Sup heathens? I'm Happy Viking and I'm going to make you awesome, one Frothy Pint of Metal at a time! So drink up.
"Sup, Heathens? I am Happy Viking, and I love metal!"
—Viking's first words.
Frothy Pint of Metal is a Video Review Show made by Sean "Happy Viking" Rankin. As the show title indicates, he is a music reviewer specializing in Metal. His show can be seen on RVT, Nerdvice
and on YouTube.
Claiming he is, in fact, an immortal 1000-year old viking, he is usually the inverse of a Caustic Critic, and his show is primarily aimed to attract attention for lesser known bands. He created various side projects along the way, such as Happy Viking's Motion Picture Review Show! and Tales of Glory. In case you didn't notice it, he is also a Large Ham and gratuitously spices his reviews up with puns and Added Alliterative Appeal.
Frothy Pint of Tropes:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: In the Heidevolk review:Alestorm and Týr are [...]freewheeling fighters, fuckers and fornicators.They love their adrenaline-addled antics.
- This is actually one of his main features.
- Big Eater: Viking is ashamed he wastes food: He just can't finish a whole bear.
- Canadian Equals Hockey Fan: Happy Viking lives in Canada, which is reflected in his love for hockey.
- Caustic Critic: While his reviews tend to be positive in tone (to encourage more fans to
love rare bands), he is occasionally entertainingly disparaging:- Played straight in the Maximum Overdrive review, as he despises the movie.
- Played straight in his review of Pathfinder (2007)
- Christmas Episode: The Immortal Guardian review.
- Cluster F-Bomb: He cusses a lot, but then, this is only proper for a metal reviewer. Although he likes to use 'darn' too for some reason.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Only mildly, but he is prone to bizarre theories. Such as Graveyard being time travelers from the 70's to prevent a Bad Future, and Neonfly being martians.
- Crossover:
- With The Rosen Hacker for the Brütal Legend review.
- And House Of Love's Funky Monkey, for what else, Heavy Metal! Also, the pair shared a Heady Goblet of SID while reviewing Machinae Supremacy.
- He reviews Bal-Sagoth with Diamanda Hagan.
- And a second time with Diamanda Hagan for a review of Sigh.
- Deal with the Devil: Happy Viking reckons this is how van Canto made a capella metal awesome.
- Ditzy Genius
- Double Entendre: A lampshaded example in the Natural High review:You know what they say about guys with big hammers: They got big hammers.
- Dramatic Irony: A man goes to the doctor saying that he's feeling depressed, says that he feels all alone in an angry world. Doctor says "Treatment is simple: Go see the White Wizzard." That'll cheer him right up. Then the man says:"I am the White Wizzard."
- Female Gaze: Happy Viking thinks the only reason why women would go to a DragonForce concert is to ogle the guys' bodies, as the music itself appeals more to male tastes.
- Folk Metal: His G-Rated Drug.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: A few reviews are not music reviews:
- One of Korgoth of Barbaria, although this is of course a very "metal" series pilot.
- One of Undergrads, which is reviewed purely for nostalgic reasons.
- For Halloween he reviews Maximum Overdrive.
- Filth: He uses it to grab the viewers' attention in the Týr video.
- Girl Group: His review of Stonefield.
- Halloween Episode: His reviews of Maximum Overdrive and Ahab.
- Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Take a look at his first review. Then take a look at his newest.
- Heavy Metal: Duh.
- Heroic BSoD: When Diamanda Hagan says Gamma Ray sucks.
- High-Class Glass: He wears a top hat and a monocle in the Ahab review.
- Hipster: He maintains that snobby Metal fans have far more in common with hipsters than they realize.
- Horny Vikings: Not only got Happy Viking his name from them, he has Danish roots so he has them as ancestors. In the Svartsot review he even is in a real viking tomb. Of course, many reviewed groups have them as motif too.
- Hot-Blooded
- Hurricane of Puns: Sometimes.
- Inexplicably Awesome: Even Happy Viking doesn't know why or how he became immortal. He just found out one day in an unfortunate spear-accident.
- Jesus Was Way Cool: Happy Viking, even though he wears a Mjölnir pendant, thinks so and even uses the same image as the trope page to illustrate.
- Large Ham: ALWAYS
- Manly Tears:
- He shed those when Undergrads ended.
- Also, his one year anniversary review of Anvil.
- Metalhead
-
Milestone Celebration: The Anvil review is the one year anniversary. - The Münchausen
- Nerds Are Virgins:
- He jokes in the Undergrads review that it is so full of Geek references you can become virgin again by watching it.
- A joke of this manner is made in the DragonForce riff.
- No True Scotsman: He criticizes the tendency in Heavy Metal to squabble over the question what "true" metal may be and especially loathes those who only accept the most brutal metal possible. He also despises those who maintain that certain sexual orientations are incompatible with being a metalhead, as can be seen in the Power Quest review where he voices his annoyance with people who call Power Metal "gay metal".
- Overly Long Gag: He goes on for a long while in his DragonForce riff on how nerdy the band is. He lampshades this.
- Perfectly Cromulent Word: Used often, "Splendiferous" among others.
- Pretentious Latin Motto: He uses Sic Parvis Magna (“Greatness from Small Beginnings”), the personal motto of Sir Francis Drake, in his Týr review to describe how such a great metal band can come from the unassuming Faroe Islands.
- The Power of Love: He has mentioned often that this is what keeps metal running.
- Porn Names: Happy Viking is convinced White Wizzard's Jon Leon has the perfect name for a porn star.
- Patrick Stewart Speech: At the end of the Anvil episode, among others.
- Pun:
- He promised his viewers "boobies" after the credits in the Týr review. They get of course a picture of the seabird.
- He is dead serious about broadcasting from a real viking grave in the Svartsot review.
- Red Scare: Parodied in the Metal Shots! Rasputin video, where the target of paranoia are not Communists, but "crusty old white people".
- Revolving Door Band White Wizzard. Viking is not amused by all the online drama.
- Rock Me, Asmodeus!: The theme in the Ghost review.
- Rousing Speech: He does this frequently, but the most egregious one was in his Anvil review.
- Rule of Cool: Name-checked by Happy Viking in the Natural High review and the only reason why the tactical blunders in the reviewed music video can be excused.
- Rule of Funny: According to Happy Viking, the only exception to the rule of not dissing your metal brethren is when it's done funny.
- Running Gag:
- During the Alestorm review: The sound of an erection hitting against the desk.
- Pronounces the name of Moon Bloodgood different every time (Goon Moodblood, Bloom Moodgood, etc).
- Self-Deprecation: He makes fun of himself e.g. for getting emotional over a music video featuring war scenes by Sabaton.
- Shout-Out:
- To Doctor Steel in the Raubtier review.
- To Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Obscurus Lupa and The Nostalgia Critic in the White Wizzard review.
- To Rey Mysterio, Evil Dead, Warhammer 40,000 and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in Metal Shots! Natural High.
- To Kevin Smith in the Undergrads review.
- To Finnegans Wake in the DragonForce riff.
- Aaaaand 40K again in his Pathfinder review, when describing how the 'Vikings' of that movie dress, he seems to like 40K. Unsurprising, since 40K is heavy metal in tabletop form. That being said, he seems to be unaware of Warhammer Fantasy's Warriors of Chaos - who actually are demonic Vikings who dress up like that.
- There's the Tyr review as well, where he references the Skull Throne.
- Schedule Slip: Often
- Shared Universe: His inclusion on Channel Awesome, and his various cameos and crossovers, made him part of the Reviewaverse.
- Slasher Movie: Parodied in the Ahab review.
- Stalker with a Crush: He jokes that Napalm Records, a Metal label, is stalking him because many groups that are signed with it appear in his show.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Happy Viking has this reaction to the members of Týr, who like to play shirtless.
- Stylistic Suck: One of DragonForce's videos makes Happy Viking immediately laugh because of this trope.
- The Stoic: He tries to do this in his Anvil review, but fails.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: No, Happy Viking certainly did not shed Manly Tears upon hearing that a founding member of Heidevolk leaves the band.
- Take That!:
- He delivers one against Birthers in the Heidevolk review.
- Happy Viking delivers many ones against Twilight in Metal Shots! Natural High.
- Against Emo kids in the Ahab review, because Funeral Doom is depressive music for grown-ups.
- Against snobby Metal fans and hipsters in the DragonForce riff.
- Against Justin Bieber in his Immortal Guardian review.
- Testosterone Poisoning
- Toilet Humour: He does a fart joke in the White Wizzard review.
- Too Dumb to Live: One of his main problems with the characters in Maximum Overdrive, as e.g the giant noisy monster trucks are able to sneak up on people.
- The characters in Pathfinder also suffer from this.
- Warrior Heaven: Happy Viking describes the Norse heaven as a never ending bar brawl and uses that to illustrate how fun-loving Vikings were which was ruined by christianization.
- World of Weirdness: The Reviewaverse. Happy Viking is an immortal viking with Wolverine-esque healing factor. This should be an indicator.
"I'm HappyViking, and you've just been served your recommended dosage of Heavy Metal! Rock on, and drink responsibly!"
