Tugs: The Nightmare Thomas & Friends Spin-Off 

Fun fact. Lillie’s voice actress found the scene where Grampus plugs her hole so funny she collapsed in hysterics while recording the lines.

"whos gonna follow you grampus? FUCKING AQUAMAN???" i very much love that this clip is still getting such good use

Funfact: in the original script of the episode "Sunshine", it is revealed that Ten Cents and Hercules are actually brothers, that makes me think even more about the theory that the tugs breed.

The old boats being dead is actually really hilarious. They're literally just dragging Queen Ann's vacant corpse and pretending that she approved of all the fireworks thrown at her.

The fact "OK Boomer!" Is a legitimate line in this is mind boggling.

I would love to see Tom do a deep dive on Fireman Sam, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet & Stingray; most "kid shows" from that era had some seriously dark undertones

Fun fact Theodore Tugboat was so popular that they made an actual life size replica of Theodore that gave boat tours in the Halifax harbour for over 20 years.

For a guy who did not originally make video essays it’s incredible that Tom’s are among the most entertaining on the site

my personal headcanon as to why the humans never show themselves, is that the boats are actually a highly dangerous scp thing and the jobs they’re doing are just the humans’ way of keeping them busy edit: huh, looks like i was onto something

7:53 “a few lumps of coal short from a full boiler” is an absolutely GENIUS line

Honestly, your theory about Poseidon punishing humans with the sentient boats is actually really compelling 😂

A lot of the explosions in Tugs reminds me of Thunderbirds, how they would show something getting blown up at the start of every episode to show off their animation style.

As a childhood Thomas fan, I wish I'd have watched this in my youth. My favourite episode is High Tide, the unsurprisingly least messed up episode with the trains in it.

More Thomas the Tomska content yesssss

"This is bullfrog." The sudden and immediate change without hesitation cracks me up

This is EXACTLY the sort of unhinged deep dive I'm here for.

That clip of the megaphone shouting "Ok, Boomer." Needs to be a thing.

"Submerged and breedable" is the most amazing thing that could've come out of this video, I couldn't breathe I was laughing so much:'D

"Who's gonna follow us?" "F*CKING AQUAMAN!" I spat out my drink. Lmfao!

Would love an entire video where tom debate's the difference between employees and slaves while progressively being more harsh to Eddie and Elliot throughout 😂

Now we need to get Tom to watch Jay Jay the Jet Plane to complete the trilogy.

The thought of "Puffa" being a dockworkers "trainsona" in order to roleplay with the tugs is both hilarious and terrifying. If someone took over as driver for a day would the tugs assume its a different train or that their friend has suddenly had a major mood shift? Say what you want, but because Puffa gained their love and respect the tugs put themselves in danger in order to save his life so, it's his win I guess?

that sponsor ad has to be one of my favorites. I was laughing for awhile, and then the "but please, for the love of god" caught me so off guard. HILARIOUS

theodore is actually pretty important here in nova scotia. most notably, we have an actual size real life version of him, it’s very cute to see when you’re out on that particular coast.

As someone who grew up with Theodore Tugboat this is. Strange to watch Edit: please DO do a video on Theodore Tugboat. I want to see you analyze the implications of everything having eyes

Tomska is clearly pissed he has to delete the ads he puts on the previous Thomas the tank engine. It's the best surfshark ads i have ever seen.

Looking back, the slightly nightmarish locations and stories is why i absolutely loved this series. Live action still beat CGI hands down! I was absessed with this show back in the 90s.

Tom referencing the werewolf tumblr post almost made me pass out laughing. That post ruined my life because I can never tell ANYBODY what I’m wheezing about

You have to do Theodore now. You brought it up.

Some fun answers to the questions that are legitimately canon: The liners are all referred to in early preproduction notes as "Queens", with the phrase 'queens of the seas' being taken literally and that when one arrives in port the little tugs are like bees catering to the queen of the hive. They do have individual character in the early docs such as the Duchess being boastful about arriving early and fucking up everyone's schedule, and there are some small hints of character left in the show itself - The Duchess is flying barely-visible signal flags that translate to "Thank You Captain Star - Good Luck Tugs", and the voice on the finale's credits is implied to be the S.S. Vienna herself singing - they are indeed on a slightly higher plane, they're considered royalty who just rarely make public speaking appearances. It's really funny to me how close you got to the truth with what was just supposed to be a bit lmao The humans were intended to appear - the boats were indeed supposed to have a manned crew, and the original draft of Munitions saw Captain Star stand on a wooden crate with the harbour-master outside his burnt-out office assuring that they would be able to get through the crisis. Patrick Allen, the narrator, also canonically appeared dressed as Captain Star at a press launch on the HMS Belfast before the show's premiere. They do have subtle presence outside the office in the show itself though- the _cars._ The owner of each company in the port has his own unique car that appears around the port to signify the respective captains aren't just confined to their office, but they're admittedly bloody hard to spot with just the VHS footage. Regatta has them most obviously as each company's bargefloat has their car on it. Captain Zero's black mobster car appears in the establishing shot of the munitions factory scene, Star's utility truck appears in the background of Krakatoa being loaded as well as upriver once operations were moved there for the big freezeup, etc. Star's truck also actually starts off in the first two episodes as a much more ramshackle ute and is then upgraded in Pirate to the one that appears for the rest of the series, and it's been confirmed that this was deliberate on the part of the director David Mitton - it actually ties in with Star starting to get money in from the regular Duchess contract, which was to have a second docking in Jinxed, the final episode where the original truck appears. Surprising amount of genuinely deep lore lol Tugs' issue with tone kinda stems from it being made by alumni of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds/Captain Scarlet series. Exceedingly dark adult tones in kids shows were the norm of the 60's and Tugs kinda tried to recapture that but got watered down by the network into an unsatisfying middle-ground. That's why the theme literally has Eastenders drums in the drop, it wasn't actually trying to be kiddy. In a way it was very ahead of its time in basically being an adult show portrayed via a medium usually used for kids shows, it was legitimately aimed at an older audience but the association to Thomas in all its advertising led to some... very skewed expectations that it wasn't actually aiming for. Absolutely adore the vid, as a big fan of this show the jokes had me rolling. Keep it up, Tom! Also boycott Tugs The Exhibition, they nasty

9:01 You know that meme of the guy and his angel and his devil and his FBI agent and his NSA agent all looking in disgust (or fear) with open mouths at what's in front of them. That's what this part made me do. Why, oh why, did the train do a hentai noise?

This video has literally given me war flashbacks to my childhood. How did I ever forget this absolute monstrosity.

13:32 Fun fact, the voice actor being forced at gun point to perform that "rap" is Scott McNeil, the same actor who played Piccolo in the first dub of Dragon Ball Z, about 4 characters in Reboot, at least five in Beast Wars, and the main villain in Scooby Doo 2 (you know, the guy who shouts "MYSTERY INCORPORATED!" in basically every scene) just to name some of his many, many voice credits. Don't know if this trivia makes this more or less depressing, but there you go lmao.

And now I know that Theodore Tugboat was a different show than Tugs.

Excuse me, this was NOT a nightmare show, it was GREAT! Had some absolutely banging explosions, great drama, and hilarious (often accidentally hilarious) moments. 😊

As a kid I remember someone showing me an episode of Tugs claiming it was a lost Theodore episode and that gave childhood me a bit of a complex as it was the closest thing to a real creepy pasta about creepy lost episodes I'd ever experienced

'Tugs is fine." You lie, Tom. Tugs is great. I'm 28 years old as of writing and I still sit down to watch it every now and then. Freaking loved this show. Ten Cents was the bomb. Billy Shupak was literally the bomb, and Hercules definitely fucks. That being said, Ghosts was a TERRIFYING episode that has scared me for life. 10/10 would trauma again

I actually just love the headcanon that the ocean liners are these grand higher beings on another level of consciousness, and I’ve never even seen this show

23:10 *Scary alert* !!

'Oh I bloddy loved Tugs. To digress , Tugs was like Thomas the Tank Engine, but on WATAH' -everybody's favourite Gary Brannan, Gary Brannan

loving the sponsor making fun of the ASA for what they did with the last Thomas video

27:31 I can't stop laughing at this part, this is so good! The entire video is great, great job Tom and the obviously the team behind the video!

22:40 - never in my life would I have expected Tom to be talking about the working class. I'm subscribing

Did you know that the Japanese dub of Tugs features both Kiryu and Majima? And they actually intract? The voice actors I mean. Majima isn't gonna jump in and kick the boats. Sorry if I got your hopes up. EDIT: NEVER FUCKING MIND IT WAS THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE Majima is a boat and Kiryu is a crane so I misremembered.

5:43 “We just age restricted your video! We ain’t gonna tell you. But don’t do it again.” so funny 😂

Its very healthy to obsess over these kinds of things! that's why we need more of this! 13:00 13:52

Fun fact: in the original script for sunshine he actually sinks himself because he thought he ruined his chance of joining the star fleet after the accident with the Duchess

Fun fact: In TATMR, there were actually going to have the Tugs characters, and big mickie the crane is cannon in TAF.

The Hbomberguy reference was not expected but thoroughly enjoyed.

You dont know what you is talking about this show is perfect

The hbomberguy insert immediately made me spit my tea, well played

I loved the unnecessarily deep dive into Thomas earlier this year, and now this video is a real treat too. Great stuff. It’s also interesting to note that Tugs was apparently meant for slightly older kids, hence the prevalence of darker themes. It was also part of the reason it failed. Younger kids didn’t like the darker themes, older kids didn’t want to watch the funny boat show

I’m glad TUGS is being remembered this year. I reckon if it was on Netflix it would be a sleeper hit.

08:16 to 08:22 hehe tuggy duties, yeah sorry I wouldn't be able to keep myself from laughing as well. One of the best lines of this whole video.

I love seeing Tom very quickly going insane by overanalyzing a kids show

Loved this. Great work. I'll never be able to look at that scene of Grampus "plugging Lillie's hole" the same way again.

Chapter 4: Can we kill the Tugs? "Please?!" 🤣 Tom becoming more & more horrified and gradually losing his mind over this show is hilarious.

I much prefer Tugs, for its production value, setting and voice cast - not only do they differentiate the personalities between the characters, but I like it how it sounds like conversation in the pub with adults rather than just one narrator talking simplistically.

I would like to point out that the Uncle thing could be a mentor style relationship lineage and not the a-fu**in. For example when a ship is first made it has a mentor, its "parent" then either boats made in the same place or boats mentored together would be "siblings" Also, its good to see. another episode of Children Shows theory from our pal TomPat :) They are wonderfully weird and always enjoyable

Tom is slowly but surly becoming matpat and its honestly terrifying

Tom, please make more videos like this. Whether they be about thomas or any content/topic you find interesting, I just find these videos to be unbelievably good content.

TomSka & Friends got to be one of the very few content creators where you don't skip past the paid promotion

This is the funniest video I've seen on this channel. "Grampus is SUBMERSED and BREEDABLE!" gets me every time.

I don't think they are human. I think they're sentient megaphones

Leave it to Tomska to make a sponsor segment that both explains what the product does and rips on YT's moderation lmao

10:18 rip Rik’s innocence

"that all seems like lung-having behavior to me" is such a funny line i almost shit myself laughing

20:07 *numerous explosions* "They were very relieved to see the quayside undamaged" *BOOM!!* 💥

For those who aren’t fully immersed in Surfshark Ad Lore yet: The ad in this video is most definitely a callback to the ad from the Thomas & Friends episode, where Tom tortures one of his friends in order to force him to buy Surfshark. It shows not just violence, but a bag of body parts that are claimed to be Eddy. The ad was so violent that the Advertising Standard Authority in the UK asked Tom to remove the ad after a complaint was made that it was too violent. If you watch the Thomas & Friends video right now, Tom claims the video is sponsored at the start of the video, but the ad is missing. That’s because, while it wasn’t too violent for Surfshark, it was for the Advertisers. The ad in this video is making fun of this fact, while also making fun of how strict other companies are with their own sponsored adverts. The fact that the guy telling them to stop is not labeled as any specific company supports that the ad is a response to the infamous torture advert. Ironically, it’s actually probably the least dark advert of all of Tom’s Surfshark ads, or at least the cleanest (only one swear that is specifically pointed out). TL;DR: Tom made a Surfshark ad that got banned, this videos one makes fun of that.

The memory of Salty's Lighthouse has just dug itself out from the recesses of my mind thanks to this video. I have very faint memories of the show itself, but the one thing I do remember was that Ten Cents referred to Sunshine as his sister in one of his songs.

18:21 I’ve never related to boats so much 😂

I mean, Tom, now that you’ve mentioned it, you KNOW we’re not gonna shut up until you cover Theodore Tugboat.

The sequel episode deserved a sequel ad and BOY DID HE DELIVER

10:27 why is this not the most replayed clip

Man’s a legend for even taking the time to make this.

2023 off to a good start! I'd love to see a video on Chuggington. A show where the trains not only are clearly the overlords of the planet but there's even a "birthing" episode where a baby train is introduced. There's at least 10 minutes of content right there! Oh also Jay Jay the Jet engine looks like hellspawn and Bob the builder would be a laugh.

If I ever write a book I'm gonna make tom hyperanalyse it so that I can get rid of all of the plotholes

1:57 And Grampuss! The Squirter "Follow me!" *submerges* "Who's gonna follow you, Grampuss? "FUCKING AQUAMAN!" that one got me

12:10 Ow! Thats that thing that parents do!

Theory. The large boats faces are probably inside the helm or something and that's why they can't speak directly to other boats. Probably like that one robot wheel guy from Wall-E.

Submersive and breedable! Holy shit!

tomska is probably the only youtuber that makes me go "oo its sponsor time" rather than "ugh its sponsor time"

Oh man. The Burke and Hare connection was brilliant!

I liked this video, but there were some things I'd like to comment on: One detail I would like to mention as regards the boats not being able to quit their ownership is the line in High Winds where Ten Cents offers Zebedee a spot on the Star Tugs by saying "If you ever think of leaving the Z-Stacks..." which seems to suggest the tugs get to decide their jobs and can leave their company if they want to. In the way engines of the same class are called brothers in Thomas, I think Sea Rogue's Uncle is likely a design of tugboat which preceded Sea Rogue, which would create a sort of ancestry of tugboat designs. As you said, Big Mickey was operated by a human so his appearance in Thomas as a sentient crane was more of a reference to TUGS than an actual character crossover. And finally, TUGS was not a kids show!!!!! The darker themes of TUGS was meant to make it appeal to older people, teenagers. David Mitton wanted TUGS to be something for Thomas fans to move onto as they grew up but sadly the general appearance of the show made it look like another childish show and its target audience never gave it a chance. I always get frustrated when I hear people say "Omg look at this KIDS SHOW full of death and violence" when it's not meant to be for kids! I am really glad you mentioned stuff people tend to ignore in this show (the cranes and trains being operated by humans instead of being alive is a big one lots of people fail to believe) but once again seeing an outsider trying to explain a show I like to other outsiders results in some pretty frustrating explanations that I fear will be taken as the truth by a lot of people now.

Ironically it failed because it was a kids show that felt like it was more for adult, and yet the reason people love it now is because that audience are now adults that understand the angle of the show. Funny video, I do wish you would have given the mention of the models being rescued by the Star Tugs Trust as all the TUG characters (except Top Hat and Grampus) were salvaged.

The way that the genuine grief in realizing that this is part of your job is delivered. Very good work, man.

Thank you for breaking this down... I thought "Tugs" was just a fever dream from my childhood.

I had this tugboat toy as a child that looked like it could have been from this show, but nothing I've seen of it so far has matched the specific look of that toy. Then I learned about Theodore Tugboat...

3:53 honestly, respect for The effort of making and Putting on a whole outfit for a gag thats less than a second

18:23 imma save this one for later

I think one of the things worth remembering with both Thomas and Tugs is that they're meant to be anthropomorphized machines, and are thus explicitly treated as machines, not as sentient independent people or animals, so people talk to, and treat them the same as machines that are designed for a job. When they are no longer able to do that job, the expected result happens.

someone saw thomas the tank engine and said ' nah this doesn't have enough explosions and depression in it'

5:03 The stop sign is really channeling their inner Lemongrab "UNACCEPTABLE!!!"

I know nothing about this show, but Tom makes learning so much better

It’s funny how they keep screwing up the SurfShark VPN sponsorship plug commercial where the guy with the STOP sign continuously censoring them and Tom completely losing it and constantly fettig triggered

This video was released during one of the best times of my life. Watching it helps me remember. Btw nice tugging tom

"Izzy Gomez, the hate crime" 😂

2:01 We need more TomSka & Hbomberguy crossovers. Two sketches and a gif is INSUFFICIENT

"I once was in Mensa!" What a fall from grace, but I'm grateful if happened

0:50 you got me with the bender Ft 😂😂