Hii!
Few days ago, I was absent-mindedly scrolling through Instagram, and somehow I stumbled upon the rawest piece of animation ever made.
It featured your typical, all-American high school bully, albeit an undead one, chasing a nerd while singing his heart out. He was not terrifying just because of his rage and supernatural nature, but also because he seemed genuinely heartbroken over his apparent eternal damnation. He didn´t throw dumb insults, but deep-cutting questions - aka "Will you pray for me?" in the most dramatic way possible.
The nerd, on the other hand, decided to stand up for himself ("I´m not a loser") proving that he didn´t listen to the exposition song at the start.
Because everyone who isn´t Max Jägerman is a nerdy prude and must die.
"To summarize (no spoilers) Grace has one sexual fantasy. Three dead, Six traumatized"
- commenter on YouTube
I feel like high schools in Czech Republic and strangely chill compared to the in USA, and I say that as someone who burned out at 15 and watched huge amount of my classmates get hospitalized due to the stress we faced. But at least we didn´t have to care about popularity, I guess.
But, to be fair, the only one who actually cares about it at Hatchefield High is probably Max Jägerman, who uses all his power to ensure that everyone knows their place. He does it in a very self-aware way. He isn´t some dumb, mean bully. He knows he is gonna peak in high school. He knows what he is doing - he was sent to so many therapy consultations that he uses therapy speech as his own. He chose to be this way and it´s honestly very entertaining to watch.
But even evil has loved ones and for Max, it has to be Grace Chasity. It makes sense, in a way - of course, dude with the hugest God complex fell for a Christian fanatic. And she may fight way his (adorably dorky) flirting, but she isn´t immune. As she feels her innocence slipping away, she decides that Max Jägerman must take a fall.
Through prank that will make him look like a fool.
So she decides to go for help to three biggest nerds in school and the love interest of one them, the mayor´s daughter. So now, we have one potential couple and three eternal virgins fighting against high school class inequality. Because none of this would happen if school tried to do anything effective about the bullying.
Our cast is rewarded with one dead body after their plan goes terribly wrong, because they didn´t take into account one thing - Max is really fucking brave. And now he is really fucking pissed, too.
I know this says a lot about my type in man, but I got very weird, uncomfortable crush on him. Kudos to Will Branner, who gave everything into his performance.
Nerdy Prudes Must Die was written and produced by Team StarKid, who I didn´t recognize before I watched this piece of art. Then I realized they are the people behind a Very Potter Musical. This feel similar, but superior in every way.
The humor here is great and stems not only from the situation (that is actually terrifying), but mainly from dialog. This is one of the few cases where swearing actually elevates the jokes.
Just to name a few:
"Excuse me! I have been waiting for what feels like five fuckin' years, and I still have not received my goddamn hot chocolate!"
"Grace, you are the least fucking persuasive person!"
“This isn’t my fault this isn’t my plan, it’s God’s plan and right now he’s leaving me out to dry! DO SOMETHING YOU SON OF A BITCH!”
The writers knew their audience. Yes, the jokes are funny even if you weren't an artsy weirdo in high school, but I doubt that BBQ Talk would make you laugh otherwise. Still, it doesn´t rely on references and the humor isn´t just meta devoid of any soul, which is very refreshing.
Of course, this wouldn´t work if the characters weren´t really great.
"You're telling me I gotta be funny again!? I didn't do it on purpose the first time!"
- Peter, our male lead
You can tell that the creators had a lot of fun with the cast. They are not afraid to make any of them look ridiculous, even the assumed cool girl Steph. At the same time, all of them get to show their inner depths, which can make their (no spoilers whose) deaths really tragic.
And this isn´t just the main characters. Even dumb jocks and mean girls get their fair share of nice moments - usually once Max is gone. Dear God, I´m repeating myself here, but Max is such an interesting character. I would watch him in anything.
He is really tragic in a way, but at the same, everything gets better once he dies. I suppose that this didn´t make him feel much better in the afterlife.
My taste in men really is a form of self harm.
I was suprised by how good the romance was here. Even with the jokey popular couple. They were so sweet for a minor characters, it was surprisingly cute.
Our main couple, Pete and Steph, were even better - I was surprised when I found myself rooting for them. They had great chemistry and they really brought out the best in each other, just as any good couple should.
Sometimes I felt like the performances were lacking, mainly in the singing parts, but hey. Who am I to judge? The material was brilliant. The chemistry between cast was great. And Max was the probably the best bully I have ever seen.
As for the music, Nerdy Prudes Must Die is an absolute banger. Overall tone of the songs is high energy, rock, maybe a bit of pop punk. You can definitely skip some songs, but there going some that you will want to hear again, like Literal Monster, greatest introduction song in a long time.
It felt a little bit like mix of The Front Bottoms and Panic at the Disco.
You can, and should, watch the whole thing on YouTube. It´s amazing.
