Three in The Afternoon

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Three in The Afternoon, and its sequel, Six In The Morning, are elaborate Web Original Star Wars-inspired shorts, hosted on YouTube and starring Travis Boles, Jonathan Pruitt, and Corey Gray. Highlights of the two movies include excellent lightsaber effects and fights, and a surprisingly decent continuity and plot. A third movie is due to be released sometime nonspecific in the future.

The plot is kicked off by the three receiving a suitcase that contains three lightsabers - after testing them and finding out that they're real, they go to a nearby tennis court in the dead of night to test them out, but then they find out that they're not the only ones with lightsabers. It only gets worse in Six In The Morning, when it turns out that Lucas and his massive empire are planning to sell lightsabers to the entire world.

Three In The Afternoon is here, and Six In The Morning is here and continued here. Also, they have a website here.

Tropes used in Three in The Afternoon include:
  • Affectionate Parody
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: "You are so badass."
  • Anti-Hero: Corey, after the events of the first movie.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: It's not explained how the lightsabers work.
  • Artifact of Doom: Lightsabers.
  • Author Avatar: The three leads are playing themselves, but with lightsabers. In Corey's case, there's also some elements of Darker and Edgier.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: The Hasbro guy, despite being overweight and by all appearances out of shape, is nonetheless very handy with sabers.
  • Badass Longcoat: Travis would seem to be a subtle parody of this - he goes around wearing a bathrobe. According to one of his foes, it "smells."
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The first short is a humorous lightsaber skit, but the second pushes it into more serious territory.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Some of the lightsabers have adjustable color. Corey wastes no time changing over to red, and Travis uses the standard Jedi green and blue. The Hasbro guy has an orange lightsaber, too.
    • Subversions abound, though - Jonathon wields an orange blade, and the trio of girls in the first movie wield red lightsabers at first. In Six In The Morning, the girl's green lightsaber contradicts her Face Heel Turn at the end.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: The Hasbro guy. It's also been heavily implied that George Lucas himself is one of these.
  • The Danza: All the main characters are named after their actors.
  • Deconstruction: Of the innumerable lightsaber duel videos on YouTube, and also of the general nerd attitude toward lightsabers. The comedic aspect of the series aside, it's a fairly realistic representation of what might actually happen.
    • Also, in Three In The Afternoon, Travis takes a minute to comment on the weightless nature of a lightsaber's blade: namely, that the lack of a counterbalance stops it from acting like a normal sword.
  • Development Hell: Nine in The Evening was teased at the end of Six in The Morning, way back in '07. They're currently gathering funds and props (the story concerns an entire truckload of lightsabers)
  • The Dragon: Subverted. The CCE's "Cop" buddy enforcer does what is expected of a typical Dragon; e.g. look intimidating, throw weight around, and add certainty to threats. When the fighting breaks out however, he not only exclusively focuses on Corey but is disarmed and easily knocked out by a hit to the back of the head. The Big Bad, on the other hand, can take on three attackers at once without breaking a sweat.
  • Evil Counterparts: Subverted by the trio of girls in the first movie.
  • Face Heel Turn: Corey, not just once but twice. And a girl from the first movie, too.
  • Fat Bastard: The Hasbro guy.
  • Foreshadowing
  • Freudian Trio: Travis is superego, Corey is id, and Jonathan seems to fall into the ego role.
  • Genre Savvy: Travis and Jonathan.
  • Implausible Fencing Powers: Subverted. For the most part, the characters don't use their lightsabers very effectively, as is realistic for a bunch of nerds. The Hasbro guy demonstrates this trope when he fights, but he's had months of experience.
  • Jerkass: Corey in Six In The Morning, big time.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Jonathon indulges in this near the end of Six In The Morning.
  • Last-Name Basis: Jonathon gets called Pruitt a lot.
  • Nerd: The protagonists.
  • Patrick Stewart Speech: Travis enjoys these, but his friends usually ignore them, and his enemies blow him off.
  • The Power of Friendship: Travis believes very strongly in this. Other characters seem to fall further on the cynical side of the sliding scale.
  • Rule of Cool: In full effect, of course, but it gets lovingly poked at just as often.
  • Sequel Hook: Both the movies so far have ended with these.
  • Shout-Out: Quite a few.
    • Corey's "This is my lightsaber" speech, a takeoff on the Marines' "This is my rifle" Badass Creed.
    • R2-D2 appears for a few seconds in Three In The Afternoon, at the back of a shot.
  • Smug Snake: The Hasbro guy.
  • Took a Level In Badass: Corey, who also took the opportunity to multiclass to Jerkass at the same time.
  • Twist Ending
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Corey gets called out in the second movie on his general Jerkass behavior.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Travis.
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