A series of webtoons on Something Awful animated by Dave "Shmorky" Kelly, creator of the webcomic Purple Pussy.
While a good portion of the entries in The Flash Tub are one-off shorts, there are some recurring series. These include:
- The Kansas City Worldskippers: A parody of The Harlem Globetrotters, where four moronic basketball players are tasked with solving mysteries and save the world with their sassy basketball skills. A task they almost inevitably fail to complete do to a general lack of intelligence, attention span and basic survival instincts.
- Gaming Guyz: The two frat boys Andy and Paulo discusses new video game releases while verbally and physically abusing each other, if they are not busy bullying resident retrogamer and Butt-Monkey George.
- The Jefferson Brothers: The story of two illegitimate children of Thomas Jefferson who travel through time and go on adventures. Somehow weirder than it sounds.
- Uncle Pep-Pep's Doodle Time: A parody of kids shows with host Uncle Pep-pep and his talking pencil Pencilly as they teach the young viewers at home how to draw. It gets worse.
- Suicide Face: A story about a girl who committed suicide to prank her boyfriend and trying to get out of hell. Looked to be going somewhere but wound up ending on a cliff hanger.
- The Furious Famicom Faggot: A parody of The Angry Video Game Nerd and Caustic Critics in general.
- Breakfast Duck: At first a parody of breakfast mascots. Breakfast Duck, along with his troubled son and cute niece try to remain a family while going through hilarious tragedies.
- The Best Of Weekend Web: All the stupidest, creepiest and most nonsensical forum posts from all over the Internet, read out loud in a dramatic style.
- Platform Hero: Can our player character Save the Princess from Dark Dragon with the "help" of a green dinosaur?
- Peezle Ward Presents: Self-proclaimed Child Prodigy Peezle Ward's self-directed low-budget films with a Universal-Adaptor Cast based on his old short stories.
- Gamescott: An extreme CloudCuckoolander hybrid of Video Game journalism and Max Headroom.
- Lauren's Cartoons: Imagery set to improvised stories by Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka's daughters Lauren and Jaylen.
Tropes associated with The Flash Tub include:
- Adobe Flash - All the videos are on flash. And are incredibly fluid and professional looking compared to your usual standard for flash.
- Alliterative Name: Furious Famicom Faggot.
- All Just a Dream: The Furious Famicom Faggot is annoyed to find that Super Mario Bros. 2's ending is this.Furious Famicom Faggot: What?! It was all a dream!? YOU LIED TO ME! TITTYCOCKS!
- And I Must Scream: The Laughbot. A robot programmed to tell jokes, and only tell jokes. It was also programmed to feel sadness, because they thought it would be funnier that way.Laughbot: Who likes jokes? I wish I did!
- Art Shift: At the drop of a dime, either with individual characters or the whole image. Used frequently to evoke a random disturbing effect.
- Attack of the Political Ad: During the 2004 election, campaign ad was made for the Cobra Commander that attacked George W. Bush and John Kerry for wasteful spending on "the $87 billion G.I. Joe boondoggle."
- *Bleep*-dammit!: Parodied in "Zipper Flash's Ultimate Sonic Fan-fic", which is loaded with uncensored swears, but any instance of "God" or "Jesus Christ" used as a curse is bleeped.
- Broke the Rating Scale: Furious Famicom Faggot on Tengen's version of Tetris for the NES:"For fucking with me like this, I'm gonna give you the worst rating ever: EIGHT GORILLA ANUSES!"
- But Now I Must Go: In the final episode of Uncle Pep-Pep's Doodle Time, the surviving side characters turns out to be aliens and they announce that they must go back to their home planet. When asked on the forums if they died on their way back, Shmorky simply answered "yes, yes they did."
- Butt-Monkey:
- Breakfast Duck is not treated very well by his employers. In his first short, they force him to do skateboarding stunts as part of the cereal commercial, even though he can't do anything more than just stand on the board, so unsurprisingly he falls and breaks his neck. They then let him just lay there and scream, though since he's an animated character he's recovered by the next cartoon. And this is to say nothing of his troubled home life...
- Paulo is this to Andy, and George is this to both the Gaming Guyz.
- Caustic Critic: Parodied with the Furious Famicom Faggot."Before I begin, I want you to know: I fucking hate video games more than I hate myself!"
- Cerebus Retcon: The breakfast duck cartoons started off being another slapstick violent cartoon to laugh at a duck's misfortune. But as the terrible things started piling up, it soon started focusing on his emotional state after going through such hardships. Culminating with his Christmas special which focuses on his troubled family life.
- Clifftop Caterwauling: Breakfast Duck in the final part of "Breakfast Duck's Terrible Christmas". When he finishes his rant, he's struck by a lightning bolt and falls off the roof of the house.
- Comically Missing the Point: The Furious Famicom Faggot's review of The Legend of Zelda. He neglects to enter the cave at the beginning and doesn't pick up the sword, so he's unable to attack anything. Then his new girlfriend dumps him during the review, and suddenly things get weird...
- Cloudcuckoolander: Nearly every character.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Used quite often by the Furious Famicom Faggot, coupled with Toilet Humor."This game is boring and stupid, and it's made for morons. I mean look at this. What the fuck?! What the fuck, Nintendo, what the fuck? What the fuckin' fuck? What the fuckin' fuckin' fuck's going on? Fuck! I don't fuckin' understand, I don't understand. Fuck."
- Deadly Prank: "Suicide Face" starts with one that involves the pranker killing herself. Intentionally.
- Depraved Bisexual: ZipperFlash in "ZipperFlash's Ultimate Sonic Fan-fic"
- Depraved Kids' Show Host: Uncle Pep-Pep.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The protagonist of the "Peezle Ward's" series will hit his girlfriend — as well as threaten to do much worse to her — for talking, because she has an annoying voice.
- Downer Ending: Woody's Race ends with Woody's car crashing and his legs breaking, as he sheds a single tear while exclaiming "I have lost, I failed you father". Followed by the end title card and a cheery fanfare playing in the background.
- Driven to Suicide:
- In Suicide Face, Cindy commits suicide as a prank. Apparently under the assumption that it doesn't count as dying if it's just a joke.
- After finding out his girlfriend thinks so lowly of him as to abort his own offspring, Paulo shoots himself in a scene so iconic it would be used at the end of the extended Gaming Guyz intro.
- Fantastic Racism: Officer Jeff really hates Klurfs.
- God: In an episode of the Jefferson Brothers, they reach the edge of the universe and find God. They ask him what is the one true religion, his response? "What is religion?"
- Genius Bruiser: Andy of Gaming Guyz may have a "jock bro" look and personality traits, but that doesn't stop him from having a surprisingly deep knowledge of video games and video game history, as well as being the overall more clever of the two.
- Groin Attack:
- Sally kicks Sonic in the groin for no reason in "ZipperFlash's Ultimate Sonic Fan-fic"Sonic: Ow! Why the heck did you do that, you stupid cunt?!
Sally: I'm being random! - The line "Smash your nuts into the ground" from the Gaming Guyz intro song.
- Sally kicks Sonic in the groin for no reason in "ZipperFlash's Ultimate Sonic Fan-fic"
- Grotesque Cute - Safe Seth and his wacky antics.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue" - ZipperFlash in "ZipperFlash's Ultimate Sonic Fan-fic"
- Improv: Lauren (and Jaylen's) Cartoons.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: In "The Abobo Show!"
- Intentional Engrish for Funny: "Marble Madness: THE MOVIE"
- I Take Offense to That Last One: In Breakfast Duck's Terrible ChristmasCutie: Shut up! You're just being mean and gay!
Junior: Heeeey! I'm not mean! - Killed Off for Real: Furious Famicom Faggot.
- Jerry Baggograpes. He will be missed.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Inverted in the Hammers episode with Safe Seth.Kid: I dunno, it looks kinda dangerous...
Safe Seth: Aww, c'mon! Don't be a chicken's pussy! - Mistaken for Murderer: In "Suicide Face part 2" John is convicted of Cindy's murder and sent to the chair because no-one believes she was stupid enough to intentionally kill herself for a prank.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Ponuppy is half pony, half puppy.
- Also taken to an extreme in the Cutelette
(Cute + Roulette)
- Also taken to an extreme in the Cutelette
- Mood Whiplash:: Near the end of "Gaming Guys 3" in a Take That! at Ctrl+Alt+Del.Paulo: That was my girlfriend. She...
Andy: Did she have a miscarriage? That would be fucking funny as shit!
Paulo: No. She got an abortion. She said she didn't want to have a 'tard baby. (cries a Single Tear) - Negative Continuity:
- Niece-ism: Lampshaded and justified in "Breakfast Duck's Terrible Christmas". Cutie Duckling lives with her uncle, Breakfast Duck; Breakfast Duck's girlfriend says "That's some weird Donald Duck thing going on, don't you think?" Breakfast Duck explains with a flashback:Social Services Guy: Breakfast Duck? Breakfast Duck, your sister-in-law, Greta Duckling, overdosed on cocaine.
Breakfast Duck: Huh? What does that have to do with me?
Social Services Guy: Well, since you're the closest living relative, you are now the legal guardian of Cutie Duckling.
Breakfast Duck: What?! I'm not gonna take care of that stupid whore's demon offspring-!
(Cutie Duckling peeks out from behind Social Services Guy, with Puppy-Dog Eyes)
Breakfast Duck: Oh! Uh—bwuh—I didn't mean—you! - No Indoor Voice: The main character of Peezle Ward Presents, spoofing a combination of Bad "Bad Acting" and Hollywood Autism.
- Non Sequitur: In "Suicide Face" as Cindy is bludgeoning herself to death she starts babbling random nonsense as her IQ lowers with each hit before she's reduced to just moaning.
- Old Shame: [in-universe] Robotnik continualy brings up Sonic's having blown him in "Zipper Flash's Ultimate Sonic Fan-fic."
- Only Sane Man: Ralph from "The Jefferson Brothers" is one of the very few.
- Orphaned Series: What "Suicide Face" appears to be. There hasn't been a new episode since 2008.
- Pals with Jesus: Dora and Boots in Lauren's Dora cartoons.
- Parental Substitute:Cutie Duckling: *singing* ...because I love my Uncle Breakfast Duck even more than my dead mom!
- Precision F-Strike: Particularly common in the two Dingo Pictures parodies
- Woody in "Woody's race" has one when Simba tells him he needs more racers to properly challenge him.Simba: Not so fast, Woody!. You need to have more racers. It's not a race until you have more racers!
Woody: DAMNIT! - Scrooge McDuck in "Titanic".Gaston: You are so bad, you could play for Latvia.
Scrooge: GO FUCK YOURSELF!
- Woody in "Woody's race" has one when Simba tells him he needs more racers to properly challenge him.
- Phrase Catcher: In "Woody's Race", whenever Woody goes, someone will always say "Heeeeeey Woody!". In true Dingo style, the phrase is repeated with the same voice every time.
- Random Events Plot: "Sonic Watches He-Manf" starts with He-Man and Skeletor fighting, then they fall in love, then it cuts to Tails the Fox telling Sonic that he was molested by Robotnik, Robotnik apologizes to Sonic and they then begin to sing "Eternal Flame". A chorus of various fictional characters join in, then the screen fades to black and tells us to please donate our time for a charitable organization for Africa instead of watching flash cartoons like an asshole.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: Often. Especially evident in the "Tub Bites" series.
- Real After All: Ghost Snatch, Halloween Edition. And if you hate shows like Ghost Hunters it's probably Bloody Hilarious as well.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Happens on multiple occasions in Peezle Ward Presents.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Ponuppy. With Cuteness Proximity taken to extremes.
- Sanity Slippage: Happens to the Furious Famicom Faggot. He might have even been insane the entire time, as the two other guys who appear in his reviews are only products of his imagination, but he truly starts to lose it during the Legend of Zelda review.
- Stylistic Suck: "Woody's Race" and "Titanic" are both intentionally done in a very poor style, with atrocious animations, obviously traced characters, lots of Off-Model and equally poor voice-acting as a jab toward Dingo Pictures.
- Subverted Kids' Show: Uncle Pep-Pep's Doodle Time is supposed to be like Nick Jr shows from the 90s, at first it just seems to be a silly parody with swear words added, but you can quickly see underlying darker themes, such as the hosts downward spiral to a mental breakdown and suicidal thoughts in a surprisingly serious manner.
- Take That!:
- "Woody's Race" and "Titanic" are mockeries of Dingo Pictures
- "Zipper Flash's Ultimate Sonic Fan-fic" is this to horribly written fanfictions and the Sonic the Hedgehog fan community in general.
- Testosterone Poisoning: Gaming Guys, through and through.
- Too Dumb to Live: Cindy Snickerpuss from "Suicide Face" is a literal example.
- Interesting also is the fact that according to the demons in hell technically she should also be too dumb to die.
- Universal-Adaptor Cast: The characters of the Peezle Ward stories.
- Unexplained Recovery: Paulo after killing himself in the third Gaming Guyz episode.
- Would Hit a Girl: Jeff Jefferson. With a leprechaun.
