Five Stars of Batshit Insanity
I'm not quite sure when I was first introduced to Dungeon Soup because some of the episodes were randomly served to me on my shorts feed and I had no idea what it was at the time. However, I checked out the channel officially a week ago... and holy shit... this "dark comedy" is completely unhinged in every way.
Dungeon Soup is a Dungeons and Dragons themed YouTube channel consisting of around 22 (and counting) short animated comedy skits lasting around 1-3 minutes. It looks like the channel has been around almost two years so he's been able to make a new video around once a month. The channel is quite popular, with most skits getting 1M-4M views depending on popularity.
While meant to be a Dark Comedy of sorts, its targeted audience is mainly gamers, so the underlying themes of violence and straight up psychological warfare are highly exaggerated. Dungeon Soup was created to shock and disturb even the most toxic gamers, making it the most unhinged content I have potentially ever consumed up until now. In fact it's almost more fun to watch reaction videos of other people being subjected to Dungeon Soup than it is to actually watch it yourself, but I'll leave that to the reader if they want to take it that far.
We love Kevin!
The series starts off with Kevin, the "chivalrous paladin". In this case Kevin is Lawful Good, which traditionally is a somewhat boring and predictable alignment because they always do the right thing and tend to operate "by the book" as it were. Kevin is the good guy, but apparently that's not what the ladies like.
Kevin's "m'lady" doesn't seem to respect Kevin whatsoever even though he literally just saved her from a big bad orc. Turns out Kevin is a bit of an incel considering the orc (Brett) walks straight into the tavern and steals the girl away right in front of him, while they both giggle about it and the girl ditches him to go spend another night at Brett's stronghold.
All around a pretty boring episode but it sets the tone and gives some backstory for some of the crazy stuff that comes later.
The Lich: 3.3M views
The third video in the series gained some serious traction compared to the first two. And once you watch it you can immediately see why that would be. Thus begins the reign of the anti-hero: the Chaotic "Good" barbarian. Except this barbarian is a complete psychotic madman. The only reason anyone can even claim a "good" alignment for him is that he only tortures the evil beings that would dare oppose him. However, many are quick to point out that if the barbarian showed up in their tavern they'd be quick to leave immediately no matter the circumstances.
In this scene the barbarian has defeated a lich, which is an immortal undead wizard. Technically Voldemort in Harry Potter is a Lich as well. The lore behind them is that they cannot be destroyed unless their source of immortality is destroyed: their phylactery.
However, the barbarian doesn't care about such pesky details like immortality. He tells the lich he's just going to leverage that immortality to torture the lich every single day. When the lich realizes how absolutely screwed he is he gives up and offers the barbarian the phylactery willingly so he can be destroyed outright rather than tortured, but the barbarian opts to decline that deal and torture him anyway... by sticking him on a pike and wearing him like a backpack for the remainder of the episodes. Savage.
Barb vs Vamp
In this episode a fully clad knight enters the lair of the Vampire, but it turns out to be the barbarian all along. The barbarian defeats the Vampire without even trying, opening a curtain and shining daylight on the vampire. The vampire then makes a joke about it being 9 PM; "fucking daylight savings time". We all hate it. Abolish daylight savings time. Team Vampire.
However, the real reason why I chose to curate this particular skit is that it contains exponentially more information and backstory than most episodes. The barbarian pulls out a Bingo card and checks off "Unalive a Dracula Mid Monologue" literally during the Monologue. But the Bingo card tells us what the barbarian has already done and what he has yet to do to blackout the card. Of course the middle tile is "Subscribe to Dungeon Soup" which I have already done.
What I did notice just now is that "Infinite Lich Jerky" is checked off the list. Does he... cut off pieces of meat from the regenerating Lich on his back and then dry out those pieces of meat to make beef jerky? Holy fuck this show is unhinged.
When the camera zooms out we see the Bingo card is labeled "Cheevos" which I had no idea is short for "achievements". Shows what I know, amirite? So what has the anti-hero Barbarian done thus far?
- Achieve Enlightenment
- Pull every card from a Deck of Many Things
- Dragon Mount
- Move Immovable Rod
- Goblin Centipede
- Make Djinn wish for death
- Staring contest with Medusa
- Reach level 20
It is from this card that gamers can easily divine that the Barbarian is basically unkillable. He's already max level 20, he's pulled "every card from a deck of many things", and many in the comments have noted that he appears to be wearing an enchanted circlet of intellect, which would explain why he's abnormally intelligent for a barbarian and often defeats his foes with the knowledge of their mechanics.
Deck of many things:
As we can see here, pulling every card from a Deck of Many Things would be pure insanity. We can see here that he almost certainly pulled balance which would "radically change alignment" which is likely why he's such a psychotic madman. He probably wasn't this chaotic or crazy before going ham on gambling with his life.
We can also see that drawing the sun card could have granted him a ton of XP and created the wonderous circlet of intellect item (+19 intellect essentially making him as smart as a wizard).
Of course there's no guarantee that this D&D 5e deck of many things is the one he drew from, but the gist of it is that our Barbarian friend here took all the risks and got extremely lucky... and now he's bored with a bucket list. Many of the things to yet be checked off (and already checked off) the list are later episodes of the show. Luckily Goblin Centipede is already checked off so we won't be subjected to more Human Centipede references.
Sexual Deviance
A common theme in Dungeon Soup seems to be that many animals in the realm are actually just perverted druid gnomes. This one isn't even that bad, but the next one has heavy rape-culture and even serial killer vibes to it. Not cool!
This episode has extreme Adventure Time vibes. An absolutely crazy wizard who's powerful magic has turned him insane just like the "Ice King". It was also here that I noticed many of the noses drawn in this series are very similar to Rick & Morty droopy mouth. There's also a distinct Lemongrab vibe from the main court guy. UNACCEPTABLE!
Barbarian knocks off a goal from the bucket list.
And makes the Djinn wish for death by beating him at his own game.
The Easter Egg at the end of this one is that the Djinn pleads:
"I wish for death's stone-cold embrace"
And the Barbarian pulls the Steve Austin Stone Cold Stunner move from professional wrestling... lol. I missed this on the first watch (I just thought it looked weird), but then when I watched a reaction video they graciously pointed it out.
Spool to 1:10
Gotta love how they all act like it was a real thing that happened to people.
Kevin is back!
Our good friend Kevin reappears in a backstory to explain why he's such a goody two-shoes. Why does Kevin drink milk instead of ale? Well he accepted an enchantment (aka curse) that literally prevents him from doing so. He also accepts an enchantment to give away all his money to the needy, never kill ANYTHING, never swear, and never have sex (or masturbate).
The Pegasus strings him along with the ultimate sunk-cost fallacy, each time he gets cursed he thinks he'll get his precious Pegasus mount, but the Pegasus keeps making him take on more and more curses. The Pegasus also is getting off on casting these purity curses and when it's finally time for Kevin to mount his steed it zooms in to the throbbing veiny unicorn horn... what the fuck!
And then just like that the barbarian jumps out from the bushes, spanks the Pegasus' ass three times, and flies away on the mount, leaving Kevin on the ground with all the curses (including the chastity belt) intact. lol what the hell! Tough break my dude.
"Starring contest with Medusa"
This is the first episode in which the barbarian starts flexing his true power. He literally breaks out of the stone curse while locking eyes with a gorgon. She did not blink... he's just messing with her the entire time. And then he uses her own power to turn herself into stone... using her own tears as reflective material... trapping her with her current feelings for all eternity... with a wet willie. Diabolical.
This is the first episode in which an argument can be made that the Barbarian might not be as "good" as advertised. He literally rips out the hair of a child just so he can torture his adversary longer. It does showcase his abnormal barbarian intelligence by knowing everything about the witch and using it against her. Rather than destroy the scrying eye and alerting her to his presence... he hides it... in his ass... and destroys it on command with a butt-flex mid dialog... what the hell?
This is the first time in which we realize that the lich is still on his back, telling the witch to "run bitch run" right before the torture begins. When it shows the scrying eye in his ass you can also see the lich's phylactery is still there as well. Yikes.
Extreme rape-y vibes
Not a good episode but shows the viewer just how hard he's willing to push the envelope. The kidnapped elf being gagged with dirty underwear was a particularly disgusting touch. Do not recommend.
Also not a great episode.
It just showcases how the barbarian is essentially invincible considering this overpowered sword strikes him and immediately shatters: causing zero damage.
My blade was forged by dwarves with autism.
Kinda funny but doesn't really justify the whole bit.
Although it is pretty great that even the Barbarian gets bored and starts eating an unpeeled raw lemon with zero reaction during the monologue.
Barbarian is too strong!
So strong in fact that a banshee possessing him was equivalent to the banshee imprisoning herself within the barbarian. Bagpipes bingo card scratched.
Don't rob the Wizard King... seriously.
Can you imagine your D&D campaign ending because the Wizard you were trying to steal from cast "Aura of Endless Simultaneous Sneezing, Farting, and Cumming on your entire party?" What. The. Fuck.
Kevin + Barbarian = Chaos
The barbarian teaches Kevin that he can still torture people just like he does without breaking any of his vows. In this case he turns Brett into a "chicken nugget" by mutilating him with fireballs and healing him over and over as not to kill him. The barbarian holds Brett's orc friends back saying, "Let him cook," on a literal level. Wow... and it ends with Kevin walking away from the toxic woman like a Chad under the Barbarians guidance. It's an incel's wet dream, this one.
Last and probably least...
Following up the incel Kevin storyline we have the Barb going on a date with a succubus. Extreme violence against women ensues... but it's okay because the woman is a demon... right? RIGHT? He literally gives her a titty-twister... what the hell? Then he feeds her her own heart and she says "it really good"... the fuck?
Conclusion
As I have showcased: Dungeon Soup is unhinged and inappropriate.
Hopefully you were as entertained and creeped out as I was.