Tear Jerker / The Nostalgia Critic

Doug has said how much he loves tragic comedy. Judging by these examples, he's very good at it.

---

• Extremely easy to miss, but when the cartoon characters are hammering their anvil in during Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, he starts off disagreeing when they say to believe in himself and they care about him. Now that's some good foreshadowing.
  • For a general example, in the commentary, Doug said that whenever Critic sounds angry, he's usually actually just afraid.
• His terrified expression when he recounts how many times you have to break up with someone before they turn into a psycho and start stalking you. (It's 3.)
• The "Alas poor Tom and Jerry" speech. What old-school Tom and Jerry fan didn't feel like that when they were singing about being best friends?
  • Side note: The zoom in on his face, look to the left of his face (your right), and you see a tear streak.
• He made a list filled with the 11 saddest moments in film. WARNING: You will laugh more than cry. (Also, he's right. How did we survive our childhoods with all that in the stuff we watched?)
  • Some people say they kept it together for the list but lost it when the Critic gets shot in the head at the end. Perhaps a catharsis thing?
• In a much sillier version, his tribute to his beard in Mortal Kombat. It's the Sarah McLachlan song "I Will Remember You".
• Moreso after he keeps telling us about his workaholic issues, but Doug getting agitated at the end of "Top 11 Disney Villains" because people keep calling him lazy and he keeps getting computer problems and he has no clue how computers work.
• The way he says it is funny, but the thought of a mini-Critic retreating to his cupboard whenever he got scared and thinking he was the only one to do that is a depressing image.
  • After Scooby-Doo, the line about struggling to keep the past innocence and nostalgia alive becomes all the more poignant.
  • There's a couple of references to his traumatic past, like after South Park where he says he's used to a Twisted Christmas, or got punished badly for kiddily playing with a Nativity scene.
• The "Top 11 Dumbest Superman Moments" ended pretty darkly. He says that despite everything, the Superman movies make him smile, but soon he remembers what happened to the World Trade Center, Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve. Then he looks utterly miserable and leaves with "I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I'm gonna go kill myself."
• In his review of Short Circuit 2 he stammers out a "shit" with real tears in his eyes when he sees Johnny Five trying to get up from his beatdown.
• While it's mostly in hindsight, admitting in the TMNT review that he does what everyone tells him to do in the hope that he'll feel less insecure.
• In the "Top 11 Cereal Mascots", there's a look of both guilt and crushing realization after the "my Dad still has AIDS" line. The latter is understandable (if slightly depressing by itself), but from the Alaska review it sounds like he's also worried about still getting punished.
• The Patton speech "that [he] personally wrote" after failing to recognize Optimus Prime's death as a Tear Jerker is really funny, but then you see he's been tearing up so much that his glasses are looking really misty.
• That childhood picture of his parents tearing him apart. The stepford "I had issues" makes it worse. It's either really funny or really sad. But who says it can't be both?
• During their review of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Linkara evidently finds Critic panicking and crying distressing.
• Seeing as how he had to talk about Gene Siskel's death and what happened to Roger Ebert, the second half of the tribute to Siskel & Ebert, while still having jokes scattered around, made more than a few people tear up.
• "This is just like prom night all over again!" That must have been awful.
• People who have bad experiences with a lot of throwing up (either stress-related or just illness) will know exactly how he feels when he's sobbing and coughing after his first puking in Junior.
  • He sounds truly scared when he thinks he's losing his joke-making ability. And later episodes explain why.
• His suicide and the circumstances around it in Spoony's Captain America review was a bit distressing. How would you react if one of your friends casually revealed to the internet that he dressed you up in an humiliatingly objectifying outfit while he was raping you and is using the pictures for blackmail?
• A fridge one at the end of Quest for Camelot. He says that Mary Poppins was his childhood idol. A Troubled Child would rather be "practically perfect in every way".
• In their review of Troll IV, Snob and Phelous aren't all that happy to see him drunk and vulnerable. And these aren't the most empathetic of men so that means a lot.
• His gigantic rant on how A Troll in Central Park is giving the bad message to rely on your hopes and dreams. Speaking from experience, are we Critic?
• Over on Familiar Faces, his breaking down to CR about how insecure he is with his job, setting up the depression below. Plus Dramatically Missing the Point that if he keeps on being Driven by Envy he'll become a White-Dwarf Starlet. Even CR looks disappointed.
• The end of the My Pet Monster review was parodying the bizarre ending of the movie, but it was still effectively depressing in many ways:
  • That Thousand-Yard Stare when he remembers how he was pitied for acting like a monkey in eighth grade.
  • The call, how he just shrinks in more and more as it goes.
  • After he hangs up, how he just stares at his phone miserably for a few seconds, almost like he's been betrayed by it.
  • You can't even hate the director for it. It's made too obvious that he's just defending his work from the random idiot calling to bitch at him.
  • Sitting in his room alone. Made worse by the music he chose when he was sitting there. "The Lonely Man". Aww Critic, honey...
• And if you thought that was bad, the commercial special turns it up to eleven:
  • After the most likely intentional OTT-ness of the first breakdown ("I'm a wreck!" and such), the second breakdown just before his Moment of Awesome will very likely throw you for a loop. "There's nothing left for me anymore." He just sounds so lost and broken.
  • The adorable picture of eight year old Critic. The Dark and Troubled Past he's built up is slightly less funny when you have such a sweet face to attach it to.
  • The very near Death by Despair, slumping over his chair lifeless. If he hadn't managed to pull himself out of it, it's actually rather scary to imagine such a Hot-Blooded guy just kinda wasting away.
    • There's something quite unsettling about that shot before the camera goes back to him for his song. It's hard to explain, but it's like those movies where you think the person is just sleeping, but it turns out they died alone.
  • The instrumental he used for his Despair Event Horizon is called Sad Romance, and the full version might just be the most heartbreaking piece of music ever heard.
  • Say you were mid twenties or so. You're either recently been classed as disabled, you've lost your job or you just feel like your life is slipping you by. The episode will hit all the harder.
  • According to Doug at a Finland con, he had no idea where he was going with the My Pet Monster review end, and that caused his anxiety to flare up and so he decided to make this episode around something (commercials) that did genuinely make him feel better.
• Little Monsters. A bit like The Nostalgia Chick trying to make The Adventures of Milo and Otis funny but sliding into Tranquil Fury at the animal abuse scenes, he tries to offset the unpleasantness of this one (especially the scenes of parents yelling at children) but it gets under his skin and will get under yours.
• From Spooning With Spoony III in the donation drive, while funny too, his broken reaction when he realizes he's been raped by Spoony. Again.
• As much of a jerkass as he is (due to Word of God Santa Christ warping reality) in “You're A Dirty Rotten Bastard”, after Spoony's Laughing Mad, Critic and Roger come back from their trip and Critic has a Heroic BSoD where he leans over the table and has a brief panic attack. It's about ten seconds but it's used in Critic Angst Fan Vids for a good reason.
• From Care Bears Movie II and the Book Ends of the It's a Wonderful Plot special, just how much Santa Christ now dislikes the Critic. It's deserved from his POV, but Critic really did fuck up completely by accident.
• The Baby Geniuses review. Just seeing how broken that movie made him makes you feel bad that's it's also a Funny Moment.
  • Even the ending doesn't give that much relief. He's all excited about getting a second chance to do the Q&A, wanting people to realize that he's funny and creative, but when he gets there he can only swear at them again.
• In RAD, there's a conversation with his mom who claims he's a disappointment just for bringing back the wrong fast food. Critic wibbles and you feel so bad.
• Staring sadly into the mirror in his review of The Legend of the Titanic. Quivering lip + Puppy-Dog Eyes + the music that played after Gandalf's death = instant woobie.
• In the Little Nemo review where he gets celebrated for not making a Finding Nemo joke, his squeeing that he's never felt so loved is pretty dreadful once the fridge sets in.
• His top 11 list of Batman: The Animated Series was very like the show's dark tone. The majority of the episodes he picked were tragic, there weren't all that many jokes and he sums up abusive relationships in just one depressingly accurate line.
• It's easy to miss, but in the Critic/Joe grudge match when he's losing, he looks like he's going to cry and says "okay" in a really defeated tone. He goes to a muggy angry face next time we see him, but you have to feel kinda bad for the guy.
• In his review of Alaska, he remembers the last time he mouthed off to his dad and is actually shaking as he says it really was the last time. Funny and intriguing too obviously, but seriously, shaking.
• As bad as the episode was, even the LP gives a surprise foreshadowing painful moment:
  Critic: [quietly bitter] Yes, thanks for that, I have nothing, thanks for the reminder.
  • With what he's said about his family, relating to Bart and poor grades, this line also serves to be Harsher in Hindsight:
  Critic: A "D-". That's- I feel so privileged that you gave me this opportunity, game, to have my family look at me, hate me, and totally want to disown me. That's wonderful.
• In the beginning of James and the Giant Peach, his stunned, speechless, beaten-puppy expression when Chester yells at him.
  • His desperation to be liked again, especially as he doesn't get it.
  • That openly vulnerable expression when he asks the audience if he's restored anything in their eyes makes your soul ache.
• Maybe not to the point of tears, but did anyone want to give him a hug when he was so delighted that another person (Lupa in this instance) actually listened to him for once, only to have a Yank the Dog's Chain?
  • Listen closely and you'll hear "Sad Romance" playing again.
  • It also shows you that he really does want to be a better person by how quickly he gets a whole new outlook just because he was listened to, it's just life keeps screwing him over.
  • Lupa herself becomes quite The Woobie when she accepts that the Critic doesn't want her help reviewing Simon Sez. It turns out she's faking because she likes him to suffer as much as anyone else, but it's still a bit moving.
• His view of the robot from Doug's First Movie as The Woobie. "It's actually kind of hard to watch."
• Despite the insanity of "El Tango De Pretense", look at him when he's walking down the street in the Moulin Rouge! review and you'll clearly see that he's been crying.
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but the Chick visibly flinches when they hit Spoony's house, and when they hit Floss's house on their next stop, both she and Critic beg him to let them stay here and not go anywhere else..
  • Brental Floss's pitiful "Ho-hoooo..." after he's shot by the Critic toward the end. Not exactly tearjerking (especially considering the humor that follows it), but still quite sad.
  • After Doug revealed that this was the review where they decided Critic needed to be wrapped up soon, "The Review Must Go On" - with its lines like "I think I'm done", "the joke's gone on too long", Critic typing "The End" while dying, even Chick going to watch Scooby-Doo - gets some seriously painful double meanings.
• His reaction to Patch being fired in Santa Claus: The Movie, ending with a tearful "Fa la la la la, la la la la."
  • Anyone feel kinda depressed when Critic leaped up all excited to give Santa Christ a hug but never got it?
• The most epic answering machine message. It starts off as deliciously hammy fun, but then it surprisingly turns much sadder and darker with Ringtone's Heroic Sacrifice.
• It's Played for Laughs, but his reaction to the pet he called Ballsack dying in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. He just sounds so destroyed. The next review even shows he gave it a decent headstone.
• In the Patch Adams review, his horror at the idea that he'd just been mocking a real person who was molested as a kid, and murdered.
  • Even before that, his Tranquil Fury over the family being forced out while Patch - for some unknown reason - gets to be with their father in his last moments.
  • His quiet "did he really just say that?" when Patch asks what's wrong with death. Another button pushed, movie.
• Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea time and again tempts him into making a joke about the 2011 tragic Japanese earthquake and tsunami, but thank God he never does. Seeing him struggling to keep his sadness in is no less touching. Even a messed-up nerd like him feels sad for all the ruined lives resulting from the tsunami.
• Played for laughs, but in Thomas and the Magic Railroad he really seems broken at the idea that he's Alec Baldwin's delusion. One must wonder how badly he'd take finding the fourth wall and realizing he really is just fictional.
• A bit more muted, but yet another one in “fuck-ups part three”. At the start he obviously just wants the list of his flaws over and done with (even finishing Douchey's sentences for him), and at the end he has a screaming breakdown about everyone being awful. It's so bad that Douchey has a My God, What Have I Done? moment and decides to leave him alone.
  • The bitter way he says “maybe I should be my own troll”. A cute nod to Doug playing both Critic and Douchey, but also pretty true in-character as well. When Douchey praises him for being good at coming up with insults for himself, you know damn well the reason why.
  • He looks pretty disappointed when Douchey realizes they've been bonding and forces it to stop.
  • He's so lonely he's reaching out to Douchey. He's willing to spend time with someone who treats him like crap just so he won't be alone.
• Nostalgia Prime's depression over how far his franchise has fallen since the days of the cartoon. Apparently, no one gave him the memo about Transformers: Prime.
• Drunkenly crying to his giant monkey plushie in Jack about how he thought everything was going to get easier as he grew up sounds a little too much like a funnier version of the "lost innocence" rant in The Last Unicorn.
• It was Played for Laughs, but there's something quite sad about his bitterness that women always leave him right after sex on one night stands.
• In "The Top 11 Simpsons Episodes", when talking about "Bart Gets an F", right after setting us up with Bart's tears over failing again, admitting he did badly in school and that all the talks about if there was something wrong/feelings of failure really hit close to home for him. Suddenly all those "God, Critic, you are such a dumbass" moments have a painful edge to them.
  • What probably makes it so potent is that a lot of people can relate to it. As woobie-ish as child abuse and rape are, thankfully only a minority know what's like that. Feeling worthless at school? Awfully common.
  • And makes some of his lines from previous episodes cringe-inducing. He's used to disappointment now so doesn't really mind? Well he did back then.
• The big rant at the beginning of his review of the Scooby-Doo movie about how lonely he is. Through his crazy and angry tone, his extreme resentment of what he does, and his general feeling of hopelessness that culminates into a breakdown, you can really see how much he wants friends or at least someone to hang out with.
  • It didn't just involve him being lonely, it also included how he's never done anything to make anyone's life better and how he'd love it if someone said "that guy is okay, not great, but okay". With that, he may have possibly beat out Dean Winchester for the lowest self-esteem a character could have.
  • Doug's delivery on “I don't even have any friends”. It's that shrugging, trying to be casual but really you're about to cry tone that a lot of people will know all too well.
  • Also lends a sad irony to the numerous crossovers and cameos that came before this episode. Either he doesn't get that the other contributors getting excited to do co-reviews with him means that they like him, or he pushed them away because his self-hate was getting so bad he felt like he didn't deserve them.
  • "What's the point in trying to change anything, I am where I am, nothing's gonna make it any different." Could also explain why, after all the progress made in To Boldly Flee and the Plot Hole, he reverted back to 2008 characterization when he came back.
  • That it was improvised and expanded from two lines by Doug doesn't help. In the commentary, by the time Critic emitted his Howl of Sorrow, Rob seemed stunned and the man himself sounded embarrassed.
  • Thank God Young!Critic and Old!Critic came in, otherwise the depressing "this is how I do my shitty review" bit would have continued.
  • For all his talk on conspiracies and "narcs", young!Critic still seems pretty innocent and hopeful about life.
  • When Critic is talking to his younger self, "Perfect" by The Smashing Pumpkins is playing. You know, the one that goes: "But please, you know you're just like me, next time I promise we'll be perfect"? Because it's not like the review hadn't been soul-ripping enough already.
  • Old!Critic's more subdued personality, memory loss and shakier voice is quite uncomfortable for tropers with grandparents suffering from early dementia.
  • Granted, the context was Present!Critic explaining a scene in Wedding Crashers to Young!Critic, but am I the only one who cringed when Young!Critic asked "Do I have to become you?"
  • His Heroic Suicide. More violent than the To Boldly Flee version, but he looks just as happy to be ending it.
  • After celebrating how he'd saved the world again, his cheerful mood dropping when he realizes he has nobody to brag to.
  • Yeah he's a dinosaur, but anyone who's tried to get their relative or friend out of depression can relate to The Other Guy's tired annoyance when he tells Critic he'd been trying to get him in a poker game for five years.
  • Thankfully it ends up all right, but Critic looks very young and vulnerable when he's getting up the nerve to join the poker game.
  Critic: God, I should've done this a long time ago.
  80's Dan: You were always welcome.
  • Doug's character insight in the commentary, that Critic only does good things because he wants to be loved, makes for some heartbreaking Rewatch Bonus for every nice thing he's ever done.
  • Watching To Boldly Flee, then this review, makes all of this drama super effective!
• At the end of To Boldly Flee, the Critic merges with the plot hole to save our universe, but cannot do reviews anymore. The entire movie was basically all about endings, and about the Critic admitting to himself that he's all messed up and should do something about it. All my sorrow...
  • That served as a way for Doug Walker to end the Nostalgia Critic as a recurring segment on the website.
    • However, the way he was brought back may have been just as tearjerking if not more.
• Especially if suffering from an eating disorder, one can find CriticReloaded!Critic's utter revulsion of his Suburban Knights!body (and remember how Doug was giddy over even fanboys calling him sexy in that movie?) more depressing than funny.
• The reboot opening theme clips serve as a constant reminder of Critic's main breakdown: preparing for the fight that led to Ma-Ti's death > screaming in the car on his way to the Plot Hole > peacefully merging with the thing.
  • Even the opening theme change in Ghost Dad is depressing for a different reason, as it involves a lot of Rachel getting abused and features none of Critic's proud moments. That also might mean, as he's carried on from what the Manga/Guyver review planted before, that Critic is losing more and more memories of who he was pre-comeback.
• In The Odd Life Of Timothy Green, Doug the advertising man making Rachel the infertile woman cry.
• Pearl Harbor: Despite the Broken Aesop of the Bay rant, and his hypocrisy later, the moment where he's slumped back in his chair, silent and wrecked and then speaking shakily, is actually well-earned emotionally, even just for a few seconds.
  • The way it feels like Doug wasn't even acting anymore. He was sincerely angry.
• He calls Paranoia "like a miserable night that just won't seem to end", and judging from his tired red eyes in the review it seems like he's had a few of those.
  • He brings "Demo Reel = purgatory" as a twist that makes no sense, and then he breaks out of Smug Snake reviewer mode to look away and tell everyone to shut up.
• Part of it's his own fault, but how lonely he sounds when calling Santa Christ in Son of the Mask, calling him the “only good, decent person [he] knows”. The new eye-bags don't help.
  • After the happiness he found in the Plot Hole, Santa Christ (showing off a sadist side) telling him that he was meant to suffer is just really cruel.
  • His expression after he suffers the heart attack, practically like he would have preferred dying.
  • Critic begging the Devil to Mercy Kill him so he'll be rid of the horrible images. Evilina brings up his death in To Boldly Flee and decides it's “crueler to leave him alive”, and the two them leave Critic to curl up on the floor and sob.
    • If you have a bright enough computer, you'll see real tears forming.
    • He doesn't even flinch or move when the Devil nearly sends him blazing down to hell. He needs death that badly.
  • A dirge-like Ominous Music Box Tune playing over this scene until his end doesn't help at all.
  • The ending: “I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it because it'll never go away”. And then crying some more. Jesus.
  • And after all that, playing the sad instrumental version of “The Review Must Go On” makes said song even more depressing.
• Most of the Where the Wild Things Are editorial is pretty poignant, but when he talks about "there's no logical reason why, it just seems like everything that should be good is now falling apart", there's a resigned tone to his voice that just hurts you.
• As soon as he finds out in The King and I that people are complaining about the wall, his eyes get all red, he looks like he's about to cry and he motor mouths passive-aggressively while everyone complains.
  • Also how after all that upset, he still goes back immediately to the old wall with a happy hopeful smile, but just gets more and more crushed and frustrated the more the audience complains.
• Just the entire "Farewell to Roger Ebert" video.
  • Doug spends a fair amount of time, mostly centered around the response tweet to the tribute but in other places too, trying to make us aware that he's nowhere near as good as Ebert. The farewell is bad enough, but all that on top is heartbreaking.
  • And with Doug in a later v-log trying to explain that he survives each day essentially like a zombie, Critic being desperate for some of the passion Ebert and Siskel had, saying that if he possessed it for anything he'd be set.
  • Special mention for Doug mentioning that he would be constantly looking for Ebert's next appearance so he could tell him just how much that tweet meant to him, but now he'll never get the chance...
  • From his red eyes and flushed face, you can plainly tell that Doug had spent a lot of the day crying.
  • Just the fact that he put the video up the same day as Ebert's death when he could have waited until Tuesday shows just how much the man meant to him (plus, what he had to say probably wouldn't have been nearly as fresh in his mind if he waited).
  • "I'm the Nostalgia Critic... and you will always be remembered."
• In the embarrassingly sad variant, "The Looney Tunes Show: Good Or Bad" had him impersonating "most people's reaction to change nowadays" by bawling on the floor like a baby. Even Douchey Mc Nitpick got more respect than that.
• The Cat in the Hat:
  • His speech towards Peter Souless about how Dr. Seuss' stories aren't just simple kid's stories, even if there's a Broken Base on why exactly it's so sad.
  • Critic reminding himself that hope is not something he should have and that all is lost. It sounds like it should be a funny moment, but he's pink-eyed, To Boldly Flee is again the Elephant in the Room and even Evilina looks sad.
  • His making Evilina cry twice, once by shooting her Princess Celestia doll and the other time hitting her hard and telling her to shut up. Rachel really does look like she's about to bawl◊.
    • While he doesn't deserve the sympathy, it's bad from Critic's perspective too. For so long he declared himself defender of kids and not be like his own Abusive Parents, but here he is having no regret for making a girl cry.
  • After a certain scene that occurs after the Cat gets hit in the groin, the Critic leaves to stare at the sunset. He then starts to wonder if he's losing his touch. It's not as dramatic as the other times he's broken by a movie, but watching start to doubt himself is a bit disheartening.
  • They come back and his guilt doesn't last long, but the analysts committing suicide. They're desperate and broken without their charts, and both they and the Critic know that it's all his fault that they want a Together in Death.
• "Top 11 South Park Episodes" is a downer for how much Critic can't seem to stand his fans. Irony of it being the only reason why it's this list is because Doug asked the fans what they wanted and they chose South Park.
• At the end of reviewing A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, he admits that, while the movie still has plenty of flaws, he can't bring himself to despise it as much after learning the Ending Fatigue was written by Kubrick, not Spielberg - the latter was faced with a no-win situation, but still went ahead and produced it for his dead friend (who had wanted to emulate Spielberg's more whimsical style).
  • Doug being an abusive parent and making his child cry was as crushing as it was scary.
• In the Superheroes editorial, he reassures them that he "gets all the anxiety and torment beating down on a guy". Add that to some very red eyes and you get the urge for some cuddling.
• There's something depressing about him tearfully begging the Breaking of the Wind (or Fart Joke, as he's called) not to leave him as he reaches the ending of The Master of Disguise.
  • Rachel is really hopeful and vulnerable when she tells Critic it's her birthday. Also Critic rubbing the salt in at the end tossing out a "happy birthday" after he's beaten and fired her is a particularly cruel moment in hindsight.
• Knowing context, the build-up to the Demo Reel Take That! at the end of Sailor Moon. Dr. Hack says it's going to be the best show ever, and going to post-To Boldly Flee, you might remember Doug being so excited for it that he couldn't even get words out. Word of God is that they even made Donnie Critic just because they were pissed off at the demands for Critic's return.
• In The Last Airbender, Rachel!Katara says “Critic has a long way to go before he's capable of saving anything”. She's right to say it as she's only known him as a Dirty Coward, but it's painful when you think about the three times he's managed to save the whole world.
  • The Critic/Doug scene. To Boldly Flee and Doug's You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech is a long time ago, and it's sad to see Doug so bitter and Critic not even bothering with Doug's name.
• His conclusion to his already downbeat analyzing of The Graduate.
  Critic: In my world, it's a constant reminder of how it's best to slowly figure out what you want rather than rush into something you're unsure about, because fighting too quickly for your freedom will result in making your prison bars even stronger.
  • If the music playing under his words sounds familiar, that's because it's been used before.
• The overhead shot of a dead Jack!Critic in the 2013 Nostalgia-Ween opening. Maybe just because of the depressing-implications Call-Back.
• Critic going into catatonia at the end of The Shining review. It's a parody of the movie of course, and he's been terrible all episode, but it just goes to show how exhausted and broken he is, and even Malcolm and Rachel express sympathy.
  • Rachel's Tears of Fear as she gets abused by Critic. It isn't helped at all that she was apparently scared in real life too.
  • Also Rachel calling him because she feels bad about walking out because of his ill treatment. Victims of abusive relationships cringe and relate.
• All the talk in “Why Do We Love Zombies?” about getting used to being beaten down and having the kindness sapped out of you can get very uncomfortable after a while.
• Critic and Santa Christ in a Mexican Standoff in the Devil review is a very depressing image, as it drives home how far apart the two have fallen.
• In Dawn Of The Commercials, Critic breaking down crying over none of his favorite toys being at Toys R Us, followed by the return of his mom (who he still lives with)
  • Rachel's “Got Milk” parody where she gets addicted to drugs, tries to kill herself, gets better, relapses and dies alone is both Nightmare Fuel and just really painful to watch.
• In Man of Steel, Joe's trauma over his childhood abuse, and Critic not caring.
  • The awkward "now you're the outcast!" moment in the behind the scenes video.
• The first few minutes of The Dark Knight Returns crossover, as it starts post To Boldly Flee with Critic saying he'll never come back because he'd look like a phony otherwise, being giddy about how good Demo Reel will be and getting laughed at by Brian, and then it cutting to present day where he's not that optimist anymore and is immediately condescending to Brian and insulting to Sci-Fi Guy.
• His description of how much it hurts to be lied to in "Why Lie About Santa". For Reality Subtext, Rob admitted lying to Doug about there being no issues with Demo Reel.
• In the "Top 12 Santa Clauses", relating to the Mall Santa's hating what he does but carrying on to exploit people who think he's good at it is a nasty reminder of his constant job issues.
• No matter what your opinion is of the reboot or the place she came from, Rachel leaving the site to go back home to California. It's what she wants and she'll be happier, but it's still sad. Also both her farewell videos in Face/Off, and Doug's accidental deletion of her send-off episode.
• In "The Worst Christmas Special EVER", he really hates the moral of "you always win when you are good". And while he focuses on Christmas, the Elephant in the Living Room is that due to Real Life Writes the Plot, his attempt at being good failed utterly. Not to mention that an earlier editorial discussed having the kindness beaten out of him.
  • How sad Mrs. Walker looks when Doug says she gave up her opera singing career to raise him and Rob. To clarify, her smile just fades (up until Doug hugs them both and calls them amazing) and her eyes go into a Thousand-Yard Stare that is eerily like Doug when he pulls that face.
  • Doug asking his mom to try and help the depressed people watching because "you feel it like I feel it".
• Fittingly for a pretty dark year, he puts in a moment of bittersweet for the last 2013 editorial, noting how he and others can relate to feeling confused and failing to pull through on things, especially around Christmas.
• Seeing a depressed Carl and Quinn in a cameo at the end of The Wicker Man (2006) got some serious feelings from people. Rachel included.
  • Critic ends up about to cry because he just saw Cage in a bear suit and doesn't know what old bear meme to pick. Malcolm acting like he's helping but actually turning out to be working for Tamara makes it worse.
  • Critic's casual acceptance that he has to be in pain for fanservice and views becomes horrible when you remember "HE WISHES HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS BULLSHIT TO MAKE YOU WATCH AND GET YOU RATINGS".
• While it was meant to be funny, and he technically deserves it for what he's been acting like, if you relate to Critic's new Hates Being Touched feelings then the “Top 11 Best And Strangest Couples” opening is very uncomfortable. It'd be one thing if Critic was just disgusted, but he looks like he might cry too.
• In a quick but effective moment, Ghost Rider (2007) has an end of commercial where Tamara is grabbed and threatened by Doug-as-Sam-Wow, and then she starts crying for him to help her.
• In the ending of The Uncanny Valley, there's two hope spots about how he can be fixed, but firstly ends up just talking about fixing the actual mirror (and dismissing the idea that he can be redeemed), and secondly rejecting complimenting the special because he needs the money from Accentuate the Negative. It doesn't help that the Puppy-Dog Eyes are out in full force during the entire scene.
  Critic: I can fix you. I can fix you. [looks away] No I can't. [back in the mirror] I can. I can fix you. It's not too late, you can be redeemed. You are fixable. You are fixable.
• How seriously broken he looks after the Ass Pull in Ghost Dad used to reveal that Bill Cosby's character is still alive. It winds up confusing him so much that he can't think of anything funny or clever to say in response to it.
  • Also before the commercial break: "It's good to be dead." Remember the last time the Critic was dead? He wishes he could go back to that.
  • Before she gets angry and makes him wish he were dead, Tamara looks like she's going to cry when Critic blames them for being “stupid enough” to believe he died.
• While also heartwarming, the To Boldly Flee music (the same music that he used for “WTF Is Up With The Ending Of The Graduate”) playing over a young Critic's shrine to Tim Burton in Alice in Wonderland (2010) brings up sad What Could Have Been feelings.
  • Just beforehand, Critic's tiny whimpering “please don't...” when Malice starts to show the above home videos.
  • After a Hope Spot (with Demo Reel's triumphant Donnie-introducing-himself music no less) of Critic realizing that every artist is capable of making great things, Burton's next movie is supposedly cancelled to be replaced with a remake of Adventure Time, and it cuts to a traumatized looking Malice and an angry Critic saying he completely forgot whatever lesson he was meant to learn.
• The halfway point of "Disney Afternoon" has a creepy scene, where Critic realizes things haven't changed since he was a teenager, and that he's still watching cartoons and commenting on them. There's even a sad music sting.
  • There's something both interestingly depressing and creepy about how desperate Critic is to regress back into being a teenager and trying to forget his adult issues, from pretending he was at school to being so fixated on the illusion that he turned the studio into a recreation of his bedroom.
  • As is common, Malcolm ends up The Woobie again. Critic beat him up so badly for mentioning Doug that he's bruised in the face and quiveringly says “I can't feel my teeth”. Even Tamara (who doesn't exactly get treated nicely either) is concerned for him, and when he's unconscious from the second beating, looks like she's going to cry when trying to find his pulse.
• Food Fight begins with the Critic going into a nervous breakdown, smashing all the products featured in the film before crying on the floor amongst them bitterly. It concludes with him broken down and lying in a fetal position in the middle of all the wrecked products urging the audience not to watch it in a distraught whisper.
  • With The Reveal that it wasn't the movie that broke him but the fact that he didn't get money for it, it might almost seem like the Critic has got even more fed up with being stuck doing a job he resents having to do and starts sobbing as he again yearn for his intended fate inside the Plot Hole.
  • Not just the breakdown itself. How about the scene where he realizes it was a waste of time? Malcolm and Tamara coo over the "new big thing" while he just slowly crumples and walks out.
  • The bit where he's so afraid by the film he decides he's being punished for all the wrong he's done... and confesses the wrong sins while “Fatal Fight” ^note the music when he melds with the Plot Hole in TBF plays. Then he goes to commercials and it fades out on him starting to cry.
  • “Hi honey I'm home, oh wait I forgot I'm not married” is what Selina says in Batman Returns, but in Critic's context, it's the first thing he says after he's upset that Tamara and Malcolm (who, even if they hadn't had their personalities changed by him, have no reason to considering what he's done to them) are more interested in squeeing over the Attorney General of Crimea together than feeling sorry for him.
• The Lorax (2012): The illustrative sketches in Loraxtown involving marketing were quite sad.
  • The NC's voiceovers during these don't help, because that reminds me that our society works like this in real life.
  Critic: "Fad" is just one letter away from "fade". And that's exactly what they do- they fade away. That's why it's better to focus on being good, rather than being popular. If you can be both, great. But if you had to chose one over the other, always pick good over popular- because once the people grow out of it and move on to the next popular thing, there's nothing of substance to bring it back. And the timeless message you claim to fight so hard for becomes just another passing trend to forget about.
  • In the beginning, the giving tree's pleading and crying when the little boy she was friends with chops her down and feeds her to the paper machine. Doubles as Nightmare Fuel.
• If you weren't more interested on Critic's first big nerd-rage in Blues Brothers 2000, you would spot Commercial!Malcolm putting a blanket over Commercial!Tamara's dead body and mourning her. Throughout the entire scene, Malcolm's acting - where he's upset and in a panic - is surprisingly moving.
• Jurassic Park III: The Critic receiving a phone call that his mother had died, with the dinosaur interrupting before he can hear her final words. Even if she's shown to be an alcoholic who insulted and verbally abused him, the Critic is genuinely broken by it.
  • And she didn't tell him she was sick because she knew he was too busy working. Whether that was just more passive-aggressive abuse or genuine not wanting him to worry, ouch.
  • This moment became much Harsher in Hindsight when Doug Walker's real-life mother passed away in her sleep as of September the 9th, 2016.
  • Critic's reaction to the dinosaur interrupting. It's not shrugging it off like it meant nothing, or even comical rage, he throws his phone on the ground, screams that he hates this, and has to breathe heavily to calm down.
  • His utter disbelief that the T-Rex from the first film was easily overpowered and killed is this.
    • And then it inspires him to write a dark skit where a father kills his daughter's favorite doll and tries to force her to love a Barbie. Also the Tamara child crying and begging daddy to stop trying to force her to like the new doll.
  Critic: ...Wow. I was in a dark place when I wrote that.
  • Even the beginning is surprisingly somber, with Rob asking him about nightmares and Critic (in such a world-weary tone) responding “those are yet to come”.
• While it might be Laser-Guided Karma mixed in with fanservice, you're going to feel sorry for him in The Last Angry Geek's Future's End episode where he's got nothing left but a Thousand-Yard Stare, and breaks down crying when he kneels down to service The Cinema Snob.
• In “Nostalgia Critic Talks Transformers 4”, the state of the Critic/Chester friendship. Critic used to give him money and offered him a job and Chester defended him, but now Critic takes over the show with a baseball bat and kicks him for no reason when Chester tries to be nice.
• Synecdoche, New York is a really sad film in itself, and he gets melancholy in “Is Tree Of Life Full Of Shit”, talking about self-destructive people getting into bad situations, fathers missing their daughters being little girls, and himself getting more confused about time passing as he gets older.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot as it never gets mentioned again past twelve minutes, but poor Snob in Bloodrayne getting more and more upset that he's killing people, needs help and nobody cares.
• Hearing the Brain brutally reduce Pinky to tears was incredibly uncomfortable and depressing. Even sadder is the fact that the Critic actually thought it was funny and what PatB fans wanted to hear.
  • A lot like Santa Christ and Chester, the state of the relationship between Film Brain and Critic, going from the former helping the latter in TBF and worrying for Kyle's melancholia because he had another friend who had been suicidally depressed, to creeping outside his studio and threatening to kill him.
  • Upon hearing that Pinky and the Brain are (supposedly) splitting up, the way Film Brain sinks into so sad and whimpering upset. It doesn't help that the already sad Critic/Ma-Ti leitmotif from To Boldly Flee starts playing for no reason other than it provides the feels.
• Hyper Fangirl is a horrible deluded person who needs to get as far away from Critic as possible, but in one of her vlogs she says that the questions other fans give are the only thing that keep her going through the week and make her believe she has friends. It's a rare moment of lucidity that induces pity at the very least.
  • And it gets a lot worse in The Princess Diaries A Royal Engagement. When she and Critic review the movie together, she sounds normal. It's only when the Critic and her assassin bring up how wrong it is to manipulate someone that she has a brief Oh, Crap!/My God, What Have I Done? moment, which she quickly derails by distracting them. The ending is pretty hard to watch, as Critic and the assassin try to talk her down and convince her that she can't force Critic to love her, and that her obsession isn't love. She almost gets it... before turning around and desperately trying to replay the movie, convinced they can make it work if she just plays it again. Past a certain point, she's less of an obsessed fangirl and more of a mentally ill woman who needs help.
  • The saddest part is the Critic actually does seem to be genuinely trying to get through to her, but she won't listen.
  • With Doug confirming Stockholm Syndrome, Critic's side of the Almost Kiss. While Hyper looks like she's into it for obvious reasons, he just comes off stiff, resigned and not going to put any effort into it.
  • Even before the end, she tells Critic at the beginning that she's never been so happy in her entire life. She's doing something really awful as Critic and Doug keep trying to point out, but it's sad how fucked up she is.
  • In the same vlog as above, how desperate for affection Malcolm is that while he's still uncomfortable with Hyper Fangirl, he's visibly upset when she says she has to leave soon.
  • Hyper related, the Walker's Steven Universe vlog of "Love Letters" gets pretty serious, with Rob talking about female stalkers being better at it than the male stalkers (who'll just scream rape threats) and Doug admitting how Hyper isn't totally fictional.
  • At the end of the second vlog, there's a random playing around from Malcolm as Tacoma, with a half-burned face and saying “you didn't like Demo Reel? You didn't like Demo Reel? See what happened to the actors of Demo Reel”. Even though it gets cut off and so we don't know, poor babies.
• Seeing Film Brain cry over a picture of Pinky and the Brain and tearfully sing their theme song. With the sad music playing in the background in the Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance review.
• There's an effective moment in The Sixth Day crossover (with That Sci-Fi Guy) where he says he's gotten used to waking up screaming his head off. And as towards the end the Plot Hole is the first thing on his mind, you can guess what kind of nightmares he has constantly. Although he also says later that whenever he wakes up he has a 50/50 chance of being held captive somewhere, and Hyper kidnapping him was recent at this point, so it could be trauma over that instead. Both options are viable.
• Malcolm in the “Top 11 Best Avatar Episodes” gets his woobie status turned up to 11: helping Critic, legit thinking they were going to fend off Dante together, but Critic runs away. He begs Critic to come back because Dante will kill him, but Critic's a selfish Dirty Coward and when Malcolm is burned on the wall, Critic still doesn't appreciate the help.
  • Critic's conclusion from Zuko Alone, that it shows how the redeemable can't be so easily redeemed, if even at all, and “only the lost walk alone”.
  • In a Black Comedy sense, Doug in the book exploding at you because, as he says, he's had to edit the video for five days with no food or water. The end of what we see is “I'm just so tired... and hungry... and thirsty...”
• “Is Eyes Wide Shut Artsy Porn” discusses the mix of “nightmares exposing you at your very core” and “love/sexuality is scary and often relationships can't deal with it”, so it's going to be a heavy episode for anyone currently going through either or both those things.
• A year on in “Top 11 New Halloween Classics”, he's still got the melancholy brought up in “Why Do We Love Zombies”, discussing in the Paranorman segment that the scariest monsters are just humans who were too sad to cope, and that anyone including him could become one of those monsters.
  • While brief, mentioning (in such a barely restrained voice) that he “has a past” when it comes to bad family memories during watching Halloween specials.
• “Reality seeping in” during The Monster Squad is hard to watch, as Critic and the others get more and more depressed due to the reality monster getting inside their heads.
  • Tamara having a rare vulnerable moment where she thinks she's finally being included in the boy team and looks so happy, but Critic still just ignores her.
  • Critic's panicked-denial reaction to the reveal that “Scary German Guy” is a Holocaust survivor, stressing that he needs to keep up the innocent delusion his brain has got him into and that the number is someone's phone. Even Analyst 1 looks concerned.
• His talk about You Can't Fight Fate in Is There Another Good Shyamalan Movie? is another patented “use meta for sadness” moment, as he explains that if this trope is true, victims are screwed, people who don't want to be mean are screwed, and that he's just a chess piece character in someone else's story.
• In Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Malcolm's distraught expression and delivery when he says “[Critic] has a sickness. It can only be cured by repression and tranquillizers”. The Does This Remind You of Anything? is not subtle.
• To some people, the first part of his rant against Hyper Fan Girl.
  • Critic's disappointed realization that Santa Christ will never be on his side even when he's actually a victim this time hit home for a lot of people who have suffered the same.
  • Critic literally dropping to the ground out of fear of seeing Hyper again. Worse that he gets told he was actually wrong to do this and not want to wave back to the woman who has done really shitty things to him.
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but when Hyper runs towards him, Critic flinches and instinctively tries to move back.
  • The end of the review where Critic wakes up and sees that she's left, puts a paint bucket by the door and walks back into the empty studio while sad music plays and the stinger line is "I wish I wasn't such a softie". You can tell he's really lonely and worn down from everything.
  • The scenes with Chester A. Bum, especially after he gives up his coat. He's left shivering, but still oddly happy. It's one of the starkest portrayals of his homelessness in Doug's videos.
  • In the accompanying vlog, Critic really wanting to try on the cheerleader skirt but getting interrupted by Hyper's lunge is oddly sad.
• At the end of The Matrix Reloaded, Critic realizing that Malcolm and Tamara are the ones who Black Willy Wonka said have been taken over because he trusted them already. The final shot is a close up on his face and he looks like he's going to cry.
• The ending of The Matrix Revolutions, with Critic realizing how much he appreciates Tamara and Malcolm and the fact that they haven't smiled in a while is his fault, gets sadder when it becomes an Ignored Epiphany and he treats them even worse in later episodes.
• In the Last Angry Geek's review of Spider-Man and the X-Men, the Nostalgia Critic reveals that Dr. Smith died of cancer, and that Smith was his father.
• In "The Dark Age Of Film", while complaining that films turned from being about heroes to survivors, he adds “sometimes in life, you just need to survive and it's totally understandable”.
• Small, but in the Transformers: Age of Extinction crossover, with the pillow/duvet/robe at the end, Critic is obviously sleeping in the studio. Remember the last time we saw him sleeping actually at his house?
• In Hyper's second Midwest Media Expo vlog, Critic being so tired and done that he asks Hyper if he just does what she wants would she leave him alone. She very happily says no.
• In the Shark Jumping crossover of Glee, Tamara and Beth's sad (to the tune of "Defying Gravity") recognition that all they can be is “frenemies” because girls can't get along.
• For The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, despite it being both a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment in-movie and in-show, present!Critic getting the “I'm sorry” note from himself twenty minutes earlier that he asked for, and responding to it by sticking his face in the paper and crying. There's even a sad musical chord as he starts to cry.
  Critic: (desperately) I deserve an apology from someone!
• The end of his Pixels review, where he talks about how people hated the movie because they were so disappointed to see that it was obvious Sandler wasn't even trying to make this movie good, and how he didn't remotely try to step up his game or modernize his storytelling techniques. He finishes off his speech by subverting his usual ending catchphrase. "I'm the Nostalgia Critic and... come back." ... And then he just walks away.
• In Mad Max: Fury Road, Critic's instant tired wariness when Hyper shows up, even though she's over him.
• In the Snob crossover of The Passion of the Christ, the aftermath of Critic betraying Santa Christ. Santa Christ gets in his face asking why and Critic (nearly crying) goes off after apologizing and saying he doesn't know him.
  SC: ...wow.
  • Especially towards the end, Santa Christ's moans of pain as he's whipped can be really hard to listen to.
• In "Conquest Of The Commercials", it's nothing that Critic does, but the ignorance shown in the “ayds” chocolate commercial (as he points out, this was mid-eighties when AIDS talk was in the papers) might make you want to follow Critic's example and retreat to a corner.
  • The son in the abuse family cuddling the meninist car out of fear of his dad becomes pretty tragic when you think about how he's become a creepy right wing child in Cats And Dogs.
  • The Doug-Dad (not Uncle Lies) pulling a noose around his neck with "you knew this was coming". Also scary, as it falls around Tamara-kid's neck and makes her run away terrified.
  • The fact that Critic is so invested and happy for the woman in the Canadian PSA before it all goes wrong, wrong, wrong...
• In Is A Charlie Brown Christmas Overrated?, he talks about how easy it is to get lost in an emotional whirlwind at Christmas, people forgetting that there's a grim side to the idea of Christmas, and how well the special captures the emotional confusion you feel at childhood, because childhood isn't all fun and games and it's strange and uncertain.
• In Christmas with the Kranks, young naive Critic finding out that his old-days eight minutes of The Last Airbender gave people what they wanted but they hated it.
  • Young Critic telling Malcolm and Tamara that the whole reason he started doing this was to try and get people to like him, followed with flackbacks to everyone bullying him.
  Critic: Just thought... this would change everything, you know?
  • What's worst is remembering the culmination of all his job angst, the Scooby-Doo rant about hating his job and having no friends (and like the Hotshot opening says, he still doesn't and has to steal them), and the sad realization that 2007-Critic won't get what he wants.
  • The idea that Critic has trauma over being kidnapped so much is confirmed, saying he's scared to wake up because there's always a 50/50 chance he might be in a place against his will.
  • In the middle of Critic's (already melancholy) speech about how things change, sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst, there's a shot of his phone with the Demo Reel icon, with him saying “sometimes we try new things when we should have left well enough alone” in the saddest possible voice.
  • Tamara and Malcolm's need for more attention ending up in them getting taken advantage of as props.
  • Present-day Critic doesn't respond to Past Critic's nitpick of not using as much footage with an explanation/warning about copyright law.
  • In a different version, the fact that for all of Critic's nice words, it still ends with Critic, Tamara and Malcolm all shouting at each other because of their Cycle of Revenge business.
• There's something sad about Shyamalan's character at the end of the The Lady In The Water review. When the Critic summons him, he comes in all foreboding and dramatic, as usual. But when Critic genuinely ask him to sit down and discuss what he was thinking as he was making his movie, he accepts Critic's offer, removes his mask...and starts showing off an non-malignant, hell, one might call it Adorkable personally toward movie making. It might remind you of how Critic originally thought M. Night Shyamalan was: someone whose head wasn't in the right place, but heart was. It kinda hurts to show how far the Critc's opinion of him has fallen so low as to cast him as a parallel to Amon...
  • After she became a character and not just a one-shot, Aunt Despair being useless at reading to the kid a bedtime story and him having really low standards saying it's better than nothing.
• The Abusive Parents showing little girl Tamara 80s films as punishment for being a "twat." Even the businessman who gave them the idea looks like he's just sold his humanity away.
  • His tribute to David Bowie, comparing him to literal stars.
  Critic: We see a lot of stars in our lifetime. Some old, some new, some shine brighter than others. You know that eventually every star has to disappear, but when one that shines so uniquely fades, the sky doesn't feel the same without it, especially when it orbited a solar system of other shining stars that brought us a galaxy of wonder that we still look at in awe today.
  • Uncle Ask That Lies (confirmed in behind the scenes) happily admitting History Repeats and what happened to him as a child will happen to his kids.
• "Where's The Fair Use?", made to address YouTube's broken copyright strike policy regarding Fair Use after a grueling 3-week grapple with Youtube over claims and a strike on his channel. Channel Awesome lost a full month of income for everyone officially employed there including Malcolm and Tamara! Only 3.5 years after To Boldly Flee, a movie about the creator's right of free speech and the possible end to the Internet critic as a whole, and the problem has even worsened with YouTube's strange demonetization policies.
  • The music doesn't help, either.
• Kid!Malcolm enjoying animal cruelty videos because of the cartoon sound effects. Kid! Tamara is going to tell on him, but then the Abusive Parents put in Cats and Dogs. Kid!Malcolm enjoys it, but Dad!Critic forcibly turns Kid!Tamara's head back around when she tries to look away.
  • In the behind the scenes, Doug decides that Aunt Despair has trauma and she's recovering by alcohol.
  • While it's funny and fanservice, Critic being so desperate for affection that he's excited about Aunt Despair playing fetch with him.
  • Critic's also upset about dogs being hurt, realizing it's all effects, but being on the girl's side.
• The Phantom of the Opera (2004):
  • The disconnect between Hyper and Aunt Despair. AD doesn't care about Hyper at all, yet Hyper gets angry when Critic (rightfully) calls her a bitch.
  • Hyper in “Wishing This Shit Never Happened”, as she looks particularly pitiable and flashes back to 'happy memories' of making Critic love her, deluded enough to think that was his 'friendship'. A brief acknowledgement of the fact that this while she was holding him captive doesn't last long, as she goes back to wanting to force him.
  • Critic at the end scene with Hyper. As well as backing up again like he did in Christmas Story II, and tiredly telling her he remembers his experience with her differently to how she thinks it, the camera goes back to his face after he gets Hyper to agree to be Just Friends, and he just looks sad and beaten down.
  • While it's in the background and the full thing is only on bandcamp, “Hyper Fangirl” has the execs sing an ouch-worthy verse:
  Think of all the ways we tolerate you
  Hyper Fan Girl
  There’s nowhere else to go
  Cause I mean please
  Who has a need for a weirdo
  But if you stay here
  You’ll be loved all your days
  Be Hyper Fan Girl always!
  • Even Beth in the commentary says that this episode is the first time she's actually felt bad for Hyper. Doug agrees, though he details that because the ending reveals she's dating Devil Boner, her (already bad) actions become worse.
  • Chester getting killed. What's worse is Critic not caring in the slightest. The fandom worry was so great that Beth had to tell everyone on twitter that he was fine and would come back.
  • The behind the scenes make Hyper even more tragic, with Benny being her Only Friend, Rob joking she's been assaulted in the past, Tamara making a point that she wants all praise even from old creepy men, and the fact that Aunt Despair is her mother (approved/confirmed later by Doug and Tamara at Connecticon).
• In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Joe's rant about Superman dying, because he wanted to see the full emotional journey that was in the comics translated to film, but now he can't.
  Angry Joe: (to Zack Snyder) You killed him in two movies and you barely even focused on him!
• "Cinderella Old vs New":
  • While it leads to a hilarious Cat Fight with Devil Boner later on, Benny's quivering trying-to-be-professional reaction to Hyper replacing him with Devil Boner as her "outlet for mindless violence".
  • While she takes Critic's comments about the animated prince as offense, Hyper's upset over Prince dying. With what she's like, you get the impression that he'd mean a lot to her.
  • Critic's barely restrained upset/anger at the 2015 Fairy Godmother testing Cinderella after what she went through, saying that if he went through the assault-like dress-ripping scene of the animated version, he'd want comfort instead of more work. It's also sad from Hyper's side thinking she has to prove being worth saving from abuse even after a lowest point.
• Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed review is nowhere near as emotional as the first one (lampshaded by Doug in the real thoughts), but there is Critic's sad attempt at a Self-Serving Memory, with him saying the movie nearly killed him causing a rift when the flashbacks show it was a self loathing Heroic Suicide.
• In Alvin and the Chipmunks, his awkward disappointment at having to do most of the review by himself and not having any other insights to play with.
• In Ghostbusters (2016), Critic talking about all the abuse the movie got, saying nerds have gone from being bullied to being the bullies, and it makes him ashamed to be a fan. Also potent because on the day this was filmed, Leslie Jones got a ton of racist abuse (which didn't stop, as post-Olympics coverage, her website was hacked and personal information leaked), and the Awesome Comics review was getting a load of sexist awful.
  • Happy tears, but Rachel's cameo as Evilina, talking excitedly about loving the new film and how all her friends love it too. After all the adults fighting and being petty, Doug clearly meant what he said in both earlier reviews about being glad little girls have representation.
  • Doug said at Fan World 2016 that he actually felt bad in behind the scenes and had a moment of wanting to cancel because of how much misogyny the Awesome Comics review was getting and didn't want to dredge that up again with his own review.
• In the WTR: Teddy Ruxpin, given that we know what his mom is like, the part where he's dubbing as Ruxpin's mother resenting her child sounds like he's speaking from experience.
• The abused kids make an appearance in Wild Wild West to demonstrate annoyance levels at the movie, and at the end of the skit, Critic looks very sad and tells them he's sorry.
• His talking about how good Bojack Horseman is with depression, and how it takes you to places that you're too sad and scared to go to.
• In the second half of "The Third Animated Titanic Movie", he gets so upset over the main characters being fine with captivity, and it has a tinge of sad because this has only been his Berserk Button since Hyper kidnapping.
• While also funny because of how ridiculously OTT he's being, Critic's job issues come up again in The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, clawing at himself and acting like he has to be the destroyer of movies.
• In the "Top 11 Gravity Falls Episodes", the long sequence of fanart of Mabel crying when he's talking about Not What He Seems can get to you, as well as him saying this was the moment it stopped becoming a show for him and something much more Close to Home (mostly because he was scared he'd make the wrong choice).
• Chester's sad face in Dreamcatcher after Critic refuses to give him a sandwich makes you wanna give him a hug.
• "Can An Ending Ruin A Film" gets oddly downbeat when he compares movies with bad endings to a friendship being ruined, like all those good memories got fucked up through one shitty choice.
• Whether it was done pre-Mrs. Walker-death or afterwards, his talking about Disney's early killing of parents providing necessary lessons for children in "Does PG Mean Anything Anymore".
• The "Real Thoughts" on Patch Adams has Doug and Rob open after immediately finding out who won the 2016 presidental Election, and they go on for about 2 minutes completely shocked and shaken. They try to make jokes, but it's nervous laughter. Doug says they might keep making political jokes in videos, but they're gonna be once in a blue moon occurrences from now on.
  • Later on, Doug going a bit Laughing Mad when he calls the holocaust "the rehearsal" for Trump's America, and telling himself he needs to stop because he promised he'd be a Happy Place for other people.
• While the Batman equal pay PSA in "Battle of the Commercials" raised so many questions (some of them hilarious), the takeaway is that America would rather let Batman and Robin die than give Batgirl equal pay (she makes less than Robin).
  • He makes it clear that he hated the Canadian commercials because what they were against (rape, pedophilia and getting burned in an accident) scared him personally and gave him nightmares. And then when the house hippos ease him, he holds out hope for a UK PSA and screams like he's going to cry at kids getting electrocuted.
  • Near the end, the ice-cream commercial breaks him, and another version legit mourns him "because he tried his best but the world took too much".
• The reference to his abusive past in "The Top 12 Best Christmas Commercials'' where he assumes everyone's had a man in clown make-up pick them up and not let them go.
  • Lampshaded when his first pick is the WW1 Sainsburys Christmas advert, and says "you bet I'm doing this to you".
• In I'll Be Home for Christmas, Critic's rant to D-Bag is emotional as it is, mostly for the Reality Subtext of 2016 politics, but it gets extra heartbreaking when he calls himself a screw-up who has failed enough already. And it's not said but you can tell by Doug's acting in the last five minutes that he's still really lonely.
• The Rogue One review starts off with "in memory of Carrie Fisher", who had died a day previously. Also Tamara plays Leia again for a few seconds.
  • Doug's facebook post for the review, missing Carrie in more words than the episode could do.
  • Despite their commentary on the characters being flat and forgettable, during Walter Banasiak & Tamara's final scene as Cassian & Jyn, there's something much more heartbreaking about - by contrast to the movie, where they hugged each other - seeing these two smiling, standing arm-to-arm, just before the blast flashes from behind them.
• In "The Smurfs 2'', while he's not wrong, Black Nerd dropping the Token Black Friend act and ripping into Critic's well-known issue of having no life and just being trapped in nostalgia.
  • While it's a joke, Tamara's ashen teary expression sells telling Critic that she has a drunken and abusive grandfather who doesn't consider her part of the family.
• Hyper's cameo in Todd In The Shadow's "Scars To Your Beautiful" review, telling him that "Hold On" by Good Charlotte saved her from suicide. And when he calls it awful, she goes right back into self hate before he backtracks.
• His cameo in "Paul Starts Another Review Show", hysterically-to-the-point-of-nearly-crying ranting about nobody needing another review show.
• He said it before, but in "What Happened To Great Disney Villains", he just comes out with the fact that he relates to Cinderella because she has a fearsome dominating parental figure. Also that he relates to someone like Gaston after him.
• Critic has been kidnapped so much that it doesn't even faze him by "Old Vs New: Evil Dead" and all he can do is deadpan about how he needs help. Especially when he's left tied up and alone at the end.
  I miss food.
  • Them being hilariously petty lessens the sadness, but Hyper and Devil Boner have their first fight and want so badly to get over it because they hate fighting each other.
    • Devil Boner is genuinely shaken that he killed doll Hyper, and Hyper talks about how she prepared for her death but didn't think she'd be killed by her boyfriend.
  • Hyper references her Dark and Troubled Past again by implying her brother bagged her head and buried her alive like in the movie, and she thinks that's normal. Worse when remembering that her mother is Aunt Despair, so said brother may be the same boy that sexually harasses Barbie dolls and gets excited watching animals in pain.
• Aunt Despair's treatment of the little pigtailed girl in the Balto review is awful as usual, apparently having exposed her to sex before, insulting her intelligence, and getting drunk and high in front of her (even saying she wants to see how many shots she can take before she forgets the daughter's name). The real kicker is the ending: The little girl finds out the story was made up and lashes out, and after she realizes she had fun and starts to feel better, Aunt Despair drops the news that her parents died in erotic asphyxiation and runs off, deserting her. Even when Critic gives her to Chester, who hugs her lovingly, she's confused and starts crying.
• Hyper's Q&A confirms onscreen that Aunt Despair and Uncle Lies are her parents, but she thinks they're great people, and as we already know she's Conditioned to Accept Horror and has a history of denying reality, it's upsetting.
  • While it's hilarious showing up a picture of chained up Critic while she frets about people thinking that she's a villain, getting super anxious about of course she's the hero, "never the villain".
  • Similarly, she gets confused and self-conscious when someone calls her a punchline (as a Call-Back to the Mad Max review).
• In the 2017 YouTube trailer, getting upset about potentially being stalked again and having to be drugged into calmness.
• Jim as Jared Leto's Joker killing Critic's pet mouse (named Mrs. Brisby) and mailing it to him, causing him to have a brief meltdown.
• In "When Should Remakes Not Be Made", he's the most gentle with Ghostbusters (2016) (while putting it in the "shouldn't be made" category) and makes it clear that he wished it had a better chance.
• Critic's speech at the end of Wonder Woman (2017) about how the film revitalized his love for DC can inspire the happy tears.
• In Norm of the North, Critic having a breakdown because he can't find Bill and he's incapable of looking after himself.
  • At the end, Critic panics because he hasn't achieved enlightenment and shaved what was left of his hair for nothing.
• The parody commercial for the Hulk toy is purposefully as depressing as the movie itself. Rather than play with the toy, the abused kids (whose names are revealed as Melody and Cliff) use it to bring out their repressed memories and to confront to their terrifying father. A flash forward shows them as adults crying on each other over job issues, with Cliff throwing out the toy swearing he's "done with childish things".
• The Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory review is really funny, but he also sticks in that he still loves his parents individually despite what they did to him. Especially as the videos before and after involve the abuse kids.
• In the ten year tribute video, Malcolm says that Demo Reel getting cancelled broke his heart.
• In her third convention video, Hyper's pathetic glee at "finally" being one of the high school popular girls.
• In Monkeybone, Critic being horrible to Melody and Cliff because they wrote a bad film. Made worse because all three were smiley with babysitting at first, and then the ending where he realizes Aunt Despair and Uncle Lies were their parents and feels bad. Melody's look of terror at her parents is heartbreaking.
  • Also a reminder of his own past, as he knows the feeling of a hot spatula pressed against him.
  • Cliff and Melody holding each other, crying, afraid and beaten up.
  • Once seeing the episode, this picture (assumedly happening after) gets worse, with the parents looking evil and Cliff terrified.
• In the The Mummy (2017) review, Critic wants the movie to dive into what it's like to be resurrected after you die. When they don't, he's so angry but so strained about it.
  Critic: God this movie gets it!
• "War Of The Commercials":
  • He plays a Toddlers And Tiaras kid who cries at their Stage Mom calling them fat.
  • Kermit as washed up, drunk and abusive and yearning for the days when the "rainbow hadn't faded". Cut back to Critic who apologizes for how depressing he got writing that.
  • After Doug being a video game asshole voice killing random dudes, it gets dark when he gets to a nice Tamara mom making pie, and he tearfully tells her he's killed everyone she loves and she breaks down. Both Tamara and Doug are crying realistically and it's pain to watch/listen to. And then Critic reveals it's another sketch he wrote, and hates himself for looking forward to the Catharsis Factor of commercials every year.
• Michael Levesque posted a preview of Project Mystery, and it involves Hyper stalking Critic Monday morning, Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. By Wednesday he's in PTSD mode at the sight of her.
• In Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Critic trying so hard to keep the peace between the abusive sweater family and the far better but self righteous Bum family. All his nerves end up with him breaking down over cereal and anxiously apologizing for ruining everything. Then it's happy tears with his reaction to all these (two awful like his own) parents telling him he's a good kid just nuts.
  • Also calling the former his friends and loved ones at the beginning, even if he means the kids, is in keeping with the Christmas tradition of showing how lonely he is.
• It turns out to be a joke where Malcolm just likes shooting Critic, but the opening of Yogi Bear has a parody of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and it's amazingly acted on both parts.
• We already knew they were abusive to her as well from Cinderella, but the wedding and Tamara's vlog shows Uncle Lies and Aunt Despair not giving a shit about Hyper at all while thinking they know everything (fittingly for Ask That Guy reincarnated), but Hyper taking any crumb she can get.
• The parody of Good Will Hunting in Fox Kids, mostly because Malcolm is good at sincere and Doug is great at crying.
• The older fatter depressed Pikachu in Escape Of The Commercials being forced to say its name, and Doug using his most vulnerable-sounding voice for "I hate everything…?", to which the exec replies he feels the same.
• The Nutcracker in 3D first viewing is lampshaded at how not fun it is, with them talking at the end about how they feel shitty because they love bad taste when it's done well and people will mock you if you're offended by something, but it's so horrific and they have to make something out of it. No wonder Doug went for an episode big on feels.
  • Throughout the actual review, Critic, Tamara and Malcolm mention a special they're going to watch later, and beforehand, when they're all together, Malcolm just wants to skip to the best part. This turns out to be the late Mrs. Walker from The Worst Christmas Special (the review of The Christmas Tree) talking about how you can relieve your own sadness by helping others. Rachel and Tamara are cuddling together and both Rob and Doug look teary eyed.
  Doug: Let's watch it again.
  • And what's the last thing we see before the credits roll? A simple dedication: For Mom
  • Rachel tells Critic that nobody would care or watch him if he didn't just scream the F word, and after anger that of course he's more than just screaming, the To Boldly Flee insecurity comes back and he's not sure.
  • Like with the sexually molested kids in Freddy Got Fingered, and the innocence = sexiness ad in the commercials episode, his reaction to the movie having a holocaust scene is less angry explosive rage and more horrified quiet upset.
• While the Nutcracker 3D showed the more yay new studio feelings, Elf Bowling The Movie ends more bittersweet, with NC remarking how its the last review to be filmed at the old studio before quietly putting on his old coat and closing the door one last time.
• Critic in X-Men giving up on trying to push the movie on Malcolm’s teenager when it keeps disappointing his Nostalgia Filter. The teen feels bad then, trying to cheer him up, and their perspectives (defending vs complaining) get swapped.
• In Mary Poppins Returns, Critic's Squee over Tamara Poppins was lovely, and when Aiyanna Poppins erases her, he collapses to the floor crying. When she forces him to do the review, he looks broken.
• With no warning, the Stamps commercial in Beverly Hills Chihuahua decides to be sad, with the joke being a silly voice misreading advert-Doug's played straight depression, with tears and feeling lost and everything.

---