''"Good evening and welcome to You Can't Be Serious!"
— Michael Riley
An improv comedy show (originally aired by Mental, now on YouTube) that was created on Christmas Day 2012 by Michael Riley and Dane Forgione. The host, Riley, brings together four other internet personalities to play seven or eight improv games per episode. You can find the episodes here
.
YCBS provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: Done all the time by impressionist Dane Forgione. Sometimes, Dane make take it far enough for it to become a Take That!.
- Alter Kocker: Iason Skullsaber and Brody Brennick once did this in a game of "Two-Line Vocabulary", to the point that Dane Forgione
corpses and has to exit the scene. - Anachronism Stew: Frequently happens in "Film & Theater Styles" when the suggestion calls for it.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Usually, Foreign Film Dub will be a language that either the cast doesn't know a word of, or is made up.
- Audience Participation: A lot of the games' suggestions are from the audience.
- Back to Front: "Backwards Scene".
- Bad Date: The subject of a few games, mainly "Let's Make a Date", but there have been others.
- Bad Impressionists: Stephanie Gooch frequently states that she can't do impressions or accents.
- Michael Riley, during the 50th episode, played Gary Busey in "Schizo Monologue" to some success, but when he switched to Nicolas Cage, he came off sounding more like Dennis Miller.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: A running joke with Dane Forgione.
- During one episodes intro, in which he was the only male on cast, he was given the nickname Dane "Hot Rod" Forgione. His response: "Let me jump rope with it."
- Bilingual Bonus: During a game of "Foreign Film Dub", Michael Riley and Chelsea Tarkington actually spoke real French, though the translations for said phrases were not accurate.
- Black Comedy: The basis of any game involving the death of a character: "Death in 60 Seconds", "Four Ways to Die" or "Understudy".
- Butt-Monkey: Usually Michael Riley.
- Call-Back: A lot of the humor on the show comes from this.
- Camp Straight: Pretty much all of the main male cast members have done this at some point.
- Captain Superhero: "Superheroes".
- Censor Box: Some episodes have curse words bleeped out, some don't.
- Chatacter Catchphrase: At the beginning of each program, Michael Riley will say "Goooood evening and welcome to You Can't Be Serious! On tonight's show..." and will typically end each episode by listing the performers on the show and saying "See you next time on You Can't Be Serious!"
- Couch Gag: Michael Riley will always introduce the performers using weird non-sequitur saying, television show titles, music lyrics or other things.
- Creative Closing Credits: With a bonus LeaningOnTheFourthWall since they're always read in the style of Michael Riley's choosing.
- Crosscast Role: Alessandro Hutt has played a female on many occasions, complete with falsetto voice.
- Dark Secret: The premise of "Secret", though the secrets are usually silly.
- Deal with the Devil: On the 50th episode, Joey Sabatino claims she sold her soul to the devil to get the show to 50 episodes.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: During a game of "Understudy", Alessandro Hutt wanted to drive around with orphans on the hood of cars. Iason replies by saying he "has a whole bag of orphans ready to mount." Michael Riley immediately points out to him the folly of his sentence, though it takes a second for Iason to realize what he said and burst into laughter.
- Fanservice: Frequently, Chelsea Tarkington will be cast as someone naked or nude.
- Jillian Zurawski is this to some degree, as her boobs are a common topic of conversation.
- Fully-Clothed Nudity: Since we can't see the actors/actresses, we assume they are fully clothed, even when acting nude in-character.
- Large Ham: Jason Jermakow early on demonstrated an ability to take a scene and run with it.
- Iason Skullsaber is also this to a large degree, since he tends to exaggerate his words a lot.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: Lots and lots of references to Canadian things, usually directed in a TakeThat manner towards Nickelback.
- The Alcoholic: Iason Skullsaber tends to portray this quite a bit.
- The Cast Show Off: Usually Dane Forgione or Jason Jermakow.
