"Disneyland, USA. Who doesn't love this place? It's a home away from home, for kids of all ages. A passport to worlds unknown. A tentpole of the American zeitgeist. A place I'd like to point towards when they bury my carcass. A joyous, celebratory land of—FOUR TWENTY-NINE FOR AN ORANGE JUICE? YOU BUNCH OF FUC—"
To all who come to this happy place, welcome. This is Some Jerk with a Camera's TV Tropes page.
Some Jerk With A Camera is an internet reviewer of Disney Theme Parks (and Universal Studios starting with season 3) and their assorted paraphernalia hosted by Tony Goldmark. His show blends park history lessons, articulate opinions, and wacky, frenetic, manic-style humor. Most bizarrely, a great deal of the live footage is "on location", meaning that he is frequently cussing it up within the confines of The Happiest Place on Earth.
His YouTube channel also includes two other series: One Movie Later and State of the Parks. One Movie Later features Tony (and friends) viewing a theme-park-themed or -related movie, reviewing it, and finishing the video with the segment "What's The Attraction?", where they pitch absurd ideas to represent the film in theme parks. "State of the Parks" is an analysis and opinion series about new changes to theme parks once they are announced, although by the time they're finished and uploaded, the changes are sometimes completed.
Formerly a member on Channel Awesome, his videos can be found here
on Geekvision or here on Mr. Coat and Friends.
After the 2016 US Election, Goldmark has been known to be most active on Twitter discussing politics and the current events happening in America, giving a progressive perspective on the situations.
He also hosts a podcast with a rotating galley of guests called Escape from Vault Disney!, which discusses different works available on Disney+.
On the 10 Year Anniversary of his first review of The Country Bears, in a podcast episode made for Escape from Vault Disney!, he said that a 4th Season of Some Jerk with a Camera would most likely never come out. This is because he is too busy with other projects, such as State of the Parks and Escape From Vault Disney. Plus, with the COVID-19 Pandemic causing Disneyland to close for over a year, it was an even further catalyst to put more of his focus on those projects. On Facebook, he has said that he is mostly done producing video content, as Escape from Vault Disney! takes up too much of his time.
This series provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Due to undisclosed circumstances, Jerk's review of The Little Mermaid Ride, promised after the Star Tours II video, was put on hold in favor of an EPCOT Retrospective. To bridge the two, Jerk starts out his retrospective about to talk about The Little Mermaid Ride, but has an encounter with Chris Hansen that forces him to go on the run and end up in Florida.
- Accentuate the Negative: Sometimes, such as with The Country Bears and "it's a small world" holiday, but just as often, Jerk is positive about the things he's reviewing.Jerk: Do you know why I review Disneyland? ...It's because I *love* Disneyland! I didn't want to be a hater! I wanted to show the Reviewaverse that you can be entertaining without resorting to constant negative whiny cynicism!
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Jerk admits his old Small World parody song is guilty of this.
- Actually Pretty Funny: As he watches the Boy Meets World Disney World episode, Jerk finds himself genuinely enjoying the show's intentional goofiness to the point of inferring that similar sitcoms like Family Guy and 30 Rock probably took inspiration from its brand of comedy. Then his newfound respect for the series gets tarnished by The Reveal that Boy Meets World is in a Shared Universe with Step by Step and by extension, other TGIF sitcoms. Cue Big "NO!".
- All Deaths Final: One of his issues with Shrek 4D is that it violates this rule of the Shrek franchise. By having Lord Farquaad be the only character to come back to life, in a series where ghosts exist nowhere else, it cheapens the impact of his death. He illustrates how much this would mess with the canon of other films by joking about a ghostly Gaston (Ghoston!) show up and harass Belle and The Prince at their wedding.
- All Just a Dream:
- The Star Tours review was The Wire's dream within Jerk's dream within Spazz's dream within Heffer's dream within Lisa's dream within North's dream within Jerk's dream within Marty McFly's dream within Michael Jackson's mind.
- After the Autopia dream segment of Escape from Tomorrow, he desperately hopes that the adultery sequence is just a dream, hoping that at any moment, Jim will wake up. He's horrified when he never does.
- Alter-Ego Acting: The Jerk is at least somewhat fictional, but he has been referred to as "Tony Goldmark", and takes credit for pre-Jerk works of Tony's.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: In The Country Bears: "And they're off to rescue Christopher Walken from those creepy bear suits!"
- Arc Words:
- KETCHUP.
- The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: And naturally, only the Jaywalking one has anyone acting outraged.Jerk: No, look, just because your life is a lie doesn't mean you can't be happy. Just look at me! My whole life is a lie and I'm happy as a clam! I've never told anyone this but I am Nicole Simpson's real killer. Yeah. And I shot Tupac. And Biggie. And JFK. And JR Ewing. I escaped from Gitmo twice and I still have the tag to prove it. I- I– I- *pause* I am Jack the Ripper. And the Zodiac Killer. And Keyser Söze. And the undercover cop in Reservoir Dogs. Uh, I started the goddamn Chicago fire. I canceled Firefly! I'll confess to whatever you want just please for the love of god don't bring Urkel back from the dead.Sursum Ursa: ...YOU? CANCELED? FIREFLY?!? ...YOU MONSTER!!!
- Author Appeal: Jerk's a huge "Weird Al" Yankovic fan, and has put at least one Weird Al reference in all of his episodes, including the time when he put Weird Al HIMSELF in his videos.
- Bait-and-Switch: In "Take the #CatsChallenge you cowards"
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Spoofed in his review of Captain EO.
- Big "NO!":
- Jerk's reaction to It's A Small World Holiday.
- Jerk's reaction to there being a mini-Step By Step crossover in the Boy Meets Disney World episode with Staci Keanan's appearance in the show as Dana Foster.
- And speaking of Step By Step, his reaction to Flash taking over as Indy for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular consists of several Short No's before turning into an almost minute-long montage of Big No's from many films and TV shows.
- Big "WHAT?!": Jerk's reaction to the sudden Gainax Ending twist of Escape from Tomorrow. So big, he's still saying it 150 years later when he's only a skeleton and the Terminators have taken over Earth.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Before he left Channel Awesome, he made fun of Doug Walker's "Where's the Fair Use?" (WTFU) movement with "Where's the Fat, Universal?" The Nostalgia Critic himself showed up to tell him he got the meaning behind the acronym wrong.
- Black Comedy:
- Perhaps his darkest joke is in "Thirty Years of Epcot (Part 1)", where he notes that there are no rides in the Germany, Italy, or Japan pavilions.
Jerk: As a Jewish controller of the media, I hereby demand a Germany ride! (Cut to him boarding a train.) note- Earlier in Part 1 he compares the Disney Corporation post-Walt's death as a chicken with its head cut off... complete with footage of a just-beheaded chicken leaping around.note
- In his teaser for his Captain EO review, he mentions the review will premiere on Sept 12 2011. 25 years after the ride opened. "There aren't any other big anniversaries around that date, are there?"
- "ABC Goes To Disney World" parodies Laugh Tracks by portraying them as mindless audiences who laugh at anything... even Simba finding Mufasa dead.
- Black Comedy Rape:
- By It's A Small World, to the shock and confusion of several other reviewers. (And to the utter amusement of one!) Goldmark ended up feeling bad about it in retrospect, so he added a segment to his Escape from Tomorrow review where the ride told him off for it.
- In the "Star Tours" video, Wire asks the Jerk to show her on an Ewok doll where the ride touched him. He throws it on the ground and yells "I was probably asking for it!"
- Kill Bosby's appearance in the Shrek 4D review makes use of this due to the allegations against Bill Cosby.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Invoked in the "State of the Parks" video addressing the controversial changes to Pirates of the Caribbean in 2019, which (among other things) removed the "Wench Auction" sequence. Most of the video takes the form of a debate between "Tryhard" and "Edgesword", two characters played by Tony. Tryhard is a progressive feminist who finds the Wench Auction sexist, and hates it for making light of human trafficking; Edgesword is a diehard pirate fan who strongly opposes removing the scene, and hates all attempts to make Disney World less edgy. At the end of the video, it's revealed that both of them are figments of Tony's imagination, and the whole debate took place in his head. Tony really agrees with both of them, and the argument was his attempt at balancing his own conflicting feelings about the changes to the ride.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: His Escape from Tomorrow analysis shows that Jerk (the character) is surprisingly capable of deep interpretation of incomprehensible artsy movies. It's just obvious that he prefers focusing his attention on theme parks. Plus, his takeaway that the director thinks Viewers Are Morons doesn't help.
- Broken Record: In his "ABC Goes To DisneyLAND episode":"The new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, The new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror..."
- Brutal Honesty: If he feels a ride has a good reason to change, he will be very clear about it, despite how fans might complain. This often includes rides based on unpopular properties being updated to popular ones.
- Celebrity Cameo:
- The first season of the show has not one, but TWO separate appearances by "Weird Al" Yankovic!
- The Escape from Tomorrow review has two actors from the film: one from Roy Abramsohn (Jim) in a pre-recorded video from the film's premiere, and the other from Trevor McCune (the bellhop in the final scene), who had hoped that Some Jerk would have enough a) knowledge of guerilla-style filming in Disney Parks and b) free time to parse out the film's plot and meaning, and specifically the final scene. Even McCune himself didn't know the greater meaning of the scene besides that he might be Saint Peter, and doubts that the director knew anything more than that.
- The Chosen One: Trevor McCune, the bellhop actor from the final scene of Escape from Tomorrow, claims that "they" wanted Jerk to figure out the plot or meaning of the film because he was the only one who had enough free time.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Certainly to other people watching his antics as he films, as seen with the kind of stares he gets in the background of shots (especially when working with other green-screened actors such as the Shrek 4-D review).
- Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
- As Jerk reviews the ABC sitcoms that went to Disney World, he quickly finds they make some blatant errors about the park.
- The Full House episode has the Tanners meet Donald and Goofy right outside of their hotel when the costumed characters never go that far from the park, outside of paid character breakfasts.
- In Family Matters, Carl's montage of him enjoying the park has him posing for a picture with a slew of costumed characters at once, something Jerk says is next to impossible to attempt.
- In Step by Step, Flash attempts to break the record for fastest time riding every Disney World ride, with his neighbor Mark helping him from the park's control room. While riding the Astro Orbiter, he's advised to not go to Alien Encounter and instead go to the Jungle Cruise because the parade is in progress. Since going to Alien Encounter from Astro Orbiter would not pass through the parade (since it doesn't go through Tomorrowland) but passing through Fantasyland to the Jungle Cruise would, Jerk concludes Mark must be trying to sabotage him.
- Later on, the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show is delayed due to the stunt performer playing Indy being unable to perform and Flash is let in if he plays the part of Indy for a young guest who saved the ride for last. This infuriates Jerk, as the show is the most dangerous stunt show in the park and would never let a random park guest play such a central role. In reality, if the stunt performer playing Indy is unable to perform, his understudy, usually referred to as "Harrison Ford's stunt double, (understudy's name)", takes his place.
- Earlier in the episode, J.T. and Rich blow all their money on trying to impress girls by treating them to dinner at a supposed Disney World restaurant called Pinetta's. However, Jerk finds not only is there no place at Disney World called Pinetta's, the only dining place he can find with that name in the world is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Jerk: Was it really that hard to find an actual expensive restaurant in Disney World?! The freaking churros have installment plans!- The Sabrina episode has her and her supporting cast travel from Animal Kingdom to their hotel room four times in one episode, even though the hotel they're at (the Coronado Springs Resort) is 3 miles away from the park. Roseanne commits a similar error, as the family somehow makes it from their hotel room to Main Street USA in only 14 minutes.
- During his coverage of The George Lopez Show, a clip plays where Benny claims she rode the Matterhorn ride while pregnant with George. As the safety announcement played every 5 minutes during the line to the ride says, pregnant women are heavily discouraged from riding the Matterhorn. In the show's defense, however, this IS Benny we're talking about.
- Jerk rips into Escape from Tomorrow for several such mistakes.
- After seeing Jim's wife take their daughter on three spinny thing rides while Jim and their son are left standing in line waiting for the Buzz Lightyear ride Jerk points out that the Buzz Lightyear ride is an omni-mover designed for perpetual motion to make the line move faster while spinning rides have to stop every time new customers want to board. Therefore there is no conceivable way anyone can go on three spinny rides in the time it takes to queue for Buzz once, even and especially on a busy day.
- After the movie claims that Disney's turkey drumsticks are actually made from emu, Jerk promptly does a Face Palm, then points out that Disney sells roughly 1.6 million turkey legs a year, so for that to be the case, it'd mean that Disney would have to breed and slaughter (or, at least, dismember) over 800,000 emus, which is more than the emu population in its native home of Australia.
- He's also not happy with the movie's general claim that it takes place at Disney World, but clearly films parts in Disneyland. Ordinarily it wouldn't bug him - he does it himself in some videos, when he needs to reshoot but is on the wrong coast - but considering how much Jerk hates the movie already, it doesn't do it any favors.
- In the review of the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood, a theme park actor acts as if Jerk's camera is some strange Muggle device even though cameras, including those that produce moving pictures, are common in the wizarding world. Though to be fair, the cameras wizards use would look very different from anything Jerk uses.
- As Jerk reviews the ABC sitcoms that went to Disney World, he quickly finds they make some blatant errors about the park.
- Crossover:
- The first one he ever did was his review of the original Star Tours, with Spazzmaster and The Wire.
- Did a crossover with Brows Held High for a three-part musical Beauty And The Beast episode.
- His three-part review of The Haunted Mansion (2003) with the Horror Guru and Count Jackula.
- Did a crossover with The Nostalgia Critic on the 2010 Sorcerer’s Apprentice movie.
- Crossover Cameo:
- Spazzmaster, The Wire, and Il Niege all make regular appearances.
- Other cameos have included Phil Buni, Oancitizen, Diamanda Hagan, MikeJ, Count Jackula, The Rosen Hacker, Stephan and Nootrac, and Mikey Insanity.
- The Nostalgia Critic has made three separate appearances on the show: the Back to the Future three-parter (bugging Jerk about following Channel Awesome's conventional running gags), the Haunted Mansion review (where Jerk tries to get him to review the movie again so he won't have to), and the Wizard World of Harry Potter review (where he questions Jerk's "Where's the Fat, Universal?" campaign).
- A montage of Channel Awesome, GeekVision, and Mr. Coat contributors show off their Doc Brown impressions in the Back to the Future review.
- Culture Chop Suey: During his Family Matters Disney World review, he wonders why Winnie-the-Pooh is dressed as a Mountie in the Italian Pavilion of Epcot, which then leads him to wonder why a British character is even dressing like a Canadian in the first place.
- Department of Redundancy Department: One of his videos is entitled Top 11 Florida Attractions Not In California.
- Deus ex Machina: After accidentally erasing his own birth at the very end of his "it's a small world" review, Jerk is saved by a dimensional figure called The All-Being, who transports him to an alternate universe that's exactly the same as the old one.
- Disney Acid Sequence: Several, including the end of his Star Tours review, and the beginning of part 3 of his It's A Small World review.
- Distracted by the Sexy: In his Escape from Tomorrow review, Jerk accuses the viewer of not paying attention to what he's saying because there's a picture of Jenny McCarthy on the screen. He then becomes distracted himself, even after it cuts back to the review.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: CARDIAC ARREST!
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: J. K. Rowling's reaction to the imagineers confusing Harry Potter for Percy Jackson and Hogwarts for Narnia.
- Edited for Syndication: Back to the Future's television edit where Marty says "we turn into jerks" instead of "we turn into assholes" is parodied in the first Previously on… segment of the episode.Jerk: And now, back to Some Asshole With a Camera.
- Eskimos Aren't Real:
- He doesn't accept France as a real country.
- His feet think Quentin Tarantino is just a myth he made up to scare them out of seceding from his body.
- The beginning of his Captain Eo review has a disclaimer stating that due to his own personal beliefs, the video does not endorse a belief in Michael Jackson. He thinks that it stars Michael Johnson, that guy who ripped off a bunch of Weird Al songs, and later states that Osama bin Laden wrote "Billie Jean".
- Later in the video, he expresses doubt that either France or Japan exists within the universe, although that's due to an ad for the ride claiming that it can only be experienced one place in the universe.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His impersonation has Michael Eisner petting his kitty and loving her along with asking for a cartoon made of his kid's favorite candy.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- In part one of his Epcot retrospective, they state that Disney wouldn't make their Africa pavilion if it meant being associated with South Africa.
- Jerk refuses to make dirty jokes so soon into a review. He has standards. Fortunately Bob Saget does not, and Tony shows a bunch of clips from Saget.
- The "You fool! That'll never work!" guy can't finish the sentence when it comes to a Star Wars based attraction.
- Evil Plan: The creation of Disney's California Adventure is portrayed like this, with Michael Eisner as a James Bond villain, complete with an eyepatch, a German accent, fedora and a (plush toy) Right-Hand Cat.Michael Eisner: Ve vant zhe tourists to schtay in ze park. Vhy do they leave ze park?Unnamed Disney Employee: Uh, well, uh, Mr. Eisner sir, according to the market research we've done, people leave so they can explore the rest of California!Michael Eisner: Then ve vill bring the rest of California, *throws cat away* HEEEEEEEERE! (Hellfire from The Hunchback of Notre Dame plays)
- Expy:
- Kill Bosby is a particularly deranged one.
- His Back to the Future: The Ride review acknowledges that Rick Sanchez is one of Doc Brown.
- Foe Romance Subtext: Poked fun at during the Chris Hansen bit in the "30 Years of EPCOT" video:
- Forced Meme:
- Jerk will take any excuse to whip out "That day... is TONIGHT!"
- In Part 3 of the Back To The Future: The Ride review, once the Delorean lands in the Ice Age, The Nostalgia Critic is concerned that Jerk didn't make an allusion to the constantly memed dialogue from Suburban Commando that Christopher Lloyd is known for saying. note Luckily, it does makes an appearance later on during the "Show Us Your Doc" montage in that episode. BY. THREE. DOCS. Followed by a Frozen reference.
- Foreshadowing:
- Tony's parody songwriting past and skills are referenced in the Florida, Halloween, and Small World Part One episodes, leading up to the Small World finale.
- In the same video, when introducing his uncle Paul, he makes a Long List of everything that Paul has complained about this trip, including the lyrics of "Skipper Dan". Later, in the first season outtakes video, Jerk performs the song live.
- After its premiere and release on DVD, Jerk had been hinting at an Escape from Tomorrow review for most of Seasons 2 and 3.
- During his review of Escape from Tomorrow, Jerk demands that the movie move on from a particular scene so he can "walk into the ocean like a normal person." His review takes him across Los Angeles and he ends up on Venice Beach, aka at the ocean.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Frequently displays funny text for less than a second.
- In the Haunted Mansion crossover review, he actually goes to the trouble of writing stuff under a newspaper headline for a joke. First, he just pastes the Ghost Host's narration from the ride, then he makes a Donald Trump joke, then he mocks the main character's business's name, then he criticizes the viewer for reading that far, then he says he's going to just paste the lyrics to the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers theme song (and does before he's cut off).
- Fridge Logic: In-universe, a few from the Back to the Future: The Ride review:
- Back to the Future Part II begins on October 21st, ten days before Halloween...but there's no Halloween decorations up.
- During the ride pre-show, Doc Brown debriefs the audience on Biff Tannen, saying he graduated the Hill Valley High School class of 1955. In the first film, which takes place in Fall of 1955, Biff is bullying George McFly to do his homework for him. If Biff had graduated that Spring, he wouldn't have any homework for George to do.
- Doc Brown sends the audience back in time to prevent a paradox...directly contradicting his message at the end of Back to the Future Part III, where he realizes the future is still unwritten. He jokes that there's potentially two Doc Browns, if only to make a paradox/pair of Docs pun, but in the commentary for the episode, says that people messaged him later, saying that that was an actual popular fan theory.
- Fully Automatic Clip Show: When discussing The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, he presents over a minute of footage of the word "magic" used in reference to Disneyland. As text fades in to inform us, it all comes from a single vacation planning DVD.
- Gag Dub: He did one for his own Halloween special.
- Godzilla Threshold: Uncle Paul says that the only way to defeat an annoying song is with an even more annoying song, forcing Jerk to break out his Old Shame Small World parody.
- Golden Snitch: Parodied with the last question of "Is It Still There" (California Adventure edition) being worth 100 points to the 10 and 20 of the first two.
- Groin Attack: Punches his own dick for getting hard about Ariel, since she's half fish and a teenager.
- Growing the Beard: Jerk considers Modern Family's take on the "sitcom visits Disneyland" trope as this for these kinds of plots. While previous ABC series were transparently extended advertisements highlighting new attractions, Jerk is pleasantly surprised to see the grounded and nuanced approach the show took to both clearly respect the park's history while milking all the relatable family vacation troubles for jokes as much as it can.
- Guilty Pleasures: Averted. He stands by his love for Maelstrom, "no matter how much my friends hate it."
- Heroic BSoD:
- After finding out that the animal characters in the Disney parks are actually people in suits in "ABC Goes to Disneyland", Jerk goes through this.
- Briefly goes through one when he finds out Universal is run by Comcast.
- Later in the review for the same movie, the Gainax Ending makes him scream for 150 years.
- Hero of Another Story: Tony jokes in the commentary that the biker who whizzed past Jerk as he searched for Escape From Tomorrow's plot in a mailbox was at least a plot that he missed.
- Hookers and Blow: Honey in The Country Bears is a G-rated replacement.
- Hypocrite: How he depicts Randy Moore, who criticizes the Disney parks for being fake and manufactured while using a fake and exaggerated depiction of the parks in his movie. This also applies to the producers of Escape from Tomorrow, who made a copyright infringement claim on his review of the movie, specifically of the scene shot on the "It's a Small World" ride. That takes chutzpah.
- I Am Not Spock: Referring to characters as another role the actor played is a running gag on this show.
- Jerk refers to Becky from Full House as Mystique.
- This is eventually lampshaded when he refers to Aunt Hilda as "insert-other-thing- Caroline Rhea's-done-here here..."
- I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: "I'm not a hero, I'm just a guy who likes to say he's not a hero."
- In Memoriam: As a joke, Jerk himself is memorialized at the end of Part 1 of the Haunted Mansion review (seeing as he's stabbed by Count Jackula to use Jerk's life insurance as a down payment for the Haunted Mansion, which Jackula and The Horror Guru want to buy).
- It Will Never Catch On: Wealthy Businessman's reaction to all of Walt Disney's ideas."You fool! That will NEVER work!"
- Parodied in his review of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, when one Imagineer shouts the line before even listening to JK Rowling's pitch for a theme park because he figured that he should say it at least once that day.
- Jerkass: Come on, if you watch a guy named "Some Jerk With A Camera", then don't expect him to be kind.
- Jewish Complaining:
- In the "Small World" video, the Jerk's uncle Paul is apparently a seasoned hater and gives the Jerk some tips.
- Referenced in the EPCOT video: "If you kvetch long enough, things will happen to you!"
- Jump Scare:
- "Maybe they should have just done [the bears outside Rushin' River Outfitters] in CGI. I mean, even that would have been better than..." (the poster from Yogi Bear suddenly flashes on screen with suspenseful music) "...GAAAAAAH NO IT WOULDN'T NO IT WOULDN'T NO IT WOULDN'T GET IT OFF THE SCREEN!!!"
- The abrupt end to the intermission in his EPCOT video.
- The sudden appearance of the Horror Guru as he pops into frame during the "Boy Meets World" review, covering any mention of a collaboration between Count Jackula and Jerk.
- The very final image of the "DCA Halloween" 2017 vlog, after a couple of seconds of black screen, we get a fiery-filtered video of Donald Duck with the titles, "HAIL SATANBIRD." Abandon all hope, ye who wait until the end to turn off the video.
- Large Ham:
- The All-Being.
- Jerk himself often is this.
- Limited Wardrobe: Always wears the same black shirt, probably to maintain continuity with his opener and closer.
- Literal-Minded: Some of his riffs refers to things as their most basic elements, including pieces of paper as "slivers of dead tree" or men and women as "XY chromosomes and X chromosomes".
- Meaningful Background Event: Jerk will often film scenes in places that are vaguely related to what he's talking about. For example, when he talks about the erasure of racism in The Haunted Mansion (2003), he is standing next to the "Dumbo the Flying Elephant" ride.note
- Mid-Review Sketch Show: And HOW. Lampshaded in the Halloween special.Jerk: Wow, this might actually be a one-part episode! If I can keep my hilarious digressions to a minimum. Speaking of which, I read the most fascinating article on Lithuania today...
- Min-Maxing: In a non-roleplaying variation, Tony and his friends tend to get to parks early in order to get on as many rides as possible.
- Money, Dear Boy: In-Universe example. "Why in God's Name did ERIC IDLE agree to be part of this—" "There is nothing quite as wonderful as money..."
- Musical Episode: His three-part crossover episode with Brows Held High comparing the two definitive film adaptations of Beauty and the Beast, containing parody versions of all the iconic songs from Disney’s film.
- N-Word Privileges: The Jerk (who is Jewish) seems to quite enjoy abusing his own.
- He makes a Holocaust joke in his EPCOT video. Interestingly, he's careful to mention that he is Jewish first.
- His very first video The Country Bears includes one, when claiming Tennessee's trait of being loudly obnoxious makes him a "Bear Jew".
- In "ABC Goes To Disney World", he notes the skyway with Eisner and Mickey has stopped moving, and demands they get it moving again before "Mickey finds out how tasty Jews are". He then hears some munching, and asks who'd like to let him hide in their attic.
- Apparently, there are alternate dimensions with world peace but Jews aren't allowed there. Looks like Mel Gibson was right.
- Lampshaded in his crossover with Animated Analysis.
Jerk: You're just jealous because I'm allowed to make Holocaust jokes!Stephan: That doesn't matter!Jerk: Hey everyone! Stephan just said the Holocaust doesn't matter! - Nobody's That Dumb: In the Disney California Adventure retrospective, Jerk depicts Buzz Lightyear and Goofy arguing over whether the new park needs their presence or not.Buzz: They'll be alright! They have a tractor!Goofy: I thought I was supposed to be the idiot...
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Season 2 ends with Jerk vowing not to revisit Disneyland after discovering that the characters are just people in costumes and he spends Season 3 reviewing Universal Studios attractions, The Haunted Mansion (2003), and Escape from Tomorrow (although he does return to the parks for The Haunted Mansion). Of course, his vlogs show that he's frequently been to the park during the time Season 3 was filmed regardless.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Jerk includes one right before describing the Siemens scene in Escape From Tomorrow.
- Old Shame: In a case where a Real Life example is recontextualized as an in-universe example for the character, the It's A Small World review reveals that Jerk regrets a "It's A Small World" song parody he had written years earlier.
- Once per Episode: Spazzmaster shows up a lot in his videos, to the point where even Spazz is tired of it in his EPCOT review.
- The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: In the review of The Haunted Mansion (2003), Jackula hates the movie but loves the set design and the zombie costumes. He even has a freak-out over the notion that it's all too good for the film.
- Only in Florida:
- In his "Top 10 Attractions in Florida but not in California" video, he calls Florida a "dong-shaped Jew cemetery" and says there's no reason to visit the state except for the theme parks. Phil Bunni also cameos and goes on a long rant about everything he hates about Florida which lasts all the way into Jerk's EPCOT Center video.
- In his "Harry Potter at Universal Studios" video, there's a Running Gag in which Luke Ski pops into the screen and says he enjoys widely hated things, including Pixels and Cars 2. However, he refuses to say he likes Florida.
- Our Slogan Is Terrible: Star Tours II's slogan for Mos Eisley Cantina. Also, Jerk's own slogans for Detroit, Geekvision, IMDB, and Chris Hansen's Decoy Houses.
- Overly Long Gag:
- In "ABC Goes To Disneyland", his take on George Lopez's promotion of the new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which eventually forces him into a static loop. Jerk enters Rod Serling-style to comment on this, only to get trapped in the same loop. This happens repeatedly.
Jerk #3: A former joke, getting older and less interesting by the second, not worth the time it took me to do this dumb green-screen effect... - Overly Narrow Superlative:
- Jerk describes Captain EO as the greatest short film that Michael Jackson, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola ever collaborated on for the Disney Parks.
- In his crossover with Brows Held High, he's described as the greatest white male, Jewish, long-haired, overweight theme park reviewer over thirty in the world.
- Overly Pre-Prepared Gag: His discussion with himself about the nature of time travel in Back to the Future and about how physicists have more or less agreed that any changes to the past will always correct itself, all of which turns out to be an elaborate set up for a "Pair of Docs" pun.
- Painting the Medium/Fun with Subtitles: When mocking the subtitles at the beginning of The Haunted Mansion (2003), Jackula and Horror Guru get trapped behind the comically-large subtitles.
- Parody Displacement: Jerk thinks that Michael Jackson ripped off a bunch of "Weird Al" Yankovic songs.
- Pedo Hunt: A Running Gag. The Jerk is repeatedly harassed by Chris Hansen, who often misconstrues what he says.
- Politically Correct History: Jerk, Horror Guru, and Count Jackula mock The Haunted Mansion (2003) for sidestepping the issue of racism in a story centered on the love between a white man and a black woman in 19th century Louisiana.
- Postmodernism: Discussed in his Escape from Tomorrow review. When Jerk brings up that Randy Moore used it to stop people asking questions about his film's plot, Jerk turns on the Cine-Kyle (played by Kyle Kallgren) to deliver this gem:"Um... Wow. That's just... fucking stupid. Postmodernism is an extremely broad term covering a thousand smaller movements in art, film, literature, architecture, music, and pretty much every other medium, covering such themes as concept over content, deconstruction of narrative and identity, and celebration of intertextuality. It can be applied to everything from Madonna, to Quentin Tarantino, to Adult Swim, to the internet in general, including this very web series. Using it as an all-purpose explanation for nonsense is as cynical a deflection as saying "I'm speaking English and that should explain everything," you fucker.
- Precision F-Strike: At the very end of his Escape from Tomorrow vlog-review, after hearing the director compare people visiting Disneyland to lemmings jumping off a cliff.Jerk: Fuck you!
- Previously on…: Parodied mercilessly in any multiple-part video he does."No, I'm not gonna tell you what happened in part 1. It's the fucking internet! Go watch it yourself, you lazy dorks!"
- Product Placement: Frequently parodied, including his show's very own ads:Jerk: One of these following products causes the same cancer that killed Walt! See if you can guess which one! (Cue mid-show commercial)
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Some Jerk With A Camera seasons take a long time to make: both because of the guerilla style of shooting, and because theme parks (ESPECIALLY Disney and Universal) are expensive.
- Redundant Parody: Lampshaded when he reviews Roseanne's Disney World episode, pointing out that despite mostly advertising the place, the show's cynical and raunchy sense of humor still shined through, making the episode funny enough for Jerk to have little to no riffs to make beyond surface level references. This is also especially the case with The Simpsons Ride, which, true to its source material, is already scathing towards the theme part experience and made any satirical jokes Jerk could make moot since the ride does it already; so Jerk is forced to resort to nitpicking while cosplaying as Comic Book Guy.
- Reference Overdosed:
- Jerk is clearly a bit reliant on referential humor. At least two riffs in two separate videos were basically rapid fire montages of every instance of a "NO!" or "SHUT UP!" from every possible movie or tv show that Jerk could think of.
- His episode on Roseanne lampshades this to hell after realizing his commentary is redundant due to the series' own self-aware meta humor, forcing Jerk to resort to movie references to riff on the content.
- Right-Hand Cat: Michael Eisner, as portrayed by Jerk, has one as a Bond villain parody, named Jeffrey Kittykatzenberg. ("Played" by a Marie plush.) During the DCA review he accidentally tosses it into his fireplace, and in the Full House review he's forced to eat it.
- Ron the Death Eater: Jerk depicts Figment from Journey into Imagination as a comically evil version of his current incarnation that aggressively pushes his ideas on creativity on everyone on penalty of painful torture.
- Running Gag:
- Some Jerk's one-off characters have a tendency to suffer cardiac arrest and die once their skits end. Lampshaded in Jerk's "Season 2 Outtakes OUTTAKES!"
Scott Baio: Oh for God's sake, another heart attack? You know you've done this joke to death! (collapses) Literally.- Claiming that one of his advertisers did something terrible. "See if you can guess which one!"
- Portraying Michael Eisner as evil, often with an Eyepatch of Power and Right-Hand Cat.
- IMDB: What you do instead of things!
- Previously, on acid / The Jerk Jerkman Show / Some Camera with a Jerk / etc.
- The Jerk quoting and poking fun at Buzz Lightyear's lines from a Disneyland California Adventure ad that had been played for a while on Blip at the time.
- Whenever Jerk brings up Step by Step, someone or him will ask "What's Step by Step?"
- "You fool, that'll never work!"
- His infatuation with the spinning rock from the beginning of Captain Eo.
- Using the “To Be Continued...” screen from the end of Part 1 of Full House’s Disney World episode, which shows the Tanner sisters frantically searching and calling for Michelle in the crowds of Disney World, has been used as the “To Be Continued...” screen in every multi-part Jerk epsiode since the Full House Goes To Disney World review.
- Secondary Character Title: Discussed in "Top 11 Florida Attractions Not in California" with the title of Mickey's PhilharMagic.Jerk: But did they have to call it Mickey's Philharmagic? Mickey's only in it for, like, three seconds. What, did he refuse to come out of his dressing room unless they put his name in the title?
- Self-Deprecation: Frequent, but also referenced at Disney's stake:Jerk: Even Disney hates this ride so much they dissed it in one of their biggest movies ever!Scar: NO! NO! Anything but that!Jerk: AWW SNAP! Disney disses Disney! Take that... Yourselves. Uptop!
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: His video on the Walt Disney Family Museum. During his first visit, his camera's battery goes out, forcing him to call off filming that day. The next day the museum is closed, and the day after that he has to return to LA. He's since had to put off covering the museum in the near future.
- Shaped Like Itself: Tony calls DCA "the Disney's California Adventure of theme parks".
- Shared Universe: Because of his several cameos and crossovers, and eventually because of his inclusion in Channel Awesome, Jerk is part of the Reviewaverse. He even mentioned the Reviewaverse by name.
- Shout-Out:
- Frequent recipients include "Weird Al" Yankovic, Monty Python, Mr. Show, and Back to the Future.
- The opening to Part 1 of his Back to the Future: The Ride makes fun of the opening to Back to the Future Part II by refilming the opening to his previous episode exactly, expect for Luke Ski's puppet having a cardboard cutout of the head of Elisabeth Shue pasted on, referencing the recast of Jennifer in-between the movies.
- In Part 3 of the Back to the Future: The Ride Terrible Interviewees Montage, one of the Doc Brown impersonators is Rick Sanchez.
- Jerk says that EPCOT Center's Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable "looked pretty and did as little as possible", likely a reference to Lindsay Ellis' video on RENT.
- Shown Their Work: Especially in his DCA and EPCOT videos. He criticizes Escape from Tomorrow for failing to do this, especially in regards to the emu rumor.
- Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Though he's perfectly willing to affectionately mock Disney, he takes this attitude towards works like Shrek and Escape from Tomorrow, which are more negative towards Disney.
- Silly Simian: Whenever there's a clip of a monkey, Some Jerk can't help but cheerfully say "Ha ha. Monkey!"
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: As of the EPCOT video, Chris Hansen.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Jerk mentions in his D23 2017 vlog that anyone who showed up after having been in a coma for the last ten years and wasn't a fan of Marvel would have thought Disney had lost their minds.Tony: You'd know who Tinker Bell was, you'd know who Mickey was, you'd probably think this guy [Iron Man] is Satan.
- Stating the Simple Solution: The Nostalgia Critic puts an end to Jerk's "Where's the Fat, Universal" crusade in the "Harry Potter at Universal Hollywood" video by inquiring about the sweatshirt Jerk has tied around his waist. That he has had on every time he tried the test seat at Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. One cut away later:Jerk: (shot of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey's exterior) BEST! RIDE! EVER!
- Story Arc: His Halloween episode leads right into his Christmas special, which leads right into his Star Tours II review.
- Straw Feminist: Zig-zagged with Tryhard Goodman, a feminist character played by Tony who argues with Captain Edgesword (also played by Tony) about the removal of the wench auction scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. While Tryhard has that Punny Name and a ridiculous outfit including a "pussy hat", his opinion is fairly nuanced, he admits when his opponent has a point, and it's pretty clear Tony is more on his side than Edgesword.
- Streisand Effect: Discussed, as Jerk says this would have happened to Disney had they attempted to suppress Escape from Tomorrow, and why it was wise they didn't care.
- Subways Suck: Jerk describes the Los Angeles Metro Rail line that serves Universal Studios Hollywood as "like if the [Disneyland] Monorail was depressed".Jerk: (imitating the subway's announcer) Welcome aboard the Metro Red Line. Nobody likes me, I smell like vomit, and the world is a shallow void of meaningless emptiness. Doors open on the left at Vermont and Sunset.
- Take That!:
- When Spazzmaster refuses to give Jerk a Halloween-themed nickname, he chooses "Spazzmaster Has No Penis" (to Spazz's displeasure).
- When Chris Hansen appears, Jerk calls him, among other things, "sadistic and crazy."
- Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner is always portrayed as a Bond Villain.
- He mentions his dislike for Ayn Rand in his commentary video for "Thirty Years of EPCOT." In it, he calls her "the most despicable person who never killed anyone." He also describes a libertarian world as one in which poor people are forced to eat each other in his video for the new Star Tours.
- His The Simpsons Ride review slams Universal's lack of identity (most of the licensed properties in its parks are ones it doesn't actually own, and many of the ones it does own are totally unfamiliar to today's kids), Fifty Shades of Grey and its "abuse is romantic" message, as well as his irritation at the Minions completely taking over the franchise they emerged from, as well as the park itself.
- His Top 11 Florida Attractions Not In California video includes a Take That! to Micechat, a Disney-themed online forum which removed his videos due to profanity.
- The tourism slogan he makes for Detroit: It's a shithole full of people who steal! Punctuated by a gunshot.
- His video on what Donald Trump's election would mean for the Hall of Presidents was utterly jam-packed with every insult he could think of against Trump. He finished it off by mocking Jimmy Fallon as well.
- He snuck in a dig at the women-in-gaming controversy in his Back To The Future: The Ride review, which is represented as an actual gate where people who insult women on the internet are chained.
- When eating a park map, to try out the joke about eating a map in Captain EO, Tony said "Finally, an affordable theme park meal".
- Jerk's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge vlog makes fun of the infamous portion of the Star Wars fandom that rabidly hated The Last Jedi as well as those who ship Rey and Kylo Ren.
- Tempting Fate: Surely this latest small, insignificant change to the park won't set off a backlash among fans. "Right? RIIIIIIIIGHT?"
- This Is Going to Be Huge: Mocked with Avatar at the end of his 2016 theme park news episode. He flashes back to the operators of Animal Kingdom hastily green-lighting Pandora – The World of Avatar in 2011 despite it having almost nothing to do with animals beyond its alien ecosystem and its Green Aesop. Fast-forward to 2016, and Animal Kingdom has broken ground on a massive expansion based on a film that's been mostly forgotten since, while Disney releases two films, Zootopia and The Jungle Book (2016), that are not only massive hits but are far more appropriate to the theme of Animal Kingdom than Avatar ever was. Cue the guy who pushed for the expansion screaming "FFFUUUUUUUUU-".
- Those Two Guys: Mikey Insanity and The Rosen Hacker occasionally fit the bill.Rosen: Did you hear something?Mikey: Who cares? I'm on vacation!
- Took the Bad Film Seriously: Jerk thinks extremely highly of Christopher Walken's performance in The Country Bears, which mostly comes down to his dedication.Jerk: Look, he still thinks he's in a movie.
- Top Ten List: He has several Top Eleven lists, each with a parody of The Nostalgia Critic's appropriate catchphrase.
- Florida attractions not in California (with bonus updated list several years later when it was posted on Channel Awesome)
- Comic Book Jerk's list of nitpicks about The Simpsons Ride
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: Discussed and deconstructed in regards to Escape from Tomorrow. Jerk honestly doesn't give two shits if something artsy is confusing but he feels it's important to not let your desire to screw with your audience supersede the importance of grounding the surreal madness with an actual story, definable characters, and, most importantly in Jerk's eyes, humanity.
- Two-Part Trilogy: Two-Part Quadrology, technically speaking; the Haunted Mansion Holiday leads directly into his three-part "it's a small world" Holiday review.
- Unintentional Uncanny Valley: His opinion of the bears in The Country Bears. They look "just real enough to look totally fake. And kind of scary."
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Inverted during Jerk's review of Full House's Disney World episode; he's surprised at how amazed D.J., Stephanie, Michelle, and Kimmy are at the sight of Main Street, pointing out that it's no different from Disneyland's. This leads him to believe the Tanners have never gone to Disneyland, which he finds baffling since they 1.) live in California, and 2.) are clearly wealthy enough to afford at least one trip to the park. He ends up calling Child Services to file a report on (fictional) child abuse on their behalf, only to be put on hold.
- Waxing Lyrical: At the beginning of part 2 of the EPCOT retrospective, the variation of "And now..." is "And now, you find yourself in '82."
- Weight Woe: Jerk is too fat to ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey so he has to review it based on Youtube videos and memories from when he was able to ride the Florida version. It turns out he was wearing a sweatshirt that added extra bulk.
- Wild Mass Guessing:
- In the added opening for the Channel Awesome version of the attraction's review, he talks about how Captain EO was revamped into a theater for new Disney movies. He then starts to draw comparisons between Captain EO and Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), realizing that Captain EO is Starlord's father.
- When Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! was first announced, he made some conjectures about the plot of the ride. When the ride opened, fans were surprised to see that he got some things right. He denied, stating that it was just WMG, and that he got more wrong than right.
- Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Spoofed in the review of Captain EO, claiming that trying whips in knots without moving the whips was what broke the verisimilitude of the movie, not the other silly and fantastical stuff.
- World of Weirdness: With the show set in the Reviewaverse, the show can get/has gotten really...REALLY...weird.
- You Are Fat: Some Jerk's rant against test seats that don't allow for fat people. It has quite a few fat jokes.Jerk: It's a cutting edge ride, that raises the bar higher than a fat guy trying to squeeze into the seat- okay, who wrote that?Phil Bunni: (laughs)Jerk: Not cool! You know, I'm too fat to go on the Dragon Challenge coaster, and I'm almost too fat for Forbidden Journey. I just barely made it. I didn't think I'd be able to at first, I had a panic attack. I think I ate a couple of people, but don't worry, I forgive myself. You know it's kind of disgusting how many rides at Universal have those kinds of test seats. And it's not just a fat thing, huge muscular dudes can't ride either, probably. Don't humongoloids and fat sacks of crap deserve their thrills too? It's not like they're (Beat) short. Like you. And further more,...3 hours later (cut to Phil banging his head against his desk)
