Tripping the Rift

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Left to right: T'Nuk, Gus, Chode, Six, Whip

Tripping The Rift is a computer-animated sci-fi parody created by Chris Moeller and Chuck Austen (of "The Draco" infamy) in 1998 as a short film released on the Internet. The film gained popularity, especially after being shown on the Sci Fi Channel, and was made into a television series in 2004.

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This show provides examples of:

• All CGI Cartoon
• Ambiguously Gay: Gus. In Season One, at least. Season Two, however...
• Beauty Contest: "Miss Galaxy 5000"
• Big Bad: Darph Bobo
• Bigger Than Jesus: In the episode "Cool Whip", Whip becomes an instant celebrity on a planet where the king proclaims him "Bigger than Jesus" but not The Beatles. Though he learns that he is going to be hunted and mounted.
• Catch Phrase
• Class Reunion
• Couch Gag: The different phrases shouted by Spaceship Bob during the opening credits.
• Cross Dresser: Chode dresses like a hooker in "Nature vs. Nurture" to hide from peasants with Torches and Pitchforks.
• Decapitation Presentation: In "God Is Our Co-Pilot", Six beheads T'Nuk.
• The Empire
• Expy: Darph Bobo is an Expy of Darth Vader
  • Darph Bobo's Clown Troopers are Expy's of the Stormtroopers while the name is a play on clone troopers
  • Gus is an Expy of C-3PO
  • The Confederation are Expys of Star Trek, complete with SEVERAL Expys of Captain Kirk at various stages of his career.
• Fantastic Voyage Plot - the season 2 episode, "Honey, I Shrunk the Crew"
• The Federation
• Fan Service: Six
• Fiery Redhead: The 50-foot giantess from "Creaturepalooza"
• Five-Man Band
  • The Hero: Chode
  • The Lancer/The Big Guy: T'Nuk
  • The Smart Guy: Six
  • The Chick: Gus
  • Tagalong Kid: Whip
• Flanderization - A little bit with Six, but the biggest example here, is Gus. He went from being a not-exceptionally-masculine bot with some ambiguously gay tendencies to his stereotypically gay characteristics being the sole definition of his character, kinda like the Larry 3000 on Time Squad, only not as toned down, since Tripping The Rift isn't a children's cartoon.
• Gag Boobs: Spamela Anderslut, a rather savage parody of Pamela Anderson, from the planet Titius Maximus. Her breasts are so big that she actually needs a specialized device just to carry them around. They even end up leading her downfall: just as she was about to win the "Miss Galaxy 5000" pageant, T'Nuk purposefully kicks her device out of the way, causing Spamela to fall and injure herself under the weight off her own breasts.
• Girls Behind Bars: "Six, Lies and Videotape."
• God - from the series premiere "God is Our Copilot" and the season 2 episode, "Chode's Near-Death Experience".
• God Is Evil - Well... a grade-A Jerkass at any rate.
• God and Satan Are Both Jerks - To Chode at least. They don't want him in Heaven and Hell, so they each try to get him to go to the opposite side.
• The Greys
• Gainaxing: ANY female with a noticeable chest (which is pretty much every female on the show), but Six is the one who is noticed the most.
• Hello, Nurse!: Surprise, surprise; Six.
• Het Is Ew: One episode had a planet with this as its hat.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Six
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Whip in "Cool Whip"
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: Six, Babette and really just about any female character that's supposed to be attractive is drawn with large breasts, equally wide hips and a waist that looks nowhere wide enough to be in between the two former.
• Jury of the Damned: "The Devil and a Guy named Webster"
• Les Yay: On the first episode "God is Our Copilot" When Chode and Gus kill God and they find that the world has changed because of it, they discover that Six and T'nuk are a lesbian couple.
  • In "You Wanna Put That Where?" Fabulous Heaven has lesbian couples and Six and T'nuk pose as one (with Six merely wearing an "I'm With Butch" T-shirt and mini-skirt and T'nuk wearing a women's softball uniform).
  • In "Six, Lies, & Videotapes", T'nuk is dressed like a butch cop (Rosie O'Donnell) and put her hand inside Six's butt for a cavity search. Six gasp in a mix of shock, pain, and ecstasy.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: A variation of it. The crew encounter a crooked stripper named Haffa Dozen, whom Six was modeled after. Six wasn't created as a fantasy girl by nerds as Gus always assumed.
• Meaningful Name: The confederation captain's son apparently has a future in Law Enforcement.
• Meaningful Sdrawkcab Name: T'nuk.
• Ms. Fanservice: Six is literally made of this trope.
• The Monolith: "2001 Space Idiocies"
• Monster Clown: Darph Bobo and everyone else in the Clown Federation
• Mooks: Clown Troopers
• Near-Death Experience: Chode's Near Death Experience
• Not So Different: Chode and Philbrick.
• The Nudifier
• Prince and Pauper: "Nature vs. Nurture"
• Puppy Dog Eyes
• Religious Robot: The robots justify their belief in God by stating:

Gus: If we didn't believe in God, we'd have to worship the engineering dweebs who designed us Six: And frankly, the God I pray to doesn't need acne medicine and chronically masturbate.

• Reset Button: Lampshaded by Chode at the end of The Need For Greed
• Ret-Gone
• Reunion Revenge
• Ridiculously-Human Robots: Six in spades. Though she doesn't age, she DOES need to breathe.
• Roswell That Ends Well
• Sapient Ship: The space ship was both sapient and afraid of wide open spaces...
• Satan
• Sex Bot: Six
  • And this will give you an idea of the caliber of the crew on this ship: She doubles as the ship's science officer, because she's STILL the most intelligent and best educated member of the crew, INCLUDING the ship's built-in AI.
• Shout-Out: To EVERYTHING.
• Show Some Leg
• The Slacker: Whip
• Stealth Pun: Six (of One, "half a dozen of the other")
• Stripperiffic: Pretty much anything Six wears. Even the sweatsuit she had on in "God Is Our Co-Pilot" when she and T'nuk were a lesbian couple becomes stripperiffic just by virtue of having her in it.
• Take That: "Did anyone care that they canceled Enterprise?"
• Team Mom: Six tends to fall into this, being the only member of the crew with any sense of responsibility or compassion.
• Thank the Maker
• The Other Darrin: Six, twice. She went from Gina Gershon, to Carmen Electra, to Jenny McCarthy.
  • Three times if you count the Internet short.
    • Or four, if you count the one time they aired the short in Sci Fi and Terry Farrell redubbed Six's lines.
  • Lampshaded on the interior of the DVD jacket, where Chode mentions that he changes her voice every so often. And by Bob in one of the couch gag openings, saying something along the lines of "Who's voicing Six this season?"
• Too Dumb to Live: Doesn't the Jupiter 42 have a shuttlecraft? So when you're conscripted to find the commander of the Confederation and have 24 hours until an earwig eats your brain (think Escape from New York), wouldn't it be a good idea to USE THAT to find who you're looking for, rather than waste all your time wandering around on the surface of a planet infested with dangerous B-movie monsters?
• Transparent Closet: Gus
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Chode is in an active relationship with Six. Basically, a short, fat, purple, multi-eyed alien, manages to get with an incredibly hot space-babe.
  • Isn't that mostly cuz Six is a sex-bot that he stole.
    • And reprogramed as the science officer. That's the important part, she likes him because he gave her a purpose beyond nerd fantasy.
    • Also he treats her with respect. Well, not respect, but as close to respect as Chode is capable of.
  • Also since the universe is big there are plenty of species who actually consider Chode the attractive one and Six ugly
• Universal Universe Time
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Chode