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Atop The Fourth Wall / Tropes Q to Z

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This page covers tropes found in Atop the Fourth Wall.

Tropes A to D | Tropes E to P | Tropes Q To Z | Storyline Tropes | YMMV | Running Gags | Shout Outs

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    Q 
  • Quip to Black: In Pitt #1 review after rattling off a string of cop show and movie cliches:
    "Looks like someone got... *sunglasses* Bent out of shape." cue YEAHHHHHH
    • Returns in the Punisher: Silent Night review.

    R 
  • Rage Judo: When he and The Nostalgia Critic had just finished panning Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and the Critic has compared Linkara's special effects to the movie's.
    Critic: Get over it, you comic geek! Your special effects suck.
    Linkara: Bat-credit card!
    Critic: A BAT CREDIT CARD?!! I'LL KILL YOU!!! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!! (goes crazy and shoots things)
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Linkara takes offence at the use of rape as a cheap narrative device, as explained in his critique of Identity Crisis (2004).
  • Rapid-Fire Comedy: A relatively new trick whenever something truly baffling or ridiculous pops up that Linkara can craft multiple jokes for. The first example was in Comic Book Quickies #10, and also appears in the The Transformers (Marvel) Retrospective, Star Trek #9 (Gold Key), and the infamous Grandma's Peach Tea scene in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
  • Rapid-Fire "No!": His review of "Mr. T Comics #2" had two rather impressive examples when he finds that Mr. T gets knocked out by "Stare Roy", a man pumped up on steroids.
  • A Rare Sentence:
    "So Superman...You know what, I'm not gonna call him that. Bearded Idiot flies off with the remaining kids to fight the mutant hordes of the twin Hitlers. Dear God in Heaven, I can't believe that this comic makes that sentence possible!"
    • In the Bimbos in Time review:
      "So the woman takes the Bimbos to see Sherlock Holmes, and… wow, there's a phrase I never thought I'd say!"
    • Also this:
      "So let's dig into Archie meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and... wow, I just said that, didn't I?"
    • In The Wild #1:
      "Next to him is a grasshopper holding a gun — now there's a sentence I never thought I'd be saying when I started this show!"
      "'The Duck Empire.' That was a thing that was just said."
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: Linkara notes in the beginning of his "Daredevil vs. Vapora #1" review that he put off reviewing it because he didn't believe people would wash items in gasoline. ...Until he saw a short mocked by RiffTrax showing the dangers of washing clothing in gasoline.
  • Rearrange the Song: Starting with Maximum Clonage, his theme song was given a fuller orchestration and better production. It was rearranged again in 2021 with some lyrical changes that better reflect the show's content and omit a few of the more Take That!-leaning lyrics.
  • Record Needle Scratch: In part two of Linkara's review of Countdown.
    Linkara: And we directly see (Superboy-Prime) vaporise a pregnant woman. My God, it's like the worst parts of the '90s all over again!
    90's Kid: *Nirvana plays* Duuuuuude, I— wait. *Record Needle Scratch* Did you just vaporize a pregnant chick? Dude, that— that's not cool, man. That's not cool.
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: In his commentary for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace he expresses his annoyance that superhero comics, for how often they delve into this, always end up saying the superheroes cannot change the world. In Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, he mentions the short-sightedness of Supe's belief that removing nukes from the world will solve everything wrong with Earth.
    • He also discusses about this trope when seeing the scene in One More Day when Spider-Man visits multiple characters of the Marvel universe to help him heal Aunt May and they seemingly can't do anything about it (including Doctor Strange and Dr. Doom).
  • Reference Overdosed: To the point of a Lampshade Hanging about it.
  • Relax-o-Vision: Linkara gives us a break from the terrible artwork of The Dark Knight Strikes Again Part 3 with a clip of a cute little kitten.
  • Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Linkara mocks Commissioner Gordon's use of this trope in his review of Detective Comics No. 27.
    Linkara (as Gordon): Repeat what you say so we don't have to show the other side of the conversation?
  • Retraux: His "Archie Giant Series Magazine #452" review, being a Whole Episode Flashback, lampshades the poor lighting and voice quality of his first reviews (which he drops after a few seconds), and uses the old version of the theme song and a Greenscreen backdrop of his original set.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: When Linkara reviewed a New Kids on the Block Christmas comic, the last third of the review, starting with the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" parody, was done in rhyme.
    • Again in Star Trek: The Next Generation #2, because the bad guys are alien grinches.
  • Robot Buddy: Pollo.
  • Rock Beats Laser: Called on Amazons Attack for taking the trope way too far.
  • Rooting for the Empire:invoked Linkara pretty much seems to be rooting for Snowflame in New Guardians #2, liking the insane, cocaine-powered, cocaine-worshiping supervillain more than the bland racist stereotypes that were the comic's heroes.
  • Round Hippie Shades: During a gag in his third review of The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Linkara reads Batman's rant about the rebellion and why they're fighting the government. In response, he dons some dark circle glasses and snaps in applause.
Preach on, you crazy hepcat.
  • Rule of Cool: He really don't care about physics if something really awesome is happening, like two giant robots fighting each other.
  • Rule of Funny: During "Secret Origins Month", he says repeatedly that he is judging these decades-old comics based on modern standards just because it is funny, and they were good for their time. This is also why he does the entire last fourth of his New Kids on the Block review in rhyme.
    Linkara: I'll continue the summary in rhyme since it's funny. If you prefer something else, "Hey look at the pretty bunny".
  • Running Gag: Now with its own page.
  • Running Gagged: In his review of Legion of Super-Heroes and Legionaries #0, R.J. Brande being the only holder of the secret Stargate technology leads to a plethora of Stargate Universe jokes before ultimately stopping a little over halfway through.

    S 
  • Sanity Slippage: Linkara goes batshit crazy during his review of Maximum Cloneage.
  • Sanity Slippage Song:
    • In some of the earlier episodes, Linkara used "Combine Harvester" by The Wurzels this way. The song itself is not about someone going insane, but it plays whenever Linkara's sanity starts to slip, such as at the end of the Doom's IV and Amazons Attack reviews. Up until Ultimatum #3–4, however, it hadn't been used since Maximum Clonage.
    • In the Marville #2 review, "Forgetting You" from Manos: The Hands of Fate seemed to have replaced it, but was only used in said review and the Marville #3 one.
    • It comes back with a vengeance for the review of Tandy Computer Whiz Kids: A Deadly Choice.
    • An entire recollection of clips when Linkara lost it alongside "Combine Harvester" was shown in the Marville #6–7 review.
      Linkara: (sighing with pleasure) Ah, that was relaxing. Looking at old clips of my insanity is far more entertaining than anything these characters have said so far.
    • It then comes back in a few isolated later episodes, such as Youngblood #7 (when he freaks out at the sight of Troll showering) and the 500th episode, The New 52: Future's End (when, at the end of the story, he learns that Brother Eye is still in control of the dark future, and thus, the events of the 48 comics in the series (not to mention the much-longer-than-usual running time of the episode (well over an hour)) were All for Nothing).
    • An interesting variation of this concerning Heroes in Crisis as he plays the song as he mimics what one of the Sanctuary robots would be like if they really had the personality traits of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but can't bring himself to do so when Wally West's role in the book is revealed.
  • Sarcastic Clapping: A really venomous one in order to credit Frank Miller's All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder #5.
  • Sarcastic Well Wishing: This doubles as a Moment of Awesome for Linkara in the 300th episode on Frank Miller's infamous Holy Terror. When the Fixer begins torturing a terrorist, Linkara puts the book aside, takes off his glasses, and talks about his personal philosophy and why Camelot is his favorite film of all, because it encouraged his philosophy of goodness, decency, compassion and not always resorting to violence. And then he explains why he brings this up, because he hates Holy Terror more than any other comic book he's reviewed on the show, because it encourages the exact opposite philosophy. It teaches that you should be paranoid, violent, brutal and intolerant of those who are different. This is perhaps the greatest "The Reason You Suck" Speech he has ever given, and it is truly awesome to watch. In the process, Linkara points out Miller's little "Aesop" in the book, to give into your own fear and paranoia when confronted by terrorism, is pretty much the exact definition of what terrorism is. He closes his speech by saying, "Frank... you must be so proud."
  • Saving Christmas: During his Superman's Christmas Adventure review, Linkara notes how often some villain wants to ruin the holiday for everyone, calling it "the real 'war against Christmas.'"
  • Saving the Orphanage: In his review of Tales of Suspense #39, he momentarily gives Wong-Chu a different reason for making Tony Stark build for him.
    Comic Wong-Chu: Here room where you work! Plenty of scrap iron! Plenty tools!
    Linkara: (continuing) You build fast go-kart! Win race; save community center!
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: '90s Kid did this during his review of Freak Force. He actually read the sound effects out loud and even summarized the battle using nothing but sound effects.
  • Schedule Slip:invoked Linkara has made a Running Gag out of the continued delays in writing and publishing issue 2 of Revolution of the Mask. His actual reviews avert this and he manages to turn out new ones very consistently, updating once per week since Godzilla vs. Barkley (his ninth episode), almost always on Monday. So much so that Lee from Still Gaming pointed out that Linkara was the only Channel Awesome contributor who wasn't incredibly sick from MAGFest 9. The closest thing to missing a week since then was on 7th November 2011, and he still had a live episode from Youmacon to show that week, and he decided to air that week's properly scheduled episode in a double-bill with the following week's.
  • The Scrappy:
    • In-universe inversion: Danny Chase, regarded as one of the most hated Teen Titans members, happens to be Linkara's favorite superhero of all time. He's not even kidding.
    • In-universe played-straight example: Stare Roy in the Mr. T comics, for both being a Diabolus ex Machina Invincible Villain and his lazy-sounding Punny Name.
    • The entire main cast of Marville is this to him, thanks to being Bill Jemas' mouthpieces and being complete idiots (especially Al, who didn't know that the dinosaurs were extinct). He even asks the In Name Only Wolverine in the Marville #5 review to kill them.
    • He considers Troll to be this for the Youngblood series, both for his status as an unfunny comic relief character and his generally dickish behavior.
    • Every character who he gives the Superboy-Prime voice. He associates it with extreme Wangst and neverending complaining.
    • Harvest from the The Culling reviews earned Linkara's hatred in record time, due to being a poorly written villain with a backstory and motivations that make little sense and were clearly written up on the fly.
  • Screaming at Squick:
    • At a guy dreaming he has his head on Lady Gaga's body.
    • His review of Youngblood #7 as him doing this at seeing Troll taking a shower.
    • In his review of Trouble #2, his reaction to the idea of Spider-Man's dad masturbating.
      • Followed by Ben Parker's face during sex in the Trouble #3 one.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Attempts this in The Dark Knight Strikes Again Part 3. He attempts this in text form in his text review [1] of Web of Spider-Man #122.
    Speaking of running...
    *Tries to run away but is forced back by his promise to recap the three comics.*
    • He attempts to leave his review of Superman At Earth's End, but he comes back, concluding...
      It's almost done. It's almost done...
  • Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Harvey Finevoice points this out about the cover of Anita Blake: The Laughing Corpse #1.
  • Second Verse Curse:invoked His theme song has a second verse which is not usually used in the show's open. On one live show, he encouraged the audience to sing along as usual… then played the long version of the theme, leading to an awkward moment where they didn't instantly realize what was going on.
  • Self-Deprecation:
    • In the review for Dragnet #4, he reveals that he eats at McDonalds a lot, and then follows up with "Which explains my weight".
    • The caption◊ of his text review of New Guardians #2 [2]:
      Narrator: We left the hospital. Stunned and silent. Until RAM said what the rest of us were thinking.
      Linkara: Wait a second, how come it takes three months to do a review of a 24-page comic?!
    • In the Chain Gang War #1 review, Iron Liz reveals that the notes Linkara left for her include a conspiracy theory that rambles for thirty pages about how One More Day is connected with Justice League: Cry for Justice.
    • Linkara calls Sonic the Hedgehog's quips in Sonic Live #1 worse than his own.
    • When using clips from previous reviews, especially early ones, he often points out how comparatively thin he was back then, lamenting his since-then somewhat increased waistline.
    • In Land of AT4W Live, he reminds his audience that the show is being recorded. He then elaborates that this means if they want to add their own comments to the show, they better be funny since it's going to go on the Internet and he doesn't want them to be unfunny in front of thousands of people, because, in his own words, he has to deal with that burden every week and wouldn't wish it upon anyone.
      • Actually a running gag with At4W Live when he introduces the panels.
    • As with the April Fools' Day History of Power Rangers review of the revision of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, he kicked himself again for forgetting Scorpina in his original HoPR review of MMPR Season 1 in his Patreon-sponsered review of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger when her Super Sentai counterpart Lamy is introduced.
    • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers #1 has a scene early on where Mechakara starts ranting about how horrible Linkara's voice is, describing as a cat dying. He insults Linkara's voice again in To Boldly Flee.
    • In his retrospective on The Sandman (1989), he says that "Three Septembers and a January" is how long it'll take him to get back on schedule.
  • Shameless Self-Promoter: Linkara occasionally does this in his reviews to promote his own comic, Revolution of the Mask. However, at Power Morphicon, he was trying not to draw any attention away from the actual stars of the convention and when someone else in the crowd at the Time Force panel drew attention to him, he was mortified.
  • Shaped Like Itself: Linkara says the worst moment of Countdown is the entirety of Countdown. Also, "Steel is dead, ergo, he is dead."
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: "He's a man, PUNCH! Wears a purdy hat!"
  • Ship Tease: With MarzGurl. A lot. Only between their characters, mind you; the possibility of such a pairing in Real Life has basically been sunk with the introduction of Iron Liz, since confirmed to be Linkara's girlfriend, in the Warrior #2 and #3 video.
    • It remains sunk even after Iron Liz and Linkara broke up, notably.
  • Shoe Phone: Linkara parodies US-1's silver dollar remote control by mentioning he will show us how to stick a TV remote inside of a quarter and a gun inside of a nickel. The James Bond Jr.. review had some gadgets that stretched one's Willing Suspension of Disbelief, the most important of which was the gold detector, of which there are real-life variants, but nowhere near the fictional depiction.
  • Shout-Out: Has its own page.
  • Shown Their Work: Quite evident when discussing comic history, or when he points out an egregious error made by the writers of a certain issue. In his Captain Planet #3 review, he notes that just launching a nuclear bomb into space just does not work, citing that there are several problems with this, mainly that in doing it, it would cause an Inferred Holocaust. He has, in response to internet responses to the errors in some of his works, given lectures on Schrödinger's Cat and the effects of a vacuum environment on a liquid; capped by the admission that we are all nerds.
    • In his review of The Thing from Another World: Eternal Vows, he reveals a surprisingly detailed knowledge of New Zealand laws.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!:
    Linkara: When debating, solve your disagreements not with words, but by screaming 'I AM A MAN!!!' and punching them in the guts. Allow me to demonstrate... I AM A MAN!!!! *punch*
    • He retorts to Manchester Black demanding "Now be a good dream little dream and say, 'I understand, Mr. Black," with "Up yours, Dicknose" and "Cram it, Puss-Lips."
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids! / True Art Is Angsty: Averted. Linkara will frequently go out of his way to Defy this trope during his reviews.
  • Silly Walk: Linkara imitates the bizarre walk of Dan Donegal, the Not-Jim Gordon of Holy Terror.
  • Sincerity Mode: His sudden Mood Whiplash on Justice League: Cry for Justice #5 through #7 (in response to Lian Harper getting offed for no good reason) drives the point home on just how serious he is.
  • Singing Voice Dissonance: Despite his somewhat high and nasal speaking voice (even out of character), Lewis has a rather smooth singing voice. He can sing in both tenor (in his usual character) and baritone (as Harvey Finevoice).
  • Slow "NO!":
    • Uncanny X-Men #423. "OH MY GOD! ANGELO IS DEAD! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHY, CRUEL WORLD, WHY DI- wait, who's Angelo?"
    • And in his very first review — (Adjective-less) Spider-Man #56 — when he realizes that the Gwen Stacy clone is going to dissolve into goop. In his later commentary about his early work (where he jokes about his terrible lighting and slow line delivery back then), he says that a slow-mo Big "NO!" is always funny.
    • Also when Snowflame dies in New Guardians #2.
    • And again in Captain America: Return of the Asthma Monster, when he points out how the ending is at total odds with the original comic.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: The character of Linkara has a fairly inflated ego, with his bitching at his fans for their requests and having an annoyed cameo when Diamanda Hagan said he was not sexy. (Out of character, of course, Lewis is a sweetie.)
  • Smoking Is Cool: Harvey Finevoice, although...
    Pollo: Do you ever light that cigarette?
    Harvey: Shut up!
  • So Bad, It's Good:invoked As Linkara says, Snowflame is either the worst villain ever created or the awesomest villain ever created. He seems to have a soft spot for this trope, treating these occasions as highlights of the comics he reviews. As far as Linkara is concerned, Brute Force is the "epitome" of So Bad, It's Good.
    • It's also his reaction to the first two issue of Game Boy.
    • And US-1.
    • Mr T. And the T Force, number two got this as well.
    • Batman: A Word To The Wise.
    • He also reacts this way to the Star Trek: The Next Generation 6-issue miniseries.
  • So Okay, It's Average: In-universe, his opinion of the Street Fighter comic.
  • Space Is Cold: In his review for the Kool-Aid comic, Linkara commented that the Kool-Aid Man, as a glass container filled with liquid, would freeze in space. After the somewhat insistent comments from his fans, he admitted in his "Top 15 Screw-Ups" video that this was an error, and then went on to give a scientific explanation for the sublimation of liquids to gas in a vacuum.
  • Space Whale Aesop: Parodied at the end of any "Comic Book Quickies" episode: Linkara will take some or all of the lessons learned in the short stories (at least one of which will usually be an ad for Hostess products), as well as in The Super Dictionary, and string them together to make up a nonsensical lesson:
    (In the first video) "Love ultimately leads to planetary annihilation, so just sit back and have a [Hostess] Fruit Pie, or Conjura will make you invisible.
    (In the second video) "To prevent polio, avoid goblins and entering giant animal mouths. Your mouth should be used to eat Fruit Pies, but not Twinkies, lest Johnny Turbo will enter your dreams and make you his high priest."
    (In the third video) "Robin will do anything Batman says, but Kmart has fifty Twinkles to sate your hunger. But be warned, in case artichokes try to shove bees into their heads."
(In the fourth video) "Cowboy boots and Hostess products can intimidate criminals, but you'll only find your true love if you imagine dirty windowsills."
  • Special Edition Title: His review of the Game Boy comics has an 8-bit version of the theme.
  • Spider-Sense:
    • Invoked in his Zero Patrol #1 review: when one of the characters is calling another a chauvinist for no good reason, Linkara says "I gotta say, my feminist senses are not tingling with that one."
    • In the Action Comics #593 review, the villain and the porn producer are talking about the possibility of making a Superman exploitation porn film — Linkara reacts by saying that The Cinema Snob should be reviewing this if that is where the comic is going. Cut to The Cinema Snob — "My Snob Senses are tingling!"
  • Spiritual Successor: Considers Trouble (Marvel Comics) and The New 52: Futures End to be ones to Marville and Countdown respectively - in fact, during 2018note  he explicitly chose Futures Endnote  as the followup to Countdown because of this reason.
  • Squee: In The Technis Imperative, seeing the moon being pushed back into position by every living superhero in the DCU while it was being lassoed by invisible plane goop and willpower makes him gush about why comics are awesome.
  • Squick: Linkara's in-universe reaction in Ultimates 3 #1 and #2 about how Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are officially a couple... who are also still twin brother and sister.
    Linkara: "No, Wasp. It's still incredibly creepy. You don't see Superman shacking up with his mom.... BECAUSE IT'S CREEPY!"
  • Stating the Simple Solution: Frequently finds himself doing this.
    • In Amazons Attack, when Artemis and Phillipus are constantly debating on what to do about an obviously insane Hippolyta: "Here's an idea: stab your crazy queen in the head, assume command and act like Amazons!!!!!!"
    • Inverted in his ASBAR #1–2 review, Linkara wonders why the killer shot Dick Grayson Age 12's parents rather than make it look like an accident, especially since they are so determined afterwards to pass it off as an accident.
    • Brought up multiple times in his review of James Bond Jr. #3 in that the villain would rather use a probably difficult to use laser to kill whoever is being threatened rather than a simple gun, on two occasions, even. Of course, he is a James Bond Villain.
    • Linkara notes that outside of damaging a copy of The Children's Story, the gun-carrying ninjas in Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos never fire once.
    • Iron Liz wonders why the chain gang in Chain Gang War #1 does not just kill the mob bosses, rather than just imprisoning them.
    • Linkara also wonders why Prometheus from Cry for Justice goes through a ludicrously convoluted Gambit Roulette to get his revenge on the Justice League instead of just torturing or killing their loved ones.
    • In his review of Sonic Live, he wonders why Robotnik didn't off Tails, Rotor, and Sally, when he just vaporized Sonic earlier in the comic.
  • Stealth Pun: "Pollo" is Spanish for "chicken"...So in other words Linkara's Robot Buddy is a Robot Chicken. Made no longer stealth in the Chew review that focused on Poyo, whose name is a pun on the same thing.
    • Linkara's Hobbit Trilogy also has one, #1 is on his Futon, #2 is by the Christmas Tree, and #3 is back at the Futon. He was "There And Back Again". Which he had to explain in the Credits.
  • The Stinger: A usual feature in his videos. Half of them are plot-relevant.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Linkara was extremely critical in-universe of the relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman in JLA: Act of God.
  • Stunned Silence: The World Trade Center damage in Cable #1 left him horrified. He then decided to Change the Uncomfortable Subject.
  • Stupid Evil: His opinion of the Asthma Monster in both of his appearances extends past (though well dwelling on) his motivations of "giving people asthma attacks" out of personal insecurity when he could just take the damn medication, and into questioning victims as relevant when he just made it difficult for them to breathe.
  • Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Some variant on this phrase has been uttered several times, especially when discussing X-Men's "Holy War" storyline:
    Linkara: This is quite possibly the dumbest plan I've ever heard in my life, and I've seen someone deciding to make twin clones of Hitler!
    • Holy War is then topped by the goal of the villain in Future Five, whose goal is essentially to stop kids from going to college by planting agents to stay stuff about how college is not necessary, making himself the smartest man in the world.
      • Even that is eventually topped in Brain Drain, in which Dr. Doom's plan is to enhance his intelligence with stolen knowledge... Taken from high schoolers.
      • And then Doom again tops it in Ultimates 3/Ultimatum: He had the Scarlet Witch murdered and started a robot war that would also kill Quicksilver but not Magneto so Magneto would declare a war on humans that Doom would somehow would come out on top of in the end. And then that was topped in Return of the Asthma Monster with the monster's plan to infect everyone in the world with asthma.
    Linkara: Just when I think I'm done with stupid plans for world domination, they pile on another one!
    • And again in Youngblood 10: The agency infected Chapel with specialized strain of HIV that can be activated if he gets out of control. Linkara points out that not only is Chapel a womanizer, but HIV mutates like crazy and creating a "specialized strain" makes absolutely no sense.
  • Subverted Catchphrase: He's basically made it a running gag to subvert "Because poor literacy is kewl!" by swapping "kewl" for another word or phrase.
    • In several reviews, including Robocop Versus The Terminator #1, The Electric Tale of Pikachu, The Amazing Spider-Man on Bullying Prevention, The New Teen Titans Anti-Drug Giveaway, Sir Charles Barkley and the Referee Murders, Spider-Man 2099 #1 and Doom 2099 #1, he subverted "This comic sucks!" because said comics did not suck.
    • He Double Subverts it in his review of One More Day:
    THIS COMIC— is actually a lot better than I thought it would be.
    (*Beat*)
    (*Beat*)
    OF COURSE IT ISN'T! THIS COMIC SUCKS!
  • Sucky School: Linkara's opinion of the Coastal City Elementary School (or variations thereof) from the Tandy Computer Whiz Kids comics. Linkara observes that the school's budget is clearly stripped to the bone from its over-reliance on computer products as the tightly-packed classrooms (which in some panels don't even appear to have enough desks) show, and he believes that the teacher Ms. Wilson is insane as she clearly has no lesson plan and constantly takes the class out to sudden field trips without permission slips.
  • Superhero Packing Heat: Parodied with 90's Kid thinking a superhero made of guns would be awesome.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: invoked Linkara's verdict on Dark Knight III: The Master Race was that it was a huge step up on Frank Miller's last two Batman entries.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the 2020 year-end recap Allen releases a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech to President Trump after putting up with him for four years. Of course, he's fired for ranting at his boss, pointing out his various character flaws and his failures during the COVID pandemic. But Allen's pretty blasé about it, treating it like he's on holiday for the next month until Joe Biden is sworn in.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "JLA: The Obsidian Age Book One in 5 Panels": "We're the Justice League and we're going back in time to rescue Aquaman! This certainly won't result in our deaths or anything!" *smash cut to Dead Skeleton Supes* "OH F***!!!"
  • Sword and Gun: He occasionally mixes things up by having the pistol in one hand and the Green Ranger's Dragon Dagger in the other; when using the dagger on its own, he can play it like a flute, making it shoot green lightning. He later starts using Saba instead of the Dragon Dagger on occasion when fighting Silent Hill a second time.
  • Synthetic Voice Actor: Pollo. It's then replaced by an actual voice actor since the ROM Spaceknight retrospective and the movie.

    T 
  • Take a Third Option: Kirk vs Picard? For the record, the answer is Sisko.
  • Take Our Word for It:
    • Used word-for-word at the start of the Manimal comic review; he says he bought the comic off some guy he met in the elevator, then adds this trope because the hotel won't let them film outside their rooms.
    • Youngblood #10 has Linkara refusing to show a splash page of Chapel shooting himself, while also giving it a detailed description - he even notes that if it wasn't so graphic and tasteless, it would enter all those lists featuring Rob Liefeld's worst drawings.
  • Take That!:
    • In the review of Pitt #1, he notes of the motorcycle gang in the opening of the comic, "We have yet to see if they'll start playing card games on their motorcycles, or if they're just your standard kind of stupid". Repeated in Scarlet #1, where he asks if vampires on motorcycles are going to play a children's card game.
    • In Sultry Teenage Super-Foxes #1, he suggests that an alchemy machine could make Hardee's into edible food.
      • Hardee's gets another jab in Silent Hill: Paint It Black.
      • and Fist of the North Star: chapter 1.
      • and TMNT #1. Linkara really doesn't like Hardee's.
    • In the Act of God review, he brings up Bill's speech about Superman from Kill Bill Vol 2, then dismisses it with "Well, that's a load of crap."
    • He actually invoked this trope towards himself at Youmacon 2009. Though he was 90's Kid at the time.
    • In his Silent Hill: Dead/Alive review, he makes one towards L.A.
    • In Spider-Man: The Greatest Responsibility, a scientist mentions setting off "the world's first Virtual Reality Bomb" to which Linkara responds:
    "Oh come on, we all know the world's first virtual reality bomb was the Virtual Boy! OOH ZING!"
    • "New Genesis is idyllic, peaceful, and good. Apokolips is basically New Jersey." (He did add a "Just kidding, New Jersey" caption afterward, but at least one NJ resident commented that the zinger was perfectly acceptable.)
    • The third part of his April Fools' triple feature, where Linkara did a rather thorough parody of The Irate Gamer that basically summed up every single complaint that's been made about the IG.
    • In Sonic: Live, when Robotnik is gloating about how sick and twisted he is, Linkara suggests that he's going to force his hostages to play Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
    • From the Silent Hill: Dying Inside review: "What has two heads, one mouth and no brains?" "Ooh! Michael Moore!"
    • He's made so many towards One More Day that he did a highlight reel of them when he reviewed it for the 200th episode. These stretch all the way back to the very first reviews.
    • From Marville #3: "Look, if I wanted to read pseudo-philosophical garbage pretending to be a comic book, I'd read something by Dave Sim!" (Rimshot)
    • In the episode "The Next 15 Screw-Ups of AT4W", he threw a terrific one towards all the angry Nostalgia Critic fans who decried the entire TGWTG site after Doug ended his show.
    • In Transformers #31, he jokes that a character who has "vacated" his mind is now thinking that Brickleberry is a hilarious show.
    • From one of his live shows: "Godzilla: King of Monsters #1" has a reporter tell a scientist she's interviewing, "I'm sure you could make anything entertaining." Linkara comments, "In that case, could you start with Daniel Tosh?"
    • "All Star Batman and Robin #7" has "Obi-Wan Kenobi in Attack of the Clones was more of a detective than you!"
    • In his retrospective of the Blue Beetle legacy, he said that Dan Garrett's very white-looking love interest from Egypt resembled the kind of Egyptian you'd only see in an Alex Proyas movie.
    • He takes a couple jabs at the Trump administration, such as saying he misses the times when Lex Luthor being president was unbelievable.
    • His 600th episode opens with one at Brad Jones and his recent activities.
    • His intro to The Phantom Menace comic review has one at RedLetterMedia. note 
    • Given his numerous jokes about it, Linkara does not like Dr. Pepper.
  • Take That, Audience!: In most of his live shows, Linkara dishes one to audience members who tend to crack unfunny jokes during his panel, usually along these lines:
    Linkara: ...and I know people can get excited during these live shows and wanna throw out their own jokes, but just remember, I'm recording this, so if your comments are not funny, then you're being "not funny" in front of thousands of people.
    • However, he tends to combine this with Self-Deprecation, adding that he knows what it's like to be not funny and wouldn't wish it on anyone.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Mocked in Sonic: Live. When Robotnik has a couple kids held hostage, Sonic responds that he's fast enough to rescue the kids before Robotnik's Swatbots can fire, and Robotnik counters by gloating about how evil he is. Linkara shows us how the exchange should've gone after that:
    Linkara(as Sonic): Hmmm? Oh, sorry; while you were talking about how evil you were, I rescued everybody, got something to drink, and gave you a wedgie.
    Linkara(as Robotnik): *shifts uncomfortably* ...so you have.
  • Talking with Signs: The Ninja-Style Dancer usually communicates by holding up cue cards.
  • Technobabble: Willing to call comics out for it, but also willing to use it in his videos, especially when spoken by Dr. Insano or Linksano.
  • Tempting Fate: His "Top 15 Comics I'll Never Review" is helmed by "Sonic the Hedgehog comics". Then he's warned that for his 100th episode, he'll have to review... a Sonic comic!
  • Testosterone Poisoning:"I AM A MAN"!!! * This article is now pregnant*
  • Theme Initials: How awesome a coincidence is it that a Fandom VIP comic book reviewer happens to have the initials "L.L", which are so famously associated with Superman? (Bonus: He's also a big Superman fan.)
  • There Are No Therapists: Brutally deconstructed in the review of Heroes in Crisis. Linkara acknowledges how poorly comic books - and media in general - portray mental health issues, perpetrating the Insane Equals Violent stereotype among other things, as well as how there seems to be no actual mental health services in the worlds of DC or Marvel to deal with such issues. The book's central concept, Sanctuary, makes him beyond livid, since it hinges on the idea that an artificial intelligence is somehow a good substitute for actually qualified doctors, nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists.
  • There Is a God!: After having... Pretty much everyone's religious beliefs insulted with Chuck Austen's bastardized and over-simplified representation of Catholicism and religion as a whole, Linkara asks that "Holy War" be expunged and be given something good. He is granted a Blue Beetle comic with a crack of thunder and responds "There is a God.". Benzaie parodies this scene later asking the dimensional portal for help too.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Pointed out in his review of Spider-Man, Storm, and Cage. We already have Spider-Man and Luke Cage working to get the track star to stop smoking, and Spider-Man decides that they need a mega powerful member of the X-Men who can bring a massive storm down on your head to help them out too. As he pointed out, "Geez, overkill much, Spidey?!"
  • There Was a Door:
    • Linkara gets steadily more enraged by the Kool-Aid Man's apparent need to destroy a barrier every time he enters the scene in Adventures of the Kool-Aid Man.
    Linkara: I can't wait to see the PTA meeting where they explain they have to cut funding on art and music to replace that scoreboard.
    • In a crossover review of the Alone in the Dark movie with Spoony and the Nostalgia Critic, Jesse Ventura's character kicks a door down and then crashes through a window.
      Linkara: What is with this guy and his fear of doors? Did a door kill his family?
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • While many criticized the Watchmen movie for being too close to the source material, Linkara initially panned it in-universe for the few things they changed, like Ozymandias' plan changing from an "alien invasion" to blowing up energy reactors and framing Dr. Manhattan and his belief that the ending was more upbeat than ambiguous. However, he eventually did acknowledge that the movie was still very good despite the changes and mentions that he made the first review too soon after having seen the movie. Whenever Linkara does complain about something being changed, he gives a good reason about why it sucks other than "it's different", or "they changed the status quo".
    • His refusal to read any Spider-Man post-One More Day also fits into this category.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Several in-universe invocations of comics he believes are better in theory than practice.
    • Linkara provides the page quote in reference to Bearded Idiot: At Earth's End, which is a story about how Superman fought clones of Adolf Hitler in the future. Despite the interesting conflict that this idea presented, the final result was the first comic to actually be burned on the show.
    • In his review of JLA: Act of God, Linkara remarks that the underlying plot of the story, namely every superhero in the DC universe losing their powers, is actually a very good idea and showed great promise as a story premise. However, the execution of the idea was so atrocious that this three-part series became one of the comics he decided to actually destroy on the show, shooting it with his magic gun after he finished the review.
    • In his review of "Law and Order'' #1, he mentioned that, upon hearing the title, he thought it should have been about "Zombie Lenny Briscoe and Detective Goren. They fight crime!"
    • He even conjures ways One More Day could be handled right. Too bad that they went for easy and mind-numbingly stupid routes.
    • In The Thing from Another World #2, when the Thing gets loose aboard a submarine, Linkara notes that this is the perfect setting for a Thing sequel: a completely sealed off and isolated location which if the Thing were to escape from would mean instant doom for all life on Earth plus the added claustrophobia AND the fact that the Thing's weakness to fire could not be as exploited due to the limited oxygen. Unfortunately, the submarine sequence only lasts a couple of pages.
    • In the second half of his The Thing from Another World: Eternal Vows review, he brings up the comic's solicitations, which paint the image of a far better story that the utter trainwreck that the final product ended up being. Linkara surmises that either the comic's story was originally much more interesting but got butchered by rewrites (possibly on top of being a Dolled-Up Installment), or whoever was in charge of Dark Horse's solicitations at the time had better ideas about how to write a Thing sequel than the comic's actual writer.
    • Claims that the Batman story arc "The Gift" could have worked if, instead of Booster Gold putting Batman into a situation akin to that of For the Man Who Has Everything as the titular giftnote  of the story, Booster had taken Batman back in time to see his parents one last time before the wedding as said gift, Batman can't stop himself and interferes some way (ranging from merely talking to them to going out of his way to save them from getting shot), and changes the present - thus changing it from Booster acting Out of Character to having him make an honest mistake.
    • The current page quote for this is from his review of Justice League: Cry for Justice, noting he thought the idea of Congorilla and the Mikaal Tomas Starman fighting robots was a better premise that the actual story of a "proactive" League. Given the quotes page for the subject, he also thought the idea of Captain America and Thor fighting in Hel was a better idea than the main plot of the series that gave us that scene, Ultimatum.
    • In his review for The Punisher: Purgatory, he argued that the idea of the Punisher dying and coming back with as an undead avenger with supernatural weapons in and of itself is not a bad idea — if it was more akin to the The Crow and thus while Frank has supernatural weapons, he was still dealing with ordinary criminals and maybe even some people who wielded some magic, as opposed to what the story actually did with having Frank fight demons and the retcon that, up until that point, Frank was an unwitting pawn of a demon himself the whole time.
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!:
  • This Is Gonna Suck:
    • A staple of his reviews, but the funniest is probably when he silently raises his gun to his head after he says that the character Troll in Extreme Super Christmas Special #1 is a member of Youngblood.
    • In his Yu-Gi-Oh! duel with Iron Liz, he reacts this way when Iron Liz draws two Balloon Lizards.
    • For his 600th episode, he's forced to change what he's reviewing, so he randomly grabs something off the shelf behind him. Said comic happens to be Spider-Man: Sins Past, and then he realizes just what he grabbed, saying "Oh, God damn it!"
    • In his Secret Empire review, the first thing he says after the intro is to state how extremely frustrating the event is in detail with annoyance plain on his face.
    • The first five seconds of the Heroes in Crisis review. That is all.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Linkara's attitude towards One More Day. He states that some people tell him during his review that it's been five years since OMDnote  and hasn't he gotten over it? His reply, "Nooooooooooooooooope!". He goes on to say he's never purchased a post-OMD book and if the mess it made is convincingly reversed, he'll buy every Spidey book published since OMD.
  • This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: A caption to a girl giving the Kool-Aid man a kiss on the cheek.
  • Title Drop : "Help me set bad comics on fire from Atop the Fourth Wall!"
    Film Brain: Did he just break the fourth wall?
    Linkara: Don't worry - we're atop it!
    Audience: [Collective Groan]
    Caption: Channel Awesome would like to apologize for that pun. The writer has been flogged for his sins.
  • Title Sequence: Atop the Fourth Wall has an opening sequence composed of assorted clips from previous reviews combined with video of Linkara putting on his signature clothing and preparing for the review. There have been three montages created for the sequence, with the replacement using updated and newer clips that were created in the time since the first montage was produced. The sequence includes a theme-tune composed specifically for the series by Vincent E.L. and background graphics by NagyMarci. Throughout the sequence, numerous comics are visible, primarily bad comics that are reviewed and featured on the show, but occasionally, it will feature portions of Linkara's house that are not normally seen in the show, including his personal collection of comics (presumably good comics). The three series displayed cover-to-camera and easily identifiable are Infinite Crisis, The Avengers and Booster Gold (presumably the collection of Booster Gold's first series that Linkara mentioned in his Act of God review).
  • Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:invoked
    • Has with the Silent Hill comics in spades, whose unlikable characters to Linkara flat-out not giving a shit as to what happens in the story. To a lesser extent, he seems to have this somewhat with the Ultimate Marvel universe with its superhero characters generally not being very likable, though, in that case, he says he simply doesn't like the Ultimate Marvel universe but doesn't say it's bad.
    • He also feels this way in regards to post OMD Spiderman.
    • This trope is one of his biggest criticisms of "current" comics. He feels that the increased amounts of Darker and Edgier content (villains being more evil, heroes being more anti-heroic) is to the medium's detriment. In addition, he takes issues with the belief that "darker equals more mature", feeling that a comic's tone shouldn't be that big an indicator of quality. He even admits that this is why he doesn't review modern comics as much, as while other decades have wide varieties of bad, his criticisms for current books would just end up with him repeating himself and making his own show hard to care about.
  • Too Dumb to Live: invoked The behavioral patterns of the Justice League in Justice League: Cry for Justice. At one point, he literally screams that they deserve to get killed for being so dumb after the Justice League, having caught Prometheus, chain him down after giving him back his helmet, the source of his powers, intelligence, and skills.
  • Totally Radical: Parodied with 90's Kid.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Chicken tenders (or chicken fingers), according to The Next 15 Screw-Ups.
  • Training Montage: Linkara's preparation to review Amazons Attack, set to Rocky epic music. He admits his geek physique is not adapted to this, so he follows it up with a Lock-and-Load Montage instead.
  • Tranquil Fury:
    • He does this in his review of Justice League: Cry For Justice, regarding Lian Harper's death. It's... unsettling.
    • He gets into this state when discussing what he dislikes about Holy Terror, especially the scene where Not-Batman and Not-Catwoman torture someone and call it "fun". The way he coldly points out how the book goes against everything he stands for is chilling; you can tell Lewis is legitimately angry.
    • He was clearly seething during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Youngblood #10 for using HIV and suicide callously for Chapel's subplot involves making a Deal with the Devil to prevent from dying from AIDS.
  • Trekkie: Has a large collection of various Starfleet uniforms, which he wears whenever he reviews something Star Trek-related (as well as in Kickassia).
  • Troll: He acts like one on occasion, but he's never mean-spirited about it. For example, he kicked off the Theme Song contest with a video that made him look like a Small Name, Big Ego with incredibly limited knowledge of the entire Caustic Critic community, up to confusing The Angry Video Game Nerd with The Nostalgia Chick.
    I only follow invokedThe Irate Gamer.
  • Trumplica: In "Star Trek #9," the Enterprise crew meets the 45th President of the United States... Anton York. Cue Linkara voicing him in a hammy Trump impression and noting that York even looks like Trump to a degree.
  • Tuxedo and Martini: Linkara does not like this type of secret agent. Said best at the end of the Sci-Spy review:
    Linkara: REAL SPIES ARE NOT LIKE JAMES BOND!
    • However, he does expect a character named James Bond Jr to have something to do with this trope.
  • 20 Minutes into the Future: Quite literally at the start of "Law and Order #1".

    U 
  • Understatement: In the 200th episode, this happens:
    Linkara: If there’s a single story that has hung over this show since the first episode, it’s One More Day.
    (This is followed by nineteen clips of Linkara referencing/talking/complaining/raging about One More Day, which wraps up with him looking at an image of the book and growling ”I hate you!”)
    Linkara: Yeah, I think I might have brought it up once or twice.
    • Occurs again in the 300th episode.
    Linkara: You know, in three hundred episodes, you may have picked up that I'm not particularly fond of Frank Miller.
    (Next comes eighteen clips of Linkara talking about Frank Miller, including how he's gone insane, is a misogynist as well as generally creepy and that his writing and directing is terrible).
    Linkara: I know, I've been very subtle about it, but it's there.
  • Underwear of Power: Briefly Discussed in his "Post-Mortem on the New 52", regarding Superman's costume redesign in the New 52 that removed his red trunks. Linkara points out the reasoning for this trope: the color balance helps emphasize a strongman physique that makes Supes look more imposing, and its removal consequently made him look slimmer and less powerful. Rather than directly fix this, artists instead compensated by giving him glowing heat-vision eyes whenever he needed to look intimidating, despite glowing red eyes normally being a villain trope.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Acknowledged in-universe by Linkara that Book Burning has some seriously negative connotations, and that he doesn't have anti-intellectual ideals.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:invoked Speed Steer does a fine job of this as Linkara points out. The protagonist (a cow with super-speed who goes around preventing people from eating meat made from cows) invokes this twice in the same issue. The first time, he steals all the burgers from the Beefytown Burger Restaurant on its opening day, thereby preventing the employees from getting paid. The other issue is when the CEO plants a trap for Speed Steer by giving out free hamburgers. By stopping this, Linkara notes that all the homeless people and people struggling with money would be deprived of this inadvertent act of kindness if Speed Steer stopped this.
  • The Unreveal: Todd in the Shadows makes an appearance in the Previously on… in the Action Comics #593 review. He wants to kill Linkara since he has seen his face, and just as he flips up his hoodie the scene cuts to That Jewish Guy.
  • Unsound Effect: Notes the "Run" sound effect in Archie Meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Linkara becomes so frustrated with the video game Wolverine: Adamantium Rage that he starts shouting "Adamantium Rage!" and punching various objects including Spoony, a Kirby doll, a pillow and a can of soda...but ends up getting punched himself by The Angry Video Game Nerd.
  • Unusual Euphemism: "What the Funk & Wagnalls?" is a recurring one, obviously used in place of F-bombs.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: One of his criticisms of Psychoman is that everyone treats his super strength and ability to fly as something normal or just usually not really reacting to it.
    • He also makes the same complaint about the protagonist of Captain Electron.
    • This trope usually gets Linkara to angrily scream out Be impressed, dammit!

    V 
  • Values Dissonance: The casual misogyny of The X-Men #1 (written in the '60s) turns Linkara against it in-universe.
  • Verbal Tic:
    • Linkara's Elvis impression ends every sentence with an "uh-huh-huh".
    • 90's Kid starts every speech with "DUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDDDDE!"
    • WARRIOR WILL NOT BE TROPED HOAK HOGAN!
    • Ensign Munrooooe!!!
  • Video Review Show
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: The Star Trek: The Motion Picture review has a very subtle running gag that he decided to explain in the credits: he switches between various Trek uniforms throughout the video, all to point out how much better they all are than the ones in TMP.
  • Vindicated by History: invoked In his review of The Thing from Another World# 1, Linkara discusses how the original film was panned by contemporary critics, but overtime, was reassessed as a sci-fi horror masterpiece. He's especially bemused that Ennio Morricone's score was nominated for a Razzie.
  • Visual Pun: In his The Incredible Hulk #1 video, he briefly stops talking about the comic to deliver a rant directed at comics writer/illustrator Tony Harris, calling him out for his sexist remarks about female cosplayers in late 2012. After the rant ends, Linkara notices he seems to be sitting on something. The item turns out to be a literal soapbox.
  • Vocal Dissonance: Whenever The Joker appears in a comic, Linkara voices him with a pretty good impression of Mark Hamill's Joker from the DC Animated Universe. This usually works very well, but the manic, cheerful voice is very out of place in the review of All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder #8 and its brooding, gloomy Joker.
  • Vocal Evolution: His voice was a lot calmer in earlier episodes. The difference is notable even when looking at his first two episodes; in his review of Adjectiveless Spider-Man #56, he almost sounds like he is whispering so as to not disturb the neighbours. Compare that to his reaction to the letters column of Doom's IV #2 just eight days later.
    • 90's Kid was a bit deeper and less hammy in his earlier appearances.
  • The Voiceless: Ninja Style Dancer. Except in Linkara's Silent Hill-induced hallucinations.
  • Vulgar Humor: Linkara complains about comics attempting to be funny solely by being obscene.

    W 

    X 
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: Linkara frequently bashes this practice in comics. "Because poor literacy is kewl!"

    Y 
  • Year Inside, Hour Outside: Lord Vyce's dimension goes through just three days during a month in our world.
  • You Are Fat: In the opening for his "Dragnet #4", while parodying the opening of the Dragnet series, he points out a McDonald's: "I eat there a lot, which explains my weight."
  • You Keep Using That Word:
    • Linkara quickly becomes annoyed at the poorly-defined overuse of the word "Justice" throughout the Justice League: Cry for Justice miniseries. Early in the review, he speculated that the fact they were blatantly just after revenge and calling it justice would be an obvious plot point, but it is never acknowledged in the comic.
    • In the Mr. T #2 review, he rants about writers who use "literally" incorrectly after a character mentions another who "literally burned away" without actually bursting into flames.
  • You Need to Get Laid: Inverted in his review of Ultimates 3, Linkara is convinced that things with the Ultimates would probably be going better if they STOPPED getting laid, as it never seems to go well for members of the team.

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