Todd In The Shadows / Tropes W to Z

aka: W To Z

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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• Walking Shirtless Scene: Todd credits Geraldo Mejia's "eternally shirtless torso" as one of the reasons why Latin pop music has become what it is today with his 1991 One Hit Wonder "Rico Suave".
• Watched It for the Representation: invoked He believes that "Try That in a Small Town" and "Rich Men North of Richmond" owed their success to a "red state" version of this trope, with American conservatives rallying around those songs en masse as a way of promoting their values.
• Waxing Lyrical: Pretty much a given in One Hit Wonderland and Trainwreckords episodes.
  • In "OMG" and "The Top 10 Best Songs of 2010", he hits on Lupa with terrible song lyrics ("OMG" itself and "Sexy Bitch" in the former, "Carryout" in the latter).
  • To push the "Born This Way"/"Express Yourself" joke further, he advises Lady Gaga by saying that a wise person once said "Don't go for second best baby, put your love to the test".
  • He closes the U2 Rattle and Hum essay with "I'm Todd in the Shadows, and I still haven't found what I'm looking for".
  • "I mean, you'd think people would have had enough of silly love songs."
  • "Levine, get off of his cloud!"
  • From his review of "We Are Young" and "Somebody That I Used to Know": "Let me try and figure out what the hell I'm doing. Give me a second. I... I need to get my story straight."
  • A partial example when he's describing "Some Nights" by fun. — he asks "What is this song about? What is this song about?" in a manner deliberately imitating the song's "What do I stand for? What do I stand for?" and immediately cuts to the next line, "Most nights, I don't know."
  • Referring to Gotye's failure to get any further publicity after "Somebody That I Used to Know" became a #1 hit, he admonishes the public: "You didn't have to cut him off!"
  • When introducing Justin Timberlake in his review of "Suit and Tie"/"Thrift Shop", Todd asks, "You ready, JT?", just as Timbaland does in "Suit and Tie".
  • In the "Worst Hit Songs of 2013" video, he says that the "bros" who have overtaken country music in 2013 are "not here for a long time, just a good time."
  • In his "Talk Dirty" review, when he realizes Jason Derulo has still been having hits, he states that it's "not a come back, he's been here for years".
  • When introducing "Show Me" in his Worst Hit Songs of 2014 video, he comments that the song reminds him of something, but he doesn't know what it is.
  • Also in the Worst of 2014 video, when discussing Jason Derulo's "Trumpets," particularly that the subject's eyes remind him of a Coldplay song, Todd responds with, "...they were all yellow?"
  • In his "Best Hit Songs of 2015" video, before introducing "Wildest Dreams," he comments that Taylor Swift romanticizing a sustained relationship is hard to believe because "she goes on too many dates" but "can't make them stay." At least, that's what people say. Also, while discussing "FourFiveSeconds," he says that the song carries the sentiment of "It's the freakin' weekend, baby, I'm about to have me some fun!"
  • Todd sums up "Scars to Your Beautiful"'s underlying message as "you are beautiful no matter what they say, words can't bring you down."
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: Thinks this about Eminem's recent work.
• Wham Line:
  • In the "Best Song Ever" review, near the end, he thinks the only reason the guys consider it the "best song ever" because they were dancing with a hot girl when they did, but then...
    Todd: Guys, I think I like this song.
  • For Todd, this is when "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" got... upsetting:
    Mike Posner: ♪I took a pill in Ibiza / To show Avicii I was cool.
  • During "Ridin'", Todd notes that Chamillionaire has also become a web entrepreneur, and has invested in a small startup company called Maker Stu-
    Todd: What? WHAT?! Wait a minute, hold on, I work for [Maker Studios]- ... ...well, I hope I made you a lot of goddamn money, Chamillionaire!
  • Near the end of the Cinemadonna video on "Truth or Dare", Madonna is asked "Who has been the love of your life your whole life?". Her response?
    Madonna: My whole life? ... Sean. ...Sean.
    Todd: (stunned) Holy damn. That poor woman.
  • The One Hit Wonderland episode on Rick Derringer takes a drastic turn at the end:
    Todd: And he's continuing to tour and tour and play, even up to age 70! And he also in recent years found Jesus, became an evangelical, got super active and into far-right nationalist politics, and debuted a new version of "Real American" on the Alex Jones program. (beat) Well, that's a downer.
  • In the One Hit Wonderland episode on Hanson: "Um... I'm a huge Hanson fan, and I have been for years now."
  • The One Hit Wonderland on Evan and Jaron's "Crazy for This Girl" reveals that both brothers eventually became talent agents. The Wham Line comes when Todd reveals Evan's sole client: Kevin Spacey, who he still represents and defends to this day.
• What Are Records?: A problem raised with "Payphone".
• What Did I Do Last Night?: He figures the reason why he woke up with a hangover at the start of "Your Love Is My Drug" is because he drank himself under after having reviewed all three of Kesha's singles so far, which is two and a half more than he's ever needed to hear... Then we find out the real reason why - he's going to review "Alejandro" by Lady Gaga in the next episode, so he continues drinking and falls over.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: He calls Bruno Mars out on this over "The Lazy Song."invoked
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Calls this on Ne-Yo singing with an Australian Accent ("Let's do it to-noight") - he even speculates it's "Let's do it to annoy!".
  • In another video, he wonders what accent Selena Gomez has in "Come & Get It" before deducing that she is trying to rip off Rihanna's Bajan accent. (which gets even worse\funnier when you learn that Rihanna was offered the song before Gomez)
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: At the end of his One Hit Wonderland review of "Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett.
  Todd: This is Todd in the Shadows wishing you a wild and spooky Halloween. WOO! LETS PARTY!
  Todd spent his Halloween alone, as usual, watching Netflix movies in his room. He had requested "Final Destination 5", but Netflix sent him "My Best Friend's Wedding" by accident. He thought it was okay.
• Who's on First?: In his One Hit Wonderland on "Lovefool", Todd describes The Cardigans' single "My Favourite Game" as sounding "like garbage". Cue "Only Happy When It Rains". He does the same in his Trainwreckords of American Life, comparing "I'm So Stupid" to the Garbage song "Stupid Girl".
• With Lyrics: From the Top 10 Worst songs of 1987 video: "Kenny G, he's a stupid looking guy... and he plays his goddamn saxophone, it makes me want to die..."
• Withholding the Cure: Parodied in "Worst Hit Songs of 2004" with Jadakiss' "Why".
  Jadakiss: ♪Why they ain't give us a cure for AIDS?
  Todd: Because they just don't like you, Jadakiss. There are scientists out there specifically withholding the cure for AIDS from you.
• Wolverine Publicity:
  • Todd has pointed out that Lil Wayne and Ludacris are notorious for this. He claimed that Lil Wayne is on quest to collaborate with everyone in the industry, and that if you record a song in your basement Ludacris would be on it by the time you uploaded it to your MySpace page.
  • He believes that this, more than anything, was why so many music nerds hated Nickelback. There were far worse Post-Grunge bands than them in the 2000s, but while Nickelback's songs never got as bad as those of their contemporaries, they made up for it with their sheer number of hit singles.
    Todd: The backlash to Nickelback was always more about quantity than quality. There are tons of bands who sucked worse, but there were none who sucked more. If you were a radio listener in the 2000s, which most people were, you could hate Nickelback and still know dozens of their songs.
• The Woobie:
  • In-universe example. He thinks Miley became one after removing the popstar facade and pouring out her feelings for a crowd of hundreds, only to have them all reject it and tell her to become Hannah again.
  • Todd also invokes this trope during his review of Taylor Swift's "Fifteen", in which he tells a long story about his girlfriend in junior year of high school who was acting distant, and how they eventually broke up at a dance because she was interested in someone else... which he then admits was actually taken from an episode of Saved by the Bell, and was telling it to make a point about a flaw in the song's writing. (Though in the Blip commentary, he points out it sounds so honest because most of it also happened to him in his first break-up)
  • He considers Mike Posner to be this in his "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" review. He says that even his current occupation as an in-demand songwriter behind the scenes is humiliating because he's shoved out of the spotlight by more charismatic performers like Adam Levine and Justin Bieber.
• Word Salad Lyrics:
  • Young Money's "Bedrock".
    Lil' Wayne: [subtitled on-screen] And I keep her runnin' back and forth. Soccer team!
    Todd: FORGET A COUPLE WORDS!?" (The words "Like a" appear next to the words "soccer team") "The words and ideas don't flow into each other, they just pile up into this free-association trainwreck!
  • Also, the second line into Kanye West's first verse in E.T., after which Todd deems the verse unsalvageable.
    Kanye: I'm trying to bathe my ape (ape) / In your Milky Way!
    Todd: You can't just take a vaguely sexual sentence and throw random words into it.
    Kanye: Pockets on Shrek, / Rockets on deck!
    Todd: Pockets on Shrek? Pockets on Shrek. He said, "Pockets on Shrek." He's given up tryin' to rap ideas. He's just throwing up gibberish at this point.
  • He mentions R.E.M.'s vocation for this in "Top Ten Songs About Mediocre Romance."
  • He thinks that Pat Monahan became insane as Train was off the radar, given how inane "Hey Soul Sister" and "Drive By" are.
  • From "Back in Time": "And fought blind against the world, Ray Charles!" Todd explains that this style is variously called "punchline rap" or "hashtag rap." He then gives his own example: "Finding out I had herpes was quite a shock. #Pikachu!"
  • Flo Rida's songs, particularly "Whistle".
  • "Uma Thurman", and Fall Out Boy lyrics in general.
  • He criticises Masked Wolf's "Astronaut in the Ocean" for it's Metaphorgotten lyrics.
    Todd: "You can't play on the double meaning when you don't have a first meaning."
• World's Smallest Violin: Played with in the "Deuces" video. He doesn't actually pull out a mini violin; he instead sets his keyboard on violin and plays a song to "show his sympathy" for Chris Brown. For bonus points, the song he plays sounds suspiciously like "O.M.G."
  • Invoked in the Top 10 Worst Songs of 2013 video in the "Holy Grail" segment.
    Todd: Everybody, just sit there and play the violins for the vastly rich and famous music legend with a beautiful wife and family.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!:
  • Glitter features what he calls the "Worst Shopping Montage Ever".
  • "Best Song Ever" gets the "Worst Episode Ever" treatment.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Lady Gaga. He doesn't like her, but he does acknowledge that "Bad Romance" was the best song he reviewed in 2010, and "Just Dance" was his favorite song of 2009. Additionally, the Fame Monster album cut "Monster" was included in the list that he flashed on the screen of tracks that might have made his Best of 2010 list if he hadn't been limited to hit singles. Along with this is an Enemy Mine situation at the end of the review for "Alejandro," where Todd references criticisms of Lady Gaga from artists such as M.I.A. and Joanna Newsom. Todd then suggests that we all listen to those two, and plays clips of their songs... only to find that he thinks they suck even harder than Gaga.
    • Also obvious in his "Bad Romance" review itself, where he breaks down crying when he realizes he actually likes the song. Hinted at earlier when he says that even though he hates "Poker Face", he finds that he LOVES "Poker Face" and instantly begins playing the song on his keyboard while happily singing along.
    • As of 2013, it's fair to say this relationship with Gaga has ended. He doesn't seem to find her particularly interesting any more, but that said he does have nothing but genuine praise for her when she releases good and comparatively un-pretentious pop songs like "Do What U Want". Other than that, her songs and videos don't elicit much of any kind of reaction from him anymore, and he actually expresses a retrospective fondness for her prior albums in comparison to 'Artpop'.
  • While he assures us that he hates Katy Perry and considers her to be a horrible singer, he puts two of her songs on the Best of 2010 on the list. Though it's less respectful a relationship than with Lady Gaga.
    • As he puts "Last Friday Night" on his Top 10 of 2011, he goes "I give up. I love you, Katy Perry." But the following year Todd can't find a Katy Perry song worthy of the Top 10, and in 2013 says that his "hatecrush" is over as "Roar" is the #1 worst song. (Gaga in contrast is acknowledged to still be alright in his book in the review of "Applause", considered musically interesting while indulgent\stupid) As he reviews her again in "Dark Horse", Todd adds that as soon as he decided to embrace Katy Perry she released a plethora of songs he couldn't like.
  • In his "Best Songs of 2016" list, he finally admits that Beyoncé has finally won him over. While he still has issues with the over-the-top worshipping of her and thinks some of her previous songs lack effort, "Sorry" and Lemonade won him over because of the fact that she's so fanatic over her privacy, the fact that the album is about her husband cheating on her lends so much more weight to her Memetic Badass-ness.
• X-Pac Heat: Todd's guess for the reason why Arrested Development's album Zingalamaduni threw them out of the limelight. The music itself wasn't actually all that worse received from before; but they hyped it and themselves up as a revolutionary voice...during a time in which the group were getting mainstream favor beyond anyone else. Not helping matters was they explicitly called out Gangsta Rap along the way as ignorant and shallow, despite their latest music being much worse in that regard.
• Xylophone Gag: Referenced in the One Hit Wonderland episode on Dexys Midnight Runners "Come On, Eileen" (a song that begins with a violin playing "Those Endearing Young Charms"):
  Todd: [[audibly chuckling] I'm sorry, it's just that I can't hear that tune without picturing Daffy Duck blowing up.
• Yarling:
  • Discussed in the One Hit Wonderland episode on Billy Ray Cyrus. He considers Cyrus's singing voice overbearing because of this (and even compares it to "America, Fuck Yeah"), but points out that he stopped doing it on later albums.
  • The Trainwreckords episode on Hootie & the Blowfish features him repeatedly mocking Darius Rucker's singing voice.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Discussed the musical variation, that of people who don't normally like a genre but otherwise like certain music legends who are seen as "transcending" it, in his review of "Fancy Like" when discussing the sorry state of Country Music in 2021. As somebody who normally likes country and even named a country song his #1 hit song of the previous year, he said that the pickings were so bad that year that he felt like the kind of person who normally hates country but makes an exception for Johnny Cash.
  Todd: I mean, yeah yeah, I like Eric Church and Chris Stapleton and Miranda Lambert just like everybody, but at this point, that's like saying you only listen to Johnny Cash. It's corny, and you may as well say nothing.
• Young Entrepreneur: Todd was genuinely shocked to find that Chamillionaire was actually an entrepreneur before his big hit "Ridin'" back in 2006. What shocked him is that he invested in a video company called "Maker Studios" - the company that pays Todd his salary for being a web-based reviewer.
• You Put the "X" in "XY": "Flo Rida, taking the 'star' out of 'pop star' since 2007"
  • And in a You Put the "X" in "XY" example: "We put the 'hip' in 'Rohypnol'!"
• You Need to Get Laid: What Jesus thinks of Todd at the end of "Just a Kiss"
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Nash's stickfigure learns this firsthand.
• Your Mom: In his "Lazy Song" review. "Previously on… Todd In The Shadows...Your Mom!"

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