Team Fortress 2/Supplemental Material

Cross-media

 * Author Avatar: Many of the items are credited in supplemental material to "TF Industries", based in the same place as Valve.
 * Follow the Leader - H.A.V.E. Online/Microvolts, a Korean free-to-play game, has a trailer that shares a lot of similarities to the "Meet the X" videos. Gameplay itself is actually different (it's third person, there are no classes - only customizing weapons and appearance, it's got more in common with Unreal Tournament or GunZ: The Duel), but there's still a lot it owes to TF2 (giblets and the weapons).
 * Final Combat is a much more shameless one.
 * Brink is partially this. Also to Modern Warfare as well.
 * Monday Night Combat is fairly obvious in taking inspiration from TF2.
 * Ripped from the Headlines: The weekend before "Meet The Spy" was released, it was accidentally leaked due to a loophole in YouTube privacy settings not being applied to devices like the iPhone. In response, Valve added a gag about it to the video itself (and asked users to "Act surprised" when officially releasing the video), created an "achievement" for themselves screwing up, and posted a series of blog posts about Robin Walker firing every employee in the company that continued into the next day's announcement and even crossed over to the Left 4 Dead blog. (which is an in-joke: the L4D dev team is also composed of people from the TF2 dev team) It came to the point where people started to put "leaked" in quotes under the belief that Valve had planned it all along.

The TF2 Blog
"Administrator: [Re: the Propaganda art contest] I must grudgingly admit an astonishing amount of talent on display. I hasten to add, however, that I find it astonishing only because, in observing how you comport yourselves in-game, on the forums, and presumably in your day-to-day lives, one would be forgiven for assuming you bereft of the cognitive skills needed to operate a mailbox.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: The Broken Base over the hats was mocked in a fictional Dev Diary where a wide-eyed young programmer designs a brilliant and balanced tenth class, only for his entire idea to be scrapped because there were no hats.
 * Evil Overlooker: The RED team fill this role on this poster.
 * Expospeak Gag: Commenting on the first prize winner for the propaganda contest, the team wrote that "It's funny, it looks great, and it makes us want to kick a Demoman in an extremely precise area (that the bean counters won't let us mention because they're all such huge extremely precise areas)."
 * Fourth Wall Mail Slot: The Administrator/Announcer, the Soldier and Saxton Hale have all posted on the TF2 blog. Also the Heavy, who replaced the Soldier when he was on jury duty:

Soldier: This is the problem with the youth of today: too much time inventing nonsense words, not enough time taking a bullet in the lung defending a hill. I don't have to know what the hell twitters and texting and body sprays are to understand that they're not the sort of thing men should be engaged in. Like conversations, or painting things that aren't a house.

Saxton Hale: First, let me [/] COMMEND [ ] SWEAR VIGOROUSLY AT you..."

"BUT THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL... was inside you all along. It's blood! Turns out you can sell it! See you at the plasma center! Merry Smissmas, everybody!"
 * Going so far as to have an actual mail slot, during several of the larger content patches and updates for the game there would be order forms for the in-game items that players could print out and send to Mann Co. These people would then get an invoice from Saxton Hale stating that the item they requested is out of stock, but something else was usually thrown in with the letter (a Scout keychain for the FAN order form, and a picture of Saxton Hale if the coupon was sent during the Sniper vs. Spy update).
 * Funny Foreigner: This announcement of the announcement of The Ambassador. Australians in general, both in-universe in the comics and in the blog.
 * It Was with You All Along: Parodied here.

"" 'Wait, which holiday?' you may be wondering. "Australian Christmas? Or Smissmas?" Both! Read this comic to find out what happens when holidays collide! Two special days enter the squared circle! ONLY ONE LEAVES!""
 * Large Ham: Whoever's posting as the TF2 Team. From one of the Smissmas updates:

""All the signs are there. When you kill a man, you can actually see his last breath hanging in the chill mid-November pre-specialness air. Turkeys have retreated to their bunkers in a vain attempt to weather the upcoming onslaught of holidays devoted to gleeful turkey slaughter. And are those sleighbells we hear? Because our legal department assures us they aren't. That's right, TFers. It's beginning to look a lot like an upcoming holiday our legal department won't let us mention, but that rhymes with 'Smissmas'.""
 * Noodle Incident: It appears that the TF2 development team are so mired in disaster that they're on a first name basis with the police, the fire department and "the nasal extraction emergency response team at Overlake Hospital".
 * The last nasal extraction emergency involved someone with a peanut M&M lodged up their nose, mentioned in an attempt to explain the delay of the Heavy update.
 * Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: This blog post.

"January 17, 2012 - "Did not update the localization files"
 * Overly Narrow Superlative: Used to describe the many honorable mentions in the Propaganda contest.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: A week after the exploding doves were added in-game in June 2011, the TF2 blog got an...interesting makeover. Clicking the doves above the game logo revealed concept art from the then-upcoming "Meet the Medic".
 * Political Correctness Gone Mad: See Our Lawyers Advised This Trope above.
 * Running Gag: Lately, whoever is writing the game's patch notes must be tired of writing the same "Updated the localization files":

February 9, 2012 - "Lokalisierungsdateien aktualisiert": "Updated the localization files" in German

February 14, 2012 - "Hcqngrq gur ybpnyvmngvba svyrf": rot13 transforms to "Updated the localization files"

February 23, 2012 - "언어 파일 업데이트": "Updated the localization files" in Korean

March 1, 2012 - "Arquivos de localização atualizados": "Updated localization files" in Portuguese

March 15, 2012 - A QR code that translates to "Updated the localization files"

March 28, 2012 - "Did not update the localization files that did not need updating""

""For instance, one playtester thought the Pyro was a little scary, so we’ll probably remove him as a class. Someone else swore he remembered reading something about somebody getting hurt by a gun once. And that sounded scary. So probably no more guns, either. Then Dracula called from the hospital. 'Hey guys,' he said, 'hats are pretty scary.' Well, now, that must have been the morphine talking. So we’re adding more hats just to be safe.""
 * The TF2 Team also like mentioning Dracula.
 * Selective Enforcement: The Halloween 2011 blog post states that the development team decided to take the scares out of the Halloween event, although they make an exception regarding hats.

""All you ever do is disappoint and betray me! Cheating! Stealing! Friend-making!""
 * Self-Deprecation: After the leaking of "Meet The Spy" from Valve's YouTube account, Valve unlocked the corporate achievement Welcome to the internets: Fail to understand what 'Private' means on YouTube.
 * In one post on the TF2 blog, the Administrator describes the TF2 team as "goldbricking simpletons ... picking chiggers out of one another's hair". Robin Walker was depicted as a crazed megalomaniac after the leaked video (See above in Ripped from the Headlines) and often as a Cloudcuckoolander with strange Australian ways; animator Matthew Russell was accused of laziness in the post about fixing the Scout's "Crazy Legs". Then there's the saga of the Sandvich video...
 * Serious Business: The 'A Week in the Life of the TF2 Team' blog post has it claim the developers are pretty big on hats; less a development team than a hat-obsessed cult.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Parodied in the post about Halloween 2011.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: How Valve counteracts Internet Backdraft to new features that are far outside the realm of anything in the game before:
 * When revealing that the Heavy's final unlockable weapon was in fact a sandwich, Valve prepared a video and a purchasable poster celebrating it.
 * They later lampshaded this, saying that they'd originally claimed that the video would be "our magnum opus," "over four hours long" and "make Citizen Kane look like something dumb a complete idiot would make."
 * Before revealing that they were not kidding and that the Sniper's final unlockable item would be throwing jars of his own urine, they had the then-recently-introduced and fan-embraced Memetic Badass Saxton Hale, Australian CEO, encourage players before reading to take a solemn oath that they utterly and wholly endorsed every aspect of what lied on the next page, which featured a crude, Charles Atlas-esque comic detailing the origins of Jarate.
 * Stab the Sky: The Heavy in the "Battle Of Both Worlds" poster.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: The patchnotes for the July 29th, 2011 update read "Definitely did not add cheats for upcoming Free-2-Play Invitational Cup." One assumes they added cheats for the upcoming Free-2-Play invitational Cup. Especially since Valve has a history of cheating when it's most hilarious.
 * Take That: The dev team seems very aware of how broken their base is, and enjoys poking fun at people who yell about hats, or about "disappointing" updates. One of the more hilarious digs was the Classless Update. The first page of it was basically a long love letter to hats, calling them the ultimate status symbol, and explaining how having a hat made you better than everyone else. Each page also said something like "100% free!" "STILL free!" or "Holy crap! Better than expensive! It's free!"
 * One of the Administrator's War Update-Foreshadowing voice files:


 * Also, the page that shows us the Crafting System tells us to "say goodbye to those enjoyable evenings spent complaining on the forums about which item in your inventory was the most useless, spraying anti-Australian racist hate speech all over Robin Walker, his lovely wife, and his beautiful children." They also mention that anyone who loves all the weapons in TF2 is a "quiet minority", who could at least balance out the whingeing with a few nice posts.
 * The page prior to that has some jokes hidden in the blackboard, most notably DROP=Infinity* (Robot/(1-Cat.3)) and Fire=Q^2 or QQ.
 * In the comic for the WAR! Update, the Demoman's mother scolds him for his idleness.
 * One blog post uses a line from the Sniper for its title:"Thanks for standin' still, wanker!" It's about changes to the drop system and how these changes kill idling.
 * Teasing Creator: See Take That.
 * Unsound Effect: "Sound of Blog Post Being Posted", Lampshading the user forum's paranoia regarding updates.
 * Writers Suck:
 * The post about "Meet the Sandvich" explains that their draft was the script of Predator with the script of Road House in the middle. When this was rejected, the entire video was improvised by the voice actors, and the only lines added by the writers were stolen from those two films and The Simpsons.
 * When the dev team confront the writers with questions about how the Mac Update comic fits into the TF2 world, the writers take fright, shuffle their feet and make "a frantic search through the internet for fancy excuse words" before declaring it non-Canon. The Engineer Update story is apparently intended to fill "a canon-shaped void in the lives of TF2's biggest story fans — our writers".
 * You Have Failed Me: The Administrator posts on the TF2 Blog when players cheat... repeatedly. Even during the War of December 2009. And when people end up stealing stuff.

Update Pages and Comics

 * Cerebus Syndrome: Zig-Zagged. While many update comics feature absurdly comedic situations, nearly all of them are treated as canon. Since 2009, there have been a few particular sporadic updates that seem to hint at a greater story arc spanning three generations... and featuring current members of both RED and BLU growing increasingly more dissatisfied with all three of their employers.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Everyone but Saxton Hale until the Soldier vs Demoman update, where The Administrator's name is given as Helen, the RED Demoman's full name being Tavish Degroot, and the BLU Soldier's name being Jane Doe (though that may just be a poorly researched pseudonym Soldier picked for himself). The Replay Update also had Helen referring to the RED Soldier as "Mr. Doe", but whether or not his first name is also Jane hasn't been stated. In the comic ushering in the Engineer Update, we learn that the name of the BLU Engineer is Dell Conagher, and in the Replay Update, that the Sniper's surname is Mundy. It seems to be introduced in a RED-BLU alternating pattern of which names are revealed. One of the hidden pages before the Über Update had a box on a desk inside a doctor's office that appeared to say "DR. [too small to read]- DECEASED", possibly implying the Medic's real name.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Parodied in the Bombinomicon comic on the front page. A random guy bemoans that he was the monster all along, which is advertised as a twist ending... with a note beneath explaining that this is not, in fact, the twist ending.
 * Unsound Effect: FLEX! COUGAR! PROPERTY DAMAGE! BUTTON PRESS! HEROIC LEAP! Very common, especially if Saxton Hale is around.
 * This extends to statues/action figures of Saxton Hale as well. COMPOUND ELEVATED SKULL FRACTURE!

The Scout Update

 * In-Universe Marketing: the Force-A-Nature announcement page.

The Sandvich Update

 * Writers Suck: The script presented for the "Meet The Sandvich" video is just the script for Predator attached to the script for Road House, and the writers fail to grasp why everyone else is unimpressed by this. Instead, the voice actors improvise, which the writers grasp as "other people doing all the work for us", though their attempts to join in are just lines quoted from other works (mostly Predator and Road House.)

The Halloween Update

 * Added Alliterative Appeal: All over the place in Scream Fortress. Mann Manor, Cadaver's Cranium, and the Horseless Headless Horsemann to name a few.
 * All There in the Manual: The Halloween Update page on the official site contained an Easter Egg link to The Last Will and Testament of Zepheniah Mann. In it, it reveals the Backstory of the game: The founder of Mann Co. was enticed by his sons to purchase a tract of land in the hopes of erecting some sort of pit of gravel. Unfortunately, upon arrival, he discovered that it was not full of gravel, but "fool's gravel". As his last act, he wills both of his sons the same land they convinced him to purchase.
 * Brick Joke: In 2010, the teams were sent back in time for the then new map, Degroot Keep. The explanation is that "the Soldier angered a magician". In the 2011 Halloween comic, it's revealed that the magician's name is Merasmus, and is in fact the Soldier's roommate.
 * Lost in Transmission: The last article of the will reads "Lastly, to [obscured by sand] I leave the entirety of my [obscured by sand] and swear you to utmost secrecy in its keeping."

The Sniper Vs. Spy Update
"Spy: AaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
 * Ascended Extra: The camera beard, which was dismissed by the spy as being "ridiculous"... 3 months before it was given to him as an accessory.
 * Homage: The comic for the introduction of the Jarate is a riff off this one.
 * ISO Standard Urban Groceries: One of the products available in the Dapper Rogue catalog is a "silk shopping bag with a realistic-looking baguette sticking out of it".
 * In-Universe Marketing: Dapper Rogue magazine, as well as "The Insult that Made a Jarate Master out of the Sniper".
 * Parody Commercial: The wording of all the item descriptions.
 * Villainous Breakdown: In 'The Insult That Made a Jarate Master out of Sniper', Sniper covers Spy with Jarate. The normally verbose and deadpan Spy responds with:

The WAR! Update

 * Apes in Space: Poopy Joe the monkeynaut was supposed to be one, but he tragically died in an explosion that was not caused by Mann Co.
 * Body Count Competition: Between opposing Demomen and Soldiers. Whichever class could kill the most of the other class by the end of the war gets a pair of shoes.
 * Poor Communication Kills: The Administrator and Miss Pauling convince both the RED Demoman and BLU Soldier (who were both willing to be killed rather than take the offer of killing the other for custom weapons) that the other had already betrayed them, which led to the war. Sadly, they ended up believing that they'd been betrayed instead of contacting the other.
 * The Reveal/Running Both Sides: This is the first time we see the Administrator, and learn that she does the announcements for both RED and BLU teams.
 * Mega Corp/NGO Superpower/One Nation Under Copyright/One World Order: The Administrator is also the acting CEO of both companies and her own Weapon Supply Company, TF Industries. As long as she can keep the Mann Brothers (and The Teams) distracted by the land grab, she effectively controls the entire world.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: American Monkeynaut Poopy Joe was given the Eyelander, Buff Banner, and Equalizer before his journey into space. Mann Co. claims they were nowhere near the launch site of Poopy Joe's aircraft and had nothing to do with the explosion that occured moments later, and those three items were obtained in entirely innocent circumstances. Also, the company's seemingly rushed sale of a high-precision rocket launcher was not in any way connected with Poopy Joe's tragic death.
 * Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The update revealed that both RED and BLU are controlled by the same Administrator. The whole war was started just to prevent this fact from getting out.
 * The VJ Day Kiss: Parodied. The blog has a picture of the Heavy kissing the Scout's mom.

The Mac Update
"Soldier: In America, comrade, we do not blame the tool. We blame the man."
 * Aborted Arc: Played with. The comic promises a continuation... which we will never see, due to its non-canon status. We also never see the face of Saxton Hale's mysterious business rival...
 * Anachronism Stew: The Mac Update gives out iPod earbuds to mercenaries from the mid-twentieth century. The supplementary comic goes even further; the RED team finds an Apple store that includes flatscreen televisions, iMacs, and miniguns that set up blogs and post blog entries when they are fired.
 * When the comic Loose Canon was released, the blog announced that the Mac comic is officially not canon. However, the earbuds still exist to wear, so it isn't completely averted.
 * Flexing Those Non-Biceps: The Scout tries to impress Jessica, the female employee. He's drawn with bulging biceps, but it's established he has none.
 * In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You: Inverted in which the American Soldier tells the Russian Heavy in the Mac comic:


 * Kirby Dots: Seen coming from the Firewire-powered pig.
 * Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: The Apple employees are quick to apply a certain incident in which the moon gets blown up to Saxton Hale after it gets announced on a newscast.
 * Unsound Effect: FLEX and PAINFUL FLEX
 * Also some gems from Saxton Hale: PROPERTY DAMAGE! and BRAVE PRESS! (pressing a button).

The Engineer Update / Loose Canon
"Blutarch's assistant: Give him a moment, dear. He's just dead."
 * Abraham Lincoln: the identity of the original 1850-era BLU team Pyro. According to the artist of the "Loose Canon" comic, this was one of the few specific characterizations that they wanted for the team's design.
 * Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The 1800s BLU team shown in the Engineer comic appeared to comprise:
 * Scout: Billy the Kid
 * Soldier: Stonewall Jackson
 * Pyro: Abe Lincoln
 * Demoman: Alfred Nobel
 * Heavy: John Henry
 * Engineer: Nikola Tesla
 * Medic: Sigmund Freud
 * Sniper: Davy Crockett
 * Spy: Fu Manchu
 * The only definite identity is Lincoln as the Pyro.
 * Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: The Golden Wrenches during the update.
 * Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: A pretty big one, but still:

"Blutarch Mann: Every day I'm dead a little longer, Mr Conagher. I have seen the other side. There is nothing there. Fix. This. Machine."
 * Don't Call Me "Sir"!
 * Generation Xerox: Barnabas Hale being attacked by a cougar resembles the cover of one of his descendants', Saxton, Barbershop Action comics. He even refers to a pepper sauce in his dialog.
 * There Is Another: Notes on the cover the Life Extender machine's blueprints say that one was built for Redmond, one for Blutarch and a third with the date and client out of frame.
 * The Nothing After Death: According to Blutarch Mann, who has been continually dying and reviving through the use of the immortality machine.


 * On the other hand, Zepheniah Mann willed a curse that he would haunt those who "shoot over his bones" ... and he does exactly that on KOTH Harvest's event version.
 * Visual Pun: After receiving his share of Zepheniah Mann's will, Barnabas Hale gets pounced on by a cougar.
 * Why Won't You Die?: Blutarch says this of Redmond.

Mann-Conomy Update / Bidwell's Big Plan

 * Literal Cliff Hanger: Saxton Hale hangs on the edge of Charles Darling's plane before being kicked off.
 * The Rival: Charles Darling to Saxton Hale.
 * Say My Name/Skyward Scream: "DARRRLING!"
 * Super Window Jump
 * Unsound Effect: Darling gives Hale a NEMESIS KICK!, which sends him plummeting.
 * Waving Signs Around: The hippies outside.
 * Wings Do Nothing: They were useful on the eagle until Hale grabbed it.

The Replay Update / Meet the Director
"Miss Pauling: The Administrator sees this as a perfect opportunity to show the good people of the Badlands that you're not just armed psychopaths blowing up their all landmarks on a daily basis.
 * Art Shift: The style of the Replay Update comic is noticeably looser than that of the previous comics, due to Andrea Wicklund (artist of the Lab Rat comic)'s coloring style.
 * Call Back: A number to the Meet the Team videos, one of the most blatant being here.
 * Comically Missing the Point: The Heavy was sent a photo of his house and himself, sleeping. He has a separate, smaller bed for "Sascha" [sic], his minigun. Scout says that's pretty embarrassing. The Heavy agrees; he needs to buy Sasha a better bed.
 * Description Cut:

The Administrator: I see this as a perfect opportunity, Miss Pauling, to spy on the armed psychopaths we're paying to blow each other up on a daily basis."

"Heavy: I. Like. To shoot. This gun. Is all you need to know."
 * Did Not Do the Research: Wicklund seems to miss out on the details of coloring Team Fortress 2's characters; on the second page, she colors a Demoman as if he was a Pyro. On the sixth frame, the Team in the middle panel bear their beta designs. Oddly enough, though, either by coincidence or not, she keeps the Sniper's house (Red House on the Left) the correct color.
 * The Soldier's tunic is grey on page 6. Perhaps he's in his equivalent of a casual wear.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: In the last panel, the Medic can be seen holding the Quick-Fix, his new Medigun that he got in the Über Update.
 * Expy: The Sniper's parents bear a striking resemblance to Eustace and Muriel of Courage the Cowardly Dog. The artist apparently confirmed that the similarity was intentional.
 * Freudian Excuse: The Director tries to construct a tragic Backstory for the Heavy to explain his actions, but the Heavy knows he isn't that complicated:


 * Know-Nothing Know-It-All/Prima Donna Director:: The Director is too pretentious and sure of his superiority to realize when he's being duped or led to his death.
 * Punch Clock Villain: Like her other appearances, Miss Pauling seems to be the nicest and least crazy person in TF2 canon, but she doesn't appear to have any qualms about shooting a man in cold blood as part of the job.
 * Speechbubbles Interruption
 * Wag the Director: Many members of the Team attempt to do this to the director; Miss Pauling and The Administrator are ultimately the most successful.

The Saxxy Awards

 * Award Show: The winners of the contest were announced "live" (one winner every 5 minutes). The main page featured a countdown timer between announcements, and a subplot about how...
 * Everything's Worse with Bears: Saxton Hale accidentally let a bear loose during the ceremony. During the live-updating of the Awards page, the image of Saxton presenting the awards would occasionally refresh to reveal said bear slowly approaching the stage, only for it to get beaten to a pulp by Saxton himself.

Grordbort's Crash

 * Cardboard Pal: The Soldier has three.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname
 * Heroic Sacrifice: The Soldier is prepared to make one by jumping onto the rocket.
 * Skewed Priorities: "Pack up the tea, boys! We're joining the space marines!

2011 Halloween Update / Bombinomicon
"Soldier: Nobody invited you, Merasmus!
 * Artifact of Doom: Merasmus collects these. Even the broom in his castle is one.
 * Bedsheet Ghost: One of the kids is dressed as the ghost of Zepheniah Mann, who happens to be one.
 * Big No: When the Soldier breaks Merasmus' staff.
 * Black Magic: Merasmus'.
 * Brick Joke: In 2010, the teams were sent back in time for the then new map, Degroot Keep. The explanation was that "the Soldier angered a magician". In this comic, it's revealed that the magician is the Soldier's roommate.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Merasmus sends MONOCULUS! to fight the team after the Soldier breaks his staff, proclaiming the party to be over. Also, the trope is inverted with the Heavy when he gives a child $7000 as an apology for calling the boy fat.
 * Evil Gloating: The Bombinomicon after it possesses the young Demoman's eye. Merasmus isn't angry at him because anything horrible is going to happen, but because he has to live with the book.
 * Ghost Story: The Demoman tells one about how he lost his eye.
 * Giant Eye of Doom: MONOCULUS!
 * Halloween Episode
 * Haunted Castle: The Demoman's story takes place in Merasmus' castle, though Merasmus now lives with the Soldier.
 * Ignored Enemy: In the last panel, the Soldier ignores the giant eye to fight Merasmus.
 * Volleying Insults:

Merasmus: Do not anger Merasmus! A magician invites himself!

Soldier: I am going to invite that staff straight up your ass and push you around like a broom!

Merasmus: Well, that would certainly be the first time you swept anything!"

"Heavy: Every day Heavy risk life. To earn money. To feed family. Instead, you would have Heavy spend this money. On stupid candy. For you. You presumptuous... lazy... fat...
 * Manipulative Bastard: The Bombinomicon convinces the young Demoman to read it.
 * Monster Roommate: Merasmus.
 * Nobody Calls Me Chicken: Some challenging from the Bombinomicon makes the Demoman peek at its pages.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: If what the Soldier says about being on the lam is true, the police have been tricked into thinking he's a robot.
 * Portmanteau: The Bombinomicon is a portmanteau of "bomb" and "Necronomicon".
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Bombinomicon.
 * Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Bombinomicon. It contains "over 400 pages of spells, enchantments, recipes and anecdotes about blowing things up".
 * You Are Fat: Being called fat is what finally makes one of the trick-or-treaters cry.

Boy: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Heavy: Oh. Um. Stop. Heavy did not mean this. Little child is not fat. People call Heavy fat. Please stop crying. Here. Here is seven thousand dollars."


 * You Fool!: Merasmus uses this a few times.

True Meaning
""Those mobsters were just about to give up the hunt, when up in that cold night sky they saw a star. The brightest star they ever saw. So they followed it. And after a spell they saw a sight that filled 'em with wonder... Ol' Nick, forcin' a buncha naughty kids to make all manner of guns, smack dab in the middle of Antarctica.""
 * An Asskicking Christmas
 * Call Back: The rocket is similar to the one in "Grordbort's Crash". It contains weapons as well.
 * Christmas Episode
 * Funny Background Event: The Christmas tree is made with antlers and decorated with knives and grenades, and one of the Soldier's Gunboats hangs on the chimney.
 * The Gambling Addict: Apparently, Old Nick likes to bet on college basketball.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The message that came with the rocket full of weapons about "hearing [the Engineer and Pyro's] plea" is a very thinly veiled nod to people who had been displeased with the lack of new weapons for the two classes.
 * The Mafia: Old Nick owes them a lot of money (see The Gambling Addict). They battle it out when the mobsters find him in Antarctica.
 * Mood Whiplash: Several within the story the Engineer is reading.


 * Ship Tease: The Engineer and Pyro might be living together.
 * Shout-Out: The line about adopting a super baby is a Shout Out to Superman.
 * The Three Wise Men: Again, parodied, with the "three wiseguys".
 * True Meaning of Christmas: Despite the title drop, since the tale the Engineer reads to the Pyro parodies a bunch of Christmas tropes, the true meaning of Australian Christmas/Smissmas isn't clear. Also, the comic is more about the two getting new weapons.

A Smissmas Story
"Miss Pauling: First things first. How did Soldier become a public defender?
 * A Wizard Did It:

Spy: It's a long story, but chapter one: his roommate is a magician."

"Scout: Why don't you bring that little mink stole over here and show me how stupid my wrappin' paper is?"
 * Badass Adorable: Little Jack becomes one.
 * Badass Boast:

"COMPOUND ELEVATED SKULL FRACTURE!"
 * Badass Cape: Old Nick has a couple of koala pelts for a cape.
 * Blooper: The Soldier's bandolier goes over his left shoulder, then the right shoulder for a few pages, then returns to the left. The Spy picks an icicle off the phone box when there wasn't one in earlier panels.
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday: When asked to describe how saving the children from Old Nick feels, Scout simply describes it as a "Saturday".
 * Dynamic Entry: Old Nick announces his entrance by having one of his kangaroos kick the door open.
 * Face Palm/Head Desk: The Spy and Soldier are the Scout's legal counsel. When the Soldier confirms the Scout's testimony, the Spy facepalms and rests his head against the desk.
 * Fur and Loathing/Nemean Skinning: Old Nick's cape.
 * "Happy Holidays" Dress: The Scout is forced to dress like an elf, while the Soldier gets a blue Santa Claus-esque outfit.
 * Horse of a Different Color: Kangaroos that pull Old Nick's sleigh.
 * Important Haircut: The Soldier gives Little Jack a crew cut. It's much better than the bowl cut he had previously.
 * Improvised Weapon: the Scout uses a roll of wrapping paper with an ornament on it, the Soldier finds a Saxton Hale toy, and Little Jack receives an icicle from the Spy with which to stab Old Nick.
 * Insistent Terminology: The furry thing Old Nick wears on his shoulders is not a stole, it's a cape.
 * It's a Long Story: Apparently, how the Soldier became a lawyer.
 * Joke Item: The wrapping paper...
 * Lethal Joke Item: ...which, when coupled with an ornament from a nearby tree, makes a handy bludgeon. (In the game, the fragments of ornament allow a bleed effect.)
 * Mistaken for Spies: The Scout mistakes Little Jack as the Spy in disguise, until the Spy appears with someone from the press.
 * Noodle Incident: How the Soldier became a defender in a court of law is not elaborated upon.
 * The Spy did point out that the Soldier has a magician for a roommate.
 * Pity the Kidnapper: Old Nick chose the wrong kid to try to kidnap.
 * Pointy Ears: The Scout gets a pair of pointed ears as part of his outfit as a Christmas elf.
 * Punctuated for Emphasis: Miss Pauling when she finds out Old Nick is in the mall to kidnap children. "Spy. Take. Care. Of. This. Now."
 * Refuge in Audacity: The BLU Spy teaches a child to murder someone with an icicle. And they somehow manage to make this a touching moment after the fact.
 * Spikes of Villainy: The kangaroos have harnesses with spikes.
 * Unsound Effect: When the Soldier hits Old Nick with a Saxton Hale action figure:


 * Unspoken Plan Guarantee
 * Waving Signs Around: In the courtroom, a man sitting a few rows behind the Soldier and Spy has a sign that reads "BLU & RED OUT OF TEUFORT". The team certainly gets better press after they save the town's children from Old Nick.
 * You Do NOT Want to Know: See A Wizard Did It, above. Miss Pauling decides not to press further after the Spy reminds her who the Soldier's roommate is.
 * You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: The Scout says this to Old Nick when the latter plans to kidnap Jack.

The "Meet The Team" videos

 * A Day in the Limelight: Meet the Spy is the first video to focus on the BLU team (for the majority of its runtime, anyway), even if they are mostly talking about the RED Spy.
 * Black Comedy: Moreso than the game itself.
 * Butt Monkey: The BLU team is always horribly abused by the RED team in these videos. Also, the BLU Heavy is pretty much always the most obvious target. The RED Heavy, on the other hand, kills everything. This is a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation as well, as in the actual game, BLU is just as capable of winning.
 * Both the BLU Soldier and the BLU Heavy have died at least once in every video (except Meet the Scout, where BLU Heavy is "only" beaten unconscious).
 * Meet the Medic takes this Up to Eleven, with a the Heavy creating and sequentially climbing up a mountain of dead BLU Soldiers.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: In their class videos, characters are much more competent and capable of feats they're not normally capable of, occasionally directly contradicting the way things work in-game.
 * Easter Egg: Not quite a Freeze-Frame Bonus, but worth pointing out: The title cards contain the phrase "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL".
 * Except for Meet the Sandvich, which has "COPYRIGHT OMNOMNOM"
 * Early-Bird Cameo:
 * In Meet the Spy before Spy kills Sniper you can see a crate marked "Razorback", as well as jars of shelved Jarate and the Huntsman. These didn't debut until after Meet the Spy was leaked, although Jarate made its debut after the video's official release.
 * The practice of Valve including teasers for yet-to-be released items dates back to "Meet the Sniper", which included a brief glimpse of the Pyro holding a new gun, which was later added to the game as the flare gun - briefly enough to be considered a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
 * Jarate also makes an appearance in the title card and the time lapse sequence of "Meet the Sniper".
 * The Mac update video features Engineer holding the Frontier Justice, a month before the Engineer Update.
 * Also from "Meet the Spy", the BLU Scout (actually the RED Spy) is seen holding the Sandman in the beginning of the video, foreshadowing that the Spy would soon be able to emulate the unlockable weapons of the player he is disguised as. The BLU Sniper can be seen wearing the Trophy Belt before the hat was released.
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: In addition to all characters being portrayed as incredibly over-powered in the "Meet the Team" videos, there are several times when they directly contradict established in-game abilities.
 * Meet the Engineer: the Engineer has many sentries up; in-game, he can only build one at a time.
 * Meet the Demoman: at one point, the Demoman lays a trap with sixteen sticky bombs, as opposed to the eight he can use in-game. (however, at one point in development, Demos actually could use sixteen stickies)
 * Meet the Sniper: one of the Sniper's shots kills a Heavy and continues on to injure the Demoman standing behind him. While true to life, shooting through multiple targets as a Sniper was not possible until the release of the Machina sniper rifle. (and before you ask, no, he's not using that rifle in the video)
 * Meet the Spy: perhaps the most Egregious example. Contradictions seen in this video include the RED Spy touching the briefcase while disguised as the BLU Scout (in a real CTF match, this would force the Spy to drop his disguise and pick up the briefcase) and the BLU Soldier shooting the BLU Spy (again, impossible, as friendly fire is not part of the vanilla game and, in fact, shooting teammates is an excellent way to check if they are spies). There's also him sliding a sapper under a sentry, again not actually possible in-game.
 * Meet the Medic: this video shows the first use of the Medic's prototype medigun, the Quick-Fix, and how he uses it to Über the Heavy. However, the Quick-Fix in the game cannot actually Über. (This was explained away as the original Über being so powerful it burned out that function of the prototype, though.) Secondly, although the Über Chargeded Heavy changes his appearance as Übered players do in-game, the Medic does not, despite also changing his appearance when Übered in-game. Finally, when struck by rockets, rather than exploding and causing knockback like in real play, they simply bounce off the Übered Heavy.
 * Running Gag: The "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL" in each of the team's title cards.
 * Russian Guy Suffers Most: The BLU Heavy.
 * Sequel Escalation: Each new video is more adventurous hilariously violent than the last.
 * Starting from "Meet the Sandvich", the videos have broken away from their original interview-and-gameplay-footage structure, and the subsequent entries have actually had their own individual plots.
 * The Worf Effect: The BLU Heavy has been seen getting headshotted, backstabbed, destroyed by a missile (twice), knocked out for a Sandvich, exploded by stickies, and killed by a level 1 sentry.
 * Also the BLU Soldier, who has been killed by the same group of sentries as the Heavy, gibbed by the same stickies as the Heavy, headshotted by the same Sniper as the Heavy, backstabbed by the same Spy as the Heavy, hit by a train, and by being on the receiving end of the RED Heavy's Über Charge. Oh, and the Sandvich broke his spine.
 * The BLU Spy as well, being shoveled by the Soldier, detonated by the Demoman's stickies, backstabbed by the Sniper, headshotted by his own comrades, and being preserved as a head in a refrigerator by the Medic.
 * Let's just say that in general, RED pulls this off on BLU.

Meet The Heavy

 * Description Porn: Heavy introducing "Sasha".
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: the Heavy claims his gun fires 10,000 rounds per minute, when it actually fires "only" 2,400 rounds per minute.
 * The in-game achievement for firing $100,000 worth of bullets in a single life uses the $200/cartridge figure and equates 1 cartridge with 1 ammo (the minigun reduces the ammo count by 1 ten times a second, and fires 4 shots 10 times a second). By this math, it would actually cost $24,000 to fire for 12 seconds. Forcing convoluted stats like this upon the world is probably why the Heavy is seen laughing uproariously in the next shot.
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on cp_dustbowl, although the interview scenes take place who knows where.
 * I Call It Vera: "Oh my God, who touched Sasha? ...WHO TOUCHED MY GUN?!?"
 * Sequel Escalation: The first: a simple character animation test consisting of an interview in one place with gameplay footage at the end.

Meet The Soldier

 * Cutscene Power to the Max:
 * The Soldier's rockets One-Hit Kill a Demoman, Heavy and Pyro into Ludicrous Gibs.
 * The Soldier uses a shovel to backhand a Spy decloaking to backstab him.
 * Did Not Do the Research: The Medic's head in The Stinger has a femur in its neck instead of a spinal column, though given the game's ridiculous art style, it gets by on Rule of Funny.
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on cp_granary.
 * Funny Background Event: When the Soldier hits the Spy with his shovel, a poster in the background reads, "No Smoking".
 * Memetic Badass: The Soldier seems set to make Sun Tzu as one, who, according to him: invented fighting, was a prizefighter, used his fight money to put two of every animal on a boat like Noah, "and then he beat the crap out of every single one!"
 * Offhand Backshovel
 * Sequel Escalation: The second: a vignette showing a pacing soldier giving a fantastic speech to a row of decapitated heads between clips of heated gameplay footage.
 * The Stinger: "Unless it's a farm!"
 * Stock Femur Bone: See Did Not Do the Research above.
 * Trick Dialogue: The Soldier is actually drilling the severed heads of the people he's just killed.

Meet The Engineer

 * Brick Joke: The guitar eventually made its in-game debut as Frontier Justice's special taunt. With perfect timing and lots of luck, you can use it to crack heads.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: The Engineer exhibits Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness which he does not show in any of his in-game lines. And more importantly, he has four sentries up at once (though he could just be babysitting for his fellow Engineers).
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation/Never Trust a Trailer: The Engineer makes at least four sentries around him to protect him. In the actual game (except for a very brief, but glorious, period between updates), he can only build one sentry at a time.
 * Though it is very common to see multiple Engineers all building their sentry nests right next to each other.
 * Gosh Darn It to Heck: "How do I stop some big, mean mother-hubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind?"
 * More Dakka: "The answer? Use a gun. And if that don't work? Use more gun."
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Four sentries, 215+ kills, and a truckful of intelligence briefcases and Scout corpses.
 * Sequel Escalation: The third: an interview with the Engineer in a spot on a map, featuring an active sentrygun and external action.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: At odds with his in-game lines.
 * Stealth Pun: The campfire.
 * Because it indirectly implies the gameplay style of many Engineer players who tend to "camp" around/behind their sentries.
 * When the camera zooms out, you can see that the Engineer's "campfire" is a burning BLU Sniper's corpse.

Meet The Demoman
"Disclaimer: All information regarding Demoman grenade behavior was obtained from Australians believed to be reliable at the time. It is submitted subject to the possibility of errors, omissions, or nerfing without notice."
 * Badass Boast: "SO...t'all ya fine dandies, so proud, so cocksure, prancin' a-boot with yer heads fulla eyeballs! Come and get me, I say! I'll be waitin' for ya, with a whiff of the ol' brimstone! I'm a grim bloody fable...with an unhappy, bloody end!"
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: The Demoman kills opponents with near-impossible ricocheted grenades, and sets a trap with about a dozen stickybombs (his normal maximum is eight.)
 * All of this was possible when the video was released (still months before the game actually came out), but subsequent updates have brought this trope into play retroactively. There's a disclaimer about this at the end of the video:


 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on cp_gravelpit.
 * No OSHA Compliance: With equal parts Reckless Bomb Usage. A lit cigarette can be seen sitting on a crate of grenades on the left side of his desk. He drunkenly knocks a loose grenade off his desk which lites up and makes a "live" beep noise as it falls to the floor. And of course chugging down a bottle of whiskey as he's working on his explosives.
 * Amusingly he's doing all of this while describing to the viewers just how much precision it takes for him to do his job, and the horrible consequences otherwise.
 * Oh Crap: The BLU team's reaction to the sticky trap.
 * Outrun the Fireball: The Demoman does this at the beginning.
 * Sequel Escalation: The fourth: an interview with a seated, drinking Demoman in three parts, punctuated by highlighted examples of Demoman weapon use.
 * Sound Effect Bleep: "They got more f[3-second-long bleep] than they've got the likes of me."
 * This is used in one of the Blog's contests asking people to send in what they think was bleeped out. At the end of the contest, the winner of the "most accurate to the original script" category was something roughly like "They've got more fuckin' monsters in the Loch Ness than they got the likes of me."
 * Super Window Jump: While outrunning the fireball.

Meet The Scout

 * Ascended Extra: First appearance of The Sandvich.
 * Big Guy Rodeo: The Scout, with the help of his bat, does this to the Heavy.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Especially while he was fighting the Heavy.
 * Catch Phrase: "Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and brother--I hurt people!"
 * Boink!
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: When Heavy is eating his Sandvich, he is also holding a shotgun. In-game, if you equip the sandvich, it replaces the shotgun.
 * For some reason, the Scout is able to resist being snapped in half by the Heavy at one point.
 * Dramatic Gun Cock: At the start, the RED Scout cocks his scattergun (lever-action shotgun) before he runs out the door.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: The Sandvich appeared in this video before it was released as an item.
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on both cp_granary and cp_well.
 * Flexing Those Non-Biceps: "Oh man, that's beautiful!"
 * Sequel Escalation: The fifth: an interview, after a long introduction with complicated camera movement, rapidly cutting back and forth between the scout's free-roaming grandstanding and his action-packed direct struggle with the Heavy.
 * Sound Effect Bleep: "If you were from, where I was from, you'd be f(beep)cking dead!"
 * You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With

Meet The Sniper
"Sniper: [Looking through the scope] I think his mate saw me.
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Sniper's Kukri manages to stab a Spy from the back completely through his body. You must wonder how it gets through all of the bones and organs in the way, or how he's stabbing so effectively with an inward-curved blade.
 * Ascended Extra Prop: First appearance of Jarate.
 * Boom! Headshot!: Lampshaded
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: The Sniper snipes the Heavy in the head, which strikes the bottle the Demoman was drinking out of, causing him to accidentally get the neck of the bottle into his (only good) eye, runs into a wall and force the bottle in deeper, pulls out his grenade launcher to fire blindly out of panic, falls off a ledge behind him to fall into Exploding Barrels, which explode as his grenades fall underneath the ledge.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max:
 * The Sniper impales a Spy on his Kukri.
 * The Demoman falls onto a cluster of Exploding Barrels.
 * Hell, even Sniper climbing a ladder is not in gameplay.
 * At least, not how it is portrayed. Only 1(?) map has a ladder, and anyone can run into it and is lifted to the top, with their hands still holding their weapons normally.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: The Sniper says that blokes what bludgeon their wives to death with a golf trophy have feelings. "Professionals have standards".
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Averted, no distinct maps show up, and many of the areas shown are in out of bounds reaches in gameplay and/or don't exist at all.
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Spy. From behind.
 * Jittercam: Used when the Sniper and the cameraman duck out of the way of incoming fire.

[Bullet hits the rail next to him]

Sniper: Yes, yes he did."


 * One-Hit Polykill: A shot from the Sniper goes through the Heavy's head and into the Demoman's bottle he was drinking from behind him. The Demoman doesn't directly die from that, but he does soon enough.
 * Sequel Escalation: The sixth: a journey across multiple specially-constructed set pieces with a licensed theme song for background music.
 * Time Passes Montage: During which he fills up a number of Jarate jars.

Meet The Sandvich

 * Amusing Injuries: From the cut lines - "Gimme back my legbone! OW! Don't hit me with it!"
 * Gory Battle Discretion Shot: The second half of the scene.
 * Sequel Escalation: The seventh: a beatdown over a food item whose perspective is entirely inside a refrigerator, finishing with gameplay footage.

Meet The Spy
"Administrator: Intruder Alert! RED Spy in the base!
 * Angrish
 * Bang Bang BANG: The Soldier fires his shotgun, yet the blast sounds more like the Spy's revolver.
 * Blood Upgrade: The Sniper seems to start reacting like this after getting his cheek cut.
 * Captain Obvious (Also Parrot Exposition): The Soldier.

Soldier: A RED Spy is in the base?

Administrator: Protect the briefcase!

Soldier: We need to protect the briefcase!"

"Spy:...then we still have a problem.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: The Soldier should have stopped to wonder why the Scout was trying to pry open the door instead of putting in the code.
 * Well, it's the Soldier we're talking about.
 * Crazy Prepared: Those panels in the beginning say things like 'Has evil twin' and 'Found Dracula'. They can all be seen here.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max/Gameplay and Story Segregation/Never Trust a Trailer:
 * The RED Spy slides a sapper under a sentry gun.
 * The RED Spy touches the intelligence briefcase (without taking it) without losing his disguise. Although this could be justified by the fact that he didn't actually pick up the briefcase.
 * There's also the scene where he disguises as the Medic, which works entirely differently from how it does in game. In particular, the fact that he incapacitates him with a single karate chop, which probably wouldn't work even if it was possible in this game.
 * The BLU intel room has a locked door with a keypad--all in-game doors open automatically or when an objective is completed.
 * The Soldier pops a friendly Spy's head with a single shotgun blast. While friendly fire with reduced damage is possible in-game with the server-side variable set, the shotgun doesn't do special damage for headshots and can never kill in 1 hit, and even if it could, heads don't gib that way in the game.
 * The shotgun in question also sounds like the Spy's revolver when the Soldier fires it.
 * Defensive What: The Soldier after blasting the Spy.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: Eventualities the BLU base monitor system is prepared to report:
 * Found Dracula
 * Lost Dracula
 * Is A Man
 * Is A Woman
 * Is A Robot
 * Needs A Ride
 * Needs Roommate
 * Has Evil Twin
 * Sleeping On Toilet
 * Owns Base
 * Leaked Video
 * Is Fired
 * On Fire
 * On Break
 * In Surgery
 * Drowned
 * Smothered
 * Vaporized
 * Defenestrated
 * Hungry
 * Smells
 * Is Drunk
 * Depressed
 * Backstabbed
 * Again
 * Stole A Car
 * About To Explode
 * Exploding
 * Exploded
 * Everyone Is a Suspect
 * Eyes Are Unbreakable: Instead of properly exploding, the Spy's eye pops off.
 * Fake Shemp: Engineer, Sniper, Medic use sound clips lifted straight from their in-game dialogue lines rather than new voice-acted scripts.
 * Same goes for the Scout during he first twenty seconds or so.
 * Foreshadowing: The Spy's true identity is subtly hinted at-- Scout doesn't know the doorcode, when the BLU Spy walks in with the Sniper's corpse over his shoulder, the Scout checks to see if the knife is still in its back, and at 2:42, he makes sure no one is going to see what he's about to do.
 * Also, the Alarm-O-Tron 5000 board gives a hint about who the RED Spy is disguised as. Three consecutive alerts read "BLU Scout", "Has Evil Twin", and "RED Spy".
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on a modified 2Fort with a new security door and massive wall of alerts (the latter does appear in-game, but only on Doublecross).
 * Funny Background Event: The possible messages on the Alarm-O-Tron 5000 alert system. Blink and you'll miss it, or just see above.
 * The Guards Must Be Crazy: In-game, a Scout is easily the worst class for a Spy to disguise as (the Spy can't match the Scout's speed), yet the BLU team STILL couldn't figure out who the RED Spy was.
 * Probably because he never had to run.
 * Also, he tries to open a password-locked door by force... though the others have trouble remembering the password too.
 * Head-Tiltingly Kinky: The Heavy and the Soldier, in reaction to the pictures produced by the BLU Spy.
 * Ironic Echo: While not repeated word for word, it's still close enough to count.

Soldier: And a knife!

Scout [sarcastic]: Ooh, big problem!

Later:

Heavy: So, we still got problem.

Soldier: Big problem. ]"

"Spy: And now he's here to f[beep] us!"
 * Killed Mid-Sentence: The BLU Spy.
 * Mistaken for Spies: The BLU Spy is mistaken for a double-agent.
 * Mook Horror Show/Perspective Flip: Told from the perspective of the BLU team, as the BLU Spy warns the others about how dangerous the RED Spy is, who is shown dispatching several BLU members.
 * It's fairly ingenious as the other videos (except "Meet the Sandvich") have the RED members talk about themselves, which would be out of character for a Spy; telling it from the other perspective maintains the mysterious nature of the RED Spy.
 * Neck Snap: The RED Spy kills the BLU Medic with a karate chop to the neck.
 * The Password Is Always 1111: Made even funnier by the fact that although the "1" button on the BLU intel room keypad is dirty and worn out, implying that it has been used very often, the Soldier enters the first three digits, then has to stop and think to remember the last one and then grins when the door opens, like he's proud of himself for getting the code right.
 * Pistol-Whipping: The BLU Sniper hears the RED Spy and tries to jab him with the butt of his rifle. It doesn't work.
 * A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside An Enigma: Valve's written description of The Spy for the video begins, "He is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles, lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery, Alaska..."
 * Scars Are Forever: The Sniper has had a scar across his face in-game ever since the Spy cut him in this video.
 * Sequel Escalation: The eighth: a tale of intrigue with direct character interaction cutting back and forth between the Spy's action-packed narrative and the exploits and nuanced interactions of the characters in the intel room. Plus, an all-"new" character model for the Scout's mom.
 * Sound Effect Bleep:


 * Spot the Imposter: The basic plot of the video.
 * Stupid Statement Dance Mix: After the RED Spy reveals himself, pay attention to the TF2 theme snippet...
 * And NOW, he's here to...!
 * Due to it being leaked, the internet managed to be flooded with remixes (mainly Youtube Poop) before the official release.
 * Gentlementlemen, gentlementlemen, mentlemen.
 * Unsafe Haven: The intel is behind a locked door, but the password is 1111, which is obvious from the "1" being the only button that's seen use, and the Heavy was able to shoulder-barge the door, destroying it.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: When the Soldier kills the BLU Spy, expecting him to have been the villain all along, only to discover he was actually disguised as the Scout.
 * Your Head Asplode
 * Your Mom: Done oh so very right by the BLU Spy by actually backing it up with his dossier on the Scout's mom, showing photos of her sleeping with the RED Spy. Most likely the best use of the line ever.

Meet The Medic
"Spy: Kill me.
 * Adjusting Your Glasses: Type 3. The Medic adjusts his glasses before turning on his Quick-Fix.
 * And I Must Scream: The RED Medic has the severed head of a BLU Spy preserved in his medical refrigerator. The Spy happens to be still alive, and capable of talking.

Medic: Later."

"Archimedes: *Coo*"
 * And That Little Girl Was Me/Orphaned Punchline: "Vait. It get better. Vhen ze patient woke up, his skeleton vas missing, and ze doctor vas never heard from again! Ahahahaha! Hoohoo. Anyvay, zat's how I lost my medical license."
 * Amusing Injuries: The RED Demoman and RED Scout's beat-up, bandaged moments are used to lend (more) humor to their plight.
 * Ascended Meme: It's not technically in the final version of Meet the Medic, but rather in an older version that was abandoned. In this older version, the Medic is shown building his Medigun, taking parts from the mouth of the severed BLU Spy's head (which is still alive). The parts are shoved in the Spy's mouth in a rather familiar way...
 * Attack! Attack! Attack!: The BLU soldiers don't learn to retreat from the scary, glowy RED Heavy.
 * Atop a Mountain of Corpses: The final shot before The Stinger is of the Heavy and the Medic standing atop a pile of dead BLU Soldiers, all of them felled by the Heavy during the test of the Über Charge.
 * Beat Still My Heart
 * Brick Joke: Early in the video, the Medic scolds Archimedes for playing in the intestines of the Heavy. In the end, Archimedes ends up being accidentally sewn into the Scout's chest.
 * Butt Monkey: The RED Scout is especially abused this time around.
 * Call Back: To the second TF2 teaser trailer, where there are tons of BLU Soldiers mowed down (by the Engineer) and a (BLU) Heavy doing all the shooting of said (RED) Soldiers.
 * Chekhov's Gag: Set up with the Heavy, but the punchline is the Scout.

"RED Scout: (knocked down by a blast, he sees another volley of rockets flying at him) Whoa, who the f*KABOOM*AAAAAAAAHHHHH-- *crash* ...Medic."
 * Comedic Sociopathy: This series is already all about this trope, but this video plays suffering for comedy moreso than previous ones.
 * Continuity Nod: The magazine the Pyro is reading in the last scene is the Jarate Comic from the Sniper vs. Spy Update.
 * Curse Cut Short: Along with Sound Effect Bleep.

"Heavy: Doctor! Are you sure this will work?
 * Cutscene Incompetence: The Medic's Über Charge in the video does not make him invincible as well. Justified in that he most likely hasn't given himself a heart implant yet. On the other side of the battlefield, none of the Soldiers are firing at said vulnerable Medic.
 * Cutscene Power to the Max: Mostly averted, but the Medic is keeping a severed head alive indefinitely, and a RED Demoman is on the battlefield in a wheelchair. The Medigun also seems to have a low setting, as he's keeping the Heavy alive, conscious, and mostly out of pain without his heart and with his chest cut open, but without healing him.
 * The Soldiers' rockets also curve in mid-air to hit the Scout during the opening sequence.
 * The Heavy's Über Charge also seems to be making him immune to the rockets' knockback--in fact, the rockets don't even detonate, they just bounce off him as if they were airblasted. This actually makes sense when one notes that the Medic is using the Quick-Fix instead of the vanilla Medigun. The Quick-Fix's Über Charge does, in fact, render the patient immune to knockback. It doesn't make the patient invulnerable, but the description of the Quick-Fix notes that this is because the invulnerability function of the Quick-Fix shorted out after that first test, forcing the Medic to focus on one benefit or the other.
 * Dark Reprise: The first part of the soundtrack, which plays when the RED Scout is fleeing from a barrage of rockets, is a slowed down version of "Faster than a Speeding Bullet".
 * Development Gag: Apparently, the disembodied Spy head is a remnant from an earlier version of the short.
 * Dissonant Serenity: While the Medic's anecdote about losing his medical license (see below) is a little bit disturbing, it's still kind of jarring to hear him and Heavy laughing and chatting casually while a battle rages outside and Medic is currently performing surgery on Heavy while the latter is awake.
 * Disturbed Doves: The Medic has a fair flock of doves, apparently as pets. When he leaves his operating room and takes the field with the Heavy, a bunch of them fly out of the garage to mark his entrance. They also fly by when he and the Heavy are standing atop a pile of Soldiers.
 * Evil Laugh: The Medic. Hoo boy, the Medic. He's enjoying himself when he really shouldn't be.
 * Fourth Wall Psych: Right before the title card the BLU rockets appear to send the Scout smashing into the camera only for it to turn out to just be a window.
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: It's hard to tell what map this takes place in, but according to Valve, it's a modified version of Badwater Basin. To fit this trope, it takes a bit to time to see that the entire contents of the refrigerator are a Sandvich, three hearts ("Mega Baboon", "Loch Ness Hamster", and one label too small to read), three bottles of Red Shed beer, the BLU Spy's head, a battery for the head, and an ashtray.
 * Funny Background Event: In the final scene, all of RED team is sitting in the Medic's waiting room, waiting for their own Über Charge implants. The Pyro is reading a magazine (with "The Insult That Made a 'Jarate Master' Out of Sniper" on the back cover) while playing with a lighter, the Sniper is sleeping, the Demoman is drinking, the Spy is looking at his ticket, the Engineer is playing his guitar, and the Soldier is standing at attention, eschewing the chairs.
 * During the start of the last battle scene, you can also see the Pyro near the cliff, running away from the mass of Soldiers in the funny 'humiliation' run cycle.
 * Check out the background at the start of the surgery scene. The x-rays in the light box show the Heavy has had a bomb lodged inside him. The extracted bomb is in the bucket underneath the x-rays. The Medic's Overdose can be seen by the bucket.
 * During the heart scene, several clips are run together very quickly. In one, the Medic's doves can be seen for a fraction of a second... nervously moving away from Archimedes, who got rather bloodstained in a humorous fashion earlier in the video. The implied Running Gag is ultimately averted, however. Also, Miss Pauling can be seen watching from a window in those two scenes.
 * When the Heavy's heart explodes, the monitor in the background flatlines. When the Medic gets a new heart out, the monitor resumes its earlier display.
 * Healing Factor: "Oh, don't be such a baby. Ribs grow back! [aside] No they don't."
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Since it's his class video, the Medic gets played for this even moreso than usual in the course of regular gameplay, but he definitely buries the needle deep into the 'sociopath' side.
 * I Have No Idea What I'm Doing/Indy Ploy, For Science!: The field test of the first Über Charge.

Medic: Ha-ha! I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!"

"Medic: Oh, don't be such a baby, ribs grow back! (aside, to his doves) No, zey don't."
 * Instant Bandages: The Scout and Demoman have somehow acquired bandages on the battlefield, and the Demoman is rolling around in a wheelchair before being healed by the Medic.
 * Last-Note Nightmare: Inverted; the score "A Little Heart to Heart" remains in minor and chromatic sequences through most of the song, but then at the last note, turns into a major chord.
 * Laugh with Me: Heavy's belly laughs were completely genuine until he learned that the anecdote was actually about the Medic, after which this trope comes into play full swing.
 * Lock and Load Montage: More like a 'get dressed to kill' montage with the Medic putting on his gloves, labcoat, and backpack.
 * Mad Doctor: It has never been clearer. Über Charges are apparently the result of the Medic slapping some sort of insane device on a heart (any heart will do) and placing it in the subject's chest before using the Medigun on him. He ends up blowing up the Heavy's original heart (passing it off as "progress") and outfitting him with some sort of super-baboon heart. Not to mention the severed Spy head, and his anecdote about removing some poor schmuck's skeleton during an operation.
 * He also clearly tries to comfort Heavy after he breaks his own rib by saying that they grow back, before whispering to Archimedes that they don't.
 * Meatgrinder Surgery: Heavy's surgery, to an extent. For one thing, it involves Medic forcefully shoving the new heart into Heavy's chest cavity when it doesn't quite fit...only to actually break off one of Heavy's ribs.

"Heavy: Should I be awake for this?
 * Not forgetting the fact that Heavy's heart was IN THE MEDIC'S HANDS for over a minute, then BLEW UP, then was replaced by a new one... from a baboon.
 * And Heavy was awake the whole time.

Medic: Well, no. But as long as you are, could you hold your rib cage open a bit?"

"Ahhhahaha! I AM BOOLETPROOF!"
 * Mix-and-Match Critters: Although we only see its heart, there's the apparent "Loch Ness Hamster."
 * Noodle Incident: How the Medic lost his medical license.
 * Only a Flesh Wound: Heavy goes through open heart surgery (if you could call it "surgery"), only to have his entire chest cavity healed over in seconds by the Medigun.
 * Oracular Head: The BLU Spy in the fridge.
 * Out of the Inferno: The Heavy gets to indulge in one during his first Über Charge, as the rockets of a dozen Soldiers fail to stop him.

"Heavy: What happens now?
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner:

Medic: Now? [chuckle] Let's go practice medicine."

"Demoman: FREEDOM!"
 * Russian Humor: The Medic's story at the beginning seems right up Heavy's alley, considering his love of bloody anecdotes. That is, if you believe the laugh is genuine.
 * It appeared genuine until he learned it was about the Medic himself.
 * Self-Destructive Charge: The BLU Soldiers.
 * Sequel Escalation: The ninth: A partly creepy, partly comedic, entirely awesome Origin Story for the game's Über Charge mechanic. It's also the first to show more than one of a single class on one team in the same shot (a Soldier class rush).
 * Smoke Shield: during the Über Charge.
 * Stealth Pun: The deadpan Spy.
 * Strapped to An Operating Table: The table has straps, but they're not in use.
 * Suit-Up of Destiny: The Medic. He does a Hero Shot right after.
 * Theme Tune Cameo: In the waiting room, the Engineer is strumming "A Little Heart to Heart".
 * The Stinger: Two. After the title card, there's a scene of the RED team in the Medic's waiting room. After that is the announcement of Team Fortress 2 becoming Free To Play.

"Medic: [To the Heavy] Oh, don't be such a baby. Ribs grow back! [To his doves] No, zey don't!"
 * Two-Faced Aside:

"Medic: I could do in seconds what would take other doctors months! I could take men to the peak of health- and beyond! I could make gods!"
 * Ubermensch: In a bit of a Genius Bonus (cryptically answered, in the usual way, by Valve), Medic draws a lot of parallels to Zarathustra in the video. Both mention doves and aim to transcend humanity, but in the original version of the video, he states he doesn't want to be a God, but instead, create them:


 * Waistcoat of Style: The Medic sports one while operating on the Heavy.
 * Zerg Rush: The army of BLU Soldiers.

Meet The Pyro (coming 2012)

 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: A short clip appears on the screen of one of the employees' computers in "Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative".