Top: Nathan, Bottom: Joseph, Left: Dan, Right: Coy.
Roommates is a webtoon series created by Joseph Gonzales. It started in 2014 and is about 4 pals trying to live among each other with an Evil Landlord while crazy things happen. The show currently has 9 episodes, 15 shorts and 4 specials. The show is hosted on the YouTube channel Flow Joe, which can be found here,
and a playlist containing all the main videos can be found here. The show also has a website containing all of the episodes, comics, and other extras. The website can be found here.
Not to be confused with the dating sim or the webcomic from 2007.
Tropes include:
- All Just a Dream: At the end of the episode "Ghost Hunt", it is revealed that the episode and a previous episode "The Halloween" were just a story from a book that Dan had made.
- April Fools' Day:
- The April Fools 2017 special mentioned above.
- The short "Queen's Curse" also mentioned above for April Fools 2018.
- Art Evolution: Earlier animations were very rough, but as time went on, the art style improved to be more smooth.
- Art Shift:
- After the episode "Attack of Teh Clonez!" the show had a somewhat different style, especially after Season 2 started.
- The show enjoys switching back to the art style of older episodes whenever a past event is shown.
- There are sometimes guest animators, resulting in the art looking different than the usual.
- Author Avatar: All the main characters were named after, voiced by (with the exception of Nathan and Dan as of later episodes) and vaguely based off the creator and his friends.
- Beach Episode: The seventh episode, "Summer Beachcation".
- Berserk Button: Dan loves pencils, just never break any of them or else.
- Black Comedy: The show often jokes about dark subjects or death.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Dan breaks it all the time.
- Call-Back: In the special "Smart Cig", both Phil from "Summer Beachcation" and Joseph's missing glasses from "Dimension Hopping" can be seen as posters. The episode "Monster Mini-Mayhem" also has callbacks to "Summer Beachcation" which makes sense since chronologically, "Summer Beachcation" came before this episode and was left on a cliffhanger, which was concluded in this episode. Phil is also the main villain in this episode, being teased from the previous episode.
- The Cameo: "Monster Mini-Mayhem" hosts cameos of other web animators.
- Censored for Comedy: Dan's privates in the episode "Summer Beachcation" are covered by a pencil.
- Comedic Sociopath: Definitely Dan.
- Death Is Cheap: The cast are sometimes killed off in the animations and comics, but are always back by the next episode or comic.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Well, the show is about roommates.
- Failure Is the Only Option: "Summer Beachcation". Despite all their efforts, the only real way to get out of the simulation was to all "die".
- Formula-Breaking Episode:
- There's a special for April Fools 2017 called "Toy Store Adventures" where it takes place in a bizarre alternate dimension with the characters animated like an animatic style.
- The special "Meet the Crew" is set up as an interview with the characters.
- The short "Queen's Curse" is made out to be a parody of Khonjin House with a similar animation style.
- Gag Series: Mainly the comics.
- Heavy Sleeper: Nathan.
- Jerkass: Also Nathan.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Evil Landlord.
- Limited Animation: Mostly Season 1.
- Line Boil: Being featured in the series after the 5th episode.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Coy Craig does almost every voice.
- Oh, Crap!: When Coy jinxed it in "Summer Beachcation".
- Police Are Useless: The police are never seen handling any of the catastrophic events that happen.
- Please Subscribe to Our Channel: Parodied at the end of the pilot episode.
- Production Throwback: Potato Man, Joseph Gonzales' previous series, can be seen multiple times on the show.
- Running Gag:
- There has been three episodes that feature the character Sammy being injured some way for no real reason.
- Starting from "Dimension Hopping", Dan always kicks down the front door to the house.
- Evil Landlord's invention's always break after one use.
- Straight Man: Coy.
- Suddenly Shouting: Dan does this all the time.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: In "Summer Beachcation", when Nathan tries to use the shutdown switch, it turns into a trollface and when Nathan tries to use an exit door, it disappears and turns into a note saying how much of an idiot he was to think that would work.
- Your Size May Vary: The characters are always having different heights.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Kinda happened in "Monster Mini-Mayhem".
