Todd In The Shadows / Tropes A to C

This page covers tropes in Todd in the Shadows.

Tropes A To C | Tropes D to F | Tropes G to I | Tropes J to M | Tropes N to P | Tropes Q to S | Tropes T to V | Tropes W to Z

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A

• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Todd almost references this trope verbatim in the Nena OHW episode, mentioning that the English version of "99 Red Balloons" puts "emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble".
• Accentuate the Negative: Subverted occasionally, since even Todd can admit when a song he's reviewing does something right, or something close to right. All the same, it's pretty rare for his year-end best lists to feature songs he's already made reviews for, since he tends to discuss songs he doesn't like. His worst lists usually feature several songs he's reviewed that year.
  Todd: I don't make these reviews because I hate pop music. I make these reviews because I love pop music.
  • The double review of "We Are Young" by fun. and "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye, Todd brings into question just how these indie songs became so popular. At the end of the review, he's still a little baffled, but he admits he really can't find anything wrong with either artists, and enjoys both of their previous works.
  • Starting with his "Ni**as in Paris" review, Todd has been reviewing a lot more songs that he considers good or at least songs he doesn't really hate.
  • Inverted (Accenting the positive) with both Justin Timberlake's "Suit and Tie" and Macklemore's "Thrift Shop"^note  and "Can't Hold Us" - he admits that's a good song too. They're the only two good songs on the radio at the time of the review. EVERYTHING ELSE was boring crap.
  • Todd tries to do this with One Direction's "Best Song Ever", but all his arguments against the song die as soon as he vocalizes them. He admits at the end of the video, somewhat embarrassed, that he really likes it and it would end up being his 6th favorite song that year.
  • Done so with "Blurred Lines" in which he states a few things he likes about it and even says he doesn't find it that bad. But after that, Todd has a lot of negative criticism for the song.
• Accidental Truth: When discussing the Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" on One Hit Wonderland, he gets stuck on the word "haver" and wonders what it even means. "Babbling nonsense words?" Cut to the dictionary definition, and it's exactly what the word means.
• Actor Allusion: invoked When the opening of Shanghai Surprise shows Paul Freeman's character having his opium being confiscated, Todd responds thusly...
  Todd: Well, you see there is nothing ''you'' possess that ''I'' cannot take away! How do you like it, jerk?
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • He loathes the ostensible central conceit of the music video for "Shape Of You"; Ed Sheeran training to be a hardcore fighter. But he admits that the punchline - the fight is actually against a sumo wrestler, with Sheeran wearing a fatsuit and losing terribly - is actually pretty funny.
  • Todd's review of Lil Dicky's Earth is pretty scathing, as he deconstructs how lazy and uninspired the jokes are. However, he does admit that he laughed at Kevin Hart's guest-verse "And I'm Kanye West", if only because of how random it was.
  • In his One Hit Wonderland review of Rick Dees' novelty hit "Disco Duck," Todd concedes that "Bad Shark," a parody of the "Shaft" theme song about the shark from "Jaws," is so stupid he actually enjoyed it.
  • Todd admits to enjoying James Young's hammy, over-the-top performance as evil televangelist Doctor Righteous in the otherwise disastrous film made to promote Styx's concept album Kilroy Was Here.
  • Todd admits he thought Aqua opening one of their music videos with a protest that “we are not the Barbie band” was funny.
• Actually Quite Catchy: Todd gets extremely frustrated when he can't get "Body Like a Back Road", a song he hates, out of his head, and keeps making Lyric Swaps.
  Todd: Doin' all my taxes... DAMN IT!
• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Chicago were not the only band to suddenly sell out in seventy-six."
  • Taylor Swift is the "pink pony princess" of country.
• Advertised Extra:
  • Criticizes Janelle Monae as being this in "We Are Young", since her part is so inobtrusive that he wasn't even aware she was in the song. He then parodies it by promoting the video as a crossover with JewWario, who appears on screen for a second to say "hi".
  • Chris Brown's "Turn Up the Music" in the video of the same name. Todd talks about it for a few seconds, but the video is mainly about how much he hates Chris Brown and his fans.
  • Also shows up in the "Meant to Be"/"The Middle" dual review where, when reviewing the former song, he points out that it takes Bebe Rexha nearly a full minute to show up in a song where she's supposedly the lead artist.
• Age-Appropriate Angst: invokedIn "If I Die Young", he flips out when he figures out that Kimberly Perry is 28 and actually older than he is, pointing out that it would be much easier to stomach if she were 16, since many people go through a morbid phase at that age but grow out of it. When forced to clarify, he said that 28 is not too old to die young, but it is too old to write "If I Die Young."
• Album Filler:
  • Todd theorizes that Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" was a Creator's Apathy-induced case of this that just happened to become a hit against the band's expectations. invoked
  • And also regarding the beat and production in "E.T.".
  • Several episodes of Trainwreckords comment on how prominent of an issue this trope became during the CD era, with many of the examined albums having a number of overlong and/or artistically redundant tracks whose only apparent purpose is using as much disc space as possible. The episodes on MC Hammer's The Funky Headhunter and Metallica's St. Anger directly cite this as a factor in Todd focusing solely on the highlights instead of going track by track.
• Alter-Ego Acting: Initially, Todd was depicted as something of a Jerkass compared to how he was in real life. However, this aspect of his videos has more or less disappeared, and the reviews are now fairly straightforward. Lampshaded in his Look What You Made Me Do review.
  Todd: But of course, I'm only saying that because that's what the Todd in the Shadows persona I've put on would say. Is it real or not real? Who's the actual Todd when he comes out of the Shadows? Does he really hate this song or is it just an ac- yeah, we're not doing that. It is the real me. The shadow thing is just a dumb gimmick and yes, I do, in fact, actually hate this song. Duh, I have ears.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: invoked He's fond of doing this with popstars:
  • Lady Gaga is an Eldritch Abomination, (or, alternatively, a cultist) who wants to kill and eat us all, dislikes words, and avoids using them whenever possible.
    • Also, "Applause" is an attack on The Nostalgia Critic.
  • Lil Wayne is on a quest to record with every musician in existence. He is also a sentient iguana.
  • Flo Rida:
    • He is trying his damn hardest to be a successful rapper by only making songs with good choruses but awful verses and without having any identifiable personality traits whatsoever... other than a taste for clubbing. Furthermore, his image is so tied to his clubbing that he goes out partying even when he doesn't want to in order to keep up his rep, to the point that he often zones out in exhaustion.
    • Also, the events of "Whistle" are all in his head.
  • Train:
    • Patrick Monahan went insane during the hiatus of his band, explaining why the lyrics to Train's songs are becoming increasingly bizarre.
    • Monahan has also recently undergone an arbitrary larynx transplant surgery, which is why his voice is suddenly so high-pitched and whiny.
    • After "Hey, Soul Sister" and "Drive By" became hits, Monahan began to hate his fans for letting him get away with writing such bad lyrics, so he wrote "50 Ways to Say Goodbye" to take revenge on them by bombarding them with the most insane song he could make. It became a hit.
    • The lyrics in the video for "Hey, Soul Sister" are squirming along the walls because they're attempting to escape.
    • "Drive By" is about a man who hates himself, which is why he compares his love to garbage and viruses.
  • Ke$ha really is a perpetually drunken, shallow party girl, who prefers to go out with men who look like Mick Jagger (Tik Tok) and have beards (Your Love Is My Drug). ^note General consensus perceives her as a Stealth Parody; While Todd acknowledged this in "The Top 6 Worst Hit Songs of 2010 (That I Didn't Already Cover)," he considered that it didn't justify "Take It Off," where she's laughing at the listener (See Take That, Audience!) instead of with them. It was only after her fight with Dr. Luke, particularly the sexual abuse allegations, when he realized just how much of her party girl image was an act.
  • The members of 3OH!3 pretended to be douchey frat boys for the video of their song "Don't Trust Me", but they've gotten so into character that now they can't stop.
  • The Black Eyed Peas:
    • The crew behind "The Time" were conspiring against the Black Eyes Peas — a recording technician was attempting to unplug Fergie's mic near the end, and the video's director was taking potshots at the song.
    • Taboo was kicked out of the group before "The Time", but the others just didn't have the heart to tell him.
    • Will.I.Am is some kind of idiot savant who finds inspiration for his music in the sounds made by car alarms, jackhammers, vacuum cleaners, dripping faucets and your neighbors having loud sex.
  • Ludacris is omnipresent.
  • Barry Manilow wrote every single song ever written. (Except "I Write the Songs")
  • Bruno Mars:
    • "Grenade" was his Sanity Slippage Song.
    • Bruno himself is clinically depressed and is "possibly not a guy".
    • He plagiarized most of the lyrics to "The Lazy Song" from a children's entertainer and filled in the gaps with random references to sex and masturbation so no one would notice. Moreover, it's a song about Bruno's lost dignity.
    • Bruno also shouts out "Gorilla" whenever he has an orgasm.
  • Wyclef Jean is on prescription drugs, but he forgot to take them while recording "We Are The World 25".
  • Enrique Iglesias is a serial rapist who was raised in the wild.
  • Putt Putt is a drug addict.
  • Kanye West a) isn't rapping about alien sex on "E.T.", but kidnapping, b) has an inexplicable grudge against epileptics, and c) is a pretentiously genius mentally unhinged artiste.
  • Beyoncé:
    • She has a deep-rooted hatred for men.
    • The real identity of "Becky with the good hair" is Idina Menzel.
  • Ne-Yo is aware of some sort of apocalypse, which may or may not (probably not) be caused by LMFAO.
  • Drake is painfully aware of the fleeting nature of fame, and very afraid that he'll wake up one morning and find himself working at Burger King.
  • Chris Brown is a WWE Heel.
    • And that Kevin McCall snuck a reference to Ike Turner into "Deuces", feigning innocence, just so he could humiliate Chris Brown by association.
    • Chris Brown's managers may be slipping in lyrical references to his domestic abuse as a prank.
  • Kelly Clarkson deliberately enters or imagines up bad relationships to write Breakup Songs.
  • Pitbull isn't capable of rapping about anything other than how much money he makes, even if he tries to fit it in with another theme, such as Men in Black.
    • More recently, Pitbull has been replaced by an alien/replicant trying to copy our "hu-man musical art forms" and the end result is just "adorable."
  • David Guetta's music is so mechanical he might actually be a robot. More than that, he's a Life Drinker: Able to sustain his own boring career by feeding off any interest that his guest singers might have had before working with him, and leaving them just as boring as he is afterward. Flo Rida is the only exception because he had no personality to begin with.
    • Similarly, Marshmello is on a mission to ruin every musical genre with featureless production that sounds identical every time, and also feeds off any interest his guest singers might've had before working with him, with the exception of Chris Brown.
  • Hunter Hayes' "Wanted" is just a con to try and get the singer laid.
  • The protagonist of Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire" is a vengeful fire goddess literally setting things on fire.
  • Peter Cetera is a real life Bond villain who caused the stock market to crash, committed war crimes, and killed Todd's dog.
  • Miley Cyrus's "We Can't Stop" is about a girl with an out-of-control drug problem. She literally can't stop.
  • One Direction's "Best Song Ever" is about the girl from Orbit gum commercials and the song in question is "Locked Out of Heaven" by Bruno Mars. (Either that, or "Beelzeboss" by Tenacious D, which he even demonstrates in the episode.)
  • Imagine Dragons and OneRepublic have fallen under a "Freaky Friday" Flip style spell, but instead of switching the band members' bodies, the spell switched their musical talent.
    • Furthermore, Imagine Dragons wrote "Demons" after their big hits, and then traveled back in time to put it on their album. After all, how else could Todd have mistaken yet another milquetoast adult contemporary band for some groundbreaking new alternative rock group?
  • Rockwell sang about being stalked in every one of his songs because he really was followed by a shadowy presence everywhere. His total disappearance from the media after his string of lukewarm releases is the result of that follower having finally gotten him.
  • The Far East Movement are capable of Satanic mind control and seek to debunk every Asian stereotype in existence, including the good ones like intelligence and being good at music.
  • The slow outro at the end of "Sweater Weather" by The Neighborhood represents the songs' two lover characters succumbing to hypothermia and dying.
  • The character in Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" isn't actually gunning down his classmates; he just carries his dad's gun around with him because he thinks it looks cool. And it doesn't end well.
  • Katy Perry:
    • Her #1 singles are due to a deal that she has with Billboard. Likewise, her song "E.T." is about wanting to hook up with an illegal alien. As Todd put it, "You're an Indian, an Ethiopian..."
    • The entirety of her album Witness, from the actual songs to the music videos to her promotion of it in 2017, was one long Creator Breakdowninvoked on her part, with Todd citing as proof "Chained to the Rhythm", a lead-off single viciously mocking her entire career up to that point as vapid garbage that distracted people from real problems in society. As the icing on the cake, the video for her single "Hey Hey Hey" casts her as Marie-Antoinette. Todd ultimately feels that this doubled as a Creator Killerinvoked as when discussing Perry's song "Guess It's Never Really Over" on his Best of 2019 list, he bluntly admits that he doesn't see Katy doing well on the charts in the new decade.
  • Jason Derulo:
    • "Talk Dirty" is sang by a douchey American tourist who can only hook up with foreign women because they don't understand how cheesy and offensive his pick-up lines are.
    • "Wiggle" is about what Derulo thinks a butt looks like since he has never actually seen a real human butt before.
  • Taylor Swift may be a 40-year-old undercover reporter pretending to be a young person, preparing an expose on youth culture.
  • Nicki Minaj is turning into Crazy Frog.
  • Jessie J is part of a species that mates by laying eggs in their host's digestive system. Also, "Bang Bang" is a song about lesbians.
  • Niall Horan slept with Ellie Goulding because he was mad at Ed Sheeran over "Little Things".
  • Sia has been replaced by a robotic soundalike.
  • The Weeknd is a vampire who only calls women when it's half past five.
  • Justin Bieber's songs of 2015 are aimed at the world at large instead of a girl, with "What Do You Mean?" being about the mixed messages he gets from the world due to having a fandom showering him with praise and a hatedom saying he is everything bad with music.
  • Adele and Drake dated each other and wrote "Hello" and "Hotline Bling," respectively, after their inevitable breakup.
  • Selena Gomez is in the music industry simply for the lulz.
  • Rachel Platten is a vaguely human-shaped mannequin that Columbia Records is selling as a person.
  • Meghan Trainor's titular "Dear Future Husband" is Charlie Puth. Both of them have so little sex appeal that they're not even members of a species that reproduces sexually; instead, they split apart like amoebas.
  • Charlie Puth, meanwhile, was subjected to some sort of Jekyll & Hyde switch in 2017 that led to the milquetoast pop singer suddenly making funky, quality jams like "Attention".
  • Elle King Really Gets Around.
  • Mike Posner wrote "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" to pander specifically to Todd, the only critic who's been keeping up with his work.
  • "PILLOWTALK" is about violent hate sex. Either that, or it's literally about Zayn going to sleep, which explains its slow tempo.
  • "I'm Too Sexy" isn't an "I Am Great!" Song, it's about a guy who's cursed with sexiness so overwhelming that it literally destroys everything he owns.
  • Todd's interpretation of why Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged was released without any attempts to edit down the numerous rambles; it's to distract from how otherwise boring the event would be with her just plucking away at a six-string.
  • Maroon 5 care so little about their music that their lead singer Adam Levine is actually just a robotic music generator and his human body is entirely CGI. All the other band members are just background extras and don't play a single note on their songs.
  • Lukas Graham named his band after himself because he's trying to cover up the existence of the other band members.
  • Brightburn was created by Lex Luthor to be anti-superhero propaganda.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: invoked In his review of "Mexican Radio," Todd is stunned to learn that barbecued iguana is a real thing.
• All Men Are Perverts: When taking a moment to explain that abstinence is perfectly alright if your partner isn't ready, he defies this trope, albeit reluctantly. "And you know, that goes for the girls too. Sometimes the guy isn't ready and you shouldn't push it... it happens."
• Ambiguously Christian: His rule of thumb, given the many "Christian" punk bands he's listened to that often avoided putting explicit religious themes in their music, is that an album must have 50% "certifiable Christ content" before he'll call it Christian Rock. In his One-Hit Wonderland episode on "Face Down", he argued that The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus were this trope in their early career to the point where it seemed like they were doing the reverse of what many such bands did: instead of luring in secular kids with what sounds like Pop Punk only to hit them with a sermon, they (especially on their sophomore album Lonely Road) were luring in Christian kids with song titles like "You Better Pray" only for it to turn out to be a song about kicking their asses. (As he notes, however, they did become a more straightforwardly Christian band on their later albums once they went independent.)
  Todd: If this is Christian music, give me that old-time religion!
• Ambiguous Syntax: When covering Butthole Surfers he noted the band's name could either be taken to mean people who surf buttholes, or buttholes that surf.
• Americans Hate Tingle: In-Universe, Todd often talks about this trope in his One Hit Wonderland episodes; many of the foreign "one-hit wonders" that he covers are bands that actually had several hits in their home countries, but only one that ever made it to America.
• Anachronism Stew: The payphone itself in Maroon 5's "Payphone". It's 2012, and he's still using an antiquated piece of communications that can't be ported around with you or access the internet... and you have to PAY TO USE IT!???
  Todd: What's the next song going to be, "Cotton Gin"?
• Analogy Backfire: Todd really likes doing this.
  • Pointed out by name in his review of The Black Eyed Peas' "Imma Be", when will.i.am compares himself to a sperm bank...as men put sperm into a sperm bank.
  • A quick one from Enrique Iglesias's "Tonight..."
    Enrique: If I had a type, then it would be you.
    Todd: Or in other words, you're not my type.
  • He also points that a firework is something so ephemerous Katy Perry should have talked about firewood instead.
  • In the "E.T." review, when mentioning Kanye West's guest verse on Keri Hilson's "Knock You Down":
    Kanye: So we can finally fly off into NASA
    Todd: Generally you take off from NASA, not into it, Kanye.
  • LMFAO's "Yo, I'm runnin' through these ho's like Drano". Unless it was saying their music is corrosive and harmful.
  • When the video for "If I Die Young" invokes Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott," he points out that said lady went completely unknown or cared about by her people, even after death. All she left behind was a pretty corpse.
  • And then there's Train's "Drive By." The title's imagery aside, he focuses mainly upon the implications of Patrick comparing his love to a two-ply Hefty bag (in other words, garbage), and how his love "went viral."
  • He points out that Kelly Clarkson singing "What doesn't kill you make you stronger" is irrelevant because the narrator doesn't seem to have had any emotional investment in the relationship in the first place.
    • Also, the line "Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone" loses its credibility once the narrator mentions moving on to another man.
  • When the opening of "Mac & Devin Go to High School" suggests that the viewer smoke up before watching the movie, he points out that "you need to be high to enjoy this movie" is typically not a compliment.
  • When "Holy Grail" uses the song's title and a reference to a cup as "runneth over" to describe the prices of fame, he notes that the only time the Holy Grail has ever been harmful was when it was a fake, and "cup runneth over" is a Biblical reference about what is genuinely an overabundance of blessing from heaven. Indeed, he finds the same lack of negative consequences to be a theme in the song's verses and the artists' careers.
  • In a song about an girl wanting to get back with her ex, Miley Cyrus said she "came in like a wrecking ball" in the titular song, who wanted to "break the walls" of her ex, only to be "broken" by the ex instead ("all you ever did was break me"). Todd then shows the faultiness of this analogy by showing a cartoon of a character taking cover from being hit by a wrecking ball in a little closet, edited to show the wrecking ball breaking and disappearing, with the closet completely unharmed.
  • When commenting on Juicy J's verse in "Dark Horse," Todd points out that a Knight in Shining Armor wakes up the Sleeping Beauty, as opposed to knocking her unconscious.
    Todd: What, did you punch her?
  • In the "Replay" review, Todd notes Iyaz is comparing a girl to a broken iPod.
  • Most of the "Body Like a Back Road" episode is dedicating to picking apart the analogy of the title.
  • He finds a large number of the heroic references in "Something Just Like This" fail to be accurate descriptions of their subjects. Spider-Man's control, Batman's fists, and particularly "Achilles and his gold."
  • "Gorilla" is about "making love like gorillas," which in reality are just about the most unerotic animals one can imagine, as Todd demonstrates.
  • In "Pride," Todd notes that Speech is comparing his skin to a prom tuxedo, which is something you just rent to wear once.
  • He argues that the Witch Hunt metaphor Megan Thee Stallion was going for in the "Sweetest Pie" music video doesn't work because the targeted characters really are evil witches.
  • In his One Hit Wonderland on Paper Lace, Todd expresses frustration that he couldn't talk about "Billy Don't Be a Hero," which has a Vietnam War subtext he could discuss in the context of other Seventies music.^note Sadly for Todd, the version of the song that became successful in the US was a cover version by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. Instead he's stuck with "The Night Chicago Died," which at most offers a strained Watergate analogy equating Al Capone to Richard Nixon, a connection Todd doesn't find very convincing.
• Anarchy Is Chaos: Completely subverted. His One Hit Wonderland review of "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba starts off with him trying to explain just what Anarchy actually is. Trying being the key word, since the best he could describe it was "Socialism or Communism, but without any government," since he openly acknowledged that he didn't really understand it himself. The trope page itself is much clearer. The band was formed in the '80s by actual far-left-sided political anarchists who joined in on the Punk Rock scene of the '80s.
• Anatomically Impossible Sex: Discussed in his review of Kesha's "Blah Blah Blah".
  Ke$ha: ♪Turn around, boy, lemme hit that!♪
  [Beat]
  Todd: "Turn around, boy... lemme hit that?" I don't think I understand the mechanics here.
  Ke$ha: ♪Don't be a little bitch with your chit chat, just show me where your dick's at!♪
  Todd: Uh... it's between his legs. You know, the crotch area, that's where it is on most guys, you should know that. I mean, not that I'm making any assumptions about your character here, but I'm pretty sure you're already well-acquainted with the location of a penis.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Parodied in his "Party Rock Anthem" review, in which he states "And then John was a douchebag" during the dance zombie apocalypse scene.
• ...And That Would Be Wrong: In his One Hit Wonderland on The Cardigans "Lovefool," he ends a statement about how Nina does an amazing job making her pathetic codependence romantic, seductive, and desirable by blunting informing the viewer that saying yes to that offer would unquestionably make you the bad guy.
• Angrish:
  • His first two Lady Gaga reviews reduced Todd to this. In one, he actually just screams in pure frustrated anger.
    Todd: DAAAAAAAAH!
  • Defied — He didn't review Ke$ha's "Take It Off" because he would spend the whole review screaming like Rain Man.
  • Defied again — On Twitter, he states he might not ever do a One Hit Wonderland review of "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes or a Worst of 1993 retrospect because his hate of the song is too primal.
  • His fury and confusion that Kenny G had a Top 10 hit on the Pop charts in 1987 devolved into this.
  • His review of "Break Up" gave us "GHRRRRLRRRUUUUUUGHHHH."
• Anti-Love Song: Many of the songs listed in "Top Ten Songs About Mediocre Romance."
• Arch-Enemy: Peter Cetera and Chris Brown. He plays up Cetera more because it's funnier, while Brown has actually done awful things.
  • As of 2019, he has adopted Lil Dicky as his new nemesis (Todd's words), outright stating in the 2019 worst list (which Dicky topped with "Earth") that he loves hating him and will follow him to the ends of the earth.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Todd's worst villains of The '80s are Ayatollah Khomeini, Pablo Escobar, the guy who shot Pope John Paul II (Mehmet Ali Ağca)... and Peter Cetera, former frontman of Chicago.
    • And his list of Cetera's crimes: "Peter Cetera is a war criminal. Peter Cetera caused the stock market crash. Peter Cetera killed my dog."
    • In the same video, he lists the plagues that attacked the namesake Windy City: the Chicago Fire, Al Capone, and the "lingering, still infesting [sic] plague of Cubs fans".
  • In his review for Bruno Mars's "Grenade," Todd makes a list of the qualities of the woman whom Bruno is singing about: "Abusive," "Demonic," "Insane," "Evil," "Deceitful," and "Bad at auto repair."
  • When he's detailing the strange things that have happened to him over the year:
    Todd: Let's see, I've been abducted several times, I fought for the fate of the world, I've been punched in the face with great frequency, I drank way too much and weirdest of all, I started facing to the left.
  • Todd's opinion of Jason Derulo:
    Todd: Jason Derulo is a talentless hack; an emotionally retarded buffoon entirely devoid of wit, charisma, or anything resembling a functioning brain cell; an artist of stunning incompetence whose noxious, simpering vocals depend entirely on lazy Auto-Tune that somehow still emphasizes his pathetic inability to hold a single note on-key in his reedy, punchable throat. He's a malformed rat being clumsily unable to even walk upright who's too stupid to even pity, and I wish he'd come to terms with the fact that he's a sentient bucket of pig sewage so he'll stop polluting the world with the audio dumpster juice he calls music. I don't like him. [Beat] Artistically, I mean; I don't know what he's like personally.
  • In his review of Florida-Georgia Line's "Cruise," he starts out by berating the band for using Nelly in an blatant effort to gain cred and ends up admitting that mostly he's upset because realizing Nelly's almost 40 made him feel old.
• Artistic License – Economics: He pointed out in his review of the Hannah Montana movie that the villain is trying to build a mall despite the fact that the entire town doesn't seem to want it, which is really not a good idea.
• Assuming the Audience's Age: Will occasionally mention having a younger audience when discussing music history, often accompanied with a stock photo of babies.
• AstroTurf: He accuses "#selfie" of having made the Billboard Top 20 only due to viral marketing, saying it's not enjoyable enough either for the lyrics or the music to chart otherwise, even factoring in irony.
• Ate His Gun: He tries to do this during his review of "Imma Be" by the Black Eyed Peas.
  Todd: If I have to hear "Imma Be" one more time, I'm gonna shoot myself! *Starts freaking out, reaches for a nearby pistol, puts it to his head, his chin, in his mouth, and starts pulling the trigger* [Beat] *disappointed* This isn't a real gun.
  • He jokes about it again in the Sunday School Musical review.
    Todd: Oh...I suddenly have an itch at the back of my throat...that I must scratch...with my gun!
• Attention Whore: Subverted. He goes into "Applause" by pointing out that Lady Gaga is one, but then realizes that the song isn't about her nearly as much as it is about her attacking her critics.
• Author Appeal:
  • Todd has mentioned that he's a fan of retro songs, so it's not a surprise that most songs in his end-of-year lists end up falling into this category. The retro imitations done by Bruno Mars in particular have gotten a lot of praise from Todd, with him considering them Mars' best work, and featuring or mentioning them on several year-end best lists. Meghan Trainor, on the other hand, averts this appeal for Todd, with his opinion becoming increasingly critical of her execution or invocation of a retro style.
  • He's a big fan of The Simpsons and sometimes either quotes it or shows a clip.
  • Todd has frequently mentioned his favor for depressing party songs that sound upbeat but feature bleak or sad lyrics.
  • Adele has become a case. He acknowledged that he was initially dismissive of her style and didn't think she'd last, but quickly realized he was wrong and gained a lot of respect for her. From 21 onward, all of Adele's albums have produced at least one song that was mentioned or entered on year-end best lists.
• Author Tract: He decided not to review any of Tom MacDonald's songs for this reason, feeling that they aren't songs so much as extended, ill-informed political rants set to music and that MacDonald is little more than a grifter. He considered doing a video on him, but when he sat down to write it, he found that it wasn't a review so much as it was a point-by-point rebuttal, and while Todd is open about his political leanings, he felt that a music review show wasn't the place for political commentary. He had no such issues with doing a video on Aaron Lewis' "Am I the Only One," as while he strongly disagrees with its politics and finds it phony, racist, out of its depth, invoked Wangsty, and sounding unintentionally like a parody of "patriotic" music from the Team America: World Police soundtrack, it at least tries to be an actual song and thus could be judged on those merits, and he later stated that he would have hated a left-wing version just as much.
• Auto-Tune: Discussed (and used) reviewing "5 O'clock". He says that he doesn't mind it, and that it should be considered just another facet of modern production, like stereo sound or multi-tracked vocals. He then parodies it by suggesting that he should Auto-Tune the whole review, but promptly backs out.
• Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Todd theorizes that the reason Bruno Mars peppers "The Lazy Song" with random references to sex and masturbating is because, otherwise, it could easily be mistaken for a Sesame Street song.
• Award-Bait Song: He thinks "Never Too Far" was this for Glitter. To prove his point home, he even plays "I Will Always Love You" over it.
  • He also pointed out that Cher's solo in Burlesque was this.
    Todd: (singing like Cher) Give me an Oscar∼ We have this whole song and there's no point for it, except for a cheap "Best Song" nomination∼
• Awesome Music: invoked His views on "Fuck You!"
  Todd: It's rare to see consensus get built about a pop song. Music is one of the things that everyone has a different taste in. Very, very rarely is a song so good that everyone has to agree on it. But when I heard my #1 song, I spread it to everyone I knew and everyone loved it, and I've never seen that happen. I told myself if there was any justice in this world, it would be a song that spread everywhere and that everyone would love it and...it did... And by the end of 2011, it was widely recognized as one of the greatest songs ever written.
  • Invoked with the majority of the songs he gushes about in the year-end best-of lists, particularly those in the top 4 or 5. If he isn't gushing about how much he loves his picks, he's defending his more controversial picks.
  • And on Uptown Funk, his best hit song of 2014
    Todd: Everything about this is great.
    • That same year, his #3 pick, Clean Bandit's "Rather Be", almost leaves him speechless with its beauty.
  • The honourable mentions for 2015 simply had this to say about "Run Away With Me" by Carly Rae Jepsen:
    Todd: I don't normally put songs that aren't eligible on the honourable mentions list, but uh, this is one of the best songs I've ever heard.
• Awesome McCoolname: Apparently, his opinion on Taio Cruz, who had no choice but to be a pop star with that name.

B

• Bad "Bad Acting": In the crossover review of Kanye West's Runaway, Rap Critic and Todd Lampshade the cliche crossover setup by passing a script back and forth and reading the lines completely deadpan.
• Bad Liar: Stu Cook. In the Trainwreckords episode on Mardi Gras by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Todd notes that Stu claims John Fogerty forced him to start writing his own songs... even though one of the songs he wrote was a diss track complaining that John didn't want him to start writing his own songs.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In the beginning of his review of Train's "Drive By", he compliments Train as an interesting and intriguing band and rhetorically asks what made him change his mind. While the listener might be expecting a glowing compliment of a song or album, instead he says "Well, I think the lead singer might've gone insane."
  • The "Float On" One Hit Wonderland episode starts out talking about the 2004 indie hit by Modest Mouse, then—Record Needle Scratch, Todd yells "April Fools, bitches!" and the focus switches to the homonymous 70's hit by The Floaters.
  • In his "Deuces" review:
    Todd: In February of 2009, the pop world was shocked when rising R&B superstar Chris Brown viciously and brutally assaulted... his chances for a long-term career.
    
    I love beating on Chris Brown just as much as Chris Brown likes beating... eggs for his famous homestyle breakfasts.
  • In his review of "7 Years", he starts off by saying how great it is to have a band like Lukas Graham, who play their own instruments and make actual music...before declaring their aforementioned hit to be one of the worst songs of the year. He explains that he'd rather have a terrible song with an actual melody, lyrics and chorus - "a kind of awful I can understand," as he puts it - rather than the (merely bad) atonal, droning, techno-driven music he's been hearing on the radio recently.
  • On his "Best of 2016" list, he trash talks several of The Chainsmokers' songs before setting up their hit "Roses" as his #1 pick...only to quickly reveal that their other song "Closer" was his real one.
  • In another One Hit Wonderland episode, he starts out about to cover You're Beautiful by James Blunt when he gets a text message—the person who requested it wants him to do Turning Japanese by the Vapors instead—which he does with gusto.
  • In the "Meant to Be"/"The Middle" review, he starts off by praising "The Middle" for its superb production... only to spend the rest of the view criticizing the lyrics and Maren Morris's uninspired vocals.
  • On the Trainwreckords episode for Fairweather Johnson: "If there is any band on earth who shouldn't be on a show about spectacular failures, it is Hootie and the Blowfish. 'Cause they weren't a spectacular anything."
  • In his "Best of 2021" list:
    Todd: It is now time that we celebrate the great breakthrough of 2021. The long overdue ascension of a struggling artist we all wrongly assumed had squandered every last chance. Who was doomed to obscurity, but finally, at last, blew up big in 2021... the guitar. What a wonderful comeback year it's been for the guitar. It's also a good year for Machine Gun Kelly, who had spent the last seven or eight years trying to make himself a credible rapper and failing.
  • Claims that The Cardigans' song "My Favourite Game" sounds like garbage. Then clarifies that he's referring to the band, and that he actually really likes the song.
  • His #4 entry on his "Best Hit Songs of 2023" list begins with a big introduction to Ryan Gosling's recent spike in fame and popularity, culminating with not only an acclaimed role as Ken in Barbie (2023), the biggest movie of the year, but even a bona fide hit song. As he ends his segment with a clip of Gosling's "I'm Just Ken" number...
    Todd: Heh, yeah, that was a good bit. Anyway, here's the Billie Eilish one. [cut to the actual #4 pick, "What Was I Made for?"]
• Bait-and-Switch Lesbians: The reason he declared "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town the 9th worst song of 2015.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In the "Imma Be" review, after the song switches into a completely different style, Todd says that he'd be glad to hear something than other than droning repetitions of "Imma be, imma be, imma be". Then it turns out that section of the song also repeats that particular phrase...
• Becoming the Mask: After hearing 3OH!3's verse on Kesha's "Blah Blah Blah" Todd wonders to himself whether they were genuinely dumb fratboys all along, or if they'd 'gone so far into character that they can't get out.'
  • Subverted—he later determines, after hearing them say the line "who I is", that they are just trying too hard.
• Berserk Button:
  • Todd is absolutely enraged in the One Hit Wonderland video for S Club 7's "Never Had a Dream Come True," when they make fun of Hanson on their TV show. After he rants about how they have no right to attack a group he considers much more talented, "HANSON RULES" appears on the screen.
  • Justin Bieber. Just his mere image sends Todd into a growling rage. Hell, he got so mad at the chorus in "Eenie Meenie" it gave him a close-up.
    Todd: BIEBER!
  • Kenny G.
  • A subset under adult alternative, referred to as "white-guy-with-an-acoustic-guitar songs" which is described as any song by singers who are nowhere near as deep as they think they are and largely function as exercises in ego about their own image of themselves as more intellectual than conventional pop singers. He crystallizes this in his review of Train's "Hey Soul Sister". It shows up again in his reviews of "7 years", which he even declared the worst song of 2016, and "Without You" in his worst of 2022 list.
  • Conspiracy Theorists, apparently. In The Top 10 Worst Songs of 2004, when covering Jadakiss's "Why", he at first regards the song as dumb and definitely not something Jadakiss is meant for, but after hearing the lines "Why did Bush knock down the towers?" and "Why did Kobe have to hit that raw, why'd he kiss that whore?" (the "whore" being Kobe Bryant's alleged rape victim), Todd angrily tells Jadakiss to "go eat a dick."
  • Chris Brown's beating the stuffing out of Rihanna, to the point where he has to struggle to keep from making his review of "I Can Transform Ya" all about it. Chris himself becomes this over the course of "Deuces", primarily because he acted like Domestic Abuse was no big deal.
    • His anger at Chris boils over in the "Freaky Friday" review, where he seems at first mildly annoyed at the song's premise of novelty rapper Lil Dicky swapping bodies with Chris until the latter sings about his "controversial past". Cue an angry rant from Todd about how the song casually brushes off the incident and Brown's ongoing domestic issues.
  • Todd hates the group Chicago - more specifically all their material after 1975, starting with the album Chicago X. Conversely, he has nothing but hate for Peter Cetera (Chicago's frontman from 1967-85) who he considers to be one of the greatest villains of the 1980s, and says his voice "resonates at the exact frequency to piss me off".
  • Who was the writer of "I Write the Songs?" Not Barry Manilow, but BRUCE JOHNSTON OF THE BEACH BOYS!?!!?
  • Nickelback.
  • will.i.am. Especially after "The Time (Dirty Bit)". In his "Worst of 2013" retrospect, Todd states that he ranked "Scream and Shout" way too low in 2012, and that he wasn't going to make the same mistake in 2013. He ranked "#thatPOWER" as the second worst hit song of 2013, and even then, Todd said ranking the song as the second worst of the year was still too generous.
  • Songs that get big off of Vines. In his "Worst Songs of 2015", Todd states that, without exaggeration, Vine is "the stupidest way anyone has ever gotten a hit song". Now that Vine is gone, he has redirected his ire at TikTok for similar reasons.
  • Meghan Trainor was shaping up to be another one of his most hated artists, though as time passes and Todd's ideas of what a "Bad" song really is, he's softened up on her since while he doesn't like her songs, Meghan having a personality puts her above much of the other dreck.
  • The "LUKAS GRAHAM!" chant in "7 Years" becomes this, especially once it returns during the Worst of 2017 list.
  • The very name of Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road" leads to Todd facepalming and punching and kicking the wall.
  • Whenever the basic "four chords of pop music" pop up in a song, expect to hear an anguished groan.
  • Todd hates songs that are about executives, contracts, and the music industry in general:
    • Todd was frustrated with the more experimental tracks on Funstyle, as he liked the musical ideas if not for the lyrics about Liz Phair fighting with her label, even dedicating an entire song to insulting Andy Slater, the former head of Capitol Records.
    • Todd similarly hated "Sweet Amber" after learning the song was Metallica complaining about recording radio promotions.
  • Lazy, unoriginal sampling has become a big one for Todd as he puts "Big Energy" by Latto on his worst of 2022 list for using "Genius Of Love" in the same way as Mariah Carey did years prior on "Fantasy" and adding nothing new.
  • Todd openly hates boring, bland ballads and love songs as seen in his videos for the worst songs of 1987 and 1991, finding them much worse than more hated songs which at least have more personality.
  • Tasteless comments or jokes about subjects like suicide also really piss Todd off as seen when he gets furious at Crazy Town writing lyrics about Michael Hutchence's and Robin Williams' suicides and his open disdain for the urban legend about Bobby McFerrin dying by suicide and the glee detractors took in believing it.
• Better by a Different Name: How he views certain songs.
  • When introducing Lady Gaga's "Alejandro", he plays the chorus of Ace of Base's "The Sign" instead.
    • He also mentions the Madonna ripoffs in the video (such as the dress from "Vogue")
  • He can't listen to more than a few bars of Flo Rida's "Club Can't Handle Me" without it turning into "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon.
    Todd: Though, I have to admit that I don't like this song as much as the first time I heard it, back when it was called "I Gotta Feeling".
  • He imagines that "Eenie Meenie" would have been better if it left out Justin Bieber and got rid of the ridiculous lyrics... and realizes that that perfectly describes Sean Kingston's earlier song "Fire Burning".
  • In an inversion, he describes Jay Sean's "Down" as an even better version of Chris Brown's "Forever", thus ensuring that the world can safely ignore Chris Brown.
    Todd: New and improved Chris Brown! Now with 31% less Domestic Abuse!
  • He mentions Travie McCoy's "Billionaire" in his end-of-2010 recap solely to point out its similarity to Sublime's "Santeria".
  • A double-whammy in the case of "The Time" - he preferred the song they based the chorus on (in fact, like in "Alejandro" he opens the review playing "(I've Had) the Time of My Life"), and believes the beats to be a rip-off of Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction".
  • While more Identical Stranger, as he doesn't like the song, Todd is shocked to see Daddy Yankee isn't Pitbull.
    • Likewise, he finds "5 O'Clock" to be a retread of "Whatcha Say", being a song about a bad boyfriend with a misused sample of a British singer - but while Todd hates DeRulo's song, T-Pain's one only baffles him.
  • "Sexy and I Know It" goes the same way "I'm Too Sexy" did in the '90s, only with worse results.
  • Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe" is a retread of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours"... too bad he already loathes the other one!
  • Most of fun.'s non-"We Are Young" output is an attempt to emulate Queen. Unfortunately, their lead singer isn't Freddie Mercury. Later, he acknowledges that "Some Nights" is their Bohemian Rhapsody, and he also still thinks they're a very good band.
  • He finds "Payphone"'s music too similar to Bruno Mars.
  • Gerardo's next four singles after "Rico Suave" are ripoffs of himself, Marky Mark, Tone Loc and PM Dawn.
  • Played for Laughs when comparing blowjob metaphors in his review of "Whistle".
    Todd: "Flo Rida, you are no Lauren Bacall."
  • In the "Achy Breaky Heart" episode of One Hit Wonderland, he points this out twice: first by saying that Tracy Lawrence's "Can't Break It to My Heart" is a better version of said song that plays its hook straight; then by saying that Tim McGraw did Billy Ray Cyrus' shtick better with "Indian Outlaw" (which, like "Achy Breaky Heart", was a goofy novelty line-dance song).
  • Comes up often in Burlesque, where he identifies sequences practically stolen from Moulin Rouge!, Chicago and Cabaret. More damning still, he sums up the movie in the end as trying to be Showgirls and failing at it.
  • Regarding Robin Thicke being "a poor man's Justin Timberlake", given that now his greatest hit has T.I., and the one Todd was reviewing had Pharrell, the next step is "start hosting SNL and not talking to other *NSYNC members."
  • Played with when discussing One Direction's "Best Song Ever". It took the intro and bassline from The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and based the premise on Tenacious D's "Tribute", and ripping off such great songs resulted in... a good song that still changed enough to keep it from being redundant.
  • Todd is completely okay with Bruno Mars trying to sound like Sting on "Locked Out of Heaven", since Sting himself is still on a Baroque lute music kick, and we've got to have somebody who sounds like Sting.
    • However, he finds that him doing a Prince-esque Intercourse with You song backfires, while Bruno, despite the similarities (short, ethnical) is far from it. invoked
    • He is favorable toward Bruno's take on turn-of-the-80's Kool & The Gang as well.
  • He can't mention Ariana Grande without pointing out her similarity to Ashanti, but he doesn't seem to find that a problem at all.
  • He considers "Roar" and "Dark Horse" to be weaker versions of "Firework" and "E.T.", respectively.
  • He finds the girl talking during "#selfie" to pale in comparison to Kesha's body of work or Moon Unit Zappa's lines in "Valley Girl" in all aspects: talent, musical quality, satire or even succeeding at being annoying.
  • His initial reaction to Deee-Lite is to say he liked them better when they were called The B-52s, but he continues to find differences between their bodies of work that make them worthwhile.
  • Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" is compared to Fall Out Boy, Kesha and "Whip My Hair".
  • He claimed that "Fuck U Betta" by Neon Hitch is a better version of "Bang Bang".
  • He says Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat" is better than Silento's "Watch Me" because at least Soulja Boy is original and came up with his own dance. Downplayed, as while Todd doesn't hate "Crank Dat" quite as much as its copy, he still considers both to be some of the worst songs ever made.
  • He unfavourably compares Lukas Graham's "7 Years" to Five for Fighting's "100 Years", saying that if Lukas Graham wanted to write a song bragging about how awesome they were, they should have written something more like "Good Life".
  • While he appreciates One Direction's "Perfect", he simply can't ignore that it's the exact same song as Taylor Swift's "Style".
  • He finds Coldplay and The Chainsmokers' "Something Just Like This" to be derivative of plenty of their previous work (especially the drop from "Roses" and the chorus from "Hymn For The Weekend"), complete with lyrics that remind him far too much of several ballads and what he determines to be the latest overly-used chord progression. He still enjoys it for having a reasonable message, pandering to the groups' biggest strengths, and adding one thing he finds surprising and worthwhile: a guitar solo during an EDM drop.
  • In the Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2016 video, he has this feeling toward Kelsea Ballerini's "Peter Pan" versus his #8 pick, Ruth B.'s "Lost Boy". He points out while Ruth B. just seems to be blandly retelling the main storyline of Peter Pan without adding anything to it or showing any understanding of its mythos, Kelsea instead used the literary allusions to come up with a narrative about a love interest who refuses to mature... or as Todd put it, to "highlight the fact that a lot of people forget, which is that Peter Pan is a useless little shit."
  • In the review of "Happier" by Marshmello and Bastille, he contrasts the song with Tim McGraw's "Just to See You Smile", finding the latter to be a much better execution of a man putting himself through uncomfortable situations just to make his lover happy.
  • Subverted in his "Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2017". He compares Ed Sheeran's "Castle on the Hill" to "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams, but decides they're both equally good.
    • Played straight later in the same video where he claims The Chainsmokers' "Paris" is basically a copy of M83's "Midnight City", except that you can actually hear and understand the words.
  • He thinks Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" is similar to Shawn Mendes' "Treat You Better", except with a less condescending sexist attitude and a singer who can actually sing.
  • In the One Hit Wonderland about Skee-Lo's "I Wish," he has this to say about Skee-Lo's 2001 song "At The Mall," the chorus of which is about how he tells his girl that other girls just got his number when he ran into them "at the mall" when she catches him cheating on her with them:
  Todd: Heh, that was kinda funny. It was funnier the year before when it was called "It Wasn't Me."
• Beware the Nice Ones: He describes Taylor Swift as a "verbal assassin" on par with Beyoncé or Adele in his review of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", citing her songs "Mean", "Dear John", and "Innocent" as Exhibits A, B, and C.
  "Do not piss off Taylor Swift."
• Beware the Silly Ones: After spending much of his Trainwreckords episode on The Funky Headhunter making fun of MC Hammer's laughable attempts to be "gangsta", Todd reveals that, in reality, Hammer had extensive gang ties and used them to intimidate and nearly kill his rivals. He was just unable to bring that across without seeming goofy and non-intimidating.
• Be Yourself: Inverted with Bruno Mars, who Todd feels makes much better music when imitating other singers.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Invoked in Alicia Keys' "Girl On Fire" review, when the song just randomly starts off with Nicki Minaj rapping about things that have NOTHING to do with the song. Even the Rap Critic, who also appeared randomly out of nowhere (much to Todd's frustration- He calls him out on it), notes that neither the start of the song or Nicki's second part later on just come out of nowhere, the lyrics have nothing to do with anything else in the song, and were clearly thrown in at the last moment in production because Nicki is only standing in front of a very cheap green-screen effect in the background. And THEN Todd notes how poor the transition between Nicki's opening and Alicia's lyrics are. He's had random songs on his MP3 player transition better than that.
  • Discussed in his 2014 Grammys vlog, where he opines that the awards ceremony hasn't been truly interesting since Mike Portnoy's^note the multimedia artist, not the former drummer of Dream Theater "SOY BOMB" incident.
• Big "NO!":
  • Todd lets out a rapid fire Big No when will.i.am rhymes Lehman with semen in the "Imma Be" review.
  • Todd lets out a big no when he thinks that the car in "Black and Yellow" might just be Bumblebee.
  • And again when he hears AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long" ruined by the Black Eyed Peas.
  • And again when Kanye West was let into his zone.
  • Done when acting out the cartoonishly evil boyfriend in the "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" review.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • He opens his review of Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" with "Wha... WHY?!".
  • He lets out two of them in his "Ridin'" OHW when he finds out that Chamillionaire invested his money in Maker Studios, the same company he works for.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor:
  • From "Telephone".
    Todd: This video has more obtrusive advertisements than thatguywiththeglasses.com!
  • In "Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2010".
    Todd: [...] But as I slowly got used to ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com, I began to notice that my new compatriots and colleagues were reviewers of comic books, anime, manga, video games, cheesy B-movies, cartoons, toys, sci-fi television, and Internet fan-fiction. And that's when I realized...YOU ALL ARE A BUNCH OF NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS!
  • Both the higher-ups screwed him over in their cameos: The Nostalgia Critic threatened him with "Hoedown Throwdown" if he didn't continue reviewing music, and Rob Walker unveils that he edited out large chunks of Todd's script for "S&M" and is implied to think that Todd is dumber than '90s Kid.
  • Variation: Lady Gaga singing "To crash the critic saying 'Is it right or is it wrong?'" and "I've overheard your theory: nostalgia's for geeks" leads to Todd saying "Yeah! Screw these critics of nostalgia and everyone associated with them!"
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • In Todd's One Hit Wonderland of "Scatman" by Scatman John, he absolutely believes that John Larkin deserved better than what he got. John Larkin was a 53-year-old jazz musician from LA who used scatting to help cope with his own stuttering disability, and managed to pull off a Eurodance hit in 1995. His Scatman's World follow-up album ended up being a huge success in Europe and especially Japan, but he sadly passed away of lung cancer in 1999. Todd points out how there was nothing disingenuous about his music career. He never did it for fame or money, but always kept the message of spreading love and loving jazz music. He saw a chance late in his life, and he took it.
    Todd: This was just a stupid novelty song to me before I did this episode, and now it is a song from one of my favorite artists to ever come here. I feel nothing but happiness listening to this. And though he is no longer with us, I believe the Scatman is still somewhere out there in Scatland, making our dreams come true.
  • Trainwreckords has a few of these. St. Anger, for example, ends with Todd noting that while the album may have been a poorly recieved disaster that ultimately crippled their mainstream momentum, going through the experience of recording it at least managed to keep the band together and release more, better recieved albums.
• Black Sheep Hit: invoked Discussed in his One-Hit Wonderland series; he argues that a first hit that sounds absolutely nothing like your normal sound is a great recipe for never having another, especially if it's a cover.
  • Crazy Town were well aware of this trope, and resisted releasing "Butterfly" as long as they could in a desperate effort to avoid becoming one-hit wonders. But they just couldn't do it, and ultimately gave up and enjoyed their five minutes of fame before flaming out in a toxic cloud of drug abuse, pot-shots at sometimes-recently deceased celebrities, and crappy nu-metal music.
  • It comes up again in the episode on Coven's "One Tin Soldier", a folk-rock Protest Song by a band otherwise known for Satanic proto-metal that became their one big hit thanks to its attachment to the Billy Jack soundtrack.
  Todd: So put on your face paint, light some candles, draw a pentagram on the floor, and prepare to get your faces rocked on this devil's night as we listen to Coven's biggest hit, "One. Tin. Soldier!"
  <"One Tin Soldier" starts playing; Todd starts lowering his metal horns in disappointment>
  Todd: What is this? What-what am I listening to? This... this... what... th-this isn't metal. This is... this is folk protest hippie shit! What- is this a cartoon? Is this from a kids' show? Where's the blood? Where's the devil worship? ...happy Halloween? Why can't I have this one thing? That's all I ask for!
• *Bleep*-dammit!: At one point, the subtitles refer to the Jay-Z/Kanye West single as "Niggas in P***s". "What the hell do I pay you people for?"
• Book Ends: He opens and closes the From Justin to Kelly review failing to write a script about Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know".
  Todd: Gotye is some guy.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Mimicking The Nostalgia Critic at the start of his review of "Eenie Meenie". Makes a return at the end of the "Black and Yellow" review.
  Todd: HELLO, I'M TODD IN THE SHADOWS! I LISTEN TO IT CAUSE YOU DON'T WANT TO!
  • He also borrows Anthony Fantano's catchphrase at the beginning of the "Old Town Road" review.
    Todd: Hey everyone, Todd in the Shadows here, Internet's laziest music nerd...
• Brain Bleach: Employed In-Universe, and often combined with a Shower of Angst: invoked
  • In "Deuces", when Todd hears the line "I'm a dick so it shouldn't be that hard to swallow", we immediately cut to a shot of his bathroom with the shower running.
    Todd: CAN'T... GET.... CLEAAAAAN!
  • In the review to Britney Spears' "3"
    Todd: Run from this terrible song. Run before she taints your moral purity. That's what I'm gonna do. And taking a freaking shower.
  • When he points out the chorus for Flo Rida's "Whistle" is a not-that-hidden reference to oral sex. Cue Todd walking away from the keyboard, up the stairs, and into the shower.
    Todd: *Sobbing* Get it off me. get it o-o-offff!!
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  • "We already got a bunch of Jays, and we already got a bunch of Seans. We certainly don't need a Jay Sean!"
  • Todd starts "Like a G6" saying it's a Ke$ha ripoff. Then he compares it to "Boom Boom Pow", and concludes it's "The Ke$ha/Black Eyed Peas collaboration the world was asking for."
  • Inverted in his Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1987, while describing his dislike of Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam:
    Todd: Why would I want to listen to Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam when I could just listen to The Cult or The Jam?
  • While reviewing "Tonight, Tonight", he states that party songs should consist of more than just repeating the word "tonight". Or "everybody". Or "fun". Or worst case scenario, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight". Though he admits that song is okay.
  • When trying to determine the subject matter of Ellie Goulding's "Lights", he narrows it down to being called home by ghosts, aliens, or possibly alien ghosts.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Multiple times (in several layers) on the list of three-syllable phrases more suitable that "sexy bitch" for use in Akon's "Sexy Bitch."
  • At the start of his review of Katy Perry's "E.T.", several other reviewers appear and knock his taste in music; the last is Obscurus Lupa with a different issue:
    Lupa: Stop stealing pieces of my hair!
    Todd: [quickly] Yeah, Katy Perry sure does suck!
  • When listing various nonsense syllables sung by Lady Gaga, he points out that Gaga "regularly lets her mouth let out things like 'ma-ma-ma-ma', 'rah-rah-ah-ah-ah', 'cherry cherry boom boom', and 'I'm worried about people stealing my creativity through my vagina'."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: As part of a Running Gag, Todd will occasionally assume that the songer he is listening to is addressing him, directly, and will answer as if engaging in conversation. He does it to the Chainsmokers when they start a song with 'Hey!' and he answer '"Hi.' in return, and then again when discussing Drake's song Passionfruit in the top 10. Drake starts the song, stops, and announces that he needs to start the track again.
  Todd: Oh, I'm sorry. We'll wait. Okay? You Good? Alright.
• Breather Episode: The Trainwreckords episode on Fairweather Johnson by Hootie & the Blowfish follows a long string of fairly depressing episodes ^note MTV Unplugged 2.0, American Life, Paula and Cut the Crap and is mostly just an analysis of the ridiculous level of success the band had achieved before abruptly running out of steam. Todd even half-jokingly calls the episode "boring" at the end.
  • Todd invokes this trope in the One Hit Wonderland episode for "Whoomp! There It Is" by Tag Team, noting that his last few episodes had been "very heavy" since 2020 "was a heavy year", so he decided to make an episode that was more "upbeat" in response.
• Brick Joke:
  • In "The Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2010", Todd says he could write a dissertation on how Rihanna has reacted publicly and artistically to the Chris Brown incident. Next time he reviews a Rihanna song, guess what he has? ^note An unexpected interruption by Paw and Roses, but the time after that...
  • In "Want U Back", he asks for all hate mail directed towards him to be sent to [e-mail]. In "Gangnam Style", Linkara asks Todd about "all those e-mails he's been receiving".
    • This is referenced once again in "Tales of Suspense #39", where Linkara says to e-mail Todd in the [e-mail] cast your votes now.
  • During his review of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", he offhandedly makes mention about writing a song about being out of salsa. After the credits, he sings that song about being out of salsa... and that he has an itchy leg.
  • In Todd's Trainwreckords video for Liz Phair's Funstyle, he singles out her line "penis...colada that is" as being particularly awkward and unfunny. He then repeats the line in his very next video, about The Buoys' "Timothy," written by Rupert Holmes - best known for "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)."
• Brief Accent Imitation: During his "Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2012" review, Todd does this to mock Cher Lloyd and The Stinger at the end of "Want U Back" (which, as he pointed out in a previous review, was basically ripped off from Kesha).
  Todd: (British accent) It's the sound of trying too hard! Pbbbt!
• Broken Aesop: Todd's main problem with "All About That Bass". It's clearly supposed to be promoting acceptance over your own body. But when talking about she likes about her body, the singer relies on the opinion of others, specifically men, and body-shames skinny women.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Not for him, but for Paw, who was a fan of Sia when she was an indie singer. Then Todd broke it to him by showing him her transition to mainstream pop, leaving Paw so devastated that he had to burn all her CDs and now "Sia is dead". By the next time Todd talks to him about Sia with a mocking tone, Paw just shuts him or hangs up.
  • At the beginning of the Worst Hits of 2022 video, Todd cites as one of the reasons why he has not discontinued the list, in spite of having thought of doing so, his disappointment that a Rolling Stone writer who used to inspire him with great negative reviews is now in charge of the magazine's Twitter feed writing insipid "YASSSSSS QUEEN"-style tweets to fluff up famous singers.
• Broken Record: He decided to count how many times "Imma Be" is Title Dropped (106) and called this on "Whip My Hair":
  Todd: "Whip My Hair" is about three and a half minutes long, and it uses a fairly typical verse-chorus-verse structure. This is surprising to me, because the first few times I heard it, I would have sworn to you that it was just three straight hours of just this one line.^note In case you don't know: I WHIP MY HAIR BACK AND FORTH! I mean it just seems to go ON, and ON.
• Brown Note: He believes that the only way a song could be worse than Enrique Iglesias' "Tonight..." is if it manifested outside of the listener's speakers and humped their leg.
  • "What two words send shivers up a music lover's spine more than 'Disco Duck'?"
  • He describes "Afternoon Delight" as a song that's guaranteed to drive everyone out of the room.
  • Todd says the voice of Peter Cetera (frontman of Chicago) resonates at the exact frequency to piss him right the hell off.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In "The Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2004", Todd says that "Someday" would be the worst song for any other band, but it's just one out of several bad Nickelback songs.

C

• Call-Back:
  • During his review of "OMG" Todd tries to pick up Channel Awesome contributor Obscurus Lupa on webcam with lyrics from the song "OMG". At the end, he quotes "Sexy Chick", another song he reviewed.
    • Also, he says the synth fuzz at the beginning sounds like the player fell asleep on their keyboard, "which, believe me, is not as comfortable as it sounds". This happened to Todd himself in the "Replay" review.
  • When Usher is namedropped in "Deuces", Todd refers to him as "Mr. Booty-Like-Pow-Pow-Pow," calling back to the OMG review, where he made extensive fun of that line.
  • When he Googles the term "G6" in the review of "Like a G6", you briefly see that his desktop wallpaper is a collage of Lupa photos.
  • In his review of "Whip My Hair", he tries the titular method of dealing with "haters" on several of his fellow TGWTG contributors, none of whom are impressed. The last one is Lupa, who wonders why she hasn't blocked him yet.
  • When Todd finally hears a song with awesome, so-good-no-woman-could resist pickup lyrics, he rushes to try them on Lupa...only to go blank and start quoting the lyrics from "Carry Out" instead.
  • In "Black and Yellow"
    Wiz Khalifa: ♪Stay fly like...
    Todd: A G6?
  • In "Grenade", he describes the DL incident from "Like a G6".
  • After making Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot-esque claims about his heritage in "Like a G6" he mentions that a line in "Born This Way" intended to appeal to all races touches him personally... because he is all those races. At once.
  • In "S&M", his desktop refers to a game he played with Pushing Up Roses (see Funny Background Event, below).
  • In "S&M" he mentions the dirty Madonna movie Body of Evidence. Later he tries get Lupa to watch it with him.
  • In the Glitter review, he breaks out the old Mario statue from the "Break Up" review, saying he'll use it to review instead of actually doing it himself. Then that is called back on when the very next review starts with this idea failing.
  • Two in "Give Me Everything". First he thinks the "not having a tomorrow" might be related to the LMFAO dance zombies. Then he reacts to "Grab somebody sexy and say 'Hey, give me everything tonight!'" with... guess who.
  • He ends "Tonight, Tonight"'s review with "Tonight Tonight Tonight", which he listed among the worst hits of 1987.
  • When The Nostalgia Chick comes to his house to ask his help on a Crossroads review, she remembers how Todd unsuccessfully tried to review said movie during the Suburban Knights shoot.
  • "Lupe Fiasco, not to be confused with the Lupa Fiasco..." (cue Todd and Lupa on Skype...)
  • During "Payphone", Todd states he'll stick with another phone-themed song with a crime video he reviewed ("Telephone").
  • In his Best Pop Songs of 2011 video, when Katy Perry appears on the list for the third straight year, he remarks, "You win, Katy Perry - marry me." in the Best Pop Songs of 2012 list, which for the first time ever does not include Katy Perry, he says to consider it a divorce.
  • Probably unintentional, but he ends his Best Pop Songs of 2011 video by using the name of the Number 1 Song as a sign off - "Fuck You". He does this again in 2012, signing off the Best Songs video with "Take Care".
  • The "Titanium" review features Paw Dugan discussing Sia. In the following review, "Whistle", Todd mentions Sia's name, prompting Paw to appear again.
    • Todd himself calls Paw to mock him when he puts "Chandelier" by Sia on his Best of 2014 list. Paw just sighs and hangs up.
  • In "Blurred Lines", the line "You're the hottest bitch in this place" does little more than remind him of "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)".
  • In "Holy Grail", he calls all the way back to his "Bedrock" episode when he replaces Justin Timberlake saying "Holy Grail" with the "Grocery Bag" clip.
  • During the opening of his top 10 list for 2013, Elisa interrupts her supportive words for Todd when she notices him drinking their liquor. The later review "All Of Me" repeatedly cuts to him playing piano at a party for her, Paw and Oancitizen. At the end of the review, when he notices they've all left, he grabs their liquor on the way out.
  • Early in the "Bang Bang" review, he mentions having seen a few episodes of Victorious, a show he mentioned (not actually watching) at the very end of his We Can't Stop vs. Come and Get It review, saying that it was "probably a mistake" but better than the Disney shows he sampled.
  • In "Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2020", while listing Justin Bieber's "Intentions" as an honourable mention:
    Todd: "Heart full of equity". I still can't get over that. That's... That's up there with Hefty bag.
  • In the One Hit Wonderland episode for "Timothy" by The Buoys, while talking about Rupert Holmes and "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)", Todd says "If you like piñas... coladas that is", a reference to the previous episode, a Trainwreckords episode covering Funstyle by Liz Phair.
  • In "The Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2022", a screenshot is shown when Todd reviews his #5 pick ("23" by Sam Hunt) of him messaging a woman, assumed to be his ex-girlfriend from high school, about watching The Secret of NIMH, calling back to a similar story he told in the "drivers license" episode.
• The Cameo: Ironically Todd admitted in the commentary for "Eenie Meenie" / "O.M.G" that he really hates adding cameos into his reviews because he likes having complete control over what goes into the video. Even so...
  • Fellow TGWTG contributor and promoted fan from YouTube Obscurus Lupa appears throughout his "OMG" review, and several other reviews afterwards.
  • The Nostalgia Critic shows up in the beginning of the review for "Club Can't Handle Me" in his Bad Boss persona.
  • And again for the "Whip My Hair" review with several cameos by various other That Guy With The Glasses contributors.
  • In "Black and Yellow", Pennsylvanian RolloT goes on a rant about Pittsburgh.
  • Pushing Up Roses appears in "Grenade", with Todd attempting to get a "thanks" out of her for "promoting" one of her Vinyl Destination videos as "worst video ever". She also shows up in voiceover at the end of "The Lazy Song" to ask why Todd's playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl instead of working on the review.
  • JesuOtaku appears in "Firework/Born This Way" to demonstrate how offending a girl's figure is bad, and in "Stronger" to show how saying you overcame a problem you've never had is irrelevant.
  • Rob Walker (Doug's brother, whom Todd refers as "his producer") and '90s Kid appear in "S&M".
  • Four reviewers appear to complain about Todd liking Katy Perry (and Lupa to complain about stalking). Only one made a first cameo - The Nostalgia Chick, who is then rejected by Todd.
    • Lindsay does an uncredited return as Beaker in "Party Rock Anthem". And to be rejected again in "Top Ten Songs About Mediocre Romance".
  • The Rap Critic appears in "Lighters" to unsuccessfully get a second Crossover, and explain to the Literal-Minded Todd what "show his ass" means. He does it again in his "Best Songs of 2012" video to chew Todd out for putting a Flo Rida song on his list, and in "Girl on Fire" to be just as intrusive as Nicki Minaj's verse.
  • Oancitizen appears to make Todd not give up on reviewing "Sexy and I Know It".
  • To complain about how fun. gives a "featuring Janelle Monáe" credit to such a short performance, he goes "this is a Crossover! With JewWario!" Cue three-second appearance by him.
  • Kung Tai Ted appears to demonstrate the finer points of "Dance The Kung Fu".
  • Paw Dugan shows up to discuss Sia's indie history, only to suffer a Broken Pedestal moment when Todd brings up her recent work. This apparently is based on Paw's true reaction!
  • Douchey McNitpick appears in "Applause" as Todd is analyzing the lyric "I've overheard your theory: 'nostalgia's for geeks'". Title card artist Krin later appears as a Loony Fan of Todd.
    Krin: Oh my god thank you so much for letting me talk to you!— I'm still getting paid, right?
    Todd: Yeah, yeah, the check's in the mail.
  • Elisa appears briefly during "Wrecking Ball" to extend an invitation to watch True Blood with her and Paw, only to be dismissed by an overly defensive Todd.
  • That Dude in the Suede appears in "How Bizarre" to help explain OMC's significance (or lack thereof) in New Zealand to a thoroughly disinterested Todd, and again in "Hooked on a Feeling" to clarify that the band covering it was named Blue Swede, they were Swedish, and that he has nothing to do with them.
  • He specifically hires BFF Nella for "All About That Bass" to deflect criticism about anything insensitive he may end up saying about female body image.
  • When he starts explaining why he dislikes "Scars To Your Beautiful", Hyper Fangirl shows up to demonstrate how those who dismiss its flaws due to its inspirational message make it a chore to review the genre.
• Cannot Spit It Out: This happens to Todd when he finds inspiration to use the lyrics of "Nothing On You" by B.o.B and Bruno Mars on Obscurus Lupa, but he eventually screws it up again by singing the lines to Justin Timberlake's "Carry Out" on her instead.
• Captain Obvious: Todd calls Lil Wayne "MC Obvious" after hearing the line "I can transform ya/Like a Transformer".
• Caption Humor: NOT A RHYME. (and a lot more, such as *apology twirl* in "Whatcha Say")
  • Many in Todd's Black Eyed Peas Experience (best being "This video would be awesome blackmail material if I were not in it")
• Carry a Big Stick: Todd pulls one out during "Club Can't Handle Me" by Flo Rida.
  Todd: Now, maybe it's just me, but if the club can't handle him right now, my only conclusion that they're using the wrong club. Now, this is MY club. It is an authentic replica of a war club used in battle by ancient Greek soldiers, and trust me: It CAN handle you right now.
  • His title card artist has drawn Todd carrying that again for "Deuces" and "Tonight".
• Cassandra Truth: Played for Laughs in his Bad Romance review.
  Todd: She's a demon from Hell! She's gonna kill us all! How are you not seeing this? You've got to believe me!
• Celebrity Is Overrated: He mocked Jay-Z's use of this trope in "Holy Grail", claiming that, as a multimillionare record mogul and pop culture icon with a gorgeous wife who's had a steady career for over a decade and a half, he was in no position to be afraid of falling apart like Mike Tyson or Kurt Cobain.
• Censored for Comedy: The incorrectly-placed censor asterisks in the title of "Niggas in Paris" turn it into "Niggas in P***s", making it look like it says "Niggas in Penis".
• Central Theme: Todd always finds one in the albums of Trainwreckords, usually "New Sound Album gone wrong" (Jewel, The Human League), "Putting the Band Back Together gone wrong" (Mötley Crüe, Crosby Stills Nash and Young), "Band who lost members tries to prove they could survive" (Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Clash), and "These new songs definitely needed some work" (Lauryn Hill, Arrested Development).
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Todd did not want to talk about "Rich Men North of Richmond" due to its loaded subject matter, and so he tried to talk about his summer vacation, during which he went back to home to see old family and friends in... Richmond, Virginia.
• Character Shilling:
  • He mocks the crowd chanting Mike Posner's name at the beginning of "Cooler Than Me" for being a shallow attempt to prop up a singer lacking in star power.
  • The crowd yelling Lukas Graham's name during "7 Years". Todd gets downright enraged.
• Chewing the Scenery: He calls Lil' Jon out on this during "Do You Remember".
• Chirping Crickets: During the review of Jason Derulo's "Wiggle":
  Todd: 'Cause really, what response is there but a long stretch of awkward silence. Lets all just stop what we're doing and think about the horrible, awkward thing that just happened, maybe while I'm glaring in his [Derulo's] direction.
  Jason Derulo: You know what to do with that BIG FAT BUTT!
  (cue crickets chirping)
• Christmas Songs: Discussed (Todd dislikes most songs for overplay), reviewed ("Mistletoe", "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer"), and parodied (once he sees the Weather Girls' "Dear Santa (Bring Me a Man This Christmas)" is just "It's Raining Men" with a holiday theme, he imagines other one hit wonder songs turned Xmas ones).
• City Shout Outs: When mentioning Lady Gaga's "You and I" in his "Best Hit Songs of 2011" list in the prelude to his #4 pick, her other song "The Edge of Glory", Todd notes the phenomenon of local radio stations dubbing in references to their home cities or states in the lyrics of songs in order to do this. He specifically mentioning how his station changes the "Nebraska" line in the song to "Virginia", and that it seems to be the same all around for the rest of the country.
• Cliché Storm: invoked
  • His opinion of "Stronger".
  • Also of Hoobastank's "The Reason", where he lists every single "done to death" piece of lyric.
• Cloudcuckoolander: His view of Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train.
• Clueless Aesop:
  • His opinion of Jadakiss' "Why". He views it as an attempt to make a Political Rap song by somebody who had no understanding of politics, current events, or the world around him, one that does nothing but reveal his own ignorance and stupidity.
  • He feels this way about the entire Charlie's Angels franchise, from the original TV show onward. On paper, it was one of the most feminist shows on television and clearly meant to appeal to women, a show about three Action Girls who quit their old police jobs because the sexists in charge didn't recognize their talents and became glamorous private detectives instead... but most people remember it, for good reason, as a Jiggle Show in which those three women were portrayed chiefly as sex objects. The 2000 film adaptation had a similar identity crisis, being, if anything, even more tasteless and oversexualized yet also having its theme song by Destiny's Child be a female empowerment anthem.
  • He thinks that Oliver Anthony meant well with "Rich Men North of Richmond", but otherwise fell into a lot of lazy tropes denigrating the poor that undermined the populist message he was trying to send.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Todd's review for "Turn Up the Music" ends with a long rant against Chris Brown, most of which the viewer can't hear.
• Cluster F-Bomb:
  • Right after Todd considers not letting Chris Brown's crimes taint his perception of his future hits anymore, the first few lines of "Deuces" play.
    Todd: Go fuck yourself, Chris Brown! Go. Fuck. Yourself. Go fuck yourself, you stupid, useless waste of a human being!
  • Pretty much the entire "Tonight" review, both on Todd's part and Enrique's.
  • Another big one occured on Twitter when he found out what Chris Brown's new album ''F.A.M.E.'' stands for... ''Forgiving All My Enemies''. Afterwards, Film Brain jumped in with a Lampshade Hanging:
    @FB_BMB: @ShadowTodd appears to have been replaced by Joe Pesci. His Twitter will resume normal service shortly.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Despite figuring out the line "Sippin' sizzurp in my ride/Like Three Six" to be about the Three 6 Mafia, he decides to run with the over-the-top joke about 666 describing Satan, culminating in a diatribe about bad pop music being a tool of the Devil.
  • He complains about "Telephone" becoming a Genre Throwback to Quentin Tarantino, saying Tarantino doesn't stand copying other directors. A Beat follows as Todd notices what he just said.
  • In "E.T.", regarding an E.T. porno.
  • Subverted with "Telephone". Word of Demon from Hell says that the phone is in her head, keeping her from having fun. Todd points out in "Alejandro" how it was brought to his attention that he missed the true meaning behind "Telephone"... and proceeds to point out there is nothing in the lyrics that indicate any possibility of that being the case.
  • He fails to realize that Justin Timberlake is talking about a joint in "Suit and Tie" and thinks a fatty is a woman's bottom.
• Condemned by History: invoked He feels that this happened to Katy Perry's album Prism, calling it a "delayed flop", an album that was enormously successful largely on the strength of the goodwill that she'd built up from One of the Boys and Teenage Dream but which also burned away a lot of that goodwill through singles worse than their counterparts on Teenage Dream. While her follow-up album Witness is often pointed to as the one that killed her career (and the subject of a Trainwreckords episode), he believes that Prism is where things started going downhill, as evidenced by how its lead singles are often forgotten or (in the case of "Dark Horse" especially) outright maligned compared to those from her previous two albums.
• The Conspiracy / Conspiracy Theorist: He has little patience for Jadakiss's approach to political rapping in "Why", but it reaches a head when he claims that Bush destroyed the World Trade Center and blames the victim for the alleged Kobe Bryant sexual assault.
  Jadakiss: Why they ain't give us a cure for AIDS?
  Todd: Because they just dont like you Jadakiss. There are scientists out there specifically withholding the cure for AIDS from you.
  • In the One Hit Wonderland video for Rick Derringer's "Rock and Roll, Hootchie Koo," Todd is disappointed to find out that Derringer is now a dedicated fan of controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
• Couch Gag:
  • Each episode begins with Todd playing that day's song on the piano. (Except on Top Tens, where it's a song from the year covered).
    • Todd challenged himself to do this with "Whip My Hair". He had to ask for a few clips from the song just to get it down first, but cheered when he finally did it.
      Todd: ...WHAT THE CRAP WAS THAT?!
    • Subverted in "Sexy and I Know It", where he even argues with the caption on his refusal to play the song.
    • Likewise, he played "Time of My Life" before "The Time (Dirty Bit)" (which the song's chorus samples... well, covers) and "The Sign" by Ace of Base before "Alejandro" because he thinks the song is basically a rip-off of it.
  • Every episode also ends with a very short disclaimer about who owns the copyright on the song, with a clip of another song playing in the background. What song this is generally has some connection to the subject of the video.
  • For the One Hit Wonderland episodes, the ending song is a cover of said one hit. Except for "Rico Suave", which ended with "Taco Grande", "Ghetto Supastar", which uses Al's polkafied version, "Blue (Ba Da Bee)", which uses the bridge off Flo Rida's "Sugar" that imitates said song, "Just a Friend", which uses "Say You're Just a Friend" by Austin Mahone featuring Flo Rida, "Your Woman", which uses "Never Be Your Woman" by Naughty Boy & Wiley featuring Emeli Sandé, and "Tubular Bells" which uses a snippet from one of Mike Oldfield's sequels to that album.
  • Instead of playing a piano cover of a song at the start of a Trainwreckords episode, Todd plays the most well known single from the album he just covered as the end stinger. Except Van Halen III, Fairweather Johnson, and The Funky Headhunter, where Todd just goes with a better known song from the artist ("Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love", "Only Wanna Be With You" and "U Can't Touch This").
• Continuity Nod: His Glitter review ends with him putting his hoodie on a Mario statue (previously seen in "Break Up") and setting up a CD player so it can replace him. The next episode ("Party Rock Anthem") starts with this backfiring as the player stops working.
• The Cover Changes the Meaning: Complains about Jason De Rulo and T-Pain's equivocated sampling of Imogen Heap and Lily Allen, respectively.
• Crack Pairing: invoked Played for laughs in "Dear Future Husband".
  • He's also convinced Adele and Drake probably date or at least should date if not for the song material, because in his opinion, their best songs are about ex-lovers and because the subject matter of "Hotline Bling" and "Hello" pretty much parallel each other. He also suggests Drake date Beyoncé solely so Beyoncé can diss him back and that Adele date Justin Bieber because they both make crappy apology songs.
• Crazy-Prepared: Linkara's Review of "The Punisher and Eminem #1". During his crossover with The Rap Critic Todd apparently gave The Rap Critic a message for Linkara just in case Linkara called on him.
  NERD!
• Creator Backlash: Occasionally shows up with the artists featured on One Hit Wonderland and Trainwreckords.
  • A fairly tame example — Eddie Murphy publicly admitted that he didn't care too much for his album featuring his One-Hit Wonder "Party All the Time". Originally he planned on lining up songs with other superstars such as Prince, Stevie Wonder, among others, but the best he got was a token appearance by Rick James and a song given to him by Stevie. He also said he was rather embarrassed that most of the other songs on his album were sappy love ballads that even he shouldn't have been involved with. He really had aspiring hopes for it too.
  • Bobby McFerrin got sick enough of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" that he intentionally forgot how to play it, and didn't for decades. However, Todd did find recent footage of McFerrin performing it. ...Sort of.
    Bobby: ♪Don't Worry, Be Happy
    I don't remember the verses to this song
    I wrote it so long ago
    Don't Worry, Be Happy
  • Noel Gallagher hated Be Here Now, describing it as "It's the sound of ... a bunch of guys, on coke, in the studio, not giving a fuck." (Liam is kinder to it, at least.)
• Creator Killer: invoked
  • His Trainwreckords show is about albums that were this to famous musicians.
  • invoked He predicted that "The Time (Dirty Bit)" would be this for The Black Eyed Peas, and felt vindicated by the time he compiled the year's Worst Of list. Even if follow-up single "Just Can't Get Enough" outperformed "The Time", it was all downhill from there and the Peas ended 2011 announcing a hiatus.
  • He predicted that "Yummy" would become this for Justin Bieber in his review of that song, for the same reasons that Man of the Woods by Justin Timberlake, reputation by Taylor Swift, and Witness by Katy Perry were Creator Killers: their New Sound Albums ended up "completely tanking their images with bizarre, misconceived albums that attempted to chart a new course and failed miserably". (While Swift made a comeback with her subsequent album Lover, neither Timberlake nor Perry managed to do the same.)
  • He postulates that The Addams Family movies inherently end the careers of their contributing rappers, citing MC Hammer, Tag Team, and very likely Migos as examples.
• Creator Provincialism: The One Hit Wonderland series is based on artists who are considered one hit wonders in the United States, regardless of whether or not the song in question is their only hit (or even a hit at all) in other countries.
• Creator's Apathy: invoked He stated as much in his One Hit Wonderland review of D4L's "Laffy Taffy". He chose the song specifically because it was the absolute dumbest, most shallow song he could possibly analyze from one of the dumbest, most shallow moments in pop music history, thereby letting him just crank out a quick review before running off to Myrtle Beach. It backfires when he finds out that one of the members of D4L, Shawty Lo, died in a car accident the prior year.
  Todd: Let this be a lesson, kids: this is what happens when you cut corners.
• Critical Backlash: invoked Subverted in his One Hit Wonderland episode on "Who Let the Dogs Out?". Todd initially wondered if it really deserved all the hate it got, but the more research he did and the more he concluded that the Baha Men built their career on ripping off and Bowdlerising other Caribbean musicians, the more he hated the song.
• Crossover:
  • Did a review of The Monkees' movie Head with Pushing Up Roses and Paw Dugan. (Roses also calls Todd for some of her Let's Play Shortys)
  • He collaborated with JesuOtaku, RolloT, and Y: Ruler of Time in a review of The Last Airbender.
  • A joint review of Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" with The Rap Critic.
    • One year later, the duo reviewed Kanye West's short film Runaway.
    • A year after that, they covered the Snoop Dogg/Wiz Khalifa film Mac & Devin Go To High School.
  • He fails to convince Bennett the Sage, Phelous or Obscurus Lupa to do a crossover, and instead does Sunday School Musical with Film Brain. A year later, they take on Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.
  • Reviewed Crossroads and From Justin to Kelly with The Nostalgia Chick.
  • Did The Wiz with The Nostalgia Critic.
  • Interestingly, an internal one occurred when "Rico Suave" (a song he covered on One Hit Wonderland) appeared on his "Worst Hit Songs of 1991" video (at #9).
• Culture Clash: Points out how "Alejandro" is full of gay Russian soldiers marching to a Mexican themed song based off a Swedish pop group. He couldn't do that no matter how hard he tried. He then plays "That's Amore", followed by an Oriental riff on the piano with "Vive la France" appearing on screen.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Todd's opinion on many of Beyoncé's breakup songs, as Beyoncé is such an overwhelming force that the hapless men she steamrolls accidentally become sympathetic. Her eventual subversion of this trope on "Sorry" (addressed to Jay-Z, a man no one could accuse of being weak and ineffectual) is what leads Todd to like the song enough to place it on his Best Of list for 2016.
• Curse Cut Short: In a scrolling list variant, he explains the various terms which flow better in song than "Sexy Chick" or "Bitch" ending with:
  Todd: You are a worthless sex object and I'm going to stick my—
• Cute, but Cacophonic:
  • Miley Cyrus, at least before Bangerz. Even after Miley's transformation, Todd states she still has ear-splitting vocals.
  • Adam Levine. Todd admitted one time that Levine "has abs" but compares his voice to a "preening peacock" in "Moves Like Jagger", a "frog choking on a harmonica" in "Payphone", a "strangled parrot" in "One More Night", and a "cyborg robot goose" in "Animals".
  • In the Worst of 2018, Todd claims Camila Cabello's breathy falsetto in "Never be the Same" is "the same sound [his] car made when it needed new brakes."
• Cuteness Proximity: Todd believes that this is why the entire internet and society in general enjoys "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen so much. His suspicions are confirmed at the end of the video when a comparison to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is made.
  Todd: ...It all makes sense, now.

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