Paw Dugan (Paul Schuler) was the resident music guru at Channel Awesome. The scruffy-faced sonic critic tackled everything from music videos, tunes from past, present, and future, video game music specials, being a Let's Player with fellow That Guy With The Glasses personality and all-around lovely geek girl Pushing Up Roses, and co-hosted the official TGWTG podcast Transmission Awesome. He also hosted a review series called Music Movies in which he reviewed movies that prominently feature music.
He quietly ended Music Movies and generally stopped making videos altogether after 2015 in order to focus on raising his family. Also, a large number of his Music Movies episodes have been lost, likely due to copyright issues.
This reviewer provides examples of:
- Anti-Villain: The Dart Board seems to be a mix between types 1 and 3.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: In the Let's Play of King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!, every time it appears that
Cedric has been killed or lost Paw cheers loudly that Cedric is finally gone. - Arbitrary Skepticism: Not intentionally invoked in King's Quest II Redux, but by Paw.Possum: I was robbed by a dwarf!Narrator: For a moment, you are not sure you heard correctly.Paw (In a lemony voice): A dwarf in this land of fantasy? The devil you say!
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: From the Fantasia 2000 review:
- Arch-Enemy: The Dart Board especially after Paw cheated so he could review Puss in Boots (The One with Christopher Walken). The Dart Board retaliated by making Paw the host of Brows Held High and vice versa though he does return to his own reality. Which lead to Paw MURDERING the dart board however the dart board reemerged stronger than ever.
- Backtracking: One of Paw's main complaints with Total Distortion. He even sang a song about it.
- Berserk Button: His rage towards the
Focus Group Ending to Little Shop of Horrors was enough to cause Slender Man-esque distortions to appear in the video.- The Happy Ending for the film version of My Fair Lady sent him into a similar rage.
Paw: OF ALL THE ILL-CONCIEVED, STUPID, BRAINLESS, DISRESPECTFUL—! (immediately composes himself) I'm not a ranter... I can't let myself slip. Okay, I will try to explain calmly, and eloquently, why the ending of My Fair Lady... can (flips the bird) fuck right off.- Songs made only for film. He has made exceptions but he generally doesn't like them.
- Popeye. Just the film Popeye.
- Big Damn Heroes: Spoony, Angry Joe, and That Chick With The Goggles show up to help him against Dark Paw.
- Book Ends: In his "Top 9 Music Moments In Gaming"; "I'M THE GOD!". It first comes up in Old School Edition, talking about his #9 pick, SimCity. It comes up again during his battle with himself, at the very end of the New School Edition.
- Boredom Montage: The opening to the Music Movies series has Paw trying to conquer his boredom by (among other things) playing Team Fortress 2.
- On the 360, no less. No wonder he's bored.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: He uses the Nostalgia Critic's "OF COURSE!" gag twice. The first (in Total Distortion), is the traditional Raul Julia clip from the Street Fighter, but later is the Critic saying it from Kickassia.
- Call-Back: The appliances the Dr. Dolittle review are still talking, and even passing the salt in Really Rosie.
- The Cameo: Quite a few in his Top 9: Video Game Composers. How about the Critic as a DOG!
- Catchphrase: Using the word "whimsy" a lot in Music Movies.
- "It's time for Best/Worst! Which song (insert reference to a song from the movie), and which song (insert another reference to another song from the movie)?"
- "Winning hearts and minds, the King Swazey way."
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: During the review of Peter Pan, Linkara, Obscurus Lupa, Phelous, the Makeover Fairy, Sad Panda, Vangelus, Apollo Z. Hack, Pushing Up Roses, Sean Fausz, The Nostalgia Chick and Todd in the Shadows announce their belief in fairies to revive Tinkerbell.
- Companion Cube: Dartboard seems to be headed this direction.
- Crossover: With The Nostalgia Critic and Kyle from Brows Held High for Les Misérables (2012).
- Decision Darts: How he decides which movie to do next in his "Music Movies" series.
- Department of Redundancy Department: From his review of Idlewild:It's all about liquor, women, lust, women, guns, more liquor, women, sex, women with liquor, sex with said women with liquor... You get the point.
- Enemy Within: Dark Paw.
- Elevator Floor Announcement: Paw uses it in his Let's Play of King's Quest V here.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: "Top 9 Video Game Composers".
- Evil Is Hammy: The voice he uses for THE METAL LORD in his Total Distortion review.
- Also, his imitation of a hammy villain in Suburban Knights.
- Also, his imitation
- Freudian Slip: The Hilarious Outtakes of his Snow White review feature one as he lists off the dwarf names: "Sleepy, Sneezy, Gropey..."
- A God Am I: "I'M THE GOD!!!"
- God Help Us All: Uttered by Spoony during the "Top 9 Composers" video, on the subject of Dark Paw's possible victory.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: He can't subject himself to more than a few seconds of Amy Grant's Christian Rock, and says it's the reason he's such a heathen these days.
- After going into detail how the original ending of My Fair Lady was the best way to wrap up the story, Paw becomes enraged at the
movie's ending.
- After going into detail how the original ending of My Fair Lady was the best way to wrap up the story, Paw becomes enraged at the
- Groin Attack: In the Fantasia review, Elisa does this to Paw twice in the opening. With a dart. Yet somehow, Paw does little more than cringe in pain.
- Happily Married: Married to Elisa Hansen
- Have a Nice Death: In his King's Quest V Let's Play, he groans at the bad puns in them, while he praises Total Distortion for its Crosses the Line Twice "YOU ARE DEAD" musical number.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Usually averted, though parodied in both installments of Hotel Awesome when Joe tries to speak to him.
- Helium Speech: He tries to emulate Snow White's shrill by inhaling helium before singing one of her songs.
- Heroic BSoD: Suffers from one in his cameo on Todd's review of "Titanium" after being introduced to Sia's vocals on a Flo Rida song and then discovering the collaboration with David Guetta.
- Hypocritical Humour: In his King's Quest 6 retrospective, when introducing the villain, the vizier Abdul Alhazred, he says he's evil bringing up the stereotype that all Viziers in fiction are evil, then adds "Also he's got a goatee! EVIL OVERLOAD!! EVIL OVERLOAD!!" though Paw himself has a goatee.
- Inherently Funny Words: In his live King's Quest 2 AGD Let's Play, he stumbles across a message that simply says "Donk". He then spends the rest of the LP working the word "Donk" into every situation he can manage.
- In Spite of a Nail: His Fantasia 2000 review has him and Elisa transported to an alternate reality where the original Fantasia was never made, but 2000 still was.
- Kill It with Fire: His reaction when Todd in the Shadows introduces him to Sia's collaborations in pop music, such as being featured in David Getta's Titanium.Paw: I have all of her CDs... I have to burn them now.
- Laser-Guided Karma: While he praised much of Disney's The Lion King, his vocal dislike of "Be Prepared" and the non-Elton John version of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" done in-movie came back to bite him as he must next do both Lion King sequels.
- Let's Play: He's a big fan of Adventure Games, in particular Sierra games, in particular the King's Quest series. His resume currently includes:
- The AGD Interactive Fan Remakes of King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne and King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human
- King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!
- Conquests of the Longbow, with "help" from other people and Transmission Awesome, such as Angry Joe.
- The entire Quest for Glory series.
- The Leisure Suit Larry series, excluding Magna Cum Laude and Box Office Bust.
- Little "No": In his Cannibal! The Musical review, during the Brent "Al" Flaüs segment, brentalfloss delivers several.
- MacGuffin
- In both parts to his "Top 9 Video Game Songs of All Time", Paw retrieved a literal MacGuffin for every song he remembered: a crystal shaped like a musical symbol appeared with the phrase "MACGUFFIN GET!"
- Man of a Thousand Voices: He gives all characters in his Let's Plays different, often goofy (and sometimes unfitting), voices. Such as in his Quest for Glory 2 let's play, he gives Abdulla Doo an over the top stereotypical Arabian Accent, while the hero (Who can only say one word at a time) he makes him sound mentally challenged.
- Mondegreen Gag: Shares some of his more memorable ones, including "I need the ice cream" ("I knew the ice queen") and "Pika Pika Johnny" ("Be Good Johnny") complete with Pikachu showing up.
- Paw actually got his name from this trope. Whenever he introduced himself people would hear Paw instead of Paul. The nickname stuck.
- Motor Mouth: His Truncated segments, in which he rapidly summarizes a game in 60 seconds. Sometimes he applies it to his Let's Plays too.
- Mythology Gag: On his The Nightmare Before Christmas review, "Where else do you see Santa Claus in bondage?" Cut to The Ultimate Warrior comic. (A scourge on Atop the Fourth Wall and The Spoony Experiment) "Oh yeah. I forgot about that."
- Negated Moment of Awesome: In the video where he goes through his dad's old 45s, he finds one of Arthur Brown's "Fire". Unfortunately, the record is too badly scratched to be playable.
- Official Couple: After marrying Elisa, it was also verbally acknowledged in the show that he's now married.
- Older Than They Look
- Orphaned Series: The King's Quest Retrospective; though Paw covered all the official games, the Mask of Eternity video ends with him saying that there's still more to discuss, including the fangames and the franchise's legacy and impact on video game history. Sadly those promised videos never materialized.
- Perky Goth: Dresses as one (complete with overdone eyeshadow and black backdrop) for his The Nightmare Before Christmas review and peppers the review with Edgar Allen Poe quotes.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Pushing Up Roses.
- Precision F-Strike:Graham: Now why would she toss aside this beautiful harp?Paw: Because she's a cunt!
- Running Gag: During his King's Quest V LP, he would often respond to Cedric's claims that something was dangerous by saying some variant of "is it pOIsonous!?"
- In his Hugo 2 Let's Play with Pushing Up Roses, after accidentally saying "Uncle Great Horace" instead of "Great Uncle Horace" at the start of the game, he proceeds to mix up the words in a different way every time the character is mentioned.
- Shame If Something Happened: Quotes this trope in his King's Quest V Let's Play after King Graham makes an exploitable statement:Graham: This is a lovely little shop you have here.Paw: Shame if anything were to happen to it!
- Shared Universe: As a Channel Awesome reviewer, Paw is automatically part of the Reviewaverse
- Ship Tease: With Elisa Hansen as of Phantom of the Paradise review. (Turns out they are married in real life.)
- Skyward Scream: CEEEEEEDRIIIIIIC!
- Sophisticated as Hell / Lyrical Dissonance: The Lyrical Poetry series reads songs such as Disturbed's "Down with the Sickness" and Big Sean's "Ass" as heartfelt poems.
- The Pedantic Semantic concludes his analysis of the various Disney princesses thusly: "So, whether Disney were just scrambling to appeal to the modern girl audience or just evolving with the times is up to interpretation. The fact remains that Snow White is a lazy bitch."
- Stealth Pun: Rather than the obvious "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'/Walken" pun when reviewing Cannon Films' rendition of Puss in Boots, starring Christopher Walken, Paw instead goes for the more subtle, "You gotta assert yourself sometimes [...] otherwise they'll just walk all over you."
- Speak of the Devil: An amusing Meta version occurs during his Let's Play of the King's Quest III Fan Remake; at one point he starts mocking Manannan, and not even five seconds later the wizard himself appears, spooking Paw. Afterwards he treats it like a Right Behind Me moment.
- Take That!: To The Irate Gamer, After not hitting any movies on his dartboard in his Singin' in the Rain review, he says "Random-selection is ruined..."
- Take That, Audience!: Amid rising criticism that Music Movies no longer runs down the plot—and sometimes not even all of the songs—of movies in a linear fashion, he outright stops himself while explaining the plot of The Princess and the Frog:Paw: ...Just watch the movie; what am I your [leers at the camera] fucking CliffNotes?
- Leading some viewers to reply in the comments: "Yes! Yes you are!"
- Tempting Fate: In his Let's Play of The Oregon Trail, Paw says "Whoever dies now deserves to die." Not five seconds later, LordKaT keels over.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: He feels that with the Backstory of Total Distortion, involving The Metal Lord invading Earth with Guitar Warriors. Then the Lord himself recruits Paw to his army...
- The Unreveal: Elisa is about to tell Paw all of the weird places the dartboard portal has taken her when it suddenly activates and the two are teleported away mid-sentence.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Parodied in the Mary Martin's Peter Pan review; he initially mistakes Peter Pan for a woman (being played by one and all). When Wendy addresses him as "boy", he panics and proceeds to run out of the house to do "manly things" like fixing a car and drinking beer shirtless to recover his masculinity.
- Viewer Gender Confusion:
- Experienced this when he realized that Limahl, who sung the theme song to The Neverending Story, is actually a man after thinking for 20 years that it was sung by a woman.
- During The Rocky Horror Picture Show episode of Music Movies, he's completely stunned to learn that the opening song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" is sung by Rocky Horror author Richard O'Brian.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Angry Joe on Transmission Awesome. He teases because he loves.
- The Dart Board also counts though more than not neither side likes each other.
- Vocal Dissonance: In his Let's Play of Quest for Glory II he attempts to give Uhura an appropriate voice, but finds it to be a little difficult to maintain, resulting in his instead giving her a Redneck voice. When he gets to the sequel this extends to Uhura's entire tribe, except for the storyteller, whom Paw gives a Walter Cronkite voice and portrays as Surrounded by Idiots.
- With Lyrics: The "Backtracking Song", which uses the tune of "Ode to Joy"."Backtrack, backtrack, fucking backtrack, got to do this shit again..."
- World of Pun: Comments that a quote from his The Nightmare Before Christmas review is "certainly apro-Poe."
- World of Weirdness: The Reviewaverse, a universe of utter weirdness. Shown in Music Movies with Paw's reality warping semi-sentient portal-creating dart board.
