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His site is [[http://www.ashens.com here]], his YouTube page [[http://www.youtube.com/user/ashens here]], and he hosts some of his game reviews on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/ashens here.]] He also served as the narrator for ''NinjaTheMissionForce'', duplicating the LargeHam British narrator of Godfrey Ho's films.
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His site is [[http://www.ashens.com here]], his YouTube page [[http://www.youtube.com/user/ashens here]], and he hosts some of his game reviews on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/ashens here.]] He also served as the narrator for ''NinjaTheMissionForce'', ''WebVideo/NinjaTheMissionForce'', duplicating the LargeHam British narrator of Godfrey Ho's films.
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* CreepyDoll: Shows up in the "Poundland Girls' Toys Special". His reaction? KillItWithFire.
* CreepyUncle: Uncle Stories.
* CreepyUncle: Uncle Stories.
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* CreepyDoll: Shows up in the "Poundland Girls' Toys Special". His reaction? KillItWithFire.
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** He seems to have a blowtorch now, as he's "killed" a bad-looking [[HarryPotter Draco Malfoy]] figure and an easter chick decoration with it.
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** He seems to have a blowtorch now, as he's "killed" a bad-looking [[HarryPotter Draco Malfoy]] figure and figure, an easter chick decoration and a My Little Pony with it.
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EXAMPLES ARE NOT RECENT
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He recently co-starred in the sci-fi webseries/[[AlternateRealityGame ARG]] ''WebVideo/TheProxy'', which ran through March 8th-17th, 2012. Unfortunately, the contest aspect, [[ProductPlacement not-so-subtly sponsored by Alienware]], [[OfferVoidInNebraska was available only for those living in the UK.]] Regardless, it is available to watch worldwide [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iOfVgZYu28 here]].
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He recently co-starred in the sci-fi webseries/[[AlternateRealityGame ARG]] ''WebVideo/TheProxy'', which ran through March 8th-17th, 2012. Unfortunately, the contest aspect, [[ProductPlacement not-so-subtly sponsored by Alienware]], [[OfferVoidInNebraska was available only for those living in the UK.]] Regardless, it is available to watch worldwide [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iOfVgZYu28 here]].
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* LoopholeAbuse: Invoked; a recent art contest he held had, among its guidelines, "no digital entries". So a contestant mailed him a cassette tape.
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* LoopholeAbuse: Invoked; a recent an art contest he held had, among its guidelines, "no digital entries". So a contestant mailed him a cassette tape.
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* MissingEpisode: His ''A-Team'' video game review was taken down due to copyright infringement, but can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuw0wwo2A1U here]] (until recently when THAT video got taken down), but the channel associated with it still has all of the other videos that were formerly on extras.ashens.com.
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* MissingEpisode: His ''A-Team'' video game review was taken down due to copyright infringement, but can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuw0wwo2A1U here]] (until recently when THAT video got taken down), but the channel associated with it still has all of the other videos that were formerly on extras.ashens.com.
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** He recently did it again in his Amstrad Penpad review.
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** He recently did it again in his Amstrad Penpad review.
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** Even more recently on his new "Extra Ashens" channel, he did this to show his contempt for Peter Popoff.
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** Even more recently on On his new "Extra Ashens" channel, he did this to show his contempt for Peter Popoff.
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** Most recently in his "Recording Microscopes" video:
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** Most recently in In his "Recording Microscopes" video:
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** Oh, he's still doing it. [[NightmareFuel And not always of the funny variety, either.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQg052Wpzj0 One from a recent video]] even seems to be a direct ShoutOut to the trope's name in the form of a '''''[[NightmareFuel TERRIFYINGLY]]''''' [[IncrediblyLamePun Lame Pun]]. [[spoiler:It involves [[TopGear the Stig]].]]
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** Oh, he's still doing it. [[NightmareFuel And not always of the funny variety, either.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQg052Wpzj0 One from a recent video]] One]] even seems to be a direct ShoutOut to the trope's name in the form of a '''''[[NightmareFuel TERRIFYINGLY]]''''' '''''TERRIFYINGLY''''' [[IncrediblyLamePun Lame Pun]]. [[spoiler:It involves [[TopGear the Stig]].]]
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* TimedMission: A recent video where he set himself the task of reviewing 10 items in 10 minutes.
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* TimedMission: A recent video where he set himself the task of reviewing 10 items in 10 minutes.
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* YoutubePoop: A rather easy source to base works on, due to his deadpan speech and because most of his videos look the same. He recently referenced one in his POP Station Watch series (see AscendedMeme above). Hell, he even held a contest around them.
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* YoutubePoop: A rather easy source to base works on, due to his deadpan speech and because most of his videos look the same. He recently referenced one in his POP Station Watch series (see AscendedMeme above). Hell, he even held a contest around them.
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** On his Guitar Fever review, if you record the screech and play it on a ZX spectrum emulator you get a spceial message! (Volume warning!) [[spoiler:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXqxc5w3OwI SPLINK!]]]]
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** On his Guitar Fever review, if you record the screech and play it on a ZX spectrum emulator you get a spceial special message! (Volume warning!) [[spoiler:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXqxc5w3OwI SPLINK!]]]]
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* StylisticSuck: His mocked-up homemade DoctorWho opening.
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* StylisticSuck: His mocked-up homemade DoctorWho ''Series/DoctorWho'' opening.
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* DualWielding: He destroys a pair of shoddy headphones with dual-wielded hammers.
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** From his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2tVE7qRLwk A88 review]]: "Calenda...wasn't that one of the major characters from that old ''{{Akira}}'' manga?"
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** From his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2tVE7qRLwk A88 review]]: "Calenda...wasn't that one of the major characters from that old ''{{Akira}}'' ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' manga?"
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Because it isn't showing on the upper bar, [[{{YMMV/StuartAshen}} subjective tropes are here]].
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Because it isn't showing on the upper bar, [[{{YMMV/StuartAshen}} subjective tropes are here]].
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misuse as emphasis
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* BeyondTheImpossible: In playing the ''Turbo'' boardgame with GuruLarry, he manages to come in third place... out of two people playing.
* BrokeTheRatingScale: In playing the ''Turbo'' boardgame with GuruLarry, he manages to come in third place... out of two people playing.
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* TheManyDeathsOfYou: For him, it was [[StartToCorpse The Many]] ''Quick'' [[StartToCorpse Deaths of You]]. He had two videos timing the fastest deaths in video games. [[{{Action52}} One game]] killed you in [[BeyondTheImpossible less than a second]].
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* TheManyDeathsOfYou: For him, it was [[StartToCorpse The Many]] ''Quick'' [[StartToCorpse Deaths of You]]. He had two videos timing the fastest deaths in video games. [[{{Action52}} One game]] killed you in [[BeyondTheImpossible less than a second]].second.
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His site is [[http://www.ashens.com here]], his YouTube page [[http://www.youtube.com/user/ashens here]], and he hosts some of his game reviews on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/ashens here.]]
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His site is [[http://www.ashens.com here]], his YouTube page [[http://www.youtube.com/user/ashens here]], and he hosts some of his game reviews on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/ashens here.]]]] He also served as the narrator for ''NinjaTheMissionForce'', duplicating the LargeHam British narrator of Godfrey Ho's films.
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YMMV sinkhole
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** Also, in his Headsets review, he says (in these ExactWords): "YourMilageMayVary."
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** Also, in his Headsets review, he says (in these ExactWords): "YourMilageMayVary."Your Milage May Vary."
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** After several questions about the Heinz pasta ads Youtube put at the beginning of videos, Chef Excellence made him a plate. Ashen's wasn't exactly pleased with the dish.
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* AutoTune: His review of LaDiDa.
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* AutoTune: His review of LaDiDa.[[{{IOS}} LaDiDa]] has him turn the Auto Tune up as high as possible because of RuleOfFunny. [[HilarityEnsues Improvised hilarity does indeed ensue]].
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* CurseCutShort: Chef Excellence at the end of "An Excellent Newsflash".
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** "I don't know, and you know what? I don't care."
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* TimedMission: A recent video where he set himself the task of reviewing 10 items in 10 minutes.
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unnecessary comma
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** "Nought to three, sad onions."
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** "Nought to three, three sad onions."
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** Oh, he's still doing it. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel And not always of the funny variety, either.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQg052Wpzj0 One from a recent video]] even seems to be a direct ShoutOut to the trope's name in the form of a '''''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel TERRIFYINGLY]]''''' [[IncrediblyLamePun Lame Pun]]. [[spoiler:It involves [[TopGear the Stig]].]]
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** Oh, he's still doing it. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel [[NightmareFuel And not always of the funny variety, either.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQg052Wpzj0 One from a recent video]] even seems to be a direct ShoutOut to the trope's name in the form of a '''''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel '''''[[NightmareFuel TERRIFYINGLY]]''''' [[IncrediblyLamePun Lame Pun]]. [[spoiler:It involves [[TopGear the Stig]].]]
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* EyeScream: When reviewing a knock-off Darth Vader action figure with a light-up lightsaber, Ashen accidentally shines the light in his eye when pressing the button before putting in the lightsaber. He does not take it well.
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** Ashen's use of Noseybonk is a debatable example, as the original character was AccidentalNightmareFuel whereas Ashen's version is deliberate HighOctaneNightmareFuel.
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* {{Plagiarism}}: A common feature of [=PopStations=] is the stolen artwork from other games on the packaging, particularly from ''KingOfFighters'' and ''StreetFighter''. Most bizarrely, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6e6r-NOq5U PopStation Watch 6]] rips ''BatmanAndRobin'' with the most nonsensical BlindIdiotTranslation to date.
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* {{Plagiarism}}: A common feature of [=PopStations=] is the stolen artwork from other games on the packaging, particularly from ''KingOfFighters'' and ''StreetFighter''. Most bizarrely, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6e6r-NOq5U PopStation Watch 6]] rips ''BatmanAndRobin'' ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' with the most nonsensical BlindIdiotTranslation to date.
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* AuthorVocabularyCalendar: "Sprue," meaning those little pieces of plastic that come off the mold for a toy or something similar. He himself admits he has no idea how he came to know the word.
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* BeyondTheImpossible: In playing the ''Turbo'' boardgame with GuruLarry, he manages to come in third place... out of two people playing.
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* GilliganCut: After he had opened a package of promotional ''X-Factor'' instruments (a whistle, a recorder, and a tambourine), he examines the quality of the instruments, then says "I can't see myself making a musical triptych with these". Cut to exactly that.
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** Most recently in his "Recording Microscopes video":
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** Most recently in his "Recording Microscopes video":Microscopes" video:
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** Most recently in his "Recording Microscopes video":
-->"Science! I fucking love me some science!"
-->"Science! I fucking love me some science!"
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** "<Sarcasm>. Also, I am a crazy liar"
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** More directly in the 8th entry in that series, in which he attempts to assemble [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSN6G5yGhdM Christmas crackers.]]
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ashens.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:(''boop beep, boop beep, beep boop'') Hello!]]
->''"[[HilariousInHindsight In March 2011]], all e-book readers will be recalled [[TakeThat after it is discovered that e-books are shit]]."''
-->-- '''Stuart Ashen''', ''Ashen's Tech Dump'', "God's Source Code"
Dr. Stuart Ashen (yes, a real doctor; of psychology, no less), or simply Dr. Ashen, is the premier source on {{YouTube}} for reviews of {{Shoddy Knockoff Product}}s — primarily electronics. He also reviews equally horrible retro British games in a series called ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of''. He has also created two small series of comedy videos for the BBC Comedy Extra website, named ''Ashen's Tech Dump'' and ''Back Space''.
He recently co-starred in the sci-fi webseries/[[AlternateRealityGame ARG]] ''WebVideo/TheProxy'', which ran through March 8th-17th, 2012. Unfortunately, the contest aspect, [[ProductPlacement not-so-subtly sponsored by Alienware]], [[OfferVoidInNebraska was available only for those living in the UK.]] Regardless, it is available to watch worldwide [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iOfVgZYu28 here]].
His site is [[http://www.ashens.com here]], his YouTube page [[http://www.youtube.com/user/ashens here]], and he hosts some of his game reviews on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/ashens here.]]
----
!!The works of Dr. Ashen provide examples of:
* AccentuateTheNegative: Being ripoffs of other consoles and generally being really bad, Ashen does this a lot in his reviews of [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct POP Stations]].
* AdaptationDyeJob: Chef Excellence the puppet has much darker skin than the model he's based on.
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: [[invoked]] He pretty much popularized the the image of kid's show PluckyComicRelief Noseybonk as a murderous psychopath.
** He (jokingly) implied that Rick Santorum was a StarWars character.
* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcniO4-CVdM Lampshaded]] with a bootleg action figure of [[MickFoley Dude Love]].
* AmbiguousSyntax: Mentioned in his review of ''Human Killing Machine'': is it about a human who is a killing machine, or a machine that kills humans?
* AndIMustScream: In the second episode of ''Ashen's Tech Dump'', he reviews three (thankfully fictional) games, one of which is known as ''Vinnie the Vole's Existential Nightmare'', which made for huge amounts of NightmareFuel when Ashen found out the game [[spoiler:consists entirely of the titular Vole wandering around a dark, plain square room. He then freezes with a terrified look on his face, then runs from side-to-side making a beeping noise supposed to be screaming, then runs into the corner, [[NightmareFuel holds a gun to his head, closes his eyes and]] [[NothingIsScarier the screen goes black]] after a dull electronic ''pffut'' sound is heard]].
** [[spoiler:[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption YOUR ]][[YouBastard FAULT]]]]
** The game [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I7aGuOdtHo has been]] [[http://www.mediafire.com/?znmyfxnufmm defictionalized]], including a ZXSpectrum [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0024891 homebrew flavor.]]
** On his website's forum, Ashen [[http://s13.zetaboards.com/Birdbath/topic/6718661/1/ revealed]] a Facebook message he read on the Vinnie Vole fanpage:
-->"There should be a Vinnie board game. As soon as you open the box, there will be a slip of paper that kindly informs you that 'YOUR ACTIONS HAVE DAMNED VINNIE'."
** This inspired him to make up his own rules for a board game:
-->"You open the box and it is full of jewelery and nothing else. Ten minutes after opening it the Police knock down your door and accuse you of stealing it during a burglary you know nothing about, which resulted in the death of an old woman. In court they produce all sorts of false evidence and you end up being sentenced to 10 years. Six months into the sentence you wake up at 3am and see Vinnie silently staring at you from outside your cell door. Then it suddenly comes back to you — you DID commit the burglary, and it was you who pushed the old woman down the stairs. Vinnie points at you and screams and screams until you go mad. [[MoodWhiplash The winner is the player with]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the most counters]]."
* ArchEnemy: The autofocus. [[RunningGag Many, MANY times.]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: His review of the Chintendo (or "Ken Sing Ton") Vii showed that it was a simplified NES in design with a Wii controller slapped on, 2D Playstation 1-esque graphics, weighed nothing even with a small lump of useless metal inside it, and had cost him financially and mentally very much. His reason for giving it a 0/10? No lanyard.
* AscendedMeme: After someone did a Gentlementlemen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtvx8TBA5EM remix]] of his Retieval Review, he was heard humming it in a later video and put an annotation link to it.
* AutoTune: His review of LaDiDa.
* BerserkButton: Lanyards. They set him off because every piece of retro tat comes with one. "They're a waste of the planet. The campaign starts here." Incidentally, his way of getting rid of them seems to be [[HypocriticalHumor selling them with his DVD]].
** Forms of patronizing marketing also manages to piss Ashen off. He expressed his displeasure at the Flip Video's slogans plastered all over its packaging, and actually refused to properly review a set of Carpenter earbuds due to the pretentious-sounding description on the back of its box, especially with its [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame]] would/wood pun.
* BileFascination: His claim to fame is [[{{In-Universe}} a series of video reviews of]] [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct POP Stations]], toys and games, almost all of which are crap. Many of them are donations from viewers.
* BitingTheHandHumor: During the WLL review, [[spoiler: the youtube staff terminate the video when he mocks the partnership program.]]
* BlatantLies: A RunningGag of his. He denotes all sarcastic comments with "...he lied."
* BlindIdiotTranslation: Nearly every foreign product has manuals filled with this. It's so bad that Dr. Ashen is angry when it ''doesn't'' happen. Sometimes even the name is badly translated.
-->'''Ashen''': You've probably read the title of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6e6r-NOq5U this video]] and thought "[[FlatWhat Surely there can't be]] a POP Station called [[WordSaladTitle Retieval Mankind's Batman]]!"
* TheBoardGame: He has reviewed several board game adaptations of computer and arcade games.
* BodyHorror: The FightClub action figures, which have limbs twisted around the wrong way and faces painted on wrongly. Apparently, it can spread.
* BrickJoke: In Poundland Special 3 (April 2010), he tries to test the Packbuster's claims with a LCD game based on ''Series/DoctorWho''. He also claimed that he will review it later, but it took until December 2011 for it to be reviewed. Turns out [[spoiler: it had fallen behind a wardrobe.]] The post for it on ashens.com also [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] its former WhatHappenedToTheMouse status.
* BuffySpeak: From his Barcode Battler review after he realised the device needed new batteries.
-->"This thing eats batteries like [[ShapedLikeItself an enormous battery-eating thing]]."
* CatapultNightmare: At the beginning of his "Fortress Guardian" review.
* {{Catchphrase}}: Occasionally teases about making one up, but always decides against it. Two options were "Stay Fresh, Cheese Bags!" and "Thumbs up to Dingoo!"
** "Let's see what lurks inside."
** "Marvellous."
** "[[SarcasmMode He lied.]]"
** Early in a review he will make a CaptainObvious comment along the lines of "It's a (thing)" or "It's got a (thing)" in a pained, Dalek-like voice.
** A skeptical "Hmmmmm" after he reads a line of BlatantLies product description.
** "Nought to three, sad onions."
* ChristmasSpecial: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfXEnjI4vTk Christmas Tat 1 (2008)]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATZPvDhHX3I 2 (2009)]], and the Christmas Specials for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsjQpxJU7hM&feature=feedu 2010]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbDeW5PwqRU 2011]].
* {{Corpsing}}: In the iPhone 5G review, he dissolves into a fit of uncontrollable laughter after discovering an ancient-style rabbit ear antenna on the phone.
* CutenessProximity: Whenever he brings one of his pets onto the show, he tends to act especially cute with them, in a weird way--such as looking for his dog, Oscar ("Where's Oscar-dog? ''There he is!'') so he can [[PokeThePoodle poke him]], or asking his guinea pig if he's going to [[ItMakesSenseInContext going to turn into a god-monster.]] "Yeees! Are you going to go on a rampage? Yeees!"
* CreepyDoll: Shows up in the "Poundland Girls' Toys Special". His reaction? KillItWithFire.
* DeadpanSnarker: He doesn't hold anything back against the "products" he reviews. Emphasis on the "Deadpan," too, as he's usually extremely calm-voiced during his inferior product reviews.
* {{Deconstruction}}: ''Realism Fighter'', from Episode 2 of ''Ashen's Tech Dump''.
* {{Defictionalization}}: The action figures of him started out as a joke before becoming real for a limited run.
** ''Vinnie the Vole's Existensial Nightmare''.
* DrinkingGame: Dr. Ashen gives one to the viewer [[invoked]] in the description of the Barcode Battler video.
-->'''Ashen''': Take a shot every time I say "Right", and "...or something". Alcohol poisoning may ensue.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: A mild example. In the end of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6e6r-NOq5U POP Station Watch 6]], Chef Excellence makes an appearance as a puppet and Stuart asks him how he is now that he was replaced on the Stay Fresh line. They parted on sour terms.
* DudeNotFunny: By his own account, he's invoked this again and again [[spoiler:and has been keeping track with a checklist]]. This is mostly concerning how people didn't get jokes such as his repeated avoidance of copyright infringement (Considering the youtube community's troubled history with copyright), or his appearance on The Node.
* EastAnglia: Ashen is from there and often mentions Norwich in his reviews.
* EasterEgg: The strange sound during when he supposedly fell asleep during his R-Zone review. By playing it on a spectrogram, it reveals a picture of [[spoiler:Noseybonk]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbyk2Ys9CNw Proof here.]]
** On his Guitar Fever review, if you record the screech and play it on a ZX spectrum emulator you get a spceial message! (Volume warning!) [[spoiler:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXqxc5w3OwI SPLINK!]]]]
* EatThat: One of his most popular bits is consuming various dubious edibles on camera, and it's one of his most requested ones as well, since his reactions are generally rather dramatic. Favorites include him eating a giant gummi-candy foot, the terrifying "anti-pizza," and generic boxed wine.
** His Easter 2012 contains possibly the two extremes of all the "Eat That"s he's ever done: First, there was a "cream egg" so vile, it caused an immediate SpitTake (for which he later apologized, it being rather unprofessional), and a marshmallow bunny that, while it looked horrifying (its eyes were misaligned and it had a random hole in its forehead), he had to admit actually tasted pretty good.
* EldritchAbomination: Bort Sompson.
** Referenced in regards to a [[FightClub Fight Club]] ripoff action figure whose face has been printed wrongly.
** Also used when talking about a doll from Poundland. After [[KillItWithFire burning it]], of course.
** He used the term again when talking about the Bridesmaid doll in the second Poundland Girl's Toys Special. He said it went beyond "Eldritch abomination" and into "harbinger of the apocalypse" levels.
* EldritchLocation: The ice field from the ''Turbo'' board game is depicted as such.
* EpicFail: His attempts at building a Christmas cracker from a kit [[spoiler:set the sofa on fire and reduced him to a gibbering wreck. And that's ''before'' he set off all the gunpowder]].
** In his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzvEUnwG5T4 review/playthrough]] of the board game ''Turbo'' with [[GuruLarryAndWez Guru Larry]], he somehow came in ''third''.
* EvenTheRatsWontTouchIt: TheStinger for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IWwM26OxiM Poundland Food Special]] shows his dog refusing to touch the "pizza" "snack".
* EvilGenius: According to Guru Larry and Wez, at least.
* EvilLaugh: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoorFbFz3AU He uses one to let you know that he may phone you.]]
* EvolvingCredits: His standard intro has big googly eyes appear on his logo as he says a cheery "Hello!" For Poundland specials, instead pound coins appear where his eyes should be and he says 'cheapo!' For "Popstation Watch" a police siren plays while a Popstation orbits his logo's head and the eyes follow it.
** And then there's the times he's changed it up by replacing the googly eyes with [[spoiler: headbanging with heavy metal, a more high-definition version of the popstation watch opening, and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myTMMO9Clz8& CELERY!]]]].
** The Poundland Food Special has him barfing in addition to his pound coin eyes. Given the nature of the "food" he's about to eat, it's basically foreshadowing what's to come.
** The 2012 Easter Special replaced "Hello!" with a very unenthusiastic "Easter." It also placed the Easter Bunny into the scene and omitted the googly eyes.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of''
* {{Face Palm}}: His [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HFeNYx1kr0 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen review]].
* FanNickname: "Bort Sompson" for the nightmare-inducing Not Bart Simpson from the Huge Screen V2 review.
** He also comes up with nicknames for all the ''Series/DoctorWho'' villains during his review of the ''Doctor Who'' LCD Adventure Game.
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* FilkSong: One of the entries to the non-100th video contest was a four-track album called "[[http://jamiesoar.bandcamp.com/album/recorded-tat Recorded Tat]]", which includes theme songs for ''City Fighter'' and ''BMX Ninja''.
* FollowTheLeader: After Dr. Ashen's videos increased in popularity, a number of "Ashens tribute" review videos in his style have appeared throughout [=YouTube=]. The video [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJZggpiithU Ultra-Cheap Action Figures Review]] has a clip of a contributor doing an impression of him included in the end.
** In a VLOG made by several members of Channel Awesome for Magfest, purely by coincidence they ended up filming themselves in the back of a car while finding bits of plastic tat, holding them in front of the camera and talking about them: they ended up dubbing it "[[{{Thememobile}} The Ashens Car]]".
** It's unknown if it's done intentionally but much of the review format and snark of Yahtzee's ''Zero Punctuation'' review series seems quite similar to ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of''
* FreudianSlip: Both invoked and lampshaded in his Game King review, upon stating Game Boy games would not work on it.
-->"Oh... I don't know what it is with you people! You're obsessed with sticking things in the wrong slot... hm. Very Freudian."
** In his Game.Com review, he accidentally made a Freudian slip whilst reviewing the Batman and Robin game. [[spoiler:Damnit! I've given away the ending in a freudian slip!]]
* FunWithAcronyms: The company behind some of the Royal Wedding Tat had the unfortunate acronym [[MenstrualMenace PMS]].
* FunWithSubtitles: The videos with subtitles sometimes describe his actions pejoratively. [[spoiler:MOON MEN]]
* HarmlessVillain: The Silver Skull
* HypocriticalHumor: After the segment where HarryPartridge does a small review in Ashen's style in the "Ultra-Cheap Action Figures" video.
-->'''Ashen''': People appearing in my own videos, trying to steal my shtick... Bet [[JeepersMedia Mike Mozart]] doesn't have to put up with this.
* IncrediblyLamePun:
** As a reference to the ''La Di Dah'' iPhone app's autotune effect, as he was saving his recording to share it, he wondered, "Can I send it to Cher"? Very subtle, but terrible, nonetheless.
** He didn't like jokes with Christmas crackers either.
** "It looks like a fat Batarang: a Fatarang!"
* INeedAFreakingDrink / ThisIsGonnaSuck: After finding out that one of the items he was reviewing was yet another [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct POP Station]] repackaging, he laments on it:
-->'''Ashen''': Oh, dear... [[{{Understatement}} I'm not looking forward to turning this on.]]\\
(''After getting the packaging over and done with'') Right, I'm going to go have a stiff drink or twenty, then I shall return.
** In the ninth POP Station Watch, he actually has a cheap bottle of gin at the ready on the couch before going over the game.
* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: Two energy drink brands - "Boobee" and "Pussy".
* ItGotWorse: Frequent in his review of terrible tech.
* ItsPersonal: The games featured in ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of'' are mostly ones which Ashen bought as a child and still feels angry about wasting money on.
* JumpCut: Lampshaded.
* JumpScare: He reacts to [[JumpCut jump cuts]] in a similar startled way as a RunningGag.
** A mild one occurs in his easter special involving [[spoiler:his SlasherSmile-laden face affixed to [[NightmareRetardant an image of a pink easter bunny]] accompanied by a ScareChord]].
* KillItWithFire: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxACqE-puLY&t=3m45s His reaction]] to an incredibly scary looking doll.
** He seems to have a blowtorch now, as he's "killed" a bad-looking [[HarryPotter Draco Malfoy]] figure and an easter chick decoration with it.
* LampshadedTheObscureReference: He has a recurring segment in his reviews, "Quincy: a caterpillar that sings obscure Beatles Songs"
* LeFilmArtistique: The review of the Valentine's Day Frying Pan that Chef Excellence made in the Valentine's Day Tat video.
--> '''Ashen''': I knew I shouldn't have taken him to see ''TheArtist''.
* LetsPlay: His general approach towards videogame ripoffs.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: His final verdict on ''Renegade III''.
* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: He used an 8-bit rendition of God Save The Queen in two videos; it broke down on its second use in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4rqVauL2eI Royal Wedding Tat Review]].
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3EU1W4mZLc Doctor Who LCD Adventure Game review]] opens with a DIY re-creation of the classic series intro that trails off in the last few seconds.
* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: Did a review of several limited editions of video games and the tat that comes with them.
* LimitedWardrobe: When he films himself, he almost always is wearing a suit with his trademark red tie.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: Combined with TheElevatorFromIpanema on a few occasions.
** ''Thinking about it...thinking about it...thinking about it...''
* LoopholeAbuse: Invoked; a recent art contest he held had, among its guidelines, "no digital entries". So a contestant mailed him a cassette tape.
* {{Machinima}}: One was made in GarrysMod for the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIRTVkan_jA Game King showcase]].
* MarshmallowDream: Subverted in his recording on the JVC Marshmallow headset:
-->"Once, I had a dream I was eating a giant marshmallow. When I woke up, my wife was missing and ''everything was covered in blood!"''
* MascotWithAttitude: At one point he said that Chef Excellence's Stay Fresh Cheese Bags sounded like the sign-off of a Nineties mascot — "Stay fresh, cheesebags!"
* TheMeanBrit: Imagine [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]], [[LighterAndSofter but about ten times less mean and five times slower]]. He's certainly not afraid of snarking at all the stupid things the thing he's reviewing got wrong.
* MediumAwareness: He notes that the Silver Skull is unlikely to make good on his threat to return because "I get bored of recurring characters very quickly".
* MissingEpisode: His ''A-Team'' video game review was taken down due to copyright infringement, but can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuw0wwo2A1U here]] (until recently when THAT video got taken down), but the channel associated with it still has all of the other videos that were formerly on extras.ashens.com.
** To an extent, The Proxy could count as a trace of this. Each of the descriptions link to its Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia pages. However, the Wikipedia page has since been deleted.
* MostAnnoyingSound: He's declared [[invoked]] this on a number of things. The MIDI files on Guitar Fever. The Game Over noise of Outrun knockoff, which was originally a classic in the original. Also, U2.
** A number of Popstations start up with an awful MIDI version of the Ode to Joy, which he has dubbed the "Ode to Pain."
** The R-Zone, despite actually being made by a (somewhat) reputable company in Tiger Electronics, was discovered to have music far more unbearable than any of the Popstations he reviewed. The two ''StarWars'' games he tried out were just barely tolerable, but music in the system's version of ''VirtuaFighter'' was likened to "a giant spider running across a keyboard."
** The pointless nature noises the [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct iPhone 5G's]] screensaver constantly made.
--> '''Stuart:''' Have you got a frog in your pocket, or have you bought one of those stupid phones? (later on) '''[[CriticalAnnoyance WILL YOU SHUT]]''' '''''[[CriticalAnnoyance UP]]'''''?!
* NightmareRetardant: He [[invoked]] showed 5 examples as he hosts a website showing old trailers. Examples include puppets, a guy in a wetsuit, and a guy wearing a chicken mask.
* NoodleIncident: "I haven't been this bored since I was trapped in a room with a potato."
** "I met a man with a metal ball once..."
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: In the Human Killing Machine review, when it's revealed that once you defeat Igor, you must fight his dog, who is named Shepski.
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: One of his guests revealed the password to God's source code. It's [[spoiler:Password]].
* OhCrap: Done by Chef Excellence in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEL89oQpIKs this video]], with slightly stronger language.
* OneOfUs: [[spoiler:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi8FXD-olbk At the end of A Christmas Mystery Resolved, it was revealed that he keeps a notebook of various Tropes, and checks off each one that was done in the Christmas Special reviews.]]]]
** For the record, [[spoiler:the Tropes listed are OverlyLongGag, RunningGag, EarWorm, MetaGuy, DeadpanSnarker, BigLippedAlligatorMoment, PokeThePoodle, PrecisionFStrike, GenreSavvy, DudeNotFunny (''many'' checks on this one), BileFascination, the as-of-yet nonexistent Malensky Trifle, BlatantLies, ChristmasSpecial, EasterEgg, SelfDeprecation, HarmlessVillain, {{Defictionalization}}, EvolvingCredits, IAmNotShazam, and ItGotWorse]].
** The description of his knock off iPhone 5G review says "20 minutes into the future! Where the iPhone 5G is real."
** Also, in his Headsets review, he says (in these ExactWords): "YourMilageMayVary."
* OverlyLongGag: The "Charity Video" At the end of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9FFuHQtIiE&list=PL045448E076CF3B69&playnext=1 POP Station Watch 4: Fake PSP v2 Review.]]
* PercussiveMaintenance: Ashen invokes this, [[LampshadeHanging as well as stating the trope name]], trying to get the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aCeg-EbOAI Tomy Racing Turbo]] to work.
* PetPeeveTrope: FourPointScale. [[invoked]]
-->"Overall, I give [Karting Grand Prix] 73%. Because I'm a fucking idiot."
* {{Plagiarism}}: A common feature of [=PopStations=] is the stolen artwork from other games on the packaging, particularly from ''KingOfFighters'' and ''StreetFighter''. Most bizarrely, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6e6r-NOq5U PopStation Watch 6]] rips ''BatmanAndRobin'' with the most nonsensical BlindIdiotTranslation to date.
-->(''after hearing the intro to the '''SuperMarioBros''' theme in '''Football Ground/[[BlindIdiotTranslation Gbound]] of Legend''''') "Wow, they're even ripping off the music these days."
* PrecisionFStrike: His review of games based on ''Series/TheATeam'' had him swear a few times. He expressed surprise at viewers' shock at his language, not realizing that this was the first time he did so. He uses profanity slightly more liberally now, but keeps it to a minimum.
** He recently did it again in his Amstrad Penpad review.
** And again in the StarWars Action Figures episode, albeit on accident after a crappy Darth Vader toy shined a bright LED in his eye. Borders on a AtomicFBomb
-->"''ARGH! Fucking...god DAMMIT!''"
** Even more recently on his new "Extra Ashens" channel, he did this to show his contempt for Peter Popoff.
-->" You astonishingly vile fuck."
** In his headset/headphones review, after reading some incredibly gushy pun-filled stuff on the back of the box of one of them.
-->" You know what? Fuck you, and fuck your headphones!"
* PokeThePoodle: Ashens does this while checking off a list of tropes on this very page.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The Illegal Activity Special.
* RealityWarper: His helmet in the second quickest game overs video.
* RecursiveReality: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1H9bli79to At Jurnet's Bar in Norwich, if you remove one of the bricks in a wall, you'll see a figure of a guy removing a brick from a smaller version of the same wall]].
** Here's the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM7_36SP1tA Director's Cut]] (0:26 might startle you).
** And what he calls the [[MichaelBay "Michael Bay]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WJfNM_m-9I Remix"]], in 3D! [[hottip:*:really, it's just 30 minutes of zooming]]
* {{Retraux}}: His 75,000-subscriber milestone video is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y47mVN51o8w a repost of his very first video review]].
* RewritingReality: Dr. Ashen meets the man who cracked the Source Code of the Universe in Episode 1 of Tech Dump. Depressingly though, the man was obsessed with spontaneously creating Booty Parties out of thin air.
* RunningGag: "Realistic color and sound effect. Just the one. Running Joke." He claimed that he was going to stop using it in Pop Station Watch 5, but it unexpectedly came back in his PCP Station review
** You could say that was an outright lie to begin with, because it gets used again in POP Station Watch 9.
** He also refers to the "Children Under 3 Should not play with this" logo as the "Sad Onion".
** He always mentions how the ''Street Fighter'' games that come with all of the POP Station variants consist of men ripping their own arms off and throwing them at each other.
** Argh! JumpCut!
** "[''sarcastic comment''], he lied."
** His battle with the auto focus.
** A less frequent one: smiling and clicking his teeth together whenever his reflection shows on the screen of the tat he's reviewing.
** In his "Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of" segment, describing the modern fate of the companies that made the games as "A FITTING PUNISHMENT!"
** Potatoes seem to come up an awful lot.
* ScheduleSlip: ''Ashen's Tech Dump'' Episode 4 was released seven months after the previous one.
* SelfDeprecation: A very large part of his style. He describes himself as a "Professional idiot" in biography sections of his webpages and social network accounts like Twitter. When pressed for his occupation, he insists he is an internet comedian and never brings up his Ph.D.
** At the end of his Xbox rip-off review:
-->"''Terrifying thought: You have been watching an idiot talking about a broken toy for over ten minutes.''"
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage:
** In one of his Poundland specials, he reflects that Americans say "Legos" rather than "Lego" as the plural:
-->'''Ashen''': Maybe that's where the "S" from the end of "Maths" ended up?
* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: Mainly POP Stations. So many that the cover of Ashenthology 1 shows Ashen fighting atop a sea of them.
* ShoutOut: To fellow youtuber Mike Mozart, at the very end of his Ultra-Cheap Action Figures Review.
** [[TheRoom "I did not hit her! It's not true! It's bullshit! I did not hit her! I did not!]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJXlFcAaSIk ...oh, HaiPad."]]
** From his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2tVE7qRLwk A88 review]]: "Calenda...wasn't that one of the major characters from that old ''{{Akira}}'' manga?"
** He goes over his "TVTropes Checklist" at the end of A Christmas Mystery Resolved.[[spoiler:..which had "DudeNotFunny"]] [[invoked]] [[SelfDeprecation checked 21 times]] and features the phrase "MalenskyTrifle" checked off as well. To finish it off, he decided to [[LiteralMinded literally]] PokeThePoodle.
** To ''MrBenn'' in his "3D Colour Games" review. "As if by magic...''ping!''...some Popstations appeared."
** In his nanodots review, "[[Music/InsaneClownPosse Magnets?]] [[MemeticMutation How do they work?]] The meme then gets played with when he briefly DOES explain how magnets work.
** To {{Chriddof}} when he announced the winners of a contest.
* SeinfeldianConversation: Lapses into them when dealing with mundane parts of the review (package opening) or intro on whatever is being ripped off.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pemR-dApMV0 A 16mm film reel dated August 1993]] was uploaded in May 2011. The sofa is nowhere to be seen.
* SophisticatedAsHell: "Hello, I am failed psychologist and internet cunt, Dr Ashen."
** His reaction to the completely irrelevant plot synopsis for ''Nightwalk'': "Three words come to mind here: 'What', 'The', and 'Fuck'."
* SpecialEffectsFailure: [[{{In-Universe}} Pretty much the whole point of his feature]], ''Top 5 Rubbish Movie Monsters''.
* SpitTake: In his Easter 2012 special, he eats a "Rieslen Cream Egg" so vile, he ''immediately'' spits it right back out again. He later apologizes for how unprofessional this was, but apparently that egg was ''really'' vile.
* StylisticSuck: His mocked-up homemade DoctorWho opening.
-->''"It's hard to believe that introduction cost 8 and a half thousand pounds to make."''
** The Silver Skull's attempts to make it big in jazz fusion.
* SubliminalSeduction: Brief flash frames are interspersed at random in certain videos, and the exact meaning [[MindScrew isn't clear]].
* SubvertedKidsShow: HarryPartridge's ''Bo-Starr'', a blatant parody of ''WesternAnimation/{{HeMan|and the Masters of the Universe}}'', in ''Ashen's Tech Dump'' 4. Also, "Poor Monkey", "Naughty Heffalump", and "Uncle Stories".
** Ashen's use of Noseybonk is a debatable example, as the original character was AccidentalNightmareFuel whereas Ashen's version is deliberate HighOctaneNightmareFuel.
* TheStinger: Some of his early videos have strange endings after the URL plug. A StupidStatementDanceMix "[[Series/{{Columbo}} Liquid Filth]]" in particular achieved minor memetic status among his subscribers.
** Oh, he's still doing it. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel And not always of the funny variety, either.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQg052Wpzj0 One from a recent video]] even seems to be a direct ShoutOut to the trope's name in the form of a '''''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel TERRIFYINGLY]]''''' [[IncrediblyLamePun Lame Pun]]. [[spoiler:It involves [[TopGear the Stig]].]]
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obTrhupnqYY I'm not recording this, you know.]]"
* TakeThat: His famous [[http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ashen1/ashen/menu/build/intro.htm no-money computer building guide]] is one long build-up to a jab against VIA and ATI.
** Ashen lets you know exactly how he feels about actor Kevin James at the end of his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tIBIny4L6E#t=24m39s Game.com review]].
* TemptingFate: In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&src_vid=CSO1KWLGd50&annotation_id=annotation_740341&v=_w5rkcaeXF8 Self-Assembly Iron-Vehicle Review]] Ashen mocks the toy's "puzzle" classification by claiming it won't have any instructions. It winds up not having instructions.
** "Let's hope it's not in any way poisonous."[[hottip:*:said before preparing a [[MadeInCountryX made-in-China]] instant cupcake from Poundland.]]
* TheElevatorFromIpanema: The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJXlFcAaSIk [=HaiPad=] review]] has him humming this tune during the many loading lags.
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: For him, it was [[StartToCorpse The Many]] ''Quick'' [[StartToCorpse Deaths of You]]. He had two videos timing the fastest deaths in video games. [[{{Action52}} One game]] killed you in [[BeyondTheImpossible less than a second]].
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: In his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trf9O4JtlIo Onda e-book review]], Ashen pronounces "Amazon" wrong a few times, then later reveals he did it deliberately to [[ViewersAreMorons bait the more impulsive viewers into writing comments on the video expressing obnoxious corrections on the pronunciation before watching the review further]]. The result was several removed comments.
* ThirdPersonPerson: The Silver Skull.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Whenever approaching a product he really isn't going to like (such as the Poundland food, which he seemed to genuinely fear eating).
** [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong "What could possibly go]] [[InvertedTrope right?"]]
* UncannyValley: Invoked by name in his review of the PS Vita.
* UnfortunateImplications: Attempted aversion. In the "Oriental Fighter" episode of "Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of" he points out [[invoked]] that the word "oriental" [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage does not bear the same connotations in England as it does in America]].
** Discussed in his review of [[ThomasTheTankEngine the fake Thomas The Tank Engine figures]]. See the show's page for more details.
* UnreliableNarrator: [[http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ashen1/ashen/menu/build/How_to_Build_a_PC.mp3 The audio version of his no-money computer building guide.]]
* VideoReviewShow
* ViewersAreMorons: He takes offense at the {{PlayStation Vita}}'s "Welcome Park" tutorial program, which has the voiceover of a children's show. He doesn't even give it 10 seconds before he [[PrecisionFStrike rudely cuts it off]].
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: {{Nintendo}} of America asked him to make a video for them, but he refused because they wanted full copyright without offering payment.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Right after the announcement of his intention to upload a new video every day during Christmas 2010 for "The Twelve Days of Tatmas".
** More directly in the 8th entry in that series, in which he attempts to assemble [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSN6G5yGhdM Christmas crackers.]]
** Inverted on occasion with [[ThisIsGonnaSuck "What could possibly go right?"]]
* WordSalad: Retieval Mankind's Batman, as well as other [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct POP Station]] jargon.
** Chanticleer Hegemony. It was never reviewed as it wasn't in the box, but Ashens eventually found out what it was and it isn't half as cool as the [[http://www.formspring.me/Ashens/q/176434062154570304 game's title]].
* YoutubePoop: A rather easy source to base works on, due to his deadpan speech and because most of his videos look the same. He recently referenced one in his POP Station Watch series (see AscendedMeme above). Hell, he even held a contest around them.
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[[spoiler:''YOU HAVE SHOWN THESE HUMANS TOO MUCH'']]
----
[[caption-width-right:300:(''boop beep, boop beep, beep boop'') Hello!]]
->''"[[HilariousInHindsight In March 2011]], all e-book readers will be recalled [[TakeThat after it is discovered that e-books are shit]]."''
-->-- '''Stuart Ashen''', ''Ashen's Tech Dump'', "God's Source Code"
Dr. Stuart Ashen (yes, a real doctor; of psychology, no less), or simply Dr. Ashen, is the premier source on {{YouTube}} for reviews of {{Shoddy Knockoff Product}}s — primarily electronics. He also reviews equally horrible retro British games in a series called ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of''. He has also created two small series of comedy videos for the BBC Comedy Extra website, named ''Ashen's Tech Dump'' and ''Back Space''.
He recently co-starred in the sci-fi webseries/[[AlternateRealityGame ARG]] ''WebVideo/TheProxy'', which ran through March 8th-17th, 2012. Unfortunately, the contest aspect, [[ProductPlacement not-so-subtly sponsored by Alienware]], [[OfferVoidInNebraska was available only for those living in the UK.]] Regardless, it is available to watch worldwide [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iOfVgZYu28 here]].
His site is [[http://www.ashens.com here]], his YouTube page [[http://www.youtube.com/user/ashens here]], and he hosts some of his game reviews on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/bt/ashens here.]]
----
!!The works of Dr. Ashen provide examples of:
* AccentuateTheNegative: Being ripoffs of other consoles and generally being really bad, Ashen does this a lot in his reviews of [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct POP Stations]].
* AdaptationDyeJob: Chef Excellence the puppet has much darker skin than the model he's based on.
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: [[invoked]] He pretty much popularized the the image of kid's show PluckyComicRelief Noseybonk as a murderous psychopath.
** He (jokingly) implied that Rick Santorum was a StarWars character.
* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcniO4-CVdM Lampshaded]] with a bootleg action figure of [[MickFoley Dude Love]].
* AmbiguousSyntax: Mentioned in his review of ''Human Killing Machine'': is it about a human who is a killing machine, or a machine that kills humans?
* AndIMustScream: In the second episode of ''Ashen's Tech Dump'', he reviews three (thankfully fictional) games, one of which is known as ''Vinnie the Vole's Existential Nightmare'', which made for huge amounts of NightmareFuel when Ashen found out the game [[spoiler:consists entirely of the titular Vole wandering around a dark, plain square room. He then freezes with a terrified look on his face, then runs from side-to-side making a beeping noise supposed to be screaming, then runs into the corner, [[NightmareFuel holds a gun to his head, closes his eyes and]] [[NothingIsScarier the screen goes black]] after a dull electronic ''pffut'' sound is heard]].
** [[spoiler:[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption YOUR ]][[YouBastard FAULT]]]]
** The game [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I7aGuOdtHo has been]] [[http://www.mediafire.com/?znmyfxnufmm defictionalized]], including a ZXSpectrum [[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0024891 homebrew flavor.]]
** On his website's forum, Ashen [[http://s13.zetaboards.com/Birdbath/topic/6718661/1/ revealed]] a Facebook message he read on the Vinnie Vole fanpage:
-->"There should be a Vinnie board game. As soon as you open the box, there will be a slip of paper that kindly informs you that 'YOUR ACTIONS HAVE DAMNED VINNIE'."
** This inspired him to make up his own rules for a board game:
-->"You open the box and it is full of jewelery and nothing else. Ten minutes after opening it the Police knock down your door and accuse you of stealing it during a burglary you know nothing about, which resulted in the death of an old woman. In court they produce all sorts of false evidence and you end up being sentenced to 10 years. Six months into the sentence you wake up at 3am and see Vinnie silently staring at you from outside your cell door. Then it suddenly comes back to you — you DID commit the burglary, and it was you who pushed the old woman down the stairs. Vinnie points at you and screams and screams until you go mad. [[MoodWhiplash The winner is the player with]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the most counters]]."
* ArchEnemy: The autofocus. [[RunningGag Many, MANY times.]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: His review of the Chintendo (or "Ken Sing Ton") Vii showed that it was a simplified NES in design with a Wii controller slapped on, 2D Playstation 1-esque graphics, weighed nothing even with a small lump of useless metal inside it, and had cost him financially and mentally very much. His reason for giving it a 0/10? No lanyard.
* AscendedMeme: After someone did a Gentlementlemen [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtvx8TBA5EM remix]] of his Retieval Review, he was heard humming it in a later video and put an annotation link to it.
* AutoTune: His review of LaDiDa.
* BerserkButton: Lanyards. They set him off because every piece of retro tat comes with one. "They're a waste of the planet. The campaign starts here." Incidentally, his way of getting rid of them seems to be [[HypocriticalHumor selling them with his DVD]].
** Forms of patronizing marketing also manages to piss Ashen off. He expressed his displeasure at the Flip Video's slogans plastered all over its packaging, and actually refused to properly review a set of Carpenter earbuds due to the pretentious-sounding description on the back of its box, especially with its [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame]] would/wood pun.
* BileFascination: His claim to fame is [[{{In-Universe}} a series of video reviews of]] [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct POP Stations]], toys and games, almost all of which are crap. Many of them are donations from viewers.
* BitingTheHandHumor: During the WLL review, [[spoiler: the youtube staff terminate the video when he mocks the partnership program.]]
* BlatantLies: A RunningGag of his. He denotes all sarcastic comments with "...he lied."
* BlindIdiotTranslation: Nearly every foreign product has manuals filled with this. It's so bad that Dr. Ashen is angry when it ''doesn't'' happen. Sometimes even the name is badly translated.
-->'''Ashen''': You've probably read the title of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6e6r-NOq5U this video]] and thought "[[FlatWhat Surely there can't be]] a POP Station called [[WordSaladTitle Retieval Mankind's Batman]]!"
* TheBoardGame: He has reviewed several board game adaptations of computer and arcade games.
* BodyHorror: The FightClub action figures, which have limbs twisted around the wrong way and faces painted on wrongly. Apparently, it can spread.
* BrickJoke: In Poundland Special 3 (April 2010), he tries to test the Packbuster's claims with a LCD game based on ''Series/DoctorWho''. He also claimed that he will review it later, but it took until December 2011 for it to be reviewed. Turns out [[spoiler: it had fallen behind a wardrobe.]] The post for it on ashens.com also [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] its former WhatHappenedToTheMouse status.
* BuffySpeak: From his Barcode Battler review after he realised the device needed new batteries.
-->"This thing eats batteries like [[ShapedLikeItself an enormous battery-eating thing]]."
* CatapultNightmare: At the beginning of his "Fortress Guardian" review.
* {{Catchphrase}}: Occasionally teases about making one up, but always decides against it. Two options were "Stay Fresh, Cheese Bags!" and "Thumbs up to Dingoo!"
** "Let's see what lurks inside."
** "Marvellous."
** "[[SarcasmMode He lied.]]"
** Early in a review he will make a CaptainObvious comment along the lines of "It's a (thing)" or "It's got a (thing)" in a pained, Dalek-like voice.
** A skeptical "Hmmmmm" after he reads a line of BlatantLies product description.
** "Nought to three, sad onions."
* ChristmasSpecial: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfXEnjI4vTk Christmas Tat 1 (2008)]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATZPvDhHX3I 2 (2009)]], and the Christmas Specials for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsjQpxJU7hM&feature=feedu 2010]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbDeW5PwqRU 2011]].
* {{Corpsing}}: In the iPhone 5G review, he dissolves into a fit of uncontrollable laughter after discovering an ancient-style rabbit ear antenna on the phone.
* CutenessProximity: Whenever he brings one of his pets onto the show, he tends to act especially cute with them, in a weird way--such as looking for his dog, Oscar ("Where's Oscar-dog? ''There he is!'') so he can [[PokeThePoodle poke him]], or asking his guinea pig if he's going to [[ItMakesSenseInContext going to turn into a god-monster.]] "Yeees! Are you going to go on a rampage? Yeees!"
* CreepyDoll: Shows up in the "Poundland Girls' Toys Special". His reaction? KillItWithFire.
* DeadpanSnarker: He doesn't hold anything back against the "products" he reviews. Emphasis on the "Deadpan," too, as he's usually extremely calm-voiced during his inferior product reviews.
* {{Deconstruction}}: ''Realism Fighter'', from Episode 2 of ''Ashen's Tech Dump''.
* {{Defictionalization}}: The action figures of him started out as a joke before becoming real for a limited run.
** ''Vinnie the Vole's Existensial Nightmare''.
* DrinkingGame: Dr. Ashen gives one to the viewer [[invoked]] in the description of the Barcode Battler video.
-->'''Ashen''': Take a shot every time I say "Right", and "...or something". Alcohol poisoning may ensue.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: A mild example. In the end of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6e6r-NOq5U POP Station Watch 6]], Chef Excellence makes an appearance as a puppet and Stuart asks him how he is now that he was replaced on the Stay Fresh line. They parted on sour terms.
* DudeNotFunny: By his own account, he's invoked this again and again [[spoiler:and has been keeping track with a checklist]]. This is mostly concerning how people didn't get jokes such as his repeated avoidance of copyright infringement (Considering the youtube community's troubled history with copyright), or his appearance on The Node.
* EastAnglia: Ashen is from there and often mentions Norwich in his reviews.
* EasterEgg: The strange sound during when he supposedly fell asleep during his R-Zone review. By playing it on a spectrogram, it reveals a picture of [[spoiler:Noseybonk]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbyk2Ys9CNw Proof here.]]
** On his Guitar Fever review, if you record the screech and play it on a ZX spectrum emulator you get a spceial message! (Volume warning!) [[spoiler:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXqxc5w3OwI SPLINK!]]]]
* EatThat: One of his most popular bits is consuming various dubious edibles on camera, and it's one of his most requested ones as well, since his reactions are generally rather dramatic. Favorites include him eating a giant gummi-candy foot, the terrifying "anti-pizza," and generic boxed wine.
** His Easter 2012 contains possibly the two extremes of all the "Eat That"s he's ever done: First, there was a "cream egg" so vile, it caused an immediate SpitTake (for which he later apologized, it being rather unprofessional), and a marshmallow bunny that, while it looked horrifying (its eyes were misaligned and it had a random hole in its forehead), he had to admit actually tasted pretty good.
* EldritchAbomination: Bort Sompson.
** Referenced in regards to a [[FightClub Fight Club]] ripoff action figure whose face has been printed wrongly.
** Also used when talking about a doll from Poundland. After [[KillItWithFire burning it]], of course.
** He used the term again when talking about the Bridesmaid doll in the second Poundland Girl's Toys Special. He said it went beyond "Eldritch abomination" and into "harbinger of the apocalypse" levels.
* EldritchLocation: The ice field from the ''Turbo'' board game is depicted as such.
* EpicFail: His attempts at building a Christmas cracker from a kit [[spoiler:set the sofa on fire and reduced him to a gibbering wreck. And that's ''before'' he set off all the gunpowder]].
** In his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzvEUnwG5T4 review/playthrough]] of the board game ''Turbo'' with [[GuruLarryAndWez Guru Larry]], he somehow came in ''third''.
* EvenTheRatsWontTouchIt: TheStinger for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IWwM26OxiM Poundland Food Special]] shows his dog refusing to touch the "pizza" "snack".
* EvilGenius: According to Guru Larry and Wez, at least.
* EvilLaugh: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoorFbFz3AU He uses one to let you know that he may phone you.]]
* EvolvingCredits: His standard intro has big googly eyes appear on his logo as he says a cheery "Hello!" For Poundland specials, instead pound coins appear where his eyes should be and he says 'cheapo!' For "Popstation Watch" a police siren plays while a Popstation orbits his logo's head and the eyes follow it.
** And then there's the times he's changed it up by replacing the googly eyes with [[spoiler: headbanging with heavy metal, a more high-definition version of the popstation watch opening, and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myTMMO9Clz8& CELERY!]]]].
** The Poundland Food Special has him barfing in addition to his pound coin eyes. Given the nature of the "food" he's about to eat, it's basically foreshadowing what's to come.
** The 2012 Easter Special replaced "Hello!" with a very unenthusiastic "Easter." It also placed the Easter Bunny into the scene and omitted the googly eyes.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of''
* {{Face Palm}}: His [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HFeNYx1kr0 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen review]].
* FanNickname: "Bort Sompson" for the nightmare-inducing Not Bart Simpson from the Huge Screen V2 review.
** He also comes up with nicknames for all the ''Series/DoctorWho'' villains during his review of the ''Doctor Who'' LCD Adventure Game.
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* FilkSong: One of the entries to the non-100th video contest was a four-track album called "[[http://jamiesoar.bandcamp.com/album/recorded-tat Recorded Tat]]", which includes theme songs for ''City Fighter'' and ''BMX Ninja''.
* FollowTheLeader: After Dr. Ashen's videos increased in popularity, a number of "Ashens tribute" review videos in his style have appeared throughout [=YouTube=]. The video [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJZggpiithU Ultra-Cheap Action Figures Review]] has a clip of a contributor doing an impression of him included in the end.
** In a VLOG made by several members of Channel Awesome for Magfest, purely by coincidence they ended up filming themselves in the back of a car while finding bits of plastic tat, holding them in front of the camera and talking about them: they ended up dubbing it "[[{{Thememobile}} The Ashens Car]]".
** It's unknown if it's done intentionally but much of the review format and snark of Yahtzee's ''Zero Punctuation'' review series seems quite similar to ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of''
* FreudianSlip: Both invoked and lampshaded in his Game King review, upon stating Game Boy games would not work on it.
-->"Oh... I don't know what it is with you people! You're obsessed with sticking things in the wrong slot... hm. Very Freudian."
** In his Game.Com review, he accidentally made a Freudian slip whilst reviewing the Batman and Robin game. [[spoiler:Damnit! I've given away the ending in a freudian slip!]]
* FunWithAcronyms: The company behind some of the Royal Wedding Tat had the unfortunate acronym [[MenstrualMenace PMS]].
* FunWithSubtitles: The videos with subtitles sometimes describe his actions pejoratively. [[spoiler:MOON MEN]]
* HarmlessVillain: The Silver Skull
* HypocriticalHumor: After the segment where HarryPartridge does a small review in Ashen's style in the "Ultra-Cheap Action Figures" video.
-->'''Ashen''': People appearing in my own videos, trying to steal my shtick... Bet [[JeepersMedia Mike Mozart]] doesn't have to put up with this.
* IncrediblyLamePun:
** As a reference to the ''La Di Dah'' iPhone app's autotune effect, as he was saving his recording to share it, he wondered, "Can I send it to Cher"? Very subtle, but terrible, nonetheless.
** He didn't like jokes with Christmas crackers either.
** "It looks like a fat Batarang: a Fatarang!"
* INeedAFreakingDrink / ThisIsGonnaSuck: After finding out that one of the items he was reviewing was yet another [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct POP Station]] repackaging, he laments on it:
-->'''Ashen''': Oh, dear... [[{{Understatement}} I'm not looking forward to turning this on.]]\\
(''After getting the packaging over and done with'') Right, I'm going to go have a stiff drink or twenty, then I shall return.
** In the ninth POP Station Watch, he actually has a cheap bottle of gin at the ready on the couch before going over the game.
* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: Two energy drink brands - "Boobee" and "Pussy".
* ItGotWorse: Frequent in his review of terrible tech.
* ItsPersonal: The games featured in ''Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of'' are mostly ones which Ashen bought as a child and still feels angry about wasting money on.
* JumpCut: Lampshaded.
* JumpScare: He reacts to [[JumpCut jump cuts]] in a similar startled way as a RunningGag.
** A mild one occurs in his easter special involving [[spoiler:his SlasherSmile-laden face affixed to [[NightmareRetardant an image of a pink easter bunny]] accompanied by a ScareChord]].
* KillItWithFire: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxACqE-puLY&t=3m45s His reaction]] to an incredibly scary looking doll.
** He seems to have a blowtorch now, as he's "killed" a bad-looking [[HarryPotter Draco Malfoy]] figure and an easter chick decoration with it.
* LampshadedTheObscureReference: He has a recurring segment in his reviews, "Quincy: a caterpillar that sings obscure Beatles Songs"
* LeFilmArtistique: The review of the Valentine's Day Frying Pan that Chef Excellence made in the Valentine's Day Tat video.
--> '''Ashen''': I knew I shouldn't have taken him to see ''TheArtist''.
* LetsPlay: His general approach towards videogame ripoffs.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: His final verdict on ''Renegade III''.
* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: He used an 8-bit rendition of God Save The Queen in two videos; it broke down on its second use in the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4rqVauL2eI Royal Wedding Tat Review]].
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3EU1W4mZLc Doctor Who LCD Adventure Game review]] opens with a DIY re-creation of the classic series intro that trails off in the last few seconds.
* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: Did a review of several limited editions of video games and the tat that comes with them.
* LimitedWardrobe: When he films himself, he almost always is wearing a suit with his trademark red tie.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: Combined with TheElevatorFromIpanema on a few occasions.
** ''Thinking about it...thinking about it...thinking about it...''
* LoopholeAbuse: Invoked; a recent art contest he held had, among its guidelines, "no digital entries". So a contestant mailed him a cassette tape.
* {{Machinima}}: One was made in GarrysMod for the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIRTVkan_jA Game King showcase]].
* MarshmallowDream: Subverted in his recording on the JVC Marshmallow headset:
-->"Once, I had a dream I was eating a giant marshmallow. When I woke up, my wife was missing and ''everything was covered in blood!"''
* MascotWithAttitude: At one point he said that Chef Excellence's Stay Fresh Cheese Bags sounded like the sign-off of a Nineties mascot — "Stay fresh, cheesebags!"
* TheMeanBrit: Imagine [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]], [[LighterAndSofter but about ten times less mean and five times slower]]. He's certainly not afraid of snarking at all the stupid things the thing he's reviewing got wrong.
* MediumAwareness: He notes that the Silver Skull is unlikely to make good on his threat to return because "I get bored of recurring characters very quickly".
* MissingEpisode: His ''A-Team'' video game review was taken down due to copyright infringement, but can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuw0wwo2A1U here]] (until recently when THAT video got taken down), but the channel associated with it still has all of the other videos that were formerly on extras.ashens.com.
** To an extent, The Proxy could count as a trace of this. Each of the descriptions link to its Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia pages. However, the Wikipedia page has since been deleted.
* MostAnnoyingSound: He's declared [[invoked]] this on a number of things. The MIDI files on Guitar Fever. The Game Over noise of Outrun knockoff, which was originally a classic in the original. Also, U2.
** A number of Popstations start up with an awful MIDI version of the Ode to Joy, which he has dubbed the "Ode to Pain."
** The R-Zone, despite actually being made by a (somewhat) reputable company in Tiger Electronics, was discovered to have music far more unbearable than any of the Popstations he reviewed. The two ''StarWars'' games he tried out were just barely tolerable, but music in the system's version of ''VirtuaFighter'' was likened to "a giant spider running across a keyboard."
** The pointless nature noises the [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct iPhone 5G's]] screensaver constantly made.
--> '''Stuart:''' Have you got a frog in your pocket, or have you bought one of those stupid phones? (later on) '''[[CriticalAnnoyance WILL YOU SHUT]]''' '''''[[CriticalAnnoyance UP]]'''''?!
* NightmareRetardant: He [[invoked]] showed 5 examples as he hosts a website showing old trailers. Examples include puppets, a guy in a wetsuit, and a guy wearing a chicken mask.
* NoodleIncident: "I haven't been this bored since I was trapped in a room with a potato."
** "I met a man with a metal ball once..."
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: In the Human Killing Machine review, when it's revealed that once you defeat Igor, you must fight his dog, who is named Shepski.
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: One of his guests revealed the password to God's source code. It's [[spoiler:Password]].
* OhCrap: Done by Chef Excellence in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEL89oQpIKs this video]], with slightly stronger language.
* OneOfUs: [[spoiler:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi8FXD-olbk At the end of A Christmas Mystery Resolved, it was revealed that he keeps a notebook of various Tropes, and checks off each one that was done in the Christmas Special reviews.]]]]
** For the record, [[spoiler:the Tropes listed are OverlyLongGag, RunningGag, EarWorm, MetaGuy, DeadpanSnarker, BigLippedAlligatorMoment, PokeThePoodle, PrecisionFStrike, GenreSavvy, DudeNotFunny (''many'' checks on this one), BileFascination, the as-of-yet nonexistent Malensky Trifle, BlatantLies, ChristmasSpecial, EasterEgg, SelfDeprecation, HarmlessVillain, {{Defictionalization}}, EvolvingCredits, IAmNotShazam, and ItGotWorse]].
** The description of his knock off iPhone 5G review says "20 minutes into the future! Where the iPhone 5G is real."
** Also, in his Headsets review, he says (in these ExactWords): "YourMilageMayVary."
* OverlyLongGag: The "Charity Video" At the end of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9FFuHQtIiE&list=PL045448E076CF3B69&playnext=1 POP Station Watch 4: Fake PSP v2 Review.]]
* PercussiveMaintenance: Ashen invokes this, [[LampshadeHanging as well as stating the trope name]], trying to get the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aCeg-EbOAI Tomy Racing Turbo]] to work.
* PetPeeveTrope: FourPointScale. [[invoked]]
-->"Overall, I give [Karting Grand Prix] 73%. Because I'm a fucking idiot."
* {{Plagiarism}}: A common feature of [=PopStations=] is the stolen artwork from other games on the packaging, particularly from ''KingOfFighters'' and ''StreetFighter''. Most bizarrely, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6e6r-NOq5U PopStation Watch 6]] rips ''BatmanAndRobin'' with the most nonsensical BlindIdiotTranslation to date.
-->(''after hearing the intro to the '''SuperMarioBros''' theme in '''Football Ground/[[BlindIdiotTranslation Gbound]] of Legend''''') "Wow, they're even ripping off the music these days."
* PrecisionFStrike: His review of games based on ''Series/TheATeam'' had him swear a few times. He expressed surprise at viewers' shock at his language, not realizing that this was the first time he did so. He uses profanity slightly more liberally now, but keeps it to a minimum.
** He recently did it again in his Amstrad Penpad review.
** And again in the StarWars Action Figures episode, albeit on accident after a crappy Darth Vader toy shined a bright LED in his eye. Borders on a AtomicFBomb
-->"''ARGH! Fucking...god DAMMIT!''"
** Even more recently on his new "Extra Ashens" channel, he did this to show his contempt for Peter Popoff.
-->" You astonishingly vile fuck."
** In his headset/headphones review, after reading some incredibly gushy pun-filled stuff on the back of the box of one of them.
-->" You know what? Fuck you, and fuck your headphones!"
* PokeThePoodle: Ashens does this while checking off a list of tropes on this very page.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The Illegal Activity Special.
* RealityWarper: His helmet in the second quickest game overs video.
* RecursiveReality: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1H9bli79to At Jurnet's Bar in Norwich, if you remove one of the bricks in a wall, you'll see a figure of a guy removing a brick from a smaller version of the same wall]].
** Here's the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM7_36SP1tA Director's Cut]] (0:26 might startle you).
** And what he calls the [[MichaelBay "Michael Bay]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WJfNM_m-9I Remix"]], in 3D! [[hottip:*:really, it's just 30 minutes of zooming]]
* {{Retraux}}: His 75,000-subscriber milestone video is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y47mVN51o8w a repost of his very first video review]].
* RewritingReality: Dr. Ashen meets the man who cracked the Source Code of the Universe in Episode 1 of Tech Dump. Depressingly though, the man was obsessed with spontaneously creating Booty Parties out of thin air.
* RunningGag: "Realistic color and sound effect. Just the one. Running Joke." He claimed that he was going to stop using it in Pop Station Watch 5, but it unexpectedly came back in his PCP Station review
** You could say that was an outright lie to begin with, because it gets used again in POP Station Watch 9.
** He also refers to the "Children Under 3 Should not play with this" logo as the "Sad Onion".
** He always mentions how the ''Street Fighter'' games that come with all of the POP Station variants consist of men ripping their own arms off and throwing them at each other.
** Argh! JumpCut!
** "[''sarcastic comment''], he lied."
** His battle with the auto focus.
** A less frequent one: smiling and clicking his teeth together whenever his reflection shows on the screen of the tat he's reviewing.
** In his "Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of" segment, describing the modern fate of the companies that made the games as "A FITTING PUNISHMENT!"
** Potatoes seem to come up an awful lot.
* ScheduleSlip: ''Ashen's Tech Dump'' Episode 4 was released seven months after the previous one.
* SelfDeprecation: A very large part of his style. He describes himself as a "Professional idiot" in biography sections of his webpages and social network accounts like Twitter. When pressed for his occupation, he insists he is an internet comedian and never brings up his Ph.D.
** At the end of his Xbox rip-off review:
-->"''Terrifying thought: You have been watching an idiot talking about a broken toy for over ten minutes.''"
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage:
** In one of his Poundland specials, he reflects that Americans say "Legos" rather than "Lego" as the plural:
-->'''Ashen''': Maybe that's where the "S" from the end of "Maths" ended up?
* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: Mainly POP Stations. So many that the cover of Ashenthology 1 shows Ashen fighting atop a sea of them.
* ShoutOut: To fellow youtuber Mike Mozart, at the very end of his Ultra-Cheap Action Figures Review.
** [[TheRoom "I did not hit her! It's not true! It's bullshit! I did not hit her! I did not!]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJXlFcAaSIk ...oh, HaiPad."]]
** From his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2tVE7qRLwk A88 review]]: "Calenda...wasn't that one of the major characters from that old ''{{Akira}}'' manga?"
** He goes over his "TVTropes Checklist" at the end of A Christmas Mystery Resolved.[[spoiler:..which had "DudeNotFunny"]] [[invoked]] [[SelfDeprecation checked 21 times]] and features the phrase "MalenskyTrifle" checked off as well. To finish it off, he decided to [[LiteralMinded literally]] PokeThePoodle.
** To ''MrBenn'' in his "3D Colour Games" review. "As if by magic...''ping!''...some Popstations appeared."
** In his nanodots review, "[[Music/InsaneClownPosse Magnets?]] [[MemeticMutation How do they work?]] The meme then gets played with when he briefly DOES explain how magnets work.
** To {{Chriddof}} when he announced the winners of a contest.
* SeinfeldianConversation: Lapses into them when dealing with mundane parts of the review (package opening) or intro on whatever is being ripped off.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pemR-dApMV0 A 16mm film reel dated August 1993]] was uploaded in May 2011. The sofa is nowhere to be seen.
* SophisticatedAsHell: "Hello, I am failed psychologist and internet cunt, Dr Ashen."
** His reaction to the completely irrelevant plot synopsis for ''Nightwalk'': "Three words come to mind here: 'What', 'The', and 'Fuck'."
* SpecialEffectsFailure: [[{{In-Universe}} Pretty much the whole point of his feature]], ''Top 5 Rubbish Movie Monsters''.
* SpitTake: In his Easter 2012 special, he eats a "Rieslen Cream Egg" so vile, he ''immediately'' spits it right back out again. He later apologizes for how unprofessional this was, but apparently that egg was ''really'' vile.
* StylisticSuck: His mocked-up homemade DoctorWho opening.
-->''"It's hard to believe that introduction cost 8 and a half thousand pounds to make."''
** The Silver Skull's attempts to make it big in jazz fusion.
* SubliminalSeduction: Brief flash frames are interspersed at random in certain videos, and the exact meaning [[MindScrew isn't clear]].
* SubvertedKidsShow: HarryPartridge's ''Bo-Starr'', a blatant parody of ''WesternAnimation/{{HeMan|and the Masters of the Universe}}'', in ''Ashen's Tech Dump'' 4. Also, "Poor Monkey", "Naughty Heffalump", and "Uncle Stories".
** Ashen's use of Noseybonk is a debatable example, as the original character was AccidentalNightmareFuel whereas Ashen's version is deliberate HighOctaneNightmareFuel.
* TheStinger: Some of his early videos have strange endings after the URL plug. A StupidStatementDanceMix "[[Series/{{Columbo}} Liquid Filth]]" in particular achieved minor memetic status among his subscribers.
** Oh, he's still doing it. [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel And not always of the funny variety, either.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQg052Wpzj0 One from a recent video]] even seems to be a direct ShoutOut to the trope's name in the form of a '''''[[HighOctaneNightmareFuel TERRIFYINGLY]]''''' [[IncrediblyLamePun Lame Pun]]. [[spoiler:It involves [[TopGear the Stig]].]]
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obTrhupnqYY I'm not recording this, you know.]]"
* TakeThat: His famous [[http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ashen1/ashen/menu/build/intro.htm no-money computer building guide]] is one long build-up to a jab against VIA and ATI.
** Ashen lets you know exactly how he feels about actor Kevin James at the end of his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tIBIny4L6E#t=24m39s Game.com review]].
* TemptingFate: In [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&src_vid=CSO1KWLGd50&annotation_id=annotation_740341&v=_w5rkcaeXF8 Self-Assembly Iron-Vehicle Review]] Ashen mocks the toy's "puzzle" classification by claiming it won't have any instructions. It winds up not having instructions.
** "Let's hope it's not in any way poisonous."[[hottip:*:said before preparing a [[MadeInCountryX made-in-China]] instant cupcake from Poundland.]]
* TheElevatorFromIpanema: The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJXlFcAaSIk [=HaiPad=] review]] has him humming this tune during the many loading lags.
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: For him, it was [[StartToCorpse The Many]] ''Quick'' [[StartToCorpse Deaths of You]]. He had two videos timing the fastest deaths in video games. [[{{Action52}} One game]] killed you in [[BeyondTheImpossible less than a second]].
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: In his [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trf9O4JtlIo Onda e-book review]], Ashen pronounces "Amazon" wrong a few times, then later reveals he did it deliberately to [[ViewersAreMorons bait the more impulsive viewers into writing comments on the video expressing obnoxious corrections on the pronunciation before watching the review further]]. The result was several removed comments.
* ThirdPersonPerson: The Silver Skull.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Whenever approaching a product he really isn't going to like (such as the Poundland food, which he seemed to genuinely fear eating).
** [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong "What could possibly go]] [[InvertedTrope right?"]]
* UncannyValley: Invoked by name in his review of the PS Vita.
* UnfortunateImplications: Attempted aversion. In the "Oriental Fighter" episode of "Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of" he points out [[invoked]] that the word "oriental" [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage does not bear the same connotations in England as it does in America]].
** Discussed in his review of [[ThomasTheTankEngine the fake Thomas The Tank Engine figures]]. See the show's page for more details.
* UnreliableNarrator: [[http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ashen1/ashen/menu/build/How_to_Build_a_PC.mp3 The audio version of his no-money computer building guide.]]
* VideoReviewShow
* ViewersAreMorons: He takes offense at the {{PlayStation Vita}}'s "Welcome Park" tutorial program, which has the voiceover of a children's show. He doesn't even give it 10 seconds before he [[PrecisionFStrike rudely cuts it off]].
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: {{Nintendo}} of America asked him to make a video for them, but he refused because they wanted full copyright without offering payment.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Right after the announcement of his intention to upload a new video every day during Christmas 2010 for "The Twelve Days of Tatmas".
** More directly in the 8th entry in that series, in which he attempts to assemble [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSN6G5yGhdM Christmas crackers.]]
** Inverted on occasion with [[ThisIsGonnaSuck "What could possibly go right?"]]
* WordSalad: Retieval Mankind's Batman, as well as other [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct POP Station]] jargon.
** Chanticleer Hegemony. It was never reviewed as it wasn't in the box, but Ashens eventually found out what it was and it isn't half as cool as the [[http://www.formspring.me/Ashens/q/176434062154570304 game's title]].
* YoutubePoop: A rather easy source to base works on, due to his deadpan speech and because most of his videos look the same. He recently referenced one in his POP Station Watch series (see AscendedMeme above). Hell, he even held a contest around them.
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[[spoiler:''YOU HAVE SHOWN THESE HUMANS TOO MUCH'']]
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