Downer Ending / The Nostalgia Critic

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• To parody the weird ending of the movie, the end to the My Pet Monster review has the Critic insecure and realizing how pitiful he is. This carried into the Commercials Special.
• In It, Critic's dead in the bathroom and Rob is horrified, if hilariously so because of his OTT facial expressions.
• The third fuck-ups video has Critic in such a breakdown over all the crap he gets that even Douchey realizes how how bad things are and decides to leave him alone.
• The "Top Eleven Dumbest Superman Moments" has him miserable over what happened to the stars of the Superman movies and the World Trade Center towers then going off to kill himself.
• The 2008 Halloween Special had Critic vs. Teddy Ruxpin. Ruxpin wins at the end.
• James and the Giant Peach has him drop his jerkassery after the Happiness Is Mandatory and asks if the audience likes him again now. But because he still didn't like the movie, they kill him.
• Played for Laughs, but Ponyo ends with Critic getting attacked (more genuinely than Doug would have liked in some cases, one man asked if it was okay to hold him up the neck) and groped for not liking Howl's Moving Castle.
• A Simple Wish has Mara Wilson herself torment the Critic by showing embarrassing videos from his adolescence when he doesn't back down about child actors being held accountable for what they do. It ends with the Critic screaming out "MARA WILSON!!!!!".
• Son of the Mask ends with him being forced to keep reviewing when Satan doesn't grant his request to be put out of his misery, leading to him sobbing brokenly on the floor, traumatized and scarred for life by the movie, and his daughter goes from childishly cute to horrifyingly ugly, thanks to the movie.
• The Cat in the Hat has Critic only getting hope because someone who just made bad films is getting tortured forever, and his being happy at said torture.
• The Master of Disguise ends with Rachel getting elbowed in the stomach, punched to the floor, and fired on her birthday. What she goes through in The Shining makes it worse.
• Sailor Moon ends with Dr. Hack making a Take That! at the expense of Demo Reel, and Critic angrily beating the shit out of him for the reminder.
• “WTF Is Up With The Ending With The Graduate”, with Critic saying the film's end is a constant reminder of his own impulsiveness biting him in the ass. Even the added joke of Love Makes You Crazy is half-hearted.
• “Why Do We Love Zombies” ends with him as a barely audible groaning zombie right after he has a Despair Speech about “getting used to the terror, letting it slowly destroy whatever kind humanity that's left inside you, let every bad situation build on top of each other like every one zombie can build on top of each other.”
• The ending stinger of “The Worst Christmas Special EVER” makes it so that Critic just went to some random people, called them his parents (which makes sense considering) and they had no idea who he was. ^note In reality of course it's just a tease and Doug shared a nice moment with his mom and dad.
• Alice in Wonderland (2010) ends with Tim Burton's new creative project cancelled and Critic sitting angrily on the couch (with a sad looking Malice) saying he completely forgot whatever lesson he was meant to have learned.
• The Uncanny Valley review ends with Critic both being unable to fix himself, and unwilling to give praise to the special if it means losing out on money.
• The Foodfight! review ends with Critic crying brokenly because he didn't get the views he wanted, and giving a haunted-sounding warning about anyone else who tries to review it.
• Small Soldiers. While The Princess Diaries series are cute movies for pre-teen girls, Critic's stalker is in his house and that's not going to be good for anyone.
• The Christmas Story II review. Hyper Fangirl actually leaves Critic alone, but despite him wanting this and trying to get it into people's heads that she'd been terrible to him, he suddenly misses her and, giving her a chance to come back, walks back into an empty studio. Sad music plays over the credits instead of his theme song. The DVD “Saga Of Hyper Fangirl”, a recap of her Story Arc (with special mention for all the times she's hurt him) ends here as well.
• Played for Laughs in the Fantastic Four (2005) review as Rob, tired of Critic/Malcolm/Tamara's Smug Superdom, goes to get powers himself so he can actually help someone, but ends up with an even more stupid power than them while they don't get punished.
• Jem has a Internal Homage to Alice in Wonderland (2010), where the execs win because Malcolm will do what they want, much to Tamara and Critic's disappointment.
• The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle ends on Critic arrogantly insane, deciding it really is him against the world when it comes to films, and the priest says he was never sane.
• Tamara's Terminator II review ends with her trying to be hopeful and give love to anyone who needs it after the 2016 election results, but she's clearly trying not to cry and gets up to turn the camera off.
• In the Norm of the North review, Malcolm and Tamara make Critic realize that he didn't achieve enlightenment (because he's watched worse movies before) and he panics because his life hasn't got better. The ending you would expect from the ten year anniversary episode.
• Parodied in The Nostalgia Critic's review of Moulin Rouge!, where he realizes that because it's a Moulin Rouge! review, they need to have a sad ending. So he creates one by shooting Brentalfloss, and spends the end of the review mourning him. Then Brentalfloss shoots him from Heaven in revenge.
• The Top 11 Saddest Nostalgic Moments: As the Critic signs off, he gets shot in the head.
• Catwoman (2004): Halle Berry (played by Orlando) appears and the Critic gets beaten up by her.
• War Of The Commercials ends on another downer sketch (Doug as an asshole voice crying apologetically who killed a crying woman's family) and it cuts back to Critic leaving and knowing he's broken.
• In Did Tom & Jerry Kill Themselves?, after arguing that the infamous ending to "Blue Cat Blues" wasn't meant to be serious, he rhetorically asks, "When is anything related to romance in the media ever caused anybody to commit suicide?" Then he looks up his tablet and discovers how successful the Fifty Shades of Grey movie had become, driving him to insert himself into the closing scene of "Blue Cat Blues" in place of Jerry.
• After having a pretty decent time with the Malcolm teenager in the X-Men movie review, turns out he’s Mr T’s son who has been kidnapped by Aunt Despair and Uncle Lies and blame Critic for a giggle.
• The review for Venom (2018) has a Cruel Twist Ending where the Critic, after spending the whole time being possessed by what he assumes is a symbiote, realizes after being forced to blow up Venom, She-Venom, and Miles Morales that it's actually STEM from Upgrade, who has been using the review to make more people aware of the film, which it considers "the real Venom movie". It also won't give him back control of his body, but apparently because it's seen what he does at night, which Critic agrees is fair.
• The Planet Of The Commercials special skims the line between Cruel Twist Ending and Karmic Twist Ending, depending on whether you think the Critic actually deserved it. After constantly failing to get rid of Michael, the composer for the Flintstones Vitamins commercials (brought in by the Chart Guys as in-universe Executive Meddling), the Critic reaches his Rage Breaking Point and rants how he couldn't care less about him or how he made the song, but after hearing his last name before making him leave, he realizes immediately afterward he's actually been talking to Michael Salvatori and tries running back. While Michael is still at the front looking sad, the Panda Cheese mascot and the monkey-faced Samara have already ganged up on the Critic before the Smash to Black.

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