Web Video / Gus Johnson

Gus Johnson is a Los Angeles-based YouTuber known for his short sketches, parody videos, music, and vlogs. He started making sketches and music videos in middle school and studied Digital Cinema at the University of Wisconsin. His channel started gaining popularity in 2016 when his videos started go viral on Reddit (especially r/youtubehaiku) and Facebook. He possesses more than 3 million subscribers as of mid-2021, and has also starred in the Par 9 series.

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Tropes appearing in Gus' videos:

• Absurd Phobia: "Mitch's Struggle" is that he's afraid of his own penis.
• Aerith and Bob: He is called Gus (short for Gustav), whilst his brothers are Sven and Thor. They're are fairly common names in Scandinavia, but barely anywhere else.
• Affably Evil: In "if john wilkes booth had sneezed", the titular version of Booth is shown to be pretty chummy (if a little miffed) with Abraham Lincoln, even seemingly regretting killing him for a split second.
• Affectionate Parody: He's done sketch parodies of: Logan Paul, Vsauce, ProZD, Primitive Technology, Gordon Ramsay, Real Time with Bill Maher, David After Dentist America's Got Talent, MrBeast, The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Ridiculousness, etc.
• Anti-Christmas Song: The "california christmas suck" sketch is a parody of "Jingle Bells".
• Ass Pull: invoked Parodied in "jk rowling these days", where J. K. Rowling keeps retroactively making her characters LGBT, disabled, racially diverse, etc.
  Eddy: Listen, it would be fine if the characters were like this originally, but it seems like you're changing them after the fact so you can seem more inclusive and get good press.
• Bee Afraid: The "Situation At The Gas Station" is that there's a bee near the gas tank.
• Birthday Episode: "Today Is My Birthday" and "Gus' Birthday".
• Birthday Hater: Gus Johnson in "Gus' Brithday" doesn't like anything his parents give him for his birthday and runs away.
• Blatant Burglar: "Good Samaritan Saves The Day" has a burglar walking into a store and demands the cashier hand over all the money. The "good samaritan" tells the burglar he has to wait in line like everyone else.
• Body Horror: In the sketch "Crack", two guys start cracking their knuckles, but it soon escalates to the point where they're contorting and dismembering themselves.
• Bottomless Magazines: "I got 57 more goddamn rounds in this four round magazine."
• Caught on Tape: In the "Low Budget Monsters, Inc.", Mike Wazowski records his boss bragging about how he doesn't care about the children.
• Christmas Episode: "Gus' Christmas", featuring Gus the Christmas hater.
• Cluster F-Bomb: At first Gus thinks there's no milk in the house. Then he sees one in the laundry machine, but realizes it's expired, letting loose a string of F-bombs.
• Crappy Holidays: "Gus' Christmas", where Gus gets angry at all his presents
• Crazy-Prepared: In "Driving Prepared", Gus keeps a harmonica in the glovebox in case "Piano Man" is played.
• Day in the Life: "What do I do every day?" is his only vlog.
• Don't Try This at Home: Gus parodies the MythBusters' famous disclaimer in i suppose we're mythbusters, on his brother Sven's channel while playing Jamie Hyneman.
  Jamie Hymen: Now kids, remember, science is not good.
• Dramatic Gun Cock: "how they use shotguns in movies" pokes fun at this, as the holder of the shotgun keeps actuating the pump after practically every other breath. It gets to the point that he cycles more shells than the gun could conceivably hold.
  Shotgun Man: I got 57 more goddamn rounds in this 4 round magazine! [cocks shotgun for literally the 19th time]
• Enhance Button: Parodied in "Low Budget Network Cop Show". The cop keeps enhancing a map on his computer, which is an actual map that just gets closer to him until someone throws the map at him.
• Eye Scream: "I Forgot My Eclipse Glasses". Watching the solar eclipse without proper eye protection destroys his eyes.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Gus Johnson asks for a packet of mustard at Subway, and then runs away in panic, thinking they'll call the cops because he just stole food.
• Finger Gun: In the Kickstarter video for Gus and Eddy's podcast, Gus inadvertently points a finger gun at Eddy, startling him.
• Fix It in Post: In "every film student set", the room is empty but Gus says he'll fix it in post and explains that he'll be using this as a catch-all solution for anything that goes wrong with the day's shoot.
• Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: "your friends from high school who fell for pyramid schemes".
• Glass-Shattering Sound: Parodied in "How To Break A Wine Glass With Just Your Voice". Instead of using a high-pitched note, Gus insults the wine glass and it throws itself off the counter.
• God Is Good: God in his bible parody videos is shown to be a pretty cool and casual guy.
• Greeting Gesture Confusion: This is the basis of "The Male Greeting Nightmare".
• Grief Song: Gus wrote "Ian's Song" in memory of his classmate, who died after a swimming accident.
• The Grinch: Gus in "Gus' Christmas" doesn't like his presents and steals a PlayStation.
• Groin Attack: His Ridiculousness has a segment titled "these guys got hit in the nuts".
• A Handful for an Eye: Parodied in "The Bees Have The Harmonicas". Gus throws "pocket sand" at bees to try to blind them, and then runs away.
• #HashtagForLaughs:
  • "#adulting" makes fun of young adults who post basic tasks on social media.
  • Gus cracks up when he sees #Sledgehammer Murder pop up during a Dr. Phil interview and makes fun of it.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: Used in the short horror film "Theodore" as the main character is pursued by a teddy bear.
• Hell Is That Noise: The main character in "Gone For The Weekend" hears skittering noises after the lights go out and he uses his flashlight to try to find where they're coming from.
• Hilarious Outtakes: "Behind the Gus"
• Inherently Funny Words: The "Crayons" skit is based almost entirely around how funny the word "crayon" is.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Gus raps about cleaning out the gutters and brags that he won't fall, right before he actually does fall, though he grabs onto the gutters before he falls all the way.
• Ironic Name: Doctor Lawyer in "I Need A Doctor!" is neither a doctor or a lawyer. He also isn't a real person.
• Killer Teddy Bear: The main villain in "Theodore". Gus's character throws it into the furnace, though it later sounds like it might have survived.
• The Klutz: Gus in his Working Man series
• Knocking on Heathens' Door: In "Have You Found Jeamazing?", a missionary asks a man if he's found Jeamazing Christ. Jeamazing signals for the man to say no and thanks him for doing so.
• Knuckle Cracking: Played for Horror and morbid laughs in the sketch "Crack". Two guys crack their knuckles and soon snap other body parts in increasingly painful and unpleasant looking ways.
• Lazy Bum: "I've Given Up" is about a guy who decides to stop using his arms, eyes, legs, neck, and then brain.
• Motor Mouth: Mitchell Robbins, a character who appears in a recurring sketch.
• Minnesota Nice: Gus is from Wisconsin and milks Midwestern stereotypes for what they're worth with his characters.
• My God, What Have I Done?: A bird annoys Gus in "How To Kill a Mockingbird", so he goes and kills it. Atticus Finch reminds him that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird", causing him to break down in tears.
• Nervous Wreck: "please be nice to me i am very nervous to make videos" parodies nervous YouTubers who take forever to get to the point.
• Noir Episode: "Serious Noir", complete with slow mysterious music.
• Non Sequitur: Drops one after busting some moves.
  Gus: Together, we can fight terrorism!
• Nose Nuggets: "Caught Booger Handed".
• One-Steve Limit: In one video, Gus calls out the Fox Sports sportscaster Gus Johnson for having the same name, challenging him to a game of J-O-H-N-S-O-N (a variation of the basketball game H-O-R-S-E). The loser has to change his name to Bus Jackson.
• Overly Long Gag: "how class discussions went in middle school" features various students all played by the same small group of people agreeing with Josh for saying that stealing is wrong. And it goes on for 6 minutes.
• Paparazzi: Parodied in "every paparazzi video".
• Parody Commercial: "A Generic Advertisement" is an ad for maps, which help you get "un-lost".
• The Promposal: Gus Johnson made an epic video asking his girlfriend out to prom, and it apparently worked.
• Quirky Ukulele: Parodied in his "white girl ukulele song", which is about a "quirky, random" girl who can only play ukulele in the key of C.
• Race for Your Love: In "Gus Johnson's Low-Budget Rom-Com", Gus' character realizes he has feelings for a woman he works for, so he has to run to the airport to confess his love for her while knocking over mannequins that stand in his way.
• Raiders of the Lost Parody: The "imbiamba jombes" series follows the adventures of an Indiana Jones-like Cloudcuckoolander.
• Record Needle Scratch:
  • This sound plays when Gus's candle goes out in "Light Your World".
  • Also plays in "Pirates of the Holiday Inn" when he can't get into the hotel room to get his treasure.
• Ridiculously Loud Commercial: "Recording A Spotify Ad".
• Road Trip Plot: The "road trip dad" sketch.
• Scary Stinging Swarm:
  • Parodied in "The Bees Have Taken Walmart", where the "bees" in question are letters.
  • In "Hospital Emergency", Gus and another guy see a sign saying "BEWARE OF BEES!!!!!!" and then decide against going inside. In the comments, Gus writes that he actually found this sign outside a hospital.
• Self-Deprecation: "subscribe for more garbage".
• Serious Business: "GAT" is about a kid who takes tag way too seriously as he runs through the woods injuring himself.
• Sex Is Evil: Played for Laughs in "sex is very bad for you". The two kids end up shooting their father because he admits to having sex twice.
• Signs of Disrepair: In "Complete Anarchy", Gus changes the board from "Absolutely NO standing around!" to "Absolutely some standing around!"
• Smoking Is Not Cool:
  • The moral of "DON'T EAT THAT BAD MARIJUANAS" is that marijuana will kill you, so drink liquor instead.
  • "I Eat Cigarettes" is about a guy who eats cigarettes and is persuaded to try The Bible.
  • In "Serious Noir" the inspector takes a long protracted smoke before coughing up a dark substance.
• Sneaking Snacks: "syncing up the sounds of your smuggled-in food with the movie trailers so you don't get caught".
• Something Else Also Rises: "Nice Post!". When you upvote a post on Reddit, the vote isn't the only thing that goes up.
• Stealing the Credit: "Directing A Facebook Video" and "How Facebook Pages Work" are both about re-posting videos on Facebook without giving credit to the original creator.
• Take That!:
  • "Actual Chris Brown Documentary Trailer" uses the Chris Brown: Welcome to My Life trailer to call out Chris Brown over his sexual assault allegations.
  • “a video about PETA” None of those are made up by the way. Those are all things PETA has done.
• Technologically Blind Elders: In one sketch, Sven helps his "mother" (played by Gus) with her iPad.
• Tension-Cutting Laughter: In "when companies say they are launching an investigation", a group of business executives seems to really be considering "launching an investigation" before bursting out in laughter and revealing they don't even know what that means.
• Toilet Paper Prank: Parodied in "Toilet Paper House Prank", where a guy tries throwing a package of toilet paper into a tree, but then just throws it on the driveway.
• Tongue Trauma: "when you bite your tongue" ... you float up into the air and explode.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In "checking the news these days", Gus looks at a newspaper marked "10 DIFFERENT STORIES THAT ARE SO INSANE THAT AT ANY OTHER POINT IN TIME THEY WOULD HAVE INDIVIDUALLY DOMINATED THE NEWS CYCLE FOR MONTHS". But when Sabrina asks him for the news, he replies "I already forgot."
• Vanity License Plate: The Working Man has the license plate "WRK-NMN".
• You Say Tomato: In the "crayons" sketch, Gus and Eddy Burback pause from freaking out about all the crayons everywhere to argue whether it's "crans" or "cray-ons".
• YouTuber Apology Parody: In "my apology", he gives an emotional apology for being really funny and blames it on his mom.

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