From L to R: Hoppo, Bugbo, and Gerbo. Not shown: Gradient Joe
Bugbo is a surreal dark comedy web series created by YouTuber and animator bensilly. It is both a tribute to classic Flash animations like the ones on Newgrounds in The Noughties and the Turn of the Millennium, and a parody of children's shows.
The series stars Bugbo, a reddish-purple humanoid insect thing who goes on adventures with his two friends: Gerbo, a dimwitted yellow and green spider, and Gradient Joe, a nonspeaking human with a shaded sphere for a head. Their grasshopper friend, Hoppo, also makes brief appearances once per episode. Bugbo often tries to teach Gerbo lessons, but along the way, they run into some unnerving and/or antagonistic characters. The whole series has a vaguely menacing and unsettling mood without becoming too much of a blatant Disguised Horror Story, which is something the show is not.
There are three episodes so far:
- Bugbo: Set in Stone
(August 11, 2022) - Bugbo: Under the Oak (February 5, 2023)
- Bugbo: A Familiar Foe (August 14, 2023)
Every second we don't spend listing tropes is a second completely wasted.
- Advertised Extra: Hoppo is listed as one of the main characters in the opening, but only ever appears for one scene every episode.
- Body Horror: Downplayed, but Thomas Flyswatter's trip inside of the "flyswatter-maker-machine-thingy" caused him to be "crushed, melted and spun around really fast" until he was turned into some sort of sentient creature made out of flyswatters.
- Bookends: The title screen of A Familiar Foe shows a picture of Bugbo on a Dartboard of Hate. After the credits, the picture changes to Thomas Flyswatter instead.
- Brick Joke: At the very start of A Familiar Foe, Gerbo mentions that Bugbo celebrates Wrecking Ball Day, which is the same day as the episode. It never comes up again until the very end of the episode, when Bugbo is in the middle of saying what the lesson of the day was that a wrecking ball very abruptly cuts in to destroy Thomas Flyswatter's evil lair, ending the episode.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Bugbo remains as completely unplussed as ever in A Familiar Foe, even as he's strapped to a machine that's about to kill him with a giant flyswatter. In the same episode, there's also Hoppo casually saying she's busy over the phone... While in the middle of fighting in an active warzone.
- Cartoon Creature: Bugbo is definitely a bug, but what kind? Some viewers have suggested that he is an ant, or a cockroach, but his exact species is still unknown.
- Circus Episode: In "Under the Oak," Bugbo and friends discover an abandoned carnival underneath an oak tree. The sole resident, Hollow Clown, tells them that he was forced to hide underground because the mayor outlawed all circuses after tripping over a circus ball. Bugbo and Gerbo try to get Gradient Joe elected as the new mayor so that he can make circuses legal again.
- Clamshell Currency: In the first episode, the Stone Merchant says that the currency in this world is "shells." However, we don't get to see what they look like.
- Clown Species: Implied in "Under the Oak." The Hollow Clown has a black, empty mouth and eyes, and he doesn't seem to have a life outside of being a clown. Also, there is a creature that is implied to be his father that looks like some sort of clown dragon thing.
- Creepy Circus Music: Circus organ waltz music plays when Bugbo and friends are looking around the underground circus in "Under the Oak." Although the music is in a major key, it falls under this trope instead of Happy Circus Music due to the fact that the circus is dark, grimy, and run-down.
- Dark Reprise: In "A Familiar Foe," immediately after the "Bugbo, We're Gonna Find You" song, Thomas Flyswatter sings his own version of the song with lyrics about how he's going to kill Bugbo. Sadly, it's very short, and it has no instrumentals.
- Dartboard of Hate: In The Stinger of episode 2, Thomas Flyswatter throws a dart at a dartboard with a picture of Bugbo on it before proclaiming that he hates bugs.
- Depraved Kids' Show Host: Bugbo himself is a parody of children's show hosts. He often talks to the camera, and in the "What Would Gradient Joe Do?" segments, he asks them questions and expects them to answer. He claims to be teaching life lessons to Gerbo, but his behavior to Gerbo is downright condescending and manipulative. Also, his unnaturally wide smile and eerily calm speech make him unnerving, and it's heavily implied that he actually kills some characters in the show.
- Disguised Horror Story: Subverted. While the series features a lot of surreal humor that leans on the creepier side with Bugbo being an emotionless, unnerving sort who never stops smiling and displays reality warping abilities, the series doesn't actually veer into horror at any point, with the plots being rather kid-friendly besides the series' quirks.
- Disproportionate Retribution: In Under the Oak, Bugbo asks Joe to cut down a tree for him because he "did not like it".
- Evil Is Hammy: Thomas Flyswatter, the Big Bad of "A Familiar Foe" is the hammiest character so far. He has a comically sinister raspy voice, and he is constantly shouting his lines and laughing wickedly.
- The Face of the Sun: The sun has a face.
- Felony Misdemeanor:
- Downplayed in "Set in Stone." While the reaction isn't too extreme, Bugbo still guilt-trips Gerbo for collecting rocks just for the fun of it. Bugbo says that you have to have a reason for it, otherwise it's "absurd."
- A straighter example later in the same episode is when Gradient Joe asks the Stone Merchant for a deal, the latter has a breakdown so bad that he dies.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Under the Oak," it's easy to miss, but for a few frames at the end of the shot panning across the abandoned circus, you can see what looks like a nuclear missile with a clown face on it. This may be implying that the circus isn't entirely innocent.
- Friendly Neighborhood Spider: Gerbo the spider is a Kindhearted Simpleton, and one of the few characters in the series who isn't morally questionable.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Bugbo is the main character, and his questionable exploits are largely Played for Laughs by virtue of his eloquent, soft-spoken tone. However, he's got multiple traits of a sociopath:
- He shows no remorse for pushing Gradient Joe down a hole without knowing what's down there, or for presumably killing the Stone Merchant (indirectly), the Mayor, possibly the Mayor's security guards, and possibly Thomas Flyswatter as well.
- He is constantly manipulating Gerbo under the guise of teaching him lessons.
- He rarely shows any emotions. He is always eerily calm, with a monotonous voice and a perpetual, empty smile. For example, in "Under the Oak," when Gerbo is panicking because Gradient Joe won't be able to give a speech at the mayoral election (since Joe doesn't talk, and Gerbo and Bugbo only just remembered this), the most concern that Bugbo can muster is "Oh." Likewise, the only strong emotion he seems to show towards Thomas Flyswatter in "A Familiar Foe" is a mildly annoyed "Okay" after Thomas Flyswatter actively threatens that he could kill him at that very moment.
- He defies laws and rules to get his way:
- In "Set in Stone," he refuses to pay the Stone Merchant for his rocks. Then he calls the merchant "stubborn" for asking for money, even though that's a merchant's job.
- In "Under the Oak," after convincing the mayor to hold an election between himself and Gradient Joe, Bugbo says the election will be held the following day. The mayor protests, saying that that's not enough time to set up an election. Bugbo implicitly threatens the mayor to follow his request.
- In "A Familiar Foe", Bugbo plays along with Thomas Flyswatter's plan until the very last second, at which point he inexplicably shape tweens himself out of the trap and puts Thomas Flyswatter in it.
- Informed Species: Bugbo is supposed to be a bug, but he resembles more of a fusion of Barney the Dinosaur and Kermit the Frog with a pair of antennae on his head.
- Mayor Pain: Mayor Quentin is the evil variety. He's a haughty and rude individual in every way. When he tripped on a circus ball one day, he was so furious that he declared ALL circuses illegal, ruining the Hollow Clown's life.
- Monster Clown: Zig-Zagged. The Hollow Clown in Under the Oak has a disturbing, masklike face that lives up to his name. He also has a creepy voice and mannerisms. However, he doesn't do anything evil that we see. He is actually a Non-Ironic Clown who is depressed because his circus was shut down by the mayor. On the other hand, a Freeze-Frame Bonus reveals that the circus contains a nuclear missile with a clown face on it. Did he put that there, and was he planning to use it?
- Ninja Prop: A downplayed example occurs in "Under the Oak" when the Bandicam watermark falls off as Gradient Joe axes the titular oak tree.
- Non-Human Head: Gradient Joe has a sphere with a black-to-white gradient for a head, but otherwise looks like a human in business casual clothing.
- Non-Standard Character Design: When the Red Brother appears in ''A Familiar Foe", he is noticeably more scribbly and animated, so to speak, than the other characters. This is fitting because he is weird and surreal even by the standards of this series.
- Perpetual Smiler:
- Bugbo always has an unnaturally wide smile that fits his unsettling personality.
- The Hollow Clown has an unchanging, smiling face that looks like a clown emoji.
- Reality Warper: Bugbo definitely has shades of this, seeing as he both reduces the Mayor to bones by telling him he isn't giving a speech in Under The Oak, and somehow switches places with Thomas Flyswatter by means of the shape tween tool in A Familiar Foe.
- Retraux: The series uses the art style of early Adobe Flash animations from The Noughties. Each episode even shows a cursor clicking a Play button on a title screen, much like the title screens of old Newgrounds videos.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: In "Set in Stone" Gradient Joe's choices are stealing the merchant's stones, dueling him for them, or trying to make a deal. Dealing is the correct answer, not because they can give the merchant something in exchange for the stones, but because the merchant rages out at Joe's offer and turns into a pile of non-sentient stones, allowing the trio to take his stones and corpse for themselves.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Bugbo's manner of speaking is this, being also a bit bizarre for a Flash cartoon. This helps to show how unnatural and aloof he is to the others, and plays into his stoic nature.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In "Under the Oak," the characters try to get circuses unbanned by making Gradient Joe mayor. After legalizing circuses, he then trips on a circus ball and declares circuses illegal again.
- Simpleton Voice: Gerbo, who is rather dimwitted, has a deep, goofy voice.
- Sneaky Spider: Inverted. Gerbo the spider is the dumbest member of the main cast. He even says that "spiders aren't known for their intelligence."
- The Speechless: Gradient Joe never talks, and is presumably incapable of speech due to his Non-Human Head.
- Stylistic Suck: The animation is animated in the style of a webtoon from the 2000s, and also feature Bandicam and Unregistered Hypercam watermarks, suggesting these are in-universe pieces of media that are being recorded by an unknown person.
- Subverted Kids' Show: This series uses some of the cliches of children's shows. Most notably, Bugbo himself is a constantly enthusiastic host who teaches life lessons and asks the audience questions. However, there is also quite a bit of Black Comedy. Bugbo is implied to kill multiple characters in the series, and he does it all while keeping an unnerving grin. However, it keeps itself from being a Disguised Horror Story by focusing more on Surreal Humor than on scares.
- Uncertain Doom: Thomas Flyswatter is implied to have been killed at the end of "A Familiar Foe." Being strapped to his own deathtrap probably didn't do the job, because really, how can you expect a man made of flyswatters to be killed by another flyswatter? But when his lair is destroyed by a wrecking ball, that probably does him in, unless future episodes prove otherwise.
- Unknown Rival: Bugbo, along with the rest of the main cast, doesn't recognize Thomas Flyswatter even when he'd trying to kill Bugbo, his supposed enemy. Justified, in that not only was this Thomas Flyswatter's first actual physical appearance, but Thomas' hatred of him is fueled by the fact that he jumped and fell onto a conveyor belt (or got onto it on purpose, based on what we see in the flashback) and was turned into some sort of creature made out of flyswatters—something Bugbo himself had zero hand in.
- Unreliable Narrator: In "A Familar Foe", in Thomas Flyswatter's backstory, he claims that he tripped into the conveyor belt and wasn't able to escape it no matter how hard he tried, but the accompanying animation shows that he had jumped onto the conveyor belt and was not strapped to it in any way.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Once per Episode, Hoppo appears briefly, and is never mentioned again.
