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Nothing should happen in Hatchetfield. All it has is the Starlight Theater, a Beanie's Coffee with singing baristas, and a mall with the hottest toys in town. For some reason, however, Hatchetfield attracts several supernatural creatures, and apocalypses. Whether it's a [[Hive Mind]] turning people into singing zombies, or a persuasive [[Eldritch Abomination]] posing as a plush toy, you can bet that the world will end thanks to what starts in this town. Expect your favorite characters to die. A lot. But that's okay, because a new timeline or continuity starts in each show! And maybe, one day, the characters will find their happy ending or save the multiverse. Both would be ideal, to save everyone regardless of the timeline.
The franchise has several works: stage musicals ''The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals'', ''Black Friday'', and the musical web series ''Nightmare Time''. ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die'' is a work-in-progress, meant to close out the stage musical trilogy. Thanks to the [[COVID-19 pandemic|pandemic]], however, it took two years for a trailer of ''Nerdy Prudes'' to come out, promising a February 2023 release date. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h15QZwFK68Y See the trailer here].
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** Bill, no matter the timeline, is shown to be in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife over his teenage daughter Alice. Seventeen-year-old Alice, college-bound in a year, seeks a career in the arts and resents that Bill keeps trying to be a goofy [[Bumbling Dad]] when she needs someone to support her wholeheartedly. She also hates that Bill is right that her girlfriend Deb is not good enough for her, as Deb is a stoner who encourages Alice to play hooky and {{spoiler|gets her killed by the Hive}}. Fortunately in "Watcher World," {{spoiler|Blinky's brainwashing, once it breaks, makes them realize they were both being unreasonable towards each other. Alice follows her dad on Instagram, and Bill promises to give her space, and his blessing for her to pursue theater after learning she won a scholarship}}.
** Charlotte Sweetly's in a loveless marriage with her husband Sam, who is a [[Dirty Cop]] that she knows is cheating on her. Sam refuses to comply with couples counseling and rarely comes home. She's cheating on him in turn, because Ted is the only source of comfort that she can find, and ''Black Friday'' hints that Ted really does have feelings for her but is too insecure to admit them. {{spoiler|They end the musical holding hands with Hot Chocolate Boy, as the town survivors huddle and wait for midnight to pass; Ted mentioned in ''The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals'' that he'd want to spend his last moments on Earth "fucking someone else's wife"}}.
** ''Black Friday'' would run on this trope if not for the supernatural threat. A mall riot breaks out on the titular day, because every adult in line at the toy store wants the Tickle-Me-Wiggly. The survivors try to stay out of the bloodbath and hide from the obsessed Wiggly cultists, as {{spoiler|Ethan dies while shouting at Hannah to run for it}}.
** "Honey Queen" has the villainous Linda and Gerald Monroe react this way when {{spoiler|Zoey and Sam kidnap their youngest son River in an attempt to blackmail Linda to drop out of the pageant. Gerald gets an instinctive ping that River has been in the bathroom for too long, and realizes he's not in any of the stalls. When Zoey threatens River, Linda for the only time goes [[Mama Bear]] and attacks Zoey, while dialing Gerald and asking him to rescue their son. Gerald searches the parking lot in with uncharacteristic panic}}.
** "Abstinence Camp" features this: it's basically a little despotism area where Boy-Jerry and Girl-Jerry rule with an iron fist. While Girl-Jerry has reason to panic about the slightest hint of debauchery and is terrified {{spoiler|her son will murder yet another camper for wanting to snog}}, Boy-Jerry actively {{spoiler|encourages Lumberaxe to murder "Dirty" girls}}.
** "[https://youtu.be/hOxGIMmsy6w?t=4019 Hey Melissa]" for most of its story has nothing supernatural. That's what makes it messed up, and you can see why it was never made into an official Nightmare TIme Epsidoe:
** Initially, the danger comes from one of Paul's coworkers, a guy named Freddy that becomes obsessed with Melissa, Mr. Davidson's secretary, who is visibly crushing on Paul. That obsession becomes murderous. Paul tries to explain to Ted and Bill that he is not interested in Melissa that way because she likes cats, and she's not his type. Melissa is creeped out by Freddy and tells him that who she dates is none of his business. It doesn't matter to Freddy, who {{spoiler|seemingly kills Ted for expressing interest in Melissa and hunts down Paul when the latter works late on a Friday}}. Yeah it turns out {{spoiler|Melissa kidnapped Ted and cut off his fingers to make him her new dog, and kidnaps Paul, conditioning him into becoming a cat, and Freddie was an undercover FBI agent investigating a Kitty Club of which Melissa was a part but still!}}
** The way that Melissa screams at Paul for accidentally getting a dog he adopted killed. He says he was just a kid, but she yells about how he's not living up to the image of him that she had in his head of a nice guy that could do no wrong. Paul is naturally freaked out by this, but is too worried about Melissa's wellbeing to go away.
* [[Apocalypse Maiden]]: ''Nightmare Time'' installments featuring Hannah reveal that in the wrong hands, her powers would make her this. There's clairvoyance and the ability to see the future, but when pushed she can also do mind control and telekinesis. That's partly why Webby takes it upon herself to provide Hannah guidance that her druggie mother and stressed sister can't; if one of Webby's siblings find a way to control Hannah, the world is more than likely to end. It's implied that Wiggly was trying to turn Hannah into this when talking to her in ''Black Friday'' and using an illusion of Ethan to make her succumb to despair; Hannah loudly rejects this role by saying that Ethan always told her to never give up, even in the worst of circumstances.
* [[Asshole Victim]]: While not everyone in Hatchetfield deserves the multiple times they get killed on or offscreen, quite a few show it's hard to mourn for them:
** Emma's boss Zoey is a diva actress and [[Mean Boss]] to her, while carrying on an affair with the married Sam Sweetly. While Emma is a crappy employee, complete with [[Flipping the Bird]] at customers and slacking off at work, Zoey is just as much of a slacker as shown in ''Nightmare Time''. Emma also has a point that singing for tips means it's not really a tip, but earning twenty-five cents per song. "Honey Queen" goes further in showing that she {{spoiler|outs her gay brother to their grandmother "Mima" so that he'll be disinherited, all out of spite that her brother stole her boyfriend. When Linda plays dirty tricks to sabotage her, Zoey fights dirty back, outright asking her boyfriend Sam to ''kidnap River'', Linda's innocent son. The show ends with her hung in the rafters, courtesy of one last dirty trick}}.
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* [[Black Widow]]: It's revealed in "Daddy" that {{spoiler|Sheila Young is this, regularly marrying men to emotionally abuse them and kill them when they refuse to play along with his daddy fantasies}}.
* [[Bolivian Army Ending]]: How ''Black Friday'' ends; the survivors of the mall riot gather after hearing that World War III has started, and Russia will likely send a nuclear missile in retaliation for {{spoiler|President Goodman accidentally launching one to Moscow when he aimed for Wiggly}}. They wait for midnight to strike before planning to bunker with Professor Hidgens. Hannah, however, has some hope; she sees a vision and sings that "Tomorrow will come, tomorrow won't come, tomorrow will come today." She asks what will happen if tomorrow does come, and what then? Tom asserts that if they make it past midnight on Black Friday, they can survive anything. All the survivors sing and hug, even [[Jerkass]] Ted and Charlotte. They count down the seconds to midnight, and see something in the sky. But there is hope, if not in this world then in the multiverse that General McNamara mentioned.
* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]:
** Discussed about all those people who join the Hive in ''The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals''? Professor Hidgens explains the Hive killed them and reanimated them as zombies, with memories of the people they were. Paul finds himself succumbing in the climax after inhaling spores from the meteor, fighting it the whole time. {{spoiler|He blows up the meteor, but it doesn't kill the Hive}}.
** Wiggly has a thrall over adults, but {{spoiler|not children}}. Any adult in the vicinity of a Wiggly, with the exception of maybe Paul who finds the radio jingle annoying, starts wanting the toy by many means possible, and General McNamara that opts for shooting the nearest doll. It's seen most horrifyingly when Tom and Becky, shortly after being trapped in the mall movie theater, succumb to the thrall when seeing a frightened Hannah with a Wiggly that tries convincing her to sink into despair. She tries to reason with them, saying that Wiggly is a liar. It doesn't work, so Hannah has to hide. Tom only snaps out of it later when {{spoiler|Lex asks him if his son ever wanted a Wiggly in the first place, and he realizes that Tim never asked}}. Becky comes to her senses after {{spoiler|sedating herself with a needle she intended to use on Hannah}}.
* [[Chaos Entity]]: Wiggly is an abstract force of chaos, speaking through numerous Tickle-Me-Wigglys and Uncle Wiley. {{spoiler|Wiggly had humanity orchestrate its birth onto the planet Earth. When that fails, thanks to sisters Hannah and Lex fighting back when the cultists capture them at different times in the play. Wiggly tricks the President into firing a nuclear missile at Russia and starting World War III. With that said, as the survivors of the Black Friday massacre gather and wait for midnight to pass, the clairvoyant Hannah sings that she sees a possible tomorrow, that it might come. The play ends before we know for sure if the world is ending.}}.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In "Yellow Jacket," the reason why Lex doesn't believe that Webby is real is that Webby was her imaginary friend as a kid. She assumes that Hannah as a kid saw Lex talking to Webby, and picked up the habit. {{spoiler|When Hannah pushes Webby out of her mind, Webby goes to Lex, and helps reactivate her powers to save Hannah and stop the apocalypse}}.
* [[Chekhov's Gag]]: Grace Chastity has the unfortunate label of being a "nerdy prude" in every continuity. {{spoiler|She uses this fact to rescue Steph and Pete from Lumberaxe and succeeds in taming him, since she is a prude. Lumberaxe makes her the new counselor of Abstinence Camp, and she takes to it happily}}.
* [[Collectible Cloney Babies]]:
** ''Black Friday'' has the Tickle-Me-Wiggly, a new toy that is in so much demand that the one Lex plans to auction online could fetch up to ''7000''. Any adult who sees a Tickle-Me-Wiggly wants one, no matter the cost, and some resort to murder to get it on Black Friday, the day of the year when every adult can purchase one. When local toy shop owner Frank tries to reason with the mobs by pointing out that he can ask for a rush order from the manufacturer, their ringleader slits his throat in response. (Wiggly is actually an [[Eldritch Abomination]] using this hatred to emerge on Earth in a new form and [[Take Over the World]].)
** The ''Nightmare Time'' episode "Watcher World" has Blinky doing the same thing in the titular theme park, with Blinky plushies. Bill bankrupts himself trying to win a Blinky doll for Alice from a "Test Your Strength" game.
* [[Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are]]: A brainwashed Becky and Tom sing this in "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaiG2LvywJE Do You Want to Play]?" when they try to lure Hannah out of hiding to grab the Wiggly doll that she's holding. Becky hides a syringe behind her back as she and Tom walk through the audience aisles, complete with Tom jumpscaring a random audience member. Yes, it's as creepy as it sounds.
* [[Cruel Twist Ending]]:
** In ''The Guy Who didn't Like Musicals'', it seems that despite everything, {{spoiler|Paul and Emma both survived the musical apocalypse and she can go to her dream farm in Colorado. Then Paul starts singing while hugging Emma.}}
** "Hey Melissa!" seemingly ends with Paul rescued {{spoiler|from Melissa's animal cult and getting hospital treatment. Then it turns out Melissa broke him so thoroughly that he busts her out of the hospital where she's recovering from a gunshot and promises to be her pet after regular work hours.}}
* [[A Day in the Limelight]]: ''Nightmare Time'' gets to focus on different characters featured in the musical:
** "Watcher's World" narrows its focus to Bill and Alice as he drags his daughter to a theme park for a father-daughter bonding trip.
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** "Jane's A Car": Jane {{spoiler|possesses Becky Barnes's body and takes in Tim after his father is arrested for attempted murder. She promises Tim that things will be the way they were before}}.
** "Honey Queen": Linda succeeds in {{spoiler|killing Zoey and winning the Honey Queen title. She finds out after the fact that the Honey Queen is sacrificed to an [[Eldritch Abomination]], as her father reveals that Gerald died rescuing their son river. Mr. Murray promises Linda that he will take care of her sons and raise them properly, before she's eaten alive by Nibbly}}.
* [[Eleven O Clock Number]]: In ''Black Friday'', [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W40DB7F-8dI "What If Tomorrow Comes"]] is this and the finale for the musical. Hannah gets her first solo in the musical, and her actress belts out that she can see the possibility of a tomorrow: "What if tomorrow comes, to break the dawn and take the night away?" The rest of the ensemble joins in, hope rising that they can survive the possibility of tomorrow.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Linda's dad Mr. Murray is not a nice guy who constantly belittles her and turned her into the monster she is, but when he gets wind of the fact that she and Gerald have been sabotaging the competition to help her win the Honey Queen title. He warns Gerald that he does not want either his daughter or son-in-law to embarrass him. {{spoiler|There was also a reason that he didn't want her to win; the Honey Queen is sacrificed to the deity Nibblennephim, and he's regretful about the fact that because Linda won, he has to bring his only daughter. He still does it, however, gleefully}}.
* [[Evil vs. Evil]]: "Honey Queen" pits Emma's Beanies manager Zoey against Linda Monroe as they try to get the namesake title from the Hatchetfield Honey Queen pageant. Both are revealed to fight dirty to get what they want, and at certain points, it's hard to know who to support. {{spoiler|Linda wins the title of Honey Queen after hanging Zoey in the rafters, only to find out she's become a [[Human Sacrifice]]. Neither of them get what they want in the end}}.
* [[The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You]]:
** ''The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals'' ends with Emma begging the audience for help during the curtain call {{spoiler|after realizing that she's in a musical trapped with singing zombies of her former friends, love interest and coworkers. In the recorded version, no one helps her as she's dragged offstage. Some performances apparently had the audience lend Emma their phones but forgetting to unlock them, allowing her to riff off that}}.
** In ''Black Friday'', Tom and Becky walk into the audience while singing [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaiG2LvywJE "Do You Want to Play" and hunting down Hannah, and Tom even screams at a random person. You can hear nervous laughter in the recorded stage version.
* [[Freudian Excuse]]: "Daddy" reveals that Sherman Young is such a little creep and a [[Manchild]] because his mother spoils him rotten, treating him like a baby despite him being in his forties.
* [[Generational Trauma]]: It's implied to be the reason why people become messed up, if there isn't a supernatural reason. Some of the ''Nightmare Time'' episodes show that you don't need supernatural beings to corrupt people; human beings are corrupt already. [[Jerkass]] and emotionally abusive Linda Monroe treats everyone like garbage (including her husband Gerald who loves her) because she's a backstabbing opportunist, and only favors her son River. Turns out her dad treats her exactly the same way, as "Honey Queen" reveals. She enters the Honey Queen pageant to win his approval, even as Gerald warns her that the senior Mr. Murray isn't worth it.
* [[Gold Digger]]: A more sympathetic case; Frank Pricely is very open about the fact that he's marrying Sheila Young for her money, not to give her forty-one-year-old son a father, to save his toy shop where Sherman is a frequent customer. Sheila is emotionally abusive, and it's revealed that {{spoiler|she has trapdoors in the house because every man who has married her for her money has failed to meet her standards}}.
* [[Hope Springs Eternal]]: How General McNamara {{spoiler|in ghost form}} snaps Lex out of the [[Darkest Hour]] in ''Black Friday'' after {{spoiler|Sherman overpowers and starts strangling her, and Lex sings that she's more worried about Hannah than her own shortened life}}. He tells her that if she and her sister learn to control their powers, they can save the multiverse. Which means that even with the ambiguous ending for the musical, if Hannah and Lex manage to save Hatchetfield in ''one'' timeline, and there are multiple, then they can save all of them.
* [[In Spite of a Nail]]: The timelines have some constant events that happen regardless of the different supernatural or human cruelty:
** Bill's wife leaves him for another man and gets main custody of Alice. This backstory informs many of Bill's insecurities and guilt that he can't provide his daughter with a better life.
** Professor Hidgens is obsessed with getting funding for his show ''Workin' Boys''.
** Becky Barnes dated Tom in high school, obtained a nursing degree and married an abusive man. Concurrently, both Emma Perkins and Linda Monroe share one thing in common: an [[Irrational Hatred]] of Becky. (Bonus points: Lauren Lopez plays both Emma and Linda.) Linda has no reason to pick on Becky except that the woman isn't scared of her and can't be bribed or blackmailed, and still has her perky cheerleader attitude. Emma's case may be more justified owing to [[Big Sister Instinct]]: it's confirmed Tom married her sister Jane in some timelines, and the town is convinced that Tom and Becky should have stayed together according to gossip in ''Black Friday''. Emma does have a point that it's insulting people think her dead sister wasn't good enough for Tom.
** Jane Perkins died in a car crash while her sister was world-hopping. ''Black Friday'' and some of the ''
** Paul and Emma meet, and they fall in love, with "Perky's Buds" is the exception. What's more, despite both of them being misanthropes, they bring out the best in each other. "Forever and Always" lampshades this when {{spoiler|Robot-Emma tells real-Emma that even if she was mutinously single, she would have fallen for Paul eventually}}.
* [[Irrational Hatred]]: For some reason, Linda Monroe hates nurse Becky Barnes. In ''Black Friday'', she taunts Becky when the latter fails to raise righteous fury about Linda cutting her way in line, saying that the perky cheerleader attitude doesn't work when she's an adult.
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** Blinky in "Watcher's World" wants the theme park residents to adore him, and for the Snigglys to be happy. Anyone who hates Blinky or speaks up about the unfair Sniggly conditions may find themselves near-beaten to death or hunted down like prey. That's because it depowers him. {{spoiler|Fortunately, resisting Blinky gives Alice enough of a window to shoot him with the gun that the Snigglys thoughtfully provided her}}.
* [[Mistaken for Murderer]]: In "Abstinence Camp," Steph and Pete {{spoiler|see Counselor Boy-Jerry burying a bag full of dead bodies in a hole. Steph comes to the conclusion that he killed some campers. Boy-Jerry doesn't dispel that notion by going after them with a shovel, and siccing the real killer- Lumberaxe-- on them}}.
* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]: In "Hey Melissa," Paul breaks it gently to Melissa that he's not interested in her, not the least because he's been interested in the coffee girl Emma and dating your coworker is awkward. This is after he rescued her from {{spoiler|coworker Freddy, and they're both shaken}}. When she expresses interest in who he really is, Paul ignores a call from Emma and decides to open up to comfort her. This little action and moment of vulnerability {{spoiler|gets him kidnapped and she starts conditioning him to be her new cat}}.
* [[Not What It Looks Like]]: Counselors Boy-Jerry and Girl-Jerry try to say this when {{spoiler|Grace walks in on them about to make out...while Noah and Mary's bones are arranged like firewood. It doesn't matter to Grace: she runs out of there screaming}}.
* [[Obnoxious In-Laws]]: Played with between Emma and Tom in ''Black Friday''. They don't necessarily get along, but both are grieving Jane's death, and Emma hugs him the way a little sister would for a big brother. Emma at first is annoyed when Tom is going to the mall on Black Friday under the pretext of buying some carpentry tools rather than spending time with her and his son Tim; she softens when Tom tells her in secret that he's buying his son a Christmas present. The musical ends with her and Paul arriving in a hurry to the mall, relieved to see Tom, and she admits she was scared he was dead.
* [[Only Sane Man]]: There are a few depending on the story. Jon Matteson plays a handful of them:
** Paul in ''The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals'' remains cynical, immune to the Hive's machinations, and insightful about the danger everyone is in from the singing zombies. It's why the Hive in interested in converting him. {{spoiler|While Paul eventually dies and the Hive manages to assimilate him, he goes down fighting}}.
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** Likewise, Ethan cannot believe that he has to serve as Hannah's conscience in "Yellow Jacket" when they get roped into doing superpower fights for money, after she gets into an accident in shop class. He tries to keep Hannah out of the worst of it, while drumming up the courage to tell Lex. Hannah pushes forward because she is happy to have friends, and to be able to give her sister a good home. As Ethan puts it, he's the irresponsible one, and not a person with good judgment.
* [[Only Sane Woman]]:
** Emma in ''The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals'' thinks that she is this, with how she kvetches about the new "Singing for a Tip" mandate. In reality, she's actually a
** In ''Black Friday'', while Lex steals a Tickle-Me-Wiggly from her boss's shop, she resists the thrall of Wiggly when the toy talks to her. Her intention is to sell the doll online so she and Ethan have enough money to take Hannah with them to California and start a new life. Throughout the whole show, she registers the danger of the situation when the store riot starts, doing her best to get out of dodge while her boss stupidly tries to demand all the fighting customers leave. {{spoiler|It ends up being Lex's determination to save Hannah and her empathy for Tom that breaks the brainwashing on him, so at least she and her sister survive the riots}}. "Yellow Jacket" takes this further when, {{spoiler|as soon as Webby alerts her to what Hannah has been doing, Lex immediately activates her childhood powers, rescues Hannah, and escorts her out of there}}.
** In "Honey Queen", the poor pageant volunteer is the only person not drawn into the vicious competition that Zoey and Linda start. She just reminds Zoey to not be late for rehearsal and tells them every contestant needs a talent.
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