#yay 2 AM hotshot theories

[littlemissmitsukihorenake]

"All Life Needs is a Little Joke", or How Wilford Warfstache plays with the Markiplier formula

I've always wanted to talk about the technical stuff that goes through a Markiplier skit, but I never found the time to do so, and whenever I did, the window is closed and no one talks about it. Sad, I know. But with the new Wilford video out, I decided that I can finally look into something I wanted to talk about for a while.

I wanna talk a little bit about the Markiplier Writing Formula.

(I mean, I'm a writer too, you know. A writer catches things.)

The thing is that Markiplier is a comedy writer, first and foremost. He entertains us through laughter and happiness. This extends to his skits, which tend to lean toward happy times and fun all around...even when it's dark, it's a dark comedy. And here's something we need to recall: all Markiplier skits end with a joke. All of them.

Anything Cyndago? Joke ending.

Google IRL? Joke. Poor bot overheated and spazzed out.

Hell, let's go recent. Remember A Date With Markiplier? Remember what the canon ending was? Yeah, that's right. We were Chica all along. Despite the fact that this was Darkiplier's first serious appearance.

The best part about this is that even Who Killed Markiplier followed this formula. The first chapter ended on a dick joke, and then one of two things happened. Either you watched it straight and ended on a man looking for a punchline

Or you watched it with bonus content and SURPRISE, we have a joke! The formula holds.

As I follow this, I notice that the formula goes something like this: thete is always a joke ending, which is even funnier in context with what the video is about. Even when the video is 100% serious.

Knowing that, think about Wilford's new video. It technically ends on a joke too...on paper. Follow me on this: the video is about a detective chasing down a criminal. The video ends with both of them dancing at a disco club.

On paper, it sounds so hilarious just by how random it was. And we can all accept that by how Wilford is. The Markiplier skit holds true to formula. However, the difference here is that the context of this ending joke is...so much different than before.

The man is losing his memories to the madness. He can't coherently remember the detective chasing him. He is passing through all time and space at the same time, and he can't hold himself up with that. The madness is all he has left.

And oh boy, what about detective Abe? We just came to the realization that even the manor affected him as well. The manor will not let Mark die...and as such, Abe cannot die either. Even worse was that he was losing his memories as well. Just like Wilford.

And then, as quick as we got here, we slowly descend into our joke ending.

Two men, two enemies, dancing in a nightclub.

Lost to the madness.