Pop-Ocalypse is a surreal Horror Comedy Web Animation series created by and starring South African indie animator Bea Jumpup.
The plot, such as there is one, is about Limpet, a transgender water type creature with a deep love of pop music and cryptids, who discovers that the CEO of Music is banning one half of her interests (the pop music, not the cryptids). Together with her two friends Fresno and Paul, she sets out on a quest to save pop music... eventually. Bizarreness, media mixing, and nonsensical asides ensue.
The series can be watched for free on Jumpup's Youtube
or Newgrounds pages.
Okay, I've got all my tropes, I've got all my tropes, I've got all my tropes, I've got...
- Aerith and Bob: Our three main characters are named Limpet, Fresno, and Paul.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Limpet has blue skin and green hair, while Paul has green skin. Most of the cast are unusually colored, but those two stand out for being otherwise humanoid.
- Argument of Contradictions: Limpet gets into one with a Bloop denier in Episode 4. They present one piece of evidence each before the whole argument degrades into the denier saying "The Bloop is fake" and Limpet desperately responding "IT'S REAL IT'S REAL IT'S REAL" over and over again.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Downplayed rather realistically. In Episode 4, Limpet has a massive, room-destroying meltdown over pop music being banned... only to immediately calm down upon noticing her cryptid poster and decide to log onto the cryptid forums instead. However, the fact that she immediately gets into a pointless argument with some nobody that leaves her sobbing all over herself makes it clear that her emotions are still on the crisis.
- Author Avatar: Limpet is played by the series's creator, and like her, is a transgender woman who loves strange and "ugly" things. Her best friend is voiced by the creator's most frequent collaborator.
- Big Bad: The CEO of Music, who has banned pop music purely because he doesn't like it.
- Big Good: Happy Hardcore F.K.A. Sculpto, the radical archivist and preservationist whose actions have made him an enemy of copyright holders, government officials, and hate groups alike. Limpet and co.'s primary goal is to find him because he's the only one who can save pop music.
- Beneath him is Fresno's dad, the one who tells Limpet the true scope of the CEO of Music's plot and sends her on her quest to meet Happy Hardcore.
- Black Comedy Burst: On their way to Fresno's parents' house, the gang pass by a bird that lands on a barbed wire fence, making a comedically exaggerated face of pain and a mic-blowing scream before flying away trailing blood, and a bright smiling flower that is promptly snipped by a passing crab, revealing its stems meaty innards.
- Cartoon Creature: Most of the cast, while bizarre, are at least recognizable as real animals or supernatural beings. And then there's Fresno and his dad, who can best be described as "brightly colored disembodied legs with faces on their abnormally tall hips". Episode 6 clarifies that they're actually cryptids.
- Censor Suds: When Limpet takes her shower in Episode 5, bubbling foam appears over her chest and groin, even though she's standing motionless and not scrubbing anywhere.
- Cloudcuckooland: People throwing hamburgers, skateboarding fish, pigs running the supermarket, a CEO of music... this world is weird, as Limpet remarks after dodging one of the aforementioned hamburgers.
- Comical Coffee Cup: Episode 5 features a bug that hatches from its egg already holding a "Bug Off" coffee mug.
- Connected All Along: Episode 6 reveals that Limpet's lifelong love of cryptids was born of a childhood encounter with Fresno's dad.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The CEO of Music, who uses his authority to have all of pop music banned and destroyed, seemingly just because he doesn't like it. Episode 6 reveals that this is only the latest step in a long-running scheme censoring and rewriting information, making the entire population dumb and compliant.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first thing we see of Limpet is her as a child, staring absolutely mesmerized at a Youtube video about a cryptid with 5k dislikes and barely three stars, before jumping forward ten years to her walking to the store, desperately reassuring herself that she has all her bags despite said bags being right there on her shoulder, then running down the list of said bags, most of which are media branded. This immediately tells us everything we need to know about her: she's a Lovable Nerd who's obsessed with cryptids, she doesn't have many standards, and she's got very, very bad anxiety.
- The Gadfly: Paul. At one point, he tries to trick Fresno into thinking he got a tattoo when he actually just drew it on that day, and when Limpet collapses from her surreal exposition encounter, he decides to wake her up by shouting at her that she's in a stolen car (she's not, Fresno's parents let them borrow it).
- It Was with You All Along: Limpet, who is obsessed with cryptids, was completely unaware that her own best friend was a cryptid until it was spelled out to her by his father.
- Lovable Jock: The skateboarding fish from Episode 2. When Limpet remarks that they're cooler than her, one of them immediately comes over and tells her that she shouldn't think of herself like that, and that she's probably pretty cool in her own right.
- Medium Blending: All over the place. In the course of an average sub-five minute episode, you'll see physical models, 3D animation, 2D animation, live action, puppetry, stop-motion, 3D animation animated to look like stop-motion, 3D animation animated to look like 2D animation... all in about a dozen different artstyles each.
- Mind Screw: The whole series. While the broadest broad strokes of the plot are somewhat sensible, every episode is filled with aggressive pop art setpieces, random asides that amount to nothing, and bizarre details that serve primarily to decontextualize what happens.
- Mistaken Identity: The underwater bug girl in Episode 2 mistakes Limpet for the king (despite her being the wrong gender and blue) after a bird steals the real king's crown and drops it on her head. Limpet goes along with it because the bug girl is blocking the way to the grocery store.
- Non-Ironic Clown: While it remains to be seen how funny he is, Happy Hardcore F.K.A. Sculpto is a clown who serves as the protagonists' greatest hope of saving pop music, being recognized as a threat by copyright holders, government agents, and hate groups alike.
- "On the Next Episode of…" Catchphrase: "What Could Possibly Happen Next??", which, in this series, is an extremely valid question.
- Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: Limpet is obsessed with cryptids, watching videos about them, having posters of them in her bedroom, and hanging out on forums for them, with Episode 4 featuring her getting into a passionate argument about The Bloop. Episode 6 reveals that Fresno and his dad are cryptids.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Both Limpet and Paul eschew shoes, even when Limpet's walking out to the grocery store. Limpet is shy and emotionally fragile, while Paul is chill and down to earth (and avoids many other clothes as well).
- Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted. Pretty much every character mumbles, stammers, repeats themself, pauses mid-sentence, or otherwise talks like they're coming up with their lines on the spot, with Limpet herself being the absolute worst offender.
- Seinfeldian Conversation: In Episode 5, Fresno and Paul's attempt to cheer up Limpet over the banning of pop music is derailed when Fresno talks about what cheers him up after his "world gets rocked", and he and Paul start arguing over whether it's appropriate to use the phrase "rock your world" to refer to something negative or not.
- Shower of Angst: Fresno advises Limpet take one in Episode 5, saying that they always cheer him up when he's feeling down. Limpet takes him up on it, with the audience seeing her standing motionless under the shower head, slumped over to stare despondently at the floor.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Limpet is deeply awkward, stammers and mumbles when talking to anyone other than her closest friends, and has absolutely no ability to stand up for herself.
- Stylistic Suck: All over the place. Most of the 2D art looks like children's drawings, most of the 3D art looks like PS1 models animated at 15 frames per second, the voice actors all stammer and fumble their words, and the epic skateboarding fish Limpet thinks are the coolest thing imaginable are just some toys being thrown around.
- Surreal Horror: The series is tagged as horror, after all. Limpet's emotional lows tend to be accompanied by harsh, atonal noises and dark, surreal imagery like discolored human arms.
- Surreal Humor: All over the place. A meddlesome bird steals the king's crown while he's out nude sunbathing! Those fish are skateboarding! The cashier at the grocery store is a talking pig watching trashy TV! Two loving spider wives!
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Paul never puts on a shirt, ever, although unlike most examples, he's rather flabby and toneless.
- Yet Another Baby Panda: A breaking news announcement about the banning of literally all pop music lasts a single sentence before segwaying into a story about "more pressing matters". The audio is muffled as the characters react to the obviously more pressing story, but the image we see is of a tiny, and admittedly very cute, baby deer.
