AceOfSpadesProduc100's Microsoft Sam Reads Funny Windows Errors is a series of YouTube videos that ran between February 7 and December 22, 2014, before Ace closed his account for personal reasons on New Year's Day, 2015.The last episode that was released before the account closure was Season 3 Episode 4. This series has 11 episodes per season. The series was later resumed in July 2016 with Season 3 Episode 5 when Ace got a new YouTube channel, but that episode was originally made in May of that year.
This series has started Ace's boost of subscribers and video views ever since Season 1 Episode 1 was released.
This series provides examples of:
- All-CGI Cartoon: The second half of season 3 was made in Blender, which opened up opportunities for 3D animation. This was then dropped since season 4 after switching back to Vegas.
- Animation Bump: The Season 2 Finale has the scene where the protagonists (Microsoft Sam, Mike, and Mary) battle the Scary Logos Clan, which had the most animation in the original, and the entire series until Season 3 Episode 6.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In the Season 3 Finale, the Supreme AI was announcing the network extermination, with the list items "Thunderbirds101 Network", "The News Broadcasting Station", and ending with "And even your nearest Taco Bell".
- Art Evolution:
- In Season 1, the backgrounds were static images until Episode 9 onwards where animated backgrounds were used, and sometimes rotated between scenes or episodes.
- This series had season-specific end of episode bumpers, such as the Season 2 and Season 3 bumpers displaying previews of three previous videos instead of two, until Season 3 Episode 5 when it was replaced with the end credits, which was formerly used almost exclusively for the season finales.
- As of Season 3 Episode 5, the characters are now mainly 3D-animated after Ace had started to use Blender as his main video editor.
- Big "NO!": Sam especially during the first 5 episodes of Season 1, but only the norm back when the series was Denser and Wackier.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- Sam occasionally says that he will do a specified action after the episode, or in the next episode. Such as in Season 1 Episode 7 where he said that he will see the viewers in the next episode after suffering a breakdown.
- Lampshaded in MSSAM TV Episode 1 the Revamp when the 4th Wall Break alert was introduced whenever a character breaks the 4th wall.
- But Thou Must!: The good choices on an error are most likely to be greyed out, leaving Sam to choose the most unnecessary or dangerous choices.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The season finales and some of Season 2 focused more on the story than in the mainstream episodes. This then extended to the rest of season 3 onward.
- Starting from Season 3 Episode 6, the series has gradually transitioned from goofy and lighthearted to more serious and action-like when more storylines and character developments are added to give a purpose for running the series. note
- Christmas Episode:
- Unlike the > 2014 Halloween Special, The Christmas Specials are not standard episodes in the Funny Windows Errors series. Instead, they are Special Series episodes. The first special was "Microsoft Sam's Christmas Special 2013", and the second was for 2014. The 2015 special was being merged for the 2016 special due to creating all the resources and lacking internet for tutorials at Ace's Christmas Vacation area at the time.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Rift to Earth I's Remains, as well as its background music, returned in Season 3 Episode 6, over a year and a half since it was last used.
- Season 3 Episode 7 returns the use of the blur in the title scene's text shadow.
- Darker and Edgier:
- As of Season 1 Episode 6 but downplayed at that time, until fully applying since Season 1 Episode 8.
- Since Season 3 Episode 7 or later, the characters' behaviors changed: they no longer use childish attitudes, and instead changed to a more mature setting.
- Department of Redundancy Department:
- "Windows XP needs to update update your updating computer update because someone threw coffee on their keyboard so update your updater....Update update Windows XP now" - from an error in Season 1 Episode 7.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Talkingsoft Speechdows was the very predecessor of this series. It had two episodes and ran between September 26, and October 2, 2013. In that series, Microsoft Sam, and the content in general, was made to act childish and very immature, and it was later admitted by the creator. Season 1 Episodes 5, and 6-7 of Funny Windows Errors (the succeeding series) downplays this, however. The behavior has ended since their succeeding episodes.
- Downer Ending: Season 3 Episode 9 with Sam's first defeat. Justified, because the creator did not want Sam to be anticlimactic, continuously victorious, and boring to the audience.
- Downplayed in the Season 3 Finale where only Sam was defeated, and Mr. Ace has avenged and won the battle for him.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The content in this video.
- Evil, Inc.:
- Since the beginning of the series, the Trolls Group has appeared. Their reason for being antagonist is implied, since it references something outside of the series. They have only appeared in the first two episodes of Season 1, and have disappeared without explanation. But they were still talked about in the errors that Sam reads until Episode 8 or later.
- The NSA from Thunderbirds101's series, for seizing properties that they find as opposing to them or just randomly. In Season 1 Episode 2, however, they have seized a Trolls Group member who was endangering Sam, to save him. After Ace closed his account, the name was later changed to MPFNSA (Mitchell Productions Fictional National Security Agency), meaning that the change was implied.
- Excuse Plot: Season 1 Episode 5, some of Season 2, and the final half of Season 3 are possible exceptions. Then comes season 4, and the shift to dramedy made it much more story-oriented and discontinued the trope altogether.
- Foreshadowing: The ending of Season 3 Episode 6 has the late 2013 design for Microsoft Sam appearing after the end credits. This foreshadows the scene where all of the 2013 designs appear in Sam's room to berate him for throwing them out.
- Halloween Special: Season 2 Episode 4 in 2014, and Season 3 Episode 7 in 2016. The 2013 Halloween Special was its own Special Series video especially because the Funny Windows Errors series did not start until February 2014.
- In Funny Windows Errors, only the backdrop is Halloween-themed.
- Heroic BSoD: In Season 3 Episode 4 where Sam read a fanfiction that he considered tragic. Him reading it was skipped by using a time card. This also happens whenever he ragequits Doctor Jeckyll And Mister Hyde.
- Leitmotif:
- Scenes that take place in the Rift play a Windows Sounds cover of "The Final Enemy" in reverse.
- The ending bumpers for season finales play "Stringed Disco"
- Limited Wardrobe: After the transition to 3D animation since Season 3 Episode 5, the characters' clothing appears to never change between episodes.
- Mythology Gag:
- In Season 3 Episode 5, the Winter 2014 intro was used before it was interrupted and replaced with the current intro of the time.
- Exaggerated in that same episode by using almost entirely errors that was used in Mac Voices Reads Funny Windows Errors THE FIRST, which was
cancelled after only one episode. Besides that, the Moving Victoria Virus was mentioned, but was defied when the Ancient Joke Police censored it. - Starting from there, old concepts for the characters started to be used.
- In MSSAM TV Episode 1, the Revamp, the NSA which came from Thunderbirds101's series seized a part of the video and revealed their name change to MPFNSA ("Mitchell Productions Fictional NSA"). Subverted when the Ancient Joke Police has censored them.
- The operating systems transitions was reintroduced after Season 1 Episode 1 and Season 2 Episode 4.
- Nightmare Sequence: In Season 1 Episode 5, when Sam entered the Rift through an error that changed into a portal, in the series for the first time, he dropped into a car and had a call from an entity of RadicalFaith360. It resulted in the fake "car" disappearing and Sam flying out and he continued to read errors.
-
Nintendo Hard: Parodied in Season 1 Episode 9 where Sam was told to play the video game adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He lampshades this by saying that it was impossible to play especially after being stuck when trying to jump over a ledge in Jekyll mode.- Sam has played this again exactly three seasons later.
- No Fourth Wall: When Sam appears to be talking to himself, he is actually, and always, talking to the audience.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: In Season 3 Episode 8, and around Season 2, Sam's personality, and his intelligence, is double-subverted by briefly being sent to the past, and he changed to his character type that is the opposite of his current characteristics, until he has travelled back to the present to regain his current personality.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Despite not living in Sam's house, Mike, or Mary, will always appear when Sam says that they talk like their opposite gender.
- Orwellian Retcon: Several episodes of Season 1 and Talkingsoft Speechdows have been dramatically altered to remove
Unfortunate Implications and personal information. This trope may be played to a higher level especially if the creator needs to reupload them to his new YouTube channel. - Production Foreshadowing:
- Season 1 Episode 6 has Sam doing a tantrum, which was a sign of the start of CD-i Intro Bloopers where that tantrum effect became a running gag in.
- Random Transportation: Only in Season 1 Episode 5 where Sam glitched from reading a gibberish error that turned into a portal into a rift that leads between the remains of Earth I and Sam's original location. The trope was subverted afterwards because these teleportations now occur manually.
- Running Gag:
- The Moving Victoria Virus
, since late Season 1. - The MPFNSA seizing properties and sending them to the "NSA Jail", or seizing itself.
- Enforced with the appearance of the Running Gag Agency in Season 2, as they defend "important" elements in the series.
- The Moving Victoria Virus
- Ruritania: Microsoft Sam's hometown in 2014 was Yolomania, which was named after Romania. Other fictional geography names were borrowed from other series. Averted as of Season 3 Episode 5 where they were changed to their real names.
- Present Switcheroo: In the Christmas Specials, Bacon wanted bacon, and Scotty wanted baloney sandwiches. The presents that they wanted were switched with each other. This has continued since the beginning, the 2013 special.
- Shout-Out:
- In Season 1 Episode 6, Sam entered the Konami Code out loud to escape the remains of an Earth, back to his home at Earth II. And the escape scene was used in between.
- The Scary Logos Clan.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Everyone except for Mr. Ace. Downplayed when Mr. Ace's voice actor used a vocoder plugin to synthesize his voice for a few AI-based characters.
- The Stinger:
- Once in Season 2, the MPFNSA agent would seize the cutoff prevention screen, and in another episode, Sam.
- In MSSAM TV Episode 1 the Revamp, Sam threatened to take over the captions if they are not fixed.
- In Season 3 Episode 6, the old concept of Sam is seen flying into the center of the display. This may precede events between it and the modern Sam.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: In S 4 EP 3, Sam's current self is the straight man to his 2013 self as the wise guy.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The beginning of Season 2 especially. Lampshaded when an error says that the series would be directed by Michael Bay. It has never happened, and never will.
- Stylistic Suck: Any scene that is created in Windows Movie Maker, such as in a Season 2 episode, in Season 3 Episode 8, and the beginning of Season 3 Episode 9.
- Took a Level in Badass: Around Season 1 Episode 8, the characters have underwent character development into more serious, and edgier personalities and was completed in Episode 10, which an error has lampshaded in that episode.
- Versus Character Splash: The beginning of the battle scene in the Season 2 Finale, and any battle scenes since Season 3 Episode 7.
- We are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Occurs a few times, and most of them are as long as 30 seconds. Such as Sam spazzing over something in Season 1 Episodes 6 and 7, and Season 3 Episode 4, all while being covered by test bars that display humorous text.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- In Season 1 Episode 5, an error message threatened to infect Sam with a "virus" (a distorted video clip) for not sending error requests to the sender's series.
- Sam receives a major scene in Season 3 Episode 7 when the older designs of the characters from 2013 to late 2014 appeared from a time rift to call him off for throwing them out in CD-I Intro Bloopers Episode IV.
For MSSAM TV and other special series videos
- Word-Salad Humor: In Season 3 Episode 7, when Sam is affected with the Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs-based poison apple, the logic-flawed errors were actually justified by randomly appearing within the creator's mind as Non Sequitur. A part of Episode 8 has this same reason when the timeline progresses to 2014 and earlier. Importantly, this was also the reason for the Earth Rift initially appearing in Season 1 Episode 5.
- Canon Welding: Inverted by Talkingsoft Speechdows splitting into Funny Windows Errors, Funny Engrish, and Funny Signs. Funny Windows Errors is the largest portion of the series splitup due to the other two running for only a few episodes and being relatively short in general.
- Disastrous Demonstration: In MSSAM TV Episode I The Remake, Sam was testing the "Compact-portable-wireless-universal poweroutlet" on a laptop, and it exploded. This is a reference to Pokémon.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome / Funetik Aksent: At the end of MSSAM TV Episode I The Remake, the captions have changed to this, as well as Hulk Speak. Lampshaded by Sam by threatening the captions worker to allow him to take over his position.
- Interrupting Meme: At the end of MSSAM TV Episode 1 the Remake.
- Sssnake Talk: Combined with Elmuh Fudd Syndwome and You No Take Candle, in Microsoft Sam Fails at Creating a YouTube Poop THE FIRST, this was used in the title and the ending of the YTP video, and in one of the quoted comments at the end of the main video (without the Sssnake Talk).
- Stylistic Suck: The hand-drawn demonstrations for the infomercial sequence in Episode I.
