80's Dan



"''So hello, sunny skies Goodbye, blues!"

A character and show by Brad Jones as part of The Cinema Snob site. Dan got zapped from 1989 to the present when Brad opened a bottle of New Coke. Since then, Dan has settled with his roommates, Dolly and R.O.B. the Robot, and his neighbors the Crabtrees, to talk about his favorite stuff from The Eighties, no matter how stupid or schlocky it is.

Most of the show is done in a fake sitcom format, complete with canned audience reactions. Plots usually involve Dan gushing over stuff from his time, his friends getting annoyed, and R.O.B. trying to make it with Mrs. Crabtree, to her husband's increasing annoyance.

Episodes can be found on here.

""I'm that pretentious guy from that internet show!" "The stick up his ass seemed pleasant.""
 * Acting for Two: In the Christmas episode, all of Brad's characters team up.
 * Actor Allusion: Dan dresses up as Cinema Snob in the Halloween III Season of the Witch episode, with some heavy Self-Deprecation.

"Snob: I can't say [bleep], but he gets to make jokes about crack and weapons?! Dolly: It doesn't make sense to us either."
 * Affectionate Parody: The show is one of 80's sitcoms, including a gratuitous Laugh Track and a cute buddy who's completely out of place.
 * Ass Shove: In the Christmas Special, Mrs. Crabtree threatens to shove ROB up her own ass.
 * Censor Box / Sound Effect Bleep: Dolly's religious aura makes it physically impossible to swear around her. But only on Christmas. Actually, the rules aren't clear.

""I'm STARBUCK!, goddammit!" ""That is the worst Dirk Benedict costume I've ever seen.""
 * Character Blog: ROB The Robot has a Twitter account.
 * Christmas Episode: A "Very Inappropriate" one.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Dan, at least that's how he comes across a lot of the time.
 * Comically Missing the Point: Dan's verdict on Mrs. Crabtree's Halloween outfit.

"Linkara: "Ah, yes. The crossover everyone demanded.""
 * Then he mistakes Dolly's Sailor Moon outfit for a sexy Donald Duck outfit.
 * Cool Shades: Dan has a pair, just to complete the 80's cheese look.
 * Crazy Prepared/Hammerspace: The inner pockets of Dan's suit.
 * Crossover: The Christmas special has several of Brad's characters.
 * Dan and 90's Kid of Atop the Fourth Wall have met at least twice (once offscreen and once onscreen).

"80s Dan: Y'know, if I shove some coke up my ass, at least I'd die from partying too hard."
 * Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Mrs. Crabtree suggesting that 80s Dan shove a New Coke bottle where the sun doesn't shine.

"Dolly: Why I am thinking of VHS tapes, all of the sudden? ROB: Same reason I'm thinking of titties!"
 * She suggests a similar fate for R.O.B., but it just turns him on.
 * Dead Baby Comedy: "80s Dan's Very Inappropriate Christmas"
 * Disco Dan: Dan, who may or may not even be named after that trope.
 * Drinking Game: For Halloween III, 80s Dan takes a drink whenever his fellow reviewers make a Bret Easton Ellis reference, and everyone else takes a sip when the jingle comes on.
 * The Eighties: And how it clashes in many ways with modern times.
 * Fish Out of Temporal Water: A line in the Halloween III review explains that 80s Dan fell into a time warp at the exact moment the 80s ended.
 * The Fundamentalist: Dolly turned out to be one, at least when it comes to Christmas.
 * Good Old Ways: Dan doesn't have much use for modern CGI.
 * I Just Want to Have Friends: 80s Dan's Very Inappropriate Christmas: Jerrid as a lonely Nazi who wants somebody to watch Nazisploitation with him.
 * Jerkass: R.O.B. casually insults everyone around him and hits on Mrs. Crabtree right in front of her husband.
 * Lampshade Hanging: In the first episode of 80s Dan, Dan squirms rather sheepishly while the very familiar Automan theme plays:

"Dolly: You know, we could've just bought a new star."
 * Laugh Track: Not quite spoofed, but it's clear the use isn't serious either.
 * Leitmotif: Dan has "Take On Me".
 * Love Triangle: Between ROB, Mrs.Crabtree and her Husband. ROB actually has more of a chance than you would think.
 * Meaningful Name: The Crabtrees are a crabby married couple. Also, Jillian as "Dolly."
 * Meet Cute: The Title Sequence shows the titular hero falling into a time warp, then slipping and falling on Dolly's driveway.
 * Mirror Universe: Brad has joked that 80's Dan is basically the "bizarro" Cinema Snob, right down to the white blazer.
 * My Eyes Are Up Here: Dolly said this to ROB.
 * Negative Continuity: How Dan got here tends to tweak from various videos.
 * Nightmare Fetishist: Mrs. Crabtree
 * Non-Human Sidekick: Spoofed, when Dan said he loved when shows would do this trope for no realistic reason, and the camera cut to R.O.B. the robot, who himself wondered why the camera cut to him.
 * Perpetual Smiler: Dan, to the point of his smile reaching shit-eating-grin levels.
 * Explained in the Hot to Trot episode.
 * Real Song Theme Tune: "Goodbye Blues", the theme to the short-lived show Hawaiian Heat.
 * Refuge in Audacity: With references to copious drug use, drunken sex, and neo-Nazi violence, "A Very Inappropriate 80's Dan Christmas" definitely fits this trope.
 * Robot Buddy: R.O.B.
 * Shaggy Dog Story: Dolly embarking on a journey to find the star to her Christmas Tree. Turns out it's up inside.
 * "Because this whole holiday reeks of ass!!"


 * Shaggy Frog Story: 80s Dan relating the story of his 1989 Christmas.
 * Shout-Out: Dan's insistence that his jacket isn't white. "It's Crockett."
 * Sitcom: Done in this style.
 * Spin-Off: Of The Cinema Snob.
 * Spoof Aesop: 80s Dan's Christmas: "Whether we think about Santa this season, or Jesus, whether we're religious, or we just like presents, we can all agree on one thing. And that's that killing Nazis is fun."
 * Stylistic Suck: With intentionally stale jokes and obnoxious Laugh Track.
 * Suckiness Is Painful: Mr. Crabtree is anxious to show 80s Dan the new Transformers movies. So he'll kill himself.
 * Take That: To the Transformers movies, Tron: Legacy, and a lot of the 80's cliches.
 * Dan draws a blank on who Angie Harmon of Rizzoli and Isles is. Mr. Crabtree puts it in terms he can understand: "Tyne Daly with a penis."
 * Those Wacky Nazis: Dan and Dolly stumbling into a Neo-Nazi's "lair" on Christmas.