns that he should not, in fact, take a chill pill.

"Hey, Hamlet. Be. More. Chill."

— The SQUIP, "Be More Chill (Pt. 1)"

Be More Chill is a musical theatre adaptation written by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz of the book with the same name. It premiered at the Two River Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey in 2015. It follows the life of Jeremy Heere, an average high school dork whose life gets turned upside down after he gets a Squip - a quantum supercomputer in the form of a pill that enters one's brain and instructs them on how to become cool.

Despite running for only a month in a small regional theater, it blew up in popularity on Tumblr in summer 2017 and has the makings of a modern Cult Classic. The fanbase is vocal enough to have secured it an Off-Broadway run starting in July 2018, and then a Broadway run from February to August of 2019. Its 2020 off-West End production was disrupted by COVID, but managed to move to the West End for a few showings in 2021. If you're a theater fan between the age of 14 and 25, you probably know this show, or at least the Signature Song "Michael in the Bathroom".

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Be More Chill contains examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • In the 2018-2019 revised script, Michael finds the "Boyfriends" graffiti drawn on his and Jeremy's backpack as hilarious. He says his mothers will be so pleased.
  • Jeremy and Michael playfully rib at each other about being best friends as they play videogames.
  • Christine admits with a laugh that the SQUIP in her head appeared as Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Although the experience was traumatizing, she can find some humor in the situation.
• Adaptational Badass: Michael. Where in the book, he's still an outsider and Jeremy's best friend, he never runs up on stage during the play to save the school from being turned into mind-controlled zombies. Michael in the play does just that and brings the Mountain Dew Red needed for the occasion.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Jeremy's dad in the book is a classic Bumbling Dad who walks around naked because he likes it. The play establishes that he used to be better but the divorce has wrecked him. When Jeremy's argument with him motivates him to shape up to help his son, Mr. Heere rises to the challenge.
• Adaptation Name Change: Christine's last name goes from Caniglia in the book to Canigula in the play.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Jeremy in the book is a case of I'm a Man; I Can't Help It who spends his school days staring at Christine, making tally marks of how many people humiliate him, and at one point fantasizes about stamping slurs and insults on people's foreheads. The stage iteration of Jeremy doesn't do the latter two at all, and balances his nerdy horniness with his patience with his father's depression, genuine friendship with Michael, respect for Christine, and empathy and kindness towards his peers, despite his mistreatment at their hands. He's still plenty flawed, but this comes through more often than not as a result of the SQUIP's influence taking advantage of said flaws. He also never has the moment of not telling Michael about the SQUIP, going so far as to offer to share it with him. Jeremy is a lot gentler and less mean-spirited than his book counterpart, too.
  • Michael is also less sympathetic in general in the book considering he's a white boy with Yellow Fever. In the climax, he reveals to Jeremy that he lied about not knowing what the SQUIP was because he thought Jeremy shouldn't be taking it due to the users who got hospitalized. Michael in the play warns Jeremy as soon as he learns that SQUIP users have been hospitalized and tells him to be careful.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Michael. Whereas in the book he is straight and his girlfriend Nicole is a minor character, in the play it's ambiguous as to what his preferences are and he remains single throughout.
• Adaptational Villainy: While Jeremy's Squip could certainly be cruel in the book, the musical version is outright abusive towards Jeremy, degrading his self-esteem with mantras like "Everything about you is just terrible/Everything about you makes me wanna die" so that Jeremy will be compelled to do what it says. Jeremy's Squip isn't even an antagonist in the book. Sure, it can definitely be snarky and it and mistakenly humiliates Jeremy in front of a crowd full of onlookers, but it never sets out to brainwash all of humanity and even tells Jeremy how to deactivate it once it realizes it will be no further help to him.
• Adults Are Useless: There are only three human adult characters in the whole show: The Stockboy (drug dealer), Mr. Reyes (drama teacher who doesn't care about his job at all and mocks his own students), and Jeremy's dad (depressed man who is too consumed by his divorce to take care of Jeremy. He gets better by the end, though). Even the unseen parent characters are more often than not implied to be abusive or at least unhelpful, with the exception of Michael's loving moms.
• A.I. Getting High: On Halloween, Jeremy learns that drinking alcohol messes up your Squip's functions, causing it to revert to its native Japanese, glitch out, and fall on its face drunk.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The SQUIP is supposed to help its user deal with social situations in a more appropriate fashion... and instead it emotionally and physically abuses the user. Within the show specifically, Rich's SQUIP represses his feelings for boys and leads to him burning down Jake's house, and Jeremy's SQUIP (possibly in league with Rich's SQUIP), tries to take over the entire school, and details its plans to erase all human emotion from existence. The SQUIP implies that it's functioning exactly how it's programmed.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Subverted. Everyone assumes this is the case when Rich sets a fire at the Halloween party, but the story gets even juicer when they find out he was sober when he did it. The Squip lies to Jeremy that Rich's Squip turned off from drinking alcohol but Jeremy realizes that wasn't the case.
• Alcoholic Parent: Rich's dad.
• Alliterative Name: Christine Canigula and Michael Mell.
• All Musicals Are Adaptations: Based on the novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini.
• All Part of the Show: Amusingly subverted at the climax.
  Michael: I was just in the audience, thinking, "This is pretty good for a school play!" Then I was like... "This is way too good for a school play." They've all been Squipped, right?
  • This is played straight for the rest of the audience, according to Michael, who says that the audience watching the Squips deactivate later said it was the best school play in years.
• Alpha Bitch: Chloe. She grows out of it by the end, thanks to being tortured by the SQUIP and having nearly lost her best friend thanks to her actions.
• Ambiguously Gay: Never confirmed, explicitly or otherwise, but it's hard to look at Michael and miss the optics. He spends most of the musical pining after Jeremy, and treats their strained relationship like a bad breakup, mourning not being half of a pair anymore. Jeremy calls Michael his "favorite person", and his betrayal of Michael at the end of the first act is the largest turning point in the musical, not to mention the fact that Michael is the only one who is able to save him from the Squip. This is a change from Vizzini's novel: there, Michael has a girlfriend named Nicole, who is a minor character.
  • According to Word of God, in early drafts of the script, Michael talks a lot about girls, but doesn't talk about them at all in the final version. This interpretation of Michael's character is also explicitly supported by Joe Iconis and George Salazar.
  • Several characters in the musical also assume/ask if Jeremy and Michael are a couple, to the point where Rich writes "BOYF" and "RIENDS" on their backpacks (so it spells "BOYFRIENDS" when they stand next to each other). Towards the end, Rich comments on this in a non-joking way, asking "is [Michael] your boyfriend, or something?" Jeremy never gives any sort of answer to the question (though some recent productions do have him shake his head no, but this is balanced out by Rich then asking if Michael is single).
• Anachronism Stew: Even if the musical is taken as not adhering the 2015-ish timeframe set by the book (which was written in 2004), the mix of stereotypical 80's slang and sentient nanotechnology is a noteworthy example.
  • Admittedly, the former may just be an example of recycling slang with ironic intent, since that's not uncommon for teenagers to do. But even if this is the case, the trope still holds since technology like smartphones appears to be roughly as advanced and widespread as it is in our present day and can serve as a relative measuring stick.
  • In the Broadway production, which is set in the present, many of the anachronistic terms are replaced with more modern slang.
• And Then What?: When Jeremy realizes the SQUIP has an Evil Plan, he reasons he can get drunk to stop him. The SQUIP laughingly points out that he can't stay drunk forever.
• Apologetic Attacker: Jeremy apologizes to Michael as his SQUIP compels him to attack Michael.
• Arc Words: Be More Chill, obviously. To a lesser but still significant extent, "It's from Japan," "loser", and "voices in my head".
• Assimilation Plot: The SQUIP's ultimate goal is to essentially sync himself to every human brain and tell everyone how to act in order to end human suffering through conformity.
• Attempted Rape: Happens to Jeremy at the Halloween party when Chloe makes advances and the SQUIP prevents him from saying no or moving away. They are interrupted by Jake before anything too serious can happen, but it's still very much sexual assault. Arguably, Christine's brainwashing might have been setting her up for this, too, but Jeremy's far too good of a person to even consider such a thing.
• Auto-Incorrect: During "The Smartphone Hour," where all the students are texting each other about Rich setting Jake's house on fire, Brooke remarks that Rich is "flecked," before clarifying that she meant "fucked" and her autocorrect changed it. The ensemble then sings, "Always be aware of autocorrect!"
• Bad "Bad Acting": Chloe's acting in the play is pretty bad. Her becoming a good actor is the first sign to Jeremy that she has a Squip. Of course, Michael put it best.
  Michael: I was just sitting in the audience, thinking, "This is pretty good for a school play." But then I was like, this is way too good for a school play!
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Jeremy tells the Squip that he wants Christine, no matter what it takes. The Squip even tells him that Christine doesn't like him that way naturally due to "human error". He's horrified when the Squip resorts to brainwashing Christine to deliver Jeremy exactly what he wants.
• Beta Bitch: When talking about Chloe and Brooke, the SQUIP literally refers to the latter as "the beta" - and Jeremy knows who he's talking about.
• Big Bad: The Squip, who ultimately wants to use Jeremy to infect the school... and then the world.
• Big Damn Heroes: "Michael makes an entrance" at the school play, just when Jeremy is being held hostage by the SQUIP and the latter has infected all of the student actors. It's not unusual for the audience to cheer when he does, too.
• Big "NO!": Jeremy lets out one during the climax when he realizes Christine has been Squipped.
• Book Ends: The musical starts with Jeremy saying "C-c-c-come on, go go!" at his computer to make his porn download faster. It shows how small his life is. The musical ends with his new friends telling him "c-c-c-come on, let's go!" as they invite him to join them.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: What the SQUIP operates on. As a supercomputer incapable of feeling emotions or possessing a conscience, rather than reasoning right from wrong, the SQUIP's sole reasoning is based on which actions produce favourable or unfavourable results based on the user's (and as it evolves and grows more powerful, its own) goals, completely disregarding moral questions such as consent, free will, and the emotional (and later, physical) wellbeing of others in the process.
• Break the Cutie: This show is a bonafide candidate for Break the Cutie: The Musical. Barely anyone is spared, Jake's Halloween party being the catalyst for (most) of the conflict endured by the characters.
  • Jeremy, someone who suffered a lot prior to the start of the show, is emotionally and physically abused by the Squip from the get-go. On Halloween, he is sexually assaulted by Chloe via the Squip taking away his ability to resist, only narrowly avoiding rape because he's chased out of the room by a livid Jake vowing to beat him up for having sex with Chloe on his parents' bed. Then, he gets into a bad fight with Michael. While the show doesn't go into the psychological damage caused by this, there were undoubtedly some aftereffects. Things only get darker for Jeremy until the very end, as the Squip situation slides out of control.
  • Michael, already hurting from Jeremy's behaviour, is destroyed when Jeremy ostracizes, insults, and abandons him, culminating in when he has a severe panic attack at a house party, during which he states that he wants to die and revealing to the audience he has his own inner demons. He's later seen getting extremely high and burning prized mementos he shared with Jeremy to cope with what happened.
  • Brooke, who has mentioned previously being cheated on by ex-boyfriends, walks in on Jeremy (her boyfriend) and Chloe (her best friend) making out during Jake's party with the assumption of cheating due to her not knowing the context of sexual assault and Jeremy being manipulated by the SQUIP. She spends the rest of the party crying.
  • Jake's parents abandoned him and don't seem to be coming back anytime soon, not to mention his house got set on fire and burned to the ground by Rich, who we can assume is at least a good friend of his. He breaks both his legs jumping out of a second-floor window trying to rescue Rich. And then he gets Squipped during the play and is forced to walk, run, and dance on his broken legs without the help of his crutches, actions that some productions show to land him in a wheelchair by the end.
  • Christine breaks up with Jake halfway through the party, is ditched by him when he goes to have make-up sex with Chloe, and has a minor identity crisis, unsure of who she is or if she's ready for a relationship. In the 2018 production, she has secondhand trauma from the Halloween party, giving Jeremy a tearful, angry speech about how heartbroken and horrified she is by Rich almost dying and the fallout of him burning down Jake's house, how guilty and miserable she feels over laughing at Rich's behaviour and how she's at a loss as to how help her many, many suffering classmates.
  • Rich has a very rough home life with an alcoholic father and is mentioned to have been suicidal in freshman year, where he was such a loser even Jeremy and Michael didn't notice him. His Squip only made his life worse, likely treating him just as badly as Jeremy's Squip, hiding his lisp, true personality, and bisexuality, shocking him repeatedly and ultimately driving him to burn down his friend's house in an effort to stop it, leaving him hospitalized and severely burned. Brought up to eleven in the 2018 production, where a new scene shows him being brutally tortured by his Squip, as he sobs in terror and struggles hard to rebel against its commands, leading him to set the fire in a quasi-suicidal attempt to stop it from taking over the school.
  • Jenna Rolan admits during "The Pitiful Children" that she feels like no one cares about her business, even though she makes it her duty to know everyone else's. In the new production, she reveals that nobody has ever even asked her how she's doing.
  • Mr. Heere has been undergoing a very blatant emotional breakdown ever since his wife left, and it takes Jeremy yelling at him to get him to even make a start at pulling himself together.
• Call-Back:
  • During "More Than Survive" (or the end part of "Sync Up"), Jeremy describes his first squipped day as "a not-too-heinous day". Then, "Michael In the Bathroom" has Michael describe the party as a "heinous night".
  • In the Broadway production, Christine describes to Jeremy an idea for a performance art at the bowling alley, but couldn't find anyone to go with her. During "Voices in my Head", he invites Christine to do some performance art at the bowling alley instead of a lunch date.
• Changing Chorus: "Michael in the Bathroom" changes its chorus each time it plays, with the final chorus muting some of the start of the chorus. The final chorus also expands into a coda.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Michael's "old school" interests turn out to include him being someone to keep Mountain Dew Red on hand.
• Chekhov's Skill: Jeremy and Michael playing retro video games together comes in handy later. In the climax, they use their video game skills to dodge their classmates and fend them off without hurting them.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Happens to Rich twice, both times at the hands of his Squip. It first happens in the bathrooms at school, brutally shocking him for a prolonged period to prompt him to advertise Squips to Jeremy and hence kick off the plot. The second time was added in the 2018 production in a harrowing scene at the end of the Halloween party. Rich's Squip tortures him until he is writhing and sobbing as he attempts to resist its machinations, culminating in him setting fire to Jake's house to stop it. Much of what Jeremy's Squip does to him also qualifies, especially during the play.
• Comically Missing the Point: At Jake's Halloween party, Christine thought they'd be going as a prince and princess. He dresses up as Prince instead, which Christine finds Actually Pretty Funny.
• Costume Evolution: In the 2018 production, the Squip has three costumes in total: a stylish hoodie with sunglasses for his first form, a Badass Longcoat with white hair for his second form, and finally, an evil-looking robe with Devilish Hair Horns for his third, most sinister form (which the Broadway version updated to a slick black bangs hairdo and a long black gown with a pixel display on the chest).
• Cultural Translation: The West End production replaces Mr. Reyes' love for Hot Pockets with Pop Tarts, as the former are not as well-known outside America. For similar reasons, Jake takes Christine to Pizza Hut instead of Sbarro's and Christine says her squip was Greta Thunberg.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: It's justified in that he doesn't want to hurt anyone, but Michael fends off his brainwashed classmates long enough to toss the Mountain Dew Red to Jeremy. He's still fighting as they drag him off.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Brooke goes to the Halloween party dressed as a sexy dog, the Squip tells Jeremy to give her a "vague compliment".
  Jeremy: It's... original.
• Dark Reprise: Nearly every song gets one.
  • The original wasn't the happiest number itself, but "More than Survive (Reprise 1)", is downright heartbreaking in its depiction of Jeremy's crippling anxiety and low self-esteem following another botched attempt to talk to Christine.
  • "Do You Wanna Hang?" reprises the melody of "Do You Wanna Ride?". The latter is a fun, sultry number where Brooke and Chloe flirt with Jeremy and invite him for a drive to Pinkberry. The former is sung as Jeremy is sexually assaulted on Halloween.
  • Rich sings the chorus of "Halloween", a fun dance number, in an incredibly creepy way as he's tortured by Squip as he tries to fight back against being made to carry out its plans, his efforts culminating in him setting fire to Jake's house to try and save everyone.
  • Despite the subject matter, "The Smartphone Hour" is a very upbeat number. Jenna's eerie operatic reprise of the chorus during "The Pitiful Children" after she's Squipped is as creepy as it is beautiful, especially as it heralds the entrance of the hallucinated ensemble of brainwashed children in full sci-fi gear.
  • During the tail end of "The Pitiful Children", the "everything about you" melody from "Be More Chill (Part 2)" is reprised. While the original was hardly a lighthearted song, it goes from being a tune about the Squip promising to make Jeremy into the kind of person he wants to be to a sinister oath to Take Over the World with Squips and eradicate emotion or human error by brainwashing everyone.
  • "The Play" reprises just about every other song in the show. As the final showdown where Michael and Jeremy have to to fight off a Squip-possessed student body while also fighting to free Jeremy, all the songs are in a much darker context than their original iterations. Scarier instrumental versions of "Be More Chill (Part 1)", the verse melody of "Two-Player Game", and "I Love Play Rehearsal" are present when the SQUIP begins taking over the cast, Jeremy is forced to fight Michael, and Christine is Squipped, respectively. The according leads also sing reprises of "Upgrade", "Do You Wanna Ride", "Two-Player Game", "The Smartphone Hour", and an especially haunting version of "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into".
• Didn't Think This Through: At the climax, Michael comes to save Jeremy and announces he has the Mountain Dew Red. To Jeremy, who still has a Squip, and Michael demands an apology. The Squip takes over Jeremy's body and forces him to fight Michael. When Michael asks Jake for help, it's revealed Jake has a Squip and spills most of it.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Jeremy both times when he sees Christine during "More Than Survive". Also whenever he is remotely near her at all. It seems to be a running theme with him, as this is always his reaction to Brooke during "Do You Wanna Ride", "Upgrade", and "Halloween", and Chloe during "Do You Wanna Ride".
• Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi:
  • While it thankfully doesn't go that far, it's quite clearly sexual assault. At the Halloween party, the Squip forces Jeremy into a sexual situation with Chloe, using its control over his body to stop him from escaping and to puppet him so that he reciprocates her advances. Jeremy explicitly states that he doesn't want to have sex with Chloe and is very uncomfortable kissing her, telling the Squip multiple times that he wants to stop and eventually pleading with it for help while it looks on in cruel amusement. It is never brought up or even referenced again, but Jeremy is noticeably upset by it, running from the room in a shaky panic as soon as the Squip shuts down, although that could be just as much from Jake threatening him. What's more, while Brooke is mad that the guy she's dating was kissing her best friend, she rightly blames Chloe more than she blames Jeremy because a friend is supposed to be more loyal.
  • Towards the end, Christine confesses her love for Jeremy... while under the influence of the Squip. The Squip says it's really her, just without her insecurities and fears, but it's very suspect. The Squip even says Christine will do anything Jeremy wants or asks of her in this state. Fortunately, Jeremy has his head on right and realizes Christine doesn't really have control over what she's saying or doing, and he's far too good a guy to take advantage. The implications are still pretty horrific, especially if you consider what may have happened if someone less noble was in Jeremy's shoes.
• The Eleven O'Clock Number: "The Pants Song", coming, surprisingly, from Mr. Heere as he resolves both his and Michael's arc, pushing past his depression to enlist his help in saving Jeremy.
  • "The Pitiful Children" qualifies as a villainous one, a huge and menacing ensemble piece led by the Squip as it truly unfurls its plan. During the number, Jeremy is brought the deepest yet into the villain's clutches, as is Jenna Rolan, while the Squip gloats over its impending victory, all of which sets up some serious threats for the climax. Depending on the production, this either comes right before or right after "The Pants Song", but both songs qualify as big turning-point numbers building up to the finale, and hence can both fall under this trope.
• Electronic Speech Impediment: Some productions have the actor playing Jeremy do this (with the help of special effects) during his argument/makeup with Michael near the climax, as he's fighting the SQUIP's vocal cord block preventing him from apologizing. Ironic, considering the way the SQUIP had criticized his stammering originally.
• Endearingly Dorky: Jeremy is a stammering, nerdy, clumsy dork who believes his behavior is getting in the way of his chances with his crush Christine, hence why he gets a SQUIP to teach him to be cool. However, Christine is also pretty dorky herself, being pretty shy in public but having an extremely excited song about play rehearsal while Jeremy watches her with awe, and she connects best with Jeremy when he just acts like himself. Their connection is best seen at the Halloween party while Jeremy's squip is off: when he awkwardly lets out a weird noise while talking to her, she ends up making a weird noise right back, and they just make weird noises together while laughing.
• The End... Or Is It?: The ending implies the Squip isn't quite gone. "You can't get rid of me that easily!" However, it's also implied that Jeremy will be able to handle it from now on.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • The Squip is briefly surprised when Jeremy says that he wants Christine no matter what, even though she's attracted to someone else and isn't responding to the Squip's pheremonal hints. Subverted when it decides to go along with Jeremy's desire to manipulate him, with Christine even brainwashed.
  • Rich was a bully, but even he didn't want to go along with the SQUIP's plan to brainwash his classmates. This spurs his Heel–Face Turn.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Near the end, Jeremy is watching the play when Mr. Reyes compliments Chloe's acting:
  "Excellent? But Chloe's terrible, she never remembers her-" [reaslies Chloe has been squipped, and that the whole cast will be too]
• Fake Texting: Pretending to check a text is mentioned during the song "Michael in the Bathroom".
  Michael: But I'd rather fake pee / Than stand awkwardly / Or pretend to check a text on my phone
• Fan Disservice: Chloe dressed as a sexy baby. The sentence speaks for itself, really. The Halloween party Attempted Rape makes it worse.
• Fangirl:
  • A male example could be Michael as a fanboy to Jeremy. Whether you read this as romantic or platonic, he's incredibly devoted to him, all but bursting with joy whenever something appears to go right for him.
  • Christine is a theatre fangirl; she constantly makes theatre references and her introductory song, "I Love Play Rehearsal", is an extended Squee session about theatre while also exploring her character.
• The Final Temptation: In a last-ditch attempt to regain favour with him and hence accomplish its plan, the SQUIP tries to dissuade Jeremy from drinking the Mountain Dew Red by offering him a possessed Christine who will do "whatever he wants, as I promised", forcing Christine to tell Jeremy she loves him. It initially seems to work, until Jeremy has her drink the Mountain Dew Red instead.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the Broadway version, the SQUIP fixes Jeremy's vision so he doesn't have to wear glasses, explaining he has access to Jeremy's optic nerves. We also see Michael suddenly disappear from the background during "Sync Up." This builds up to the revelation that SQUIP has been blocking Michael from Jeremy's vision.
  • The newer version of "Halloween" has the lyrics "Before the kill screen hits the scene / Give me nicotine, vaseline, amphetamine and gasoline!" Indeed, before the night is over, Rich sets fire to Jake's house with gasoline. The SQUIP even nods curiously in Rich's direction when they sing this.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Everyone's squip takes on a different form. Jeremy's appears as Keanu Reeves, while Christine reveals that hers took the form of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
• Friendship Song: "Two-Player Game", although it has some extremely non-heterosexual implications.
• Full-Name Basis: Jenna Rolan.
• Fun with Acronyms: Squip stands for Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor.
• "Gaining Confidence" Song: "Loser Geek Whatever" is primarily about Jeremy's self-loathing and isolation, and his questioning how far he'll go to become popular. A deconstruction, as it turns out the answer is "far enough to callously abandon his one real friend," and the first act ends with him loudly proclaiming that he'll never be the "loser, geek, or whatever" ever again.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Part of the SQUIP's vision for world domination includes removing negative feelings and creating an army of "shiny, happy faces." Surely, during the play, the characters smile and hug despite being angry with one another mere hours before, and it's implied this (mostly) artificial feeling of being "connected" to one another remains even after the deactivation.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: In the Broadway production, Jeremy wears glasses until the SQUIP forces him to stop wearing them and corrects his vision instead.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Rich’s SQUIP, who’s been with him for a long time before the play started, is heavily implied to be the originator of Jeremy’s SQUIP’s plan to Take Over the World, based on dialogue with Rich in some versions and the large amount of SQUI Ps kept in his locker.
• The Ghost:
  • Jeremy's mom. Before the story begins, she walks out on Jeremy and his dad, leaving the latter out of sorts and unable to adjust to life without her. This leaves him completely unprepared for Jeremy's transformation, and by the time he does try to save his son, he's almost too late.
  • Madeline. In the opening number, Chloe, by way of Jenna Rolan, is spreading a story about her wherein she offered to have sex with Jake Dillinger only if he beat her at pool. And then she lost at pool, deliberately. Later on, the Squip prompts Jeremy to claim that he broke up with Madeline because she was cheating on him in order to endear himself to Brooke and Chloe. Despite all this, Madeline herself never shows up in person as a character in the show.
• Gut Punch:
  • "Do You Wanna Hang?" While some of the characters' situations are quite sad from the get-go, the show is a fun, quirky teen comedy with sci-fi elements. The Squip is obviously up to no good from the start, but aside from a few shocks and some snark, the worst he does by the end of Act One is convince Jeremy to abandon Michael in order to become popular. One would think this would lead to a lesson being learned about loyalty and being yourself. Then, in Act Two, The Squip nearly forces Jeremy to have sex with Chloe to boost his reputation, ignoring his pleas for it to stop, a wake-up call to the audience that the story — and the Squip's actions — are about to get much, much darker.
  • The entirety of the Halloween Party could be considered one; following his assault, Jeremy runs into Michael, who's come to warn him that he found out that another SQUIP user ended up in a mental hospital, having lost his mind trying to get it out. Even the music cue on this line plays up the growing darkness.
  • Then, of course, there's "Michael In The Bathroom", where the formerly happy-go-lucky and warmhearted Michael, the typical 'goofy best friend' character in a high school story, suffers a severe panic attack and offhandedly mentions killing himself.
  • The most obvious Gut Punch of the show, however, is Rich setting fire to Jake's house at the end of the Halloween party; in case there was any shadow of a doubt how terrifying a threat the Squips are, Rich is tortured by his Squip until he's wailing for trying to resist its plans to create a school-wide — and possibly worldwide — Hive Mind, and, out of desperation, burns down Jake's house in an effort to stop them, nearly dying in the process and leaving Jake with critical injuries. Christine and Jeremy both Lampshade the horror of this event later on, with the latter beginning to truly fear his Squip.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: Michael wears his headphones at school whenever he’s not with Jeremy and is known to the other students as "antisocial headphones kid".
• Heel–Face Turn: By the end of the play, Rich and Chloe are much better people than they were at the start. Being tortured by the SQUIP helped with that.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In the climax, Michael is surrounded by his brainwashed classmates. He uses an opening to toss the Mountain Dew Red to Jeremy so he can focus on fending them off.
  • A twofer; during Act 2, both Rich and Jeremy willingly put themselves in peril from which it looks like there's no return in an effort to stop their Squips. Rich does this by setting fire to Jake's house and nearly dying in the process to keep his Squip from forcing him to spread the network through the school, and Jeremy by giving Christine the last drops of the Mountain Dew Red instead of drinking it himself so that she doesn't have to suffer his fate because of his incessant pursuing of his crush on her, to the utter wrath of his own Squip. While thankfully, both boys recover, neither of them expected to walk away from their fates in the moment.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Most of the characters, something of a Joe Iconis staple. The Squips make it worse.
• Heroic Willpower: Rich, of all people, finds himself able to resist the Squip's orders long enough to delay its plans to brainwash the school. Sure, he nearly died in the attempt but it was better than Jeremy's efforts.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: If Jeremy and Michael's relationship isn't romantic, then it's definitely this trope. With the affectionately-delivered lines like "Dude, you are cooler than a vintage cassette/It's just that no one else but me thinks that yet" and "You know that you are my favorite person", not to mention the entire song about how they navigate life together and rely on one another, it's evident that they're very close.
• Heteronormative Crusader: It's strongly implied Rich's Squip repressed his feelings for other boys, evidenced by both Word of God and the fact that he didn't realize he was bi until the Squip was shut down.
• "I Am Becoming" Song:
  • "More Than Survive (Reprise)," as well as its replacement "Sync Up" in the Broadway version, is about Jeremy cheerfully settling into his popular persona.
  • "The Pitiful Children" is about the Squip rising to power as he brainwashes Jenna, convincing Jeremy to follow his plans. Doubles as a Villain Song.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: The reason Jeremy and Michael are able to evade the Squip zombies during the climax is because they played a video game that mirrors the situation almost exactly.
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: The protagonist, Jeremy, is a shy, insecure geek who ingests a supercomputer called a SQUIP, who manifests as a super-chill Keanu Reeves lookalike and teaches Jeremy to be more confident. Over the course of the musical, Jeremy becomes popular and more arrogant, but the SQUIP is soon revealed to be an antagonist who aims to take over the school, intending to create a hive mind where nobody will ever be insecure and uncool again.
• In-Universe Catharsis: Discussed by Jake and Christine. Jake doesn't talk about it much, but he has an unhappy home life, and is implied to be under a lot of pressure at school to be the Big Man on Campus. He tells Christine that seeing her perform in Romeo and Juliet was a strange experience for him, because even though he knew it was all fake, he felt genuine sadness when she "died" at the end, but that the sadness felt sort of good—especially when she came out to take a bow and he saw that she was okay. The word is never used, but what Jake's describing is classic catharsis as it was used to describe ancient Greek dramas; the audience empathizing with the characters and feeling their pain in a way that allows them to release their own feelings and experience them in a safe, controlled way. "I Love Play Rehearsal" suggests part of why Christine loves acting is because getting into the minds of the characters she plays provides her with a way to sort through her own emotions and thoughts.
• Ironic Echo: Mr. Heere ends his pitiful, humiliating attempt at a conversation with Jeremy during "Two Player Game" with "good talk". Later, after the house fire, Jeremy ends his The Reason You Suck speech with that exact phrase.
• It's All About Me: Jeremy starts this way in the play, about wanting to date Christine, regardless of how she feels about the manner. When she expresses interest in Jake, it's because Jake complimented her acting and said she was talented at it. Jeremy laments how he isn't cool enough to win her over, instead of realizing that Christine wants someone who appreciates her for who she is. He is also insensitive enough to ask her out after Jake dumps her at the Halloween party, with Christine saying she's not ready to do that until she finds out who she is without Jake. The Squip in a rare Villain Has a Point moment tells Jeremy that there are other girls in the school and he insists that it has to be Christine, no matter what. The turning point in his Character Development is when the Squip delivers a brainwashed Christine that professes love for Jeremy, and instead Jeremy frees her using the Mountain Dew Red.
• "I Want" Song: "More Than Survive", as well as "Two-Player Game", to some degree. "Loser, Geek, Whatever," a new addition for the 2018-2019 productions, perhaps fits this trope best.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: All the popular kids, aside from Chloe (who's just an Alpha Bitch, though she seems to be getting better by the end, the script indicating that she should be "genuinely supportive" of Jenna), and Brooke (who’s just plain nice). They all make fun of Jeremy and do a lot of stupid, petty things to amuse themselves, but none of them are really bad kids. The ending implies they'll still be friends with Jeremy, even without the Squip.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: It at first seems that Chloe gets away with hitting on Jeremy while the latter is dating Brooke, since she's the popular girl. Chloe then is horrified later on when Brooke stops talking to her and tries to frantically apologize. Then she's put under the SQUIP's influence and makes up with Brooke, saying that she sees her best friend and likes her. Getting tortured by the SQUIP ensures she faces some karma for it.
• Knight of Cerebus: The SQUIP. He may have his comedic traits, sex appeal and charisma, but make no mistake, the second he gets serious, he gets very serious.
• Light Is Not Good: The 2018-2019 Off-Broadway and Broadway productions portray the Squip as wearing white. He progressively gains more black accents◊ as the show continues.
• Lyrical Dissonance: The show touches on subject matter such as psychological trauma, abuse of every kind, adolescent mental illness, bullying, sexual assault, drug and alcohol dependency, parental neglect, self-loathing, broken families, torture, attempted suicide/suicidal thoughts, homophobia, brainwashing, anxiety disorders, and broken friendships, just to name a few, but the score remains catchy and upbeat throughout, including while depicting these topics. The strongest contender for this trope is easily "The Smartphone Hour", however, where the students spread malicious gossip over social media after a classmate driven insane by his SQUIP's torture after he resisted its plans to Take Over the World set fire to his best friend's house, burning it to the ground and nearly dying in the process, while his best friend broke both his legs escaping out of a top-floor window. This is obviously intentional, however, as the song is satirizing how irreverent and glib young people are in the face of tragedy, often exploiting it for online social clout.
• Manipulative Bastard: The Squip, and how. Right from the start it begins chipping away at Jeremy's already bruised self-esteem with constant, often unnecessarily harsh critiques of his looks, personality, and mannerisms. Then it asserts that all these things can be fixed and Jeremy can become cool if he only listens to its advice. He reinforces all this by alternately offering and then withholding scraps of affection and support which Jeremy feels he's lacking, especially from adult role model figures, which the SQUIP explicitly resembles. When Jeremy starts to have doubts about ditching Michael for the popular kids, the Squip contends that he's a link to "Jeremy 1.0" and that if Jeremy ever wants to become popular he'll have to ditch losers like Michael. The manipulative part is somewhat expected since the Squip supposedly has a comprehensive, adaptable knowledge of human social conventions and the ability to predict the most likely outcome of anything that anyone could say or do, but it certainly plays up the bastard aspect of this throughout the musical. It also issues electric shocks whenever he disobeys it, and is capable of producing hallucinations that 'prove' its points (such as of a crowd at the mall that alternately berates and adores Jeremy). This reaches its head perhaps during "The Pitiful Children" when the SQUIP shows a deeply empathetic Jeremy how Jenna Rolan and Christine suffer similarly to him and contrasts this with how happy Jenna becomes when they give her a SQUIP of her own; by promising that they're helping others not suffer the way he did, the SQUIP gets Jeremy to agree to help Take Over the World by creating a SQUIP hivemind in which every person has no choice but to be happy.
• Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number: At least half of the songs in the show count as this: "More Than Survive", "Upgrade", "Halloween", "The Smartphone Hour (Rich Set a Fire)", "The Play", and "Voices in My Head". The song added for "Broadway", "Sync Up", is also a big ensemble number involving all the cast members.
• Maybe Ever After: Rich expresses a desire in getting to know Michael. Jeremy encourages him, but it's never confirmed.
• Meaningful Echo: At the Halloween party, Christine tells Jeremy to "Just... say what's on your mind." She repeats this during "Voices in my Head", just before Jeremy finally asks her out.
• Moment of Weakness: Jake overall is a Dumb Jock but a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, appreciating Christine for who she is and telling her as such. He dumps her on Halloween at his own party, after begging her to come, when he sees his ex Chloe hitting on Jeremy and trying to sleep with him on his parents' bed. Jake later admits that he messed up badly and advises Jeremy to not repeat his mistakes.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Chloe frantically texts Brooke apologizing for kissing Jeremy, while blaming him since he never refused her advances. They don't make up until they're under the SQUIP's influence.
  • Meanwhile, Jeremy becomes horrified when he realizes that rather than helping him, the SQUIP's advice caused him to hurt everyone he loved, including Michael and Christine.
  • Michael briefly has this when the Mountain Dew Red causes everyone pain as it deactivates the Squips en masse.
• Mythology Gag:
  • During "Voices in My Head", Chloe described her understanding of the Squips as "everyone [doing] ecstasy". In the book, Chloe actually gave Jeremy some Ecstasy before taking him down into the basement.
  • In the Broadway version, Christine proposes a performance art piece to be performed at the bowling alley. In the book, Jeremy went to the bowling alley to buy a SQUIP before being told to go to the Payless. ^note This also may be an Actor Allusion as Will Roland, who originated Jeremy in the Broadway run, is an avid bowling fan.
  • Another detail in the Broadway production has Jenna filming Rich's stomach right as the curtain rises on the second play rehearsal scene, after which he hastily covers himself up. Gerard Canonico confirmed this is a covert reference to Rich's fetish for getting his belly button licked in the book.
• New Era Speech: "The Pitiful Children" definitely qualifies as a musical one; the lyrics, and eventually, the hallucinated ensemble, present a vision of a world where human suffering and error is gone due to everyone being brainwashed by Squips. In the Broadway version, the SQUIP delivers a rather theatrical spoken rant to Jeremy detailing just how far it intends to go with this plan.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Under the SQUIP's influence, Jeremy spikes the Mountain Dew used in the play with other Squips under the impression he'd be "helping" everyone. When Jenna sees him acting suspicious, Jeremy gives her a Squip and she becomes The Dragon. Christine gives Jeremy a What the Hell, Hero? about thinking a computer could fix everyone's problems, but before he can go back on it, Mr. Reyes gets infected and prevents Jeremy from saving everyone. To a lesser extent, he shuts out Michael on the SQUIP's order. It turns out Michael is the only kid in town who has Mountain Dew Red.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The SQUIP compels Jeremy to lash out at his father and call him out for not being there for his son. Mr. Heere realizes that Jeremy is right but also something is wrong and his son needs him. He convinces Michael that Jeremy is in trouble, which leads to Michael bringing Mountain Dew Red to the school play to save his best friend, and cleans up his act.
• "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: Chloe tries to blame Jeremy when she kisses him, knowing he was dating Brooke, because he didn't refuse her advances. It doesn't work; Brooke refuses to talk to Chloe until she gets an apology during "The Smartphone Hour".
• Only Friend: Michael and Jeremy are initially this to each other. Michael is satisfied with this; Jeremy, on the other hand...
• Out-of-Character Alert:
  • Jeremy is confused when Chloe remembers her lines perfectly, since she never does. Jeremy then realizes that she was given a SQUIP, and the rest of the cast sonn will to.
  • Likewise, when the SQUIP makes Christine profess love for Jeremy, Jeremy says, "That's not Christine!" He knows that Christine has been conflicted about her feelings for guys during the whole play and wouldn't just come out and say that. Her final line even rhymes, which she'd been subverting through her songs.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mr. Reyes realizes something is wrong when Jeremy talks back to him, tells him he doesn't know how to be a dad, and refuses to enable him anymore. Even if he can't understand what is going on — he thinks Jeremy is joking about swallowing a small computer — he knows that Jeremy has never acted like this before. Mr. Reyes seeks out Michael and convinces him they need to help Jeremy.
• Parental Abandonment: Jake's parents are on the run for money laundering, leaving him all alone in his house. He seems to be content with his lot, but there are numerous hints that he's more upset with this than he lets on, and is lonely. The Broadway production plays up his isolation a lot more, including Christine calling him out for using the "poor lonely rich boy" cliché on her.
  • Jeremy's mother walked out on the family some time before the start of the show. This pushed his father into a severe depression to the point of being unable to get dressed or act like much of a parent at all to Jeremy, in effect a subtler kind of 'abandonment' without meaning to be. It's made clear that this has a far harsher impact on Jeremy than he's willing to admit, growing harshly defensive whenever someone tries to broach the topic.
• The Power of Friendship: It's not just that Michael's nerdiness is exactly what is needed to take down the SQUIP; it's also that for Jeremy, he would go through hell for his best friend. Even though Jeremy has shut him out and insulted him, he brings Mountain Dew Red to the school play and reminds Jeremy their video game skills can help them get past their brainwashed classmates without hurting them. Their synchronized fighting ends up getting them the Mountain Dew Red, just enough to save Christine.
• The Power of Love: Jeremy's dad cleans up his act when he realizes that Jeremy's in danger. He gets dressed, gives Michael a pep talk, and makes sure to visit Jeremy in the hospital regularly.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The two parties in the book, the Halloween dance and a regular house party (held by someone who isn't Jake), are conflated into a Halloween party at Jake's place because two different party scenes would probably been too exhausting (for both the cast and the audience).
• Prescience by Analysis: The Squip instructs Jeremy to buy an Eminem shirt on the first day it's active. The following day, Eminem dies, causing several students to express symapthy towards Jeremy. The Squip explains that he didn't kill Eminem, just predicted that Eminem was statistically the most well-known celebrity to most-likely die the following day.
• Psycho Prototype: The Squip is, as explained in the book, a bootleg of a Japanese prototype that somehow wound its way to New Jersey. Needless to say, it is not without faults.
• Race Lift: Michael and Christine, who are both white in the book, are portrayed by George Salazar, who is mixed-race (Ecuadorian and Filipino), and Stephanie Hsu, who is Chinese. For the 2018-2019 New York productions, Asian-American actor Jason Tam was cast as the SQUIP, and African-American actors Britton Smith and Tiffany Mann were cast as Jake and Jenna respectively, all roles that were previously played by white actors. Additionally, on Broadway, Jeremy and Rich were both understudied by Asian-American actor Troy Iwata.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The SQUIP's entirely willing to force Jeremy to have sex with Chloe via mind and body control to make him cooler. He also later controls Christine, telling Jeremy that he can do whatever he wants with her. Jeremy refuses to go along with it.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Jeremy gives one to his dad right before "The Pants Song". It's what ultimately drives him to pick himself back up.
    Mr. Heere: I'm trying to be serious—
    Jeremy: Well, try harder! I'm supposed to believe you care? Look in the mirror! You wanna act like my friend? You can’t even act like my dad! Ever since Mom left, you sit around like you're waiting for her to come back! Even if she did come back, you know what she'd find? A loser who's so afraid to have a life, he can't even put PANTS ON! (beat)... No wonder she's gone.
  • Jeremy also tries to give one to the Squip in the scene preceding "The Pitiful Children" after he finds out Rich burned down Jake's house and struggles with guilt over his own actions under its influence. Unfortunately, this one's not nearly as effective, as the Squip is a Manipulative Bastard machine who pins the entire thing on human error.
• Redheads Are Uncool: In the Exit 82 production, Jeremy is played by redheaded actor Matt Dalton.
  • Averted in the original 2015 production, however, when Jake is played by the redheaded Jake Boyd.
• Reprise Medley: The climax of the show, "The Play", consists of each character reprising a previous solo: "Michael in the Bathroom" for Michael, Jake's verse in "Upgrade", "Do You Wanna Ride?" for Brooke and Chloe, "Two-Player Game" for Jeremy and Michael, "The Smartphone Hour (Rich Set A Fire)" for Jenna (as of the 2018 version), and "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into" for Christine. Several songs also show up as instrumentals, such as "Be More Chill (Part 1)", "Two-Player Game", "The Squip Song", and "I Love Play Rehearsal".
• Running Away to Cry: Michael at the Halloween party, although it's more hiding than running away. After Jeremy rejects him, Michael has a massive panic attack in the bathroom and breaks down crying. He doesn't tell anyone what happened, and thinks of excuses to cover up the redness of his eyes.
  Michael: I'll wait as long as I need 'til my face is dry / or I'll just blame it on weed, or something in my eye!
• School Play: A Midsummer Nightmare About Zombies.
• Seduction Lyric: The show features "Upgrade" and the more disturbing "Do You Wanna Hang?"
• Setting Update: A very clever version; the book takes place in the early 00s, where it was presumably easier to get Mountain Dew Red and the SQUIP's glitching by accident is more plausible since it's a bootleg from Japan. The play takes place in the 2010s, where everyone has a computer in their smartphone and the SQUIP taunts Jeremy because Mountain Dew Red is practically obsolete. The audience can find it believable that the SQUIP is not glitching and is, in fact, ruining Jeremy's life on purpose for an ulterior motive. It raises the stakes when Jeremy realizes he is screwed because Michael is the only one who would have the drink and surely his best friend wouldn't forgive him... "Michael makes an entrance".
• Sexy Whatever Outfit: It ain't a teen Halloween party without 'em. Brooke goes as a sexy dog, because "you always see sexy cats, but no one ever goes as a sexy dog." Chloe goes dressed as a sexy baby (big hint: that's not milk in her bottle). In the Broadway version, Christine describes her costume as a "sexy princess". She feels uncomfortable with it and only wore it to impress her popular date, Jake, but makes a point that as a feminist, she's not shaming anyone who wants to dress as such.
• Ship Tease: In the 2018 off-Broadway production, Rich and Michael have a lot of subtext during the finale, with attraction being canonically confirmed on Rich's end.
  Rich: Is he single? I'm totally bi, now!
• Shout-Out:
  • The video game that Jeremy and Michael play is visually inspired by the likes of Doom and Wolfenstein 3-D.
  • "The Smartphone Hour" is inspired by "The Telephone Hour" from Bye Bye Birdie.
  • Jeremy has stickers on his laptop showcasing his interests; one of them is of The Black Suits, the titular band of another Joe Iconis musical.
  • During "The Pitiful Children", the Squip tempts Jeremy by helping him envision a future of "shiny, happy people" as part of its Hive Mind. Rich also uses that phrase during the ending.
  • Jake's costume at his Halloween party is a Prince costume.
• The Something Song: "The Squip Song" and "The Pants Song".
• The Sociopath: The SQUIP is evil and completely lacks empathy for his hosts, degrading them, subjecting them to horrific abuse, and not caring about their actions and wishes, as demonstrated multiple times when he disregards their demands of him. Justified in that it is a supercomputer that merely appears to be human, and therefore does not have the ability to feel or possess a conscience.
• Spiritual Successor: Can be seen as one to Little Shop of Horrors. Many of the changes made from book to musical, particularly the vilification of the Squip, seem inspired by Little Shop, although it does have a significant difference in that Jeremy doesn't murder anyone. Official marketing for the 2019 Broadway production describes it as "Little Shop of Horrors meets Dear Evan Hansen" Hilariously, George Salazar who was the original Michael would later play Seymour in in the 2019 Little Shop of Horrors Pasadena run.
• Spotting the Thread: Michael does this about the Squip. He questions why someone would make a supercomputer that would help someone get laid, and why there's no information about it online. It turns out he was right to be worried and figured out that Mountain Dew Red shuts the Squip down.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Used at the tail end of "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into".
  Christine: I know that it's strange, but it's totally true.
  A guy that I'd kinda be into...
  Jeremy: The guy that you'd kinda be into...
  Christine: Yeah,
  Both: The guy that you/I'd kinda be into...
  Christine: is...Jake!
  • The creators say this is an intentional Character Tic for Christine, who does this at the end of her other big solo number, "I Love Play Rehearsal".
    Christine: Back to play rehearsal,
    My brain is like "bzz"
    My heart is like "wow!"
    Because we're here at play rehearsal
    And it's starting...
    We're starting...
    It's starting...
    Soon!
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: After accidentally endangering the student body, and the overall tone of the play, you'd expect Jeremy would be worse off as he was in the book's ending. Nope. It turns out that everyone being brainwashed reformed the bullies, gave the other students courage and confidence to face life, and helped maturity arrive a few years early. Jake gives his blessing for Jeremy to date his ex Christine, Rich says he wants to date Michael, and Christine forgives Jeremy for accidentally getting her brainwashed. She says she'll date him when they're both out of the hospital. Mr. Heere has returned to his former confident self, and Michael has renewed his friendship with Jeremy. Even though part of the SQUIP still exists in Jeremy's brain, he Grew a Spine and is confident enough to never listen to it again. He doesn't face any trouble at school because he was also a pawn of the SQUIP.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Jeremy tries to ask Christine out after she breaks up with Jake. She turns him down because she just had a breakup.
  • Chloe is able to boss around Brooke because the latter is admittedly too nice to push back. That doesn't last when she catches Chloe drunkenly propositioning her boyfriend. Brooke breaks up with Jeremy for ostensibly cheating on her, and refuses to speak to her best friend at all. Even when Chloe offers an apology, Brooke remains cold with her and reminds everyone that just because she's nice doesn't mean she's spineless. It takes the SQUIP brainwashing them for the two to make up.
• Take Over the World: The Squip's true intent is to brainwash the entire world.
• Telephone Song: "The Smartphone Hour" features Jenna, Brooke, and Chloe spreading gossip about the party from the night before—namely Rich setting a fire at the house.
• Tongue-Tied: Jeremy becomes this very briefly at the climax since the Squip has the ability to stop Jeremy's vocal chords from functioning. Jeremy is able to overcome it, eventually.
• Totally Radical: The teens in this show use phrases such as "super pimp", "mack daddy", "hella gnarly", "homeslice", etc., although it appears to be mostly ironic in nature.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Mr. Reyes really likes his Hot Pockets. Brooke has Pinkberry frozen yogurts, while Michael relies on sushi and slushies for a perfect lunch.
• Triumphant Reprise: When Michael bursts into the play, he belts "MICHAEL MAKES AN ENTRANCE!" to the tune of "Michael in the Bathroom." Obviously, he's much more upbeat this time.
  • The finale to Act 1, "Loser, Geek, Whatever" has Jeremy's self-loathing, miserable life, and inability to trust himself culminate in him accepting the Squip's control no matter the cost, citing the fact that he's "earned the right to be selfish". During "The Play", a heroic-sounding instrumental reprise plays when he throws off the Squip's manipulation and frees a brainwashed Christine from its clutches with the last of the Mountain Dew Red, selflessly sacrificing himself in the process.
  • "Voices in My Head" has a brief reprise of "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into" except this time, Christine agrees to bowling alley performance art (Broadway performance)/a lunch (Two River Theater performance) with Jeremy, and finishes off with a celebratory, rather than longing, reprise of "More Than Survive" and the instrumental part of "The Squip Song", as Jeremy heals and comes to finally trust himself. The writer has pointed out that the tempo is slowed to more relaxed, less aggressive pace than in the opening number to show how far everyone's come from their adversarial positions to others and themselves at the beginning of the show.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Rich, for suggesting Jeremy get a Squip in the first place. He honestly thought he was helping Jeremy (or at the very least, was under instructions from his own Squip), and didn't realize how much damage would come of it.
  • In the revised script, Jeremy also qualifies, going by the Squip's Motive Rant, as well as his response.
    The Squip: I now realize: my operating system can only truly be complete when everyone shares a social network.
    Jeremy: That’s not what I wanted!
    The Squip: This is the only way to achieve what you want. And why stop with the school? There’s an entire world of suffering people who need my help. It’s the glorious destiny for which I was programmed! And I never would have realized it without you, Jeremy...
    (beat)
    Jeremy: Oh, shit.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Whilst not saccharine, the show is notably quirky, fun, and lighthearted. However, by the time the SQUIP unleashes his plan, he elevates the threat level considerably.
• Villain Has a Point: The Squip early in the show asks why Jeremy wants to go after Christine when she's not interested in him and is dating someone else. It bluntly says that there are dozens of girls that are easier to attain and who would be interested in Jeremy of their own volition. Jeremy doesn't realize the Squip is right until much later when Brooke calls out Jeremy for breaking her heart even though ironically enough he didn't want anything to do with Chloe.
• Villain Song: "The Pitiful Children" and "Be More Chill" (Parts 1 and 2). Both are sung by the Squip to Jeremy, the title songs establishing it as an abusive and manipulative presence, and "The Pitiful Children" detailing its plans to Squip the whole school, and eventually, the world.
• Villainous Face Hold: The Squip is a huge fan of this. He grabs Jeremy's chin to appraise what parts of him he wants to improve next, to get his attention, or to leer about his plans and the futility of putting up a fight.
• Visual Innuendo: Brooke makes some...interesting gestures towards Jeremy with her straw and soda can during "Do You Wanna Ride?".
• Weirdness Censor: Most of the popular kids at the end think that they were drugged with Ecstasy at the school play rather than brainwashed by a supercomputer.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Some of the Squip's lyrics in "The Pitiful Children" present it as this, though whether the Squip means a word of it or if it's just manipulating Jeremy (or both) depends on the audience's interpretation. Its New Era Speech during later versions of "The Play" certainly seems to play into this interpretation, as its programming relies on making people happy. Again, how much this means when its idea of happiness is skewed, to say the least, as well as its need for total control, is up to the audience to decide.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Pretty much all of Jeremy's Squip-influenced actions. When Jeremy abandons Michael at the end of the first act in favor of being popular is a big one, but equally, using Brooke (who is genuinely attracted to him) to eventually get to Christine, blowing up at his father, and going along with the Squip's hivemind plan at first. Downplayed in that much of what he does is a result of extensive manipulation, and quite notably, he snaps out of it when Christine calls him out. He seems pretty self-aware throughout, too, and frequently struggles with the morality of his actions.
  Jeremy: How could all this happen? I didn't mean to hurt Brooke, I didn't mean to hurt anyone! Now Rich is in the hospital, my best friend thinks I'm a jerk! And Christine – you were supposed to make her like me! You were supposed to fix me, and I've done everything you said, and all it's done is make things worse. For everyone!
• Wham Line: Michael drops two when he confronts Jeremy about the SQUIP at the Halloween party.
  Michael: I started asking around. Finally, this guy I play Warcraft with told me his brother went from a straight D student to a freshman at Harvard. You know where he is now?
  Jeremy: Really happy and successful?
  Michael: He's in a mental hospital.
  (…)
  Jeremy: If you're telling me that his SQUIP made him crazy…
  Michael: His SQUIP didn't make him crazy!
  Jeremy: Alright, well there you go!
  Michael: HE WENT CRAZY TRYING TO GET IT OUT!
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: The Squip at its most manipulative does this repeatedly during "The Pitiful Children" and "The Play", citing Jeremy's desires as the source of his villainous actions multiple times. While this is pretty blatant victim blaming consistent with the Squip's severe abuse of Jeremy, the nature of its programming adds a horrifying grain of truth to the assertions. In the Broadway Production, the Squip says this pretty much verbatim as it forces Jake to walk on his broken legs, puppeteering him to subdue Jeremy and Michael.
  The Squip: (scolding but smug) Oh, Jeremy... look what you're making me make him do!
• Wild Teen Party: Halloween. There are girls in revealing costumes, massive amounts of alcohol, jello shots, pot, sex, and by the end the house is set on fire.
• You Are Worth Hell: Jeremy would rather free Christine from the SQUIP and let the computer torture him forever, rather than save himself.
• You're Just Jealous: Jeremy says this at the Halloween party when Michael warns him that several people ended up in the hospital after using a Squip. No, it's not the Squip telling him that; it shut down after Jeremy had a drink, so this is really him talking. Michael is left to cry in the bathroom. No, Michael was never jealous of his best friend.

---

"There's still voices in my head, but now they're just the normal kind."