That Guy with the Glasses
| That Guy with the Glasses | |
|---|---|
| File:Nostalgia Critic.jpg Doug Walker as the Nostalgia Critic | |
| Genre | Physical comedy, reviews |
| Created by | Michael Michaud, Doug Walker, Rob Walker |
| Starring | Various Producers |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 73 (Nostalgia Critic only) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Production locations |  United States  Australia  France  United Kingdom  New Zealand |
| Original release | |
| Network | YouTube Revver blip.tv |
| Release | April 6, 2008 – present |
That Guy with the Glasses is a website that showcases original entertainment for an audience including video game enthusiasts and movie buffs. It primarily stars Douglas Darian Walker as That Guy with the Glasses. Doug Walker founded the website, but left Michael Michaud as the administrator and CEO of the company/site.
History
Walker's first appearance on the web was on the video website, YouTube, in which he poked fun at entertainment of the past and present. He gained fans, but complaints came from major studios like 20th Century Fox and Lions Gate over copyright infringement.[1] Despite Walker explaining in his videos that his videos are satirical, and thus protected by the "fair use" copyright clause, the videos and channels were taken off. He attempted to assign each video a different channel so that if one were deleted, the others would be left intact, but then decided to forget YouTube altogether and create a website called That Guy with the Glasses with Internet webmaster Mike Michaud. The site was re-launched in April 2008, and all of Walker's future videos would only be posted there. The site later expanded to feature content from various other contributors. In December 2008, Walker appeared in a commercial for the PBS documentary Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, performing a series of brief imitations of famous comedians, from Charlie Chaplin to Stephen Colbert.[2] In 2009, Doug and Rob Walker and Brian Heinz produced an iRiff of The Lion King for RiffTrax. In March 2009, the iRiff was chosen as the winner of the website's RiffTrax Presents contest, and the performers will receive $1,000 and instruction from Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett in the development of a RiffTrax Presents title.[3] On March 22, 2009, it was announced that the Rifftrax Presents title would be of the 1984 movie Red Dawn.
5 Second Movies
Walker is seen as a leader in the "hyperediting" trend.[4] His series of work consists of shortened and comedic versions of popular films, ranging from The Lion King to There Will Be Blood. The first was a video of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which was spawned from a conversation Walker had with his brother.[5] Ironically, none of the movies actually lasts 5 seconds; they last from one second to minutes, a complaint that Walker often comments on satirically himself. Some videos, most notably Scarface in 5 Seconds (Walker's favourite of his own[6]), even feature inserts from other films. The popularity of these videos led to other YouTube users creating their own 5 Second Movies and this trend was even acknowledged in The Times Online. Currently, 5 Second Movies has had a total of 101 episodes. After the 101st episode, Walker said he will only make them if he thinks of a very funny idea, because he does not want to run the series into the ground and grow stale.[7]
The Nostalgia Critic
Along with the 5 Second Movies, The Nostalgia Critic is the most popular video series created by Walker, in which he plays the titular Nostalgia Critic, a grumpy and easily aggravated character who reviews mostly entertainment from the 1980s and 1990s. His catch-phrase "I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it, so you don't have to" usually opens and ends each video. The first video was a high-speed review of the 2007 film version of Transformers. However, this review became the basis of what would become "Bum Reviews". The Critic wears his trademark black baseball cap and suit jacket, and added a red tie and white shirt starting with his review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. When especially angered by a movie, he pulls out a pistol to either threaten characters from the movie that anger him or to anyone in his studio, and in a few cases attempts to commit suicide if he views the film as bad enough, most notably in the review of Batman & Robin, in which he attempts to swallow a cyanide pill shortly after the opening credits.
Not all reviews are negative, such as the review of Double Dare. He also does Top 11 countdowns, such as the Scariest Nostalgic Moments or The Catchiest TV Show Theme Songs, claiming that he likes to go "one step beyond". In January 2009, the Critic declared "Nickelodeon Month" and paid tribute to Nicktoons, Nickelodeon sitcoms (or as he calls them, Nickcoms), and SNICK before ending Nickelodeon Month with a review of Good Burger.
In August 2008, the Nostalgia Critic sponsored a contest to find someone to play his female foil, the "Nostalgia Chick". The contest ended in a three-way tie between The Dudette (who reviewed Disney's Pocahontas), That Chick with the Goggles (who reviewed Sailor Moon), and MarzGirl (who reviewed The Last Unicorn). The Critic ended up giving the title to The Dudette, but still allowed That Chick with the Goggles and MarzGirl to post videos on the site.
There are several running gags in his videos. For example, whenever a villain in the review is revealed to have a generic goal to "you guessed it, take over the world" (or sometimes take over a city, as in Double Dragon's case), the Critic will interrupt that video by inserting a clip of M. Bison from Street Fighter (played by Raul Julia) yelling "Of course!" Another joke is him "dying" on several occasions, and even complains in the Double Dragon review by stating "Is it just me, or have I been dying a lot recently?" Also, whenever a suggestive or violent scene occurs in a children's movie ( e.g. "Playduck" in Howard the Duck, the sinking of the Titanic in Titanic: The Animated Musical) he smiles and says "Ya know, for kids!" Another is the fact that, whenever a surreal and pointless scene occurs, the Critic will deem the scene as "A Big-Lipped Alligator Moment" in reference to All Dogs Go to Heaven. Another one is when he is especially agrivated or annoyed he says "elephant", The Burger King appears and he calms down.
On April Fool's Day 2009, the Critic hosted "Ask That Guy Episode 34" and answered nonsensical questions.
Nostalgia Critic vs. The Angry Video Game Nerd
Walker gained even more fame when he, as The Nostalgia Critic, launched a satirical attack on fellow web comedian The Angry Video Game Nerd (played by James D. Rolfe). This fictional feud has been covered by Internet Superstar host Martin Sargent, who interviewed Douglas Walker's character.[8]
The feud began when the Nostalgia Critic posted an online video where he satirically expressed his disgruntlement at the AVGN for failing to keep his fans "under control". He railed against comments, written by the Nerd's fans, which the Critic sees as "unfair comparisons between the two of them. "This began a series of tongue-in-cheek video responses between The Nostalgia Critic and Angry Video Game Nerd.
James Rolfe, who plays the Angry Video Game Nerd, posted on his forum that he himself was a fan of the Nostalgia Critic. In response, The Critic created another video, trying to figure out the code behind the Nerd's complimentary message (which turned out to say "LICK MY SHIT NOSTALGIA CRITIC" spelled backwards) a la The Shining, and another video in which he blasted The Nerd for reviewing The Wizard before him.
When The Critic did review the Wizard, he fictionally discovered that one of the main characters, Jimmy, is actually the Nerd when he was a kid, which in part angered the Critic even more as he was trying to prove that no one from the film had a successful career after doing the movie.
Finally, in early June, the Nerd responded in a satirical video (with disclaimers throughout) stating his "distaste" for the Critic. After watching the video, fans went to Walker's website, which immediately flooded its server.[9] The Critic then challenged the Nerd to review an awful nostalgic film. Later in the month, The Critic went to the Nerd in person at a video game convention in Clifton, New Jersey, exchanged satirical fighting words (one included on Critic's stay on Youtube) and the two had a fake brawl in the parking lot, along with another Internet personality, Captain S. The Nerd agreed to review a bad film, as long as the Critic reviewed a poor video game. Eventually, the Nerd reviewed the low-budget spoof film Ricky 1, and the Nostalgia Critic reviewed the video game version of the animated film Bébé's Kids. The culmination of the rivalry, called the Final Battle, features a lengthy fight scene parodying popular films and cliches, in particular, The Matrix Reloaded and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The video also borrows elements from the Nerd's review of Super Mario Bros. 3, including his "battle armor" and Super Mecha Death Christ 2000 B.C. Version 4.0 Beta. The entire "fight" takes place in the Nerd's room. In the end, the fight was won by the Nerd when the aforementioned Super Mecha Death Christ attacked the Critic.
While the "rivalry" between websites appears to be over, the Nostalgia Critic continues to occasionally insult the Angry Video Game Nerd. Both Walker and Rolfe have expressed an interest in doing something else together at a later date. There has since been created a series of gaming cards called "Geek Fight" based on things on both their respective websites.
Ask That Guy with the Glasses
The segment involves Walker, wearing a blue robe, red ascot and carrying a pipe and book, answering questions from his fans. He starts out each segment by saying "Hello, didn't hear you come in" (saying hello in a different language each time), followed by "Greetings and Welcome to Ask That Guy with the Glasses". The narrator reads each question and Walker responds with a comedic answer, sometimes commenting on the person who asked it. He ends each video with, "This is That Guy With the Glasses saying, there's no such thing as a stupid question until you ask it." "That Guy" is portrayed as an upper-class, yet perverted and mentally disturbed person who is all-knowing.
In "Ask That Guy Episode 30", That Guy with the Glasses asked his own set of questions and invited viewers to submit their own answers. Some of them were later featured in "Ask That Guy: User Edition".
That Guy with the Glasses also appeared in Nostalgia Critic's review of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. The Nostalgia Critic explained that he no longer had a beard because he lost a bet with That Guy in which if Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election (which he did), the Critic would have to shave his beard off. Unfortunately, That Guy also shaved his beard off, thinking he lost a bet about the release date of "Ask That Guy: User Edition" (it was not released until January 4, 2009). It was later found out in an online interview that he simply shaved it so he could be The Joker for Halloween. That Guy also hosted a special in which various members of the site wished their fans Happy Holidays.
On April Fool's Day 2009, That Guy with the Glasses reviewed Monsters vs. Aliens for "Bum Reviews".
Bum Reviews with Chester A. Bum
Chester A. Bum is a character created by Walker to review current and new film releases (usually the film opening with the widest release that weekend). The character was created after the Nostalgia Critic's review of Cloverfield and Walker loved the voice of his impersonation of Hud from the film so much that he created Chester out of it, [10] though the origins of the character came from Doug's review of Transformers. Chester starts off every review stating "Oh, my God! This is the greatest movie I've ever seen in my life!", regardless of Walker's actual opinion of the movie, which is usually shown at the bottom of the black title screen at the very end of the review, stating, "Seriously though...". There is an exception for his review of Citizen Kane, which is thought to be one of the greatest movies of all time, where Chester states in disgust " Oh, my God! This is the worst movie I've ever seen in my life!"). Throughout the review, he questions many aspects in the film and even compares them to himself. It is mentioned several times that he uses drugs, which seem to be the source of some of his erratic comments ("Submarines are not monkeys, they are human beings!" or claiming that he used to live in a pie) . He also frequently voices his disgust about him being a bum, and will comment on a movie being good, because "it was shown in a warm warm building" .
His reviews follow a non linear structure, where he will sometimes talk about something completely unrelated or go off screen. He is also prone to shout the word "Hooray!" when he is pleased with something.
He typically ends every review with his final verdict and a plea for some change in his Styrofoam cup (shouting out, "Change! You got change? Oh, come on help a guy out will you?, Come on, change!").
His first review was released in early May 2008 on the movie Speed Racer. Videos to depart from the format include the Bum's reviews of The Dark Knight (in which Chester is left almost speechless due to the overall depressing plot and says at the end " You know what? Keep the change."), "The Angry Video Game Nerd vs. The Nostalgia Critic: The Final Battle" (in which he reviews a Nostalgia Critic video instead of a movie) and Citizen Kane (a negative review), and Monsters vs. Aliens (in which That Guy With the Glasses took Chester's place for April Fool's Day).
Chester also hosted an episode of The Nostalgia Critic; after the Critic couldn't give a negative review to Follow that Bird because of his childhood love for Sesame Street, he pays Chester $20 to review the rest of the movie. He also hosted Ask that Guy after That Guy died of a heart attack after getting scared by an internet screamer. Chester then did his best to answer everyone's questions in the following. During the Nostalgia Critic's review of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Chester A. Bum announced that he shaved in order to fit in with the Critic and That Guy With the Glasses, who had shaved their beards off, as well. In the Nostalgia Critic's SNICK video, Chester made a cameo when the Nostalgia Critic noticed that Kenan Thompson sounds familiar to him. On April Fool's Day 2009, Chester reviewed The Neverending Story for the Nostalgia Critic.
Theme Lyrics
Each episode consists of Doug Walker playing the opening sequence to a 1990s cartoon and singing original lyrics for the music. The lyrics are often made to give the basic summary of the show, and often times either praise or criticize the show itself. Each video begins with him quickly saying, "Songs that don't need lyrics but I added them anyway. Ha!" The first show he did this for was X-Men in February 2009.
Video Game Confessions
A new series that Walker started on April 7, 2009[11], Video Game Confessions features a British bartender named Dominic (played by Walker) who works at the Pixel Palace, a resteraunt for video game characters. The show focuses around him telling of his recent encounters and experiences with the video game characters in a documentary style fashion. The first episode focuses on Mario.
Other Sketches
In addition to the above series, Walker also performs short sketches. Some of them later received sequels.
Lori Prince Live
In late July 2008, Walker posted a pilot for a series titled Lori Prince Live. The show is a fictional news show that airs on GNN (Gotham News Network) and takes place in the same continuity as the films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Prince (played by Walker) is the host of a round table discussion show talking about the impact of such issues as violence and drugs on society. The Joker and Batman, The Mad Hatter and The March Hare have guest starred. Although a parody, it is most likely that Walker will not continue with Lori Prince Live due to licensing issues.
The Bjork Show
The Bjork Show is a series written by Walker and starring a friend of his brother named Victoria[12]. She portrays a fictionalized version of Björk as the host of a surreal talk show on Scandinavian Public Access television. The show's humor relies on a series of non-sequiters from "Bjork", who is portrayed as childish, unstable, sociopathic, and somehow omnipotent. Bjork interviews celebrities portrayed by Walker, including Edward Norton and "Weird Al" Yankovic, who act as a straight man to Bjork's insanity, particularly being forced to speak to inanimate objects such as a decaying baloney sandwich as though they were real people.
Other comedians on the site
- That Dude in the Suede hails from New Zealand, and currently has several long running series. The first of which, AMV Heaven, looks at the best animated music videos all over the net. The second, Animenia, has him reviewing some of the best and worst anime out there. He has also made several 5 Second Movies. Suede went on hiatus in January 2009 due to his affiliation with the Mormon religion, going on a two-year mission for his church. [13]
- The Dudette (Lindsay Ellis) lives in California, and is from Tennessee. Having been crowned the "Nostalgia Chick" by Doug Walker, she mostly reviews movies that were meant to appeal to girls. She also compiles lists, such as the Top 11 Villianesses and the Top 10 Disturbing and Inescapable Christmas Songs. She appeared alongside the Nostalgia Critic in his review of FernGully: The Last Rainforest. She also stars in Thanks For The Feedback!, in which she responds to comments people leave her.
- MarzGurl (Kaylyn Dicksion) lives in Texas. Her videos include A History of Animation and Name That Anime.
- Linkara (Lewis Lovhaug) is a comic book critic who started with his own blog called Atop The Fourth Wall and doing movie reviews for The Agony Booth. The actual show uses an abbreviation of the blog's name, making it AT4W. His reviewing style consists of buying bad comic books (by issue rather than the whole series), poking fun at several factors such as bad dialog (Usually done in a dramatic voice), art inconsistencies, and terrible story-lines. He also did a Top 15 WTF Moments in Comics list for his first video and creates 5 Panel Comics. For April Fools Day 2009, he did a homage to Walker's Bum Reviews, reviewing Watchmen as Lester B. Bum.
- Y ruler of time hosts "Read Right to Left", a series in which he takes the viewer through a manga series pointing out annoying charaters and plot points.
- Paw (Paul Schuler) hosts Full Circle. His material tends to circle around music.
- Team Four Star consists of various amateur animators and voice actors from the United Kingdom and America. Together, they produce DragonBall Z: The Abridged Series and comically redub various episodes of the anime.
Bored Shitless Productions
Bored Shitless Productions, also known as Blistered Thumbs Productions, was originally an independent student film production group, created by ThatAussieGuy (Daniel Rizzo). It is now a production group that runs as a subdivision of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com, mainly focusing on video game reviewing, producing comedy/spoof/sketch and also producing a weekly podcast called Transmission Awesome.
- ThatAussieGuy (Daniel Rizzo), is the Executive Producer of Bored Shitless Productions, the production group is mainly led by many gaming talent. He presents his own unique style of video game reviewing "from the Aussie perspective", and also works with writing, and producing other videos for the website.
- Rollo T (Chris Larios), Hope Within Chaos (Sean Fausz), and Mike Michaud host thatguywiththeglasses.com's official podcast, Transmission Awesome. The show generally recaps the week, and usually has a special guest every week (usually a featured talent) and talks with the guest about his/hers work they contribute to the website. ThatAussieGuy, would sit in as a substitute, if one of the co-hosts is absent. Former Hosts include Coldguy (Patrick Burden), and Dr. Gonzo (Billy Smith).
- Benzaie (Benjamin Daniel) is from France (though he currently lives in the UK), and is the creator and host of Games You Might Don't Know. Once joining the site, he added other shows, including FAQ You!, Game Soundtracks You Might Don't Know, Top 5, 5 Second Games, and Benzaie's Hard Corner.
- The Spoony One (Noah Antwiler), owner and proprietor of The Spoony Experiment teamed up with Walker and now posts several of his videos on the site.
- Hope Within Chaos (Sean Fausz), after spending a long time circling around the site in both the blogs sections, which hosts non featured authors, and as one of the hosts of Transmission Awesome, was given a spot as a featured author for his Epic Fail series of videos.
- That Chick With the Goggles (Krissy Diggs) lives in Missouri. She hosts the series Games I Grew Up On and Quickies (two minute-long reviews of various video games).
- Bennett The Sage reviews new video game releases, good and bad, primarily for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and hosts a show called Fanfic Theater were he reads the best of the worst of fan fiction. He's also doing an anime abridged series on YouTube entitled Elfen Lied: The Abridged Series.
- Lee Davidge is the host of Still Gaming, a video game review show that reviews games from all eras, from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo Wii. Instead of recording himself on a video camcorder, Lee uses still images from a digital camera.
- AngryJoe (Joey Vargas) produces material that is mainly about parodying and presenting the latest in gaming.
Revver Issues
After contracting with Live Universe, Revver's earnings from July 2008 onwards were still "pending", meaning that that Revver had delayed payments to unspecified date. On December 9, 2008, Revver sent a message to all its users saying that earnings from June were transferred, and the other earnings would be transferred as soon as possible. However, many people still have yet to receive these payments.
Several of their most popular content providers including ScrewAttack and That Guy with the Glasses have also publicly posted complaints of Revver owing them vast amounts of money on their websites and have begun moving their content over to Blip.TV [14]
References
- ^ Pickard, Anna. "The five-second movies and why you should watch them". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Lost in DC: PBS Commercial Documentary". That Guy with the Glasses. February 18, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
- ^ "We have a Winner!". RiffTrax. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
- ^ Whitwell, Tom. "Times Online - Microtrends: Hyperediting". Times Online. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
- ^ "Columbia College, IL Q&A Session". That Guy With The Glasses. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
- ^ "Columbia College, IL Q&A Session". That Guy With The Glasses. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
- ^ Interview between Handsome Tom of The Game Heroes and That Guy with the Glasses
- ^ "Internet Superstar Episode 80 - That Guy With the Glasses". Revision3 Corporation. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
- ^ "Holy Shit -READ ME- Updated!". That Guy With The Glasses. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
- ^ "Columbia College, IL Q&A Session". That Guy With The Glasses. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
- ^ "Video Game Confessions".
- ^ "The Bjork Show forum". That Guy With The Glasses. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
- ^ "Status of the Site: 1/10/09". That Guy With The Glasses. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
- ^ "Revver be Dead". ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. 2008-11-14. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help)
External links
- ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com
- Official MySpace
- Mike Michaud, Interviewed for USA Today
- That Guy With The Glasses on the TGWTG Wiki
- That Guy With The Glasses on Ebeeto Videos/OMGWTF?! Wiki