Trivia / The Nostalgia Critic

• Accidentally-Correct Writing:
  • In his review of Street Fighter, Critic remarks how impractically packed and large the cast is, mockingly joking it as "A Street Fighter Christmas." The film actually did feature a Troubled Production due to being Christmas Rushed (specifically for merchandising tie-ins by Hasbro), as well as suffering from Executive Meddling, with the inclusion of all its characters being mandated by Capcom against the wishes of the filmmakers.
  • During his review of Tank Girl, Critic gets repeatedly frustrated with the overuse of sudden inclusions of comic drawings instead of live action, guessing that the makers simply forgot to shoot several scenes and had to improvise. As it turns out, he was partially correct — in an interview, co-creator Jamie Hewlett said that he and Alan Martin had to animate several scenes because the producers forgot to film them.
  • Regarding Jurassic Park (1993), he jokes near the end of his review that John Hammond should have cloned wooly mammoths. In the original novel, Hammond did just that to demonstrate the potential of cloning long-extinct species.
• Acting for Two:
  • Besides any time Spider-Smith appears, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has a dialogue between the Critic, Ask That Guy with the Glasses, and Chester A. Bum, and Captain N and the The Shining miniseries have appearances by Dominic from Video Game Confessions.
  • When his future self (who looks and acts a lot like Doc Brown) shows up, he plays both characters, and they sometimes even appear in the same shot.
  • His argument with himself during his review for Suburban Commando during which he ends an argument with "I WAS FROZEN TODAY!"
  • For the review of Scooby-Doo, which was intended to be his last, he watches the film with his future and his past self, causing a time paradox that almost unleashes the end of the world.
  • For the Son of the Mask review, Rachel plays Kim Kardashian and her daughter Evilina.
  • In The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl review, after seeing Minus' head grow exponentially, he calls himself 20 minutes in the past to prevent him from seeing such horrid imagery. This doesn't work, so instead he gets himself to write an apology on a sticky note to stick under his desk and read later.
  • Lampshaded in The Matrix Reloaded, as he sniffs an “unnecessary dual performance” before opening the door and seeing Agent Shmuck (obviously also played by Doug Walker).
  • In Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, Malcolm plays the three types of 3D and they're all onscreen talking to each other at the end.
  • A lot of the Balto review has Aunt Despair interacting with the little girl in the red jumpsuit, both played by Tamara.
• Approval of God:
  • Both Beth and Tamara retweeted this parody of one of Critic's rejections of Hyper in The Phantom of the Opera (2004), dubbing it over with Elle Woods slamming her douche boyfriend in Legally Blonde.
  • Doug has said more than once that he's fine with NSFW art or fic of his characters (has even asked for fanwork of that nature a few times), and that he never wonders "who's watching me why do they think this". According to Adventure Time vlogs, his wife is into the Slash Fic about him, both in character and Doug As Himself.
  • Rachel, the CA twitter and Tamara all retweeted the headcanon that Evilina and Malice◊ are long lost sisters.
  • Tamara will often give likes to headcanon tweets that she's mentioned in about her characters.
  • Veering on Disapproval of God, Doug shared the Nostalgia Critic-themed mashup of "We Are Number One" on Facebook... but not being an avid dank meme-follower, he was very disturbed.
  • Malcolm retweeted a headcanon that Bill and Bennie were autistic.
  • Bill Farmer, the voice of Disney's Goofy, spoke positively of Doug's "Is Goofy Secretly Badass?" video.
  • Don Bluth has admitted to being a fan of Critic, including the reviews of his movies, saying that they even influenced his comedic style more now.
  • Ralph Bakshi saw the review of Cool World and thought it was very funny, even sharing it on his Facebook page.
  • Seth Kearsley, who directed Eight Crazy Nights, praised the review on Twitter a few months after it came out.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • Critic and Ask That Guy being related, if not necessarily close twins.
  • As they're going through essentially what he did, people thought Critic would get on with the abuse family kids. In Balto he helps the youngest girl cope with the film being mostly made up and gives her a better home with Chester after Aunt Despair abandons her.
  • In Connecticon 2016, Doug and Tamara talk about a Tumblr post they like about Hyper being the daughter of Aunt Despair and Uncle Lies, and becoming the way she is as a way of coping with the abuse and neglect. In Hyper's Q&A video, Hyper finally confirms onscreen that they're her parents, though she doesn't hate them for their abusive behavior, calling them great and crediting their genetics for her personality and looks.
  • There was fanfiction of Hyper Boner kidnapping Critic for fun long before Old vs New: Evil Dead made it canon.
  • Brad and Doug love to Ship Tease, a cameo in The Last Angry Geek having Critic kneel down to give Snob a blowjob, Doug finding a post on tumblr and confirming "internet reviewer boyfriends" while Brad introduced daddy Snob spanking Critic.
• Author's Saving Throw: Has its own page.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Whenever Doug Walker's Disneycember review of Hercules is brought up, the quote "It looks like Vegas! Why does it look like Vegas?!" is brought up to reference a OneyPlays joke that makes people think Doug only criticized the movie for the movie's visuals looking like Las Vegas. But Doug never said that infamous quote, and the mention of Vegas was due to Doug feeling that the movie was coming up with ideas that don't go together such as the fact that Gerald Scarfe came up with the visuals for this movie and doesn't think the Vegas visual and tone of the movie fits Scarfe's work.
• Blooper: Devil Boner's leather jacket will often switch between both sleeves still on, or one ripped off.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: It's the most profitable and well-known work on Channel Awesome, and he knows it full well as evidenced by the improvised-by-Doug Scooby-Doo rant.
  Critic: HE REMEMBERS IT SO YOU DON'T FUCKING HAVE TO! EVEN THOUGH, EVERY FUCKING DAY HE EXISTS, HE WISHES HE DIDN'T HAVE TO! HE WISHES HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS BULLSHIT, TO MAKE YOU WATCH AND GET YOU RATINGS!
  • In the Honest Trailers parody in Planet of the Apes (2001), the announcer calls CA as good as Disney when it comes to flogging a cash cow.
  • Also deconstructed in Food Fight, where the only reason Critic did the film at all was because Tamara and Malcolm told him he could get views from it, and his failure at getting money is what causes the breakdown, not the film.
  • Lampshaded again in "Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel", as he just wants to make a ton of money like the Chipmunks.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Heather Reusz auditioned for Rebecca in Demo Reel, but lost the role (and by proxy the recurring actress spot on the rebooted Nostalgia Critic) to Rachel Tietz. She later became a secondary actress on Nostalgia Critic around 2016, got her own spot at Channel Awesome as a co-host of Awesome Comics, and would eventually run the channel's Twitch page.
• Colbert Bump:
  • Even on this wiki, pages for obscure movies have been created because he reviewed them.
  • Films seem to appear within weeks on Netflix Watch instantly after he has reviewed them.
  • The Christmas Tree had a bare-bones page on this wiki, while Wikipedia didn't even have a page for it. After Doug reviewed it, the trope page was a lot larger than before, and a page on Wikipedia was created.
  • Straw Fan Schmuck's plan against Critic in The Matrix Revolutions is for him to keep reviewing it so people will at least check it out for how horrible it is. And then kill him because he's useless outside reviewing.
  • A gag in the That Darn Cat! (1997) review has in-universe cereal mascot Tuffy Tiger confused with a real-life children's YouTube channel of the same name. The channel went from 18 subscribers to over 300 just a day after that review was released, much to Doug's delight.
• Corpsing:
  • Even while her character's pissed off with him about it for the most part (and Malcolm just shies away from him), rl Tamara breaks and laughs once when Critic is re-enacting the Disney Afternoon theme song and forcing her and Malcolm to do it too.
  • The “Supergirl” commercial for stamps has Doug trying to keep his laughing under control while Chaplin plays and runs around.
  • In the bloopers from the Dragon Ball Evolution review, Doug, LittleKuriboh, and MasakoX all struggle to keep their composure when LittleKuriboh makes the "Oh no, he's turned into 3D Pipes!" joke.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Over on the forums, Doug and Rob regretted the He-Man episode for the jockbro homophobic humor, and it wasn't long afterwards that Critic started getting more feminine.
  • Towards the Batman & Robin review. He said in his Batman: The Animated Series commentary that he doesn't think it's his best review and only makes jokes about it because other people love it so much. He's also got plenty frustrated with the bat credit card joke, even saying in a 2012 interview that it gave him a Twitchy Eye. The joke was finally killed by Linkara in his Atop the Fourth Wall review of the Batman and Robin tie-in comic, which ironically cut that part out.
  • Judging by Demo Reel and the real review where Walkers say they don't blame Jake Lloyd for his bad movies, Doug seems to regret the Jingle All the Way episode for how much he mocked the kid.
  • Doug posted on Facebook (and on a commentary video) that he personally didn't like how the infamous Let's Play of Bart's Nightmare turned out, even before submitting it.
  • He also seems to regret the testosterone poisoned, Male Gaze-y "Top 11 Hottest Animated Women", making it probably the only episode to be Canon Banned. Especially after realizing that the countdown included fourteen-year-olds.
  • He sounds very embarrassed on the commentary to Cartoon Allstars, mainly because he felt like the Critic was nowhere near his more well-known pathetic characterization and sounded more angry and threatening.
  • He and Rob apologized for Airborne pretty quick, saying they had meant to trash the lead for being a hypocrite about his pacifism, but it just came off as bashing him for not being manly enough.
  • In the voiceovered-after-said-episode commentary of "The Review Must Go On", Doug said that he doesn't think that the Timothy Green review is one of his best reviews.
  • He's also ashamed of Signs, feeling like it only worked because of the aliens' conversation and realizing while editing that everyone would call him out for trying too hard to please the "we only want rage" crowd with the Freak Out, though he seems to have changed his mind a couple years later in the “real thoughts” video when the review got both No Such Thing as Bad Publicity and people coming up to him and saying they used to like the film but now don't.
  • While he still thinks the review was funny, Doug felt the sketches in the Catwoman (2004) review were too disconnected from the review itself.
  • In a weird example of the backlash coming before the video in audience eyes, at a Youmacon panel Doug was squirming about how bitter and offensive he got in the Reloaded reviews of the anniversary movies, and used the script as scrap paper for a scene in Demo Reel.
  • In the A.I.: Artificial Intelligence commentary, Doug at least realizes that he was being far too mean to TMZ fans (despite still feeling that way) in “The Top 11 South Park Episodes” and didn't really like that section anyway. He also calls the AI episode one of the cruelest things he's ever done.
  • He's talked in commentaries ^note if you can remember which ones... about regretting quite a few post-Kickassia reviews like Pound Puppies and The Pebble and the Penguin, feeling like they dragged. This is a big reason why Cerebus Syndrome started to creep in a bit later starting with My Pet Monster onwards, as he liked actually acting and it gave him a creative boost.
  • He regrets the Gratuitous Special Effects of the Alice in Wonderland (2010) review, explaining in the commentary that he had limited time and had to choose between either making it look pretty or putting as much emotion into the ending as he wanted.
  • In the Man of Steel commentary, Doug regrets it for how one-sided and straw he made the episode, with Joe agreeing that if he'd been allowed to put across his own argument it would have been fairer.
  • The Critic review of Transformers: Age of Extinction was so ranty and mean-spirited that Doug did a video right after, apologizing and explaining while he is really sad about the film, he's trying hard to think you're not an awful person if you saw it and sticking to his 'like what you like' mantra.
  • To a lesser extent, Rachel couldn't stand being the Wicked Witch, as Tamara says she came home and said "I am never letting them do that to me again". In a similar way, Tamara didn't like the sketch where she played a stripper in ''The Haunted Mansion", also saying on twitter that switching the genders of stripper and director would have been more fun.
  • In the original upload of the Ernest Saves Christmas review, Critic quipped "Yes, I think he entertains the autistic children" during a scene where a man entertains children with dinosaur puppets. Doug felt regret over this line and quickly deleted it from the review, later listing it as the #1 entry for "Next Top 11 NC Fuckups".
  • At the end of his review of A Simple Wish, the actual Mara Wilson gets revenge on him mocking her by showing videos that he made as a child.
  • In "Unlimited Beers", Tamara admits she didn't like the original Face/Off plot (neither did Rachel), as she knew that even though Doug wrote the fighting as a joke because she and Rach are best friends, the fandom would think that was what she was really like and hate her. She eventually told Doug and he understood in the end.
  • He's gone on several times about what a ridiculous Ass Pull The Review Must Go On was, even saying so in the commentary.
  • Both Doug and Rob seem to be trying to make up for the both sexist and inaccurate Sailor Moon review, with Rob accepting the show on facebook and Doug doing pretty decent impersonations of Sailor Venus at cons. Outright says it in "Toonami", where everyone treats that review as an Epic Fail.
  • Dante Basco is a more lenient example. When asked about his involvement in "Top 11 Best Avatar Episodes", he admits that it was a rather bizarre experience that he could've easily backed out on, but he opted to participate because he felt that Doug was a genuinely kind person. Despite being tired throughout the shoot (he was picked up from his hotel room at 5 AM), Basco had a legitimately good time hanging out with Doug and the gang, and the two continue to have a good relationship to this day.
  • If his 2020 review and First Viewing of the film is any indication, Doug appears to heavily regret giving The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as much praise as he did during the Old vs. New segment where he compared Sam Raimi's trilogy with Mark Webb's duology.
  • Doug is aware of the backlash his review of The Wall received, and has accepted that it didn't work out as much as he thought he would, though he takes the backlash and memes in stride. During a short which showed the Nostalgia Critic's reaction towards The Patrick Star Show showing Bubble Bass resembling him, when Sam Fennah of Satellite City jokingly tweeted that the whole thing wouldn't have happened if he didn't review The Wall, his reaction was to post a GIF of Kyle Broflovski saying "You were right all along".
• Creator Breakdown:
  • "The Review Must Go On" both invoked it in-universe and is an example of the trope itself. The Critic tells Doug that he wasn't really ready to end the show, he just got burned out from doing an episode every week alongside convention appearances, anniversary specials, and his normal day-to-day life. This turns out to be false and gaslighting on Critic's part as the special was actually the result of a lot of bitterness towards the fans. Doug admitted on his commentary that Rob had to rewrite a lot of it because it was even nastier and filled with plot errors, and "Donnie = Critic" was only because they were so tired of demands to bring Critic back.
  • As he said a lot of times at cons, the Critic came from a mini-breakdown when he was in his early twenties and just wanted to stop adulting so watched all of his old nostalgic shows, and wanted to create a character that was angry at his childhood.
• Creator Couple: Tamara's husband Rob Scallon is a multi-instrumentalist who provides music for the show, most notably the soundtrack to The Wall episode, and playing Superman for the opening sketch of the Man Of Steel review. The main cast of this show also shows up a lot as bit parts in Rob's music videos.
• Creator's Favorite:
  • In the Labyrinth behind the scenes, Tamara calls the abusive mother character her favorite, mostly because the outfit is so comfortable. Doug feels the same, saying on Facebook he was “addicted” to both the parental characters.
  • Jim's favorite costume that he's made is the Furiosa one, as it was the most rewarding and Tamara loved it so much.
  • Tamara also went major fangirl Squee when she got to dress up like Furiosa, Rey and Wonder Woman in their respective clipless episodes.
  • Other faves include the Devil (for Malcolm) because he's so cool, Santa Christ for Rob because he's both hammy and bitchy, Devil Boner for Doug because he always drew that kind of character as a teenager and Hyper for Tamara because she's so shittily fun. Doug and Rob also love the Chart Guys, to the point where they have to make themselves stop using them so much.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Doug considers his best episode to be the Mad Max: Fury Road review, closely followed by The Cat in the Hat and Moulin Rouge!. He later stated on a Twitch stream that The Nutcracker in 3D was his favorite episode.
  • In The Force Awakens commentary, Rob tells Doug that while he knows FR is Doug's fave and he appreciates it for the artistry, the TFA one is his fave.
  • Tamara is on Doug's side and loves Fury Road the most, while Malcolm is with Rob and thinks Force Awakens was the most fun.
  • He's talked a lot about how proud he is of the Hocus Pocus episode, even having present Critic point out its goodness in Kranks.
  • Barney's favorite episode was also Hocus Pocus, as he and Jim did a ton of work and Doug as Bette Midler came out ridiculously well.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Rachel, for quick gags, played Justin Stewart and Dexter. In the commentary for the Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie review, Doug suggests she could play boys in animation.
• The Danza: Critic is the only one of Doug's characters to share his name.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Ma-Ti is fourteen, Bhargav is in his twenties. Seeing as how he's raped Ask That Guy (after nearly getting raped himself) and had a threesome with the Chick and MarzGurl, this is probably for the best. It helps that Captain Planet was written in the 90s so realistically, he should have aged by now, and the character may very well be a delusional Indian guy anyway.
  • Thirty+ Doug is playing his teenage self in Scooby-Doo. Luckily Doug's already pretty young-looking, so it doesn't come off as too stupid. Doesn't work quite so well in the infamous dick-talking sketch in the Sailor Moon review though.
  • Tamara will often play kids (including Critic as a child) as because she's short and baggy clothes will cover her bust, she can pull it off.
  • It didn't work out quite so well for Rachel, as she explains in Unlimited Beers that CA didn't have much experience with finding/cobbling together women's clothing, and to his frustration all Doug could find was "sexy little girl" costumes.
• Doing It for the Art: Almost depressing example from the beginning of his internet career. He had to quit his illustrating job to fulfill his "three TGWTG videos a week" contract, and as it was a while before things got secure, had to sell off the birthday and Christmas gifts Rob got him to pay costs.
• Dyeing for Your Art: He shaved his beard off to play child Isaac in Children of the Corn (1984), and again (as well as his sideburns) to be Winifred in Hocus Pocus.
• Edited for Syndication: A number of older episodes and reviews have been subjected to this by Channel Awesome itself, including...
  • Tom and Jerry: The Movie has edited out the musical "Mindfuck" sequence set to the song "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger - which was probably one of the more memorable moments from that particular episode.
  • Ernest Saves Christmas has a couple of noteworthy cuts, including the line about Critic asking if Joe entertains autistic children, and his voiceover of Santa greeting his fellow prison inmates with, "Wazzup my niggas?" have been edited out.
  • Gordy completely removed the entire closing credits sequence in which Critic rocks out to the Tag Team music video for "Pig Power in the House" which is featured prominently in the film.
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas! has also completely removed the entire ending sequence in which Critic gleefully hops onto Channel Awesome's message forum to see if his review of the live-action Grinch movie did, indeed, open fans' eyes to how horrible the film is, only to be disappointed to see that they still enjoy it for one reason or another; instead, the review cuts straight to the credits after the typical, "I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it so you don't have to" sign-off.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Doug really was getting hit in the groin for The Wicker Man (2006) torture scene. He was actually excited about getting his balls hit, requested a second take, only wore a bit of protection to shut concern up, and in the commentary says if he's not able to have kids then so be it.
  • In the "Other Titanic Movie", according to the commentary, Doug put clothespins on his scrotum just so he could wibble at himself for a few moments.
  • The Christmas Story 2 drink made in the beginning of said review really was tasted by Jeremy from CinemaSins and Doug (but not swallowed) and they both nearly throw up into the sink.
  • Accidentally in The Shining, as Rachel admits in the commentary that she really was scared during filming and Doug apologizes for it.
• Executive Meddling:
  • In the 2014 Anime Midwest panel, Doug admitted that he only did Sharknado because Michaud wanted him to pander to the base.
  • It was also Michaud's idea for Critic to review his own movies for the post-To Boldly Flee tribute DVD. Doug himself has a bit of Creator Backlash towards them (the reviews of the movies, he's proud of the specials themselves)
  • To even Malcolm's sadness, "an executive decision" was made to only limit behind the scenes videos to "big" reviews, as their viewership really enjoyed them, but they apparently didn't get enough attention. However, the behind-the-scenes videos would be more common again, even for smaller reviews, around 2019.
• Fandom Nod:
  • Sage is practically an Audience Surrogate when he gets creepily turned on by Critic's crying. Happens again more seriously in The Guyver, where he's second after Rachel to call out reboot Critic on how insulting he can be. Critic doesn't exactly listen.
  • The long list of people in reboot who are attracted to him but want to hurt him at the same time is a nod/Take That! to his stereotypical Periphery Demographic (which isn't so periphery anymore).
  • Rachel gets to be the Meta Girl in The Shining, telling Critic – and echoing a lot of confused fandom – that he was meant to be nicer when he came back but has become really cruel.
  • The beginning of The Dark Knight Returns crossover is not exactly ambiguous when post-TBF!Critic lampshades that if he came back from the Plot Hole the majority would lose all respect for him.
  • In Ghost Dad, Tamara says, "I thought I'd like [Critic] better dead”. Just because he was nicer and happier then, a whole lot of people agree. Including Doug.^note He says he wanted Critic dead for longer.
  • “The Uncanny Valley” review is full of it There's too many to list, but just a few include admitting that he's only destroying the anthology because it doesn't involve him and that he did the same to Demo Reel, and this anthology was just Doug crawling into a tired corner, and ending it with two hope spots about how he needs to be fixed but can't because he needs the money he gets from bitching at things.
  • MikeJ muttering in Ghost Rider 2 that Critic's re-reviewed about ten movies he's done first, but he'll just ignore that. It's both a fandom complaint and something Mike's brought up quite a few times on twitter.
  • In Forest Warrior, he explicitly refers to his pre-reboot self as “the old me”, and his revival version as “the new me”, in reference to the often-not-positive Fan Nickname of NuCritic.
  • Aside from continuing what Doug said in the commentary about Donnie = Critic being a massive Ass Pull (“it's hard to buy this was the intention the whole time when you literally spent twenty minutes saying this wasn't the intention”), “The Review Must Go On” has a fair amount, like saying how it's filmed like a Serious Business horror movie, how the Demo Reel gang are way too okay with fading into nothing and how the Creator tells Donnie that Critic will be more understanding but he just got meaner (aside from editorials).
  • The “truthful preview” at the start of Planet of the Apes (2001) is filled with them, including a Freeze-Frame Bonus of a dead Ask That Guy being passive aggressive, lampshading how can he be so annoying but still get a load of famous people to do stuff for him, and mocking that it's just white privilege that he's popular.
  • Critic/Nerd was the first ship in the fandom, but all it really had was lampshaded "Nerd On Critic action" wording. Doug made it better canon with an in costume Almost Kiss at a 2012 con◊ and Critic confirmed angry sex in The Smurfs.
  • While fanfic usually has Critic being the one tied up with his tie, Speed Racer has Sage blindfolded with an extra one.
• Flip-Flop of God:
  • It's a little more complicated than usual because memory issues and self-admitted bitter, but since comeback (he was firmly addicted to back/story and Character Development before), Doug can't seem to make up his mind if Critic's nicer, worse or not even a character anymore, whether he expects and wants people to be offended by him or just thinks they're overly sensitive and letting themselves get hurt, or if there's several story arcs going at the same time because he wants to go even darker or there's very little continuity now because he can't take Critic anywhere after To Boldly Flee finished his main plotline. Note this is just what he says at cons or in commentaries, what he consistently puts in the episodes is a different very self-aware story.
  • Doug and Tamara go between whether Hyper Fangirl is meant to be a Tragic Villain inspired by actual creepy fans at cons, or a nice Affectionate Parody of fangirls. Once her arc wrapped up and her stalker traits were downplayed, talks about her pointed more to the latter, mostly bringing up her inspiration in real-life fan Erica.
• He Also Did: Jim's the Photoshop artist for the sketches, did the stop-motion intro for the 2013 Nostalgiaween and does also the current title cards for Doug's videos.
• I Am Not Spock: Spoony and Film Brain have stated that Bhargav wants to avoid being typecast as Ma-Ti.
  • The Critic himself: The Nostalgia Critic is a character; Doug Walker is the actual person, although as evident by the reviews and comments regarding Disney's "Doug" series the Critic's first name is also Doug.
• In Memoriam:
  • The Rogue One review is dedicated to Carrie Fisher (who played Leia in the Star Wars films), who passed away the day before its review.
  • Tamara did "Tamara's Never Seen" on Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles for Gene Wilder after he died.
• Irony as She Is Cast:
  • During the review of The King and I, there is a Parody Commercial for Russell Crowe (played by Doug), and Shakira (played by Rachel Tietz) performing songs from said musical. They give rather tone-deaf performances, but Doug and Tietz are both very talented singers.
  • Despite her short stature, Tamara still manages to pull off playing Wonder Woman, arguably the most iconic Amazonian Beauty.
• Leslie Nielsen Syndrome: Rachel and Malcolm started on Demo Reel, a show that was comedic but also had a legitimately dramatic plotline, but play exclusively comedic parts in Nostalgia Critic.
• Lying Creator:
  • Doug said pretty often (before comeback but regardless) that he would never review The Lorax because Lindsay covered everything. By the end of The Swan Princess, guess what he's reviewing? In the Lorax commentary, he claimed he had only pretended to praise her for getting through it because he was retiring Critic, he was actually sad he couldn't do it himself and now that Critic had to come back, he could.
  • When asked about the Dark Nella Saga at a con, Doug went on to talk about how he did storylines, just fairly short, not so involved ones. Come To Boldly Flee and it turns out that Critic had been having a three year storyline about his Character Development, which Doug could then discuss now that it had been made obvious.
  • Post-reboot, fans have noticed a trend. When Doug at a con talks about how nice Critic is now, he's actually usually filming/helping a video (The Guyver, Monster Mash and Welshy's farewell) where Critic is being epically called out on being a bigger douche since his return.
  • In the first viewing of Freddy Got Fingered, Rob calls out Doug for going back on so many films he said he wouldn't review, including this one. Doug excuses himself with it’s not like he intended for Critic to be this much of a Long Runner.
  • In a double whammy of Take That, Audience! and Self-Deprecation, “The Review Must Go On” had Doug call out how he broke the promise of not bringing Critic back and people didn’t throw a fit like they did for “won’t review anything still in cinemas”.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance:
  • While Doug has apparently committed himself to doing Critic for the rest of his life (The Review Must Go On commentary), he's made it known that his masterpiece was meant to be Demo Reel. He'd been wanting to do it since 2008, talked in a 2012 con about how he wanted Critic over with so he could get on with it, and outright complains in The Shining commentary that things are only successful when he's in the Critic outfit; if he did the same thing in the Donnie hat he'd get threats. In the Resident Evil LP bloopers he admits he's still bitter.
  • In “Boss Mabel”, even Rob talks about it, saying that even with their own fandom, they can put a lot of time and effort into something and fans “will just be like give us the crap”.
  • On a more minor scale, he really likes his first big sketch special with Teddy Ruxpin and is saddened that it doesn't get many views.
• Method Acting:
  • In Doug and Rob's commentary of "The OTHER Animated Titanic Movie", Rob mentioned that Doug attached clothespins to his scrotum in order to shoot the crying scene.
  • Discussed but avoided in Osmosis Jones/the behind the scenes, as at the end Doug (who just came back from Finland and caught con plague) hopes he didn't look really pale, teary eyed and having lines under his eyes when he shot his footage because then people will think he's being clever (trying to look like Bill Murray in the film) when he's really just wanting to pass out.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • Downplayed for the 300th episode. While it's a clipless review of The Force Awakens, it's pretty lowkey, with Snob and Critic commenting on acted out clips.
  • Having done the huge clipless episodes Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad prior, the Critic ten year celebration episode Norm of the North was also lowkey Critic hating his life. The main wham was Doug shaving his head after years of complaining about his lack of hair.
• No Budget: Pre-cancellation episodes had a lot of sketches and character scenes, but had to do it with zero budget or Critic giving insight in front of a wall. The reboot has a lot of sketches and special effects, but also a greater budget.
• Postscript Season: To Boldly Flee and the Scooby-Doo review wrapped up his issues, gave him a happy ending where he atoned for everything he had done wrong and the former was seen as such a big deal that everyone had to sign an agreement not to give spoilers. Four months later he came back and his issues were unwrapped all over again.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Animator Andrew Kaiko, who did 3 Nostalgia Critic fanimations on YouTube a la Markiplier fanimations, et al, was hired to create the 45-second-long Pinky and the Brain sequence at the end of The Purge review. He later recreated the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles logo into the "Thirty-Something Nerdy Critics" intro for the review of Michael Bay's TMNT.
  • Beth Elderkin was a fan of Channel Awesome, and as well as getting picked up by the site, has been in a few Critic episodes and pitched the The Phantom of the Opera (2004) review to Doug. She also squeed on twitter at the Labyrinth-starting opening credits, as she was in them as the witch from Hocus Pocus.
• Prop Recycling:
  • In the military re-enacting scene from Pixels, Malcolm is wearing General Anesthetic's jacket with all the buttons. On twitter, they joked that the soldier he was playing really was one of the General's men.
  • When Malcolm and Tamara are scientists hiring hot people in Fantastic Four (2005) review, sheets used (the plothole and the weapon, specifically) in To Boldly Flee are plastered on the wall behind them.
  • In The Phantom of the Opera (2004) review, the Belle dress actually gets worn by a woman (Tamara), after Malcolm wore it in Demo Reel and Doug wore it in the “What's With All The Princess Hate” title card.
  • For "Old vs New: Evil Dead", the Pop Quiz Hotshot Miss Stockholm handcuffs get turned into Hyper's favorite chains for Critic.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Critic "realizing" in Catwoman (2004) review that he shouldn't be refusing female attention gets off-putting when you find out there's quite a bit of con footage of Doug trying to refuse sexual requests from women but having to submit anyway.
  • The only reason AI exists and is so humiliatingly mean-spirited (which Doug admits in commentary) was because TMZ asked the rant on the YouTube upload to be taken off.
  • The opening of The Last Airbender has Doug being known for ripping movies apart, but leaving for other things, leaving fandom bitter about him supposedly leaving them when they need him to keep on bashing movies. Does it even need to be said about how the joke mirrors reality?
  • The ending of "The Worst Christmas Special EVER" can be seen as Doug trying to make up (making an effort) for all those vlogs where he frustrated Rob, treating Rachel and Malcolm badly enough that the tagline for the Behind The Scenes video for The Shining compared him to Kubrick jerkass, and insulting his dad in the Eight Crazy Nights filming by calling him an old man who shouldn't be listened to.
  • One that doesn't even try to disguise itself is any Demo Reel mention. Every time it comes up it's never portrayed as Critic remembering another life (which makes sense because it wasn't) and 100% as Doug being upset that his new show didn't take off.
  • Critic's constant need for money in the reboot, from telling Tamara he needs her for views to having a breakdown over not getting a reward for sitting through Food Fight, is less subtext from Doug and more like dropping an anvil, as he admitted in a stream that the Plot Hole got him three months of debt, and he's only doing cartoon vlogs every day because watching them on his own “isn't cost-effective”.
  • Watching post-comeback v-logs, convention panels and drives, you'll notice that Critic and Doug both developed Weight Woe, Hates Being Touched and lampshaded Sanity Slippage right about the same time. For the weight thing, Doug admitted later on that he wasn't eating at all in December 2013, so that might explain why he's so bitchy in Eight Crazy Nights when film Sandler has a six pack and real Sandler is shown with a belly in a beach picture.
  • Critic's younger self in the Scooby-Doo review was based off of what Doug was like as a teenager.
  • "the subtext rapidly becoming text" of the reboot was alluded to in Doug's interview with Lindsay, where he agrees that fiction writing is more telling of a person’s emotions and inner workings than documentaries/memoirs, and admits that he identifies with that more and more as times goes on.
  • While it mostly character-angst explosion despite being improvised, Doug admitted later that the Scooby-Doo opening rant had some basis in how he actually felt about his lack of social life and the need for ratings.
  • The Hyper Fangirl is based on Doug's real fangirls, particularly ones that he meets at cons. In the behind the scenes of The Lorax review, Rob brought up how this was mean-spirited. In Love Letters, he openly says she's based off women who have creeped him out, and in a Fan World panel he did with James, he told the audience some fucked up experiences he's had with creepy fans. On the other hand, she's also based on a real-life fan who, while excitable and affectionate, is actually friends with the crew; Doug had met them after coming across a Slash Fic they wrote for Demo Reel.
  • In-universe, Evilina was sent to Texas because the Devil wanted her to grow up a bit. Out of universe it's because Rachel had left the show to live in California.
  • The reason why he doesn't mock the Dark Side Of The Internet part of The Uncanny Valley from Allison's part on. She got real rape threats and death threats sent to her house by Spoony's fans who blamed her for his firing, and Doug would have looked terrible (and hypocritical, considering his own stalkers) whining in-character if he hadn't gone serious.
  • In the Bridge to Terabithia Sin City joke, Critic is only Marv because in his favorite characters list, Doug thought Marv was attractive and related to his worthlessness.
  • In what is (hopefully) a joking example, Critic in Bridge to Terabithia says that all the Groin Attack scenes have made his balls not work, while Doug in The Wicker Man (2006) says that if all the Groin Attack scenes have damaged his ability to create kids then so be it.
  • For a mundane example, if Doug has started watching a popular show (Avatar, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, Daredevil) then references to it will surely seep into Critic writing. “Are Kids Shows Now Better Than Ever” abandoned subtext. It's pure Gushing About Shows You Like regarding all the vlogged cartoons he's watched, praising them for showing different sexualities and mental issues in easy ways that kids and adults can relate to.
  • Critic's talking in "Why Do We Love Zombies" about "You come to grips that you live in a world that is always trying to get you. You can never fully be safe, you can never fully let your guard down." came up again in Doug's second hottest women list, where he was defending Ignorance Is Bliss because "when you're not aware of so much danger and so much judgment you're just kinda naturally happy, not thinking about all these things that can come after you or things that might hurt you and you're just going through life enjoying it."
  • When asked about the inspiration for the demonic ending for “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”, Doug essentially just said he really is that nuts and really does love Christmas to that violent degree.
  • In The Cat in the Hat, a bad joke breaks Critic and he wanders off. That same joke made Rob snap and choke Doug, shouting that he can't do this any more.
  • At the beginning of “Why Lie About Santa”, Critic gets upset because kids watch him and they shouldn't be. Apparently this isn't something just made up, Doug said in a Gravity Falls v-log that he's met ten-year-olds at cons who watch his stuff and feels really bad.
  • In Animecon 2015 Doug admitted (even saying this wasn't a joke) that when he was younger he had a DVD of commercials to help him feel better and calm him down, and he did the first commercials special because he was feeling that anxiety again.
  • He said in a Momocon 2015 interview that writing the reviews (the non-review parts to be exact) can help him find out and come to terms with who he is as a person.
  • In general, Doug talking in a Finland con about how learning about yourself through media can be better therapy than actual therapy (but as he was quick to point out, nothing wrong with actual therapy, just different methods work for different people) explains a lot regarding how personally offended Critic can get if he thinks anyone is dismissing the medium. This comes up in-universe during Christmas with the Kranks, with Critic confirming he started the show to try and deal with his abuse issues.
  • In Osmosis Jones, Tamara-Joy says that Inside Out has changed and helped lives. In both Sibling Rivalry and Disneycember, Doug has talked about how much he struggles to acknowledge that he and others are allowed to be sad, and that the film has helped him with that.
  • Joked about in the Pixels behind the scenes, where Barney as military guy is yelling at Doug as Sandler, and Malcolm thinks that's how Doug gets told off at home, and Doug says it brings back memories.
  • Joked about in Mamma Mia!, as while Critic “isn't a wedding expert”, Doug's married, and he would rather have what the film thinks is the day before the wedding than the actual RL stress that it is.
  • In the Fury Road commentary, Malcolm says that he's seen a lot of MRA men, mostly at cons, and drew from that to play one of the meninists.
  • In the Alvin And The Chipmunks real thoughts, they talk about the Aw Girls and had concerns that they were stereotyping all women, but Doug gives examples of how they really do exist.
  • The last five minutes of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" are about living in politically contentious times, and how you need anger and the will to fight, but you also need to be kind. He even references it in the first rant, saying we'd be goose-stepping our way to work if we didn't have anger.
  • The "executives mess up the movie and the artist gets all the blame" message in Cool World takes another meaning when remembering how often Doug gets considered the scapegoat for what the head of the company does.
  • Aiyanna!Kim Possible throwing tantrums about wanting to be relevant in The Santa Clause 3 and acting jealous towards other recurring characters (namely Hyper) stands out a bit considering how Aiyanna is one of the few recurring Nostalgia Critic actors to not have any distinct recurring characters until that point^note Her in-character appearances typically lump her in with Heather and Tamara as a girl group (a la the Aw Girls) or have her simply play a character straightforwardly (a la Harley Quinn); contrast with Heather's Doe, Walter's Zack Snyder and Father Venkman, and Adonis's rendition of Mister T. Kim is the closest to a distinct Aiyanna character because she's basically a caricature of the original character.. Also notable that Aiyanna had also been inactive at Channel Awesome for a short while, not appearing in Twitch streams with the other cast members due to schedule conflicts.
  • Critic's motivational speech to the humanized version of The Amazing Spiderman 2 in that film's review, telling him that may have his low points but he'll be able to pull through, is clearly intended to also reassure the audience in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in Doug having to film episodes alone in his house still to this day.
    Spider-Man: We do know what we're really talking about, right?
    Critic: Of course. [looks at camera] We're talking about motherfucking Spider-Man.
    • Also thanks to the coronavirus in 2020 quarantining everyone and Doug having to film in his old location, they had Doc Oc crossing dimensions so he has to change locations in-universe.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Rob is Doug's brother and played Critic's brother on the show.
  • Jason and Jori are married, and are happier than their AI counterparts.
  • Barney and Sandy Walker are Doug and Rob's parents.
• Recycled Script:
  • The Pearl Harbor skits were heavily... based on the missing Demo Reel episode of Transformers, but with the sympathy reversed.
  • The Batman Forever review reuses plenty of jokes from Doug, Rob, and Brian Heinz's RiffTrax of the film.
  • The Hocus Pocus review has the same exact story for the Critic as the Moulin Rouge review did about understanding that different people have different guilty pleasures, but clipless and with crossdressing.
• Referenced by...: In "Bubble Bass Reviews" from The Patrick Star Show, Bubble Bass, while acting as a Caustic Critic, is dressed in the Nostalgia Critic's signature clothes, including his black hat, coat, and loosened red tie.
• Schedule Slip: Understandably so, they took a break off early access in Vessel and anything other than Critic for two weeks because of the death of Mrs Walker. Doug said in the The Haunting real thoughts that he just felt too drained to do anything.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: According to the commentary for The Star Wars Holiday Special review, Santa Christ only exists because the copy of the special Doug got abruptly ended in the middle of Leia's song, and he needed a gag to mask that. That, and Rob wanted a bigger on-screen presence in the reviews.
• Trolling Creator: All the hyping build-up to Critic heroically saving the Avatar franchise comes to nothing in the actual review. Sokka and Katara realize they've got the wrong person, he keeps running away, Amon bends out “what's left of” his talent, Doug manages to slam him in-universe, the “only one show” speech doesn't work and it's Aang who saves the day.
  • Both Doug and Tamara shared a picture of Critic and Hyper Fangirl about to kiss a day before the Princess Diaries 2 review, telling people to get excited. (The fact that most people were terrified of Stalking is Love being a thing probably helped with views.) It turns out in the episode that while Critic is a shallow manchild who just wants stereotypical manly things and money, any chance of an relationship would be in HF's deluded brain. Even the actual Almost Kiss had Critic stiff and expressionless, while she was delighted and about to cop a feel.
  • Ever since Fifty Shades of Grey came out, Doug in both Critic and his real reviews has been teasing a review of it. Said teasing usually revolves around some kind of fanservice, whether it's saying he'll take his clothes off, or him and Malcolm wanting Tamara to be the Ana.
  • In the vlog of Rising Tides Crashing Skies, Doug used this for good when he admitted that "When Does A Joke Go Too Far" was lulling his MRA fans with a video on how Political Correctness Is Evil, and then pulling the rug out from under them with Mad Max: Fury Road.
  • In the real thoughts of Scooby Doo movies, Doug brings up that the first one was meant to be the Critic finale, and Rob thinks that when they did the second, they should have spread the rumor that they were quitting again.
• Troubled Production:
  • In Fan World, Doug talked about a cloud hanging over making the Ghostbusters review because he and his female friends were getting so much hate for even saying positive things about the movie, to the point where he asked Tamara and Malcolm if he should scrap it. They said no and the review (which did both sides are bad, but mostly mocked the misogyny and realized how important it was to girls) had a mostly positive reception.
  • Rachels final episode was supposed to be a big, complex story to give her a sendoff, but Doug accidentally deleted all the footage of the episode, which is what resulted in the awkward webcam farewell that actually happened.
  • The logistics of the various crossovers were often very difficult to schedule and film, resulting in heightened tensions between all the different creators. The crossover movies were obviously the worst, with more detail on the Channel Awesome page.
  • Self-inflicted in the Turbo review, as dancing in a skintight suit and heavy helmet in a heatwave made Rob scared Doug would end up killing himself. Even when Doug had to fix things because he was struggling to breathe, he still did multiple takes because his tie looked wrong.
• Throw It In!: Linkara being president of Marvel and DC in "You're a Dirty Rotten Bastard", as well as Nella saying that she has a "relationship based on trust and mutual respect" with The Nostalgia Chick in the world without the Critic.
  • The famous Despair Event Horizon in Scooby-Doo was only meant to be two lines. Doug wanted more drama for the Critic's finale, so he improvised, partly from his own feelings about Critic not letting him have any sort of social life outside of work, as he confessed a few months later at Kollisioncon.
  • In the first showdown between the Critic and the Nerd, it's revealed in outtakes that the line "That's the fuckest thing I've ever heard, shit mop" was originally going to be "That's the fuckin' weirdest thing I've ever heard, shit moth", but Doug flubbed the line and decided he liked it that way.
  • Much of the Earthbender rant in The Last Airbender review was improvised according to the commentary.
  • According to the Christmas With The Kranks behind the scenes, it was Rob's idea before the Harry Potter video that Doug should wear the red tie (Doug already had white shirt and blazer), and Doug liked the professional-casual combo so much that he kept it.
• Typecasting: Rachel gets fanservicey stereotypes of women, and apart from the devil, Malcolm gets pathetic characters. Acknowledged by Doug in the Turbo commentary.
  Doug: That seems to be the running thing. Whenever I write something for Rachel, she just acts crazy. Whenever I write something for Malcolm, he is just somebody's bitch."
  • Most of Orlando's characters enter the badass territory, even in The Cinema Snob Movie.
  • Tamara is either Cute and Psycho, a Meta Girl to point out Critic's issues, a quasi-love interest (or stalker) for him, or usually all three at the same time.
  • Rob tends to get cast as either the Big Bad (like their parody of Immortan Joe) or scummy businessmen similar to his Executor role in To Boldly Flee.
  • In a Fan World panel, Doug gets teased by Barney for casting Jim in all the "needs to be hot guy" roles.
• Word of God: In her Hyper con video, Tamara forgot to record Hyper squeeing over a Totoro plush and saying she's seen that film while Tamara hasn't, and being joyful about "dicks loving [her]". Tam specified both canon.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.
• Word of Gay:
  • In The Lorax commentary, because they're using wedding glasses, Doug pronounced the analysts as a couple and that Black Willy Wonka is really committed to his role. Later streams expanded upon this concept, with Tamara wanting a Chart Guy wedding and Doug and Rob comparing them to the famously Ambiguously Gay Bert and Ernie.
  • Tamara and Malcolm are also more than happy to approve/confirm their characters being LGBT in some way.
• Writer Revolt: Doug might love Michaud for giving him a site to be on, but he's still poked at him for treating Critic like a cash cow, saying in Scooby Doo Critic desperately wished he didn't have to be around to get ratings, and comparing CA's flogging him to Disney's obsession with Frozen in Planet Of The Apes.
• Written-In Infirmity: Doug's surprisingly prone to throat infections, forcing him to get creative to make videos without talking. In "The Good Son", he never spoke and communicated through cue cards, subtitles, and the use of sound effects. In "Alone in the Dark", he speaks through MacInTalk (plus he has Linkara and Spoony joining him).
  • When he has a voice but is still feeling sick, Critic will mention not looking his best, like in "Top 11 Worst Sequels" where Doug said before that he was ill but still doing the show, and "Top 11 Greatest Tom and Jerry Episodes", which is entirely clip-based and has no on-screen appearances by the Critic at all due to Doug's shingles making it painful to shave his head or wear the Critic outfit.

---