The Oats Series is a slideshow style episodic series by Joe Capo. It follows the tale of two brothers, both pigs, and the trials and tribulations the older brother goes through in his quest to acquire some oats. However, what should be a simple lunch run takes a turn for the surreal as his quest for Oats gets him more than he bargained for, fighting dark conspiracies and Jerkass Gods in his efforts for a simple meal.
The series started out with videos a few minutes apiece (starting with Brother, I Require Your Oats), but culminated in The Oats Movie, which clocks in at a whopping 40 minutes. From there, the Oats series has followed a pattern of around 10 smaller videos between subsequent movies, with the newest being the Oats Movie 3.
As of 2019 Joe Capo has retired from Youtube and deleted all of his videos from his channel, including the Oats Series. Fortunately the Oats Series was archived and can be watched here
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The Oats Series Contains
- Addressing the Player: In the second episode of Big Pete playing Free Rider HD, he plays so badly that the game itself calls him out on it and even rebels against him.
- Affectionate Parody:
- The series in general parodies action anime such as Dragon Ball Z.
- The episodes where Big Pete plays Free Rider HD are a clear parody of Let's Players who use facecams.
- Almighty Janitor: Janitor Jenkins counts, as he's supposedly the most powerful being in the universe. Good thing he's benevolent, and enjoys breakdancing battles more than traditional combat.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The pigs are usually distinguished by having a different color. Subverted in at least Green Bean's and Big Pete's case, as they spray-painted themselves to avoid getting found out for past crimes.
- Ancient Conspiracy: The Order of the Dark Oats are a powerful organization lurking in the background. Their leader Kek is the Big Bad of the first two seasons, and Younger Brother and Big Pete are known to be members. Exactly what it is they do is never stated.
- Arc Words: NO OATS.
- Author Avatar: Comes in the form of "The Creator", Joe Capo, a red pig. He gets involved with a philosophy debate in the second movie, and gets killed by Big Pete in the third movie.
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- The Return of Kek has Kek successfully outpower the brothers. The Oats Movie is about undoing his victory.
- Likewise, Oats Movie 3 has Big Pete almost completely wipe out all life in the universe, leaving only Older Brother alive.
- Big Bad: Kek greedily deprives the pig populace of their oats.
- In the third film, Big Pete takes this role. Turns out he turns into an universal serial killer when he's asleep.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- In Oats Movie 1, Big Pete saves the brothers from being killed by Porkchop by shooting Porkchop himself.
- Likewise, Conspiracy Pete and the past brothers appear out of nowhere to stop Big Pete from killing the Creator. It doesn't work as Big Pete effortlessly kills them before proceeding to kill the Creator.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Early in Movie 2, the pigs repeatedly bring up the idea of using Older Pig's distilled water shield to reflect Kek's eye beams back at him. At the end, Older Oat kills Kek in exactly this manner.
- Early in Movie 3, Older Pig confiscates the knife Younger Pig was threatening him with. At the end, he defeats Big Pete with it.
- Cliffhanger: Green Bean's introductory episode ends with a Smash Cut to the End title card before she can say how she knows Big Pete. In the following episode Big Pete is cut off in the same manner...for less than a second, before the scene cuts back to Younger Brother not letting him do that.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Kek enslaves the entire world in Oats Movie 1 and kills Lazy Pete and Crazy Pete in Oats Movie 2 without much effort on his part. Likewise, the Big Bad of Oats Movie 3 effortlessly kills anyone who dares stand against him.
- Cut Short: Joe Capo's retirement means the series has no definite resolution. However, Season IV consisted of mostly self-contained episodes past the first three (which undid Oats Movie 3's Downer Ending).
- Darker and Edgier: While it's still not particularly serious, Oats Movie 3 is considerably darker than the rest of the series before it. The Big Bad is dead set on killing everyone and everything he comes across and most of the humor is derived from the various ways he murders the other characters, and it doesn't help that Big Pete lacks many of his humorous qualities from previous episodes. Furthermore, most of the characters mourn the lack of hope of actually defeating the Big Bad, and to top it all off the movie ends on a very low note with the entire universe destroyed and Older Brother being the only character left alive at the end.
- Death by Irony: Invoked when Kek tries to unleash Giant Pig Eating Oats on the world in retaliation for Older Pig's actions.
- Kek's fate in the first film also counts, where he gets killed by the distilled water shield he gave to Older Pig.
- In the second film, he is killed by Older Oat in the exact same manner, which was "the one thing he didn't prepare for."
- Deus ex Machina: In Season IV, the universe is restored with the power of the Forbidden Oats, which were never mentioned before and never were mentioned again for the rest of the season.
- Downer Ending: Oats Movie 3 ends in this manner, with Big Pete having successfully destroyed the entire universe and everyone within, including Younger Brother. Older Brother is the only survivor, and while he managed to defeat Big Pete he's left all alone with everything taken from him. Luckily it's all undone over the course of the next couple episodes.
- God of Evil: Kek, the leader of the Order of the Dark Oats, is powerful enough to enslave the world and distort reality, and greedy and vengeful enough to do so.
- Grand Finale: The Final Oats Episode is not actually the last episode in the series. Instead it leads into Oats Movie 3.
- Hijacked by Ganon: In Season 2, it first appears that Friend Cow and the Alliance of Cows will be the main villains. Then Friend Cow revives Kek, who kills him offscreen and goes back to being the Big Bad for the remainder of the season.
- Hope Spot: In Oats Movie 3, Conspiracy Pete's Big Damn Heroes moment to stop Big Pete from killing the Creator just gets himself and the past brothers killed alongside the Creator.
- Hypocritical Humor: In Redistribute Oat, the brothers tell Green Bean that it's rude to keep all her oats to herself and not share them. In the very next sentence they tell her to give them the oats so that they can keep them to themselves and not share.
- No Name Given: The main pig brothers are never named, and are simply identified as Older and Younger Pig. Their sentient oat counterparts in Oats Movie 2 are likewise unnamed.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: Those who stand in the way of the brothers' goals often challenge them with a test of skill, often in Battle Rapping.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Apparently messing with dimensions can bring the dead back as ghosts, and they can only be truly put down through beating them through Battle Rapping.
- Retcon: Big Pete originally states that the other two trigods were killed by Kek when he tried to recruit Crazy Pete, but Oats Movie 3 heavily implies his Superpowered Evil Side killed them. Possibly justified by Big Pete being an Unreliable Narrator.
- Reset Button: The Forbidden Oats are used to undo the Downer Ending of Oats Movie 3 and restore the status quo.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The player character of Free Rider HD tries to run off on Big Pete in the second episode of Big Pete's Let's Play of the game. It doesn't end well for him.
- Sensory Abuse: Loud and distorted sounds accompanied by bright and equally distorted images appear in many episodes, particularly when Older Pig starts getting particularly desperate for oats.
- Show Within a Show: A few episodes have Big Pete making a Let's Play of Free Rider HD (and being particularly bad at it).
- Stuff Blowing Up: When characters die, they often explode. Kek explodes upon being cut in half with his own laser in Oats Movie 2, and everyone Big Pete kills in Oats Movie 3 explodes.
- Surreal Humor: Pretty much this show's bread and butter. The series heavily relies on the strangeness of it all to create humor.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: All the voice acting is done via a text-to-speech program, barring a few realistic sound effects here and there.
- Tempting Fate: Whenever somebody says something can't possibly happen, it's almost guaranteed to happen immediately afterwards.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pretty much all the characters love oats, to the point that their endless desire for oats drives much of the conflict in the series.
- Unexplained Accent: The Older Pig speaks with an American accent despite everyone else, including his younger brother, speaking with British accents.
- Voice of the Legion: Older Pig tends to speak in this whenever his Berserk Button is pressed.
- You Have No Chance to Survive: Heroes and villains alike love to state that their opponents stand no chance against them.
