Deceased Crab

""Hey, La-Mulanites!""

DeceasedCrab is a personality in the Let's Play community, notable for playing a key role in spreading the LP phenomenon to YouTube.

He's developed a Signature Style: He's a Large Ham who employs copious catchphrases and Unusual Euphemisms, and he almost exclusively plays 8-bit games, Widget Series, or indie Freeware Games. Or some combination of the three. (Or, a Choose Your Own Adventure Book.) As he himself puts it, "What's the point in me playing a game that everybody already knows?"

He has, on several occasions, teamed up with fellow LP'er Madamluna on co-op LPs. To quote the eponymous second author... "On that fateful day in 1972, Deceased Crab was a small-time guitarist in the Bay Area hopping from band to band. Madamluna was﻿ a waitress in a small cafe off the side of the interstate. When their eyes met, they knew it was destiny.

They would later disappear in a tragic macadamia nut accident, never to be seen until thirty-five years later, when they suddenly resurfaced on Youtube with a series of Let's Play videos that are said to be "pretty good, I guess.""

Now with optional second backstory!

"Deceased Crab was a lowly salesman, building lightweight laser weapons and doling them out to kindergarteners like a futuristic, crab-shaped Johnny Appleseed. I was the stodgy teacher who insisted on not having any laser weaponry in my classroom. But soon, with a song and a dance and a demonstration of technology that could vaporize a bear at three hundred yards, he scuttled his way into my heart."

Or... "In the future, Deceased Crab was an inmate at the Black Moon State Penitentiary. He escaped﻿ with 14 other inmates, and fled to the only safe place; the past. Arriving at an integral part of American history, and having damaged his time machine, he reformed and devoted his life to making his country and history correct."

Or... "Actually, Madamluna is the world's leading expert on forensic psychology, and I am a shady used car salesman. I sold her a bad﻿ car, and she keeps having to get it repaired. I do this for tax purposes!"

Games he's Let's Played:

 * Abobos Big Adventure
 * Act Raiser
 * Aladdin Virgin Games
 * Amazing Penguin
 * Arabian Magic (with Madamluna)
 * Archon
 * Arkanoid: Doh it Again (with Madamluna)
 * Arkanoid DS
 * The Art of Theft
 * Astro Boy Omega Factor (started as just a Madamluna LP, but DC jumped in part-way through)
 * Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus
 * Balloon Kid
 * Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa
 * Black Lodge
 * Cave Story
 * Chzo Mythos
 * Chuck Rock
 * Civilization
 * Clock Tower (with Madamluna and Enigmaopoeia)
 * Cocoron
 * Deadly Towers (with Madamluna)
 * Dont Look Back
 * Escape From the Underworld
 * Eversion
 * Gokujyou Parodius
 * Golden Axe (with Madamluna)
 * Goof Troop (with Madamluna)
 * Harpooned
 * Hatris (with Madamluna)
 * Heiankyo Alien
 * Hero Core
 * Hot Throttle
 * Hydra Castle Labyrinth
 * I Was In The War
 * Iji
 * Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu
 * Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius and Parodius Da
 * Joy Mech Fight
 * Kabuki Quantum Fighter
 * The Karate Kid (the NES game)
 * Karoshi
 * Kid Dracula (NES version)
 * Klax
 * Knytt
 * Knytt Stories
 * L Abbaye Des Morts
 * La-Mulana (twice)
 * Legacy of the Wizard
 * Little Nemo the Dream Master
 * The Lost Vikings 2
 * Mappy-Land
 * Maze of Galious
 * Mendel Palace (with Madamluna)
 * Merry Gear Solid
 * Merry Gear Solid 2
 * Minotaur In A China Shop
 * Mondo Agency (with Madamluna)
 * Mondo Medicals (With Madamluna)
 * Monster Party
 * Moon Crystal
 * Mountain Maniac
 * Mountain Maniac: X-Mas Edition
 * Night Slashers (with Madamluna)
 * The Ninja Warriors Again
 * Owl Country
 * Panic Restaurant
 * The Power
 * Power Blade
 * Redhooks Revenge (with Madamluna)
 * Rockin Kats
 * Rocky Rodent
 * Rose and Camellia
 * Run Saber (with Madamluna)
 * Shadowgate (Sorta. While Madamluna was the one actually playing the game, DC tagged along as a navigator.)
 * Shadowrun (SNES Version)
 * Skuljagger
 * Snacks N Jaxson (with Madamluna)
 * Solar Jetman
 * Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
 * Stanley The Search For Dr Livingston
 * StarTropics 1 & 2
 * Sweet Home
 * Takeshis Challenge
 * Tetris
 * Twinkle Star Sprites (with Madamluna)
 * Tyrian
 * Ufouria
 * Vegetable Game
 * VVVVVV (the demo)
 * War With The Evil Power Master (the previously mentioned Choose Your Own Adventure book)
 * Way
 * Whomp Em
 * Within a Deep Forest
 * Ys III: Wanderers From Ys

Provides examples of:
"Deceased Crab: A bridge...a bridge over the riv--
 * Angrish: This trope shows up a few times in the LP of La-Mulana's Hell Temple.

(His character drops through an unseen trap in the bridge, back down to the Hell area)

Deceased Crab: (spews furious gibberish through clenched teeth)"

"Get back here! Th! Nnnngh!! Stupid fiery spinny ball jerk!"
 * Animal Nemesis: Deceased Crab often talks about a seething hatred for whales.
 * Berserk Button: Demands or internet abbreviations in comments.
 * He isn't too fond of people correcting his pronunciation of names, if Kitsune's fate is any indication.
 * Big No: When, coupled with some Angrish.
 * Blatant Lies: DC will occasionally drop Foreshadowing by claiming that a character or plot point is unimportant and will never come up again. For example, after first meeting Curly Brace in Cave Story: "Yeah, we'll never see her again."
 * Buffy-Speak: Among others, here (at 09:34):

"Crudnutshelldamncrap!"
 * Catch Phrase:
 * "Huzzah!"
 * Specific form: "...because I am Deceased Crab! Huzzah!"
 * "Bakesale!"
 * "Hey, La-Mulanites!"
 * Lampshaded in his LP of Iji. "Hey, La-Mulanites!" * pained scream*
 * "I'm Deceased Crab. Goodnight!"
 * "What is your problem, Japan?"
 * "Suffer my wrath."
 * "It HURTS!"
 * "Dagnabbit!"
 * Crikey!
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Being Deceased Crab, he gets his own, mild version of this.

"What should I shoot now? The head, the feet or the floating core?
 * Creator Breakdown: He had one of these in the middle of his Shadowrun LP all because his viewers tried to correct his pronunciation of the name "Kitsune" complete with "The Reason You Suck" Speech and disabling the comments for several parts. Whether this was for comedy purposes is still unknown.
 * Drop the Hammer: On an Arkanoid DS game cartridge.
 * Evil Laugh: During his Let's Play of Act Raiser, the citizens of Kasandora claim that they can look after themselves. Then this happens.
 * Genre Savvy: In the Guardian battle of Hero Core.

The choice is obvious."

"That just kicks butt. Heck yeah."
 * Goddamn Bats: "Cat-Ball!" "Surprise Fish!" "UMBRELLA!!!"
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: Somewhat unique among LPers for eschewing Cluster F Bombs in favor of family-friendly curses and Unusual Euphemisms.

"Deceased Crab: I was going to turn around and hurl insults at him, but somehow I don't think 'Bake Sale' would register with that guy."
 * Because of his habit of avoiding swear words, his LP of Don't Shit Your Pants may seem a bit out-of-place.
 * DC has Lampshaded this from time to time.

""I knew it was a. I had no idea we were going to be seen﻿. The response was genuine." (- As heard on Moonhawk Studios Presents June 30, 2010.)"
 * Grammar Nazi: Don't use common internet expressions (like "lol", "u" instead of "you", "r" instead of "are") or bad grammar when you comment on one of his videos. If you're lucky, he will hide the comment. If you're less lucky, he will block and mock you.
 * Head Desk: A frequent response to nonsense in a game's plot.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Tends to treat every pun like this. Given his reaction, you'd think Merry Gear Solid 2 was killing him.
 * Jekyll and Hyde: Deceased Crab's evil split personality, Deceased Cuttlefish, takes over to play Mountain Maniac and Mountain Maniac Xmas Edition.
 * Heroic BSOD: Doesn't even begin to describe his reaction to the "reward" for completing Hell Temple in La-Mulana.

"Samantha Harty: They're an insane masochist cult who think pain is the answer to everything.
 * Also late into his Maze of Galious Let's Play.
 * And a minor one also in his first La-Mulana LP, his reaction to
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Constantly, though subverted for his Eversion LP. He's had no problem being a mass murderer in Actraiser or driving Iji to complete sociopathy.
 * Hypocrite: Wellknown as a Grammar Nazi, yet when someone tries to correct him, he has the above mentioned Creator Breakdown.
 * Intoxication Ensues: Three LP's were recorded while he was loopy from painkillers after dental surgery: Owl Country, Barbie & The Magic of Pegasus, and Minotaur China Shop.
 * He was also borderline-drunk during some late videos of La-Mulana, apparently the result of a breakup.
 * Inventory Management Puzzle: One of his biggest complaints about Sweet Home, to the point of becoming a Running Gag.
 * Keet: Anyone else suddenly think of Peewee Herman on a crack high when Deceased Crab starts talking?
 * Oddly enough, he started his Act Raiser LP in a more normal, quieter voice and was barraged with people thinking he was depressed.
 * Kindhearted Cat Lover: As abrasive as DC gets, he genuinely cares for his cats. He occasionally yells at them "Silence, Kitty!" but to be fair, it's hard to discipline a misbehaving cat any other way.
 * Laughing Mad: During the LP of La-Mulana's Hell Temple.
 * Load-Bearing Boss: Discussed in the last part of his Ufouria LP.
 * MST: Done by Retsupurae. Sort of. They added their pre-recorded audio track to a random video to prove their point that what can be said about one of his videos, can be said about all of them.
 * Madness Mantra:
 * Don't wanna drop me!
 * Don't trust the floors!
 * Mappy Land Mappy Land Mamamamamamamappy Land Mappy Land Mappy Land...
 * Miles Gloriosus: Played for Laughs as part of the role he plays in his LPs.
 * Multiple Choice Past: Usually recounted by MadamLuna. The snippet above is but one of many.
 * Never Split the Party: In his LP of Sweet Home, he attempts to keep the Five-Man Band as close together as possible, using the 'Call' feature to ensure everybody participates in most of the battles and gets experience. Considering that monsters seem particularly prone to attacking whenever there's a decent amount of distance between the groups...
 * Noodle Incident: How getting the Flare Gun in La-Mulana resulted in a Heroic BSOD for him was this until the missing video in this happened was uploaded. (He expected another item, probably the chain whip.)
 * One of Us: His usage of the term "load-bearing boss" suggests that he at least reads TV Tropes.
 * Playing Against Type: His LPs of Nifflas' games (Knytt, Knytt Stories, and Within a Deep Forest) feature DC at his least hammy--he's almost sedate.
 * He was fairly reserved in the first few episodes of Act Raiser, as well
 * As he explained when he went back to his usual hammy-ness for Act Raiser, he did so because so many people asked him if he was depressed or if something was wrong because he wasn't at his usual level of energy. As he put it: "Apparently if I don't talk like a game show host, everyone assumes I'm depressed."
 * Precision F-Strike:
 * One in La-Mulana's Hell Temple. He promptly chastised himself for it.
 * Also in his "Castlevania Birds" song.
 * Promoted Fanboy: NIGORO, the development team behind La-Mulana, liked his LP of the game so much that they mentioned him in the site's official blog. Not only that they put his name in the Wii Ware version's credits under "Special Thanks".
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Real men recover from wisdom tooth removal by playing Barbie & The Magic of Pegasus.
 * Running Gag: It is the nineties...
 * Sanity Slippage: If you want to see him pretend to lose his mind, watch his Eversion LP. If you want to see him really lose his mind, watch his blind run of La-Mulana's Hell Temple.
 * Screaming At Squick: Deceased Crab's reaction to seeing.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: In the aforementioned Barbie LP, he replaced the soundtrack with songs by Manowar and Maximum the Hormone. When he played I Was in the War and Don't Look Back, he switched the soundtracks of the two games.
 * Stealth Parody: For Don't Look Back and I Was in the War, he doesn't mention that he switched the soundtracks at any point, and comments on the games as if they still had their original soundtracks. For Harpooned! he pretends to take the game completely at face value and insists that it doesn't have any message.
 * Take That: In this video:

Deceased Crab: They sound like the IRS."


 * This Ain't Rocket Surgery: Wall jumps.
 * This Is Gonna Suck: Stink.
 * The Unfavorite: From Cocoron, Nibble. Ironically enough, DC chose to build/use Nibble because he needed a Stone Wall. Or so he thought...
 * Tranquil Fury: He reacts to unfavorable events either with this, an Angrish outburst or crazed laughter.
 * Victory Pose: After finally defeating the Eliminator in Hero Core, DC poses so violently that he hurts his neck.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?/Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Singing Ninja Tank.
 * Where's the Fun In That?: Often uttered by him.
 * With Lyrics: He does this a lot. One example is his "Castlevania Birds" song, ranting about the Goddamned Bats (or birds) of Castlevania to the tune of the game's theme tune "Bloody Tears".
 * "Bomb jellyfish/Because this game is sill-y..."