He may be all grown up, but he sure doesn't act like it...
Caillou at 22 (Caillou the Grown Up) is Black Comedy web series written by Eric Moneypenny and is animated by Venturia Animation Studios as a part of the AOK Ruins Your Childhood series. It is a parody that focuses on the title character of Caillou as an adult who continues to act like he's four years old, which causes nothing but stress and agony to those around him, particularly his dad.
The show premiered on September 4th, 2018, and has had seven episodes so far.
Caillou the Grown Up provides examples of:
- Abusive Offspring: Caillou abuses his parents emotionally and sometimes physically to get what he wants.
- Adaptational Villainy: Sure, the canon version of Caillou could be pretty mean, but it was mostly out of ignorance and he was still shown to love his family and would often try to fix his mistakes. Here? He's a complete and utter dick who's fully aware of the pain he causes to others and loves it.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: In "Caillou The Grownup Goes On Vacation," Caillou ends up ruining his parents' anniversary dinner, destroys a kids' sandcastle, and throws a knife in their father's eye after drinking many shots of alcohol from his hotel room's mini fridge.
- All Just a Dream: In "A Very Special Caillou," Caillou's dad nearly shoots Caillou, before Caillou dies of a heart attack. Just as Caillou's dad begins to celebrate, his alarm goes off and wakes him up.Caillou's dad: GODDAMMIT!
- Basement-Dweller: Caillou not only still lives with his parents, he still has the same lack of self-care skills that he did when he was four.
- Bilingual Bonus: Caillou's has a cousin named Boue, which means "mud" in French in keeping with the Theme Naming.
- Crossover: CAILLOU THE GROWNUP GETS LAID is one with several other of AOK's videos, with the most notable ones being Dora the Grown Up and Adult Arthur.
- Disproportionate Retribution: He's threatened his father many times, including burning his house down and flooding the house...and all because he didn't get what he wanted.
- Double Standard: Violence, Child on Adult: This trope isn't just averted, but utterly ripped apart. Caillou is rightfully portrayed as in the wrong for mistreating his parents with his selfish and immature behavior.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Subverted. Whilst Caillou claims he loves his dad, he's shown on many occasions that he isn't above hurting him, ruining his reputation, setting his house on fire or flooding the house.
- Eye Scream: "Caillou the Grownup Goes on Vacation" has Caillou anger a man by ruining his kids' sand castles. Caillou blinds the man by throwing sand in his face and later throws a knife into one of his eyes.
- Facepalm: The theme song ends with Caillou's dad pressing his palm to his face while witnessing Caillou cry after breaking his shoelaces off trying to tie his shoes.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: At the end of almost every video, Caillou threatens the viewer into subscribing to AOK. The narrator does it for him in "Caillou in Quarantine" after he's hit by a car and hospitalized in a full body cast.
- Grandparental Obliviousness: Caillou's grandparents seem to be very ignorant of Caillou's childish behavior and believe that he's actually a nice person, regardless of how obvious his behavior was.
- Additionally, when Boris points out Caillou's behavior (along with Boue's), the grandparents took it all on Boris.
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Averted heavily in "A Very Special Caillou," where Caillou dies from a painfully realistic-looking heart attack...but it turns out to be All Just a Dream.
- Insufferable Imbecile: Caillou is a complete psychopath who has no qualms about hurting others to fulfill his whims. He's also a total moron who can't even tie his own shoes and frequently does foolish things.
- Jerkass: Although Caillou's dad can be a jerk to him, Caillou himself is a spoiled psychotic brat who hurts others for fun and has no remorse for any of his actions.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Caillou's dad is very strict and harsh but he's definitely right about Caillou's behaviour being out of line and most seem to agree.
- Karma Houdini: Caillou gets away with pretty much anything, either from blackmailing his father or just dumb luck.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Later episodes have this happen to Caillou on a more infrequent basis.
- In "Caillou the Grownup Gets Laid" he gets in a fight with adult Arthur and Buster after damaging their car and later gets called out by Dora for his awful behavior.
- Subverted in "A Very Special Episode" where Caillou's death is revealed to be All Just a Dream. Though the episode ends with Daddy chuckling as it's revealed that a gun is hidden in his pants, implying that he might eventually murder Caillou.
- In "Caillou in Quarantine" he's hit by a car and put in a full body cast.
- Manchild: Caillou for this web series, obviously. A grown man who still behaves the same way he was when he was 4.
- Mood Dissonance: In each episode, the narrator (sounding similar to the one on the real show) often describes what's going on in a cheerful, whimsical and innocent kind of way, even if it involves something really dark or isn't family friendly (like Caillou threatening his dad or someone getting drunk).
- Never My Fault: Caillou claims that his Tinder date left because she was mean when it was pretty obvious that his childishness was the actual reason. Also, Caillou blames the car accident on Arthur even though Caillou was the one who caused it.
- Parental Obliviousness: Caillou's mother seems rather oblivious to Caillou's actions, or at least doesn't attempt to call him out on it.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Caillou fits into this perfectly! He still has the maturity of a four-year-old but deep down, he's an extremely manipulative and unpleasant sociopath.
- Rage Breaking Point: In "A Very Special Caillou," Boris snaps after Caillou eats all of the pizza. He pulls out a gun and points it directly at Caillou... only for the asshole to die from a heart attack after eating too much ice cream. Subverted, when it all turns out to be a dream.
- Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: In "A Very Special Caillou," Caillou's dad is woken up from a dream where Caillou dies of a heart attack by his buzzing alarm clock, and after yelling "Goddamn it!" he throws the clock across the room where it smashes apart against a wall and lands with a huge dramatic crash.
- Second-Face Smoke: Rosie blows JUUL vapor at Caillou's face in the first short.
- The Sociopath: Caillou certainly qualifies as a sociopath, as he's very manipulative, has no regard for the well-being of others, only cares about what he wants and has no problem at all in using threats to get his way.
- The Un-Favourite: Caillou's parents make it clear that they prefer his sister Rosie over him. And for very good reasons...
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Boris does start out as understandably jaded with his son, but still diplomatic and reasonable while calling him out for his behavior. However, he becomes increasingly mad and unhinged, and not just because of Caillou.
- Villain Protagonist: Caillou is a self-centered brat who torments his family with his childish behavior.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: In "A Very Special Caillou," after putting up with Caillou long enough, Boris decides that he needs to die. During a confrontation at the dinner table, Caillou dies of a heart attack, Boris begins to celebrate...and it turns out to be All Just a Dream. Cue a Big "NO!" from Boris, followed by him screaming in anguish and throwing the alarm clock into the wall.
- You Monster!: The first short has Caillou's dad outright calls his son a monster after Caillou threatens him into getting off his back on getting a job.
