In a world... where Hollywood churns out by-the-numbers flicks in order to turn a profit, it's practically inevitable that a series whose reason for being is to make fun of those movies would have more than a few subtle and less-than-subtle insults about movies, the people who make them and the people who watch them.
- From The Walking Dead trailer...Narrator: From the network that brought you Breaking Bad, a show you couldn't stop watching, comes a show so inconsistent you have to keep talking yourself into watching...
- From 300:Narrator: From the guy who made Batman comics cool again, and the guy who'll probably make Batman movies suck again.
- In the Honest Trailer for Pacific Rim, when the narrator mentions a Long List of works from whom the film draws its influences, he mentions "that stupid Hugh Jackman robot boxing movie."
- All the comment readings at the end of the The Nightmare Before Christmas' Honest Trailer were all Take Thats towards people complaining about the disabled comments section of the previous week's Ghostbusters (2016) Honest Trailer.
- Both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad have an "extended cut" that can be only viewed on the official Screen Junkies website. Given that both films have had important scenes that were cut to bring the rating and runtime down, only for a complete version to be released on DVD, it's not hard to see it as a dig toward Warner Bros.
- The Honest Trailer for Logan has the Narrator complaining how Logan now suffers from "Mel Gibson facial hair" as a sign of advancing age. Additionally, when the Narrator's attempt at getting Deadpool's aid in mocking the film fails, the Merc with a Mouth vows how "If Jackman doesn't get an Oscar nom, I'm setting every VHS copy of Crash on fire!"
- During the "Starring" portion of the trailer for Thor: Ragnarok, a shot of Sakaar is shown, which they call "The current state of the DC Extended Universe".
- Today's fan culture is mocked mercilessly on the show:
- The Honest Trailer for The Incredibles has this prophetic description of Syndrome:
Narrator: [Syndrome] is a nerd who loves something so much, that when it didn't live up to his expectations, he declared war on it.- The honest trailer for Galaxy Quest takes multiple jabs at modern day fandoms, which the movie perfectly portrayed/foreshadowed according to the narrator. These include fans taking a work of fiction way too serious, as if it were real, and obsessions with pointless details.
- The "Starring" portion of Jingle All the Way trailer includes a credit for "Modern Fandom," which is accompanied by a shot of kids beating up Booster.
- The trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) claims the movie to be the first time in internet history that an angry mob of nerds actually made something better (referring to how Sonic's design was changed after the original version was universally panned).
- The Narrator dryly describes Bird Box as "the second most-talked about suicide forest video of 2018", while showing a screenshot of a news article about Logan Paul's infamous "suicide forest" video.
- In their video on the 2019 Oscars, they waste no time in mocking how the Oscars got caught up in three different controversies over the course of 2018, such as the proposed and subsequently dropped "Best Popular Film Category" award, Kevin Hart leaving as the host after controversial Tweets were unearthed, and attempting to cut numerous awards from the broadcast only to swiftly put them back in after backlash. The Stinger also seems to make fun of the Oscars entirely, not only listing other particularly embarrassing incidents, but stating that the 2019 Oscars are shaping up to be the worst Oscars since they were first televised.
- Epic Voice Guy drops an utterly vicious one (albeit not directed at another movie) at both Donald Trump and the United States' infamous ban on refugees from several Muslim-majority countries by describing the Men in Black movies as "set in an alternate reality where the United States accepts refugees."
- The 2017 Oscars video also takes a jab at Trump, though more for his arrogant attitude than for any of his policies. They also criticize Hollywood celebrities for turning the ceremonies into their own political soapbox.
- While they ultimately deem Captain Marvel (2019) to be "just fine," they also make sure to mock the misogynistic Hate Dumb around the film that claimed its success would lead to the "downfall" of male-led superhero films.Narrator: Look out, boys! At this rate, lady heroes will take over at the theater! (a chart then appears, showing how there's been 61 male-led superhero films since Batman (1989), while in comparison there's only been 6 female-led superhero films) ...Never!
- Relatedly, the same Honest Trailer notes that while Captain Marvel certainly has its issues, it's still "Citizen F*cking Kane" compared to every female-led superhero film not named Wonder Woman. The video then backs up this statement by showing various unflattering clips of Catwoman, Elektra, Tank Girl, and Barb Wire.
- While lamenting the perceived Seasonal Rot in Seasons 6-8 of Game of Thrones, they wonder if it was due to the series' showrunners (David Benioff and D.B. Weiss) either getting bored or just burned out from having worked on the show for so long, before snarking that it was actually because of them feeling bitter over "no-one liking their slavery idea"note .
- In the Honest Trailer for Avengers: Endgame, the part of the Time Heist involving Thor and Rocket Raccoon going back in time to take the Aether/Reality Stone is described as "a daring raid to justify the existence of Thor: The Dark World." Furthermore, the Narrator notes how culture has stayed stagnant five years after the Snap by musing how "baseball is still unpopular."
- In the Honest Trailer for Cats, Epic Voice Guy suggests that director Tom Hooper's Oscar win for The King's Speech was the result of a Faustian pact that required the former's creation.
- The animated Disney Beauty and the Beast Honest Trailer suggests that Belle is an arrogant woman who thinks all the townspeople are inferior to her, calling her "the first millennial."
- The trailer for A Goofy Movie takes a jab at the Artemis Fowl film, stating that people most likely will only survive the first 10 minutes.
- Whenever Shenmue is bought up in Honest Game Trailers, it's always compared negatively to the Like a Dragon series, culminating in the Honest Game Trailer for Yakuza calling the series "Shenmue, but good."
- The Honest Trailer for Starship Troopers describes the Brain Bug as "every fascist's secret fear: a vagina that can think for itself".
- More than one in the Honest Trailer for The Boys (2019):
- Because the series is produced by Amazon Studios, the show's world is described as "the most brutal, harsh, unforgiving world" since Amazon's warehouses, which are notorious for their terrible working conditions.
- The show is described as the DC Extended Universe, if Zack Snyder didn't have any executive input holding back his darkest creative intentions.
- Vought is described as having "the outward-facing cheerful polish of Disney, but the internal money-hungry killer instinct of... also Disney".
- The Honest Trailer for The Rise of Skywalker doesn't stop at just saying that J. J. Abrams is bad with endings (albeit with Confusing Multiple Negatives); it specifically lists Lost, Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness as examples.
- The April Fools' Day Honest Trailer for the Snyder Cut of Justice League (2017)note mocks the fans demanding the cut for obsessively pursuing their goal, saying that the cut, if released, will prove that "you can gang-tweet your dreams into existence." It also makes fun of them for having unrealistic expectations for how good it will be by making exaggerated claims about it being the greatest film ever, while implying that Snyder's original vision may not have been as good as they thought. It ends by asking for the Snyder Cut so they can move on to asking for the "anyone else cut of Game of Thrones Season 8."
- From the Honest Trailer for 2020:
- The video takes a jab at people venting their rage about the pandemic, and the problems it brings, on Twitter, by reminding everybody that humanity has faced far worse years with wars and pandemics in the past; the only significant difference is we now have Twitter to complain about it.
- The video also says Elon Musk naming his child X Æ A-12 and Mike Bloomberg running for President are some of the many signs of the apocalypse as foretold in the Book of Revelations.
- From the Honest Trailer for Tenet:
- The Narrator points out that Christopher Nolan's films have three recurring problems — 1) Overbaked plots, 2) Underdeveloped characters and 3) All white leads. He then notes that the black Protagonist addresses one of those problems.
- During the "Starring" list, the Narrator says, "Let's just put 'The Protagonist' here for now, then come up with something better later." The fact that the Narrator doesn't even try to come up with a punny nickname for The Protagonist says a lot about how unimaginative his name is.
- The "Starring" list ends with a line of dialogue from the film that the Narrator says sums up "how Nolan writes a character.""No small talk. Nothing that might reveal who we are or what we do."
- The Honest Trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 says that its villain, Maxwell Lord, a "blonde-haired, orange-tanned con man", can't be a stand-in for Donald Trump... because Lord actually loves his son.
- The Honest Trailer for Cobra Kai briefly brings up and dismisses both The Next Karate Kid and The Karate Kid (2010), and calls out the latter for not even featuring Karate but Kung Fu.
- The Honest Trailer for The Simpsons Movie has the Narrator conclude that, while based on a declining show and overall being a good but not great movie, it is still lightyears ahead from any comedy currently on Disney+.
- The Honest Trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League basically says that the film is only good in comparison to Joss Whedon's cut- the latter is two hours long and terrible, while the former is four hours long and mediocre. For context: at the time the video was made, Whedon was facing a lot of backlash after accusations of abusive and toxic behavior during the making of his version of the movie as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer."If you want to look great by comparison, just stand next to Joss Whedon."
- In the Honest Trailer for the DC Extended Universe, they argue that most of the franchise's issues are the result of the role that, for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is occupied by Kevin Feige, is occupied for DC by Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump's former Treasury Secretary.Epic Voice Guy: Sheesh, no wonder [Warner Bros executives] hated Cyborg.
- The Honest Trailer for Luca has the narrator admit that the movie is quite an Creator's Oddball for Pixar, being quite breezy and unfocussed, but nevertheless still better than the last five movies from DreamWorks Animation.
- The Honest Trailer for Ted Lasso kicks off with a swipe at other Apple TV+ originals that, unlike Ted Lasso, were hyped up by the streaming service but failed to become significant hits, and Apple itself:Epic Voice Guy: You slept through The Morning Show, you didn't see See, and you haven't bothered to start your Mythic Quest (I hear it's good, though), but since your iPhone crapped out on you, and every new one comes with a free year of Apple TV+, you might as well check out... Ted Lasso.
- The Loki Honest Trailer begins with the words "Now that Marvel's killed off its only good villains", illustrated by the deaths of Killmonger, (the original) Loki, Thanos... and Tony Stark.
- The Honest Trailer for Halloween Kills attributes its success at the cinematic box office to people being more willing to risk catching COVID than sign up for Peacock, which released it for streaming at the same time.
- The Honest Trailer for What If…? (2021) suggests that the show is only worth watching because there's nothing else new MCU-related to watch until Eternals comes out:Narrator: [over a clip from Eternals of the characters standing together, sounding completely uninterested] Wow, look at them stand there. Can't wait.
- Overlapping with Self-Deprecation, Roger L. Jackson as Ghostface has the following argument with Epic Voice Guy during the Honest Trailer for Scream (2022) that takes swipes at both the Scream franchise itself and Honest Trailer's sister series CinemaSins:Ghostface: Not old Scream, new Scream!
Epic Voice Guy: Oh, you mean 5cream.
Ghostface: (unimpressed) ...Is that what passes for a "joke" around here?
Epic Voice Guy: We usually save all the dumb puns for the end.
Ghostface: Still? (scoffs in disgust) At least Cinema Sins had the decency to call it quits!
Epic Voice Guy: (awkwardly) ...Yeah, they're still going on too...
Ghostface: (genuinely surprised) What?! C'mon!
Epic Voice Guy: (exasperated) Look, you've had five movies and three seasons to deconstruct a genre that wasn't even complex to begin with, ok?! So don't lecture us about hanging around too long! - The Honest Trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves describes it as "What if a Marvel movie were as charming as it thinks it is?"
- The Honest Trailer for The Boys seasons 2 and 3, has the narrator refer to Homelander as a terrifying combo of Zack Snyder's Superman, and Zack Snyder's Superman fans.
- The Honest Trailer for Wonka: First the narrator points out how the movie contains way more songs than advertised in the trailers, but how they're so bland the audience likely won't remember them anyway. Then the narrator gets into how many mandatory references to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory the movie contains, capping it off with the statement that our imagination should never be too pure, because God forbid we'd try something original.
