Familiar Faces
A review show as presented by CR! (real name: Chad Rocco) on That Guy With The Glasses.
The premise of the show is to give some insight into an under-appreciated or ill known character or series, making it one of very few internet review shows to not run on Accentuate the Negative, though regular reviews pop up on occasion so this does come up every now and then.
Can be found here at his blog. For a list of things reviewed by CR, see here.
This page Needs More Love.
- Accentuate the Negative: Quite averted for the most part. Even if his subject matter may not have had much positive impression, he usually manages to find a good number of redeeming qualities to balance the negative.
- The Ahnold: His video on the animated versions for Schwarzenegger Month.
- Author Appeal: Sneaks in a Patton Oswald routine (in video and audio) every now and then, and has reviewed the comedian's work with his "Professor Dementor" and "Super Nerds" episodes.
- Badass Bookworm: He's smart, no doubt about it, and is capable of pulling a Xanatos Roulette on supernatural forces should the need arise.
- Bait and Switch Comparison: When CR compares Lady Gaga with her "Moshi Monsters" counterpart, Lady Goo Goo:
One is a strange little two dimensional creature that dances around half naked spewing baby talk and is constantly surrounded by outlandish environments and creatures, and the other one's a web cartoon.
- Berserk Button: CR does not like the Unusual Euphemisms from the Battletoads comic.
- Gormiti.
- Briar Patching: Pulls a particularly epic one over the course of about five Halloween episodes in order to get a copy of the film Rockula. He meddles with supernatural affairs and defeats two supernatural beings throughout it.
- BBW: Come up with surprising regularity throughout both his reviews and his work on DA. Most notably, his Valentines Day episode on Annabelle from Eek! The Cat and a brief section on Lois's massive weight gain on an episode of Family Guy during a segment in the first Familiar Face-Off.
- Bigger Is Better: He becomes very excited when he sees an panel of a Ghostbusters comic depicting Janine with large breasts, which the character had lacked in most of her incarnations. He is disappointed to learn that they're fake.
- The Cast Showoff: You know that title card with a zillion pieces of fan art on it that look like they were cribbed from people's Deviant ART galleries? Well, you're half right. They were all cribbed from one deviantART gallery: his own. In fact, the entire series was a spinoff of a series from his deviantART where he would draw an obscure character in a different style and try to get people to guess who it was. Ironically he admits that having spent so much time perfecting the styles of others, he technically never developed his own style.
- Caustic Critic: Mostly averted. Most episodes are about characters and/or shows he actually likes, and even when they aren't, he tends to take a constructive, analytical tone (like in the "Katie Ka-Boom" episode). Every once in a while, though, he'll unleash his pent-up hostility, like in his Harlem Globetrotters Meet Snow White review.
- Not to mention a gag in his "Super Nerds" review, where he debates with another person on the internet (via web chat) about why "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" and "The Cutie Pox" suck.
CR: NO, YOU GO TO THE MOON AND GO BUCK YOURSELF!!
- Actually (as stated in this interview), he did like "The Cutie Pox". "Mare-Do-Well", however...
- He has also sated how he feels about "Ben 10: Alien Force" and "Ben 10: Ultimate Alien" in his review of the Alien Force card game.
- The Gormiti episode of "Cheap Damage" is the ANGRIEST he ever got in that show.
- Critical Backlash: In his Big Bertha review, he becomes possibly the first reviewer in history to actually DEFEND the Super Mario Bros film!
- Crossover: With The Nostalgia Critic in an overview of the character Baby Doll from Batman: The Animated Series.
- Cute Glasses Boy: CR himself.
- Development Hell/Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: When he started his Let's Play of Quest 64, he strongly implied, if he didn't state outright, that he'd be putting "Familiar Faces" on hold while he was doing the LP. Since then, we've had several new episodes of FF, but we're still waiting on part 2 of the LP.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Ever so briefly in his "Super Nerds" review at the infamous "Booty Quake" scene from Sym-Bionic Titan.
- Dude, Not Funny: CR points out his third reason for not liking Katie Kaboom from Animaniacs: "This is NOT funny. This is a family being brutally terrorized by a monster. This isn't charming or whimsical. This is ABUSE!!!"
- Ensemble Darkhorse: The show is at times essentially a gallery of these, to CR anyway.
- The Faceless: For the first several dozen episodes of the series, CR went without actually showing his face. This made him stand out like a sore thumb among the very camera-happy contributors on TGWTG. (Ironically, this meant that Familiar Faces was hosted by someone whose own face was not familiar to us). However, starting with his Crossover episode featuring the NC, he had his face forcefully revealed and it has remained as such ever since.
- Fun with Subtitles: Where most of Episode 8's comedy comes from.
- Goth: Debunks the stereotype of the moody goth in his "Anne Gwish" review, saying that goths are plenty social and that a goth is really no different from other forms of personal expression.
- Heroic BSOD: On viewing the clip of My Little Pony Newborns in part one of his retrospective on the series, he is visibly horrified. Whether it's by the appalling quality, the complete lack of substance, the poor voice acting or all of the above, his only response is to quietly turn the video off and say he needs to go lie down. This is after he actually managed to defend some of the earlier series.
- Hypocritical Humor: During his "Super Nerds" review.
CR: All right there's being a nerd and then there's being socially inept. I mean, there's no way a normal person would ever yell at anyone about something that doesn't even matter. (cut him having an angry argument over web chat about recent episodes of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic)
- I Minored in Tropology: Of a sort. In this "Rushuna Tendo" video he stated that he got an A on a college course on the history of anime and manga.
- Incredibly Obvious Bug: I knew that fruit basket looked suspicious.
- In Name Only: Aside from the use of cars, he only manages to find one incredibly vague connection between Pole Position the game and Pole Position the TV show.
- Merchandise-Driven: A key reason why he hates Ben 10 Alien Force and Ben 10 Ultimate Alien as well as the reason he can't enjoy Generator Rex, fearing it'll get the same treatment given that it was from the same producers of the original Ben 10.
- Ms. Fanservice: His drawings of female characters usually pay more attention to some, uh, areas.
- Musical Episode: Episode 8 sorta
- Needs More Love: For Chad, many of the featured characters.
- The Other Darrin: He is quite displeased when Janine's regular voice actor is replaced and the character is redesigned.
- Overly Long Gag: After complaining that Anna Klump from The Nutty Professor got so little character development, CR offers a wide series of questions for her. The answer is always, "Hercules, Hercules!" Then he asks what her favorite Disney movie is, and she answers "Bambi."
- Perverse Sexual Lust: It would be quite a task to list every single character CR finds attractive. Even the Green M&M catches his eye. After pointing this out, he proceeds to give a very detailed explanation as to why there's nothing wrong feeling sexual desire for fictional characters, no matter how bizarre.
- Real Men are Bronies
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Forms this dynamic with The Nostalgia Critic in the "Baby Doll" episode. Of course, given NC's usual demeanor, there's really no argument as to who's whom.
- Running Gag: The M. Bison "OF COURSE!"
- Sand in My Eyes: In the "Baby Doll" episode, both him and The Nostalgia Critic are visibly stunned and tearing up at the finale of Baby Doll's intro episode. They both pretend to be nonchalant about it.
- Shout-Out: You may notice Doug making a cameo on the Familiar Faces poster. Whether its Doug Funnie or Doug Walker isn't really specified.
- It's Doug Walker in the style of Doug Funnie. The Nostalgia Critic wasn't happy with him about it.
- The Spirit that tries to torment CR is most definately not Tommy Wiseau.
- He's done three different Shout Outs to Team Fortress 2: First interjecting "Gentlemen." and the "Meet the..." title sting into the Spy vs. Spy episode, then using a quote from "Meet the Medic" in his My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic review, and finally, overdubbing the Administrator's quotes into the Samhain episode.
- He has The Comedian's bloody smiley-face pin on his jacket.
- When his face was finally revealed by The Nostalgia Critic, CR hides behind the newspaper he had been reading and says "This is CR. Pay no attention to the man behind the newspaper."
- A subtle one, but in his review of "Swarm of the Century", after Applejack says "Didn't that comin'.", Chad adds a red highlight to her mane.
- Shown Their Work: And how! He not only does research for the character itself, but the show he or she stars in, such as in terms of creators' background, historical context, popular impact, and sometimes even voice actors.
- Stealth Pun: In the first part of his My Little Pony retrospective, he uses the traditional M. Bison "OF COURSE!" clip when referring to the motivation of some early-series antagonists. However, for the visuals, he uses chief Thunderhooves, a character from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic who is an actual bison.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: The invoked purpose of the Familiar Face Off segments. Currently pitted against each other are:
- Marge Simpson and Lois Griffin. Winner: Marge.
- Killer Tomatoes and Killer Klowns. Winner: The Klowns.
- Unfazed Everyman: When a spooky Goosebumps mask comes to life (even if CR himself planned it) and states his plans on possessing CR to take over the world, he quickly gets over an initial state of shock to question the logic of it. He also takes being spontaneously kidnapped by an evil spirit pretty well.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: How many people actually knew why he feigned disgust at the term "winking out" in his My Little Pony retrospective?
- Xanatos Roulette: The above Briar Patching.
- Yes, But What Does Equapex Do?: "Side effects may include: Instant death, slow painful death, nocturnal death, and runny nose."