History Trivia / DemoReel

* UnderminedByReality: A lot of the HorribleHollywood themes for the series became bitterly ironic in early 2018, when a Google Doc by several former creators airing their grievances about [[WebSite/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Channel Awesome]] and its upper management came out, such as how badly its female creators were treated, a lack of any real effort put into resolving complaints, and the overreliance on specific talent to the detriment of everyone else, giving the impression that Channel Awesome is a sort of Hollywood in itself.

** In Midwest Media Expo 2015, Doug called the scene where Donnie is breaking down about his mom in the forest at night the most hardest thing he's ever had to do emotionally (because there was so much to get across and he legit felt like he was dying from cold), which he felt made the sadness come out better.

* GenreKiller: The “I want reviews!” reaction a lot of the forums to it had made Rob admit in a post that Doug would never try to create a serious original work again.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Adam and Jill are sociopaths who kidnap a FormerChildStar and raise their daughter to be as mentally ill as they are. Jason and Jori are perfectly lovely people who [[ThrowTheDogABone threw Doug a bone]] and helped him get out of his head with the at-that-point-suffering ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' vlogs.

** Averted. Tacoma was going to originally wake up in Snow White's dress instead of Belle's, s it was the [[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=469734449759688&id=127127037353766&comment_id=78023938 "...second funniest dress we could imagine on Malcolm"]]. The most funniest? Snow White, however this idea was scrapped as Creator/AllisonPregler had already worn it in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights''.

** Karl and Quinn would have assembled a team of film crew/mercencaries called "The Commendables" who would go on missions across the globe.

** Retroactively. In this show, Jim Jareoz plays an Irish {{Badass}} HiddenHeartOfGold former member of the IRA. In the Critic reboot, his two main roles are the simpering condescending ''Film/{{Catwoman}}'' therapist and the lisping loud flamboyant CreepyCrossdresser head of TMZ.

* CreatorBreakdown: The more the show went into [[FormerChildStar Donnie's backstory]] the more it became apparent that [[WriteWhatYouKnow was writing about his own regret]] for mocking child actors like Jake Lloyd and Mara Wilson.

* [[TrollingCreator Trolling Actress]]: Doug won't say anything about anything, but Rachel likes to tease that the show will come back.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Creator/UncleYo and Creator/{{Egoraptor}} both make appearances in Episode 3 [[spoiler: and Creator/MaraWilson voices Donnie's wife.]].
** Most obviously, WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic and The Other Guy as Donnie and Carl.
** Two SWAG members are voiced by [[WebVideo/YouCanPlayThis Justin Carmical]] and Holly Christine Brown in episode 4. [[WebVideo/TheLastAngryGeek Brian Heinz]] plays Fabrizio, a recurring character, introduced in the same episode.
** Also for episodes 4 & 5, the creepy girl who turns out to be in a family of obsessed Jimmy Boyd fans, is played by Briana Laws. She was the girl on the playground in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights''. Her parents, Jason, who was the moviemaker with the drill in WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee, and Jori, play her character's parents in the latter episode.

** According to Mr Walker at a 2015 panel, Tamara very easily could have been Rebecca as Doug/Rob couldn't decide for a while whether it would be her or Rachel.

* MagnumOpus: The fact that the whole show was meant to be Doug's is MagnumOpusDissonance, but his favorite ''episode'' is “Lost In Translation”. The reasons for this you can probably guess why.

* RealLifeRelative: The Fanatic Fan Family is played by the real-life Laws family, friends of Doug Walker who threw him a bone by co-hosting the ''AdventureTime Vlogs'' with him, in addition to having occasional cameos in other Channel Awesome productions.

* RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions: Bless his heart, Doug was shameless this time around and outright asked for SlashFic in-character. Fandom eagerly obliged.

** The site's design (the redesign was "for real this time" promised in September but never happened) resulted in the show getting shunted to the "specials" section, along with Doug's obligatory Disney-movie-per-day series pushing any episode off the front page.

* EnforcedMethodActing: In Midwest Media Expo 2015, Doug called the scene where Donnie is breaking down about his mom in the forest at night the most hardest thing he's ever had to do emotionally (because there was so much to get across and he legit felt like he was dying from cold), which he felt made the sadness come out better.

* PlayingAgainstType: Retroactively. In this show, Jim Jareoz plays an Irish {{Badass}} HiddenHeartOfGold former member of the IRA. In the Critic reboot, his two main roles are the simpering condescending ''Film/{{Catwoman}}'' therapist and the lisping loud flamboyant CreepyCrossdresser head of TMZ.

* FandomNod: One of the early criticisms of the show ([[TheyChangedItNowItSucks that didn't have to do with the Nostalgia Critic]]) was that the series premise was too similar to ''BeKindRewind.'' Doug eventually [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] on this [[SelfDeprecation in the show.]]
** Before Demo Reel began, fans noticed that Rob always got the most {{fanservice}}y shots of Doug, whether it was him in the shower or just showing [[ShesGotLegs He Had Legs]]. So, in ''{{Transformers}}'', Karl's camera being in love with Donnie gets lampshaded in the first five minutes.

** Averted. Tacoma was going to originally wake up in Snow White's dress instead of Belle's, s it was the [[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=469734449759688&id=127127037353766&comment_id=78023938 "...second funniest dress we could imagine on Malcolm"]]. The most funniest? Snow White, however this idea was scrapped as WebVideo/ObscurusLupa had already worn it in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights''.

** For whatever reason, the planned eight episode first season got cut down to six.
* ThrowItIn: Happens everytime. Donnie keeps adding details to the script to justify their resources like "The character grew a goatee" or "One-glove Batman", and the list keeps getting bigger.

** As a DownerEnding as the show got, it could have been even worse. Brian wanted Fabrizio to return to the studios only to now find a completely abandoned warehouse.

** The Catwoman costume Rebecca wears in ''The Dark Knight Begins Rising'' (as Anne Hathaway's portrayal) is later reused when Rachel plays Michelle Pfeiffer in the ''Nostalgia Critic'' ''Film/Catwoman'' review.