"I HATE MAH LIFE!! AAAAAAAHHHH!!"
Greatest Freakout Ever is a series of YouTube videos starring brothers Jack and Stephen Quire. The videos usually follow Stephen going absolutely insane over something, no matter how big or small it may be, with Jack filming the chaos that unfolds. There is much debate on whether or not the videos are staged. Over the span of fourteen years, the series is now over 40 videos long and has garnered over a total of 551 million views.
While activity began declining during the late 2010s, the series made a true comeback in 2021, with several new freakout videos, a crossover with Psycho Series creator McJuggerNuggets, and scheduled livestreams, some of which involve Stephen and Jack reacting to their older videos.
The videos can be found here
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Greatest Freakout Ever provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Stephen's dad and grandma, but Downplayed with his mom who just punishes him for his behavior. Though to be fair, Stephen keeps asking for it.
- Ambiguously Gay: Stephen has a calendar featuring Jasper, Brian's Camp Gay cousin from Family Guy, one of his biggest Berserk Buttons is when he thinks people are calling him gay, and of course, there's the incident with the remote.
- In "How the Stephen Stole Christmas," Stephen sniffs an empty box of condoms Jack jokingly gave him as a present.
- Angrish: Mostly averted. The most notable occurrence was in the first video.
- Ass Shove: A famous example from the first video, when he tried to shove his remote up his butt.
- Ax-Crazy: Downplayed. Stephen is violent and constantly angry but he never killed anyone.
- Berserk Button:
- Stephen has a lot: Touching him, preventing him from playing MMORPGs, telling him to do housework, calling him gay, interrupting what he's doing at the time, having Jack videotape him, the list goes on.
- Stephen's tantrums are a big button for his parents.
- Stephen and Jack's sister has dragged Stephen underwater just for forcefully pulling out one of her daughter's teeth when she was complaining too much.
- Stephen is both devastated and livid that McJuggerNuggets (Jesse Ridgway) based the Psycho Series off his freakouts. He is mad at Jesse's perceived "mockery" of him, and is crushed that Jesse's videos are fake and that he isn't a true "brother".
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Even when Stephen tries to do normal stuff like cooking or do housework, you just know it won't end well.
- Breather Episode: "The VERY VERY VERY Annoying Stephen" can be considered this trope, since Stephen is not going berserk, but rather playfully messing with Jack and his dad.
- Butt-Monkey: Stephen is usually on the receiving end of bad luck, though he normally brings it on himself.
- Camera Abuse: Stephen often does this when he wants Jack to get the camera out of his face.
- Catchphrase:
- "NO!"
- "SHUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUUP!"
- "I DON'T CARE!"
- "GET OUT OF MY FACE!"
- YOU ARE NOT FREAKING FUNNY!
- Jack has "Stephen, what are you doing!?"
- Stephen's dad has, "I'll kick your ass!" (Always said to Stephen)
- Since #37, "Thank you, bye!" and "Patronized/patronizing"
- Ever since their 2021 comeback, Stephen frequently says "My guy!"
- Chase Scene: Stephen gets chased by his dad at the end of some episodes.
- In one episode, it's Stephen's sister's boyfriend
- In some episodes episodes, Jack is the one being chased with Stephen doing the chasing
- The Chew Toy: Stephen's misfortunes are a large part of the series' comedy.
- Christmas Episode: How The Stephen Stole Christmas is all about Stephen ruining Christmas for the whole family after Jack hides all his presents.
- Cloudcuckoolander: When Stephen gets angry, he also displays a lot of of bizarre behavior such as in the first episode where he tries to shove a remote up his butt during his meltdown. Another example comes from Episode 38 where he sticks carrots, whole cobs of corn, and a watermelon into the ground and expects them to grow.
- Contrived Coincidence: In the thirteenth video, there just happened to be a baseball bat there for Stephen to use to break their stuff.
- Cutting the Knot: As of yet averted. Stephen will tell Jack to stop video-taping him, yell at Jack to stop video-taping him, throw things at Jack to get him to stop video-taping him, occasionally push, chase, or otherwise physically assault Jack to get him to stop video-taping him, and even threaten to (and then actually) break Jack's television to get him to stop video-taping him...but has yet to pursue the most straightforward way of getting Jack to stop video-taping him and simply breaking the camera as soon as Jack shows up with it.
- Deadpan Snarker:
- Stephen, mostly towards Jack.
- Stephen's grandma in 6, when Stephen kept annoying her.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Stephen tends to break things for minuscule reasons, like breaking a computer chair because his dad turned off his internet while he was still playing, or destroying a parade float because he didn't want to be on it.
- After Jack hides all of Stephen's presents in "How The Stephen Stole Christmas" Jack gets punished, in fact the whole family is, when Stephen steals the Christmas tree and everyone else's presents and sets them on fire.
- In episode 30, Stephen is on the receiving end of this trope. When the Quires are in the pool, Stephen's young niece is loudly complaining about a loose tooth. Stephen, understandably annoyed, helps her by pulling out the loose tooth. Though he could've been a bit gentler, he successfully pulls out the tooth that is hurting his niece. And then Stephen's sister violently jumps on Stephen in the water, restraining him and holding him underwater. She even says, "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!"
- Even Evil Has Standards: Stephen doesn't like cussing. At least heavy cussing.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Stephen gets chased and attacked by a dog at the end of #7.
- Flipping the Bird: A symptom of when Stephen's really pissed.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The Freakout videos have largely followed the same script - Jack, filming with a low-budget, handheld camera, briefs the audience on something Stephen is doing, then films Stephen as he inevitably loses his temper and flips out. However, in 2021, after two new Freakout videos, the wafflepwn channel started uploading live streams involving Jack playing computer games or Stephen watching old Freakout videos (as well as other videos of the same vein from Violette1st and Angry Grandpa) while receiving donations from viewers. Then in late August 2021, a new Freakout video appeared featuring Jesse Ridgway, marking the first time the series crossed over.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Quire Family as a whole:
- Stephen - Choleric (the most obvious one being short-tempered, aggressive and having lots of hair trigger tempers)
- Jack - Sanguine (enjoys filming his older brother's problems for virality and laughing a lot at his freak outs)
- Mrs. Quire - Phlegmatic (The Only Sane Woman of the family who just ants peace in the family and less violent compared to her husband)
- Mr. Quire - Melancholic (less aggressive then Stephen, but more abusive then his wife and attempts to resort to violence towards Stephen due to his freak outs)
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Zig-zagged. Stephen prefers the word "freaking", though he has no problem with Flipping the Bird or saying "faggot".
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Three guesses who. And the first two don't count.
- Hates Being Touched: "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
- How the Character Stole Christmas: "How the Stephen Stole Christmas". He does so by burning the Christmas tree because Jack hid his presents.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- In one instance, Stephen rats out Jack for saying "ass" twice, even though he uses bad words himself (though not regularly).
- In episode 40, when Stephen's neighbor Troy complains about Stephen plastering his house with campaign posters. Stephen yells at Troy to "Say it to [his] face", yet keeps backing up when Troy actually approaches him.
- I'm a Humanitarian: In episode 2, "I will kill you and eat your FIRST! BORN! CHILD!"
- Jerkass:
- Stephen. Oh god, Stephen. His violent behavior is why Jack video-tapes him in the first place.
- Also, Jack. He video-tapes his own brother during emotional breakdowns and puts it up on the Internet for everyone to laugh at.
- Stephen's dad and grandmom are generally very unpleasant too. Even though Stephen's personality can make it hard to act friendly around him, they usually don't even try to get along with him and have no respect for how hard his life can be because of his temper.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Likewise, Jack does get along well with the rest of his family and even then, he's usually the first one to try and stop Stephen from destroying something.
- Stephen's dad has come to Stephen's aid on a few occasions, most notably in 20 and 30.
- Jump Scare: Admit it; you jumped in your seat when, in episode 29, Stephen suddenly opened Jack's door and screamed "BACK OFF!!"
- Large Ham: Stephen has No Indoor Voice and screams most of his sentences.
- Laser-Guided Karma: While Stephen ends up on the receiving end of this often, he gets one on Jack when in Episode 28, Stephen goes into Jack's room and destroys his old TV.
- Loose Tooth Episode: In episode 30, Stephen and Jack's niece is complaining incessantly about her loose tooth while in the Quires' backyard pool, so Stephen shuts her up by forcefully yanking the tooth out himself. His older sister goes into Mama Bear mode and pulls him underwater for it.
- Mama Bear: Jack and Stephen's sister Brandi is protective of her kids and will jump to their defense when Stephen hurts or insults them.
- Mondegreen Gag: Their last name is often mistaken as "Guire."
- Mr. Exposition: At the beginning of every video, Jack talks to the camera to tell us what's going on and why Stephen is acting up.
- Never Mess with Granny: Jack and Stephen's grandma, who's the only one who actually hit Stephen in the whole series.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Stephen shoving a remote up his rear end is brought up in episodes 6 and 22 by his grandmother and one of his nieces, respectively.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Stephen. The things he flies off the handle about include his mom canceling his World of Warcraft account and not being able to get the Chaotic Crossbow in RuneScape because his dad turned the internet off.
- In one freakout, Stephen yells for his mom because his girlfriend is cursing at him and hassling him because he refuses to get off of World of Warcraft to watch a movie with her.
- In episode 38, Jack reveals that Stephen has turned the family's front yard into a fairy garden, with mushrooms, dinosaurs, and gnomes.
- From the August 2021 livestreams and onwards, Stephen started talking of (and later doing) "death rolls", like an alligator.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Binky the Clown in #45, who was hired by Jack to harass Stephen.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Stephen sometimes does this when he's raging.
- Royal Brat: Stephen and Jack's family is obviously very well off, and Stephen regularly comes off as very entitled. Most noticeable in #3, when one of the reasons Stephen hates his beater pickup truck is because he thinks it will make his classmates think he's a "poor kid."
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Stephen is the Red Oni to Jack's Blue Oni. For the parents, their mom is the Blue Oni, who just yells at the kids for acting out of line, while the dad is the Red Oni who curses at Stephen and threatens him with physical violence when Stephen gets angry.
- Running Gag:
- Stephen often calls people that he dislikes weirdos. Doubles as Hypocritical Humor.
- Often, as Stephen is freaking out someone will be trying to get Jack to turn off the camera, usually Stephen's mom or Stephen himself.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- A handful of episodes end with Stephen leaving the scene of the freakout (or at least trying to).
- After Stephen smashes a coffee table with an axe in #45, Binky the Clown leaves the house calling Jack and Stephen freaks. Binky refused to stay despite Jack paying him to stay for one more hour, but he was justified in leaving as he was really fearing for his safety, Jack abused his occupation just to annoy Stephen, he doesn't know the family, and Stephen got an axe out!
- Sir Swears-a-Lot:
- Surprisingly averted with Stephen. He gets angry, yes, but he usually doesn't swear. Actually, he's quite against swearing. Doesn't stop him from calling Jack a f*ggot or the boat captain a bastard, though.
- Played straight with Mr. Quire, who has possibly the biggest potty mouth of the entire family.
- Spoiled Brat: The Quire family seems to be quite well off. Their property is so large, in #23 Jack actually needs to drive a motorized cart to go from the house to the garage. They also have several very nice cars (including a functioning Batmobile), multiple computers, a three-thousand dollar television, an arcade cabinet in their living room, and a pool. Stephen, however, seems to be considerably more interested in the things he doesn't have, or how the things he has aren't good enough.
- Gets a truck (that apparently runs very well) for his sixteenth birthday, and becomes enraged over the fact that the truck is very ugly and begins hitting it with a baseball bat, complaining that his parents keep making him look like a 'poor kid' in front of his friends.
- Broke the family's three-thousand dollar television when his mom wouldn't let him buy Halo: Reach.
- Spotting the Thread: If it is to be believed that the videos are scripted, there are some tells.
- If Stephen dislikes being video-taped by Jack so much (particularly after he finds out why Jack is video-taping him), why doesn't he ever just destroy the camera before Jack catches him in a freakout?
- If Stephen and Jack's mom is serious about Jack not having footage about Stephen's freakouts, she would most likely go through the camera and delete any footage that Jack got.
- Most of the things Stephen breaks in the videos are either suspiciously out-of-place in the house of the seemingly-wealthy Quire family (a microwave that doesn't work, an old tube-television) or could go either way (the guitar from #4, the vacuum from #7, the computer chair from #12, the assorted items from #13, pots, pans and appliances from #17, parade float from #25, and painting from #29 could easily have been junk that the kids decided would make good fodder for a new freakout video). Some of the stuff that was valuable (the three-thousand dollar television, the Guitar Hero guitar, the television remote) were broken off-screen, and others were clearly not very meaningful (the posters on Stephen's bedroom door). The only thing we see get broken that was definitely worth something was Stephen's bedroom door in #9. Though, for all we know, the family already had plans to replace the door for one reason or another.
- Take That, Audience!: In #17, Stephen flips off the camera and berates the viewer(s) for watching the video, and says that he can kick all of their asses.
- Tantrum Throwing: Stephen in almost every episode.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: In #43, he thinks someone made a cake using all the expensive butter he bought, then throws it outside and shoots it until his girlfriend approaches him to reveal she really made it and did not use any of his butter. This is likely the worst Stephen has ever been.
- Unstoppable Rage: Boy howdy. Once Stephen starts, there's no stopping him.
- Villainous Breakdown: Stephen has one almost every single episode.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Stephen is often shirtless.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- From #18; kittens, of all things Stephen could be scared of...
- In #33 he's obviously unnerved by chickens as well, particularily Jack's rooster, Sgt. Pepper.
- #14 reveals he has a fear of drowning.
- You Bastard!: Stephen mentions in #17 how Jack (and the audience at that) are laughing at his pain and anger.
- You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Stephen in (almost) every video.
MOOOOOM! GET THESE TROPES OUT OF MY FRICKIN' FACE!
