Behind the Scenes of Zombie Snowpocalypse

Zombie Snowpocalypse by Mada
Zombie Snowpocalypse Part II: Back to School! by Eliot
Zombie Snowpocalypse Part III: Breaking the Ice by Brendan
Zombie Snowpocalypse Part IV: The Spiral Collapses by Conor
Zombie Snowpocalypse Balboa by Classic Brian
Zombie Snowpocalypse Part VI: The Darkness and The Dawn by Robert
Zombie Snowpocalypse Part VII: The Final Struggle by Nick

We here at Classic Brian like to pride ourselves in our vast and diverse audience. Except not really, because everyone who reads this blog is a friend of ours. Anyway, the point is that Zombie Snowpocalypse is filled with in-jokes, easter eggs, and things that could use some clarification. So this post is where anything that needs explaining will be compiled.

This is mostly for the benefit of those who don't know all of us personally, as well as an opportunity for some of the subtler jokes to be pointed out. As all members of Classic Brian can contribute to this post, it may be edited frequently.

Roy Schribner

The biggest in-joke that some of our audience might not understand is the guy named Roy Schribner. Roy Schribner is Classic Brian's resident troll. He loves to comment on our blogs and harp on us, Conor in particular. He has his own blog here. Some of his work can be found in comments here and here.

His signature was copied directly for the story. His dialogue is merely our best impression.

Go To Sleep

There are a lot of references to the "Go To Sleep" game. Most notably in Brian's final scene the scene where Robert is on a leash. Basically this is a game the authors of Classic Brian play a lot in real life. If someone pretends to stab you while saying "Go To Sleep," you have to fall down until someone wakes you up. Brian and Robert are noted for frequently getting way too into this game.

Nick typically just stands around and wakes people up while this game is going on, which he flippantly addresses with his "I hate being a white mage" line.


Band Practice

Most of you probably know already that Conor has a band called Band Practice. Their music can be found here. The note written by Conor is mostly an amalgamation of Band Practice quotes. Before and during Conor's monologue in the last episode, six Band Practice quotes are hidden. See if you can find them all! They're in the same order as the songs appear on the Band Practice EP.

FFFF

Conor, Brian, and Eliot have a tradition of playing through Final Fantasy games together. They call this "Final Fantasy Friends Forever," or FFFF for short. The "Final Fiendish Faceoff Friends" segment of the last episode is mostly a parody of this. Nick often shows up to critique their Final Fantasy skills, which is why he's so critical of their fighting style in this segment.


Ratios

The cast of Classic Brian keeps a running tally of everyone's kissing ratios. The idea is that if you've kissed more men than women, you are quantifiably gay. (Unless you are a women, in which case you can't lose.) This is why Robert jokes about "sabotaging their ratios" when lips of the dead Brian and Eliot touch. This game is pretty much just and excuse for Eliot and Robert and Brian to all kiss each other.


Lists

While Mada and Nick are adventuring together, Mada suggests that they "make a list of their options," to which Nick responds, "no one likes reading your lists." This is a joke about Mada's Classic Brian contributions frequently appearing in list format. This one in particular is being poked fun at.


Conor's Mannerisms

Conor has a very distinctive way of speaking, and several Classic Brian writers made his dialogue reflect that. Notice that he says "sort of" as one word during his monologue, which he frequently does in his Classic Brian posts. (5th paragraph here.) Also poked fun at is his tendency to become grumpy early in the morning, a reputation he received from having sleep-overs with the Easily Amused Teen Improv Troupe. 

In the final episode, Norman Oklahoma, where Conor goes to school, is a prominent location; his music major is also poked fun at. In Brendan's post it is noted that all that remains of Eliot and Mada's "cannibalistic frenzy" (eating Conor) is an outstretched hand with its fingers fashioned in the position of a Gb dim chord.  Conor has been known to flaunt his knowledge of piano chords, particularly on one of the first side "Notes" on Classic Brian except no that totally wasn't Conor, that was another member of Classic Brian posing as him.  Lastly, Eliot makes mention of his "dry-ass knuckles," which is just a reference to Conor's red, cracked skin and his fear of lotions.

Eliot Sill


Brendan also pokes fun at Eliot's fanatical devotion to the world of sports, particularly the Green Bay Packers. At the time of his post, Super Bowl XLV (in which the Packers played) was less than a week away, and Eliot talked nonstop about his beloved team in person, on Facebook and Twitter.


Cory Robinson


Cory Robinson is a hipster, one of the few anyone on Classic Brian knew before college.  He is noted in Brendan's post as drinking PBR, consuming acid, listening to Animal Collective and riding on a fixed-gear bicycle, all of which are favored pastimes of many hipsters.


The "Awkward Sex Scene" Between Eliot and Mada


Brendan fashioned this scene loosely off a scene in the children's action/comedy 3 Ninjas (skip to 1:26).


Brendan's Puns

Throughout several of the past seven installments of Zombie Snowpocalypse, Brendan is seen making unnecessary and usually cheesy puns either to alleviate the gravity of a dire situation or simply for his own perverted indulgence.  His puns show up quite frequently in his posts, like this one and this one.

Mada's Cat-like Agility

Perhaps a tad vague, Brendan writes, "Mada sprung off the ground like a cat" in the scene in which he attempts to murder her and Eliot.  Mada starred in a video with her Improv group in which he she portrayed a human with cat-like tendencies, or maybe a cat played by a human?

Spite


Spite is a horrible horrible thing that plagues several of the members of Classic Brian. The fourth Zombie Snowpocalypse by Conor relies heavily on Robert's ability to lower everyone's chances of living for the sake of being contrary. Real life Robert would do this. A little known fact is that spite motivates approximately 43% of the actions taken by the members of Classic Brian.

. . .

Easter Eggs

• It's noted that Nick is "worst at flirting of the entire Classic Brian cast, which is quite a feat in itself." This is a reference to Brendan's Classic Brian on flirting. Nick shares the inability, to say the least.
• Nick is the only member of the cast to kill literally no one the entire series.
• All of the songs on Brendan's iPod come from this article. Many jokes are also directed at Brendan's sometimes-pretentious taste in music.
• There are several scenes in Brendan's post that involve his character getting "overly sentimental."  It is well known that whenever Brendan writes a blog post about himself, he gets excessively nostalgic and tags his post "overly sentimental."  Also, about half of the posts with that tag are his. 
• References in Brendan's post to the days on which each fallen Classic Brian member presumably died are linked to the day on which they post each week.  Similarly, before Brendan attempts to murder Mada and Eliot in Brendan's post, the line "Thursdays were never good for me" references the fact that Brendan writes on Thursdays (except in actuality he likes that day).