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Pushing Up Roses (Sarah Wilson) is a writer/artist/humorist/video producer. Her Website, PushingUpRoses.com was launched during the summer of 2009. Her videos can also be found on her Youtube page here. She is known for her show, "Let's Play Shortys", which goes up on That Guy With the Glasses and youtube. The show features her playing games that have been either lost into obscurity or mediocrity, and often has a co-host. Co-hosts include Paw Dugan, PatTheNESPunk, Obscurus Lupa, Oancitizen, PeanutButterGamer, Todd in the Shadows, and The Cinema Snob.

After Angry Joe's departure from Transmission Awesome (the official podcast of TGWTG), Roses joined the cast along with Y: Ruler of Time.

On January 1st, 2013, Roses announced her retirement from TGWTG.com and subsequently joined Retroware.TV; shortly afterwards, she began a series called "Second Look", looking at some popular-back-then games and deciding if they warrant a return. Eventually, she transitioned away from doing Let's Play videos, outside of the occasional crossover with Lazy Game Reviews, and now focuses more on reviews and video essays on film and television in addition to the occasional video game. More recently she has started a series reviewing episodes of Murder, She Wrote and, occasionally, The Golden Girls. She also speaks frequently about her struggles with body dysmorphic disorder, depression, and suicidal ideation; she has plans to publish a memoir going into further detail about these experiences.


This reviewer provides examples of:

  • Allegory: In her "Behind the Video" parody, she uses things like "video game addiction" and becoming ill via consumption of White Castle to represent the more serious things she had been through months prior.
  • Always Someone Better: Is apparently this to Spoony in Mortal Kombat.
  • A Rare Sentence: "Jessica is suspicious of Kale. (Beat) Wow, that's a weird sentence."
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: "Everyone meets in the lodge to talk about it, and holy shit, cool lamp! (Beat) Anyway..."
  • Author Appeal: Tattoos. And death. Gory gory death. Gory, slimy horrendous scary deaths. Of the deadly variety.
  • The Cast Show Off: Damn, she can sing.
  • Catchphrase: In her webseries "That Time on Murder, She Wrote", whenever a dead person is uncovered she says "Soo... this guy is dead."
  • Chess with Death: Discusses the history of the trope in her Best Portrayals of Death video. She even does the video in skeleton makeup and has a chessboard in front of her at one point.
  • Crossover: Besides Paw Dugan, she also played with Todd in the Shadows, Lord Kat, Obscurus Lupa, Oancitizen and LGR.
  • Daddy's Girl: On her website, she often writes about her relationship with her deceased father. The articles detail her admiration for her father, and has been quoted saying "He is my hero." She also has stated that the heavily death-themed Grim Fandango helped her overcome her father's death.
  • Death and the Maiden: She tries to woo Death in The Sims, but it's impossible to get him to sleep with you without cheating.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: Happily approves of B. J. Blazkowicz's ripped physique on the cover of Wolfenstein 3-D in her "Thrift Store Finds" video.
  • Evil All Along: She made a joke theory video posing the idea that Cedric, the annoying owl sidekick from King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! is actually Mordack, the Big Bad, in disguise, and he's subtly trying to get Graham, the protagonist, killed by giving him bad advice.
  • Fangirl: Of both The Monkees and Hall & Oates.
  • Fetish Retardant: Roses and Oancitizen's reaction to F$#% Quest.
  • Flat "What":
    • In her Let's Play of Hugo 2 when she realizes the other side of the frustratingly difficult path through the garden of Venus' flytraps leads right back to the gate.
    • Also spoken in her Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures LP, in response to PeanutButterGamer's banter.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Has a tendency to name everything cute or mundane names, including horrible monsters.
  • Friendship Moment:
    • During her Let's Plays, she will mention or give shout outs to her friends. During their collaboration of The Oregon Trail, Paw Dugan and Roses named the members of their party after their fellow video producer friends.
    • "Make friends!" is pretty much a Catchphrase for her.
  • Goth:
  • Geek:
    • In real life, she tutors computer applications and web coding.
    • In her "Wizard101" video, she explains her love of her childhood math classes.
  • Genki Girl: She's nearly always smiling.
  • Genius Bruiser: She will assault you with intelligent words, then kick your ass with her kickboxing skills.
  • The Gimmick: When appropriate, she will often dress up as death/zombie makeup to suit specific reviews.
  • Jump Scare: A few in her "Sanitarium" review, and then a minor scare in Treasure Mountain, where a clip jarringly jumps to a mock scream and a jittery screen.
  • Let's Play: Originally the main content of her channel. Since leaving TGWTG, she has gradually begun focusing on her other work. During her playthrough of The Secret of Monkey Island with LGR, she announced that it would be her last full Let's Play and that she intended to focus on content she enjoyed producing more going forward, though she still does the occasional one with LGR on his channel.
  • Manchild: Sarah calls Roses much more childlike and bubbly than herself.
  • Moon Logic Puzzle: She made a video complaining about these ruining the adventure game genre.
  • Nerd Glasses: Though they're more of a necessity than a fashion statement, due to intense astigmatism.
  • Nobody Poops: She wonders why Mickey Mouse has no toilet in his bathroom in Follow The Reader but says it would explain why his bedroom carpet is so yellow.
  • Nostalgia Filter: Ran into this when she revisited Hey Dude! and found it wasn't half as good as she remembered.
  • Older Than She Looks: Roses is in her thirties, but looks and acts VERY young at heart, as demonstrated in many videos.
  • Opposites Attract: While Roses is usually very quirky/borderline morbidly cute ("Corn cob death is my favorite"), her partners, either Paw Dugan or LGR, are often more laid back and the voice of reason.
  • Mr. Exposition: Explains the backstory behind certain scenes in The Monkees' film Head to Paw and Todd.
  • Parody: As her departure video for TGWTG, she created a Behind The Music parody, featuring dramatic acting and writing.
  • Periphery Demographic: In-Universe, she discussed this as part of her first video about Murder, She Wrote. She noted that, while it was a series aimed at older women, many children grew up watching it because it was something their parents or grandparents watched, and thus, they have fond memories of it as well.
  • Player Tic: During her Let's Play of King Quest VII, she tends to place the crown-shaped cursor over Rosella's head anytime there is a character conversation with no player input.
  • Running Gag:
    • In her videos, she references other adventure games: "THROW CHOP!! THROW CHOP!!" "PUT GEM IN MOUTH!!" She also has a penchant to try to make friends with everyone and anything.
    • Todd in the Shadows becoming less and less of a special guest in every appearance.
    • "It's a bone! It's a bone! It's a bone!"
    • Everything is named Tad. Everything. Even the raptors.
    • From her Murder, She Wrote reviews:
      • "Sooooo this ____'s dead" is uttered right before a body is discovered.
      • Making flirty "Rrrr!" noises whenever sexy goings-on are implied between characters.
      • Using Windows 95 audio stings, such as error-message alerts, to punctuate key events.
  • Self-Deprecation: Takes some shots at herself in "Behind The Video", particularly when she humorously admits to being complicated.
  • Sequel Hook: At the end of her 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee review, Paw appears to seal her into a Myst trap book...
  • Shout-Out: During her review of Mickey Mania, she describes a moose that is chasing Mickey as brutal.
  • Sophisticated as Hell:
    • oancitizen sings "The Bad Touch" by Bloodhound Gang while the main character in F$#% Quest serenades a girl in a grand opera voice.
    • Her Beavis And Butthead review starts out with her speaking eloquently over Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", while wearing a tiny top hat.
  • Take That!: Mocks a character's blue eyeshadow, then shows a picture of Kesha also wearing blue eyeshadow.
  • That's What She Said: She'll insert these (that's what she said) into her videos every so often. Usually because it IS something that she said.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Has taken up kickboxing during her hiatus from producing videos.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She was sent to a school therapist when wrote that death was something she liked to think about in a questionnaire.
  • Wild Mass Guessing: In-Universe example. She thinks Todd in the Shadows is a 13-year-old girl, in part because this site said he likes iCarly.

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