Sublo and Tangy Mustard is a web animated series created by Aaron Long (director on Bojack Horseman), first released in 2015. The series focuses on two guys who work as costumed fast food mascots at Subpar. The two are never seen without their costumes, even when they're elsewhere and not at work.
Other characters include co-worker Katy and their manager Dick Wubhamer.
You can watch the series on YouTube
and on Newgrounds.
Tropes:
- Are We There Yet?: A variant. While on a train Sublo and Tangy Mustard get into an argument, leading Wubhamer to say he will "turn this train around and nobody can go to this convention!" Sublo points out they don't want to go anyway.
- Basement-Dweller: Tangy Mustard lives with his parents according to episode 8.
- Burger Fool: The titular main characters work at a sandwich shop called Subpar. They don't seem to mind too much, although Katy clearly has contempt for it.
- The Bus Came Back: Some of Katy's friends from "Katy's Birthday" return in "Picnic."
- Katy's roommate Ashley, also introduced in "Katy's Birthday," later reappeared in "Art Show" and "Picnic."
- Butt-Monkey: Katy. Granted, everyone who works at Subpar under Mr. Wubhamer has it rough, but unlike the titular duo she hates working there and she's also dealing with an identity crisis due her struggling art career. By episode 15, she's drowning her sorrows in whiskey.
- Call-Back: Episode 11 ended with the duo (and Tito) buying Katy's hot dog painting. In episode 14, Katy find out what they're using the painting for.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Fittingly considering it's made by a director from Bojack Horseman, the show starts to shift from a bro-comedy into a Quarter Life Crisis-focused Dramedy by season 2.
- Clickbait Gag: In the first episode, one of Sublo's unsuccessful attempts at getting people inside the store is by asking "ever wonder how sandwiches get made? Find out today!"
- Continuity Nod: Katy has a rash on the side of her face in episode 11 due to the main duo gluing her face to the counter in a previous episode.
- The same episode also has Tangy Mustard remembering the events from Katy's birthday party in episode 4.
- Dance-Off: Happens in episode 9.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Parodied in the first episode.
- The Faceless: We never see what Tangy Mustard looks like without his costume. We can see Sublo's face through the porthole, though.
- Filler: Episode 10, "Battlefield," which is also the shortest episode at 36 seconds. Aaron Long says it was done as a stopgap for the much longer 11th episode, which he was making at the time.
- Giftedly Bad: Katy values herself as an artist, but her work leaves a lot to be desired, to the point that her paintings were placed in a children's art exhibit because the organizer thought they were done by a child. Another episode had her painting of the mascots mistaken as penises by an angry mom.Tangy Mustard: (seeing Katy's painting) Well, now we know why you're working at Subpar.
Katy: Shut up.
Sublo: I actually really like it.- This was deconstructed in episode 15, where Katy spent most of the episode being drunk and depressed after realizing this is how people see her as.
- Goofy Suit: The titular characters are never seen outside of their silly looking mascot suits. Some of the humor also pokes fun of the awkwardness of moving around in Sublo's suit in particular, especially in the Nightclub episode where Sublo keeps knocking furniture around due to his suit.
- Guest Animators: The convention episode featured dozens of guest animators animating Sublo in their own styles during a scene where he gets overwhelmed by seeing a crowd of people dressed up as the character.
- Groin Attack: Sublo gets kicked in the crotch by a little boy in episode 6.
- Halloween Episode: Episode 7 revolves around Katy being possessed by The Booglin while cleaning the men's bathroom.
- Innocuously Important Episode: Events from episode 14, one of the shorter episodes, would become the basis for episode 15's plot.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: When confronted by the rival mascots.Sublo: We don't even care about our food!
Chick-Chick: Or your dancing, clearly.
Tangy Mustard: Yo, what did this boy just say!? (Sublo restrains him from attacking.) - Lost in Character: The main duo. Justified because their boss makes them.
- Chick-Chick and Frynapper, the costumed mascots for the rival chain Chick-O-Shack, are especially this.
- Meaningful Name: The name "Subpar" indicates what their sandwiches are like.
- The Napoleon: Tangy Mustard is rather short and hot-tempered.
- Never Bareheaded: Discussed when the duo sees Katy without the hat she wears at work.Sublo: Is it just me or does she look really weird without the hat?
Tangy Mustard: I know! I always assumed she was bald. - No Name Given: We never know the main characters' real names.
- Retraux: The very first episode starts with a 20-year old commercial for Subpar recorded on a VHS tape, complete with fake scan lines, semi-blurry image quality, and muffled sound.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: In the first episode, when Katy sarcastically asks "Geez, who wouldn't want a sub from a gassy dork in a musty suit?" Tangy Mustard immediately raises his hand.
- Pet the Dog: Wubhamer gives the duo a ride home after they get kicked out of Katy's party.
- Remember the New Guy?: Episode 15 has the duo having picnic with previously-seen characters, with the exception of Mandrell, who has never appeared before. When Sublo finally asks who he is, he admits he just happened to wander into the picnic and stuck around since nobody seemed to mind.
- The Rival: Chick-Chick and Frynapper, from the rival restaurant Chick-O-Shack.
- Serious Business: Wubhamer is very insistent that the main duo never take off their costumes, even when they're not at work. He even spies on them to make sure (see below).
- Sinister Surveillance: One episode reveals that Wubhamer spies on his employees through the the periscope on Sublo's costume.
- The Stoner: Sublo's roommate, Tito, seems to be one.
- Thin-Line Animation: Parodied in episode 13. The Subpar executive evaluating the main duo says their costumes don't match the current model, which is based on this trope.
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The animation of the train in the convention episode.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: In "Picnic" Katy spends the whole episode nursing on a milk carton full of booze and predictably barfs on the train ride home...A train Sublo and Tangy rushed her aboard to prevent her from being sick on a bus.
