Podcast / The First Podcast

The First Podcast is a weekly surrealist comedy talk show podcast hosted by Lars from Norway, Spaghetto, and Tiege (and, previously, Doplex, Many Kudos, Alexis Keatinge, and Madison Rosenblum).

The first episode, now long since deleted, was released on July 27, 2018. Initial episodes, most of which have since been removed, focused on the personal interactions between the hosts. Beginning with what was originally the ninth episode, the show gradually shifted focus toward guest interviews, a format that would eventually come to dominate the show.

Alexis departed the show in late 2018, with Madison also departing in September 2020, being replaced by Amir (known on YouTube as Doplex). Shortly after, the two would bring on James (Many Kudos) as a third co-host. The latter two left the show in 2021, and the podcast went on hiatus until 2023. Lars brought on a previous guest Spaghetto, and show musician/agent Tiege, as the newest co-hosts.

This show provides examples of:

• Abandoned Catchphrase: "Boom, roasted," for Madison. Behind the scenes, this was apparently due to Lars noting that it was a bit of a comedic crutch. Madison decided to retire it.
• Aborted Arc: Where to begin?
  • Alexis as a co-host was aborted after about two dozen recordings.
  • Madison "attempted" to bring on a possible co-host named Jasmine in an early episode, with her gratuitously bombing the "unplanned" interview during the episode.
  • The hosts stopped doing dramatic readings of My Immortal at an unspecified point when the profane results became less and less marketable. The original plan was to compile them all into a YouTube video, which has thus also been abandoned.
  • Madison was supposed to get a "character arc" during Early-Installment Weirdness, but this was abandoned when the show shifted toward a talk show format.
  • About a dozen or so episode plans, mostly bonus material, will never see the light of day, since Madison has exited the show.
  • The show was headed down a very distinctively chaotic path with Kudos and Amir as co-hosts, before they left.
• A Day in the Limelight: A deleted episode featuring Shirley Raines is an episode in which the hosts decided to simply let the guest tell her story with almost no interjection. As such, the episode became a vessel for a story about a woman helping the homeless, with literally zero gags and only one moment of humor. Lars and Madison considered the format experimental and unusual, albeit in a good way.
• All There in the Manual: The podcast contains tomes of information and a ton of additional gags in the official Fandom for the show. A good amount of "plot development" also occurs on the Discord server.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Lars has described his parents as "tragically unhip" and considers his mother almost too wholesome for life.
  • Spaghetto's parents would later prove to put Lars's to utter shame.
• Ambiguously Gay: Madison (when she was presenting as a man) and Lars, for completely different reasons. The former seemed to get herself into an unusually number of situations where se had to remind the audience that she was a "straight male". The latter has a good amount of metrosexual mannerisms about him, and is the one of the two that would have been most likely Mistaken for Gay in real life.
  • No one is sure exactly who or what TJ is into.
• Amicable Exes: Though it's ambiguous if they were ever actually together, Lars and Alexis seem to be fine around each other as of the latter's latest guest host appearance.
• Anchored Ship: Lars and Alexis, since her departure as a regular host.
• Angrish: Was a common mood for Madison.
• Annoying Background Event: On many early episodes, one of the hosts would begin typing furiously, which disrupts the audio of the episode (usually to the chagrin of Lars).
  • Madison would occasionally trigger this trope in early episodes by eating potato chips while recording.
  • Whenever a plane or car drives by the recording studios, the hosts will rudely chastise them for it (even though they obviously can't hear that).
  • Spaghetto will frequently be attacked/harassed by his cats during recordings, or have to go poop.
• Anti-Humor: Utilized in a very complex, meta manner by all hosts to varying degrees.
• Antiquated Linguistics: A mild example occured occasionally when Madison used a word that begins with the letters "wh", pronouncing them "hw" in a style that is now considered outdated.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Madison: Donald Trump
  • Lars: Nostalgia Critic
  • Amir: Lactose
  • Spahetto: Crows
  • Tiege: The thought of being misunderstood
• Arc Words: Many episode titles are this. After the first few episodes, Lars began a habit of attempting to pull out a phrase or one-liner that accurately presented the motif of the episode, rather than one that directly described its contents. This is usually not done for the YouTube releases, however, due to focusing on clickability.
• Ascended Extra: Ohan, and to a relatively similar extent, Richard. Both were guests who Lars and Madison enjoyed as "friends of the show", and frequently appeared on subsequent episodes as guests hosts in the early era.
  • Amir and Spaghetto were originally listeners of the show who were invited on as a guest twice, and then became a host.
• Ascended Fanboy: TJ ("Tiege"), listener of and friend of the show, eventually became the show's agent, and later full co-host.
• Aside Comment: Was utilized by Madison on rare occasions, but is semi-frequently utilized by Lars in the form of "editor's notes" to explain certain things in post-production.
• Author Appeal: Certain guests were brought on specifically because Lars (and, during her tenure, Madison) likes/liked them as a content creator.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Many early segments, recurring audio gags, and general traditions on the show were highly enjoyable in terms of the final product, but required a high level of difficulty behind the scenes. This unfortunately led to a lot of aborted arcs.
• Bad Liar: Alexis cannot deceive to save her life.
• Bait-and-Switch: Too many examples to even list. Can be considered one of the pillars of the show.
• Beat: An underrated element of comedy on the show, often accentuated on the editing room.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Nearly the entire focus of the show in very early episodes between Lars and Alexis. Seemingly abandoned when Alexis was Put on a Bus, but resurrected in a later episode in which she returned as a guest host.
• Beta Couple: Subverted with Madison and her former partner. For almost a year, they functioned in the background of the show lore as this, with Lars (and, when present, Alexis) left to explore the foibles of being single. Many episodes discussed the lengthy history Madison had with said partner, including future plans of marriage and moving out of state together. One could hardly see the cracks show, though for eagle-eyed listeners, they were very subtly present. About halfway through her arc, however, Madison returned to "ready to mingle" status.
  • Truncated but similarly, Spaghetto had a fiancee for some time during his early tenure, though this would come to an end in late Spring 2023, coinciding with his coming out.
• Berserk Button: Madison had quite an extensive list of them, it would seem, but it was never quite clear what they actually were.
• Big Eater: Ohan. Madison once told a tale of a time the two of them went out to eat, in which Ohan got two large burritos with a nonchalance that suggested this was completely normal for him.
• Big "SHUT UP!": A previous staple of Madison's early repertoire, which mostly disappeared. On one of her last appearances featuring John Swan as a guest, Lars made an Ironic Echo of this.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: Childish, reference-based insults are a favorite of Ohan.
• Black Comedy: The show is absolutely no stranger to this style of humor, at one point having a long discussion with a guest about amusing ways to die when they are of old age.
• Bottle Episode: Later guestless episodes. This is in contrast to the process of procuring, recording with, and releasing the episode for promotion (which is quite involved and can take up to several months). Episodes where the hosts just sit down to blast out a quick and easily editable episode are way easier for the crew.
  • That being said, the hosts try to stray from this format as much as possible, as the episodes with guests are what make the show actually interesting for newcomers.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Done so often that there really isn't much of a fourth wall left.
• Break the Cutie: Enforced in real life for Alexis with a seemingly never-ending series of terrible, terrible dates with the worst people in the world.
• Broken Bird: Alexis, tlthough she certainly smiles through it.
• Bug Buzz: The trope is discussed on an episode with Chelsea Sanders of the Stupid Sequels Podcast, in which the movie Shark Exorcist fails to noise-gate any of this out, much to their annoyance.
• Butt-Monkey: Madison during her tenure (though she did not favor this in his final months), Spaghetto, sometimes TJ, occasionally Ohan, and very rarely, Lars.
• Call-Back: Every moment of every sentence in every episode of The First Podcast may contain this trope. To this day, Lars will sometimes reference even things that happened on the very first episode. This is done by the hosts in an attempt to subtly reward long-term listeners.
• Catchphrase:
  • Madison often introduced himself with an exaggerated and particular "Oh, hello", as a reference to a Kroll Show sketch.
  • Lars has an extremely distinct and nuanced "...Ah!" when listening to guest stories. It has a bit more mustard on it in terms of tonal excess, but not quite enough to sound dubious or condescending.
  • "You heard it here first!" for any of the hosts, when a guest reveals previously private information.
• Censored for Comedy: Occasionally sprinkled in, especially in early episodes.
  • Amir's first favorite gag when he came on the show was the episode with James Miller as a guest, when Lars completely unnecessarily censored the word "gamer" in post.
• Character Development: The persona that Madison adopted on-air evolved drastically over time.
• Chekhov's Gun: If something seems oddly specifically inserted into an episode, there is generally a reason for it later on, sometimes in a subsequent episode.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Alexis pretended to be this on some occasions toward Lars.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Every host.
• Cluster F-Bomb: An early staple of Madison's repertoire, usually downplayed in her later episodes.
  • And then, Spaghetto absolutely puts Madison to shame in terms of his sailor mouth.
• Combat Pragmatist: Lars, though more in the sense of debates and competitions and such.
  • Subverted by Chris. Lars once harshly criticized Chris for apparently playing Call of Duty as a primarily melee-based fighter, likening this practice to the opposite of the Trope Namer.
• Comically Missing the Point: Deliberately invoked in almost every episode for comedy.
• Comical Overreacting: Whenever someone asked Madison about the last time he cried.
• Continuity Nod: Invoked whenever possible, to reward long-term listeners.
• Cool Old Guy: Vijay Lakshman, the creator of The Elder Scrolls and a guest on the show at one point. Lars and Madison considered him to be one, and frequently brought him up on subsequent episodes as being a humble and personable guy.
• Creator In-Joke: While technically full of this, anyone can be in on the joke by listening to the live recordings on Discord; a lot of "throw it in" gags will be very obvious to the listener when they hear the finished product.
• Crossover: A curious example in a one-off episode of The Stupid Sequels Podcast, upon which Lars and Madison were the guests. Lars actually edited this episode, and because of that, the end result more closely resembles an early episode of The First Podcast than an episode of its own show.
• Demoted to Extra: Alexis, out of necessity (her free time not being realistic to keep being a main co-host) and much to the chagrin of Lars and Madison. Still referenced on many early episodes, and still appeared from time to time as a guest host.
  • Though they are unofficially no longer on the show, Doplex and Kudos are officially still considered "guest hosts". Nothing is stopping them from returning for an appearance at any time, and there are plans to do so.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Lars and Alexis. It is left completely ambiguous. Not even Madison knew.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Cranked up to eleven on an episode where Alexis amusingly hears a story from Lars and Madison about the former pouring honey all over the latter's face. The incident in question really was Exactly What It Says on the Tin, but it still plays out as this trope in spades.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Madison.
• Dominatrix: One of the guests, though with completely subverted expectations. Instead of talking about the dominatrix life in any way, the entire episode is devoted to discussing political philosophy and her relationship with someone who later turned out to be major figure of the alt-right.
• Double Acts and Groups: Lars and Madison, during the latter's tenure.
• Dramatic Reading: Many early episodes included dramatic readings of My Immortal.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: A self-dropping by Madison in September 2020 with a sudden announcement that he was leaving in two weeks, shocking the fans (especially on the Discord server).
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The early episodes of the show had a lot of this. In part because of these examples, Madison and Lars chose to take down several of them.
  • There were almost no guest interviews.
  • An additional co-host, Alexis, was prolific.
  • The episodes centered mainly around the lives of the (then three) hosts.
  • Mild profanity was allowed, but more volatile language was censored.
  • Madison was in a long-term relationship with someone, which suddenly became very outdated after an abrupt end to the engagement.
  • Episodes featured frequent dramatic readings of My Immortal. The hosts essentially abandoned this, as it made for exceptionally NSFW episodes.
• Enforced Plug: At least once an episode whenever the show has a sponsor. Done as humorously as possible in the hopes that the listener will tolerate it.
• Establishing Character Moment: Lars on the very first proper moment, and very first joke, of the series (after The Stinger and the intro music). He asked Madison, "As a Jewish person, what do you think..." For some time, Madison was expecting him to continue with a clarification, but he really was just asking her what she thought. As in, in general. This served as a strong showing of the kind of absurd and goofy humor style of the show, with frequent subversions of expectations.
• Ethical Slut: Alexis really gets around, as told on her endless string of bad date stories, but has an incredibly strong code of ethics and morality, more than Lars by a mile and even more than Madison.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Zig-zagged. The show is (intentionally falsely) presented as "the first podcast ever made", which obviously is not true.
• Everyone Has Standards: The reason why Lars no longer made jokes about girls being "too old for Joe" (Madison). While he dismissed criticism that it was an offensive joke to make, as it was clearly tongue-in-cheek, he agreed to curtail usage of it because it could lead to statements being taken out of context (and used against Madison, Lars, or the show in general).
• Fake Loud: Mercifully enforced in the editing room with a fairly strict adherence to a hard-limited -3.0dB volume level. Even if someone is screaming bloody murder into their microphone, it won't usually destroy one's speakers.
• Fan Boy: Lars and Madison, to Death Note.
• Fan Disservice: On an episode where Alexis is extremely sick, Lars made a point of not only not editing out her nose-blowing moments, but amplifying them to all hell.
  • While most podcasts edit out throat clearing and coughing, this show often exaggerates them.
• Flashback... Back... Back...: Many early episodes have a "rewind gag" with the same stock sound effect, although they almost never actually flash back, instead inserting random unrelated audio from some other media.
• Foreshadowing: On the original very first episode of the show, Madison mentioned that one of her dream guests would be Josh Newman, a former California State Senator who he felt was set up for a recall. Note: He was right, and quickly became re-elected. At least half a year later, this is exactly who they interviewed.
  • An April Fool's Day joke episode was released in 2020 stating that Madison was "leaving the show over creative differences", unintentionally foreshadowing this actually happening later in the year.
• Funny Background Event: A favorite editing trick of Lars, when he is able to layer certain audio gags in the background that the audience may catch. Since it's an audio podcast, he doesn't get the opportunity as often as he would like, but he runs with it whenever possible.
• Gag Series: Pretty much.
• Genre Shift: From romantic comedy to talk show.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Alexis accused Lars of this at one point when he feigned disinterest in her latest bad date story.
• Hand Wave: The reason for Alexis's absence was given as "medical leave" due to a "sea witch" stealing her voice.
• Hates Being Touched: Lars, though with very specific context. He enjoys physical contact with women he dates or sleeps with, but definitely isn't big on touch overall.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": Once in a while if a guest, for some reason, says the number 69, Lars and (formerly) Madison make an exaggeratingly juvenile observation about that being "the sex number".
• Hero of Another Story: Richard, also known as "Game Master Richard Quiner" on YouTube.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Lars and Madison, during the latter's tenure, when she was presenting as male.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Common outcome for Madison when she would try to set up a gag/prank against Lars.
• Homoerotic Subtext: On Alexis's last guest host appearance, the "honey story" could be easily interpreted this way between Lars and Madison (when the latter was, at the time, presenting as male). Ironically, the story refers to an innocuous moment involving actual honey.
• Hypocritical Humor: While not the majority of jokes, a strong minority of jokes on the show are intentionally hypocritical.
• Initiation Ceremony: The original first two episodes of the podcast were auditions for the co-hosts to be a member of the show. Amir's first episode, number 148, was also technically an audition for him.
• Instant Turn-Off: Lars and Alexis go from 60 to 0 when it comes to any potential suitor, if they learn that the latter is a Trump supporter.
• Insult Backfire: Frequently when Madison would toss one at Lars. Explained on an episode with Ohan, in which Madison's persona as the "dorky guy" makes most insults he delivers tend to backfire.
• Jackhammered Conversation: Utilized occasionally to "censor" something.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Invoked for comedic value, moreso during the beginning. If a guest seemed taken aback by a withering barb that Lars or Madison lobbed at one another, said other would be quick to point out if the jab they just made was, at the end of the day, true.
• Jewish Complaining: An early staple of Madison's repertoire.
• Lampshade Hanging: First a gag is done legitimately. Then a gag is lampshaded. Then a gag is abandoned. Then a gag is resurrected in a bizarre postmodern form. Wash, rinse, repeat.
• Literal Metaphor: Lars's middle name (Danger). He actually changed it to this; such a process is rather easy to do in California, believe it or not.
• Left It In: Done frequently, starting on the original very first episode with a loud throat-clearing that Lars said he would edit out.
• "London, England" Syndrome: Madison occasionally had problems with this. One infamous example is her thinking Stockholm is located in Germany.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Lars's "Jesus era", referenced on the show but occurring before the show, during a time when he grew his hair out to shoulder length and lost a lot of weight.
• Long-Runner Cast Turnover: Madison's departure and replacement with Amir came after two whole years of production and almost 150 episodes.
  • Amir and Kudos leaving after episode 183 was similarly long into the show's tenure.
• Love Triangle: Jokingly invoked during an early episode, where joke "host" Randy is stated to get in the middle of Lars and Alexis.
• Manipulative Bastard: Lars and Madison, for somewhat different reasons.
  • Later episodes of the show had Lars start cranking this up to eleven.
• Manipulative Editing: Purposefully and overtly done for comedy.
• Meaningful Name: The title of the show is, in itself, a gag. As the podcast began in 2018, it obviously isn't "the first podcast", as in the first one ever created.
• Medium Awareness: All the hosts possess this in spades.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: Subverted by Lars. His middle name is actually Danger.
• Mind Screw: Subtle or overt examples of this occur in literally every episode.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • Listening to the show as it comes out does not generally produce this trope. However, if the listener chooses to instead binge-consume the podcast, there are occasionally severe differences in tone and mood from episode to episode. In one example, the show takes a hard turn from a serious political conspiracy discussion to a goofy interview of a small D&D YouTuber the next episode.
• Ms. Fanservice: Alexis, and how! Many listeners may not be aware of this, due to the audio format.
• Never My Fault: Guest Luke, from the aptly named YouTube channel unusual videos, explained that his channel name comes from him being an example of this trope.
• Nice Guy: Lars, outside of banter with Madison and the occasional light-hearted jab toward a guest, is a genuinely nice dude.
• Non-Indicative First Episode: Other than perhaps a vague similarity in sense of humor, the original first episode of the podcast would give the listener absolutely zero expectations of future genre, the format, or the hosts present.
• Non-Indicative Name: The show title.
  • An early deleted episode was called "Climbing Skyscrapers with Joe Biden". Biden is not on the episode.
  • On an episode with DJ Chuck None, they discussed a hypothetical podcast called "The Obamacast", which would humorously not feature Barack Obama.
• Noodle Incident: That time Lars went over to Alexis's place late one night.
• Now, Buy the Merchandise: Played straight on many episodes, though in a humorous way.
• Odd Friendship: Played with. Lars and Madison, during the latter's tenure, could have been seen as this by a newcomer to the podcast, as they had wildly contrasting personalities. However, the clashing personalities were purposefully cranked up to eleven for the sake of comedy.
• Older Than They Look: Lars and Alexis are in their early thirties. TJ is in his very late twenties. Richard is in his mid-thirties.
• Once an Episode: An early staple of the show was that, during almost every guest interview, the hosts would posit at least one hypothetical question.
• Only Sane Man: On episodes with the unpredictable Madison and the aloof Ohan, Lars often found himself in the middle, desperately trying to hold things together.
• Overly Long Gag: In one episode with Ohan, Lars stretched out a moment of the former saying "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." for forty-eight seconds. The end result sounds like some sort of decaying flight vehicle and is truly bizarre, even for this podcast.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Lars, Madison and even Alexis would occasionally invoke this trope by very specifically explaining how they are washing their hands of something that was said by a co-host.
• Our Slogan Is Terrible: "The First Podcast. One of many podcasts." Voice acted by Marieve Herington, of all people.
• Overused Running Gag: The duck question: "For two billion dollars, would you spend the next 4300 years as a series of ducks?" The hosts ran this question into the ground.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: There are a lot, like a lot a lot, of pop culture references that Lars makes on episodes which, while he isn't expecting them to per se, most people won't catch or understand.
  • Ohan and Spaghetto are particularly bad at picking up references.
• Postmodernism: Especially on episodes without guests, "What is a show?" is something of a running theme.
• Precision F-Strike: For a show that otherwise has no qualms with frequent vulgarity, Lars has noted slight discomfort with using more volatile language like "fuck" on air due to the wholesome fact that his mother often listens to the show. When Lars uses the F-word, it's for a poignant reason.
• Put on a Bus: About two months in, Alexis suddenly disappeared from her regular hosting duties. The show later mentioned that this was due to real-life scheduling complications, and that she was welcome back on whenever her time allowed.
• Radio Voice: Voicemail clips that the hosts listen to on-air are sometimes intentionally processed in this way for consistency.
• Retcon: While the earlier episodes of the show are not explicitly abandoned in terms of memes and lore, the format of these episodes is essentially disregarded by the hosts. In a sense, the show has been "retconned" as a talk show instead of a romantic comedy.
• Revisiting the Roots: A later episode with the return of Alexis is a stylistic throwback to the early episode format.
• Rimshot: Inserted for comedic purposes here and there.
• Rule of Funny: Invoked and even cranked up to eleven when appropriate.
  • Later episodes of the show have Lars completely abandoning any sense of consistency, reasoning, or common sense if doing so will lead to something funny, such as including Billie Eilish in a list of "celebrities with one name".
• Rule of Three: Broken by Madison, frequently, with the "awkward fourth" joke on a row.
• Running Gag: There are oh so many.
  • In early episodes, Madison would react with angry "Jewish rage" in response to something Lars has said, usually in the form of telling him to "shut up", followed by an over-the-top apology.
  • Madison's sexual orientation, during her tenure, would be questioned for no particular reason.
  • Lars would also attempt to surreptitiously convince the guests to ask Madison about the last time she cried.
  • The hosts will intentionally misunderstand a term in order to initiate a "rewind gag", in which the podcast is supposedly "rewound" to discover what was actually said. Instead, Lars inserts a random clip from some other media for the sake of absurdity.
  • The hosts will often note that the guest should be answering all questions "as if their life depended on it".
  • The hosts will forget to do an ad read for the sponsor, and have to insert one in post production.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Played for laughs on several episodes during Madison's tenure, where Lars would notice the current "state" of the show, often with Madison behaving in an extremely cringeworthy manner, and contemplate quitting it altogether.
• Self-Deprecation: Generally subverted by Lars, which is somewhat unexpected for the format of the show. He only employs this trope when he thinks it will make something unusually funny.
• Shipper on Deck: Madison, for Lars and Alexis. Lars, for Ohan and Kirsten Collins. Chris, for Lars and Laura Bailey.
• Ship Tease: The entire story arc of Lars and Alexis in early episodes, as well as articles on the official Wikia of the podcast.
• Show Within a Show: Nebraska Coeds, a semi-fictional series within the First Podcast universe. Inspired by a real-life series called "Nebraska Coeds", Madison utilized the name in a surreal way by pretending that it was a legitimate film series resembling the arc structure of Star Wars.
• Signature Sound Effect: Though initially added as a stock sound effect, the specific sound[1] used for the "rewind gag" is something of a signature sound effect for the show, due to consistent and insistent usage of it each time.
• Sixth Ranger: Ohan, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Richard, during the early episodes. Both were recurring guest hosts.
  • Ricepirate, a fan-favorite recurring guest that they throw in whenever possible.
• Sound Defect: The show is recorded on Discord. Not every guest has the most reliable internet connection. Thus, once in a while a guest will unfortunately drop out of the call in a humorous-sounding manner, which will be laughed about by the hosts.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Used extensively in earlier episodes to censor harsh cursing such as "fuck", but also to censor information a host or guest deemed unacceptable for inclusion in the episode. In later episodes, the former was dropped, though the latter is occasionally used.
• Stalker with a Crush: A non-sexual example in Lars, toward the track "Beach" from the video game Plok.
• Stock Scream: The Wilhelm Scream. This is a Justified Trope, as it is only ever utilized when said scream itself is actually referenced.
• Stylistic Suck: Infrequent but humorously used, especially on episodes without a guest.
• Surreal Humor: Pervades almost every second of every episode.
• The Cameo: "And I'm Nick Bertke. I'm not actually here right now. This is just a gag that I've pre-recorded."
  • Also, the first guest episode with Nick himself that preceded this gag. The hosts have noted the humorously disproportionate fame of their first guest, in comparison to their status as an extremely small podcast.
• The Bus Came Back: Alexis and Madison made guest appearances long after their last days as a co-host.
• The Chessmaster: Lars in the editing room. There are long-form gags still in the works to this day that will eventually pay off.
• The Faceless: Lars. While every other co-host and guest host is something of a frequent picture-taker, the former just isn't fond of taking photographs of himself, citing that he feels he is not photogenic.
• The Stinger: Several episodes do contain extra material after the outro music.
• The Teaser: Every single episode begins with a cold open. Sometimes this includes statements that are humorous of their own accord, while other times they contain gags that pay off later in the episode.
• The Voiceless: Randy was the metaphysical embodiment of an additional host with views the hosts consider deplorable. Earlier episodes relied on references to Randy far more, with later episodes entirely abandoning the concept.
• Theme Tune: An original piece by musician Tiege.
• Torment by Annoyance: Madison often asked guests about their luggage preferences, annoying Lars as he considered the subject material incredibly dry.
• Viewers Are Morons: Invoked, but only for comedy. For example, Lars will occasionally over-explain a joke that required zero explanation.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Played up for laughs on the show during Madison's tenure. Lars and Madison were much more agreeable toward each other in real life, at least during her tenure.
• Wacky Sound Effect: While not utilized every episode, this is a very frequent gag.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Often invoked and exaggerated in the editing room.
• Wham Episode: Occasionally, the show will take a hard turn into serious territory, featuring guests like a former State Senator involved in a lawsuit alleging that he was ousted for dirty reasons.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Many early plotlines are this, but perhaps most prominent concerns the regular Dramatic Reading instances of My Immortal. The hosts have noted that they still enjoy doing these readings, but they are simply not commercially friendly.
• Will They or Won't They?: Played up extensively in early episodes between Lars and former co-host Alexis, with her second episode appearance practically planting the entire "rom com" seed.
• Writer on Board: Occasionally utilized in the editing room by Lars, almost always for comedic effect, even if it is a bit overly charitable to him.
• Writer's Block: One of the secondary motivations for switching to a talk show format; Lars and Madison were simply having trouble coming up with new ideas for episodes by themselves.