History YMMV / UrinatingTree

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQdmASWOt-c This Week in Sportsball: Week Eight Edition (2021)]]: At the end of the video, Schlasser discusses the horrific incident where Henry Ruggs III, a wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders known for his speed and who had a bright future ahead, killed a woman named Tina Tintor and her dog by crashing his car into hers at more the 150 miles per hour. Even worse was how Schlasser describes in subtitles how Tina and her dog were ''[[NightmareFuel burnt alive in her car]]'' while also noting that Ruggs, who was found to have a gun in the car and also have a blood alcohol content twice over the legal limit, thought he was invincible and now faces a long jail sentence as a woman is now dead because of his actions.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQdmASWOt-c This Week in Sportsball: Week Eight Edition (2021)]]: At the end of the video, Schlasser discusses the horrific incident where Henry Ruggs III, a wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders known for his speed and who had a bright future ahead, killed a woman named Tina Tintor and her dog by crashing his car into hers at more the 150 miles per hour. Even worse was how Schlasser describes in subtitles how Tina and her dog were ''[[NightmareFuel burnt alive in her car]]'' while also noting that Ruggs, who was found to have a gun in the car and also have a blood alcohol content twice over the legal limit, thought he was invincible and now faces a long jail sentence as a woman is now dead because of his actions.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQdmASWOt-c This Week in Sportsball: Week Eight Edition (2021)]]: At the end of the video, Schlasser discusses the horrific incident where Henry Ruggs III, a wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders known for his speed and who had a bright future ahead, killed a woman named Tina Tintor and her dog by crashing his car into hers at more the 150 miles per hour. Even worse was how Schlasser describes in subtitles how Tina and her dog were ''[[Main/NightmareFuel burnt alive in her car]]'' while also noting that Ruggs, who was found to have a gun in the car and also have a blood alcohol content twice over the legal limit, thought he was invincible and now faces a long jail sentence as a woman is now dead because of his actions.

*** The Tree jinx. [[labelnote:Explanation]][=UrinatingTree=]'s sports predictions usually prove incorrect, to the extent that fans will immediately assume that if Tree picks a team to win, the opposite will happen. Notable occurrences include picking the Nashville Predators to win the 2017 Stanley Cup Final (where, aware of his reputation, he immediately congratulated the Penguins), picking the Atlanta Falcons to win Super Bowl LI (where he got the winning team's score right, as well as the game going DownToTheLastPlay), picking the Chicago Blackhawks and the Montreal Canadiens to face each other in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final ("Now watch me be wrong at the end of the first round." -- and he was), and stating that the Tampa By Lightning would not win a Stanley Cup with their coach and core after being swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the 2019 playoffs (they proceeded to win two Cups in the next two seasons).[[/labelnote]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: His Sportsball video for Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season was criticized for being overedited. His next Sportsball video on the MLB playoff push went back to the previous format and was much better received.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped:
** His take on the Washington Redskins name controversy. UT says [[EvilVersusEvil there's really no good side to this debate]], because it means supporting either [[SoapboxSadie people who are picking battles that aren't theirs to fight]], or [[CorruptCorporateExecutive an openly hostile team owner who doesn't care about anyone but himself]].
** In his lolcow video on the San Diego Padres, UT says that sports owners need to learn that "big splashes usually drain the pool of all the water." In other words, signing a popular-but-untested player or signing a veteran well past their prime is always going to be a worse decision than the BoringButPractical approach of taking a few years to build a winning squad.
** Why has former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick not been able to find a job since entering free agency? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T0OPQ-Jay8 According to UT]], several factors combine to make him unattractive for teams: he has brought about a media circus around him that would distract teams from trying to win games [[note]]Just look at "Days of our Steelers" to see what happens with that kind of drama.[[/note]], his level of play is not good enough to justify putting up with the media circus, there were other quarterbacks around his caliber that are also looking for jobs, and most teams would look for a new quarterback in the draft anyway.
** UT's take on why the NFL's television ratings are declining. While UT admits it's not entirely their fault -- television ratings across the board are down thanks to the availability of high-speed internet -- the NFL is doing themselves no favors with constant overexposure, {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s ruining the league with their greed, and the slow revelations of what a long NFL career does to a player's body and mind.
** Tree may take [[{{Schadenfreude}} a certain pleasure in dressing teams down]], but arguably he's doing it with the best of intentions. More leagues would be more entertaining if they weren't so lopsided, and they're usually only so lopsided because of inept and/or selfish management or ownership. He consistently points to the NHL as being the league with the most parity, and even that is riddled with problems that consistently keep certain teams down. Despite his lack of interest in the NBA, he's gradually done more material on that league since he gave the 76ers what for, pointing out that aside from the NBA's biggest problem of there being only one or two teams with a chance at winning or being entertaining for the right reasons every year, many NBA teams have exactly the same issues holding them back as teams in other leagues he prefers watching instead, with just as much potential to win if they simply tried harder to do so.
** He feels the video game industry has gotten up its own ass with micro-transactions and DLC, withholding content to force gamers to pay more for the whole game rather than genuinely expanding it, as well as running absolutely every genre into the ground at some point because it was popular for a brief span of time (even warning that the "battle royale third-person shooter" genre that was made popular by ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' is next). He has even argued that what made gaming great a few decades ago was in fact enabled by UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, saying that such a catalyst may be necessary to truly revitalize gaming today. He also pessimistically denies that it'll happen, since the industry will simply apply a Band-Aid solution to itself to keep its stagnant formula going rather than truly trying to reinvent the wheel and breathe new life into the medium.
** His 'Congrats, NFL' video, produced in response to the 2018-19 NFL conference championships, discusses the issues with the inconsistent officiating of NFL referees, citing the vague rules and poor judgement as main topics. Not helping matters is the video shows referees often [[FelonyMisdemeanor penalizing defensive players for roughing the passer if they so much as tap their shoulder]]. Meanwhile, blatant helmet-to-helmet hits, false starts, facemasks, and pass interference calls are completely missed, often costing teams wins.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSqmcAFgHGQ Tree's video on the Kansas City Royals]] departs from the expected mockery of the team's struggles, and instead presents a look at Major League Baseball's competitive imbalances between teams that enjoy large budgets (e.g. Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs) and those who do not (e.g. A's, Twins, Rays). Tree notes that a lack of a hard salary cap, the rising costs of running a team, and the increasing salaries of players are factors that make it hard for small-market teams to remain consistently competitive. Small-market teams had to develop using the farm system, wise drafting, and making the most of the young players that excelled before they left for larger markets. To make things worse, while small-market teams had used innovative tactics to compete earlier in the 2010s, large-market teams have adopted these tactics and have excelled at them. In addition, a large market team can survive a disastrous contract or a misguided trade that would doom a smaller market team. Thus, Tree sees the most effective strategy for a small-market team to compete is to tank. Tree also sees the Royals as lucky: they have won the World Series recently, something that the Rays, A's, Indians, Pirates, Orioles, Brewers, Reds, Padres, and Twins could not boast.
** "Revisiting: The Indianpolis Colts" examines Colts quarterback Andrew Luck's decision to retire from football, discussing the mental toll of professional sports that accompanies the physical toll and why Luck wanted to [[OptOut walk away from it all]], given the myriad of injuries he suffered and how badly he was treated by upper management.
** A recurring theme throughout Tree's videos on bad teams is the incompetence and/or apathy of team owners and managers. Tree has repeatedly argued that "the biggest changes happen at the top", meaning that if a team is struggling, it needs new managers and new owners rather than new players. Tree continues that while having good players is certainly a necessity to be a good sports team, management making bad decision after bad decision and [[HeadInTheSandManagement pretending that everything is going fine]] is what really holds a team back. This idea is explored in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrcmdXhK454 "The Long Island Revival"]], focusing on the New York Islanders turning a decaying franchise about to lose their home to a playoff contender due to open a new stadium (without former star player John Tavares), all stemming from beneficial ownership and extending to hiring a new GM and coach.

** While covering the Sebastian Aho drama in "This Week In Sportsball: 2019 NHL Free Agency Edition", he opined that the Montreal Canadiens and their GM, Marc Bergevin, should be wary of future retaliation from the Carolina Hurricanes after convincing Aho to sign an offer sheet[[note]]this made him the first restricted free agent in six years to sign such an offer from another team[[/note]] that was at least a million dollars more per year ''and'' three years shorter than Canes GM Don Waddell wanted to sign him to. (He matched the offer regardless, thus retaining Aho) Tree even spotlighted Ryan Poehling, Max Domi and Jesperi Kotkaniemi as specific young players the Canes could opt to target when their contracts ran out. Two years later, Domi had been traded and Poehling had just come off a season stuck entirely in the AHL, but Kotkaniemi was a fairly steady presence on the NHL roster. Sure enough, once it became clear that he and Bergevin were at an impasse on a new contract following the expiration of his entry-level deal, Waddell and the Hurricanes swooped in and got Kotkaniemi to sign an offer sheet was reported to be at least three million more than what the Habs were willing to offer.[[note]]details in the contract, like the $20 signing bonus and the 35 extra dollars tacked on to the very end of the overall number of $6.1 million, also served as cheeky references to Aho to make it clear this was a revenge move[[/note]] Bergevin and the team ultimately decided this was too much money to deal with (likely because of effects it would have on his next contract) and accepted the offer instead of matching, thus sending Kotkaniemi to Carolina. (In exchange, Montreal got first and third round picks.) Tree had a couple chuckles about this on Twitter, both [[https://twitter.com/UrinatingTree/status/1434271299468148740?t=oUD5XnOC7IbhD6ydw12mUw&s=19 lauding it]] for injecting some action into the normally dry RFA market, but also [[https://twitter.com/UrinatingTree/status/1434272686667075591?s=19 questioning the move]] in the context of the Hurricanes' other offseason moves.

** Tree holds a special contempt for Pittsburgh Steelers fans, since he lives in Pittsburgh and is frequently annoyed by "yinzers", whom Tree says are making the city look bad through obnoxious attitude.

** In his 2017 [=LOLCow=] video about the Jacksonville Jaguars, he jokes that the San Francisco 49ers were slowly becoming a competing [=LOLCow=], showing then-49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling to protest police brutality during the national anthem. In 2020, several high-profile deaths of Black Americans, most notably George Floyd in May 2020, at the hands of police officers sparked massive protests across America, which made many people, including in the NFL, realize that [[CassandraTruth Kaepernick's original protests weren't so outrageous after all]].

** The failures of the Thrashers[[note]]the subject of the video[[/note]] came down to an ownership group that was A: [[TheyJustDidntCare utterly apathetic towards the Thrashers]][[note]]at the expense of the Hawks, the city's NBA franchise,[[/note]] and B: [[AHouseDivided more interested in suing each other]].

** A recurring theme throughout Tree's videos on bad teams is the incompetence and/or apathy of team owners and managers. Tree has repeatedly argued that "the biggest changes happen at the top", meaning that if a team is struggling, it needs new managers and new owners rather than new players. Tree continues that while having good players is certainly a necessity to be a good sports team, management making bad decision after bad decision and [[HeadInTheSandManagement pretending that everything is going fine]] is what really holds a team back.

*** The Tree jinx. [[labelnote:Explanation]][=UrinatingTree=]'s sports predictions usually prove incorrect, to the extent that fans will immediately assume that if Tree picks a team to win, the opposite will happen. Notable occurrences include picking the Nashville Predators to win the 2017 Stanley Cup Final (where, aware of his reputation, he immediately congratulated the Penguins), picking the Atlanta Falcons to win Super Bowl LI (where he got the winning team's score right, as well as the game going DownToTheLastPlay), and picking the Chicago Blackhawks and the Montreal Canadiens to face each other in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final ("Now watch me be wrong at the end of the first round." -- and he was).[[/labelnote]]

** "Congrats, Lightning! (2019)" features an evisceration of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who had just been swept by the 8th-seeded Columbus Blue Jackets as the President's Trophy winners, with Tree stating that the Lightning are all but destined to failure with their current team and coach. Come the next season, said coach and core returned (including all the players specifically called out by Tree himself) and became Stanley Cup champions.

*** The Tree jinx. [[labelnote:Explanation]]Typically, any of Tree's sports predictions will be wrong more often than not, to the extent that fans will immediately assume that if Tree picks a team to win, the opposite will happen. Notable occurrences include picking the Nashville Predators to win the 2017 Stanley Cup Final (where, aware of his reputation, he immediately congratulated the Penguins), picking the Atlanta Falcons to win Super Bowl LI (where he got the winning team's score right, as well as the game going DownToTheLastPlay), and picking the Chicago Blackhawks and the Montreal Canadiens to face each other in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final ("Now watch me be wrong at the end of the first round." -- and he was).[[/labelnote]]

** In general, any of Tree's sports predictions are wrong more often than not, to the extent that fans will immediately assume that if Tree picks a team to win, the opposite will happen. Notable occurrences include picking the Nashville Predators to win the 2017 Stanley Cup Final (where, aware of his reputation, he immediately congratulated the Penguins), picking the Atlanta Falcons to win Super Bowl LI (where he got the winning team's score right, as well as the game going DownToTheLastPlay), and picking the Chicago Blackhawks and the Montreal Canadiens to face each other in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final ("Now watch me be wrong at the end of the first round." -- and he was).

* MemeticMutation: Back then, he was fairly known for his hammy and loud delivery of the word "PWNED!" There is a techno song dedicated to his pronunciation, and would be repeated/imitated in other videos.

* BrokenBase: He did a very negative video on Venezuela and its socialist government in early 2017. As expected, whether or not you found the video good/funny depends almost entirely on what political ideology you support. After the reaction, UT did not do another political-related video under the January 2021 Capitol Riot; even then, that video was laden with his usual "Conglaturation!" snark as opposed to straight political commentary.

** During his ripping of the Oilers, UT keys in on Chiarelli's extremely messy tenure in Edmonton and singles out Leon Draisatl's contract as "breaking the league" and "this this is the kind of shit that leads to a lockout" for one year of first line production. At the time the contract was questionable and pundits wondered if his production was largely due to teammate Connor [=McDavid=], widely seen as the best player in the NHL. Fast forward a few years and Draisatl would notch a 50 goal season in 2018-19, and a scoring championship in 2019-20, even ahead of the aforementioned [=McDavid=]. Peter Chiarelli made many questionable moves while in Edmonton but the Draisatl contract is arguably his best move. Not only that, but the league would ratify a brand new Collective Bargaining Agreement in July 2020, ending any potential for yet another lockout.

* DontShootTheMessage: In "Buffalo: The Duality Of Franchise", he proclaims that calling him sexist doesn't change the fact that Kim Pegula has no qualifications that would justify her appointment (by [[{{Nepotism}} her husband Terry]]) to the post of team president for the Buffalo Sabres.

** He feels the video game industry has gotten up its own ass with microtransactions and DLC, withholding content to force gamers to pay more for the whole game rather than genuinely expanding it, as well as running absolutely every genre into the ground at some point because it was popular for a brief span of time (even warning that the "battle royale third-person shooter" genre that was made popular by ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' is next). He has even argued that what made gaming great a few decades ago was in fact enabled by UsefulNOtes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, saying that such a catalyst may be necessary to truly revitalize gaming today. He also pessimistically denies that it'll happen, since the industry will simply apply a Band-Aid solution to itself to keep its stagnant formula going rather than truly trying to reinvent the wheel and breathe new life into the medium.

** "Revisiting: The Indianpolis Colts" examines Colts quarterback Andrew Luck's decision to retire from football, discussing the mental toll of professional sports that accompanies the physical toll and why Luck wanted to [[OptOut walk away from it all]].

* BrokenBase: He did a very negative video on Venezuela and its socialist government in early 2017. As expected, whether or not you found the video good/funny depends almost entirely on what political ideology you support. After the reaction, UT did not do another political-related video for nearly four years.

* BrokenBase: He did a very negative video on Venezuela and its socialist government in early 2017. As expected, whether or not you found the video good/funny depends almost entirely on what political ideology you support. After the reaction, UT hasn't done a video like it since.

** The Eagles' elimination in the 2019 NFC Divisional Round led Tree to declare the death of the "'''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis BIG. DICK. NICK.]]'''" meme for Philadelphia's backup quarterback (and Super Bowl LII MVP), Nick Foles, whose pass to Alshon Jeffrey slipped through the latter's hands and was grabbed by the Saints' Marshon Lattimore, killing a potential game-winning drive with two minutes left.
** Though the Steelers suffered embarrassing losses to the Washington Football Team, the Bills, and the Bengals during the second half of the 2020 season after starting 11-0, Tree refused to revive the previously recurring "Days Of Our Steelers" segment to ridicule them.