History YMMV / RedLetterMedia

--->'''Plinkett''': Mike and Jay are frauds!

-->''"I'm Rich Evans and I was once forcibly kicked out of an all-you-can-eat buffet."''

** "This is borderline experimental". Originally used by Jay to describe how [[{{Narm}} plain insane and badly made, yet served completely straight]] was the finale of ''Film/ResidentEvilAfterlife''. But it became a way to describe any sort of bizarre nonsense.

** "It's borderline experimental". Originally used by Jay to describe how [[{{Narm}} plain insane and badly made, yet served completely straight]] was the finale of ''Film/ResidentEvilAfterlife''. But it became a way to describe any sort of bizarre nonsense.

** [[https://i.imgur.com/nm9EfCD.jpg This shot]] from the short "Rich Evans: Laid Off Unemployment Office Worker" has become a popular reaction image.

** Rich Evans often affects BadBadActing in his RLM roles, but he's parlayed his infamy into a pretty decent side career in voice acting, cast as the lead character in Creator/EdmundMcMillen's ''VideoGame/TheEndIsNigh'' and as Logan in the Creator/{{Dreamworks}} webseries ''WebAnimation/TooLoud'' (where, inevitably, Mike was later cast to play Logan's father). ''WebAnimation/OllieAndScoops'' (where he is again paired with Mike) and ''Film/PGPsychoGoreman'' (where he lets out a "patented Rich Evans 'OH MY GOD!'") would follow.

** More recently, there's a rivalry between ''Website/AVClub'' and RLM due to the latter mocking the former's [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160301074618/http://www.avclub.com/article/star-wars-prequels-dont-deserve-your-hatred-226732 article]] regarding the prequels, followed by their [[https://web.archive.org/web/20161004163508/http://www.avclub.com/article/red-letter-media-issues-its-force-awakens-review-o-243498 passive-aggressive]] coverage of ''The Force Awakens'' video and author Jesse Hassenger's [[DearNegativeReader lengthy spats]] [[https://twitter.com/rockmarooned/status/783156446145998848 against RLM fans.]]

* AcceptableTargets:
** The elderly are a consistent target of jokes from the Red Letter Media crew, and Mike in particular. However, Mike really cares about the elderly (or Grammas and Granpas as the RLM crew calls them) in a big way -- his defense of ''The Geritol Follies'' was a glimpse into that AuthorAppeal.
** As of late, reaction people, nerd channels and ''Star Wars'' fans. The Half in the Bag review of ''Film/RogueOne'' in particular opened with a 5 minute TakeThat towards people getting overly excited over mundane things. The negative backlash that prompted their Nerd Crew series mocking those upset didn't help. "Scientist Man's Plan To Save Star Wars" in particular is one big snipe at the series fanbase (or at least the more rabid sections of it).
** Fanboys, to the extent the crew have adopted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbsRfRmL5Kc Mike's "lisping fanboy rant" voice]] as their interpretation of narrow-visioned fanboys.
** Creator/GeorgeLucas of course became a big one thanks to them. They've been a bit softer on him in recent years, but the crew has never shied away from judging Lucas when he comes up. And unlike many of his modern critics, RLM's judgement notably extends to his earlier days as well, where they've claimed several times that he owes his success to a lot of other people.

** In one early video, an unflattering photo of Macaulay Culkin is used as the punchline of a joke at the actor's expense. Culkin would later befriend the gang and make occasional guest appearance on their videos, making this mean crack a little awkward to watch.

** Fans of RLM like to make comparisons between the material made by them and Website/ChannelAwesome. Jay Bauman doesn't care the least bit about it. Ironically during the height of the "rivalry," Channel Awesome was much more popular, but today RLM has more subscribers and gets more monthly views on their [=YouTube=] channel. [[note]]CA still has more ''total'' video views than RLM, but they also have nearly five times as many videos.[[/note]] Reviewers and online historians frequently contrast the two, as they rose to prominence at about the same time and have both been extremely influential on what came after. For his part, though he has never acknowledged the "rivalry," Doug Walker has commented that he watches [=RedLetterMedia=] videos.

** Fans of RLM like to make comparisons between the material made by them and Website/ChannelAwesome. Jay Bauman doesn't care the least bit about it. Ironically during the height of the "rivalry," Channel Awesome was much more popular, but today RLM has more subscribers and gets more views on their [=YouTube=] channel. [[note]]CA still has more ''total'' video views than RLM, but they also have nearly five times as many videos.[[/note]] For his part, though he has never acknowledged the "rivalry," Doug Walker has commented that he watches [=RedLetterMedia=] videos.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In ''Rich and Mike Talk: Disney's Han Solo Terrible Movie Ideas'', Rich and Mike act befuddled when discussing how fans latched onto Han Solo winning the Falcon in a card game with Lando. Yet, for people who know the original trilogy so well, they completely forget the earlier line from ''Empire Strikes Back'' wherein Han describes Lando as a "card player, gambler, scoundrel" in that order. While it's not directly stated the bet involved a card game, it ''is'' the very first piece of information the film gives about Lando.

* FaceOfTheBand: Originally Mike due to his work on the Plinkett reviews. After the channel's other content has surged in popularity, both Jay and Rich count as well.

** Fans of RLM like to make comparisons between the material made by them and Website/ChannelAwesome. Jay Bauman doesn't care the least bit about it. Ironically during the height of the "rivalry" Channel Awesome was much more popular, but today RLM has more subscribers and gets more views on their [=YouTube=] channel. [[note]]CA still has more ''total'' video views than RLM, but they also have nearly five times as many videos.[[/note]] For his part, though he has never acknowledged the "rivalry," Doug Walker has commented that he watches [=RedLetterMedia=] videos.

** Similarly, RLM's less-than-glowing coverage of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' has resulted in many ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans (or at the very least a VocalMinority) turning against them. Trekkies claim that RLM has sharply declined in quality since the Prequel Trilogy reviews, and that their current output is little more than mean-spirited "outrage porn" which holds little value. RLM's proponents have fired back by claiming that ''Star Trek'' fans are little more than sychophantic fanboys who are unwilling (or unable) to acknowledge the franchises's flaws. It's gotten so ugly that [[https://www.reddit.com/r/RedLetterMedia/comments/gmepo6/comment/fr3nyh0 all posts relating to RLM are now automatically blacklisted and/or deleted from the Star Trek subreddit]] due to inciting too much drama.

** Oh god, re-watching the ''Half In The Bag'' of ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'' now can be downright painful. Unlike the previous two reboot films, Mike [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel actually liked]] ''Star Trek: Beyond'', and he spoke optimistically about the future of the franchise. This included ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', which was still in early development with Bryan Fuller attached, and he speculated about a potential TNG revival series. Fast-forward three years, ''Star Trek: Beyond'' under-performed at the box office and future sequels were put on ice, and ''Star Trek: Discovery'' went through an infamously TroubledProduction that resulted in Bryan Fuller exiting and the series getting a revamp to a more traditional show that he wound up greatly disliking. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' elicited even more derision when it released, and the only way Mike could fully articulate his disgust was by bringing back Mr. Plinkett for an in-depth autopsy. As one comment on the ''Beyond'' video put it:
---> 2016 Mike, so full of hope. Little does he know what awaits him on the USS Discovery.

* MemeticLoser: Rich's designation as a loser achieved memetic status when [[https://funnyjunk.com/Love+me+some+real+news/funny-pictures/6126776/ a gambling site unironically posted a pic of Rich Evans]] (in the ''Star Wars'' reaction video), and said he was a 54 year old man living in his parent's basement. (Rich at the time was 38.)

** During the month of January, RLM fans like to ring in the new year with a clip of Jay and/or Mike yelling "Fuck you it's January!"

* CriticalResearchFailure: In ''Rich and Mike Talk: Disney's Han Solo Terrible Movie Ideas'', Rich and Mike act befuddled when discussing how fans latched onto Han Solo winning the Falcon in a card game with Lando. Yet, for people who know the original trilogy so well, they completely forget the earlier line from ''Empire Strikes Back'' wherein Han describes Lando as a "card player, gambler, scoundrel" in that order. While it's not directly stated the bet involved a card game, it '''is''' the very first piece of information the film gives about Lando.

** Fans of RLM like to make comparisons between the material made by them and Website/ChannelAwesome (though it's died down somewhat ever since "Change the Channel" led to the latter becoming a shell of its former self). Jay Bauman doesn't care the least bit about it. Ironically during the height of the "rivalry" Channel Awesome was much more popular, but today RLM has more subscribers and gets more views on their [=YouTube=] channel. [[note]]CA still has more ''total'' video views than RLM, but they also have nearly five times as many videos.[[/note]] For his part, though he has never acknowledged the "rivalry," Doug Walker has commented that he watches [=RedLetterMedia=] videos.

** Fans of RLM like to make comparisons between the material made by them and Website/ChannelAwesome (though it's died down somewhat ever since "Change the Channel" led to the latter becoming a shell of its former self). Jay Bauman doesn't care the least bit about it. Ironically during the height of the "rivalry" Channel Awesome was much more popular, but today RLM has more subscribers and gets more views on their [=YouTube=] channel. [[note]]CA still has more ''total'' video views than RLM, but they also have nearly five times as many videos.[[/note]] For his part, though he has never acknowledged the "rivalry", Doug Walker has commented that he watches [=RedLetterMedia=] videos.

** The entire crew (mainly Mike, Jay, and [[ButtMonkey Rich Evans]]) are affectionately referred to as "hack frauds", which stems from one of the {{Couch Gag}}s of the show.

** Ever since [[Creator/EllenDeGeneres The Ellen DeGeneres Show]] used his infamous [[ItMakesSenseInContext Dick the Birthday Boy childhood photo]] to tease Creator/JuliaRoberts, Rich Evans is now referred to as "Hollywood Superstar Rich Evans".

*** Another photo of Rich taken from one of his "Rich Evans reacts to..." videos was used in a spam ad about how "this 54-year-old won the lottery and still lives in his parents' basement".

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6xg8M789ig Rich Evans.]] This peaked when Rich's "Dick the Birthday Boy" picture [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld-aisAWtmw was featured]] on Creator/EllenDeGeneres's talk show, which led to the ironic perception of him being an internet superstar and celebrity. The only thing that can overpower this reputation is his famous status as a MemeticLoser.

** During the month of January, RLM fans like to ring in the new year with a clip of Jay and/or Mike yelling "Fuck you it's January!".

* MemeticTroll:
** Mike's gleeful torment of [[ButtMonkey Rich Evans]] year after year has earned him this reputation.
*** Mike also gets this with Jay due to their editing, particularly their continual humiliation of Rich (and occasionally other hosts/panelists/guests) mispronouncing words among other things. Nowhere was this trope more prominent than in the famous "Tums Festival" argument where Jay proved Rich wrong literally every time he smugly claimed that line isn't in the movie they just watched.
** For those who don't see him as a clueless old man, Creator/WilliamShatner's actions during his "feud" with Mike and the entire channel has caused many to call him a grade A troll.

* SoBadItsGood: Frequently {{Invoked}}, with the crew rarely trying to turn in good performances in their skits, which come complete with many [[Overly Long Gag OverlyLongGags]] and blunt, intentionally stupid humor.

* SoBadItsGood: Frequently {{Invoked}}, with the crew rarely trying to turn in good performances in their skits, which come complete with many [[OverlyLongGag OverlyLongGags]] and blunt, intentionally stupid humor.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: One of the Nerd Crew episodes asks if Creator/StanLee will ever die. The episode premiered about three weeks before Lee actually did.

** Fans of RLM like to make comparisons between the material made by them and Website/ChannelAwesome (though it's died down somewhat ever since "Change the Channel" led to the latter becoming a shell of its former self). Jay Bauman doesn't care the least bit about it. Ironically during the height of the "rivalry" Channel Awesome was much more popular, but today RLM has more subscribers and gets more views on their [=YouTube=] channel. [[note]]CA still has more ''total'' video views than RLM, but they also have nearly five times as many videos.[[/note]]

* FanHater: Some of the more zealous fans are this towards people who like ''Star Wars'' (particularly fans of the prequels and Disney era content) and people who like Kurtzman-era ''Star Trek''. As of late, the crew seems to have become one towards nerd channels/culture and ''Star Wars'' as a whole if their Nerd Crew series is any indication, something that has spread to the more zealous fans.

* BrokenBase: While you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't like the ''Nerd Crew'' videos, there's a considerable divide between fans who are clamoring for more and fans who believe they have diminishing returns.

* BrokenBase: While you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't like the ''Nerd Crew'' videos, there's a considerable divide among fans between those who are clamoring for more and those who believe they have diminishing returns.

** A rivalry has exploded between fans of Nerd Crew and people who enjoy pop culture sites like Screen Junkies, Collider, and Nerdist, since they're all the primary targets of Nerd Crew's biting satire. RLM more or less "won" this one as most of the pop culture sites haved ceased producing the material that RLM was satirizing.