Supper's Ready Illustrated is a fan-made animatic music video by Nathaniel Barlam for Genesis's 1972 epic, "Supper's Ready", which puts a coherent narrative to the famously bizarre lyrics. It can be watched here
, with a more in-depth explanation of the visuals here.
For tropes applying to the song by itself, see its page.
Supper's Ready Illustrated contains examples of:
- Audience Surrogate: The couple that the entirety of the video follows, who is referred to in the explanatory notes as "POV".
- Composite Character: G.E.S.M. and the Pied Piper are portrayed as one in the same in the video, while in the song by itself it wasn't clear who the latter was referring to.
- Continuity Porn: Many, many of the visuals are either inspired by or directly reference parts of Genesis's history, from different costumes worn by Peter Gabriel during performances of the song to POV ending up seeing Genesis performing the song.
- Cover Drop: The one in the song is made more explicit here, with the Fox on the Rocks and the hunting party pursuing her directly recreating the album art of Foxtrot (Album).
- Death by Adaptation: Two, both to show how serious things have gotten during "Apocalypse in 9/8".
- The Narcissus Flower — and presumably everything else on Willow Farm — is incinerated by a nuclear explosion.
- The Fox on the Rocks — and the album cover(!) — is caught and killed by the hunting dogs, who have been mutated into the Gabble Ratchet, though she reappears at Jesus's side during "As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs".
- Enraged by Idiocy: The POV couple is thoroughly unimpressed by the wonders of Willow Farm that they're a captive audience to. Until it starts going from "wondrous" to "terrifying", that is.
- Foul Flower: The Narcissus Flower pretty quickly goes from a whimsical Reality Warper to a towering, sinister figure with a Slasher Smile.
- Hellhound: The Gabble Ratchet in "Apocalypse in 9/8". They used to be normal hunting dogs, but something went wrong.
- Holy Hand Grenade: The Trope Namer is directly referenced, appearing as the "prayer capsule" mentioned in the song.
- Hostile Show Takeover: The "brand new tune" that Pythagoras is writing the lyrics to in blood is this tune, which is explained as the characters in the video wrestling control of the song.
- Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: G.E.S.M. uses his performance to lead children into a cave, before using a flute to lead them further.
- "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot: At one point, the POV couple ends up in the audience of "Supper's Ready" being performed live, with Peter Gabriel in the flower mask he typically donned during "Willow Farm" that the Narcissus Flower is based on. It's at this point that the actual Narcissus Flower starts to show his true colors.
- Oh, Crap!: The Narcissus Flower's reaction upon seeing the nuclear explosion that kills him approaching out of nowhere.
- Megaton Punch: POV Woman, evidently a Badass Normal, punches out a fully-armored knight bare-handed.
- Monochrome to Color: Movements III and IV are both entirely in black and white, which makes the transition to Movement V all the more noticeable.
- People Zoo: The POV couple, after being captured by demons, are put into a zoo exhibit labeled "Beasts that can talk", between a snowman ("Beasts that can melt") and a Squonk ("Beasts that can cry").
- Rapid Aging: The "young lad" who turns into the Narcissus Flower first becomes an old man before fading away.
- The Shadow Knows: The G.E.S.M.'s shadow grows during his fire display to combine with the hand-clasping-the-sun symbol on his wall, appearing to give it gnarled horns.
- Shout-Out:
- The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man advertises his "Jar o' Miracles" using Vince Offer's "Shamwow pose".
- The "prayer capsule" takes the form of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
- The fish that the Narcissus Flower says the POV couple is "happy as" are a clownfish and a surgeonfish.
- Splash of Color: The transition from the monochrome "How Dare I Be So Beautiful" to the colorful "Willow Farm" is first marked by the Narcissus Flower's suddenly animated face being in yellow.
- The Wonderland: Willow Farm as a place is portrayed this way, with fantastical happenings and an art style reminiscent of Dr. Seuss.
