Smiling Friends: The Last Resort (Web Animation)

The Smiling Friends tackle a new case, but can Charlie succeed without Pim’s usual demeanor? Plus, Glep helps Alan stay awake.

Smiling Friends: The Last Resort provides iconic examples of:

Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Averted, as the animatic is all line art and slight grayscales; only a bit of color is across a few scenes.
Black Comedy
Boss's Unfavorite Employee: Yum Dummers is very abrasive to his employee Fred, telling him off for getting outside help by hiring the Smiling Friends from the big city and promising to dock his pay for Pim and Charlie’s time there; a retaliation that Fred resigns himself to.
Call-Back: To the events of "Desmond's Big Day Out".
- The fan episode starts with Glep on a ladder, replacing the television that the TV alien burst out of in The Stinger.
- Charlie goes over Desmond’s Straw Nihilist speech from outside Daveland, deconstructing the points made by a man who was in a bad state of mind and reminding Pim of their purpose as Smiling Friends.
Callousness Towards Emergency: After Yum Dummers is revealed as a Con Artist and the crowd of his deceived patrons begin brutalizing him, Pim and Charlie agree that they should call the police to reign in the chaos… only to walk away, resigning Fred to call 911.
Cheer Up Episode: Not only for the clients per the show’s We Help the Helpless theme — in this case, the visitors of a resort who haven’t improved despite a month of attendance — but for Pim, who has yet to bounce back from Desmond’s nihilistic speech.
Chekhov's Gun
- The paperwork. Mr. Boss reminds Charlie to bring the “We’re Sorry” paperwork along with him, but he ends up forgetting anyways. It takes him calling Allan to come bring it out to the resort and conk out after a single drink once he’s there for Pim to suspect something is really wrong with the smoothies.
- Yum Dummers Citrus Therapy Surprise. Fred introduces the smoothie as the signature item at the troubled resort’s cafeteria. As it turns out, the resort-goers are troubled because they’ve been drugged with depressants in the smoothies, counteracting their treatment.
Chemically-Induced Insanity: The clients at Yum Dummers Wellness resort haven’t been getting any better because their drinks have been laced with depressant drugs.
Cigar Chomper: Yum Dummers is a smoker of cigars, lighting up when Charlie starts to consider the job quits.
Door Fu: When Allan barges through the cafeteria doors, he knocks over Yum Dummers, who was leaning against the adjacent wall to smoke a cigar.
Exhausted Eye Bags: Allan is visibly tired when he comes in to work, his Sleep Deprivation making his narrow eyes even narrower.
Fantastic Drug: It appears there’s not only anti-depressant drugs (“uppers”), but anti-anti-depressants (“downers”). One brand, Depress-Os, is powerful enough to bring down the caffeine-overdosed Allan in a second.
Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: Yum Dummers is a man of short, stout, and south stature, all in an off-white suit as the Title Card shows.
Fell Asleep Driving: Glep joins Allan on the drive to Fleeble Mart to subvert this trope, somersault kicking him in the face every time he begins to dose off. Double Subverted when, without caffeine chews or Glep there for him, Allan falls asleep and veers off into a tree into burst of flames in the Gainax Ending.
Foreshadowing: Glep doesn’t let Allan drive alone until he has some caffeine in his system to keep him awake, fearing his coworker would Fall Asleep Driving and crash in traffic. When the Depress-Os get the Caffeine Chews out of Allan’s system, he indeed falls asleep and crashes on the side of a county road to Pim and Charlie’s horror.
Free-Sample Plot Coupon: A literal example in Schleemo’s Caffeine Chews, as a few free samples at the store allows the Sleep Deprived Allan to have the energy to further his B-Plot (and caffeine addiction).
Funny Background Event
- One arising from the incomplete nature of the animatic in the setting of the cafeteria. The basic geometric models for the scenes were evidently made in the Source game engine given the freeze-frames of running Gordon Freeman player models with the tag “info_player_coop”.
- On a darker note, you can see Allan begin to fall asleep behind the wheel and veer off-road as Pim and Charlie are talking in the company car ahead of him.
Gainax Ending: The Last Resort ends with Pim and Charlie’s rejoicing over another job well done, only for everything to turn sour when Allan falls asleep driving and crashes in a huge explosion behind them, and they start panicking to turn around over and check on him.
Goofy Print Underwear: Since Mr. Boss’ lower half wasn’t seen in the Pilot, The Last Resort took Artistic License and has him come out into the break room with no pants, just a pair of heart-print boxers.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Fred is a timid, kind-hearted man who is concerned when he and the fellow staff have been unable to help their latest visitors, and still calls for help for his Mean Boss when an angry mob is brutalizing him. You can only tell he has Hair of Gold from the Splash of Color that is the Title Card, as every other appearance of his is in grayscale.
Heroic BSoD: Pim is stuck in one for most of the episode — the one he had at the end of “Desmond’s Big Day Out” — and his Character Arc for The Last Resort is to snap out of it.
Hot Springs Episode: Charlie and Pim set out for a job helping at the Yum Dummers Wellness Resort, whose clients are dissatisfied despite the place’s repertoire of recreational activities.
Fred: So, we’ve got a tai chi area, a spa and bathhouse, meditation center, hiking trails, and our cafeteria.
I Do Not Own: The YouTube video starts with a disclaimer from the animator, stating that it is a fan animatic.
All rights to Smiling Friends are owned by [adult swim], and no Copyright Infringement is intended.
See Also
The Differences Between Whiplash and a Concussion | Free Consults
Imagine Spot: The Sleep Deprived Allan notified Glep that he was going to drive to the store for some coffee. Cue Glep having a shell-shocked look as an Inner Monologue plays out of Allan moaning about how sleepy he is followed by sounds of blaring truck horns, vehicles crashing, and Stock Screams.
Klatchian Coffee: Schleemo’s Caffeine Chews. The box markets one cube as having ten times the effectivity of the average cup of coffee, Allan’s immediate reaction to having one attesting to this.
Laughing at Your Own Jokes: Mr. Boss can’t tell Pim and Charlie about their newest assignment without laughing at a dumb joke he read on his laptop, and after Charlie inquires on what’s so funny, he continues to snicker as he relays it to them.
Liar Revealed: Pim hops up on a table to reveal to the cafeteria who is behind the resort’s failings.

Pim: Everybody, listen up! They’ve been lacing the Citrus Surprise with downers! The therapy methods here are working, but drinking the juice is keeping you unhappy! Yum Dummers is a big nasty Con Artist!
Limited Animation: The Last Resort isn’t a fully-fledged animation but an animatic of keyframes. The highest framerate in the video is the gag of Allan wigging out on a mouthful of Schleemo’s Caffeine Chews.
Malaproper: “That is utterly po-poster-ricious!”
Mood Whiplash: The "Everybody Laughs" Ending quickly becomes a Gainax Ending when Pim and Charlie, rejoicing over another successful assignment, are stricken with horror and panic when Allan’s car behind them veers off the road and crashes into the trees with a burst of flames.
Must Have Caffeine: Allan is in a total dreg without his morning coffee. He’s so out of it when he comes in to work after running out at home, he’s slumping over everything and shuffling around the office with his body bent under himself.
The Noisy Straw: Audible slurping of Yum Dummers’ patented Yum Dummers Citrus Therapy Surprise!
Original Flavor: Zig-Zagged. The Last Resort follows the Two Lines, No Waiting formula of “Desmond’s Big Day Out”, but the subsequent episodes of Smiling Friends releases in the years after this fan animatic was made experimented with the plot and weren’t as forumulaic.
Race Against the Clock: Yum Dummers gives the Smiling Friends twenty-four hours to show they can help where his employees have been failing, lest he have “a mighty fine fixin’ to kick [Pim and Charlie’s] sorry be-hinds all the way back to that big city of [theirs].”
Rule of Three: The scene of Allan driving him and Glep to Fleeble Mart, Smash Cuts to them in the parking lot in the middle of Glep’s third jump kick to keep Allan awake.
Sampling: The Last Resort uses audio from “Desmond’s Big Day Out” and animations from the psychicpebbles YouTube channel for, such as Glep’s Wingon, the Smiling Friends alarm, and Pim and Charlie’s screaming for the Gainax Ending.
Shout-Out
- In a paraphrase of Zach from the OneyPlays Let's Play on Left 4 Dead 2, Yum Dummers tells Charlie that folks in the south “do things a little bit differently than we do things in the big city”.
- The police officer that arrests Yum Dummers is the same timid policeman from GET OUT OF MY CAR
Skyward Scream: After shoveling a handful of caffeine chew free samples (with the toothpicks) into his mouth, Allan screams to the ceiling, getting the attention of everyone in the Fleeble Mart as they turn to him.
Allan: AIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Slap Yourself Awake: Pim gives himself two quick pairs of slaps after Charlie snaps him out of his Heroic BSoD.

Pim: Time to get out of this silly ol’ rut! (cutely slaps his face)
Sleep Deprivation
So Unfunny, It's Funny: Mr. Boss retells a joke from his computer; Charlie and the catatonic Pim don’t have the same reception to it, but chance are the viewers may share some mirth.
Mr. Boss: So (laughs) so, a guy is buying a new car from a salesman, and after hearing his spiel, he asks, “Cargo space?” The salesman looks at him like he’s three and says “No… car go road. Car no fly”—(breaks down laughing) Eh? Eh?

Charlie: (Beat) Ohhh… (forced laugh)
Southern Gentleman: Averted. A southern boy like Yum Dummers would like you to believe he is, hosting a wellness resort and everything away from the mess of the big city, but he doesn’t hide his abrasiveness and arrogance at all. Certainly fits the bill of a Con Artist.
Splash of Color: Most of The Last Resort is in grayscale. The only things in color are the Title Card, the Credits, and the occasional annotation of character movement… oh, and Allan’s car exploding.
Stimulant Speed Talk: Allan high off of Schleemo’s Caffeine Chews. He wastes no time responding to Charlie’s phone call to come down to the resort with the paperwork he forgot, and once there barges into the cafeteria demanding a drink with the anchovy-esque chant of “Thirsty. Thirsty. Thirsty.” Something in the Citrus Surprise drains the energy out of him.
Surprise Car Crash: Like Glep feared, Allan Fell Asleep Driving at the end of the animation, his car crashing into the tree line with an explosion to Pim and Charlie’s horror.
Title Card: The animation starts with this after an I Do Not Own disclaimer, with an alternate version of the illustration serving as the thumbnail of the YouTube video.
Torches and Pitchforks: Once Yum Dummers is revealed to have been drugging them with depressants to continuously pay for his wellness resorts’ services, the patrons quickly turn violent against him. They throw the drugged smoothies at him, shattering the glasses, and begin kicking him while he’s down.
Two Lines, No Waiting: Like “Desmond’s Big Day Out”, the A-Plot follows Pim and Charlie out on the field while the B-Plot sees Allan on his own endeavor that comes back to resolve the A-Plot.
Villain in a White Suit: Yum Dummers. While the animation itself is in grayscale and all the Amazing Technicolor Critters are solid white by default, the Title Card is colored and shows the suit he wears is an off-white.

Smiling Friends: The Last Resort (Web Animation) - TV Tropes (2024)

Smiling Friends: The Last Resort provides iconic examples of: