Todd In The Shadows / Tropes G to I

This page covers tropes in Todd in the Shadows.

Tropes A to C | Tropes D to F | Tropes G to I | Tropes J to M | Tropes N to P | Tropes Q to S | Tropes T to V | Tropes W to Z

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• The Generic Guy: He considers Flo Rida to be this. To put this in perspective, at the time of reviewing "Club Can't Handle Me", he said that in 2008 he heard "Low" more times than he could count, and even then there were no lines from that song he remembered except from the chorus.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:invoked
  • A running joke in his One Hit Wonderland reviews, is that the artists gain a fanbase in Japan. Notably, he name drops it in his "To Be With You" review, saying that the Germans don't love David Hasselhoff nearly as much as Japan loved Mr. Big. They were a One Hit Wonder band in America, but they hit mega-time success in Japan. They're Big In Japan.
  • Todd says that Rednex's "Cotton Eyed Joe" was a #1 hit in several countries in Europe (logical, because they're a euro dance group), and, for some reason, New Zealand.
  • Todd is somewhat baffled to find out that "Designer Music," the failed follow-up single to "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc., became a smash hit in Mexico and The Philippines.
  • He even has a gong sound effect for it, as shown in his episode on Scatman John.
• Get the Sensation: His take on a print ad for "Ringo the 4th," the only promotion that he could find for the record. It relies on smooth advertising-speak and on Ringo's charisma and reputation, reminding Todd of food commercials. The advertisement fails to mention the elements that actually differentiate the new album from its predecessors - both that Ringo eschews songwriting help in favor of writing most of the songs himself, and that several songs are Ringo's takes on disco - which Todd suspects is deliberate.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • In "OMG." Naturally, doubles as Hypocritical Humour.
    Todd: How does this even happen? To sing those lines, to write those lines, to conceive those lines, to help record those lines, to have anything at all to do with those lines, you would have to be one of the stupidest people ever to walk the face of the Earth!! [Beat] ... Hmm.
    [Gilligan Cut]
    Todd: (to a baffled Lupa over Skype) Shawty, you got a booty like POW POW POW! And...and...and—and—and you got some boobies like WOW OH WOW!
  • He argues that the beat for "Blah Blah Blah" sounds like someone chucking objects at a keyboard. Guess what occurs next?
  • From his Trainwreckords on Turn It Upside Down by the Spin Doctors:
    Todd: They actually do seem to be aiming for a more intellectual brand of goofiness. So, I can see where maybe they reached a little too high, but I'm willing to give them some leeway on the album proper. This is the new, more cerebral version of the Spin Doctors. Let's give it a shot.
    Chris Barron: This next song is called, "Big Fat Funky Booty".

  • And also the one listed under Culture Clash.
• Girlfriend in Canada: Todd accuses Kelly Clarkson of this in his review of "Stronger", since she says she's fine sleeping alone and then later claims to have already found another man in the same song.
  • And then in "Want U Back", he apparently got the same story from Lupa.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: invoked
  • In the "Black and Yellow" review, Todd is all kinds of confused about why the rapper's girlfriend would be okay with him cheating with her best friend. When what's actually going on finally hits him, he calls him a "lucky son of a bitch."
  • Averted in the "Telephone" review; see the quote above at Fetish Retardant.
  • Is surprised during the "Lost and Found" review when Will Smith claims disinterest in the subject in "Switch."
• Glurge:invoked In "The Lazy Song" review, Todd says the "white guy with an acoustic guitar" genre is seemingly gentle and happy songs which are just smug attempts for the singer to rub in your face how they don't have any problems, especially the reviewed song.
• God-Is-Love Songs: Discussed in his One Hit Wonderland Episode on "Flood", by Jars of Clay. He has a particular dislike of these songs, saying that it makes God seem needy; the fact that "Flood" is pointedly not one of these songs means that he takes an unexpected liking to it.
• Godwin's Law:
  • Todd suggests Hitler among the people with more credibility than Ryan Seacrest.
  • When covering One Direction, Todd compares the 90s boy band wars to have been like Nazi Germany versus Stalinist Russia.
    Todd: Now I do realize that I can say controversial things sometimes, but I think we can all agree, comparing the Backstreet Boys to Hitler is entirely accurate and proportional.
  • In the Worst Hit Songs of 1991, he starts to compare Vanilla Ice to the Nazis before stopping himself. Then Ice makes the comparison.
• Go Mad from the Revelation:
  • In "Like a G6", he comes to the conclusion that all bad pop music is the work of Satan!
    Todd: I knew it! I knew it all along!! Bad pop music! All this bad pop music! I knew it! IT'S THE WORK OF THE DEVIL!! Corrupting our minds! Destroying the world! He's coming! COMING FOR YOU AND YOUR SOULS!! Repent! Swear on the good book (cut to the autobiography of Johnny Cash) and you may yet be saved! Repent now or perish in the 4th circle of hell... Where "Like a G6" plays for eternity...
  • Paw Dugan has this when Todd shows Sia collaborating with Flo Rida and David Guetta.
  • In "Imma Be," Todd's game of Finish the Rhyme goes horribly wrong.
    Will.i.am: Imma be a brother, but my name ain't Lehman [...] Imma be ya bank, I be loaning out-
    Todd: Um... I don't know. He-Man? G-Man? C- oh. No. No. NononoNONONONONO-
    Willi.am: Imma be ya bank/ I be loaning out semen.
    Todd: (grips his hoody, screaming) WHY DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?!
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!:
  • The "G" in Usher's "OMG" actually stands for Gosh. Todd reacts to this in the way you'd expect him to.
  • He also reacts badly to Bruno Mars' use of "frickin'" in "The Lazy Song".
  • He's angered by the existence and popularity of "Forget You" and its Glee arrangement, and considered putting it on his Worst of 2011 list.
• Grammar Nazi: In "Eenie Meenie", Todd casually goes into detail to point out how the line "Shawty is a eenie meenie miney mo lover" should really be "Shawty is an eenie meenie miney mo lover." He then proceeds to RAGE in anger over just how stupid the lyrics really are.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: The DL incident.
• Groin Attack:
  • He's compared most of Bruno Mars' output to that of a nut-shot victim.
  • And writer's block led to a Top Ten List of them.
  • His ending to Turn Down for What ends this way as he replicates the music video by pelvic smashing his own keyboard. His reaction is exactly what you would expect from doing that.
• Growing the Beard: As Todd reuploads his YouTube videos, he says his reviews only got real good by the third episode, "Party in the USA".invoked
• Grumpy Old Man:
  • His review of "7 Years" opened with him stating that he feels like he's turning into this, with many of the songs on the Billboard charts at the time (such as "Panda" by Desiigner, "One Dance" by Drake, and "Work" by Rihanna) barely qualifying as songs for him. Every time he finally comes around to a trend that's getting big, like crunk in the '00s or EDM in the '10s, it always seems like he's the last person on the bandwagon before it goes out of style. This is why he was so excited to review "7 Years", as it was a far more conventionally bad white-guy-with-acoustic-guitar song (only with a piano instead of a guitar) that he knew how to properly rip apart without feeling like he was missing the point.
  • He has a similar realization after spending half of his review of Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles" pointing out how the two rappers lack the musical talent, fame or influence of the actual Beatles, and barely bothered to even reference them in the lyrics.
• Guilty Pleasures: Todd has several. During his review of "Dark Horse", he made it clear that, to him, a guilty pleasure is something he likes but can't point to a good thing about — like the first example on this list...
  • Katy Perry. Of all the songs he put on his Best of 2009 list, "Hot 'n' Cold" was the one he came closest to feeling guilty for, and when he put both "Teenage Dream" and "California Gurls" on his Best of 2010 list, he said he was past calling it a guilty pleasure and at the point of calling it shame. (While reviewing "E.T.", Todd was happy Perry again had a song he didn't like the least bit!) This seemingly ended when Katy released her album Prism, as he felt that nearly all of the songs on it were worthless, to the point of coloring her past songs for him... only for him to shamefully put "Birthday" on his Best of 2014 list, comparing his relationship with Katy to an on-again, off-again romance where, no matter how hard he tries, he just can't let her go and keeps coming back to her.
  • "S&M". He admits that the song's quality is questionable, but he still sings along with it.
  • Repeatedly brought up in his Best of 2012 list. While he celebrates being free of liking a Katy Perry song that year, he now has to deal with putting Ke$ha ("Die Young") and Flo Rida ("I Cry") on the list, including defending the latter choice from the Rap Critic. He even admits to nearly putting Pitbull ("International Love") on the list.
  • At the very end of his review of "We Can't Stop" and "Come and Get It", he nearly admits to being a fan of Victorious, saying that its stars have tons more charisma than the Disney Channel's teen idols and can sing circles around them... only to hastily claim that he doesn't watch the show.
    • Subverted as of the "Bang Bang" review. Todd believably conveys the fact that he does not like the show.
  • Speaking of Nickelodeon kid coms, the review for "Sexy Chick" ended with Todd saying that he's gonna go off to read some classic literature, with the caption claiming he was really going off to watch pirated iCarly episodes.
    Todd: Hey, SHUT UP!
  • He was embarrassed at the fact that he actually liked One Direction's "Best Song Ever", having gone into the review preparing to rip it to shreds.
  • He describes "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" by Nine Days as this, in the sense that it's one of the best songs to come out of the late '90s Power Pop boom in spite of it being utterly wretched on a musical level.
  • In his Best of 2015 list, he wholeheartedly loves "Downtown" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, but is unhappy that he feels that way about a song he suspects is a Creator Killer.
  • An October 2018 episode of Trainwreckords ultimately has Todd declare this of Billy Idol's infamous 1993 album Cyberpunk. He spends much of the video pointing out how ill-conceived and pretentious the album's concept was, and how ridiculous Billy looked in contrast to the new rock scene of the 1990s. And then...
    Todd: But I can't help but have affection for this album all the same. It's a cheesy, gaudy, insta-dated disaster, but it just speaks to the dork in me. There's just absolutely nothing like it.
• Halloween Episode: Todd had a yearly tradition of doing a special One Hit Wonderland Halloween episode on a song tangentially related to spooky themes, in episodes entitled "One Hit Wonderland Spook-tacular"s. He broke the tradition once in 2015, simply not being able to come up with a song and instead doing a standard Pop Song Review for Halloween that year, and ended it in 2017, citing that he really can't find anything else. He did return for one more in 2020, with a song that was less "Universal movie monster" and more "Tales from the Crypt", as he put it. His Halloween episodes are as follows:
  • "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, 2012
  • "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell, 2013
  • "Maniac" by Michael Sembello, 2014
  • "Uma Thurman" by Fall Out Boy (pop song review as opposed to One Hit Wonderland), 2015
  • "One Tin Soldier" by Coven, 2016
  • "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, 2017
  • "Timothy" by The Buoys, 2020
  • "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield, 2023
• Handguns: He has a fake gun, used in four reviews (in three, Todd puts it on himself) and one crossover (in Suburban Knights, JewWario gets the gun on his chin after he tries to unmask Todd).
• Happy Ending Override: He criticizes a-ha's "The Sun Always Shines On TV" for completely undoing the heartwarming ending of "Take On Me" in the first minute.
• #HashtagForLaughs: Reviewing the song "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, he suggests to replace the hashtag from the music video by #RAPEY because of the questionable lyrics or #NOT A RHYME.
  Todd: This is probably the most blatant of the way pop singers try to trick people into promoting them on Twitter. Personally, I can think of many other things that would trend before (#BLURREDLINES), based on this video, like maybe, I don't know, #LAZY or #STUPID or ^{[click to see the full rant/hashtag]} #WHY AM I NOT LISTENING TO DAFT PUNK GODDAMMIT I COULD ACTUALLY BE LISTENING TO SOMETHING GOOD INSTEAD OF THIS GEORGE MICHAEL WANNABE THICKE YEAH RIGHT MORE LIKE THICK-HEADED THIS GUY IS A GROWING PAIN IN THE ASS DID YOU ONLY HAVE A BUDGET OF $3.50 FOR THIS VIDEO? TRY HARDER.
  • At the end he discusses with the hashtag:
    Todd: So...verdict? (#MEDIOCRE) Yeah, that sounds right. Anything else? (#WANNA GET LUNCH?) Yeah, sure. (#SUBWAY OK?) Yeah, that's fine. I'm "#Todd In The Shadows", and I'm out.
  • He uses #RAPEY again in his Bruno Mars' "Gorilla" review (which coincidentally is the song used to describe the Hashtag Rap trope), finding it rather scary that "rape in pop songs" has turned into a Running Gag.
  • The page quote is from his Pitbull's "Back in Time" review, mocking the concept of Hashtag Rap.
• Hate Fic: Started a Tumblr blog dedicated to hating Chris Brown. And he had promised himself he'd never start a Tumblr.
• Hated by All: The villain in the Hannah Montana Movie may have a mall-building plan that even generous helpings of And That's Terrible can't convince Todd to disapprove of, but he does admit that he's acting like a supreme douche who seems to revel in the fact that not a single resident in the town wants his mall or likes him. How exactly he's planning to turn a profit after he taunted most of his potential customers that they'd never raise enough money to 'save' the field (his own words) it will be built on...
• Head Desk: In his review of "Paparazzi".
  • Also in his Top 10 of 2011, because he's putting Katy Perry among the best songs of the year again!
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: He has a fetish. It's kinkier than sadomasochism. It involves a trombone.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door:
  • Bruno Mars, in a sense. He was on the Best of 2010 list (with an honourable mention on the Worst of 2010 List), the Worst of 2011, the Best of 2012 (twice!), and the Best of 2013. Todd loathes "the Lazy Song" but likes its cousin "Young Wild and Free", despairs at "Lighters," seems somewhat uncomfortable with both "Grenade" and "Gorilla", thinks "Locked out of Heaven" is awesome musically but over-dramatic lyrically, likes "Nothin' on You" because it seems like genuine love, and adores "Treasure" (stating that he played it almost every day for a year) despite the fact that it's not nearly as genuine. Phew! And "Uptown Funk" was his Number 1 pick for 2014.
    • In about mid-2014 he eventually came to a conclusion: Bruno Mars sounds terrible whenever he tries to carve out an original personality (which mostly seems to be over-the-top and orchestral; see "Grenade" and "It Will Rain", two songs Todd hates), but Todd adores his genre throwbacks ("Locked Out of Heaven" to The Police, "Treasure" to early 80s funk, etc.). Although there are still some exceptions—Todd found Bruno's sendup of Prince in "Gorilla" too soulless and just badly executed.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X":
  • His only comment on Taio Cruz's song "Dynamite" is snickering at the line "I'm in the club so I'm gonna do, do, do, do."
    Todd: He's gonna do do do do. He's gonna doo-doo. *snort*
  • "Hate you break it to you, Wiz... *snort* Wiz."
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Todd INVOKES this on Paw Dugan, whose view of Indie artist Sia being nothing short of a musical goddess who can do no wrong is sent crashing down to earth when Todd tells him that his exposure to her is from a Flo Rida song followed up by a collaboration with David Guetta.
  • He suffers a minor one after realizing just how depressing Mike Posner's "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" is. He was expecting to lay into the same whiny-voiced loser who made "Cooler Than Me", thinking that he's searching for sympathy just to boost his career, only to find him singing about how his own career never gave him the fame that he desired despite his efforts, even though he's been fairly successful as a song composer more than a singer, among other problems. Todd has to step away for a small bout of depression and soul searching on his sofa. The song itself is basically about how money and fame can't fill the void brought about from a fight with Depression.
  Mike Posner: ♪I took a pill in Ibiza, just to show Avicii I was cool. And when I finally got sober, I felt ten years older, but fuck it, it was something to do.
  Todd: ... This is the saddest song I've ever heard.
  Mike: ♪I drive a sports car just to prove, that I'm a real big baller, 'cause I made a million dollars, and I spend it on girls and shoes.
  Todd: Christ, this is making my soul hurt. Just.. just like the thought of Mike Posner, failed pop singer, trying to impress a DJ, who got big after his own career flopped.. it's just so vividly pathetic, I... goddamn!
  Mike: ♪I'm just a singer, who already blew his shot. I get along with old-timers, 'cause my name's a reminder of a pop song people forgot.^note His own song, "Cooler than Me"
  Todd: Sheesh, I mean, Christ, Mike Posner isn't even 30 yet. The beginning of Up didn't make me this depressed.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Todd makes one saving Obscurus Lupa from THE BIRDS!!! at the end of her Birdemic: Shock and Terror review. Too bad it was all a fake documentary...
• Hidden Track: In a web original example, Todd uploaded a video to his Blip account that was not linked on his TGWTG page. It was a cover version of the Carole King song "It's Too Late". He did it again in the same manner not much later — a short mashup of Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy" and Akon's "I Wanna Love You", and then a cover of "Somebody's Baby" by Jackson Browne.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Invoked.
  • Todd drops the trope name when talking about Lionel Richie's father-daughter song "Ballerina Girl", and how the song takes on a new meaning when you remember his daughter is Nicole Richie.
  • Eminem going from "homophobic who warrants protests from gays" to "rapper who does Ho Yay songs with Dr. Dre and Royce Da 5'9".
  • Todd mentions that Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" fits appropriately into context with the National Security Agency debacle.
• Hipster:
  • He considers fun. to be such, and expresses disdain toward them right out of the gate because their un-capitalized name with a period at the end was insufferably hipster-esque.
    Todd: If they were any more hipster, their logo would be upside-down, or maybe they'd have a "the" in the middle of their name.
  • He lampshades this in his review of "Feel It" by Portugal. The Man when he admits he enjoyed the band before they became big.
    10,000 HIPSTER POINTS
    Achievement unlocked: Into Band Before They Were Big
• Historical In-Joke: "Historical" might be pushing it, but apparently the In-Universe reason for "Blurred Lines"' chart success is because Todd prayed to God for a retro song with a funky 1970s beat featuring Pharrell Williams to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100...and didn't realize that "Blurred Lines" met all those criteria.
  Todd: I...guess I should have been more specific.
• History Repeats: His favorite hit songs lists for 2009, 2010 and 2011 all had a song featuring Drake in the #9 slot^note Forever, Find Your Love and Moment 4 Life respectively. It was broken in 2012 where he was still on the list - but at #1, no less.
  • Subverted. He considered putting "Scream and Shout" by will.i.am and Britney Spears on the Worst of 2013 list, even though he had already put it on the 2012 list.
  • Strangely enough, each of his year-end Worst lists includes at least one artist who appears multiple times.^note Beyoncé 3 times in 2009, Ke$ha 2 times in 2010 (3 if you count the "official" list), Eminem and Bruno Mars twice each in 2011, Rihanna and Train twice each in 2012, Drake twice in 2013, Chris Brown and Jason Derulo twice each in 2014, Meghan Trainor twice in 2015, Daya twice in 2016, and Ed Sheeran and Imagine Dragons twice, and Taylor Swift three times in 2017.
    • The Best lists have applied too.^note Lil Wayne and The Black Eyed Peas twice each in 2009, Katy Perry and B.o.B. twice each in 2010, Adele twice in 2011, Bruno Mars twice in 2012, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis twice in 2013, Ed Sheeran twice in 2014, Taylor Swift twice in 2015. 2016 ended this streak, however, as no artist appeared more than once on that year's list.^note Unless you count The Chainsmokers' "Roses" which he retroactively added to the honorable mentions while discussing their other song "Closer" at #1.
  • Also speaking of the Best lists, they've contained the number 1 song of the year (according to Billboard) every year since 2011.^note  Rolling In The Deep at number 3 in 2011, Somebody That I Used to Know at number 6 in 2012, Thrift Shop at number 8 in 2013, Happy at number 9 in 2014.. 2015 ends the streak, however, since Uptown Funk was on the 2014 list but topped the year-end list in 2015.
    • 2009's number 1 song, Boom Boom Pow, on the other hand, was on Todd's Worst list for that year. Tik Tok from 2010 is the exception to this pattern, as Todd didn't put it on either list.
  • A smaller example, but since 2012 when he started allowing Top 20 hits that missed the Year-End list, each of his worst list videos has had at least one that starts with the letter "S"^note Scream and Shout in 2012, Stay the Night as a dishonorable mention in 2013, #Selfie in 2014, Same Old Love in 2015 plus Sorry as a dishonorable mention, and Sit Still Look Pretty in 2016 plus Scars to Your Beautiful as a dishonorable mention .
• Holier Than Thou: Discussed in the Trainwreckords episode of Will Smith's "Lost and Found", in the context of Eminem's legendary diss on Smith ("Will Smith don't gotta cuss in his raps to sell records/Well, I do, so fuck him and fuck you, too"). Todd points out that the diss wasn't about Smith not cursing, it was about the way Smith constantly bragged about not cursing, which was making him come off as this trope.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Invoked and discussed in Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass", pointing out how some celebs are judged for being fat just because they don't look thin enough, or they look like they gained 5 pounds. He emphasizes this by saying how Kesha went to rehab because her manager kept saying how she wasn't thin enough. Todd then starts laying down the fat jokes at her expense (while playing clips showcasing just how lithe she is).
  Todd [deadpan]: Look at her, just gross, beached whale, rolls of fat fallin' everywhere, disgusting. Ke$ha is so fat, that when she sits around the house, she sits AROUND...like, one little tiny corner of the house... Heifer.
• Ho Yay: Todd points out that "Sexy Bitch" sounds like something girls get called by their gay best friends. Cut to a scene from the music video of Akon glomping David Guetta. invoked
  • He notes that Jessie J and Ariana Grande seem to be singing to each other in "Bang Bang".
  • He states that (ironically, given some of the lyrical content that the artist in question used to be infamous for), Eminem has released "some of the mancrushiest songs ever written".
    Eminem: I don't think you realize what you mean to me, not the slightest clue!
    Dr. Dre: I see you, Slim/Fuck all you fairweather friends, all I need is him!
    Todd: You know what they say about glass houses, right? That's all I'm saying.
  • In his "I Don't Care" review, he mentions that same-sex duets often involve a fair amount of this, singling out Beyoncé and Shakira's "Beautiful Liar", R. Kelly and Usher's "Same Girl" and Brandy and Monica's "The Boy is Mine". This makes it all the more surprising that there is absolutely no chemistry, sexual or otherwise, between Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber.
• Hope Spot: He suggests that pop songs set in clubs are on the way out, evidenced by the success of songs like "Rolling In the Deep" by Adele and "Fuck You" by Cee Lo Green... before spending the next 3 reviews looking at more of them..
  • With "If I Die Young", he starts to feel bad for the way he's been talking about the song and that the lead singer, Kimberly Perry, isn't terrible for it...until he finds out that she's 28, and then the song becomes even worse to him, to the point that it shouldn't have been made.
  • In his review of "Talk Dirty", after how much of a disaster the song has been, in comes 2 Chainz, who Todd thinks might redeem the song. The first two lines are bad enough but the rest of the verse he finds nothing short of a total lack of effort.
• Hotter and Sexier: He discusses on how Rihanna's post-"Russian Roulette" singles are raunchier and raunchier.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake worry that this will be waiting for them if they screw up and fall from the limelight of fame and publicity in "Holy Grail". Todd has to point out all the success that Jay Z has had over his entire career, including every album going platinum, being married to Beyoncé, fathering a healthy baby girl, owning his own record company and part of major sports teams, and his net worth being over half a billion dollars. Unlike their comparisons to Mike Tyson and MC Hammer, Todd seriously doubts that either one of them will fall on hard times if they happen to hit a low point in their careers.
• Humanoid Abomination: Lady Gaga, according to his theory.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • On Lady Gaga's appearance in the piano version of "Poker Face":
    Todd: What kind of person makes some creepy, weird video of themselves where you can't see their eyes?!? That's just crazy, right?
  • On Justin Bieber's dressing habits:
    Todd: Stupid gray hoodie pulled up over his head. You look like a loser dressed like that, Bieber. A LOSER!
  • He criticizes the Internet fad of dubbing Imogen Heap's "Hide And Seek" over melodramatic death scenes as a prelude to reviewing Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say". Eventually the song's continued decrease in quality drives him to beat himself to death. A Beat. Cue Imogen Heap.
  • He expresses bewilderment over how anyone could enjoy BDSM, despite the fact that his enjoyment of terrible songs is basically a form of masochism.
  • In a Description Cut in The Nostalgia Chick's review of The Little Mermaid (1989), when she asks him to spend some time with her, he tells her to stop calling him and hangs up. "Geez, some people can't take a goddamn hint."
    • Then in Todd's review of "E.T.", shortly after Lupa calls him out, he is rude to the Chick and sends her away.
    • And in "Top Ten Songs About Mediocre Romance":
      Chick: Maybe it's about not wasting your time with some tramp that's not available and be happy with awesome, clever, funny girl who's right in front of you!
      Todd: Yeah, I know! Isn't that horrible?
  • His "Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2010" opens with him ranting about how his fellow reviewers are a bunch of nerds. Less than thirty seconds later he references 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
  • When he discusses that Justin Timberlake left music to make funny videos on the internet: "Pff, what an idiot."
  • '...I'm guessing a lot of you haven't heard of (Lily Allen), unless you're one of those Pitchfork-reading snobs who constantly namedrops Europop singers (because) they're sooo much better than our American crap. By the way, that last album by Swedish pop star Robyn was actually really good and she's way better than that Ke$ha crap, you should totally listen to it.'
  • In "Drive-By", he points out that the lyrics involve a girl who the singer won't score with again, and asks him to move on... before talking to his Lupa pictures.
  • After berating Todd for his alleged promotion of promiscuity all through his review of "Just a Kiss", Jesus ends it by saying that Todd Needs to Get Laid.
  • After getting angry at Rednex for dressing up as stereotypical Southerners and calling themselves Rednex without knowing a thing about the South (probably), and saying that 'rednecks' is for Southerners and actual rednecks only, there's a quick subtitle that just says 'Todd was born in San Diego'.
  • When cutting to clips of old videos, one of them has a visible tilt to the camera angle. Present-day Todd's reaction: "Way to frame a camera shot, Todd." All the new shots for this video are visibly tilted the other way.
  • In his "Best Songs of 2017" videos, Todd claims that he's just not into smoking marijuana. He says he's just not into drugs, immediately following that sentence with a swig of beer.
  • He goes on an entire rant about Sia performing without showing her face, ending with him turning and looking directly at the camera (not that you can see him, since he's in shadow), and angrily insisting he's in witness protection, it's completely different.
• Hypocrisy Nod: In "#selfie", when complaining about how judgmental the whining girl of the music video is, a caption reads HYPOCRISY ALERT.
  • While mentioning to Taylor Swift normal people don't have haters, except maybe people who make content on the internet. The video is then framed on Channel Awesome.
• I Am Not Shazam: Invoked.
  • He refers to the two members of Florida Georgia Line as "Florida and Georgia" at one point.
  • The "In the Summertime" of One Hit Wonderland episode has Todd being unable to tell if Mungo Jerry is a band or a person.
  • Todd refers to Bastille frontman Dan Smith as "Dan Bastille".
• I Am the Band:
  • In the Trainwreckords episode on Van Halen III, Todd blames Eddie Van Halen dominating the band as the reason for the album's failure.
  • He's also described Maroon Five as "Adam Levine and his band of nameless, faceless background extras".
  • Discussed and deconstructed in the Trainwreckords episode on Mardi Gras. Todd notes that during Creedence Clearwater Revival's golden period, John Fogerty controlled basically everything the band did, and to this day remains the only member people in the general public are likely to know about. This led to tensions in the group as the other band members became resentful and started to demand more input into their creative process, but as they were nowhere near as talented as he was, this caused the quality of their output to drop massively and ultimately killed their relevance.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: From his review in "Niggas In Paris":
  Todd: I think [Kanye West] is a genius, but seriously, the guy's a moron.
  • Discussed in the Harvey Danger OHW as one of the hallmarks of 90's irony in alt rock lyrics, interpreting it to represent Gen X feelings of liminal frustration. One of his examples, "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks, has its chorus composed primarily of contradictory lyrics that would be examined in the song's own OHW episode.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Invoked courtesy of "Alejandro", and decidedly exaggerated.
  • 2013's awful music broke him so badly that, at the start of his Best of 2013 list, he needed bourbon to gain the will to go on with the show.
  • Subverted with "Swimming Pools (Drank)", which appeared in his Best of 2013 list. It's meant to be a satire of the hard-drinking hip-hop lifestyle, though it could be interpreted as another song glamorizing it, just taken up to hyperbolic levels.
• Ice-Cream Koan: Pointed out in his "Tonight..." review:
  Enrique: ♪If I never lied/ Then baby, you'd be the truth.
  Todd: Is that some kind of zen thing? What the fuck did that mean?
• Iconic Song Request: In the episode for "Closing Time", he mentions it is one for piano players, along with "Don't Stop Believing", "Imagine"...
  • Never Heard That One Before: ...and "Piano Man", which is kind of a Berserk Button of his.
• Idiot Savant: Todd acknowledges that Will.I.Am has always been the brains behind The Black Eyed Peas, and admits a "grudging respect" for him for being this. "Scream & Shout" is basically all the worst aspects of his (and Britney Spears') talents.
  Todd: An artist with a distinct style and a claim to an Auteur status while being a complete moron. The "Michael Bay" of music, if you will.
• If I Wanted X, I Would Y: Said of the video for "Payphone" that if he wanted to watch a video of a crime spree for a song about payphones, he would watch "Telephone" by Lady Gaga again.
• Ignoring by Singing: Todd interprets the lyrics of "Titanium" as this.
  • And later shows this as his way to review electronic dance music.
• I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: At the end of his One-Hit Wonderland episode on "99 Luftballoons", he has this reaction upon hearing that Nena, who he believed deserved a far bigger career and probably could've had it if she'd pursued success outside Germany, was now calling the COVID-19 Pandemic a hoax and getting involved with the Querdenken^note German for "lateral thinking"; a more contextual translation would be "thinking outside the box" movement, a controversial populist movement in Germany that's associated with anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists and political radicalism.
• I Meant to Do That: Todd regards "Look What You Made Me Do" by Taylor Swift to be basically this trope in song form, as it consists of Taylor acting like she was trying to drop her innocent reputation shortly after her Real Life actions had inadvertently killed that reputation completely.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The subject of "Timothy" by The Buoys. Todd was met with Stunned Silence by the story told of three miners who were trapped when the mine collapsed. The Narrator and Joe ended up eating Timothy just to avoid starvation.
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: His reasoning for placing Rihanna's "Rude Boy" on his list of top 10 hits of 2010.
• Import Filter: His assessment of British pop music. He feels that when it's good (like The Beatles, Ellie Goulding, or Adele), it lives up to its reputation and is arguably better than anything that America has to offer. However, he also feels that, as bad as Americans think they have it with their own awful pop music, at least they never had to suffer through the Cheeky Girls, Crazy Frog, Jedward, or the slew of X-Factor runners-up, and praises Americans for at least having the good taste to prevent talent shows from dominating their pop music world. He's also grateful that America's first experience with Cher Lloyd was the merely bad "Want U Back" rather than the unbearable "Swagger Jagger", and greets the possibility that One Direction's success may mean another British Invasion with a degree of trepidation.
  • However, he does give props to the UK pop music scene for one thing:
    Todd: At least you're not the rest of Europe. [shows the logo of the Eurovision Song Contest]
  • This is averted by Todd's brief opinion on Jessie J's "Do it Like a Dude". He thanks his British fans for exposing him to it...with much sarcasm.
• Ineffectual Death Threat:
  • He dishes one to the lead singer of Train for writing such horrible lyrics in "Hey Soul Sister".
    Patrick: ♪So gangsta, I'm so thug.
    Todd: ... I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND KILL YOU!
  • He threatens to plug Will.i.am during "The Time.":
    Will.i.am: I don't wanna take no pictures, I just wanna take some shots!
    Todd: [cocks gun] That can be arranged.
  • He closes "Grenade" by throwing the eponymous item at Bruno.
• In Name Only: Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe" is described as "Christmas carol in name only".
• Insult Backfire:
  • He attempts to burn Gucci Mane by comparing him to Soulja Boy only to learn the two of them have done a collaboration.
  • Todd describes the titular taunt of Mike Posner's hit "Cooler Than Me" as too easy to respond to with a resounding "Yes, I do!"
    Todd: I think 12 year olds who write gay Sonic the Hedgehog porn Fan Fiction are cooler than you!
    • He also notices Posner crosses this with Hypocritical Humor, as the song goes "you got designer shades, just to hide your face and you wear them around like you're cooler than me"... and he wears shades through most of the music video.
  • He can't call adult alternative "lifeless" because he actually likes "RE: Your Brains."
  • Basically the entire point of the review of One Direction's "Best Song Ever", where he claims it's terrible because it's a ripoff of “Baba O'Riley” that only makes sense if it's about how being with the right girl can make music sound better...and then admits that “Baba O'Riley” is a great song that they paid a decent homage to, and on top of that he really likes the premise of the lyrics. Oops.
  • Probably unintentional, but "Roar" is his pick for Worst Song of 2013, which means he leaves it playing under his commentary about how terrible the song is and how terrible 2013 was in general for music. This makes the song seem like inspiring background music for Todd's rant. Somewhat lampshaded when he ends the review with "You're gonna hear me roar - SCREW 2013!"
• Insult to Rocks:
  • As much as he dislikes Mike Posner, Todd finds Allmusic's comparing him to Asher Roth to be much harsher than anything he could come up with.
  Todd: Damn Allmusic, what did Mike Posner ever do to you?
  • In "The Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2022," Todd calls Meghan Trainor "white Lizzo," but then takes it back as he admits that's not just an insult to Lizzo, but to white people.
• Intercourse with You: Todd can no longer listen to Peter, Paul and Mary without interpreting the lyrics as obscene thanks to "3." Later in the review, he (sarcastically) calls himself out on such.
  • He complains about this on T-Pain's "5 O'clock", and proceeds to see how he do this with samples of various songs.
• I Remember It Like It Was Yesterday: Parodied in his first Channel Awesome episode. After hearing the ear-piercing "Blah Blah Blah", Todd recalls the fond memories of the years of support on That Guy With The Glasses, recalling that it seemed like a week ago that he started right before "departing", and "exits" by quoting Conan O'Brien's farewell speech from his last episode of The Tonight Show.
• Irony:
  • The entire reason that Robin Thicke made the album Paula was to win back the love of his estranged wife Paula Patton, complete with a lead single literally called "Get Her Back". But as Todd points out, the worst parts of the album are when Robin tries to be romantic and the best parts are when he's acknowledging how much of an asshole he is. Neither of which could possibly convince Patton to take him back.
  • His One Hit Wonderland episode on "Face Down" noted the irony of a very progressive-minded and righteously angry song about Domestic Abuse being written by a Christian Rock band, a genre normally known for its cultural conservatism and avoidance of serious topics, while their secular emo and Pop Punk peers were often known for misogynistic lyrics and shallow whining.
  • His review of "Am I the Only One" makes note of the fact that a lot of Staind's music was about how much Aaron Lewis hates his father, only for Lewis to go on and write a song about how much the kids these days hate America, with at least one line indicating that the sentiment might have been based on actual political arguments he had with his kids. He does appreciate how Lewis seemed to recognize it in the line where he laments how he's "turning into my old man".
  • He finds it funny that Mötley Crüe, the most iconic band of the Hair Metal era, was also the one hair band that struggled to write a decent Power Ballad, a staple of the genre. “Home Sweet Home”, he feels, is the only one of theirs that didn’t blow.
• Ironic Echo Cut:
  Todd: Does this guy know how to do anything but celebrate?
  Flo Rida: ♪CELEBRATE, THAT'S ALL I KNOW!♪
  Todd: Not surprised.
  • In "Party Rock Anthem", asking if the song will ask "PUT YOUR HANDS UP!"... and later if it will play this line on loop.
  • In "Titanium", Todd feels as if the lyrics are variants on "Sticks and stones may break my bones". Then Sia sings that exact line...
• Is It Something You Eat?: One of Todd's reasons why he "won't" appear in crossovers any time soon:
  Todd: Let's see, there was this little conversation with one of the anime people.

  Them: i'm editing a video. Manga related
  Me: [Todd] ahhhh
  Me: i've heard of manga
  Me: it's some kind of japanese thing
  Them: yep!
  Me: is it a food of some kind?
  Them: ... close enough.
• It Makes Sense in Context: Retroactively invoked; he admits the opening speech of "The Lazy Song" that said speech was necessary to help understand what he meant by "white guy with an acoustic guitar" music.
• It's All About Me: Todd feels that the lead singer of Lukas Graham comes off as an egomaniac: One of the main reasons he hates "7 Years" is that while it's supposed to be about the fraility of life, Lukas spends a lot of it bragging, and at one point inserts the sound of a roaring crowd screaming "LUKAS GRAHAM!!!" despite also claiming that he doesn't care about glory (and the crowd part is kept in the live version). "You're Not There", a song with similar themes, has a line where Lukas laments that his father can't praise him because he's dead. Todd has also noted that Lukas Graham named the band after himself, in a way that makes it sound like a solo project, and had it release two albums titled Lukas Graham.
• It Will Never Catch On:
  • Apparently what he thought about Adele when she won the Grammy for Best New Artist, only to be proven incredibly wrong by her enduring massive popularity and critical success, even with Todd himself gaining a lot of respect for her.
    Todd: [while playing "Someone Like You" on his keyboard] Yeah, this is why my friends call me Nostradamus.
  • He also said this about the Neon Trees in his Top 10 Best Pop songs of 2010, saying they will never have a hit again. Their latest hit "Everybody Talks" peaked 7 places higher than their 2010 hit "Animal" ever did. Nostradamus indeed.
  • And his prediction that "Scream and Shout" would go away before he's done with his year-end top 10 lists was nothing short of hilariously wrong, as it went on to become even bigger in 2013. This eventually forced him to cave in and due a full review, half of which is him mocking himself on this failed prediction, and realizing that the song was far worse than he originally thought. He even bumps it up from a 5th to a 3rd place on his Worst Hit-Songs of 2012 list, and it makes the honorable mentions for his Worst Hit Songs of 2013 List.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!:invoked This is one of Todd's main criticisms of "Unholy" by Sam Smith and Kim Petras. At a paltry runtime of about two and a half minutes, it ends before it can really get started.
  Todd: So my first question is why exactly has Sam decided that this is the direction that- and the song's already over.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:invoked Several times.
  • On the "Worst of 2012" list, he criticizes Train for this on "50 Ways to Say Goodbye", which he calls "the same damn song" as "Drive By"… made worse by the fact that he didn't like "Drive By" either.
  • On the Rednex episode of One Hit Wonderland, he criticizes "Pop in an Oak" as being a blatant rehash of their big hit "Cotton Eye Joe", only without the authenticity lent to the latter by sampling a bluegrass standard.
  • When reviewing Dead or Alive also for One Hit Wonderland, he points out that pretty much all their songs sound just like "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", and that even that song is too much energy for him to take in all at once, much less spread out over their entire discography.
  • In the Trainwreckords episode on Mardi Gras by Creedence Clearwater Revival, he holds this opinion on the album's cover version of Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou". To drive his point home, he cuts between the two versions several times to show how "It's the same fucking song. They've added nothing."

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