Dead End - TV Tropes
- ️Sat Jul 05 2014
Dead End is a web cartoon
created by Hamish Steele. It was released on Cartoon Hangover on June 26, 2014. It can be viewed on YouTube.
When Barney, Norma, and Pugsley move into a house on Morningwood Road, it turns out to be haunted, and a ghost named Pauline takes over Barney's body and traps him in the internet. Barney must find a way to escape the internet and get his body back.
With the original pilot having been a failure, the series has since been Retooled into the webcomic/graphic novel series DeadEndia, which in turn became the basis for the Netflix show Dead End: Paranormal Park.
Not to be confused with the 2003 French horror film of the same name, or the 1937 Humphrey Bogart film.
Dead End features examples of:
- Ambiguously Gay: Barney
God of the Internet: To your left is the domain of the Bare Naked Ladies.
Barney: That's not what I'm looking for!
Barney: 'Chuckles' Maybe later...
- Since then both the comic and the later animated adaptation have made it abundantly clear that he is in fact gay and trans at that.
- Calling Your Attacks:
Barney: Death Punch!
- Demonic Possession: What Pauline does to Barney.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Contrary to DeadEndia and Dead End: Paranormal Park the short is very wacky. Both of these follow ups would retain a sense of humor but be a lot more mature.
- The trio lives in a house instead of in a park.
- Pugsley is perverted and disloyal contrary to his more dignified characterisation later on.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Everything on the internet.
- It's Not Porn, It's Art: Pugsley when caught looking at a website called Pughub.
Norma: What the hell is that!?
Pugsley: Just some... art...
- Mood Whiplash: Pauline's death. The short remains pretty lighthearted before and after, but she dies in obvious agony.
Presumably from internal injuries. Pugsley even lampshades that this isn't funny, not that Norma or Barney care. - Percussive Maintenance: Barney smacks the wifi router with his fist to try and get it working again.
Barney: This is going to take all of my technical know-how. [smacks router] Work, computer!
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Pugsley. He comes back...
Pugsley: Nope X 30
- Shout-Out: To all kinds of things (the 'Where's catbug' tweet being just one of them).
- Take That, Audience!: A few of the YouTube comments (in the short itself) are obvious potshots at the comments they expected to get in response to the actual YouTube video.
- This Loser Is You: All three of the main characters.
- Too Dumb to Live: Dead End is clearly not a place any sane person would consider entering, much less moving into. It takes internet failure for them to even notice something's amiss, and a ghost actually appearing in broad daylight for them to conclude the presence of supernatural activity.
Norma: Pugsley... what if the house we moved into was haunted?
Pugsley: It might explain the wallpaper.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
Pugsley: Norma guess what? Barney's trapped in the internet!
- Valley Girl: Pauline appears to be one.
- Voices Are Mental: Pauline speaks with her own voice when she's possessing Barney's body.