Web Animation / Helluva Boss

"Kids die for FREE~!"^note Clockwise from top: Stolas, Loona, Millie, Blitzo, Moxxie

When you want somebody gone,
and you don't want to wait too long,
call the Immediate Murder Professionals!

— I.M.P Company Theme

Helluva Boss is an adult animated musical Black Comedy web series created by Vivienne Medrano, and a spin-off of her series Hazbin Hotel. Brandon Rogers co-writes most of the episodes alongside Medrano (and his Creator Thumbprint is very noticeable), Richard Steven Horvitz handles voice direction, and Jefferson Friedman composes the soundtrack (with additional music composed by Parry Gripp and Sam Haft).

The story follows Blitzo^note the 'o' is silent (Rogers); an energetic, slightly dim imp hitman who owns a startup assassination company in Hell, which specializes in traveling to Earth to kill living humans on behalf of the dead, as revenge for (real or perceived) wrongs when they were alive. Helping Blitzo on this as he attempts to manage his business is Moxxie (Horvitz), a neurotic weapons expert with a rather uneasy relationship with his superior; the Cute and Psycho bruiser Millie (Vivian Nixon), who strives for a balance between the thrill of the job and her love for Moxxie; and the receptionist/Blitzo's adoptive-daughter Loona the hellhound (Erica Lindbeck), who, quite frankly, would rather be anywhere else.

Together, they all attempt to survive the mayhem that follows them, as well as each other, as they try to keep their company afloat amongst the competitive market of Hell. Their actions won't go unnoticed, not least of which by Stolas (Bryce Pinkham); an owl-like demon prince that provided Blitzo with access to the living world through rather... questionable means that left the prince hungry for more. They also find rivals in the form of C.H.E.R.U.B, a trio of, well, cherubs from Heaven whose job it is to save mortals from eternal damnation, and D.H.O.R.K.S, a pair of...humans (who are dorks) who are intent to prove the existence of not only demons but afterlife creatures in general to the living world.

Additional cast members include Cristina Valenzuela as Blitzo's pop star ex-girlfriend Verosika Mayday, James Monroe Iglehart in a dual role as both the nightclub-running demon Prince of Lust Asmodeus and Verosika's hellhound bodyguard Vortex, Alex Brightman as both Blitzo's childhood friend-turned rival Fizzarolli and his robotic doppelganger Robo Fizz, Don Darryl Rivera as the Adorkable ragtag schemer Wally Wackford, Georgina Leahy as Stolas' vengeful soon-to-be ex-wife through an Arranged Marriage Stella, and Barrett Wilbert Weed as Stolas' moody, emo teenage daughter Octavia who, deep down, really does love her father.

The show's pilot episode was released in November 25th, 2019, and its first season officially premiered on October 31, 2020, with the rest of the episodes periodically releasing over the following year. A second season started on July 30th, 2022, with Jonathan Freeman joining the cast as Stolas and Blitzo's respective fathers, Paimon and Cash Buckzo; alongside Jason Lashea as Stolas' snobbish brother-in-law Andrealphus, Michael Cusack as the embodiment of greed Mammon, and Eric Schwartz as Moxxie (and Millie)'s not-so-amicable ex Chaz.

Unlike its sister show (which was picked up by A24 and is streamed in Prime Video), the whole series is free to watch on the creator's YouTube channel.

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Tropes in Helluva Boss:

A-I

• Abusive Parents: Stolas, Blitzo, and especially Moxxie all had less-than-ideal fathers, to put it mildly.
• Alien Blood: As first displayed by Blitzo in "Murder Family" before being shown off extensively in "Loo Loo Land", hell-born demons have near-completely black blood with only a tint of red, unlike humans which bleed a natural full red.
• All There in the Manual: Just like Hazbin Hotel, the characters' Instagram accounts provide a lot of supplemental insights into them. While it was initially clarified by Vivziepop that they were Loose Canon, all of them were later declared non-canon except the Blitzo and Stolas accounts due to them having canon oversight.
• Animation Bump:
  • In-universe photographs are usually drawn with more detailed shading and effects than the standard style.
  • Musical numbers typically have a bump in animation, with Moxxie and Blitzo's truth serum-induced hallucination musical in "Truth Seekers" being one of the most drastic. Moxxie's side of the Disney Acid Sequence in particular is very fluid.
• Arranged Marriage:
  • The very reason Stella and Stolas were coerced into marrying each other in the first place was to bear an heir for the Goetia Family.
  • In "Exes and Oohs", Moxxie's father Crimson attempts to do this with Moxxie and Chaz, as the latter is apparently very rich and Crimson intends to acquire that wealth by using his son. The plan falls to shambles when not only do Millie and Blitzo crash the wedding, but Crimson realizes that Chaz is flat broke.
• Art Evolution: The first proper episode contains extremely fluid and clean animation compared to the pilot.
• Artistic License – Religion: A common misconception of the Seven Deadly Sins is that the sin of "Lust" is simply sexual in nature, when it is more about a self-destructive obsession than simple carnal pleasures, no matter how taboo or gratuitous, and while this may extend to sexual matters, someone consumed by the sin of "Lust" for sexual pleasure would be "FAR" beyond the comparatively basic depravity depicted, to the point of being outright Squick. In fact, gratuitous carnal pleasure is more in line with the sin of "Gluttony," which is defined by excessive indulgence in something to the point of self-destruction. This can include carnal pleasures like sex and more famously food, but also to things like attention, pain, adrenaline, substances, alcohol...
• Asshole Victim: Zig-Zagged. Sometimes, the targets of I.M.P. turn out to be pretty nasty pieces of work, so you don't feel bad when they meet brutal ends courtesy of the demonic assassins, but other times they can be completely innocent or decent enough people that they take out solely because a client asked for it. The latter is scene especially in "Spring Broken" where they slaughter multiple innocent people whose worst crime is just excessive partying simply to win a parking spot.
• Author Filibuster: Downplayed and Played for Laughs, but still used. Vivienne Medrano knows that with a series directly aimed at adults that Rule 34 would be inevitable, and generally doesn't have any issues with it. However, less-than-flattering artworks and portrayals of characters like Loona, and the inappropriate shipping of Stolas and Octavia resulted in the Octavia Instagram being set to private. In "Spring Broken", Vivziepop poked fun at the audience while Breaking the Fourth Wall in the process by having the characters give an Aside Glance after Blitzo mentioned the "freaks" on Earth who would drool all over Loona.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Millie and Moxxie get the Battle Couple variation during their song.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: A lot of quick-fire gags in the dialogue are based on this — for example, Blitzo telling Loona in a proud voice that her human disguise "look[s] awful," or Stolas formally "cursing" the Harvest Moon Festival.
• Bait-and-Switch: The episode "OZZIE'S" initially looks like it's going to be about Blitzo trying to wedge himself into Moxxie and Millie's private date, until it slowly turns out into Blitzo and Stolas's relationship falling down once Asmodeus and others learn about Stolas's shame of falling for a mere imp and Blitzo having enough of being seen as just a person Stolas likes to have sex with.
• Bait-and-Switch Compassion: In "Truth Seekers", the I.M.P are caught by a government agency bent on discovering their secrets, with Stolas coming to the rescue by terrifying the living daylights out of the two agents who tried to interrogate Blitzo and Moxxie. Stolas then comes up to Blitzo and asks if he's all right. After the imp replies that he is, Stolas lingers on his face in relief...before he immediately scolds him and the gang for getting caught by humans.
• Baphomet: Occasionally seen in Hell are demons who bear a striking resemblance to the original Baphomet, sporting goat-like heads and horns, hooves, wings (sometimes), and a burning candle sitting on their foreheads. The producers have even referred to the whole group as "Baphomets", implying that they are an entire "species" of demons similar to succubi and imps. They're only seen in the Lust Ring scenes of "OZZIE'S", and thus may not be very common in Pride. It is unclear if Baphomet themselves is a separate entity akin to how Satan and Lucifer are separate entities in the show.
• Bathos: Quite a bit of it. Besides the truckloads of Black Comedy involving death, murder, sex, and swearing, there's also a lot of drama mixed in.
  • "Loo Loo Land" balances the silliness of I.M.P fighting clowns, demons, and clown demons with interpersonal drama between Stolas and his daughter Octavia over the Awful Wedded Life that Octavia's parents have with each other.
  • "Spring Broken" features comedy with the petty bet between Blitzo and Verosika over a parking space with drama between Blitzo and Loona over her adoption and overprotective tendencies, including a "You're Not My Father" moment from Loona. (For good measure, she also gets her heart broken by Vortex, who already has a girlfriend.)
  • "The Harvest Moon Festival" alternates between the slapstick comedy of Moxxie getting Amusing Injuries as he tries to impress Millie's parents, who disapprove of him due to his tactical combat prowess clashing with their strength-based ideals for an imp. Opposing this is Moxxie's withering self-esteem when he fails to impress them, and the suspense of finding out that someone might be trying to take out one of I.M.P's high profile friends.
  • "Seeing Stars" sees Stolas and I.M.P travel to the Wretched Hive of Los Angeles to track down Octavia, who was driven to run away from home by her parents' divorce. While there, Blitzo is mistaken for a TV star, with disastrous results, and Moxxie gets conned into buying several strangers' mixtapes.
  • "Exes and Oohs" has Moxxie's abusive mafia boss father Crimson threaten him and Millie with death if he doesn't agree to an Arranged Marriage with Chaz. Upon Moxxie leaving the room in a terrified, meek state, the camera shows Crimson scowling - while the room he's in is full of dozens of throbbing dildos lining the walls.
• Battle Couple: Moxxie and Millie are both members of I.M.P, and both of them are the heavy hitters of the group – Moxxie is the long-range fighter who is skilled with his guns and his wits, and Millie is the short-range fighter who assassinates her targets up close and personal. Moxxie even once wrote a song about how much he loves Millie for being such a badass killer.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The three members of I.M.P exhibit this.
  • Blitzo - Beauty, due to his obsessions with the art world, especially musical theatre.
  • Moxxie - Brains, as he is the most level-headed member of the team, and the Only Sane Man.
  • Millie - Brawn, with her specialty in hardcore melee combat.
• Beta Couple: Moxxie and Millie's happy, loving and equal romance serves as a foil for Blitzo's history of dysfunctional and broken relationships, particularly the mutually-selfish nature of his Unequal Pairing with Stolas. This juxtaposition is best displayed in episode seven, where Mox and Mil defy Asmodeus' lewd peer pressure and re-affirm their wholesome love for one another on their anniversary. Blitzo, meanwhile, invites Stolas on a false date purely for the sake of entering the club, leading to the two of them being publicly humiliated by Asmodeus and Fizzarolli, and they end the night struggling with the lack of trust and honesty in their relationship.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • In the first episode, Martha appears to be a sweet, if glory-loving and somewhat slutty woman who does a lot of charitable work with her unfairly-earned rep. She's actually the bloodthirsty and sadistic matron of a deranged, Satanist (not a genre-savvy kind) Cannibal Clan with her only redeeming quality being that her clan genuinely love her and each-other.
  • Episode 4 with the cherubs has more than one example. Keenie's overly-sweet and righteous facade cracks and crumbles, revealing that she's a spiteful, bigoted and self-righteous creature who lords her holiness over anyone she perceives as inferior (which is pretty much anyone who's lower on Heaven's totem pole than her or isn't on it at all), and she bullies her meeker colleague Colin.
  • Moxxie's mob boss father Crimson in Season 2, Episode 3 is polite and refined if forceful when he greets I.M.P., but his interactions with his son and Moxxie's flashback reveal that he's actually a spiteful, sociopathic, sexist and homophobic gangster who wants to forcibly marry Moxxie off for money, and is willing to murder his son and all his friends to get them out of his way.
• Bittersweet Ending: "Seeing Stars" ends like this. Despite her best efforts, Octavia is unable to see the once-per-thousand-years celestial meteor shower due to the smog and light pollution above Los Angeles; however, she, with Loona's help, reconciles with Stolas, and the two get to see an impressive impromptu aerial display courtesy of Blitzo burning down a movie studio.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: I.M.P and C.H.E.R.U.B have this dynamic. I.M.P are undoubtedly a villainous organization who have no qualms about killing innocent people, but that doesn't necessarily make C.H.E.R.U.B heroes either, as while they have good intentions, their actions tend to fall from Good Is Not Nice at best to Well-Intentioned Extremist at worst. That, and allocating the fact that the higher-ups are unpleasant and passive-aggressive Celestial Bureaucrats who expelled C.H.E.R.U.B from Heaven over an accident.
• Black-and-White Insanity: As revealed by the episode "C.H.E.R.U.B", Heaven refuses to acknowledge the greys of morality, at least in regards to angels. Either you're a completely sinless saint (vulgarity and jerkassery don't count as sins here), or you get permanently banished and left either on Earth or in Hell. Even being manipulated and framed for sinning is apparently good justification for being kicked out.
• Black Comedy: Same as with Hazbin Hotel, only in the case of this show, there's a LOT more "deadly" humor going around. Even the murder of a child is treated as just another gag when he's revealed to be an asshole.
• *Bleep*-dammit!:
  • Stolas drops a Cluster Bleep-Bomb whenever he has "chats" with Blitzo, every time being about how horny he is. This censorship is only for when he's directly talking about sex, as usage of "fuck" (and explicit sexual discussions) in any other context is left completely uncensored.
  • The only swear outside of Stolas' Cluster Bleep Bombs to be censored is "cunt." This is because of a YouTube takedown of the original upload of "Spring Broken", when Blitzo barges into the headquarters of Verosika; the swear was originally uncensored, and the takedown prompted a reupload with the word bleeped out. It was implied on livestreams to be because of its severity depending on region, but this has not been directly stated again. In "Western Energy" the subtitles write out "C u next tuesday" in place of the bleeps, making it obvious what's being said.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Compared to its sister show, there's a lot more bloody violence here than usual, including a scene in "Truth Seekers" where one of the agents gets all four of his limbs cut off by Millie and left to slowly and painfully bleed to death. Best exemplified by the montage in "Exes and Oohs", where a notable highlight is when Millie bare-handedly rips out a shark demon's spine and strangles another one with it.
• Bloody Hilarious: All the gore is played for laughs.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: None of Crimson's goons try to shoot Fizz during his distraction musical number.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The fourth wall in the series is fairly solid most of the time, but there's breaks in it once in a while:
  • In "Spring Broken," Blitzo's rant about "the freaks" that would drool all over Loona if she went to Earth with the rest of I.M.P was already at least Leaning on the Fourth Wall about her fanbase. It crosses in to breaking the fourth wall when it's followed by all four members of I.M.P giving the audience judgemental looks.
  • In "Exes and Oohs," Chaz gives an Aside Glance with an eyebrow wiggle when he successfully attempts to sleep with Blitzo after getting kicked out of both Moxxie and Millie's rooms.
• Brick Joke:
  • In the pilot, Blitzo is asked if he has insurance, and doesn't know what it is. In "C.H.E.R.U.B", after Loopty Goopty busts through the wall of the office, he asks Loopty if he has it, indicating he did eventually find out.
  • While Blitzo is being hunted down by Martha, Stolas calls him and eventually begins one of his sexual fantasies. At this point Martha catches Blitzo, causing him to drop his phone. At the end of the episode when Moxxie is walking back to the house, he passes by the dropped phone, still broadcasting Stolas who never stopped fantasizing.
  • In the pilot, a poster for The Phantom of the Opera can be seen on the wall next to Moxxie's bed. Two episodes later, Millie mentions his fantasy of sleeping with Michael Crawford^note the originator of the Phantom role in the initial 1986 West End production. A further three episodes later, during Moxxie's and Blitzo's dueling hallucinations, Moxxie sees the two of them in a cavern similar to the Phantom's, with Blitzo wearing his mask and sitting at an organ; while Blitzo at one point sees Moxxie in a dress similar to Christine's.
  • In "Spring Broken," when Moxxie is drunkenly praising Millie, Blitzo says, "Oh, she totally pegs you, doesn't she?" Three episodes later, in "Truth Seekers," he gets the answer (yes).
  • In "OZZIE'S", the real Fizzarolli comments on what happened with Loo Loo Land, and notes that he wants to sue the one who burned it down due to the profit losses from Robo Fizz.
• Canon Discontinuity: Vivzie confirmed at a convention (around the 33 minute mark) that the Pilot episode is no longer canon to the rest of the series, and has been removed from the official episode list on YouTube in turn. At best, with how some elements are referenced in later episodes, it could be considered Broad Strokes.
• Cast Full of Gay: Among the four main characters that comprise I.M.P, Blitzo is apparently pansexual based on a post on his Instagram, and Moxxie is confirmed to be bisexual in a tweet for Celebrate Bisexuality Day 2020 and explicitly came out in episode "Exes and Oohs". Outside of I.M.P, there's Stolas, the Camp Gay prince of hell, being completely head over heels in love with Blitzo specifically. The episode "Spring Broken" also shows Loona acting as a Honey Trap to both men and women, and the crowd that gets enchanted by a succubus song includes multiple same-sex couples. In "The Harvest Moon Festival" Millie's sister Sallie May has male imp horns, white (male) hair showing at her roots, and was confirmed by her voice actress as transgender. Blitzo's former best friend Fizzarolli and the King of Lust, Asmodeus, are revealed to be couple in episode "Oops".
• Censored for Comedy: While almost all forms of swearing are completely uncensored, any time Stolas goes on a tirade about what kind of sexual stuff he wants to do with Blitzo, the "naughtier" words are completely bleeped out, usually resulting in a Cluster Bleep-Bomb. All of this done simply because it's funnier that way. As "Murder Family" shows, it keeps going and going even when it's coming out of a phone.
• Central Theme: Trying to to survive in a toxic (or even dangerous) profession with coworkers, clients, or competitors who are cruel, crazy, and/or stupid.
• Cerebus Retcon: The pilot episode has a joke where Moxxie wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Blitzo crouching on his bed and observing him in a creepy manner. Moxxie tells Blitzo that he was dreaming about his parents getting murdered and angrily snarks that he would like to go back to it. The intended joke is that Moxxie finds dreaming about his loved ones being killed preferable to his boss stalking him during his sleep. Later, the episode "Exes and Oohs" came out and revealed that Moxxie's father was a horrible man, while Moxxie's mother was a good parent who was killed during Moxxie's childhood. This gives a completely different perspective about Moxxie wanting to go back to his dream in the pilot episode.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The tone of the series has gradually shifted from goofy (albeit morbid) comedy to more of a dramedy with many sobering moments of contemplation, with Blitzo's complicated transactional relationship with Stolas in particular being brutally deconstructed after initially being played for dark comedy.
• Children Are Innocent:
  • Averted with Eddie and Martha's kids, who're just as mean and nasty as much of the adult cast, considering the whole family are murderous Satan-worshipping cannibals that even the imps are unnerved by.
  • Played straight with most of the demonic children that've been shown, including the young versions of Blitzo, Stolas, and Fizzarolli who were all considerably kinder and happier than they are now. It seems that demonic children aren't any less innocent than human ones, but Hell is such a Crapsack World that they seldom stay that way.
• Circles of Hell: Word of God[[Invoked]]. Stolas' song in "Loo Loo Land" mention that the Hell of this story and Hazbin Hotel was divided into 7 circles corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins. "Spring Broken" fully confirms that said Hell is genuinely structured in vertical layers that can be traversed by hellborne demons.
• City of the Damned: From what little is shown of Imp City, it is implied to be just as much of an Urban Hellscape as Pentagram City.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Stolas does this when talking with Blitzo, about how he gets horny when he is lonely. Only words referring to anatomy, and whatever else he might be implying are bleeped, while he still says "fuck" uncensored. Episode 1 features him going on such a rant over the phone, where all of his words are bleeped. When Moxxie runs past the phone later, the bleeps are still going on.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The entire cast is made up of vulgar people who will not miss the opportunity to include a swear within every few minutes. Even sophisticated royals like Stolas, Stella and Andrealphus aren't above peppering their sentences with numerous expletives. And then there's Fizzaroli's musical number at the end of "Mammon's Magnificent Musical Mid-Season Special", "Two Minutes Notice", which is pretty much Fizz giving a massive fuck you to Mammon and all that implies.
• The Comedy Drop: In 'Spring Broken', Blitzo inadvertantly bridal carries a drunk Moxxie as Millie slays a sea-beast. Realising he has been holding him for too long (exposing his genuine affection for his employees) Blitzo drops him and walks off.
  Millie: Is Mox okay?!
  Blitzo: [side-eyes Moxxie, then dumps him on the ground] Oh yeah. He's fine.
• Content Warning: The pilot has a crudely-drawn disclaimer, apparently drawn by Blitzo, at the beginning warning that the animation is for adults and viewer discretion is advised, in case the kids (and COPPA filter) were fooled by Blitzo's cute look on the thumbnail. Subsequent episodes have a more traditional warning at the beginning, and an inaccurate gag warning in the description.
  WARNING:
  The following cartoon contains graphic violence, flashing lights, naughty language, horny humans, horny demons, and is intended for mature audiences.^note This varies based on the episode's content, but this is the most usual one.
  Viewer discretion is advised!
• Continuity Nod: A few supplemental details confirm that this show takes place in the same universe as Hazbin Hotel, and at around the same time.
  • During the interview part of their commercial, there is a billboard of Katie Killjoy and 666 News in the background.
  • Loona is seen watching Charlie's "Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow" song in one pilot scene.
  • You can also see "Happy Hotel" and "Always Chasing Rainbows" written on a dumpster.
  • Robo Fizz steals a few lines from "Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow" for his own song, poses and all.
• Couch Gag: Starting from "Murder Family", the content warning at the beginning of each episode slightly changes every time. The warning goes "The following cartoon contains (flashing or bright) lights, naughty language, (insert horny species here), and is intended for mature audiences." The "horny" part is the main difference:
  • "Murder Family" is simply "horny humans and horny demons".
  • "Loo Loo Land" is "sad horny demons".
  • "Spring Broken" is "horny demons and very horny humans".
  • "C.H.E.R.U.B" goes back to "horny humans and horny demons".
  • "The Harvest Moon Festival", "Truth Seekers", "OZZIE'S", and Season 2 up to "Mammon's Magnificient Musical" go with "Rampant demon horniness". "Queen Bee" lacks a warning entirely, likely because it is tamer than the episodes before and after.
• Country Matters: For a show that intentionally pushes Youtube's censorships with swearing, depicted violence, and everything but the actual movements involved in sex, the C word is the one they actually can't get away with saying without bleeping. Best exemplified in S2:E4 "WESTERN ENERGY", where Cunt is mentioned multiple times, is bleeped or muted each time, and the subtitles spells it out as "C U Next Tuesday" each time.
• Crapsack World: Hell is one (obviously), but the human world appears to be one as well:
  • The staff at the hospital the imps visit are borderline incompetent, treating a gunshot victim by bashing him in the head with a bucket of water and then shocking him with three defibrillators at once (which somehow works). The doctor seems to only care about whether the imps have health insurance to pay the hospital, and when Blitzo asks what health insurance even is, they – along with the kid and his hospital bed – are thrown from a window.
  • When we see a newscast involving the shot kid's mother, the only one shown caring about how he went missing (due to being taken to Hell by I.M.P) is the mother herself, while the news reporter looks utterly bored, the title of the news bumper makes fun of the mother for being bad at drawing her child, and the news crawl just has the acknowledgement the kid is missing (along with there being more missing kids) on repeat.
  • And of course, demons from Hell are capable of visiting Earth and murdering people. It's the entire premise of the series.
  • Los Angeles is regarded by Blitzo to not be too different from Hell, Loona says it smells like piss and desperation, there's gunfire and screams in the background, and its drinking water is made up of 2% sewer water and 98% acid (strong enough to burn someone, too).
• Crapsaccharine World: "C.H.E.R.U.B" implies that Heaven is this, at least to angels, considering C.H.E.R.U.B is Barred from the Afterlife for the crime of a single act of Accidental Murder (that was partially the fault of I.M.P) with nothing but an insincere apology from one of the higher-ups and zero hope of being able to return.
• Creator Thumbprint: Brandon Rogers is the co-writer as well as voice of Blitzo, so it's no surprise that some jokes and archetypes from his videos appear in the pilot:
  • Loona, a sarcastic misanthrope, is the one in charge of talking to customers, like Jimmy Rustler in Magic Funhouse.
  • Blitzo's hypocritical insistence on being inoffensive while calling Moxxie "retarded" is a trait shared by the grandpa in "Grandpa HATES Disneyland", Jürgen in "Beauty is Blind", and Sam in "Sam's NOT Having It".
  • Helluva Boss joins "Is Morphings Time" and the Season One finale of Magic Funhouse in taking shots at the American medical system and its callousness towards those who can't afford it.
  • Nearly every single one of Brandon's videos involves the word asshole, and Helluva Boss is no exception.
• Cross-Popping Veins: "Truth Seekers" has Millie get one on her arm when grabbing Loona and demanding she reopen the portal to Earth to try and rescue Blitzo and Moxxie from D.H.O.R.K.S agents.
  • In the above episode, D.H.O.R.K.S Agent One gets one on his forehead in frustration for Blitzo and Moxxie refusing to cooperate in the interrogation.
• Darker and Edgier: While both this animation and Hazbin Hotel take place in the same world, the latter is mostly idealistic in tone, with helping others achieve redemption as one of the main goals of the cast. Here, there's a lot more cynical humor, with dysfunctional, unsympathetic characters capitalizing off of vengeance and murder, and their targets are total douche-canoes who always get what's coming to them, often gruesomely.
• Deal with the Devil: Blitzo is on the receiving end of one, thanks to a deal he has with Stolas. In exchange for being able to use the Grimoire to access the mortal realm, Blitzo will return it to Stolas on the night of the full moon each month (where they'll also have sex).
• Death as Comedy: As Helluva Boss focuses on a startup dedicated to assassinations, there's quite the amount of killing and death. It's however all played for Black Comedy. "C.H.E.R.U.B" relishes in it, with I.M.P trying to drive an old man to suicide and the members of the titular trio trying to convince the same old man to live.
• Denser and Wackier: Compared to its parent series Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss is clearly wackier in tone and focus than the former. Hazbin Hotel may be comedic in tone but still takes itself seriously at times, especially in regards to Charlie's quest for redeeming sinners. Conversely, Helluva Boss is much more comedic in tone and mostly doesn't really take itself too seriously as it follows the violently zany workplace antics of a startup assassin business.
• Disneyesque: Parodied in Episode 6, where Moxxie's bad acid trip sequence is rendered to that of a Disney movie from the art, animation and music.
• Dramatic Irony: "Loo Loo Land" has Octavia admit that she's worried that Stolas will leave her and Stella to be with Blitzo. "The Circus" reveals that Octavia is the sole reason Stolas stayed in his marriage with Stella, who treated him like absolute dirt and regularly humiliated him in front of her friends.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The pilot in general, with various aspects that factor into it eventually being declared non-canon apart from certain elements:
  • Regarding the Masquerade:
    • While the imps always had a spotty track-record and are particularly reckless in regards to keeping a low profile, "Spring Broken" would establish that it's more due to the lack of disguises and that at least Blitzo follows a policy of killing any humans that might expose them. Here, they're much more careless, openly talking to a human doctor in a hospital and later dumping Eddie's corpse to his mother in broad daylight right in front of a news camera and a reporter.
    • At the end of the pilot, the imps open a portal in full view of a news camera and a reporter to dump the child's corpse to the mother. This moment isn't referenced again by anybody, with the D.H.O.R.K.S in "Truth Seekers" somehow not having the video in their possession and needing more evidence to convince corporate (and possibly the world at large) that demons are real.^note The only video from the pilot they're shown to have is a shot of the imps getting thrown out of the hospital window.
  • The pilot itself was much less story focused and only depicted what seemed to be an average day at I.M.P. It had a frequent use of flashbacks and Cutaway Gags, which were heavily toned down as the series proper followed a more conventional narrative.
  • Both the pilot and "Murder Family" depict the portals to the living world requiring a pentagram drawn with chalk, along with casting the spell from the grimoire. Later episodes show portals being opened without a pentagram, using only the grimoire.
  • The Content Warning was originally a Couch Gag where the exact list of inappropriate content changed depending on the episode. Starting from "The Harvest Moon Festival", every episode has used the same warning. The pilot also used a different warning in the form of a crude drawing that in-universe was made by Blitzo himself.
• Easy Road to Hell: This appears to be the case.
  • Mrs. Mayberry spent her life being a good person, but the murder of an adulterous spouse and subsequent suicide was enough to damn her to hell.
  • Exaggerated with C.H.E.R.U.B, who end up being kicked out of Heaven and banned for life, and bluntly told that there's nothing they can do about it, just because of a single Accidental Murder that was more I.M.P's fault than theirs.
• Embarrassing Ringtone: Blitzo's ringtone for Stolas is a digital ring interspersed with screaming.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Heaven and Hell's creatures can't stand each other. Angels view demons as unrepentant troublemakers, and demons view angels as annoying Holier Than Thou paragons. At best, they call each other out for meddling in the lives of humanity. At worst, they try to kill each other.
    Keenie: You [demons] are all such disgusting, loathsome beasts! Your kind is nothing but dirt that shitty dead people tread on!
  • Imps are often lower-class citizens in Hell. Stolas's wife, Stella, appears less offended about her husband's homosexual affair with Blitzo and more angry about the fact that he cheats on her with an imp. When we see the seemingly farm dominated Wrath Ring where Millie's family has their farm, the visiting Loona and Stolas are the only non-imp demons there, and Striker makes a point that imps who leave to seek their fortunes elsewhere often have a hard time of it.
• Fictional Currency: The second series episode shows that the money in Hell is called "souls", is green like US dollars, and the 100 soul notes show Mammon's face. Also, the shooting game at Loo Loo Land costs 100 souls a shot, but the whole park is said to be overpriced.
• Firearms Are Cowardly: Moxxie gets grief from fellow Imps, at least in the Wrath ring, because of this trope. In one episode, everyone goes to Millie's family's ranch to meet her folks. Unfortunately, the family is considerably unimpressed with Moxxie's lack of physical ability despite his talent with firearms and he is constantly derided for it.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Sanguine: Blitzo is happy-go-lucky and optimistic and wants to do what he can to save his failing startup. He also thinks of his employees like a family.
  • Choleric: Loona is aggressive towards her coworkers when they try to get emotionally close to her.
  • Melancholic: Moxxie is extremely rigid and straight-laced, and tries to take his work more seriously than his coworkers.
  • Phlegmatic: Millie is overall a total sweetheart (when she's not killing anybody, that is). She is easily the most stable and level-headed of the crew.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The season 1 trailer has a large number of blink-and-miss-it moments.
  • Season 2's "Exes & Oohs" has Moxxie browse his social media profile, revealing his and Millie's surname to be "Knolastname."
    • From the same episode, when Chaz is drawing Moxxie like one of his French girls, you can see an arrow pointing at the drawing's crotch, where Chaz scribbled "Smaller than mine."
• Fun with Subtitles: The subtitlers are clearly having a blast with Helluva Boss. To use one example from the end of "Unhappy Campers:"
  Subtitles: Noises of two lovesick imps about to raw-dog begin. Like it's so graphic. There goes the tube top. And Exhibitionism Activated.
• Furry Reminder: The Goetia's owlish appearance doesn't get much reference, but there are occasional examples of their heritage; particularly in "Loo Loo Land", in which a shot of Stolas' fridge includes a plastic bag full of mice and a scene where Octavia appears to be eating birdseed for breakfast as if it were cereal. In "The Circus", Stella mentions since she "dropped" an egg (presumably the one from which Octavia hatched), she doesn't have to have sex with Stolas any more.
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: There's more than one instance of the adultery in the series and how each one is portrayed as varies, ranging from sympathetic to unsympathetic:
  • Stolas cheated on his wife Stella with Blitzo, but he's shown to be a Henpecked Husband who was trapped in an Awful Wedded Life after entering an Arranged Marriage and immediately expressed his desire for a divorce within minutes of his first encounter with Blitzo. It's also hard for the audience to sympathize with Stella, who is shown to be a shrewish, temperamental Rich Bitch and Hate Sink, even as a child. In "Loo Loo Land", Stolas even implies to Octavia a few times that he tried to make his marriage work, while we see no such effort from Stella.
  • In "Murder Family", Mrs. Mayberry is introduced as a friendly and sociable teacher who was loved by her students, so when she accidentally discovers her husband's tryst with Martha, the adultery is portrayed as negative and Mrs. Mayberry's reaction justified even if it does get her sent to Hell. As for Martha, she's further portrayed in a negative light beyond her affair with Jarold as she not only cheated on her own husband but after all that had happened, she continued cheating anyway, clearly not having learned from surviving Mrs. Mayberry's rampage. It's then later revealed that she and her family are Satan worshiping cannibal serial killers, thus further vilifying her.
  • On I.M.P's ad from the pilot episode, the client featured mentions how he "lovingly" killed his wife for cheating with a deliveryman. While it's clear his actions obviously got him sent to Hell after the state of Ohio executed him, no further details were given other than his wife cheated to concretely determine whether the affair was sympathetic (or even occurred, since the client seems like a bit of an Unreliable Narrator).
• Graying Morality: The conflict between Heaven and Hell is shown to be morally blurry.
  • For Hell: While I.M.P are assassins, they are at least devoted to their clients, are affectionate toward one another, try to behave professionally, and their targets aren't exactly sympathetic people. There is also heavy discussion that demons have certain laws and rules to abide by. For instance, those who cause trouble on Earth are required to blend in with human society with a disguise of sorts (costume or transformation) to avoid being exposed, with the implication of consequence in facing punishment from Hell's authority figures, if not Satan himself.
  • For Heaven: The trio of C.H.E.R.U.B are supposedly devoted to protecting humanity, but are pretty arrogant and self-serving in how they go about things, and care about earning brownie points in Heaven more than the people they are meant to protect. Additionally, they are far from infallible, as they also end up (indirectly) getting other people killed in a fit of pique. Their own boss (and by extension God) outright bans them from Heaven for that mistake with no way of coming back, showing Heaven itself is an incredibly strict place.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted. Moxxie specializes in ranged weapons like firearms, while Millie excels at hand-to-hand combat with her dagger clenched between her teeth.
• Hammerspace: Seems to be a common attribute of demons.
  • The imps regularly pull long-barreled guns or massive battle axes out from under their tailored suits.
  • Loona's outfit doesn't leave much to the imagination, but she manages to pull a grimoire wider than her waist out from behind her back.
  • Moxxie's fanny pack sprouts several giant syringes of morphine while offering Octavia "headache medication".
  • Blitzo's "emergency bag" is a grimy little backpack that contains an armory's worth of weapons, including a bazooka named "My Dick" that's longer and thicker than the backpack by itself.
• Hired by the Oppressor: Striker despises the Goetia, and sees them as elitist bastards who oppress imps like him. While he isn't necessarily wrong, his point is undermined by the fact that he's offered his services to Stella, a Goetia, and dutifully followed her every order, with Stella treating him well in return. When this is pointed out to him by Stolas, he has no retort.
• Hired on the Spot: Striker is hired by Crimson immediately after the former captures Blitzo and Fizz.
• Hot in Human Form: This is a plot point during "Spring Broken". In order to win a bet with Verosika that the I.M.P can kill more people than she and her succubi have sex with, they have Loona, a hellhound, use her human disguise to seduce targets and lure them away to be assassinated. The trouble is, the succubi also have incredibly attractive human forms and are easily able to seduce numerous humans.
• Humans Are Bastards: What we see of humanity in the world of Helluva Boss leaves much to be desired. Some low-lights include:
  • From the pilot, Doctors tossing I.M.P. and the child they accidentally shot out of a window when they reveal they don't have insurance.
  • The titular family from "Murder Family" turn out to be a group of insane, Satanist cannibals. And even when it looks like the surviving members might make a Heel–Face Turn at the end, the police come and blow up their home with a helicopter.
  • In "C.H.E.R.U.B," Loopty Goopty and Lyle got filthy rich making inventions by experimenting on the poor, and never suffered any negative consequences for it when they were alive.
  • In "Seeing Stars," Los Angeles is depicted as a Wretched Hive that according to Blitzo "doesn't look that different from Hell."
  • In "Unhappy Campers," one of the camp counselors is dealing drugs, while another denies medical attention to an injured camper because medical aid is "only for winners."
• I Was Quite the Looker: Before they were prematurely aged into old men, Loopty Goopty and Lyle Lipton were shown to be rather dashing.
• Immune to Fire: Downplayed with imps. While it's shown that Earthly fire can't hurt them, hellfire very much can.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Moxxie and Millie's loving relationship places a lot of focus on just how much Moxxie loves Millie for being an absolute psychopath who loves to kill. The two synergize best when the opportunity to cause violence also results in the opportunity to celebrate their love for each other, which only leads to them being even better at causing violence. At one point, Moxxie even admits he finds threats of everlasting torture "kinda hot."
• Intimate Telecommunications: Throughout the series, this is the main form of communication between Blitzo and Stolas. While Blitzo only does so to discuss targets and deals, Stolas fully abuses each chance to quite thoroughly describe everything he wants to do with "Blitzy" when they have some time alone.
• Irony: Octavia is afraid that her father would leave her to run off with Blitzo. This would never happen, given that Blitzo is frigid to Stolas out of fear that he only sees him as his personal sex toy. Meaning that while they will still have liaisons due to Blitzo's need for Stolas' grimoire, the chances of Blitzo wanting to run off with Stolas are pretty much zero. There's also the possibility that, being a father himself, Blitzo would never put someone else's child in that position. In short, while Octavia's fear of being abandoned is very real, the circumstances around Stolas and Blitzo's monthly sex sessions means her fear is — for the moment at least — unlikely to ever come to pass.

J-R

• Lighter and Softer: Thematically when compared to its sister series, Hazbin Hotel, and not by too much. The focus of the series being on the daily lives of the natural born demons means that the issue of the purges isn't as greatly emphasized, and most of the demonic cast has sympathetic traits, with even the majority of the Seven Deadly Sins being sympathetic. The implication is that the Pride circle is worse than the rest of Hell because its population is made up of former humans who were all terrible people to begin with and see no reason to change.
• Little Bit Beastly: Imps in general seem to have certain animalistic vocalizations from time to time, such as Blitzø purring in the pilot or Millie making enraged chittering noises when worried about Moxxie in "Truth Seekers".
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Oh Millie" is a very sweet-sounding song by Moxxie about his wife Millie and how much he loves the death and destruction she causes.
• Mammon: Mammon rules the Ring of Greed and his face is on Hell's money.
• Man-Eating Plant: Stolas has several potted plants that have jawed buds. One of which is bigger than himself, has eyes on its' leaves, and gets affectionately hand-fed raw zebra steaks.
• Masquerade: It is revealed in "Spring Broken" that demons who operate on Earth are supposed to keep a low profile. Failure to do so can lead to panic and the violators supposedly facing consequences from authority figures in Hell. The imps of I.M.P have been ignoring this rule until Loona finally calls them out on it. The only reason they got away with it is thanks to Refuge in Audacity while on Earth and the usual practice of killing anyone who might see them.
  • Loona points out how she can disguise herself in human form to come up to their world, and then berates the others for not knowing that such a thing was possible. The fact that Blitzo, Millie, and Moxxie don't disguise themselves in the human world ends up leading to further trouble in "Spring Broken". Verosika tries calling the members of I.M.P out for going around without disguises, but the threat fizzles because all of the humans were either drunk and couldn't tell that Moxxie or Blitzo were demons, or Blitzo killed anyone who saw them.
  • Verosika accidentally creating a giant sea monster with her demonic booze is also something that would break the masquerade, as Blitzo uses it as blackmail to get his company parking space back.
  • "C.H.E.R.U.B" shows that I.M.P still doesn't or can't use magic to make themselves look human, but rather they go about their business heavily dressed up in wigs and costumes while making no effort to hide their red skin.
    Tour Guide: And here, we find three tacky stalkers about to attempt a murder! Things like this can happen to famous people all the time.
  • This comes full circle as a massive plot point in "Truth Seekers", where D.H.O.R.K.S have been tracking their undisguised sightings throughout the last few episodes and finally capture Moxxie and Blitzo for information on who they are. Stolas even calls them out on this horrendous blunder when he saves I.M.P at the end, although he spares the two agents under the assumption that nobody will believe them. Unfortunately for the demons, their actions were recorded on the cameras, implying that their existence might not remain a secret for much longer.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Hellborn demons are separated into different sub-races of demons, with some of them being biologically compatible enough to have hybrid offspring. Notably, Striker is a hybrid between an imp and an unknown demon type, while some of Crimson's shark goons are hybrids between shark demons and other demon types.
• Ms. Fanservice: Most of the female characters in this series are very attractive in one way or another and the show, along with various official artwork and merchandise, have no problem emphasizing their sex appeal. Notable examples include Loona, Verosika Mayday, Martha, Barbie Wire, the Glitz and Glam twins, Beelzebub, Stella and Millie.
• Murder, Inc.: Blitzo's Immediate Murder Professionals agency, or I.M.P, specializes in assassination gigs on the living world (usually the revenge-fueled kind). Doesn't matter if the client is evil or (remotely) good, as long as there is a target to kill.
  Blitzo: We're assassins, not bodyguards, okay? Don't invite us to shit unless someone's gonna die.
• Murderous Thighs: in "Truth Seekers", Millie starts crushing a D.H.O.R.K.S agent's head and neck with her thighs appearing to struggle with breaking the neck. But after drinking some water offered by Blitzo she snaps the neck just fine.
• My Instincts Are Showing: Imps, Hellhounds and Goetic demons all have subconscious, animalistic reactions that highlight particularly strong emotions. Hellhounds get territorial and antsy when they're made to do something they hate and wag their tail when happy, Imps perform hissing threat displays like reptiles or cats when frightened, and Goetia make all manner of species-appropriate bird calls to express themselves.
• Never My Fault: I.M.P's clients tend to fall into this mindset, prompting them to put down the person who screwed them. The pilot has a demon complain that he was executed by the state of Ohio because the demon killed his wife for cheating on him with a deliveryman, saying he was totally justified and doesn't know why he's in Hell. He then says he wishes he could kill the jogger who saw him hide his wife's body.
• Nipple and Dimed: Several otherwise bare-chested women seen in the series have hearts or Xes over their nipples, or dollar signs in two instances in "Mammon's Magnificient Musical". This also appears to be the standard for male demons in hell, but not male humans on Earth. It is not entirely clear if they are wearing pasties or if these are censor icons that aren't there in-universe.
• Non-Heteronormative Society: Hell society as a whole doesn't seem to have any problem with LGBTQ+ people, as they are fully accepted in society. The fact that Stolas has relations with an imp is not a reason for ridicule because they are both male, but because they belong to different social classes. That said, Crimson at least is shown to be (or at least have been) quite homophobic, even using the phrase "sissy lifestyle" to describe a same-sex relationship.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Blitzo has numerous panic buttons installed under his desk that sets off a number of lights on Loona's, including "Deranged Client", "Client Giving Birth", "Horny Client", and one specifically for "Stolas", suggesting these things all happen with some frequency (doubly-strange since Blitzo's business can't be more than a few years old at most).
  • What the hell happened with the old shipment of vvvvvibrators?
• No Such Thing as H.R.:
  • Blitzo and Loona frequently mock and belittle Moxxie, and Blitzo stalks Moxxie and Millie outside of work. Then again, it is a four-person startup, and Hell likely doesn't have HR to begin with.
  • Played for Laughs in "Spring Broken", when the company parking spot is swiped by Verosika, Blitzo threatens to call HR, prompting him, Verosika, and Vortex to burst out laughing for a couple seconds.
• Oh, My Gods!: Hellborn swear by the name of Satan in swears that normally invoke God, such as "Oh Satan" instead of "God Damn" and "Satan's Balls" instead of "Jesus Christ".
• Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: One part of the "Oh Millie" song has Moxxie rowing a gondola with him and Millie on whilst singing the eponymous love song.
• Our Imps Are Different: Imps are the lowest class of demons in Hell, and are not really treated well by many higher-class demons, often being used as servants for higher demons. As a race, imps are physically very diverse; some have normal legs or goat-like legs, they vary radically in size from as small as a teapot to roughly human size, and some have wings. Secondary Sexual Characteristics are also present, both in hair color and horn markings. Female imps have black hair as opposed to white for males. Horn-wise, females have predominantly black horns with thin white stripes, while males have black-and-white stripes of similar thickness. Similar to humans, imps heal from wounds with lighter scar tissue, though stark white instead of light pink. Imps are also immune to normal fire, though Hellfire burns them as it would anyone else. Additionally, one imp in "Loo Loo Land" showed the ability to produce a small fire from his fingers.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: In-Universe. Millie becomes a local celebrity in the human world as "Millerd Realboy", but, because she has sex with Moxxie in public while they pretend to be siblings, she ends up known as an "incestous celebrity".
• Pardon My Klingon:
  • Appropriately enough for a demon, "Christ on a Stick." Ex: "Christ on a stick, that was a good burger."
  • Additionally, they say "What the Heaven" instead of "What the Hell."
• Pay Evil unto Evil: The main premise of the show. People in hell want revenge on people on Earth. Sometimes it's justified, sometimes it's just petty revenge.
• Pictorial Letter Substitution: The "Helluva Boss" logo title has the "v" replaced by a pair of imp horns while the "o" is replaced by a pentagram.
• Pink Is Erotic: While many succubi appear in the series, one notable example is Verosika Mayday a famous succubus celebrity who organizes concerts on Earth where she uses her succubus nature to charm humans into lust and her normal form has bright pink skin with pink clothing. She also implies that her former relationship with Blitzo was a thing thanks to the latter's "talents". Downplayed as red appears to be the default color of succubi otherwise, and the sin of lust is associated with the color blue.
• Pin-Pulling Teeth: Millie does this during the "Oh Millie" animatic at the end of the episode, after Moxxie "proposes" to her with a grenade.
• Pixellation: Realistic depictions of genitals, including detailed sex toys, are pixellated. Crude drawings of genitals are not.
• Prehensile Tail: Imps have a total control over their tail's movements. Two good example are in "Spring Broken", where Moxxie makes the shape of a heart with his tail, and in "The Harvest Moon Festival", where Striker uses his tail to grab Moxxie by the neck and throw him against a wall.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: Blitzo introduces his name with the clarification, "the 'o' is silent!", often to the confusion of the other party, who just assume his name is "Blitz" since he never bothers to spell his name out anyways.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Kind of inevitable given that this is a show where the main characters are all hired assassins. While the plot doesn't shy away from presenting the protagonists' troubles as Played for Laughs, it's just as likely to have them Played for Drama and this is the main source of the viewer's knowledge of each character's Hidden Depths. But the suffering they cause while doing their job is barely given any attention, and even then it's usually Played for Laughs. It is however subverted in that the plot also doesn't try to sugarcoat that the imps are not necessarily good people for doing what they do, which is something that Moxxie in particular feels conflicted about, but as the series goes on it's simply accepted as the show's status quo.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Most of the cast save for Octavia, since she is an actual teenager and does not demonstrate violently destructive immaturity (unlike her parents and I.M.P). One poignant example being both Blitzo and Verosika causing mayhem to a beach over their petty gripes and acting like high-schoolers that didn't grow up.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Very much downplayed since they're demons living in hell, but I.M.P are only ever seen killing people on the job and tend to spend the rest of their time acting like assholes at worst.
• Questionable Consent: In the pilot and first episode, at least. Blitzo is visibly uncomfortable with Stolas' sexual phone calls to the point of destroying his own phone on receiving one, and technically Stolas holding access to the grimoire over his head is extortion. Characterization Marches On and in later episodes it's played as him being more uncomfortable with the affection.
• Relationship Labeling Problems: After Millie teasingly claims Stolas to be Blitzo's boyfriend, Blitzo retaliates and awkwardly stammers to the third party, Striker, on what they "are." He eventually settles with the phrase 'transactional fucking'.
• Relative Error: Inverted when Millie dresses up as a man for a mission, with Moxxie pretending to be her sister. As 'Millerd Realboy', Millie ends up becoming a celebrity among humans and when they end up having sex in public everyone believes "he" was committing incest with "his" sister.
• Rewatch Bonus: A lot of details in Season 2 actually get brief nods in Season 1 that could be easily overlooked on an initial watch, but end up acting as foreshadowing on rewatch.
  • "The Circus" highlights that Stolas's marriage to Stella was an Awful Wedded Life, Stella being emotionally abusive to Stolas long before his affair with Blitzo, and only being in a relationship in the first place due to it being an Arranged Marriage on the part of Stolas's father Paimon, and caring more for the status it brought. "Loo Loo Land" has Octavia drowning out Stella screaming at Stolas about the affair early in the episode, but what can be heard ends up hinting at this in retrospect, as Stella is yelling more about Stolas sleeping with an Imp, as in one of the lowest classes of Demon in the Hellaverse, and for Stolas having considered going to a motel initially "like a fucking plebian", highlighting how Stella was more angry at the optics and what it could do to their status than about the affair itself.
  • "Seeing Stars" elaborates on how Blitzo first adopted Loona, having found her in a kennel shortly before she was going to age out and seeing in her a kindred spirit after seeing how, despite her harsh exterior, she's a lot more broken and scared than she admits.
    • Many episodes in Season 1, "Spring Broken" in particular, make a point to show that Blitzo highly values when Loona actually treats him as her adoptive father, and is very supportive and protective of her despite her pointing out she is an adult now. Considering how he's seen her at her most vulnerable and knows how broken she truly is, his joy comes just as much from seeing her finally opening up as it does from just being acknowledged as her adoptive father, and he doesn't want her to have to put on as much of a tough façade as she used to.
    • "OZZIE'S" has one of the photos on Blitzo's phone highlighting his more precious memories being of him and Loona, Loona wearing a different shirt than she normally does. Said shirt is the same one she was wearing when Blitzo met her, suggesting the photo was from right after he adopted her.
  • "Exes and Oohs" details Moxxie's home life before meeting Blitzo and Millie to be rather harsh, his father Crimson being horribly abusive and a mafioso, and his mother, while loving and kind, was implicitly killed by Crimson for protesting how he raised Moxxie. "Murder Family" has one of the few exceptions to Moxxie killing a family being a "mob family", taking on a stereotypical mafioso accent when describing so. Considering Crimson sounds just like Moxxie just with a joisey accent, it goes from a random gag to a hint at Moxxie's hatred of his father.
  • "Loo Loo Land" has a lot of details regarding Blitzo, Fizzarolli, and Mammon, that are pretty blatant on rewatch.
    • The Robo-Fizzarolli introduces himself as being a product of "Ozzie's" Factory, with "Ozzie" being the In-Series Nickname of the Deadly Sin Asmodeus, "MAMMON'S MAGNIFICENT MUSICAL MIDSEASON SPECIAL (ft. Fizzarolli)" making mention of how he hates having to produce robot copies of his lover, Fizzarolli.
    • Octavia brings up the idea that "Loo Loo Land" is just a cheap knockoff of Lucifer's more successful "Lu Lu World", and Robo-Fizzarolli blatantly rips off Charlie's "Inside of Every Demon is a Rainbow" song, both details that make a lot more sense after being introduced to Mammon and how shamelessly greedy he is.
    • Robo-Fizzarolli's "The Reason You Suck" Speech already hints at how Blitzo and the real Fizzarolli have some bad blood, but a lot of what he said ends up pretty spot on after "The Circus" with how Fizzarolli was the fan-favorite of their circus, while Blitzo couldn't get them to laugh at all.
• Romantic Rain: A bloody version of this trope happens during the "Oh Millie" song sequence. After Moxxie and Millie spell out the song's title with a trail of blood, the blood drips down and proceeds to rain in the next scene onto the couple while they share an Umbrella of Togetherness as Moxxie continues romantically singing about his wife.
• Ruder and Cruder: The cartoon uses more profanity than the cartoon it spun off from, which is saying a lot.
• Running Gag:
  • The synopsis for each episode on Youtube ends with "Things sure do happen", likely to prevent any hints that would potentially spoil the plot or its twists.
  • Blitzo has a habit of either losing or destroying the phones he uses to talk with Stolas:
    • In the pilot, he's so disgusted by Stolas' sexual advances that he pulverizes his phone into a smoothie, then orders Loona to drink the smoothie and shit it off a bridge.
    • In "Murder Family", Blitzo drops his phone when he's confronted by the mother of the "murder family" and doesn't retrieve it, leaving Stolas to obliviously continue talking about having his way with Blitzo.
    • In "Loo Loo Land" he accidentally smashes it into his desk after excitedly agreeing to bodyguard Stolas and Octavia in exchange for money.
  • When Stolas gets horny and starts talking dirty, anything explicit he says in his sexual advances is covered by censor bleeps. Even saying that Blitzo is the only man that can fuck him gets censored.
  • Clients blasting down I.M.P's office walls, causing Blitzo to complain that There Was a Door.
    Blitzo: Oh, Satan's asscrack, enough with the wall shit! We have a door!
  • Even after learning about shapeshifting human disguises, I.M.P for whatever reason never uses them (except for Loona, who told them about the idea in the first place and assumed that they already knew) and are instead the only demons that assume a Paper-Thin Disguise when out on Earth.

S-Z

• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: From the main cast and the background imps that been seen scattered around, it appears that female imps have black hair and black segmented horns that grow from their skin, while male imps have white hair and black-and-white striped horns that seem to merge into their hair. This doesn't seem to be a hard set rule though, as apparently seen in some imps such as with the female imp meant to be Vivienne Medrano's impsona who has primarily white hair as well as a large-ish stripe of black hair (along with spots of pink hair), and a number of Stolas' would-be-kidnappers in "Loo Loo Land" appear to be generic male imp goons despite having black segmented horns (though they could be female imps). That said, this is actually used as a subtle sign that Millie's sister Sallie Mae is a trans woman, as her hair is dyed black (you can see white roots), and her horns are black-and-white striped like male horns.
• Sex Equals Love: In the pilot, Stolas seemed like a depraved creep who took advantage of his providing the grimoire I.M.P needed for their business in order to ask sexual favors alongside hits. In the series proper, it's revealed that he actually caught feelings for the imp after their night together, and while he's still very forward on his advances, he (sorta) asks for Blitzo's consent to his "new deal" for the book, his flirting is less intense when they're not talking sex, and in his Instagram he's shown to be more innocently playful. It's significant because, despite interacting more and having a daughter with his wife, he never grew to love Stella but he still pines over Blitzo despite the imp's coldness towards him.
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: This is the general setup of Battle Couple Moxxie and Millie. Moxxie is the ranged specialist, while Millie is the melee master. Both can use the combat style outside their specialization, but it's pretty clear they're only passable in those areas while they excel within them.
• Shout-Out:
  • In "The Circus", images and flashbacks of young Stolas show him with a stuffed bunny imp plushie◊ that looks strikingly similar to one of Max from Sam & Max.
  • One of the graffiti tags in "Spring Broken" says "We're the Rats".
  • In "C.H.E.R.U.B.", Moxxie flips to a channel that features a raunchier Betty Boop inspired demon woman.
  • Moxxie's musical number in "Truth Seekers" has his version of Blitzo dress like The Phantom of the Opera, complete with him playing an organ.
  • In "Exes and Oohs", "Notamafia Town" has the slogan "No Mafia here! We're Mafia-free!"
  • In "Oops", the Lust ring tabloid has an ad with a dog pulling off a succubus' bikini bottom that references classic Coppertone sunscreen ads. Wally Wackford also has an ad for Wacky Waving Inflatable Flailing Tube Dicks.
  • In "Mammon's Magnificent Musical Midseason Special (ft. Fizzarolli)", Fizzarolli follows up interrupting Glitz and Glam's pie-in-the-face gag by upstaging them with a reference to the chair scene from Flashdance — draping himself over a chair as pies rain down and drench him.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: In the middle of the scale. Some of the characters can act like Jerkasses towards each other and there can be some cynical humor but the show balances it out by having wholesome moments or characters such as Moxxie and Millie's happy marriage and Octavia being a Daddy's Girl. While Earth is generally portrayed as a Crapsack World, Hell for the most part is relatively nicer, especially outside the Pride and Greed Rings.
• Smash Cut:
  • In the pilot, Blitzo loudly responding to Loona's summons to the phone cuts to him attempting to sound calm and polite while answering Stolas on it.
  • Also in the pilot: Blitzo asking the doctor what insurance is cuts to the I.M.P crew and the injured boy being thrown out the hospital window.
  • Blitzo's threat to call HR on Verosika and Vortex cuts to the three of them uproariously laughing for a couple seconds, then cuts back to the original hostile confrontation.
  • In "Seeing Stars", Blitzo asking if Moxxie really thinks he's going to call Stolas over not knowing where his daughter Octavia is because she stole his grimoire from I.M.P.'s office cuts midsentence to Blitzo explaining the situation to Stolas over the phone.
• Spell Book: The portals I.M.P uses to access the living world are generated with spells from an old and very heavy grimoire that Blitzo obtained from Stolas. "Murder Family" reveals that Stolas is supposed to use the book to complete his own job, he doesn't actually own it, and that his lending the book to I.M.P is "less than legal". It's unknown what other spells are contained for Blitzo to use, but it seems that the portal spell is the only one needed and the reason why I.M.P continues to run business.
• Super Cell Reception: Apparently cell phones work between Hell and Earth with no loss in audio quality.
• Take That!: "Truth Seekers" has Blitzo admit he hated the musical Moxxie took him to, and that he has terrible taste in musicals in general. The show in question they saw together was one about "ugly, horny cats".
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Aside from Millie and Moxxie, the I.M.P staff can barely stand one another, which is the internal conflict that arises in conjunction with actually running their business and carrying out their contracts.
• Too Important to Remember You: In the flashback to Stolas's birthday, Paimon has to be reminded which of his sons he's talking to:
  Paimon: Ah, there is my little, erm... (aside) Which son is this one? There's so fucking many.
  Mister Butler: (aside) Stolas, Your Highness.
  Paimon: Stolas, yes! Right, right, that's the one.
• Too Kinky to Torture: In "Truth Seekers", during the interrogation scene, Blitzo mentions this trope in-universe, maybe even suggesting that he himself could be such a case.
  Agent Two: If we have to, we are willing to resort to torture methods to get answers out of you nasty hell beasts!
  Moxxie: When you say "tortured", do you mean physical or psychological? Physical seems counterproductive. We would likely tell you anything if it meant an end to the pain, and you have no way of knowing what was true.
  Blitzo: Or we might like it too much. And then you got a whole new thing to deal with.
• True Love Is Boring: Averted. Moxxie and Millie are Happily Married, and that's the joke. The rest of the humor and drama around their relationship comes from their quirky personalities, their deadly jobs, and the fact that other characters like to heckle Moxxie about how he could land a babe like Millie (though, notably, Blitzo calls them both "hotties" and implies they're both too good for anyone else).
• The 'Verse: Helluva Boss has the same creator and Fire and Brimstone Hell setting as Hazbin Hotel, with disconnected plots that showcase different aspects of the world's society. At one point, Loona can be seen watching Charlie's song-and-dance news broadcast from the pilot of Hazbin Hotel, and the logo for Channel 666 News appears in "C.H.E.R.U.B".
• Vice City: Imp City seems similar in terms of sin to Pentagram City from Hazbin Hotel. We don't actually see as much overall sinning here due to focusing mainly on I.M.P, but we DO see almost as much assholery going on between everybody, especially between the main characters. We also see actual murder of humans, but that mostly happens outside of Hell and Imp City with the exception of the kid they were contracted to kill.
• Villain Protagonist: Blitzo, Moxxie, Millie, and Loona are the main protagonists in this series. As demons working in an agency in Hell that specializes in assassination, they are far from good guys.
• Villain Song: Downplayed. "House of Asmodeus" starts off with Asmodeus and Fizzaroli scoffing at Moxxie's heartfelt love song to his wife and demanding that he sing a song about lust, before they and Verosika lay into Blitzo and Stolas when Blitz intervenes, but neither Asmodeus, Fizzaroli, or Verosika are particularly villainous outside of this moment.
• Vocal Evolution: In the first episode, Millie's voice starts out deeper-sounding than the pilot, due to having a different voice actress. By the end, it's higher-pitched, sounding much closer to Erica Lindbeck's performance in the pilot.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: King Paimon, Stolas' father, is capable of this. He shifts through several creatures before settling on an owl-like one to address his son in "The Circus". Possibly crosses over with A Form You Are Comfortable With when he dismissively refers to Stolas as "the owl boy", implying he's unfamiliar with the form; and offhandedly mentions he has many children, implying he might take a different shape when addressing each of them.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: The animatic during the pilot's end credits shows Moxxie proposing to Millie with a grenade, with the pin serving as the ring.
• Work Com: The show is a Black Comedy that generally takes place in the office of an assassin business set in Hell.
• Wretched Hive: In every appearance, the Greed Ring is portrayed as a nasty, run-down, unpleasant and corrupt place to live. The Sickly Green Glow present everywhere doesn't help.
  • Loo Loo Land: The first appearance of the Greed Ring focuses on the titular theme park which is quickly established to be somewhere between a Crappy Carnival and an Amusement Park of Doom. The staff openly rig games to fleece their customers. The park itself is stated to be a Shoddy Knock Off Product of a far more popular park owned by Lucifer.
  • Exes and Oohs shows much of the Greed Ring is a Polluted Wasteland with factories spewing smoke in the air and rivers full of toxic waste and corpses. Criminal organisations operate openly and Moxxie's flashbacks indicate gang wars and bank robberies are commonplace. The only places shown that are remotely pleasant are the homes of the rich.
  • Oops: Asmodeus, a Prince of a Deadly Sin himself, seems to consider the Greed Ring a very dangerous place and is resistant to letting Fizzarolli travel there without escorts, pointing out that one of the cities is literally called Ransom. Upon arrival, Fizzarolli is greeted with no less than three separate muggings going on. When a bystander suffocates to death from Fizz's confetti, nobody reacts beyond a glance. Fizz' subsequent journey through the streets shows Greed to be a barren and rundown Urban Hellscape, comparable to the cities in the Pride Ring and a far-cry from the fairly pleasant locales we've seen so far in Lust, Sloth, Gluttony (excepting the Hellhound pound) and even Wrath.
  • MAMMON'S MAGNIFICENT MUSICAL MIDSEASON SPECIAL (ft. Fizzarolli): Greed's king, Mammon, is introduced, with him being the most cruel and jackassish of the Seven Deadly Sins seen up to this point. He is revealed to be exploiting Fizzarolli's image for a decade in the Robo-Fizz brand despite the real Fizz hating it, and is a horrible boss all-around. Most of the episode is centered around his yearly clown pageant and how he intends to make the winner his walking cash-maker.
• Would Hurt a Child: I.M.P. will try to avoid killing innocents (not that they really care), but if a child has a contract put on them, they're as good as dead.
  • The pilot episode mainly focuses on a child getting caught in the crossfire, and I.M.P. trying to keep him alive. As soon as Blitzo finds out that the very same child actually was the person they were hired to kill, he offs the boy without a second thought.
  • "Unhappy Campers" has a recently-drowned client hire Moxxie and Millie to go after a teenage camp counsellor who was trying to cover his tracks of a drug run. In that same episode, Blitzo reassures an informant that if I.M.P gets a contract on their kids they'll make sure their deaths are quick and painless.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: A technological example: Moxxie reveals in "The Harvest Moon Festival" that Hell incorporating Angelic technology in their weaponry lead to massive, game-changing advancements in the gun-warfare.
• Your Size May Vary: The heights of the characters can change from scene to scene, or even several times throughout the same scene. Blitzo and Loona are a good example, as sometimes Blitzo can be around half the size of Loona, while in other shots he's less than a head shorter.

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