Equals Three

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You be trollin'!

You know what time it is forum, it's time for the Comment Question of the day. So I want you to describe Equals Three here. Leave your interesting or creative responses in the comments section below.

Equals Three (=3) was a YouTube series hosted by Ray William Johnson, who reviewed viral videos he found or were sent to him. Three videos were shown and a question submitted via video was posed for the commenters to respond to in the comments section. New videos were posted every Tuesday and Friday. He ended the series in 2014, though other hosts continued hosting it until 2016.

Ray William Johnson was previously the most subscribed channel from 2011 to 2013, but was overtaken by Smosh. The end of Equals Three lead to a decline in the channel's popularity, with him slowly losing subscribers.

He also released songs and videos under the account name Your Favorite Martian.

It has a Spin-Off in Spanish: Igual a tres, hosted by Pedro Flores.

Not to be confused with :3.

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This series provides examples of:

• Acting for Two: A second character known only as the Troll shows up sometimes...trolling.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Other guys show up doing the show sometimes, with little actual introduction. So far we've seen meekakitty, KassemG, Garfunkel and Oates, Bobby Lee, TJ Miller, and friggin' Gabriel Iglesias.
• Auto-Tune: This episode.
• Butt Monkey: Recently, the Google+ logo.
• Catch Phrase: I'm just sayin'.
  • "What's happenin', forum?"
  • "Leave your interesting or creative responses in the comments section *deep bass/squeaky voice/other sound effect* below."
  • "Gee! Zus!"
    • This becomes a Subverted Catchphrase when he says, "GEE.... (gasps).....That's a lot of views."
  • "I'm Ray William Johnson, and I approve this message!"
  • "Fake and gay!"
    • "Falso y maricon!"
  • In recent episodes, he maims the Google+ logo.
• The Cameo: None other than Robin Williams in this video.
• Cowboy Bebop at His Computer: In the video Creepy Indian, Ray calls the guy an exorcist. An exorcist is the person who releases the demon from a host, not the person possessed by one. Also in a vein attempt of a Shout-Out to the move of the same name, he has the guy say "They're here!"
  • Then again, given that he's acting like a bit of an ignorant douche on =3 in contrast to how he normally acts according to his vlog, this was probably on purpose.
  • He also called out The Wall Street Journal for doing this about him in one of his videos.
• Cute Kitten: Cat videos show up on the series every so often on a regular basis. Ray lampshades the Internet's apparent obsession with cat videos.
• Emoticon: =3
• Hilarious Outtakes: Some of the videos after the show proper have a minute or so of Ray messing up lines, with a whole bunch of Cluster F Bombs.
• Hypocritical Humor: In The =3 Musical, Ray asks "What kind of lame-ass person uses Autotune" while singing in Autotune himself.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: So, so many. Enough to be a Running Gag.
• Jerkass: Ray is this in some videos.
• One of Us: Well, Ray does most of his videos in front of a wall plastered with pages from Watchmen. That's kind of a giveaway.
• Refuge in Audacity: Lampshaded heavily.
• Running Gag: Several: Your Mom, Ray's non-existent social/sexual life or lame jokes, PedoBear, the Troll or any number of viral video-derived audacities, including something about 2 angry camels in a tiny car.
  • Russian virals seem to be the most fun and unsafe-looking of late.
    • Gabriel Iglesias himself admitted he can't host an episode without a Russian video.
  • Epic face, epic face, epic face, epic face, JIZZ IN MY PANTS!
  • He's also taken to assaulting Google+ when he says where you can leave your comments.
• Self-Deprecation: A part of his style which comes into play quite a lot.
• Sound Effect Bleep / This Trope Is Bleep: He tends not to curse in the videos, but does so in his personal vlog (BreakingNYC). He justified it in a vlog by saying he wants to keep the series kid-friendly.
  • This video, "Indian Action" has an uncensored f-bomb, perhaps a first for Ray?
  • He leaves uncensored Fluorine bombs in "Thug Gumby" and "Broken Goat", as well as the word itself appearing on screen in "Jesus Dance".
• Stay in the Kitchen: Some of the jokes he makes are blatantly sexist. He always apologizes though.
• This Loser Is You: A character labelled "You" occasionally appears. "You" say a lot of very stupid things.
• Unexplained Recovery: The Troll.
• Your Mom: An old Running Gag of the series. Reportedly, having sex with someone's mother is the only cure for squirrel AIDS.

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Your Favorite Martian provides examples of:

• A Day in the Limelight: "Transphobic Techno" is one for DeeJay- no one else in the band makes an appearance.
• Affably Evil: Exploited in Club Villain. Puff is allowed into the titular club, and uses his politeness to get himself laid.
• And That's Terrible / But You Screw One Goat!: In The Stereotypes Song in which he jokingly sings about stereotypes, he mentions Scotsmen humping sheep, and at the end he adds, "But seriously, don't hump any sheep."
• Art Evolution: The video for Whip Yo Kids and the videos onward have much better animation and art than the previous music videos.
• Ascended Extra: Benatar went from being the band's silent guitarist to getting as much singing time as Puff himself, singing more than Puff in Complicated and Jupiter. According to Ray himself, Axel is expected to be singing at some point as well.
• Band Toon: Your Favorite Martian: The Series is now being run on YouTube. The series is a parody of more traditional band toons, only with a lot more sexual jokes and NSFW language.
• Bigger Is Better: My Balls is a song where Puff brags that his balls can win back his ex-girlfriend (the person he's singing to)
• Buxom Is Better: The subject of Tig Ol' Bitties.
• Call Back: Tig Ol' Bitties makes a reference to My Balls. "Like my balls--real big!"
  • And in Whip Yo Kids, a call back even further, to the very first song his earlier band, Fatty Spins, put on youtube titled "Doin' Your Mom".:
• Chick Magnet: DeeJay (Fat black guy), bordering on Kavorka Man.
• Blinding Bangs: The entire backup. Even DeeJay with his Funny Afro. Although we see his eyes starting in Transphobic Techno.
• Continuity Nod: In Grandma Got a Facebook, all of the people that Puff's Grandma friends are from Club Villain and The Stereotypes Song.
  • Also Mr. Douchebag, who also shows up in Friend Zone.
  • In Robot Bar Fight, the Terminator does a dance we first saw on Mr. Douchebag.
  • In the remix for the Mike Posner song She Looks Like Sex, among the ugly woman in the place is Oprah and a fat trucker from Epileptic Techno and the Wet-Dog-headed girl from Dookie Fresh.
• Dan Browned: Scottish people are not really stereotyped for humping sheep.
• Deconstruction: Transphobic Techno seems to offer a suggestion to why club music repeats the same words over and over again.
• Darker and Edgier: Puff lets out his inner Eminem during the verses of "Alien," which is itself about bullying and isolation. Now, compare that to a song like "Booty Store..."
  • "Text Me Back" is a pretty dark song, but just listen to it without watching the video to see how much darker it becomes.
• Demoted to Extra: DeeJay went from being the second singer behind Puff and actually having his own song to mixing beats while Benatar took his place.
• Did Not Do the Research: Dr Robotnik is not actually a robot.
  • In Robotnik's case, he could be the Archie Comics version, who WAS a robot: Robo-Robotnik from a parallel Mobius who takes proper Robotnik's place and takes Eggman's form.
  • Also from Robot Bar Fight, X is seen, yet he's just called Mega Man.
    • Recall that he is fully named Mega Man X. Ray probably didn't care and went with X because he looks older.
  • Peach is not the princess in The Legend of Zelda. Zelda is.
• Disney Acid Sequence: Orphan Tears.
  • One part in Transphobic Techno.
• Dirty Old Woman: Puff's grandma, AKA Slutty McButtSex, in "Grandma got a Facebook."
• Double Subversion: Puff may have made up the story of Robot Bar Fight, but as the lights were turned off in the video, his eyes lit up.
• Dropped a Bridget On Him: The main premise of Transphobic Techno, but it ends up being subverted.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Chris Brown is kicked out of a Villain's Club, whose denizens include Jason, Voldemort and Charles Manson.
• Estrogen Brigade Bait: Benatar and Axel. Benatar especially.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Many of his songs are guilty of this.
• Fantastic Drug: Orphan Tears.
• Flanderization
• Finishing Move: Several in Fight to Win.
• Freudian Excuse: In TAKE OVER THE WORLD the nerd guy works in a crap job and gets mistreated.
• Friend Zone: Friend Zone, obviously.
• Gargle Blaster: The titular Orphan Tears.
• Hollywood Tourettes: "BARF, PISS, ASS, ASS, BARF!"
• Homoerotic Subtext: The Unofficial Smithers Love Song. Enough said. Less "subtext" than "text".
  • We get a clear shot of R2-D2 and C-3PO kissing in Robot Bar Fight, before they are interrupted by a gun-toting WALL-E. It's a long story.
• Ho Yay: The music video for Somebody that I Used to Know has Puff singing Kimbra's part from the original. If you know the context of the song, it could possibly appear that he's singing it to Benetar.
• Hurricane of Puns: Bottles of Beer has named 29 different beer brands in the lyrics.
• Hypocritical Humor: In Fight to Win, both Puff and guest rapper DeStorm claim that fighting games like Mortal Kombat don't make them violent. They then proceed to kick each other's asses over the last nacho.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: The Basic Premise of Fight to Win.
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: The Mom from "Stalkin' Your Mom".
• In Da Club: Examples include "Club Villain," "Orphan Tears," "Transphobic Techno" and "Epileptic Techno".
  • She Looks Like Sex and White Boy Wasted, to a lesser extent.
• Joisey: The subject of the song "Mr. Douchebag."
• Madness Mantra: "Bitch got a penis... Bitch got a penis... Bitch got a penis... Bitch got a penis..."
• Mood Dissonance: For no obvious reason, the girl in Tig Ol' Bitties smiles after she gets yelled at by Puff (who is referred to as Your Favorite Martian in the song); she was faking sadness.
• Mood Whiplash: "Alien" is not a comedic song at all, it's an anti-bullying song.
  • Friend Zone and Complicated are pretty straight love songs with very little comedy.
  • Take Over the World is less comedic, more reminding you that there are greater opportunities out there for you.
  • Hell, all but three songs since Friend Zone have been serious.
• Mushroom Samba: Orphan Tears is a song describing the effect of the titluar drug on Puff, DeeJay, and special guest Wax. Needless to say, it's extremely trippy.
• National Stereotypes: The Stereotypes Song notes a lot of these.
• Odd Man Out: Every single member of the band has at least one thing that the other three do not.
  • Puff is the only one who's eyes are visible
  • DeeJay is the only black guy and also the only one who's fat
  • Axl is the only one with brown shoes instead of white...these are my rules, I make 'em up
  • Benetar is the only one with blond hair as opposed to brown and is also the only one who's British instead of American
• Our Zombies Are Different: Zombie Love proves (unintentionally) that zombies have emotions as well.
• Precision F-Strike: Oprah's purpose when she appeared in Epileptic Techno.
  • In "Alien": "All a bully needs is a FUCKING EXCUSE!"
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mr. Douchebag. Bonus points for it being in song.
• Shout-Out: To many well-known Big Bads in Club Villain.
  • To Monty Python and The Holy Grail in Tig Ol' Bitties at 1:54.
  • And Family Guy at the end of Tig Ol' Bitties.
  • "Stain on my shirt - mom's spaghetti" in Tig Ol' Bitties.
  • Wax claims he was "feeling like Dorothy" when he was spinning around in the black hole in Orphan Tears.
  • To a bunch of robots in Robot Bar Fight.
  • Maya Angelou of all people in Take Over the World.
    • Not to mention the not-so-subtle reference to Pinky and The Brain.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The sole annotation in The Stereotypes Song says "Yes, the Scottish are known for humping sheep. Google it before you start arguing with me about it. :)"
  • Referring to The Unofficial Smithers Love Song: "Yes, that familiar progression you're hearing is Pachelbel's Canon in E. It's commonly used as a wedding song. Get it? :)"
• Something Completely Different: Compared to a lot of their other work, Alien is a lot less funny and a lot more serious.
  • Same goes for Friend Zone and Complicated. Friend Zone has the occasional sight gag and one or two amusing lines, but Complicated has neither - both are songs about unrequited love.
  • Same also goes for Take Over the World. Like Friend Zone, it has one or two sight gags and amusing lines, but it's mainly about being stuck a job you hate and dreaming about chasing your own goals.
• The Something Song: The Stereotype Song
• Stock Footage: With many of YFM newer music videos, the chorus, as well as the actions of DeeJay, Axel, and Benatar rely on this.
  • Was subverted in "Alien" until the animations appear again in "White Boy Wasted"...
• Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: Booty Store, natch.
• Stylistic Suck: It's actually intentional that the lyrics of Bitch Got a Penis repeat over and over and over and over and over and over and over and...
• Take Over the World: TAKE OVER THE WORLD
• Take That: To Chris Brown in Club Villain.
  • And a lot of the major world countries in The Stereotypes Song, though he was just joking.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Partying" for "having sex"
• What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Faking big breasts?! Unforgivable! (Okay, for some guys this is the most evil thing ever, but still...)

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Your Favorite Martian: The Series Provides Examples of:

• AI Is a Crapshoot: What happens to G.I.A in "G.I.A/G.P.S"
• Cluster F-Bomb: It's not an episode of YFMTS without it.
• Joisey: The setting of Episode 1 Brock's hometown.
• Loony Fan: Wilton, from episode #5 of YFMTS. (Wilton is the guy from Nerd Rage)
• Shout-Out: Being a show based off of Ray's band, it's gonna have these:
  • Brock, who is the title character in "Mr. Douchebag", appears in "Douchebagged."
  • Slutty McButtsex appears in the episodes "Die for Rock and Roll" and "G.I.A/G.P.S"
  • Tig, the girl from "Tig Ol' Bitties", appears with her niece Tara in "Bad Seed".
    • She later appears in Puff's OBE in "ISO Tank" while he's trying to come up with a song about her. The end result? None other than "Tig Ol' Bitties"
  • Wilton, the nerd from "Nerd Rage", appears in "#1 Fan"
• Spoiled Brat: Tara from episode #4 of YFMTS. Enough said.
• Opposite Sex Clone: DeeJay and DeeJane (YFMTS Episode #9). To describe DeeJane, she's DeeJay as a girl.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry: YFMTS Episode #8 "ROAD RAGE" lampshades that Puff has major anger issues. A couple of "Yo Grandma" jokes, a shrinkage of his hoodie and a simple squirrel dance gets him flared up. I don't blame him over having to DRESS UP as a squirrel, though.

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"I'm Ray William Johnson, and I approve this trope!"