Arby 'n' the Chief

Arby 'n' The Chief is a comedic Live Action Puppeteering/Machinima series created by Jon Graham (formerly known as "DigitalPh33r"), who also produced Deus Ex Machina. The focus of the series is based around figurines based on Bungie and Microsoft's Halo series coming to life when their owner is out. As the title suggests, the main characters are based on Master Chief (a Leet Lingo-speaking Jerkass whose only concern is how much he "pwns" in any given game, something that he is completely incapable of actually doing) and the Arbiter (a Deadpan Snarker who often acts as the voice of reason to the Chief's mindless ranting). One of the unique features of the series is that many of the characters actually speak through a PC voice synthesizer, instead of acted voice-overs. The series is based on Graham's previous shorts, Master Chief Sucks At Halo, where the series' trademarks (including synthesized voice-overs and the Chief's personality) were developed. This is the show that has made Graham a internet wide phenomenon, rivaling Rooster Teeth in popularity.

The original series initially ended after the third season with a six-part finale, "Endgame". The finale led to a spin-off, Arby 'n' the Chief in LA, produced entirely by Machinima.com with minimal input from Graham. After a break from the series, Graham announced a fourth season of Arby 'n' the Chief in 2010, which takes place before "Endgame" and the LA spinoff. This was followed by a fifth season in early 2011, and a sixth season in mid 2011. A seventh season has been announced and premiered in early 2012.

Method
"Chief: didnt we set up taht acount liek months ago?"
 * Black and Gray Morality: Scott vs Agent Smirnoff.
 * Bloody Hilarious:
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: The figurines' owner is named "Jon", and the second episode has Chief commenting on a Bungie blog post about the first episode. Further, the plot of The Movie is started when Chief watches machinima by DigitalPh33r.
 * The episode before endgame has Arbiter and Chief stuck in a game with several people, two of whom recognize Master Chief's voice from the show.
 * Call Back: The season 5 pilot, to "Wedding" (episode 14/S3E2)
 * Also in the the same episode, Cheif tells the security guys, "We r guyz, WHO GON TEACH U LESSON!" a variation on one of his first lines from the very first episode.
 * Deconstruction: Season 5 is this of the entire Living Toys trope.
 * And it looks like season 6 will take it further. And further.
 * Foreshadowing - In Season 3 Episode 4, two of Craig's Major League Gamer] pals get (presumably Halo-induced) erections and decide to go rub one out. This later becomes the catalyst for Master Chief's win against Craig later in the episode.
 * Fourth Wall Mail Slot: Introduced in season 4... never to be mentioned again.
 * ...until "Hypernews I" (43/S5E5), where it turns into somewhat of a Leaning On the Fourth Wall variety.

"Arbiter: He's convinced we're hallucinations brought on by his constant substance abuse
 * After Season 5 finished, the mail slot has spun off into its own show - Arby 'n' the Chief: Hypermail
 * Hand Wave: Only a mild one in Endgame. Scott has seen Arbiter and Chief moving around and talking, why is this not an issue?

Scott: What the hell? You guys aren't supposed to appear until after my fourth coke sandwich!"

"Arbiter: "Your noobs". Sounds about right.
 * Then again, what about Agent Smirnoff and Skylar Loveheart? Oh that's right, they're insane.
 * Mythology Gag: Jon's character, Scott, is listed in the credits with the last name, "Loveheart". Jon's character in The Movie was Skylar Loveheart.
 * Season 5 runs on these. There were Call Backs to Josh Butterballs and his Stupid Obvious Information Magazine, sm0k3w33d4lyph3420, Chief also makes a few variations on his lines from previous episodes.
 * Homage: "Hypernews I" to Ocarina of Time, which is Jon's favourite game. And that's despite Chief giving the game an extremely negative review, akin to The Angry Video Game Nerd, making it somewhat an Affectionate Parody of the former (and possibly the latter).
 * How We Got Here: Season 5 starts with this premise.
 * Metallic Nickname: Chief's Noobs in "Digital Fruitcakes" is a subversion:

Chief: ITS METALLIC MORON / WERE ACTUALLY LIEK FUCKING PRO / SRSLY

Arbiter: I think you mean ironic."

"Arbiter: Fuck 3D."
 * Leitmotif: The theme from The Pursuit of Happyness and Three Little Girls from the Mikado.
 * Machinima and Live Action Puppeteering.
 * Travel Montage: Parodied in The Movie. When Chief escapes from LA, it zooms out to the classic "line on the map" scene - except the lines are a tangled mess because Chief has no idea where he's going.
 * Real Trailer Fake Movie: a parodic variant in the Cold Opening to "The Mail Room II" (37/S4E12), complete with Parrot Exposition. IN 3D!

"Arbiter: A few of you obsessive types are probably now scampering to your Xboxes to register the gamertag "assassininja4827", "assninja4827" or some other slight variation. No one will be impressed. Just wanted to call you douchebags out on that beforehand. Owned."
 * Refuge in Audacity: TECHNODICKS. TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO TECHNODICKS.
 * Running Gag
 * Josh Butterballs and his SOI Magazine.
 * Serious Business - Parodied hard in the two-part episode "Glitch"/"Panic"
 * Shout Out: The end of the machinima Chief produces in The Movie is an obvious shout out to the end of the So Bad It's Good Doom fanfic Repercussions of Evil.
 * Arbiter's (though then stolen by Jon), girlfriend is named Claire Redfield.
 * Travis' name is a reference to the character of the same name from the machinima "Matchmaking" the is lampshaded in the episode they first appear.
 * "Digital Fruitcakes" (4x09) is one long Shout Out to A Clockwork Orange, complete with the same colorful opening titles and credits.
 * In The Movie, the petition to stop Chief from making machinima in and his subsequent video response are direct references to similar events revolving around Uwe Boll. Chief even uses the same phrases as Boll in his video.
 * Take That: As shown by the Chief being a Take That at Halo's Fan Dumb and indicated by some episodes' director commentaries, the plots of some episodes are aimed at common complaints that the Halo fanbase made about the games, or make fun of Xbox Live users in general. This intensified when Graham discontinued It's A Wonderful Live, a separate machinima series designed to vent out those same frustrations.
 * Take That, Audience!: Jon addresses some of his more zealous fans with these from time to time. In the first episode of It's a Wonderful Live he outright tells his general response to complainers: "What's the big fucking deal?!"
 * Arbiter delivers one at the end of "Panic" (19/S3E7)


 * In fact, Todd, Travis, and Cortana's deaths seemed like this.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: pretty much everything Chief does, but espcially the penis drawing contest.

Characters
See also the character sheet.

"Arbiter: LOL, remember Chief?
 * Abusive Parents:
 * Affably Evil: Trent Donnovich, despite his portrayal as a Corrupt Corporate Executive in the first episode and a harsh first meeting with Arbiter, later tries to make friends with him and invites him to the wedding "church".
 * The hacker Duncan in season 6 seems to qualify so far.
 * Arch Nemesis: The closest thing to an antagonist the series has is obnoxious video game players, but if anyone could be called the Arch Nemesis it would be Scott from 'Endgame' story.
 * Trent Donnovich appears to be fulfilling the role in season 5.
 * Adam appears to be Arbiter's arch nemesis now, especially considering that he
 * Author Avatar: Arbiter, and Jon has already admitted to it; this has not, however prevented many instances of Author Filibuster from occurring. (Though they have become more rare as of late.)
 * Amazingly, Chief has also become this in some recent episodes, seeming to embody Jon's wild, silly, artistic, and emotional side while Arbiter embodies his logical thought, controlled behaviour, and cynicism. But how much Chief channels Graham and how much he is of his classic stupid self vaires from episode to episode.
 * Badass Bystander: One player in Cradle to Grave
 * Badass Longcoat: subverted for Agent Smirnoff, who is actually a quite clumsy person.
 * Badass Crew: Parodied with Chief's "n00bz". Everyone of them is an insanely bad Halo player and they all are beaten easily by Arbiter in the last part of the episode. Not to mention Chief says the exact point of them to is use exploits, which hurts their awesomeness significantly.
 * Word of God confirms that the antagonists of season 6 are this.
 * Big Bad:
 * Catch Phrase: The Chief has "NO U", among other things.
 * Ur mom and me were *insert Double Entendre* last night!
 * UR FACE!1
 * lol remember arbitur?
 * Chief even calls a drunken Arbiter out on using this one.
 * lol remember arbitur?
 * Chief even calls a drunken Arbiter out on using this one.

Chief: HAY. thats mai thing arbitur. u cant use mai thing. remember. remember its mien. lol remember arbitur?

Arbiter: LOL, I remember Chief.

Chief: LOL. ur so silly.

Arbitur: I know, LOL.

Chief: LOL"


 * FREEZE / TOSERS / GET DOWN ON THE FUKCING GROUND
 * Characterization Marches On: most noticeable with Chief - he used to be simply a Small Name, Big Ego Fan Dumb Ditz, but then he started realizing that he is not as good at Halo as he previously thought. And he has recently got a tiny grasp of sarcasm (not that he makes use of it very frequently). His relationship with Arbiter has been changing over time, too. See also Author Avatar above.
 * It's also a little weird watching Chief write off many games as stupid and that Halo is way better than them (like Super Smash Bros Brawl, Devil May Cry 4 and Call of Duty 4) and took some serious convincing to get him to even play them when you later see the chief willingly play many different games without a mention of Halo or even that the game sucks (like Grand Theft Auto IV and Resident Evil 5)
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * An example in Season 5 is
 * Deadpan Snarker: Arbiter
 * Disc One Final Boss:
 * The Dragon: Trent's sisters in season 5.
 * And then to.
 * Evil Counterpart: Arbiter's evil counterpart is the Leader of Chaos Theosis (both play as Elites in Halo multiplayer) and Chief's evil counterpart would probably be Adam who is also a member of Theosis.
 * The Faceless: "Jon", the owner of all the action figures. Onscreen only twice, and even then, we never saw his face. Also Skylar Loveheart (also played by Graham).
 * Until Endgame when he played Scott, but even then his face was covered by a large afro and sunglasses (though he takes them off at the end)
 * Fan Dumb: in-universe - Master Chief is a parody of the Unpleasable Fanbase of Halo.
 * Funny Afro: Scott sports one.
 * Gamer Chick; The Chick: Cortana
 * Giant Spider: The finale of season four introduces one, which even terrifies arachnophobe viewers.
 * Immune to Drugs: Scott eats cocaine sandwiches.
 * Jerkass: Master Chief
 * Arbiter too. But then again, it's Jon.
 * And Travis, to a lesser extent than Chief.
 * Trent Donnovich makes Chief look like a decent human being action figure.
 * Subverted in Trent's case during the second half of the fifth season. He's actually rather friendly, although it remains to be seen whether he's genuinely nice or if it's just a gambit to gain Arbiters trust.
 * Craig.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Arbiter. It pops up every now and then, but is most noticable in season 5. His "The Reason You Suck" Speech pretty much sums up what this trope is all about.
 * Leet Lingo: Chief's entire vocabulary.
 * Living Toys: The premise.
 * Nietzsche Wannabe:
 * Arguably FEELS GOOD MAN in "King".
 * In season 5 Trent Donnovich, as demonstrated with his "sinking ship" analogy.
 * Odd Couple: the eponymous characters.
 * Not to mention Chief's temporary crush on Cortana. Their personalities are the weird part.
 * Oddly Small Organization The clan of hackers that will be the main antagonists of season six seem to only have four members, according to the trailer and Jon's blog at least.
 * Oh Crap: Chief's usual reaction to Arbiter's rage.
 * Only Sane Man: Inverted, as the Chief is the only really odd character.
 * Or actually zig-zagged for Arbiter: characters of common sense comparable to him come and go, as do Chief-alikes.
 * Psychopathic Manchild: Chief. How else do you explain him destroying a Call of Duty 4 disc just to spite Arbiter?
 * Adam in Season Six. Holy fucking shit. Technically, he doesn't qualify for the 'man' part of this trope, but absolutely everything else fits him to a tee.
 * Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Chief LOVES this.
 * MAI ROFLCOPTER / IT GOAS SOI SOI SOI SOI SOI SOI SOI
 * ROFL car goes NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
 * MAI ROFLKNIEF GOEZ SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC SLIEC LOLOLOL
 * Is that the one that goes WHARBLEGURBLEH?
 * The Speechless: Greg, who can't talk due to being writes on sticky notes to communicate.
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Greg LOVES doing this to scare Chief and Arbiter, it helps that
 * Straight Man: The Arbiter
 * Synthetic Voice Actor: the eponymous characters and Cortana. This is constantly Lampshaded in season 5, even to the point of Deconstruction.
 * Those Two Bad Guys: In "Severance", Kylie gets two bodyguards because
 * Troll: Chief.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Arby and the Chief are this trope.
 * Those Two Bad Guys: In "Severance", Kylie gets two bodyguards because
 * Troll: Chief.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Arby and the Chief are this trope.

Plot and events
"Chief: MAI SEXAY PRONZ!11!one!"
 * And Then John Was a Zombie: The "shocking" twist ending of Chief's first machinima "TEH AELINS FRUM TEH OTUAR SPAESS" in The Movie, which as mentioned above is a shoutout to the notoriously bad Doom fanfic Repercussions of Evil.
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning: Subverted, Chief finally regains his Recon but learns you could get it from doing the Vidmaster challenges.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: Chief and Arbiter in the Season 5 pilot.
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Big No: The Chief, when the Arbiter cancels his 700 GB porn download.
 * Big No: The Chief, when the Arbiter cancels his 700 GB porn download.

"Chief: god damit this gaem is gay [Beat] wen is teh sec0nd 1 cumign out"
 * Bile Fascination: parodied in-universe in "Endgame".

"Chief: k k stop sotp stpo. i surendir."
 * Brick Joke: In Episode 6, Brawl, Chief gives Arbiter a hug just to put a sign that says "im stuped" on his back. Arbiter doesn't know about this until the end of the episode.
 * And then it happened again in the movie.
 * And, to make it a true Brick Joke, another hug occurs in the fourth episode of Hypermail. And both characters end up getting signs on their backs.
 * Bus Crash: Happens with Travis, Scott and Cortana.
 * Caught With Your Pants Down: During a Halo 3 match between Chief and professional gamer Craig, Craig notices he has a hard-on and goes at it while Chief is temporarily distracted from the match. Craig, however, gets caught in the act by his parents, and the ensuing confusion on his side allows the normally incompetent Chief to win the match.
 * Chekhov's Gun: in Season 5.
 * In the 10th episode of Season 4 "Night of the evading dead", Chief wakes up Arbiter by telling him there's a big spider next him, implying that he has arachnophobia.
 * Enemy Mine:
 * Final Boss Preview: Arguably the matches against the two security guards count as this.
 * He's Back: Not a character, but Chief's Chief tries to invoke this trope, but ends up just as fail as he always is. It's also symbolic of the series returning to it's post "Endgame" glory.
 * Ironic Echo:
 * Killed Off for Real: Not "killed" per say
 * In Endgame, . Also, at the end of Season 3,.
 * Lemon Wacky Hello: Chief getting high from smoking cereal. Lampshaded by Arbiter stating that cereal doesn't have hallucinogenic properties.
 * I Surrender, Suckers: Chief when he fights Travis.
 * Ironic Echo:
 * Killed Off for Real: Not "killed" per say
 * In Endgame, . Also, at the end of Season 3,.
 * Lemon Wacky Hello: Chief getting high from smoking cereal. Lampshaded by Arbiter stating that cereal doesn't have hallucinogenic properties.
 * I Surrender, Suckers: Chief when he fights Travis.
 * In Endgame, . Also, at the end of Season 3,.
 * Lemon Wacky Hello: Chief getting high from smoking cereal. Lampshaded by Arbiter stating that cereal doesn't have hallucinogenic properties.
 * I Surrender, Suckers: Chief when he fights Travis.
 * Lemon Wacky Hello: Chief getting high from smoking cereal. Lampshaded by Arbiter stating that cereal doesn't have hallucinogenic properties.
 * I Surrender, Suckers: Chief when he fights Travis.

"[Beat]
 * Overly Long Gag: The death of Scott.
 * Put On A Spaceship To Hell: The fates of Cortana, Todd and Travis at the end of "King".

Happy?"

"Chief: HOLEH MUTHR OF GOD. L@@K OTU. ITS TEH COVERNINT."
 * : Trent has one.
 * Look Behind You: During the fight with Travis and Todd

"Chief: OMG LOOK AT ALL THE HORRIBLE THINGS OVER THERE"
 * And with Arbiter.

"Why won't this faggot just die?"
 * Let's Get Dangerous: In preparation for the wedding, Chief and Arbiter
 * Rasputinian Death: Scott takes A LOT of bullets to bring down. Lampshaded by the Chief

"Chief: O RLY?
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: several times, usually delivered by Arbiter to Chief. He delivers it once to the audience (see Take That, Audience!) and once to in the season 5 finale.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
 * Samus Is a Girl: as episode 6 reminds us.

Arbiter: Yeah.

Chief: hawt / dos she hav boobz?/

Arbiter: I would assume so, Chief...

Chief: COOL / H1GH FIEV

[Beat]

Arbiter: ...No.

Chief: coem on / dun leev a brothar hanging

Arbiter: What the hell is up with you today? Are you high?

Chief: on lief, arbitur / on lief"

"Arbiter: It's all I need."
 * Self-Imposed Challenge: When Arbiter challenges Chief and his Noobs, he only uses magnum and sprint. He wins.

"Arbiter: We're going to need a miracle."
 * Tempting Fate: A rare example where things actually get better for the person that tempts fate.

"Chief: put them all on
 * Who Would Be Stupid Enough: When Chief learns about the visual effects.
 * Who Would Be Stupid Enough: When Chief learns about the visual effects.

Arbiter: Settle down, Chief. I mean most of the visual effects ARE cool and all, but some are made entirely for Machinima and it's impossible to see with them turned on. Playing with them all on would be fucking stupid. What kind of ignoramus would do that? Who, Chief? Who, I ask you? Who?

(Ten minutes later...)"

"Arbiter:"
 * World Made of Cardboard Speech/"The Reason You Suck" Speech: In the season 5 finale:


 * Should be mentioned that this is Arbiter's answer to a "The Reason You Suck" Speech delivered to him an episode earlier.
 * You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
 * Your Mind Makes It Real:
 * Now that season six has rolled around, the clan of hackers are using these to more or less launch a terrorist campaign.

Meta/miscellaneous

 * Aesop Amnesia: Chief has come to the realisation that he sucks at Halo at least three times. It usually doesn't stick. However, as of "Double Trouble",
 * Author Filibuster: See Author Avatar (characters folder)
 * Cerebus Syndrome: While still very funny, season 5 has made a noticable shift from whacky comedy to focus more on character development and drama. Season 6 arguably takes it a few steps closer to a full out Genre Shift from comedy to action drama. Amazingly, if the youtube-ratings are to be trusted, the show is still as well liked - if not more so - than during its more comedic days.
 * Franchise Zombie: "King" (episode 25/S3E13) was intended to be possibly the last episode of the whole series. Then an additional finale - "Endgame" followed. Then there was the LA spinoff... then season five...
 * Long Runner: For a web series, and compared to Jon's other work, hell yeah. Since at least 2007 there have been 51 regular episodes split into 5 seasons, a movie, six-part "Endgame", and the LA spinoff that was never made.
 * The Movie: Arby 'n' The Chief: The Movie. "Endgame" could also be considered one.
 * Series Continuity Error: Quite a few.
 * In the original Master Chief Sucks At Halo trilogy, there was an Arbiter character whose personality was comparable to Chief's. In Arby 'n' the Chief pilot, an Arbiter figurine arrives in a box, seemingly meeting Chief for the first time. However, in "Face-Off" (episode 16/S3E4) Arbiter refers to a "sick montage" Chief made with him in the original trilogy, implying that he is the same character. Retcon? Breaking the Fourth Wall?
 * Negative Continuity was once consciously introduced in "Pirates" (episode 28/S4E3).
 * Season four was supposed to take place sometime after "King" (season 3 finale); Arbiter and Chief seem to be still living in Jon's home in Canada. Fair enough. However, the fifth season seems to have borrowed Claire from "Endgame", this time voiced by Elizabeth Carr-Ernst. How they managed to stay at the same place (if this is supposed to take place after "Endgame") is never mentioned.
 * Fridge Logic: The reward for Scott's capture allowed them to stay in Canada.
 * She also doesn't recognize Chief in "Drunken Halo". Could be an unrelated character. Or maybe we should just shut up? Even Jon Especially Jon probably doesn't care. Or does he?
 * There's also the fact that Greg the Spider appears at both the end of Season 4, and Season 5. Also, Master Chief's leg is still missing in Endgame, as well as Arbiter's helmet. It may be better to count Season 4 as being set after Endgame.
 * Shoo Out the New Guy: The massive backlash and subsequent removal of Todd and Travis.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: The music at the end of "Severance", when, the music is surprisingly calm.
 * Talking to Himself: Todd and Travis, as well as the voices of all characters that are not figurines (except Agent Smirnoff in The Movie, portrayed by Daniel Laszlo) are all voiced by Graham himself.
 * This trope was lessened in season 5 when Jon actually got a whole voice cast to play some of the characters other than himself due to the sheer number of different characters in that season. Though there are still one or two characters where this still applies, such as with Timothy and Nathan in the episode "Cheaters".