Derrick Comedy
was a sketch group from New York University that did various Internet shorts on YouTube from 2006 to 2010 that gained them a considerable following to the point of being mentioned in Rolling Stone (mainly through their Breakthrough Hit "Bro Rape"). The shorts were characterized by the common utilization of Black Comedy, tackling topics such as pedophilia, rape, child abuse, and Parkinson's disease. In 2009, they made a full-length film called Mystery Team.
Its members were Donald Glover (now better known for his acting and music as Childish Gambino), DC Pierson (author of The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To), and Dominic Dierkes. The name stemmed from choosing another name that started with D.
Has nothing to do with the German Series Derrick.
Derrick Comedy provide examples of the following tropes:
- Alliterative Family: A version of this; the members' names are Donald, DC, and Dominic. Dominic also has a full-on Alliterative Name to boot.
- Bait-and-Switch: "New Bike" has a boy's friend start trying to shoot his parents despite the fact that they did get him a bike. The boy runs to stop him from shooting his mom, but by the time he gets there, it's too late. The boy ends up crying over her body... because she didn't live long enough to tell him where the bike was. He almost immediately stops crying when he figures out where the bike is.
- Black Comedy Rape: "Bro Rape".
- Blatant Lies: In "B-Boy Stance", Prince Reggie Kay's repeated insistence that he doesn't regret having his hands surgically attached to his back can border on this.
- Book Ends: "Bro Rape" begins and ends with the same scene of, well, bro rape.
- Curse Cut Short: In "Keyboard Kid".Stepdad: What's he doing? You better not be recording this, boy! I will beat the living shi-Keyboard: Cool! Alright! C-cool! Alright!
- Dumbass DJ: Johnny B and The Cheese, who stay in-character even after a wolf has massacred everyone else in the studio and is playing mind games with them.
- Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: The "Bro Rape" sketch.
- Downer Ending: "KP" ends with Kid Parkinson's having an uncontrollable tremor and
sobbing. - Entitled to Have You: As Melanie points out in "Girls Are Not To Be Trusted," she went on one date with the guy, and he's acting the way he is.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: He Really Gave It To Me, which begins by parodying nicknames employees give their bosses. Each time Kevin opens the door, he hears the sound of the nickname given to the boss. It starts with "The Boss" and "Grizzly Bear" and goes downhill quickly. Notable are police sirens, the theme from Jurassic Park, James Brown being put to sleep, a father explaining sex to his son with a poor choice of props, and three Elvis impersonators ordering at a restaurant where the kitchen is out of a lot of stuff.
- Expy: David Foster from Newsline in "Bro Rape" is a pretty obvious expy of Chris Hanson from Dateline.
- Fratbro: The rape of them is the subject of "Bro Rape."
- Here We Go Again!: The unseen man in "BJ Girl", after hearing the horrors she has in store if she gave him a blowjob, suggests just having sex instead.Girl: I'm gonna make it so dry for you!
- Jerks Use Body Spray: In "Bro Rape", one sign of being a Bro is use of body spray, with one of the bro rapists using a can and a half of Axe Body Spray on a dildo he intended to use on another bro.
- Mood Whiplash:
- A pretty extreme example. In Keyboard Kid, Jeffrey starts out cheerfully dancing to the beats of his sampler keyboard:"My name is Jeffrey! Cool! Alright! C-c-cool! Alright! Get down! Check it out! Cool! Alright! C-c-cool! Alright! G-g-g-get down! Kick it! If I mess up my dad's gonna beat me! (7-second silence) Cool! Alright! C-Cool!"
- Quite a few of their sketches involve this, including "Girls Are Not To Be Trusted", where a male student intervenes in a number of Filmography 101 short films berating "Belanie" for cheating on him with his best friend... only to finish the sketch by proposing to her. Of course she turned it down.
- A pretty extreme example. In Keyboard Kid, Jeffrey starts out cheerfully dancing to the beats of his sampler keyboard
- N-Word Privileges: The main joke of "National Spelling Bee", where the judge (who is black) asks the three contestants (all of whom are white) to spell a racial and homophobic slur. Two of them can't bring themselves to finish spelling it, which gets them disqualified. But after the third one spells it without hesitation...Judge: I heard what you said.
- The Oner: Most videos employ this to some degree, with many of them being done in one shot.
- Orbital Shot: Mafia is an impressive three-minute long orbital shot.
- Potty Failure: "Jerry", who pretends to be the "new kid" and later the principal in desperation to hide this.
- Reality Warper: Thomas Jefferson, who according to this sketch is like a mix between a TimeLord and Dr. Manhattan.
- Running Gag: The big black dildo in "Bro Rape".
- Spelling Bee: "Your word...is 'niggerfaggot'."
- Unbuilt Trope: "Daughters" lampoons and exaggerates the "kidnapped daughter" setup popularized by Taken some two years before the film's release.
- Why Don't You Marry It?: In "B-Boy Stance"; when Prince Reggie Kay's interviewer repeatedly mentions Jay-Z, Reggie pulls this on him.
