Ask a Ninja

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Ask a Ninja is a Web Original series that takes a look at the image of the Ninja in popular culture. It was created by Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine in November 2005. Since then, it has gone on to win several Vloggie awards and released several DVDs and books.

The premise borrows from the Strong Bad Emails, and the creators name it in particular as one of their influences...though there's a distinctly ninja spin on it. There's no shortage of words that have the prefix "ninja-", and the Ninja will sometimes answer questions in a way the question wasn't meant to be answered.

You can find Ask a Ninja right here.

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Tropes used in Ask a Ninja include:

• Ambiguously Jewish: The Ninja's grandmother...
• Badass Santa - Santa is a ninja and that is the explanation to how he goes to every house in the world over night. However because of the ninja code he is also...
• Bad Santa - The Ninja says Santa kills children who see him to makes his clothes red.
• Cloudcuckoolander - The Ninja himself; you often wonder what goes on in his head.
• Discriminate and Switch- The Black Friday episode, he brings Al Thompson to explain black Friday and is reprimanded for choosing him because he's a shopping addict.
• Early Installment Weirdness: The first episode was created before the Ninja adopted his distinctive style.
• Fourth Wall Mail Slot - The premise of the show.
• Improvised Weapon - Many examples; Gift cards, playing cards(sorry, working cards), folded flags, a boiling hot burrito, two cowboy hats and a walnut... Ninjas have a saying, "if you can't kill it with paper you cannot kill it with steel".
• I Thought It Meant - Questions ≠ answers
• Killed Mid-Sentence - "Can a ninja kill me before I finish this-" "Yes."
• Large Ham - Skewered with kunai and pelted with shuriken, the Ninja is indeed a Large Ham.
• Lost in Transmission - This episode, explaining how to kill a ninja.
• Mathematician's Answer: Ninja frequently answers questions with "I'm a ninja," or some variation thereof.
• Major-General Song - Modern Major Ninja.
  • "Did not see the song coming, did ya? Well it's here, and it's here to stay."
• Memetic Badass: Played for Laughs. Ninja often makes ridiuclously hyperbolic statements about himself and other ninjas. He also claims that Chuck Norris is an ally of them.
• Metaphorgotten

Ninja: A ninja is not a one trick pony, we are an infinite trick pony. And it's not regular pony hair, it's like little snakes. And it's not even a real pony, it's a ninja inside a pony. And then we sneak out one of the oversized ears and we punch you while you're feeding the pony bacon. Ponies love bacon, not a lot of people know that

• Motor Mouth - The Ninja
• Ninja - Well, duh.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Episode 47 is built on this.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word - Anything that has a "ninja-" prefix. Bet you didn't know "ninja-" could be a prefix, too, didn't you?
  • "Kickassery! That is a real word! You can look it up in the dicinjiary. If you can find it."
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Minja! Ninja so small they can throw a shuriken, and then jump on the shuriken, so they can punch you in the face while the shuriken hits you in the throat!
• Rapid-Fire Comedy: Very much so.
• Serious Business - The creators reported they make roughly US$100,000 per month.
• Shout-Out: To the equally funny Dr. McNinja webcomic, when he recieves a letter saying, "I heard that if I light myself on fire, ninjas can't get me."
  • How do you speak so clearly with that mask on?
• Signature Style: The videos are shot with a series of rapid, abrupt cuts and shifts of angle and position on the Ninja's part. This is explained in one video as being because ninja and other badguys are constantly trying to kill the Ninja while filming, so they have to piece together the videos from interrupted takes.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial
  • Q: "Do ninjas ever get lonely?"
  • A: "You mean are there nights when I sit alone in a cave, eating Cheez-Whiz out of a can, naming my weapons and making little costumes for them, so we can put on elaborate theatric productions? (beat) No, I don't know what you're talking about. I've got friends."
• Weird Trade Union: Ninjas don't employ rabid squirrels because they're unionized and too expensive. Unfortunately, zombie chipmunks have proven to be a poor substitute.
• What Could Have Been - Ask a Ninja was originally supposed to be an animated show about two Ninjas living in Orange County.

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Thank you for reading this page, and I look forward to killing you soon!