Website / The Agony Booth

aka: Agony Booth

What's the point of this site?

The Agony Booth is primarily devoted to posting recaps of movies and TV episodes. These are not "reviews". Movies and TV episodes are thoroughly analyzed and dissected in excruciating detail to show what they do right and what they do wrong. But most important of all, the point of this site is to have fun mocking any and all kinds of movies and shows.

— From the FAQ

The Agony Booth (named after a torture device from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror") was a website that specialized in posting recap-cum-MST entries on So Bad, It's Good movies and TV shows.

At the start, the site was primarily run by older professionals (their ranks included computer programmers, teachers, lawyers, soldiers, etc.) who maintained a house style based around thoughtful criticisms of technical and storytelling faults as well as less tangible qualities. They were willing to mock anything as long as they could back their critique up. As such, the Booth tended to have a "nothing is sacred" policy. They also had a tendency to use Troper terminology. The forums had a reputation for exclusivity; the list of rules (and rationales for banning) was long and detailed, and intelligent argument on a par with the house style was expected whether for or against the subject in question.

Starting in The New '10s, the site began to drift away from its roots and revamped itself as a Channel Awesome-style pop culture video essay site. They also locked most of their older written content behind a Patreon paywall and merged with Happy Nice Time People, a like-minded site that also specialized in TV recaps.

Video Essay contributors included:

• Mr. Mendo's Hack Attack, a video version of their traditional articles, occasionally taking on well-liked films, hosted by Mr. Mendo.
• Movie Dorkness, formerly the Red Suitcase Adventures, a more positive look at popular culture, hosted by Sofie Liv.
• Stuff You Like, an analytical look at great film, great TV (and all kinds of tropes), hosted by Sursum Ursa.
• Cartoon Palooza, a sarcastic look at recent animated features, hosted by Joey Tedesco.
• The Cheap-Arse Film Review, a look at film that can be purchased inexpensively (in England), hosted by Cheapus.
• The Film Renegado: a celebration of Mexican films and culture, hosted by Jerry Nava.
• Good Bad Flicks, a salute to films that are so bad they're good, hosted by Cecil Trachenburg.
• The Movie Skewer, hosted by each of the others in rotation, this is a show for the Boothers to review things outside their normal niches.
• Mystery Madness, a look at what makes mystery films work, hosted by Full of Questions.
• The Porn Critic, a look at the plot holes in porn parodies, hosted by The Porn Critic.
• The Unusual Suspect, a (British) look at movies and tie-in games, hosted by The Unusual Suspect
• The Examined Life (of Gaming), video game reviews, hosted by Roland Thompson.
• The Oldschoo' Review, an AVGN-esque look at films, hosted by Johnny Oldschool.
• The Bunny Perspective, a celebration of hard to find films and general pop culture hatred, hosted by Phil Buni.
• The Cinema Slob, a look at good films, host by The Cinema Slob.
• Friday Night Fright Flicks, sketch comedy built around current horror releases, hosted by Count Jackula and The Horror Guru.
• The various shows of Joshua the Anarchist.
• The Blockbuster Chick, celebrating big-budget bombs, hosted by Suzie McGinney.
• P.G.S.M. Summaries, an in-depth look at Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, hosted by Nycea.
• Reel vs. Reel, a show that puts competing animated films up for discussion, hosted by The Animated Heroine.
• The DVD Shelf, a celebration of classic films and their DVD releases, hosted by David Rose.
• What We Had To Watch, pop culture ephemera from the 21st Century, starring Il Neige.
• The Graphic Novel Picture Show, focusing on comic book movies, hosted by Solkir.
• Minority Report Reviews, which takes a second look at widely hated films, hosted by Tom Marriott.
• Tom's Retrophilia, great stuff from back in the day, hosted by Thomas Stockel.
• Saturday Morning Glory, a look at insane episodes of Saturday morning cartoons, hosted by Ryan Lohner.
• The Following Special Presentation, a look at goofy made for TV movies, hosted by Stan Ferguson.
• Thoroughly Manly Musicals, a show about musicals, also hosted by Stan Ferguson.
• Terror Obscura, a look at horror films, good and bad, hosted by The Fear Fan.
• The Special Relationship, a spin-off of Britannia Rules?, which examines American remakes of British films and TV shows, originally hosted by Richard Murphy, now run by invoked Sursum Ursa as part of Stuff You Like.

In 2017, the Agony Booth backpedaled from producing video essays and returned to producing exclusively written content. Unfortunately, their new/old business model wasn't enough to save the site. It posted its final content in November 2021 before going offline sometime next February, with no communication from any of its social media accounts. Currently, the URL redirects to a site called LOLWOT that — despite its name, logo, and description — appears to be nothing but lists of random celebrities' net worth. As a consequence, none of the links on this page work anymore.

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Tropes:

• Abhorrent Admirer: The Porn Critic for Stuff You Like's Sursum Ursa. From Busty Cops 2:
  Sursum Ursa: Stop sending me boxes of condoms in the post, you creepy pervert!
  MikeJ: Uhhh...
  Porn Critic: There's nothing wrong with sending a box of used condoms to a fellow Internet reviewer! What's wrong with that?
• Accent Relapse: Renegado has an accent, since English is his second language, but sometimes it gets REALLY thick, especially when he mispronounces words(for example, he pronounces "chemistry" as sheh-mees-tree and "available" as a-bah-ee-lah-ble). It's part of his charm, though.
• Accentuate the Negative: Sometimes they recognize a few things are well-done, but that's not why they're recapping the movies.
  • This is a frequent problem in Ryan Lohner's video review series for Lost, with a number of characters having their more negative moments severely Flanderized with any redeeming moments being ignored or portrayed in the worst possible light. The most notable examples are Locke, who is portrayed as an egotistical cult leader who brainwashes and attacks anyone who questions him, and Charlie, who's portrayed as an unlikable psychopath who constantly makes annoying comments.
  • Averted with Cecil Trachenburg; the movies he does are ones he thinks Need More Love or are So Bad They're Good.
• Affectionate Nickname: Fear Fan is often referred to as "Fanny" during crossovers.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: invokedAmong others, they've declared that Rotti Largo of Repo! The Genetic Opera is a pedophile and Mary Bailey is the real villain of It's a Wonderful Life.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: Not counting video review shows that act as this, Bad First Drafts is essentially a The Editing Room script with the Booth's style (given author Rick Lewis also wrote for TER, he has a pass).
• Angst Dissonance: In-universe, Mr. Mendo opens a serious question in his Scott Pilgrim vs. The World review with a sarcastic acknowledgement that this movie doesn't speak to him in the way it does a lot of college students since he had to join the army.
• Artistic License – Physics: Ryan's review of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic notes that the show will gladly ignore physics for the sake of a joke.
• Ashcan Copy: Invoked. The 1966 version of The Hobbit, which, according to Mendo, has something to do with both Pizza Hut and Mikhail Gorbachev...
• B-Movie: In the site's early years, they focused almost exclusively on these.
• Bad Boss: Albert/Dr. Winston O'Boogie, in Stuff You Like's 50th episode
  Ursa: (reading contract) Wait, what do you mean CROSSOVER?
• Batman Gambit: Referenced and inverted on Saturday Morning Glory:
  Ryan: "Then Malhavok shows up, so Batman tosses out a lame taunt to get him to break the dragon's chain. Somehow, I doubt this is going down as one of the great Batman Gambits." (Accompanied by a screen shot of that very page!)
• Bears Are Bad News: More like bears are GOOD news!
• Berserk Button: The Porn Critic hates when the fourth wall is broken. And for Mendo, WHITE FEZ!
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Mr. Mendo's can be seen from behind his shades, which aren't exactly small...
• Bilingual Bonus: LOADS! This is to be expected, as many of Renegado's movies are in Spanish, and he's constantly saying things in Spanish too.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: Mendo ended an episode with a surprise guest spot from Questions to lead into the Blip ad. Her only line? "And the award for the Worst Commercial Ever goes to..."
• Blatant Lies: In Ryan's Lost reviews (most of which have since been deleted) he frequently claimed the Man in Black wasn't a villain and just wanted to get off the island, claiming anything he does that seems evil was an Out-of-Character Moment to artificially paint him as the bad guy. This is despite the fact that he was consistently murdering innocent people as the smoke monster throughout the entire show, starting with him ripping the plane's pilot apart in the very first episode.
  • His review for the episode "Left Behind" shows a clip where Kate's mother admits that she couldn’t help loving her husband (who she turned Kate in for murdering) despite him being abusive. He claims the intended moral of this scene is “women in abusive relationships are happy and deserve what they’re getting” despite the episode never coming close to saying that and clearly portraying her as wrong for choosing her abuser over her daughter.
  • In his review of "The Other Woman" he claims Ben ordered toxic gas released at the Tempest to kill everyone on the island. The dialogue in the episode makes it clear that Charlotte and Faraday were only disabling the Tempest as a precaution in case Ben tried it later. There was also no way Ben could have given such an order since he was being held prisoner by Locke at the time.
  • He also claims Ben is lying when he says the people on the freighter are dangerous, despite this being disproven several episodes later. He even repeats this claim in the same episode where Keamy and his men arrive on the island and start killing people, without addressing the discrepancy.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Among the films that Mendo finds unintentionally funny? The Room, Birdemic, and Cannibal Holocaust!
• Brick Joke: Just who ARE the Overlords of the UFO, anyway?
  • Ditto Mr. Mendo's kickboxing obsessed teddy bear.
• Broken Aesop: As Mr. Mendo points out, Forrest Gump teaches us that one man can make a difference, as long as he never thinks or makes a decision for himself.
  • Or, on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: "Do you really buy that this movie is about Scott gaining self-respect, or do you wonder when we were supposed to notice that he had no self-respect, before or after hooking up with three hot chicks and fighting and obliterating six people?"
  • Ryan's review of "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" points out that Rainbow Dash's friends were trying to teach her a lesson about humility, but this is undermined by the scene where they praise their own accomplishments as Mare Do Well, including boasting about how humble she is.
• Buffy Speak: This episode of MMHA: "But really, that was a good movie, and this film and a good one are as dissimilar as two completely dissimilar things...in a bag."
  • From Japanese Hell: "When I think of America, I think of Encino Man. I mean, is there a more patriotic film? It's a movie that shows that no matter what your background is, people will accept you! I mean, sure, it's not perfect, I mean, there are times when you just want to weaz the ju-uice, and they're like, 'Dude, need fundage, bro.' And yes, sometimes we spend a little too much time trying to edge some nug with nice cones to really focus on our problems, but America is a country that would never bag on a bro just 'cause he gets a little crus-ty!"
• Call-Back: In the Cheap Arse Film Review
  Ghost: Who makes important life decisions while wearing an animal costume?
  Cheapus: ...
• Catchphrase: "Wikipedia is your friend."
  • For the Porn Critic: "I think you'll find that [points out obvious plot hole, error in continuity or error in logic here]."
  • "This is Stuff You Like, you can call me Ursa, and..."
    • Also, "The plot it goeth thusly..."
  • "Aloha, and welcome to another exciting episode of Mr. Mendo's Hack Attack. I am, of course, your fantabulous host, (insert Couch Gag here), Mr. Mendo!"
    • Also, "I could be watching Amadeus right now!"
• Charity Motivation Song: Don't You Know It's Ad-Blocker?
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The forums tend to attract some rather... strange people.
• Comical Overreacting: When Mr. Mendo of did a review of Antichrist with Diamanda Hagan, both couldn't stop screaming at the various darks forms Groin Attack that happened at the climax.
• Concepts Are Cheap: Sofie Liv called on Man of Steel for doing this with the word "hope".
• Conspiracy Theorist: Parodied. During a sleepover with The Omega, Mendo came to the conclusion that The Last Unicorn was "an elaborate metaphor for a woman's menstrual cycle".
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: When Mr. Mendo forwards a bunch of his hate mail to the Film Renegado's site, Renegado forces him to watch Atletico San Pancho. And, when that doesn't work, he starts playing Menudo!
• Cool Shades: Mr. Mendo's Guccis.
• Da Chief: Mendo, as Sgt. Slaughter, acts as one to The Cinema Slob in his Wolverine review.
• Darker and Edgier: The horror that is Loonatics Unleashed.
• Deadpan Snarker: The raison d'être for the site.
• Department of Redundancy Department: On Luigi Largo of Repo! The Genetic Opera: "You know how Danny Trejo often plays Danny Trejo? Well, in this movie, Danny Trejo is played by Bill Moseley."
  • Sofie Liv: Actual Danish Person (From Denmark).
  Mendo: "The title of the song is 'Biological Didn't Bother'; I was expecting more of a diss track about the 'biological' who 'didn't bother'. I don't think I'm expecting too much when, as I said, it's the TITLE OF THE SONG!"
  Nycea: "Usagi runs into the mysterious asshole again, and he's an asshole...again"
• Determinator: Mr. Mendo managed to write and film the first two episodes of his show despite being in the middle of a war zone!
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Often a recapper will say something extremely perverse, then follow it with a note to themselves to edit it out before posting.
  • "Don't forget now!"
• Double Standard: In Ryan's Lost reviews, he often complains about the show's abundance of Obviously Evil characters who he sees as strawmen being used to make one of the main characters look better by comparison. However, whenever the show attempts to make a villain morally complex, such as Ben Linus and the Others, Ryan complains that they shouldn't be portrayed as anything but pure villains.
  • Also his reviews in general contain frequent pop-culture references, some of them very obscure, but he regularly criticizes other works for making similar references, saying they're only doing it to sound smart.
• Dramatic Reading: Of the guidebook to The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants.
• Dreadful Musician: Parodied. Just as Randy Savage proved that anyone can rap, Joshua the Anarchist showed conclusively that this is not the case.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Mendo plays one from time to time...
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Comparing the early recap-plus-snark (with rare, off-center images) of fairly obscure terrible movies, to the later work, with both Agonizer analysis and recaps which go from box office bombs to divisive work (with frequent, large images) is jarring. And then there's the video reviews...
• Entertainingly Wrong: In her review of Twilight, Sofie Liv came to the conclusion that Mr. Mendo was a Care Bear. Which isn't that far off.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Mr. Mendo may eat puppies, but even he feels bad about forcing Fear Fan to watch Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom about twenty times each.
  • Conversely, they determine that, while Salo may be the more disturbing film, it still claims the moral high ground over Ilsa, since at least Salo isn't intended to be titilating.
• Evil Twin: Subverted: Sofie just had PMS.
• Fan Fic Fuel: Noted a few times In-Universe.
  Ryan: "Fanfiction writers, you have your new assignment. Don't let me down."
• Fantastic Drug: From this review:
  Sursum Ursa: Are you on drugs?
  (a beat)
  Mr. Mendo: Define "drugs"?
• Fauxlosophic Narration: Parodied. Mr. Mendo took issue with The Beast of Yucca Flats for this, only to have his own narrator suddenly appear.
• Foreshadowing: In the review of The Beast of Yucca Flats, Mendo is shown covering a DVD with a pillow. That DVD? Sailor and the 7 Ballz. Fourteen episodes later...
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Il Neige is constantly in danger from explosions, fires and other weapons that come out the screen.
• Funny Foreigners: A significant portion of the staff is from Europe or Latin America, and this is often played up for laughs. According to Full of Questions, everyone on Team Agony Booth "learned English together"; even Mendo, who is from America. (Albeit from his own sovereign nation in Virginia...)
• Fun with Subtitles: From the review of the Pink Lady movie:
  Mr. Mendo: No surprise, then, that they got their own motion picture with the catchy title of:
  Subtitle: ピンク・レディーの活動大写真
  Mr. Mendo: ...that.
  • From the Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie review:
  Subtitle: Interracial stegosaurus porn! Make this happen, internet!
• Genre Savvy: From the Christmas Special:
  Cheapus: All right, plot has found me. I'm an internet reviewer, it was bound to happen some time.
• A Good Name for a Rock Band: "Mindzonked Sulu and the Morons", or "Uhura and the Ambassadors".
  • "Megazeppelin".
• Got Me Doing It
• Gratuitous Spanish: Guess who?
• Happy Place: Mendo's happy place is where every movie is dubbed over by lines from Son in Law. (Well, technically Encino Man, but would you really know the difference?)
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: The Mamma Mia! review.
  Jordon Davis: (Repeatedly) "...I'm not gay."
• Heroine With An F In Good: From the review of Myra Breckinridge:
  Albert: Let's take a moment to appreciate the character of Myra. As far as I can tell, Rusty's only crime is being homophobic. Oh, and he also has the outrageous desire to actually get married and have children. So what does Myra do to him? She ties him down, rapes him, and then demands that he thank her afterwards. Ladies and gentleman, our hero.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Several things noted In-Universe:
  Ryan: "This episode was making fun of Paris Hilton before Paris Hilton even existed!"
• Hitler Ate Sugar: Parodied in this review of TRON: Legacy.
  You know who else was a genocidal maniac? Hitler!
• Human Aliens: Count Jackula
• Human-Focused Adaptation: Discussed as a high point of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.
• Hypocrisy Nod: To cap off a review of Rubber, a pointless, nonsensical film that is being watched from inside itself, Mr. Mendo and The Omega get into a pointless, nonsensical argument that is being watched from inside the review.
  • Or in the crossover review of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, much was made of the copious amounts of fanservice, particularly from Sofie...while lying in bed in a slinky black dress.
  Demoversi (only line): "Pointless cameos are SO 2011! (a beat) Wait..."
  Mr. Mendo: "Trying to pick the worst Coleman Francis film is like deciding what kind of cancer you'd like to have." *Lights cigar*
• Hypocritical Humor: When recapping the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Outrageous Okona", Albert noted that the mention of lasers having no effect on the Enterprise led to a lot of "Enterprise D could beat a Star Destroyer" debates. Then commented: "Some people just have way too much time on their hands, don't they? And now, back to my six-page dissertation on a Star Trek episode."
• Insistent Terminology: They do not review movies, they recap them. Get this wrong at your own peril.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is "The Damn Pony Movie!"
• Iwo Jima Pose: The title card to this episode of Hack Attack features the flag being raised by Mendo, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary.
• Jump Scare: To illustrate how over-reliant on these The Haunting in Connecticut is, Fear Fan provided a montage of them set to different music. It got pretty silly.
• Kill It with Fire: One of the mods, a soldier who served in Afghanistan, had this reaction to a particularly bad episode of Pink Lady and Jeff.
• Left It In: Articles will sometimes have the writer make a rather perverted comment, followed by a note to themselves to edit it out before posting. "Don't forget now!"
• Logical Fallacies: A charge they often level at the TV shows they feature.
• Long List: In his second look at It's a Wonderful Life, Mendo concluded that it was only fit for "whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, the sick, the venal, rustlers, cut-throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers, and Methodists!"
• Masked Luchador: Renegado is a fan of El Santo!
• Mid-Review Sketch Show: Friday Night Fright Flicks is actually a mid-sketch review show.
• Ms. Fanservice: For the first official outing of The Agony Anarchists, Sofie came equipped with her own Wonder Woman costume.
• Mythology Gag: In Renegado's Halloween special, Full of Questions kills Mendo while in vampire form. In her next episode, Mendo's disembodied form caused her to take a drill bit to her head. In that same episode, he announced his return from his hiatus, which debuted three days later, and featured both Full of Questions AND Renegado. He wasn't happy to see them.
  • In the That 70's Girl review, it's revealed that Mendo "blows a homeless guy" for porn. Three episodes later, we learn said homeless guy is the one who informed Mendo that Equestria Girls was out on DVD. Also, that homeless guy is actually Horror Guru.
  Guru: "Look, dude, for the last time, I AM NOT HOMELESS!"
• Nightmare Fuel: Invoked. Parodied. A bottled labeled Nightmare Fuel is the Count's preferred drink.
• Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot: During the Rowdy Rathore review, the boys determined that a "squab" is "a wounded bird's cock, but it's also a fish!"
• Nostalgia Filter: Mr. Mendo and Ryan avert this trope. For example: a video review of one of the weirdest episodes of The Transformers cartoon was all about pointing out the series wasn't the piece of art claimed by those hating on the film series.
  Ryan: "After watching an episode like this, I laugh at anyone who accuses Michael Bay of raping their childhoods."
  Mr. Mendo: "You know, in spite of everything mean I've said, a lot of people really like this show. A lot of people are quite clearly huffing spraypaint."
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Comes up so often it's practically a catchphrase.
  • Particularly notable regarding the notoriously bad Star Trek: Voyager episode "Threshold". Every recap starts with a synopsis of the episode's plot, but this one bails out partway though:
  ...no, no, it's just too stupid. You'll never believe me if I just blurt it out like this.
• No Yay: Invoked. Recapper Jessica describes the relationship between Bruce Willis and his sidekick in Hudson Hawk as "The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name For A Damned Good Reason".
• Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: Inverted. Mendo not only encourages people to write fanfic about him, but will read it on the show!
• Overly Long Gag: From the recap of Mamma Mia!: "(Amanda Seyfried's) blazingly hot in a very not-Natalie Portman kind of way, if you get my meaning. I'm saying Amanda's more of a nordic beauty. She doesn't celebrate Shemini Atzeret too gaudily. She can't get wholesale prices on diamonds. Jewish. She's not Jewish."
• Overly Narrow Superlative: "Swamp Thing is quite simply the best damn movie about a swamp creature fighting a sort of fake-looking wild boar/gator hybrid that used to be a French guy while Adrienne Barbeau and her cleavage watch anxiously."
  • Mendo hypothesizes that there must be a "super obscure Navajo fanbase for white lesbian porn that I'm not aware of..."
• Parallel Porn Titles: Explored with That 70's Girl...
• Parody Episode: Epic Rap Battles Of Agony Booth History, a spoof of you know what...
• A Rare Sentence: The line "Desirée! You could have gotten mustard all over his brain!" from Overdrawn at the Memory Bank:
  Albert: Yeah, just take a second and stare at that line for a while. It's a beauty. Lines that insane only come along once every so often.
  • "Brain and brain, what is brain?!"
  • "Watch out! He's got a candy cane!"
  • "Yeah, this is all well and good, but, um, when is Rob Schneider gonna show up?"
  • "You don't want flammable tits, now do you?"
  • "A polar bear fell on me."
• Red Baron: Mr. Mendo, "The Internet's Strongest Man".
• Review Ironic Echo: From time to time.
  • For example, in the recap of Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings:
  Arya: [Gollum] rolls around on the ground, screaming “It burns, it burns!” At last, someone sums up what it’s like to watch this movie. “It freezes us, it bites us!” he adds. Yep, I’m right there with you, pal.
• Revisiting the Roots: Written articles are taking precedence over video reviews again, even if recaps are still rare.
• Rule 34: Pterodactyl Dinosaur Spermo Plasmoids.
• Rule 63: For their review of Sherlock Holmes (2009), Sofie Liv and Stuff You Like's Sursum Ursa dressed up as Holmes and Watson.
• Running Gag: Frequent in the individual recaps, and a few (including the Overlords of the UFO & Mr. T's guest explanations) that cross over. The TV series recaps are much more prone to ongoing gags.
  • Albert's Degrassi recaps are typical:
    • The Girls' Bathroom of Ill Repute and the Boys' Bathroom of Neutral Repute.
    • Albert's ongoing frustration at Yick and Arthur's B (and sometimes C) plots.
    • Joey (Insert Letter Here) Jermiah, the (X) stands for (Blank).
    • Nicknames for the characters: Loosey, Astrodog, Rockin' Rompin' Raditch and Sweet Caitlin Ryan.
    • Stephanie Kaye is also frequently compared to Nixon.
  • The recap of Casino Royale (1967) makes frequent jokes about Woody Allen's marriage to Soon-Yi Previn.
• Self-Deprecation: Mendo's summation of ALF's Special Christmas: it's depressing, uneven, and it "had more filler than my Macho Man Randy Savage review!"
  • "You know, you'd think after three years of doing this show I would be a lot better at it..."
• Shared Universe: The Reviewaverse.
• Simple Country Lawyer: Now, Mr. Mendo's not one of those big city lawyers, but it seems to him that there's a huge plot-hole in Rae Dawn Chong's back-story!
• Shout-Out: To the point of Reference Overdosed. The Boothers favor obscure references to everything from song lyrics, BBC shows, and children's book series, often in the same article.
  • Fortunately, they usually give links to the things they reference
• Smoking Is Cool: Mr. Mendo is almost never seen without a Black and Mild (or a cigarette). A cigar even features prominently in his portrait...
  Although this has been parodied at least once.
• Sophisticated as Hell: "There is literally no way to figure out what the movie is about just from watching it. Clearly, Donnie Darko is not supposed to make sense, and the fact that it doesn't make sense means it's brilliant. There is a term for this: fucking pretentious."
• Special Guest: The Cinema Snob showed up for episode 6 of MMHA, as did Linkara for episode 10, Diamanda Hagan in episodes 14& 30, The Film Renegado in episode 17(before he joined the site), Phelous in Episode 23, and Robert Million in Episode 31.
• Stage Name: While at first the webmaster went by his own name, Albert Walker, he now is Dr. Winston O'Boogie. (a pseudonym borrowed from John Lennon, hence the Beatle being his new avatar)
• Suckiness Is Painful: It's implied by the site's name.
• Supergroup: The Agony Anarchists.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Stuff You Like's Ursa, on practically everyone.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Bad First Drafts: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens with a cast description that basically also fits the Harry Potter one (Newt: Harry, Tina: Hermione, Kowalski: Ron, Queenie: Ginny, Grindelwald: Voldemort, President Seraphina: Minister Fudge).
  Look, they told J. K. Rowling to write what she knows, okay?
• Take That!: A review of Donnie Darko notes that Donnie's argument about Smurfette is very much like a Natter reply on TV Tropes.
  Mr. Mendo: (Regarding Twilight: Eclipse) Stephenie Meyer is a lonely, unfulfilled woman. I think we may have finally found the perfect girl for Christian Chandler
  Sofie: Oh, go read some Spider-Man comics, you big baby!
• The Bear: Mr. Mendo.
• The Cast Show Off: Miss Liv can sing, dance, play the piano AND the trumpet.
• Training Montage: Mendo prepped for Atlas Shrugged 2 with a montage that spoofed Taxi Driver.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Anthony Q. Mendo Dada, of The People's Mendocratic Republic of Mendostaan, VA.
• Uncle Tomfoolery: Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood was raked over the coals for this.
  Mr. Mendo: Sure, throw in a Mantan impression, that's always cool!
• Unwinnable Training Simulation: ...and why it does not belong in James Bond movies.
• Valley Girl: When Sofie reviewed the film of New Moon, a valley girl (played by Sofie in a long haired wig) appeared to challenge Sofie's negative review of the Twilight series.
• Visual Pun: Mendo summed up the absurdities of the backlash against The Lone Ranger by depicting it as an argument between two drinking straws.
• Waxing Lyrical: Mendo does this a lot, usually as a Couch Gag. At various times, he's introduced himself as:
  Your fantabulous host who works harder with a gun in his back for a bowl of rice a day, who's got a double mission with evil at its worst, who can fill you with real millionaire shit..., etc.
  • In the Bad First Drafts recap of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the character Credence says "No! It ain’t me! I ain’t me! I ain’t no wizard’s son, no!"
• What Did I Do Last Night?: At the beginning of the Cheapus' Flesh Gordon review:
  Cheapus: My room has been completely trashed...and I think I'm wearing a chicken suit!
• Who's on First?: Parodied.
  Sofie: I really can't recognize any of these people.
  Renegado: It's not that hard.
  Sofie: Look, all that I want to know is what is the name of the guy playing Captain America?
  Mendo: What's playing Spider-Man.
  Sofie: I'm not asking you who's playing Spider-Man.
  Renegado: That's the guy playing Captain America.
  Sofie: Who's playing Captain America?
  Renegado: Who is playing Santo.
  Sofie: I just want to know what's his name?
  Mendo: What is the name of the guy playing Spider-Man.
  Sofie: I'm still not asking you who's playing Spider-Man!
  Renegado: Who is playing Santo.
  Sofie: I don't know!
  Mendo: He's Captain America.
  Sofie: Who's Captain America?
  Renegado: Who's Santo.
  Sofie: I don't know!
  All Three: Captain America!
• World of Weirdness: The site's shows are set in the Reviewaverse. Basically a universe of weirdness.

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