All The Tropes

Archer: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Archer (view source)

Revision as of 08:02, 8 April 2014

8 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Dai-Guard moved page Archer (Animation) to Archer over redirect: Remove TVT Namespaces from title)
m (Mass update links)
Line 2:
[[File:archertitle.jpg|frame]]
 
{{quote| ''"This is [[Why We Can't Have Nice Things|why we can't have nice things]]."''}}
 
''Archer'' is the most recent brainchild from Adam Reed, the creator of ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' and ''[[Frisky Dingo]]''. Although it looks like it would be right at home on [[Adult Swim]] (who were nice enough to plug it in one of their bumps), it was passed over and found a home on the FX network instead. The series started in September 2009 and is still ongoing.
Line 8:
The focus is on titular protagonist Sterling Archer, an agent for the free-market spy agency known as ISIS, and his random misadventures both in and outside of the office walls. As competent as he is, the double edged sword is that he's a [[Jerkass]], usually oblivious to everything except himself, and as crude as they come.
 
[[Word of God]] aptly describes the show as "''[[James Bond]]'' [[X Meets Y|meets]] ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''". The show's humor, much like both ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' and its [[Spiritual Successor|spiritual predecessor]] ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'', relies heavily on [[Call Back|Call Backs]] and [[Running Gag|Running Gags]] alongside a large [[Ensemble Cast]] and [[Two Lines, No Waiting]] plots. A fan of ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' or ''[[Frisky Dingo]]'' will almost certainly enjoy ''Archer'', and conversely someone who found them repetitive or too low-key probably won't.
 
This series has a [[Archer (Animation)/Characters|character sheet]], a page listing [[Archer (Animation)/Extras|tropes found on Archer's Twitter feed]], and a page featuring [[Archer (Animation)/Interviews|enlightening interviews with the cast and creators]].
 
----
Line 48:
* [[Amusing Injuries]]: Variously [[Deconstructed]] and [[Reconstructed]]; while the injuries are almost always initially [[Played for Laughs]], several times characters have had to seek advanced medical attention afterwards;
** Lana's [[Steel Ear Drums|eardrums are ruptured when Archer fires a shotgun near her head]],
** Ray needs a CAT scan after a [[Tap Onon the Head]] (again, from Archer) leaves him unconscious for over an hour,
** Barry suffers increasingly severe injuries from the [[Running Gag]] of - guess who? - dropping him off tall buildings; eventually culminating in needing to be {{spoiler|[[We Can Rebuild Him|rebuilt as a cyborg]].}}
** For [[Butt Monkey]] Brett, this is a [[Running Gag]].
Line 191:
* [[Can't Bathe Without a Weapon]]: lampshaded in 'Jeu Monegasque';
{{quote| '''Archer:''' "...my gun's all soapy. Pretty dumb, taking a bath with it..."}}
* [[Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin']]: {{spoiler|Archer at the very end of 'Swiss Miss'. [[Rule of Funny|He is accused (wrongfully) of molesting and propositioning a 16-year-old Anka throughout the entire episode.]] Not two seconds after he has to cup Anka's breasts to prevent nerve damage (a legitimate reason)<ref> they were escaping terrorists on a snowmobile in Switzerland, and she was topless</ref>, Lana shows up.}}
** {{spoiler|Earlier, he finally got tired of people calling him a pig, so he set the guy on FIRE}}
* [[Casting Gag]]:
** Jeffrey Tambor as the head of ODIN, who's in a somewhat tumultuous romance with Jessica Walter's Malory. The two voice actors had a similar dynamic in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''
** Malory, voiced by Jessica Walter, is a wealthy, hard-drinking, [[Jerkass]] mother with a long sexual past and a co-dependent son, very similar to her character in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''.
** Although differently crazy between series, Judy Greer was a crazy [[Plucky Office Girl]] in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' and plays a similar role as Cheryl in this series.
** When Archer is identified as a fake homosexual by Charles, he is dressed very similar to a gay prostitute who was always being caught by the police on [[Reno 911]], in which Thomas Lennon (who voices Charles) stars.
** Turns out Burt Reynolds [[In -Universe|is every bit]] as much a crazy [[Badass]] in real life as the characters he plays.
* [[Casual Danger Dialog]]: Adam Reed shows ''always'' use this trope. Of specific highlight is Lana's (knockoff) Fiacci underwear, discussed during gunfights and bomb defusals.
* [[Catch Phrase]]:
Line 224:
** "Just like the Gypsy woman said!"
** Season 3 has introduced a catch ''gesture'': holding a finger up while finishing a drink.
* [[Caught Withwith Your Pants Down]]:
** Archer walks in on his mother during a ''[[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms|very important]]'' call in the first episode.
** {{spoiler|Barry catches Archer doing Framboise, his fiancé, in his new office at ODIN}}.
** Archer catches Barry doing Katya, his fiancé, during their fight at ISIS.]]
* [[Character Blog]]: [http://twitter.com/codenameduchess Sterling Archer's Twitter feed.]
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Archer gives a gun, [[Lampshade Hanging|branded "Chekhov"]], to Cyril along with a poison pen and adds that the gun occasionally [[Shur Fine Guns|goes off unexpectedly]] and the pen's cap tends to slip off for no reason. Later on... [[Red Herring|nothing happens with the Chekhov gun]], but the pen is responsible for poisoning a hooker. [[Zig -Zagging Trope|So let's see]], that's lampshading, parody, subversion, discussion ''and'' playing it straight?
{{quote| '''Archer''': "God, I SAID the cap slips off the poison pen for no reason, didn't I?!"<br />
'''Cyril''': "I know, I know, but I just assumed that if anything bad happened it-it would've been-"<br />
Line 242:
* [[Cold War]]: Still going on...sort of.
* [[Connect the Deaths]]: Krieger's plan for [[Disposing of a Body]] is for the ISIS agents to drop the dissected body parts in various trashcans around the city "which should form the shape of a smiley face". [[Rule of Funny|One-off gag]], his own [[Ax Crazy]] [[Dead Baby Comedy|sense of humour]], or brilliant ruse to convince the cops it's the work of a [[Criminal Mind Games|playful serial killer]]?
* [[Cool Versus Awesome]]: Invoked at the end of the third season, when {{spoiler|Barry offers Archer the chance to pilot an ''[[Alien (Filmfranchise)|Aliens]]''-style [[Mini-Mecha]] against him to even the playing field, as Barry is a superhuman cyborg.}} It takes every ounce of Archer's self-control to resist.
* [[Conspicuous CG]]:
** The aerial shots of the Monaco Grand Prix racers in "Jeu Monegasque".
Line 263:
** In "El Secuestro," most of the office assumes Cheryl chained herself to a radiator as part of her murder fetish behavior (it was an attempted kidnapping). Lampshaded when Gilette calls her "Little Miss Cry-Wolf"
* [[Cucumber Facial]]
* [[Cultured Badass]]: Burt Reynolds, who in addition to being able out-fight and out-drive Sterling, is able to [[Epiphany Therapy]] him through his [[Parent Withwith New Paramour]] issues.
* [[Curse Cut Short]]: In the pilot:
{{quote| '''Lana:''' After the lying, and the cheating, and [[Noodle Incident|that thing with the mayonnaise]]...<br />
Line 271:
'''Lana:''' You know, he once called out her name while we were f-<br />
'''Cyril:''' FIIIIIIIINE! }}
* [[Cut His Heart Out Withwith a Spoon]]: Archer makes strange threats when he's angry with Woodhouse:
** "If I find a single dog hair, I'll rub sand in your dead little eyes. Also, I need you to go buy sand. I don't know if they grade it, but... coarse."
** "I'm going to pain you dearly, when I peel off all your skin with a flensing knife, then sew it into Woodhouse pajamas, and then set those pajamas on fire!"
Line 307:
{{quote| '''Pam:''' "Let's see how much you wiggle when I whoop five thousand dollars worth of your ass!"}}
* [[Double Agent]]: Katya Kasanova is believed to be this by both Malory and Lana, even more so when she was seen in Doctor Krieger's research lab with his "secret project", and the KGB listed her file as double agent. {{spoiler|As it turns out, she's not, she's merely in love with Archer, and Krieger was helping her throw a dream wedding since his would never be. Nicolai Jakov merely altered her file to read double agent as counterintelligence, and to cover his own ass with his superiors.}}
* [[Double Standard Rape (Female Onon Male)]]: In "Swiss Miss", Archer finds himself in several compromising positions with the sexually aggressive piece of [[Jail Bait]] he's assigned to protect.
* [[Dude, She's Like, in Aa Coma|Dude, He's Like, In A Coma]]- Cyril is smashed over the head with a bottle and knocked unconscious. Then he is given a shot of heroin and drained of a dangerous amount of blood leading both Pam and Gillette to have their way with him.
* [[Embarrassing Cover Up]]: "Lo Scandalo": {{spoiler|Malory kills the Italian PM in the middle of a bondage session, knowing that Archer's disgust and Lana's disapproval will distract them from suspecting her as the culprit.}}
* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Sterling [[My Beloved Smother|Malory]] Archer, code name "Duchess," after his mother's deceased dog. Malory considered [[Dead Guy, Junior|"Reginald,"]] but decided that it was "too gay."
Line 326:
** Remember that Krieger isn't a real Doctor [[Running Joke|(of any kind)]], [[Fridge Brilliance|so his first name really is "Doctor"]]
* [[Everyone Has Standards]]: Archer may be an utter whoremonger and slut, but he won't take advantage of [[Jail Bait|Anka]]. And he's never sexist, nor does he hit women who aren't combat-capable. He may be hideously culturally insensitive, and assume that the bomber is "Beardsley McTurbanHead" (actually a Sikh), but if someone starts flat-out using racist slurs or starting a racist diatribe, he'll stop them with a little lecture on why racism is bad. He's also downright horrified when Calzado shoots a Bengal Tiger, calling it a murder.
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Dinosaurs]]: The unaired first episode on the DVD is just the first episode with Archer replaced by a Dinosaur.
* [[Evil Cripple]]: Franny Delaney, [[The Irish Mob]] boss who bilks cancer patients out of their medicine and pockets the profits.
* [[Exactly What I Aimed At]]: Cyril in "Tragical History"
Line 332:
* [[Expy]]:
** Sterling Archer shares the same sense of style and love of prostitutes as Xander Crews in Thompson and Reed's previous show ''[[Frisky Dingo]]''. There's also the ISIS employee who's a chubby hobbit cosplayer
** Jessica Walter plays an old, wealthy, overbearing mother with a drinking problem, and Judy Greer plays a [[Plucky Office Girl]] who happens to harbor a dark side, the same roles as their characters in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''. Creator Adam Reed has described the show as ''[[James Bond]]'' meets ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''.
* [[Family Versus Career]]: Averted.
* [[Fan Disservice]]: Pam, Malory and a German chubby-chaser in a threesome.
Line 339:
* [[Foreign Cuss Word]]: Katya is [[Catch Phrase|fond of]] ''"bozhe moi!"'' ("my God!").
* [[Forgotten Birthday]]: Played [[Deconstructor Fleet|unusually straight]] as the setup for "Drift Problem".
* [[Freeze -Frame Bonus]]: Almost every episode has at least one visual gag or joke somewhere in the background. Blink and you'll miss it.
* [[Freudian Excuse]]: Archer's dysfunction is a result of growing up with a negligent and outright abusive mother, as revealed in a number of flashbacks to his traumatic childhood. She abandoned him until the age of five, then sent him off to 12<ref> actually, 15, or "whatever, the normal number"</ref> straight years of boarding school. Other examples include abandoning him on Christmas Eve with no way to get home, taking all of his Halloween candy from him in a poker game, and giving him liquor at a young age. After several flashbacks, various characters admit that it "explains a lot" about Archer's personality.
* [[Full Name Ultimatum]]: "Sterling [[Embarrassing Middle Name|Malory]] Archer, you will eat every crumb of that sandwich..."
Line 346:
** In "The Rock", when the Drones are discussing a strike, Lana says "No unions!" and Krieger shouts [[The American Civil War|"Confederacy forever!"]]
** The Cuban hit squad smiles and waves at Burt Reynolds right before opening fire in "The Man From Jupiter".
* [[Fun Withwith Acronyms]]: A little [[Religious and Mythological Theme Naming]].
** ISIS stands for International Secret Intelligence Service. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of fertility, and everyone in the office [[Really Gets Around]].
** ODIN stands for Organization of Democratic Intelligence Networks. The Norse god Odin was [[The Spymaster]]. He also gave up one eye in return for incredible knowledge; Barry, one of the few ODIN agents ever seen {{spoiler|becomes crippled and loses an eye, then gets turned into a superhuman cyborg}}.
Line 352:
* [[Gargle Blaster]]: Green Russians - absinthe and milk.
* [[The Ghost]]: Brett and Popeye started out this way but eventually started making appearances. Trudy Beekman is still an example at the end of Season 2, having been frequently mentioned by Malory but never appearing.
* [[A Glass in Thethe Hand]]:
** Malory breaks the last of her Steuben glass set in frustration when Nicholai hangs up on her in "Dial M For Mother".
** Archer drops one when Woodhouse calls him to inform him his car's been stolen. By the time he gets down there to see for himself, he has a new glass of Scotch... which he promptly drops when he ''sees'' the car's been stolen.
Line 399:
* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: When a party conversation [[It Makes Sense in Context|casually turns to cannibalism]], Woodhouse mentions that African tribes call it "long pig" and that he "never cared for it."
* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: Archer is reluctantly convinced into this when {{spoiler|Bionic!Katya takes off with Barry.}}
* [[I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine]]: ''Lots'', without comment. For instance, two actresses from ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' feature in the main cast, joined by Jeffery Tambor in another. Also, Thomas Lennon, who co-starred on [[Reno 911]] with Aisha Tyler (where she played his long-lost sister).
* [[I Would Say If I Could Say]]: Mallory's "I'm not so crass as to say ''I told you so'' at a time like this, but tell you I most certainly did!"
* [[Imagine Spot]]
Line 439:
** The ending of "Movie Star" has: "...and?"
** The ending of "Space Race" has: "Welcome to the... danger zone." {{spoiler|It's not a real echo, but Archer was trying to goad Commander Drake into saying it earlier in the episode.}}
* [[It Is Pronounced "Tro -PAY"]]: "Bloody Ferlin" reveals that Ray Gillette's name is pronounced "gillet" with a hard "g" by everyone else in his family.
* [[Jail Bait]]: Even ''Archer'' has his limits.
{{quote| '''Malory''' "For god's sake, Sterling, she's turning seventeen!<br />
Line 458:
* [[Kiss Me, I'm Virtual]]: Krieger's virtual girlfriend, who is "so real the state of New York is allowing him to legally marry her."
* [[Klingon Promotion]]: Archer becomes the new captain of a group of [[Pirate|Pirates]] after killing their current captain.
* [[The Knights Who Say Squee]]: Archer meeting his hero Burt Reynolds, and going on to list [[Overly Long Gag|almost every film he's ever been in]]. Only to be horribly shocked to find out [[Parent Withwith New Paramour|he's dating Mallory]].
* [[Kung Shui]]:
** Invoked: Ramon claims to have bought Claymore mines, not to frag Archer, but for redecorating. Though he may have been lying...
Line 476:
** Almost everyone refers to Krieger by his last name. It has been hinted that his first name may literally be Doctor, since he's neither [[Not That Kind of Doctor|That Kind Of Doctor]] "or the other kind, technically".
** Woodhouse -- naturally, being [[The Jeeves]].
* [[Leaning Onon the Fourth Wall]]:
{{quote| '''Cyril:''' What is this, a spy comedy?<br />
'''Malory:''' No!<br />
Line 553:
* [[Offhand Backhand]]: Archer [http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/archer-grenade.gif does this with a net to catch grenades being thrown at him] in 'Heart of Archness, Part II.'
* [[Office]]: Actually makes up a large part of the humor at ISIS.
* [[Oh God, Withwith the Verbing!]]: "Oh God, with the curry again... this shirt smells like Indira Gandhi's thong."
* [[Omniglot]]: Seems to be a standard bit of ISIS training, leading to a lot of [[Bilingual Bonus|Bilingual Bonuss]]. Archer knows Portuguese, but not Spanish.
* [[One Bullet Left]]:
Line 642:
** Malory: "Well then you're as stupid as you are dumb!"
** Archer: "Does this look as bad as it looks?"
* [[Shout-Out]]: So many, they have [[Archer (Animation)/Shout Out|their own page]].
* [[Ship Sinking]]: Lana/Cyril are deepsixed in the last two episodes of season one.
* [[Single-Target Sexuality]]: Woodhouse seems to have this for Reggie Thistleton. In "Honey Pot," Charles and Rudy make a remark about Woodhouse not being gay, and he corrects them not by saying he is gay but by mentioning Reggie Thistleton. He elaborates on his relationship with Reggie in "Double Deuce," including his death on the battlefield. The only other indication of any kind of love/sex life at all is in that same episode when he's in bed with two women on a drug running ship...and he's openly pining for Reggie. He then delivers Archer and becomes his butler-for-life.
Line 671:
*** This last one is immediately [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Archer
* [[Tag-Along Actor]]: One shadows Lana {{spoiler|who turns out to be a Russian sleeper agent.}}
* [[Tap Onon the Head]]: Averted in "White Nights". Archer knocks Ray out with a punch, and then comments that he should see a neurologist, because getting knocked unconscious is really unhealthly. The next scene, Ray tells ISIS that he got knocked out, and Lana tells him he should see a neurologist. He already has an appointment.
* [[Take That]]: "Karate? The Dane Cook of martial arts? No."
* [[Theme Pairing]]: in-universe; {{spoiler|Bionic!Barry and Bionic!Katya}}
Line 728:
** Spelvin taunts Cyril that he doesn't have it in him to shoot someone.
** Franny Delaney tells Archer he wouldn't kill an unarmed, crippled man. {{spoiler|He's wrong.}}
* [[Your Approval Fills Me Withwith Shame]]: When Archer "trains" Cyril to be an agent and surprises him with the unexpected ice cube attack, his reflex is to use the [[Insistent Terminology|call girl]] as a human shield to block it. Cyril is mortified when Archer proudly cheers on this untrained reaction.
* [[Your Cheating Heart]]: Lana gets this a lot; she dumped Archer for serial adultery in order to hook up with Cyril, whom she deemed to be a safe, loyal boyfriend who would not stray. Which he does, after she catches him with ODIN's hot, [[Foreign People Are Sexy|French]] HR manager Framboise, and finds out that he also had sex with Cheryl. {{spoiler|And Scatterbrain Jane. And possibly Malory.}}
** Katya cheats on Archer with Barry on their wedding day right in front of him.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/887529"