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Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Crowning Moment of Funny: James Caan becomes mesmorized by Matthew "spazzness".
    • Mr. James doing a public reading of his Recursive Translation autobiography. (See entry below for quotes.)
  • Crazy Awesome: Jimmy; the man's house is named "Fort Awesome". What more do you want?
  • Flanderization: Jimmy got goofier, Matthew got dumber, Bill got crazier, Dave got bitterer, Lisa got more neurotic, and Joe's fondness for inventions became Gilligan's Island-esque in scope.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: Phil Hartman's last scene on the show before he was murdered made light of the apparent death of one of his fellow cast members.
    • The entire series is one long funny aneurysm moment. There are multiple references to violent deaths and crazy girlfriends. Including but not limited to; "You're just like Linda, EXCEPT CRAZY!", "Does it involve a gun with a built-in mouth piece?", "She tried to set fire to my hair while I slept. As if that wasn't bad enough, two weeks later she breaks up with me.", an episode ends with him realizing that a stalker has cut the brake line of his car, a psychic tells him he WILL live a ridiculously long time. Jokes about the death of other characters are far and few between. [The example mentioned above about Dave, two references to Jimmy jumping out the window, in the dreams episode, and in the episode where he is in a fight with Beth.]
    • Somewhat subverted in the extremely weird episodes "Space" and "Sinking Ship" where everyone dies except for Bill and Matthew.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Jon Stewart, Patton Oswalt, Ben Stiller, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk all made guest appearances of varying importance on the show before they were more widely known.
  • Seasonal Rot: Some say it's because Jon Lovitz was a poor substitute for Phil Hartman. Others say that too many years of being Screwed by the Network had begun to take its toll on the staff's creativity. Whatever the case, it's pretty much agreed that the fifth and final season was inferior to the ones that came before it.
  • Shipping Bed Death: Subverted
  • Tear Jerker: "Bill Moves On." For the cast as well as the audience. To expand on: they had to keep re-shooting scenes because the cast members kept breaking down in tears they were so distraught at Phil's death.
  • They Just Didn't Care: All of the Aborted Arcs. Started with a great deal of prominence - only to quickly drop off the radar. Understandable in that the writers were forced to start them in the first place by the network. They abandoned them once the pressure was off.

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