Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?

File:Ashly 1052.jpg

Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?, aka HAWP, is a video series by Destructoid hosted on Gametrailers.

It is presented in short episodes, usually only a few minutes long. Any given episode typically begins with Ashly's older brother, Anthony, asking his sister what game she's currently playing, whereupon she responds and the siblings (and sometimes their friends) conduct a skit/parody of said game. Said skit can consist of her acting as the game's characters, putting herself into the game's situation and acting completely unlike the characters (she'd rather play Connect Four with herself than fight the horde) or even just sitting and yelling at the game while she plays it.

---

Tropes used in Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'? include:

• All Men Are Perverts: Anthony and Papa Burch buying Bone Town.
• Ambiguously Gay: Anthony. Averted: Anthony proposes to Ashley Davis in the Sims 3 episode. She says yes, and they are currently married. Zig Zagged: He then wrote a disturbing Slash Fic in the Gears of War episode.
  • Of course even married he doesn't have sex with with wife. Until Ash dresses her up as Big Boss.
• Aw, Look — They Really Do Love Each Other: In the episode about Limbo, Anthony thinks this sorta thing would ensue when Ash asks whether he would look for her if she was stuck in a dark forest. When he asks whether she would come looking for him, she shoots down the possibility completely.
• Big No: "Guitar Hero"
• Black Comedy: This episode of HAWP in which the punchline ends with "Sometimes life isn't funny".
• Body Horror: Played with in the FEAR 3 episode: the only thing Ash finds scary is how Anthony's body becomes disfigured when playing AR Games on the 3DS with the AR card on his body.
• Breakout Character: Papa Burch increasingly gets more screen time then Anthony & Ashley.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Ash herself
• Cool Old Guy: The siblings' father, Mr. Burch. He plays games just like his kids do, and resembles Big Boss.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Ashly goes back in time, to punch her mom when she was pregnant with Anthony.
• Crossdresser: Ash is fond of wearing suits, and dressed up as Francis in one episode. Her friend Molly dressed up as Louis, while Anthony has infamously dressed up as Sakura, and Papa Burch dressed as Zoey.
• Dead Baby Comedy: Sometimes. The Monkey Island episode is a example, as Papa Burch finds the airport massacre in Modern Warfare 2 hilarious. It would be a Dude, Not Funny, if not for the Lampshading by Ashly's horrified face.
  • Played straight in the NBA Jam episode where the Burch clan are using a baby as a basketball. Gets even funnier when Papa Burch slamdunks the baby into a garbage can.
• Does Not Like Shoes: Ashly is seen barefoot in practically every indoors scene.
• The Dog Bites Back: The Yoshi's Cookie episode.
• Driven to Suicide: Ash's attempt to emulate Seppukumon Persona 3 goes as well as one would think. Anthony follows after a minute of trying and failing to explain the game.
• Darker and Edgier: Pokemon Snap
• Disney Death: Evoked at the end of Season 3.

Ash: "ONE-UP, MOTHERFUCKEEEEEEER!!!"

• Exact Words: When a fan asked them to cosplay Sakura, they weren't specific on which one of them had to dress up.
• Fake Band: A literal one in the Rock Band episode, moreso by the fact that they don't even own Rock Band, but rather incompatible series of instruments from different Music Games
• Fan Disservice: Street Fighter IV
• Gamer Chick: Ashly again.
• George Jetson Job Security: Each Gearbox Software episode ends with Anthony getting fired for Ash's misdeeds, including leaking info to Kotaku, announcing free blow jobs, and punching the CEO of Gearbox in the balls.
• Groin Attack: Papa Burch shoots Anthony below the belt in the Red Dead Redemption episode.
• I Was Told There Would Be Fuddruckers
• Jerkass: Ashly, to some extent. Papa Burch is somewhat one, but is still a Badass either way.
• Missing Mom: In a way. Mama Burch is just camera shy.
  • Averted in "Cooking Mama"... and what a way to make an entrance.
• Motor Mouth: Ashly, moreso in Season Two.
• Name's the Same: Ashly (Burch) and Ashley Davis, who does Once Upon a Pixel. Anthony is now married to Ashley Davis, but this didn't stop Ashly (his sister) from making incest jokes.
  • In the Season 3 finale, Anthony gets letters threatening Ash, so they agree to work together. Except he was protecting the wrong Ashley. This can be easily explained by the fact that Anthony could easily have assumed "Ashley" was a misspelling of his sister's name, and there are a lot more reasons for someone to try and kill Ash than his wife.
• Nintendo Hard: this episode includes a parody of this about Atlus.

"I never beat Trauma Center!" "Nobody did, it's a f***in' Atlus game."

• One Steve Limit: Averted in The Sims episode. Anthony proposes to Ashley while his sister Ashly is in the room.
• Only Sane Man: Anthony.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Kneel before me, you sonofabitchcock!
• Pet the Dog: Ashly getting Anthony toilet paper in the Elite Beat Agents episode.
• Precision F-Strike
• Psychopathic Manchild: Ash is a female example.
• Pyromaniac: I'll burn *your* house down.
  • "BEST GAME EVERRRRRR"
• Pyrrhic Villainy: Papa Burch spending four hours to wreck Ash's Animal Crossing town. It only takes her an hour to fix the damage.

Papa Burch: Fuck.

• Rape Is Okay When Its Female On Male: In the Magfest 9 promo video, Ashly Davis mentions that John St. John will be there. Ashly Burch subsequently says she will rape him. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
• Real Men Wear Pink: Papa Burch's knowledge of Twilight.
• Refuge in Audacity: Ashly basically embodies this.
• Running Gag: Plenty, such as Ash's habit of making gay jokes about her brother, and Papa Burch's utter unflappability.
• Screwy Squirrel: Ash.
• Season Finale: The two part Metal Gear Solid 4 skit, and a two-parter for Season 2 parodying Adventure Games.
• Shout-Out: In two different episodes (Yoshi's Island and Elite Beat Agents), Anthony can be seen reading the trade paperback (and trade hardcover) of Watchmen.
  • Anthony wears Captain Hammer and Anti-Skub shirts in a couple of episodes.
  • In the Minecraft episode, Ash's player skin is Mario and Anthony's is The Tenth Doctor, complete with 3-D glasses.
• Silent Offer: In "E3 2011, part II", Ash seemingly makes an offer to someone on a piece of paper. When he unfolds the paper, there is a childish drawing instead of the expected offer.
• Simpleton Voice: Ash is known to slur her speech to sound like that of an infant, mostly at the start of every episode. Depending on her level of insanity, it can persist the whole episode.

Anthony: Hey Ash, watcha playin'? Ashly: Twauma Centah

• Single Tear: Papa Burch cries a Manly Tear in the Viva Pinata episode.
• Spin-Off: Once Upon a Pixel
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Anthony is the straight man, taking games an important, artistic form. Ash is the wise guy, making cutting comments and jabs at whatever logical or interesting points her brother makes.
• There Are No Therapists: Double Subverted in the Mass Effect 2 episode. Anthony calls a therapist for a session, but Ashly doesn't care & Papa Burch gets mad at him due to not going to Fuddruckers.
• Too Dumb to Live

Anthony: Ash, what the hell are you doing? Ashly: [Sticking a fork into a plug socket] INNNFAMOUS! Anthony: NO!!

• Two Gamers on a Couch: Pretty much the basis of the Uncharted 2 and Smash Brothers Brawl episodes, among others. Well, two big poofy armchairs at least.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Anthony accuses Uncharted 2 of being this to Firefly, and Nathan Drake of being an Expy of Captain Malcolm Reynolds.
• With Lyrics: Zelda's haaat, why's it weeeird, she looks liiike a nun...
  • E-po-na! Here's-your-song! Get-the-fuck-right-here!
  • Sa-ri-a is a kid, this vaaaguely pe-do-philic...and kinda gross...
• Women Are Wiser: Inverted. Anthony, the male of the duo is morally superior to the female Ashly.
  • Averted in Yoshi's Cookie episode
• You Are Too Late: Ashly declares that she's going to poop in Anthony's bed while he's playing Guitar Hero. Anthony tries to pause the game and stop her, but it turns out that she broke the pause button earlier. By the time he finishes playing... well, I'll let the dialogue speak for itself.

Ashly: You're too late! Enjoy the poop! Anthony: ...This is your room. Ashly: ...NOOOOOOO- (Cut to the credits screen))

• Your Head Asplode:
  • '1 vs. 100'.
  • 'Uncharted 2'
  • Ashly purposely invokes this in the season 2 finale. Twice.