< Nostalgia Critic

Nostalgia Critic/Characters


Characters who have appeared on Nostalgia Critic's show.

Critic character tropes A-M

A sarcastic, bratty mess who likes his temper tantrums. He's a reviewer of film and television from The Eighties and Nineties and the show's star.

  • Abusive Parents As People: They broke him really bad, making him an easily scared, naive, weepy Psychopathic Manchild who thinks parents shouting at each other happens all the time and has children getting hurt as a Berserk Button, but they've done a couple of nice things for him that keep them out of "totally irredeemable" territory.

Critic: Yeah, I remember the last time I said "this is the nineties, old man" to my Dad... [shakily and looking traumatized] i-it really was the last time.

  • Adorkable: His awkwardness has a tendency to really come out during the "Old vs. New" segments and his intense, enduring love for Christmas is very sweet.
  • Adult Child: Doug seems to put the Critic's mental age at about twelve. A few examples of this being he still believes in Santa, and he also still eats at Chuck E. Cheese's.
    • Now that he's too big to fit in the childhood fear cupboard, he's taken to hiding under his desk when he's frightened.
  • Adjusting Your Glasses: Whenever he's pissed off about "glasses = losers".
  • Aesop Amnesia: Liking himself or realizing he's worth something never lasts long. Possibly justified, as who really wants him to be happy or normal?
  • Agent Scully: Despite all of the unexplained, magical things that have happened to him, he still demands logic in the movies he reviews.
  • Aggressive-Submissive: A force of nature personality coupled with an Extreme Doormat need to be loved will make you one of these.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He'll even whore himself out as long you don't play another song.
  • The Alcoholic: Even though even Doc Brown would probably laugh at him for not being able to handle his drink, booze pops up a lot in his show.
  • Alcoholic Parent: His mother, manipulative horror that she sounds like.
  • Alcohol Hic: Because he's such a lightweight, appears very early on in his review of IT. It only gets worse from there.
  • Alone in a Crowd: During the "Baby Geniuses" review when he's suffering from yet another Heroic BSOD.
  • All Boys Want Bad Girls: He has a Masochism Tango-like relationship with The Nostalgia Chick, he sees no problem with the attractive inmates from Chicago snuffing him out and his prom date ended up raping him.
  • Alter Ego Acting: The Critic's name is Doug, but he's still a fictional character whom Doug Walker plays.
  • Always Someone Better: Or he thinks so as part of his Inferiority Superiority Complex.
  • Am I Just a Toy to You?: His screaming at the Chick about does she even care about him goes into this trope when Word of God confirmed they had sex in the Fern Gully review.
  • Animals Hate Him: In the mindfucks list, a toy puppy turns into a giant gorilla to kill him. Close to being justified, as whenever there's a movie with an animal in the lead, he usually wants them dead.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Played with. He's annoying, but The Other Guy keeps him in place through disproportionate means. (Like punching him back into a review)
  • Anti-Hero: Type I most of the time, and Type IV when he's angry. Has leaned towards a Type III since Suburban Knights as he genuinely cares for his team mates and shows both courage and suprisingly strong leadership in the final battle.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: Whenever he has a Heroic BSOD, of the feeling useless but ultimately still wanting to help variety.

Critic: It's like trying to save a sinking ship with a bandaid. Anything I try to do would be completely pointless. Save me.

  • Anti Role Model: Never enough to be anvilly, but Doug tries to make it very clear that you shouldn't think of Critic as a badass or someone to look up to.
  • Apologetic Attacker: "TO WAR! ...whenever you have the time."
  • Apologizes a Lot: Who apologizes for saying they found something scary that others didn't? And then there's his guest spot on Ask That Guy, where he's freaked out but still says sorry for not answering the questions.
  • Arch Enemy: The Angry Video Game Nerd, and even then they have some friendly moments.
  • Ass Shove: When talking about Walken's scene in Pulp Fiction, he shudders at the reminder of seeing his proctologist.
  • Ate His Gun: He puts his gun in his mouth due to the "Fast-Talking Supernatural Dick Club", but they stop before he pulls the trigger.
  • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: As part of Hypocritical Humor, he gets distracted by a housefly in Ferngully II. In other reviews, according to him, the worst movie is a boring one.
  • The Atoner: Said in his first fuck-ups list:

Optimus Prime: I died for your sins.
Critic: And clearly I will only die for mine.

    • His accidental admission that he'd killed a Reno hooker by accident gives a new spin on his anger with the Unproblematic Prostitution in Milk Money. Less Common Sense, more trying to make up for what he did.
  • Ax Crazy
  • Attention Whore: The Nostalgia Chick gently bitches about his hogging all the limelight when he shows up dressed as Tim Curry in her review of The Worst Witch.
  • Aw Look He Really Does Like Her: With his relationship with the Chick, he mixes schoolboy playing, snark and equal dysfunction with a pretty deep amount of respect.
  • Authority in Name Only: In the TGWTG universe, he's the boss. He gets walked over a lot, however, so that it really doesn't mean much. Phelous doesn't even remember his Catch Phrase.
  • Badass Unintentional: When he's trying to do anything, he's a Failure Hero. By accident however (or when he's pissed enough), he's exploded cities, come back to life after getting killed and can tell the death star to blow up a DVD.
  • Bad Boss: Deconstructed. Whenever someone's done something that's more his area or something's already done, he'll pop up and be a pain in the ass. However, he answers to puppet-master The Other Guy, he'll crumble and have a breakdown under any type of argument, he's revealed that he does this because he's so deeply insecure and when he thinks Lupa listened to what he had to say, he was the most optimistic about life that he's ever been.
  • Bad Dreams: Mostly Faux Horrific stuff from the movies he watches, but night terrors are pretty constant for him. Could be the reason why he's The Insomniac.
  • Bad Liar: Sure they're treating you well, Critic.
  • Bait and Switch Tyrant: In the Transformers-Bratz arc, after he wakes up from getting chloroformed, he hides angrily in the bushes, shoots the Chick with a tranquilizer dart and sinisterly says it's his turn. It turns out that he just wanted to pretend he had power while trying to give her a self-esteem boost.
  • Baleful Polymorph: The mindfucks and taunting Disney villains turn his head into monstrous shapes.
  • Basement Dweller: It's a lovely house, but he hasn't stopped living with his mom.
  • Beard of Sorrow
  • Beautiful All Along: We've seen him as a fairly gonky dork as a young teenager, and he complains about being bullied because he looked and acted too much like Doug, but he's grown up into a traditional Pretty Boy.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Parodied for silly laughs. With all the suicides, shots to the head and occasional getting the shit kicked out of him, you'd think he'd at least be a little scarred.
  • Belief Makes You Stupid: Inverted. Whenever religion gets brought up, the ditziness is downplayed and he'll have intelligent things to say.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Due to his personality, with the majority of people he interacts with.
  • Berserk Button: The "Bat Credit Card" and Doug drive him to psychopathic rage. He also can't stand children getting abused or having a film treating them like idiots and women not having the power they should have. He also hates it when a parent death is treated solely as a plot device with little emotional resonance.
  • Berserker Tears: When he gets frustrated.
  • The "B" Grade: Inverted. An A- was such a rare occasion that he got a trip to Chuck E Cheese whenever that happened. Bullies tearing up his homework constantly likely had something to do with it.
  • Big Eater: If all the junk food in the first Commercials Special is any indication, especially as he'd been sitting in the same place and stuffing himself for a week.
  • Big Name Fan: In-universe. He was as shocked as we were when he got to interview the crew of Animaniacs and they had actually liked his stuff.
  • Birthday Hater: Odd for such a Lonely Rich Kid, but the only gift-giving holiday he enjoys is Christmas. He also loves Halloween, for slightly different reasons.
  • Bi the Way: His prom date was a man, as he said "This is just like prom night all over again" at the end of "Spooning With Spoony II", when he's saying how much he loves prostitutes he keeps it gender-neutral, he has open man!crushes, and he seem to enjoy the idea of Linkara having a crush on him, as "The Next Nostalgia Critic Fuck Ups" noted.
    • From the X-Men review, when they're discussing the prejudice subtext:

Critic: [totally normal] Really? Because I heard from the conservative right that we chose to be this way.

  • Bizarre Taste in Food: He doesn't see the big deal about having a coffee, beer, pepto-bismal, Chinese food and pizza slurpie.
    • No wonder he had to be cured of diabetes when he spends most of his time eating sugar-frosted burrito-stuffed hotpockets with lard on the side and butter taken from real liposuctions.
  • Blasphemous Boast: "I'm unbelievable, I'm your Jesus". Although he crashes down to earth within minutes.
  • Boisterous Weakling: Although the "getting ordered around" bit (and sometimes getting beaten too) doesn't bother him.
  • Borderline Personality Disorder: Easily suicidal, unstable mood swings, bad self image, doesn't have healthy relationships, binge eats when feeling bad, violent towards himself and others, doesn't like being abandoned and has a history of childhood trauma.
  • Boys Have Cooties: To say he acted grossly as a child when he heard there were going to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies coming out would be an understatement.
  • Boys Love Stuffed Animals: He's a girly, overgrown kid with a vast array of cuddly toys.
  • Brains and Bondage: He's a Genius Ditz masochist who loves toppy women. In the first Nerd Rant, he's proud of how he tortures himself.

Critic: So what's the point in seeing The Lost World? For you, none. For me, I'm a glutton for fucking punishment.

  • Break the Cutie: Finally driven home in the "Commercials Special" when he bemoans that he used to have such dreams and promise. And in a more simple use of the trope, any time he gets a seriously bad movie - The Neverending Story 3 springs immediately to mind.
    • It turns out that the fuck-up lists were breaking him. He stopped fighting it at the beginning of the third episode, and at the end his frustration over Battlefield Earth leads into a screaming tantrum about everyone being horrible. Even Douchey feels bad for him.
  • Break the Haughty: He thinks doing a Let's Play is going to be so easy, much easier than actually analyzing something. He really gets proven wrong.
  • Brilliant but Lazy: He knows how to take over the world but doesn't want to tell, and he can learn languages really fast when he's obsessing over something meaningless, but mostly he hasn't got the will or the self-esteem to change his life for the better.
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Almost constantly, fitting in with the Lovable Coward Psychopathic Manchild thing he's got going.
  • Broken Hero: Give him credit, he manages to get his hopes up a lot for the amount of times he's been crushed.
  • Butt Monkey: While he tries to act like a successful Bad Boss during crossovers, either the others get the upper hand or his own patheticness does him in.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: The look on his face after he just can't get up the nerve to hold the Chick's hand in "Thanks For The Feedback" (and she doesn't notice) is almost depressing.
  • Cannot Tell a Joke: When whatever it is refuses to give him any more film clips for Lord of the Rings and tells him to actually make people laugh on his own, he's completely clueless about what to do.
  • Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Before his Freak-Out at the end, the date with the Chick was probably the first time we saw him mind-splittingly shy. Having The Masochism Tango benefits them much more.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin': The Critic never suspected that God would be watching his "Old vs. New" video of The Ten Commandments vs. The Prince of Egypt. He thought God was a benevolent and kind being, but God didn't let him get away with that statement.

God: "Your ass is grass."

  • Can't Hold His Liquor: Five minutes into the IT review and the audience was already spinning. Five minutes later, he's having to knock his head on the desk to get some sense back into his brain.
    • Even earlier in the Snob/Phelous crossover, he was drunk and weepy by 6pm, not even knowing who Rob was, messier than usual, craving Ninja Turtles (even the third movie) and crying that he used to like The Garbage Pail Kids Movie. Snob called it "shockingly depressing" and Phelous wanted to hang himself.
    • When playing the DuckTales (1987) Drinking Game, he passes out after six shots of Malibu.
  • Cant Keep A Secret: He might have Undying Loyalty, but his promise to Chester that he'd keep the Search For The Necronomicon just between them lasted for about twenty seconds.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Before he got a Fan Service Pack and morphed into a perverted Ethical Slut, he was portrayed as an unattractive, overweight, chauvinist prick.
  • Cassandra Truth: When he tries to put Rocky's message of "people can change" to the real world, he gets punched and shot at.
  • The Cast Showoff: Doug has a singing voice made for musical theater which he puts on display fairly often.
    • He and his brother are also skilled at impressions and other voices, which they also put on display... in practically every Nostalgia Critic video.
    • Less often than the singing, but he also likes to show off that he's a very good dancer.
    • In Rover Dangerfield, he brought back bad memories for art students when he makes some very good drawings in under a minute, calls them crap assuming everyone would agree with him, and throws them away.
  • Casual Kink: He has no issue saying he wouldn't mind psychotic women killing him if they played "The Cell Block Tango".
  • Cat Smile: Done when he's trying very hard to keep himself from laughing.
  • Caustic Critic: The fact that he's a Deconstructive Parody of one, focusing on how miserable the job is, has become more clear as time goes on.
  • Character Development: He's an Adult Child with a Dark and Troubled Past and lots of issues. The past couple of years however, he's still of course a brat, but also a Papa Wolf who has basically declared himself a defender of kids well-being and intelligence.
    • There's been a nice shift in power dynamics with his relationship with The Nostalgia Chick. At first, he's condescending and just treats her like an extension of him, also being so awkward that he has to pretend to be Rasputin to hit on her. But as she grew into the sociopath we know and love, he trusts her (to almost dumbass degrees), wants her to be proud of herself and wants to spend time with her.
    • As probably part of Misery Builds Character, his attitude towards Harley Quinn and the Joker's relationship. In his Top Eleven Animated Women, he has the hots for her (naturally) and likes the couple because it "gives homicidal maniacs like him a chance". In his Top Eleven Batman Episodes, he feels sorry for her, talks about how the pairing sums up Domestic Abuse in a nutshell and his one complaint about the episode is the Fan Service of doctors in mini-skirts.
    • He's become a lot more respectful towards women, dislikes stereotypical manliness (he's quite a Sissy Villain himself) and has undying love for Badass girls. The "Top Eleven Hottest Animated Women" list had skeeviness reminiscent of Ask That Guy With The Glasses.
    • In his first top eleven, the Scariest Nostalgic Moments, he calls the Villain Song in Care Bears In Wonderland gay and mentions that if you watch Care Bears long enough you see the face of the devil. When he actually reviews the three movies, he of course still thinks they're sickeningly sweet but is a lot more mature about explaining his problems with them.
    • He started being calmer(ish) and giving a general review at the end of his episodes after The Garbage Pail Kids Movie became the utter pinnacle of badness in his eyes.
    • After the My Pet Monster debacle, he's learned not to be entitled and complain about having to watch something when it's a movie he actually bought or rented.
    • Compare the reviews of A Kid in King Arthur's Court and Alien: Resurrection. The former has him salivating over a Relationship Writing Fumble between two young-looking sisters and the latter a few years later has him irritated over how it was just advertised to get the male demographic in.
  • Character Filibuster: If his "child abuse" Berserk Button gets hit, the review will stop for a few minutes so he can get all his rant out.
  • Character Tics: If he's thinking he'll nearly always pucker his mouth. Another one as mentioned by Brental Floss, when he's trying to be angry but just really wants to laugh, he'll give a Death Glare with his mouth slightly open.
  • Characterization Marches On: Going from a happy, fanboying proto-Chester to a manic-depressive cynic.
    • He used to mention playing basketball and having therapy a lot. Both have died out because A) can you imagine the Critic as he is now being any good at sports? and B) the therapist wouldn't survive the hour.
    • At the start, he was much like a whiny adult who had nothing better to do with his time than take cartoons too seriously. Now though, he's more like an actual child, with all the brattiness that entails.
    • And like even Doug said in the Cartoon Allstars commentary, the character was far less pitiful and a lot more threateningly manly back then.
    • In the Super Mario Brothers movie, he's grossed out by the Big Beautiful Woman and makes no fuss about the Shallow Love Interest either being a Damsel in Distress or getting a flame thrower at the end. Watching it now, it's just... strange.
    • Also in the early days, he talked about kids' short attention spans and getting easily bored. With his hate for Lull Destruction, can you imagine him saying that now?
    • In his second Nerd rant, he doesn't even know what a compliment is. Fast forward to now and he's desperate for a movie to give him something good to say.
  • The Chew Toy: Part of the fun is seeing just how much he can suffer through a bad film before he'll snap completely.
    • Taken Up to Eleven in the second Christmas List. He's crying and begging that he doesn't want to The Star Wars Holiday Special while all the Star Wars characters laugh at him.
    • Not that he doesn't often deserve it, but the other contributors really do enjoy humiliating him. Even a long-dead guy has fun torturing him.
    • Lampshaded in the Captain Planet review where he spent the whole episode getting smacked with a ruler everytime he says the word:

Critic: I really hate this episode.

Critic: You know, I'm not for the objectification of women, but the only thing that can possibly save this movie is a nude scene. I mean, at least go for flat-out smut and entertain som- oh hey, I got my wish.

  • Kristin Minter starts undressing, Critic starts grinning, the brother comes in and his face falls*

Critic: Fuuuuck you, kid!

    • In the first Care Bears movie, his main theory about why the villain's voice is so cool is that she's getting oral while she does her lines. He then proceeds to act it out. (Her responses, not the eating out part.)
    • He actually gets on fairly well with the site ladies and doesn't treat them any differently, but he's stated that he finds them all nice-looking.
  • Chubby Chaser: Most of the women he's attracted to are on the voluptuous side.

Critic: [when slow-motioning Rogue's bust] I'm a dirty young man yes I am.

  • Class Clown: Subverted. He got pitied and bullied for not acting his age in eighth grade, although that hasn't stopped him from still not acting his age.
  • Close to Home: Anything that has kids getting hurt by adults, whether it's abuse, neglect, too much pressure or just bad messages. He has a big rant about A Troll in Central Park giving the message that dreams can do anything, with his two examples being a dead dog coming back to life or divorced parents getting back together.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: He's really not as level-headed and down-to-earth as he says he is.
  • Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Usually serves this role for Chester, in that he'll look after him but sometimes take advantage of his need for drugs.
  • Conditioned to Accept Horror: The bad upbringing gives him a few moments, like thinking every family have regular giant arguments at dinner, rape not being considered a special type of evil or defending kinky fantasies at a very young age.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Lampshaded when he thinks the scrapped World Trade Centre promo was in the movie and they cut it out not to offend anyone.
  • Cosmic Plaything: He really should stop pissing off beings with more powers than him.
  • Cosplay Otaku Boy: An M Bison costume that he brags got him tons of pussy, a Stripperiffic Link outfit, and, for his review of Transformers, an Optimus Prime suit with a conspicuous crotch bulge that we get to look at every now and then.
  • The Corrupter: He has this unintentional ability to turn otherwise basically decent people into sadists. (Like Lewis and Doug agreeing that Linkara put the idea to rape Critic into Spoony's head.)
  • Corrupt the Cutie: He was a Catholic schoolboy, and while he's still religious, now he has an active sex life that isn't so big on Safe, Sane, and Consensual.

Critic A: apologizing What would Jesus do?
Critic B: [instantly horny] Take me!

Angry Joe: This man WHUPPED MY ASS!"

  • Crusty Caretaker: The only other job he's had is Doug's factory cleaner gig (this was when Doug was still in school) and he got in trouble for hitting on "Amanda" too much.
  • Cute but Cacophonic: In his early days. His normal voice wasn't animated enough so when the shouting/screeching happened, it made him seem more like a howler monkey.
  • Cute Bookworm: He may not have all that much Common Sense, but have you ever noticed the vast amounts of books he owns?
  • Cute but Psycho: Sometimes sweet and Adorkable, sometimes blowing up an entire city by accident because of a tantrum.
  • Cute Glasses Boy: It's not that Doug isn't attractive anyway, but his glasses make him look very baby-faced.
  • Cuteness Proximity: He squees himself into teenage girl mode when he sees Snuffaluffagus in Sesame Street.
  • Cute Mute: He's been traumatized into silence a few times, one of which was in Spooning With Spoony. Noah revealed in his commentary that the reason why Critic only had one line in that was because Doug wanted to play the victim as much as possible.
  • The Danza: He's the only one of Doug's characters to share his name.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Adds another level of funny when you get that he has all these things he could justifiably complain about and he chooses to focus on shitty movies instead.
  • Dark Secret: Accidentally strangling a hooker to death after Kickassia and while still in Reno. He admits this while thinking the camera's not on yet.
  • Dating Catwoman: According to Doug and Lindsay, he and the Chick have this sort of relationship. There's an interesting contrast between the Chick's crazed addiction to get Todd noticing her and her mutually bitchy but fun and almost warm at this point dynamic with the Critic.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Mixed in with Stepford Snarker and bitterness.
  • Deal with the Devil: He's so desperate to have to have Sequel Month erased from his memory that he'll do whatever Sage tells him to do.
  • Death by Despair: After fully breaking down about how his life has gone nowhere, he gets about an inch away from it in his first commercials special.
  • Death Seeker: You know, you could just leave the room or switch off the TV instead of trying to off yourself constantly.
  • Deliberately Cute Man-Child: In "Return Of The Commercials" after "killing things smaller than gives you power!" and an Evil Laugh, he giggles like a puppy-eyed girl when she's just been caught painting the walls.
  • Demon Head: Quite literal, in his Good Burger review.
  • Demonic Possession: In the AVGN vs. NC Final Battle, he gets possessed by the devil when he's losing and can only be killed for a short period by Super Mecha Death Christ.
  • Designated Monkey: Word of God says he was created to suffer.
  • Despair Event Horizon: He's already well past it when The Neverending Story III begins. He approaches it at the end of My Pet Monster and start of the following "Nostalgic Commercials" video, falling over the edge near the end.
  • Determinator: He'll run all the way from Chicago to Philly to fight the Nerd (which apparently takes two weeks) and he won't even get tired.
  • Determined Defeatist: He knows he's pathetic, but carries on because at least he's resilient.
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?:

Critic: It's vague, it's confusing, and it's just a mess. Much like my sex life. Erm, I mean, uh... did I say that out loud? I, uh.. (uses a neuralizer on the audience) And that's why I'm the greatest lover ever!

Critic: Yeah, how's that supposed to put you in a trance, taking two sticks and putting them up and down, up and down, up and down, [cut to Dulcia in her Battle Bikini] up and down...up and down... [picture slowly zooms in on her breasts]...up and down...up and down... [gets his hat knocked off] Beat] You win this round, Dulcea.

  • Disappeared Dad: He's mentioned very rarely and Critic still lives with his mom. There's been a few hints that the parents got divorced. (This is in-character of course, Doug's dad - Barney Walker - has helped out a lot with music and such, therefore gets thanked in the credits.)
  • Dude in Distress: He got kidnapped by the Game Heroes and was made to promote their stuff at gunpoint.
    • When he was chloroformed by The Nostalgia Chick, he got just as much into the victim role.
    • Spooning With Spoony II probably counts, seeing as how he was the only canon one who was roofied and judging by the details, Spoony really went to town on humiliating him.
    • Made fun of in the Sidekicks review where he acts like he's chained up.

Critic: Next I bet you wanna hook up my nipples to a car battery, don't you? Don't you?

    • Also played for laughs in Care Bears II when Christy's screaming wears him down even though he knows it's a trap.

Critic: Oh my God, a bag!

    • Teddy Ruxpin forces a gun in his mouth and makes him write a more positive review, killing him when he screams for help.
    • Before Ma-Ti comes in to take the brunt of the abuse in the brawl, he spends most of the beginning on the floor. Both Linkara and the Chick joined in specifically to save him.
    • Looks to be the case in Linkara's "Previously On..." for Countdown, with Chester in control and shot with Hitler Cam, and Critic being shown in the opposite camera angle and surrounded by darkness. He recovers (with snark) better in this instance than he does the others.
    • The amount of I Have You Now, My Pretty moments he's been subjected to would make this list even longer.
  • Does Not Like Shoes: He's nearly always barefoot when playing around in his house.
  • The Dog Bites Back: After getting beaten on by Casper for a whole episode, he puts on a Ghostbusters uniform and hunts him down.
    • Likewise, with "True Internet Story", where he kicks the shit out of the Last Angry Geek for making wild accusations about his personality and earlier life.
    • Whenever he loses his patience with Douchey.
  • Don't Call Me Chicken: He could never resist a challenge from the Nerd, no matter how hard he'd got his ass beat the previous time.
  • Dragged Into Drag: According to Spoony in his Captain America (comics) video, he forced Critic to dress up like a dirty ballerina during Spooning With Spoony 2 and took pictures for blackmail.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: The other contributors think that he's the (ineffectual) Bad Boss of the site. In reality, it's The Other Guy and Critic's just a puppet with woefully poor self-esteem.
  • Driven to Madness: Battlefield Earth does this to the Critic in his 100th episode. It does it out of the sheer stupidity of the movie. So much so they sped the camera up for most of his breakdown.
  • Driven to Suicide: In Spoony's review of Captain America, he asks for the Critics opinion on the movie, making sure he knows that if he doesn't, he'll get blackmailed with crossdressing pictures from when he was roofied and raped. Cut to a shot of the Critic's elevated feet dangling from side to side while squeaking from a rope is heard.

Spoony: "That's the coward's way out, and you know it, Critic!"

    • Also became a Running Gag throughout the Batman and Robin review. Though it's actually subverted, as precautions were apparently made to prevent him from killing himself.
    • He also becomes suicidal during a scene in Howard the Duck.
    • After his "Superman Top 11" review, the Critic mentions how the movies always make him smile, before remembering the tragic fates of Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder and the World Trade Center.

"I'm the Nostalgia Critic, I'm going to go kill myself."

      • Not all Superman movies make him smile. From his Superman IV review. "How long is this movie again?" "Hour and a half." "BLAM!"
    • Bio-Dome made him slash his wrists, although either he or someone else put plasters on them afterwards.
    • The songs in The Pebble And The Penguin make him feel so dirty that he takes a bath with a toaster.
  • Drunk with Power: Seeing as how he has so little of it usually, when he does get the faintest whiff of power he'll try and cling to it as hard as he can.
  • Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: He pinches The Nostalgia Chick's ass—while almost unconscious himself.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: At the start of his Full House review, he very pissily hopes we appreciate what he does for us.
  • Dumb Struck: Because Doug lost his voice again, Alone in the Dark was so awful that Critic lost the ability to talk.
  • Dynamic Character: He's pretty three-dimensional for an internet personality, and there's a fair amount of both good and bad Character Development involved.
  • Effeminate Misogynistic Guy: Mostly a feminist, he still has his moments that come out in either Real Women Don't Wear Dresses beliefs or trying to see how far he can go until he gets put back in his place.
  • Emo: Ask That Guy teases him by calling him emo after he wore eyeliner.
  • Empty Shell: He's got very close to this twice before snapping himself out of it. Funnily enough, both with song.
  • Erotic Eating: We can't see him doing it because he can't exactly show porn, but a recurring fetish of his is licking whipped cream off a gorgeous woman.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Although Characterization Marches On, Cartoon Allstars making him so miserable that he sees no other way out than to shoot himself in the head.
    • And a more subtle one at the beginning. Even though seeing the movie "brings back a pool of disappointing memories", he's smiling when he says he has to watch it again.
    • And another near the end. When the characters refuse to stop hammering the moral in, he starts to disagree when they say he should believe in himself and that they care about him.
  • Ethical Hedonist: He admits that the nexus - where you feel nothing but timeless joy and don't care about anything else - would be awesome, but he still gets irritated at Kirk for doing a 180 from "I need my pain" to "I don't want responsibility".
  • Ethical Slut: He goes into this territory as much as he's able on Halloween.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: As much as he couldn't stand the Nerd, calling him The Irate Gamer is going too far.
  • Even Nerds Have Standards: The dorky dancing Peter does in Spider-Man III is too dorky even for him.
    • Subverted in the Harry Potter book launch. After spending the majority of the video bitching about it, he has a Freak-Out Squee larger than anyone when the books start coming out.
    • There's an affectionate potshot at erotic fanfic writers when George Lucas and Carrie Fisher are the couple in Hook.
    • He gets to be on the other side of it when even Chester laughs at him because he watches Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Falls for this trope with regard to Will Smith when reviewing Independence Day.
    • Keith David as well. It's the voice.
    • Continuing the trend, he's so charmed by Ernie Hudson in Congo that he calls him a "black Clark Gable".
    • He has a Played for Laughs crush on Lucas from The Wizard (film).
    • His utter glee over Daniel Craig and Kate Winslet sharing a kiss suggests it's not just Miss Winslet he finds appealing.
    • "Ohhh, George Takei, teach me the Spocker!" Said like he's having an orgasm, no less, and made slightly creepy because of the Call Back to SWS2.
    • And now he wants Hugh Jackman. To be fair, everyone wants Hugh Jackman.
  • Everyone Calls Him Critic: Although Rob/The Other Guy will occasionally call him by his real name.
  • Everything Is Racist: Most of the time he has a good point, but at other times he can get on his soapbox a little too much.
  • Evil Laugh: Done whenever he feels like it.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: Used in a number of reviews, such as his "Top 11 Disney Villains": "When you wish upon a star, evil will find you!"
  • Extreme Doormat: While he's a brat who loves starting arguments, he does fall apart with little provocation.

Critic: I just do what everyone tells me to do in the hopes of feeling less insecure.

    • And when he does lampshade in the Star Trek review that he's not going to cave this time, he gets punished later by the utter dullness of the movie and tries to go crawling back to Joe.
  • Face Your Fears: He tries to make it through the banshee that has always scared him so much. He doesn't succeed.
  • Fan Boy: Whenever there's something he likes, or at least a hammy Guilty Pleasure, he'll be gleeing and enjoying himself immensely. And whenever somebody famous calls him, even if they're confusing or treat him like a Chew Toy, he'll be starstruck.
  • Failure Hero: It's very rare that he'll get what he wants or win.
  • Fainting: The emotional kind is played for laughs in his review of Judge Dredd, The Wizard (film), the "I love you, wife" line from Lost in Space and he uses fangirls from Disney movies to do yet more swooning over Will Smith in Independence Day.
  • Fan Hater: While refraining from it 99% of the time because Doug has a fear of Reviews Are the Gospel, he does say that anyone who likes Hannibal and the Jim Carrey remake of The Grinch is stupid.

Critic: I know it's just my opinion but I'm right.

Critic: (being completely up himself) "It's hard to believe that such a handsome man could become even handso... hansomen... prettier."

  • FBI Agent: Special Agent in the Department of Criticism, if you believe the The X-Files expy intro.
  • Fetish: Plenty. As stated in a few reviews; strong, toppy women, charming black guys, masochism, being humiliated, dildos, roleplay, bondage, fingering, crossdressing (for some reason this is the one he's ashamed of the most), fictional incest couples that are the right age and not parent-child,[1] the Chick's firey temper and six-breasted cats from outer space.
  • Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: This "Why He's Hot" entry makes a pretty good case for his appeal.
  • Fluffy Tamer: He hates meant-to-be-liked animals in movies (and they usually hate him right back), but falls completely in love with the gross ones, like the targ from Star Trek III.
  • Foe Yay: Invoked with the Nerd. "Nerd-on-Critic action" (which was lampshaded by Chester), the retrospective with "Ghost Love Score", one of the TGWTG women telling them to make out in the Brawl bloopers... what more could you ask for?
  • The Fool: Deconstructed. Baby Geniuses and "NC Fuck-Ups III" proved once and for all he doesn't care if people find him stupid, but if they think he's not creative or funny, then life isn't worth living.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to the Other Guy's responsible. He's the Hot-Blooded Psychopathic Manchild who gets wasted by 6PM.
  • Formerly Fat: Coupling with Fan Service Pack, he's a lot skinnier now than when he was a teenager or even in the early days of reviewing.
  • Fragile Flower: Luckily he mixes this with more Hot-Blooded tropes, but he breaks down in tears often for no reason.
  • Friendless Background: And no sign of social services anywhere.
  • Friend to All Children: Except the annoying ones. As well as his Papa Wolf moments, he's much nicer to the teenage girls in the Harry Potter launch than he is the adults. And when he's hunting down a ghost, he tells a small child she's adorable. In the second half of the Tank Girl review, he's pretty one-track-minded about saving starving kids.
  • Friend To A Psycho: With Ask That Guy. He's not too bothered about being teased by him, is severely icked by the questions he gets asked but lets him violate Ma-Ti, is able to survive living in the same house with him and looked about to cry when Ask That Guy didn't save him in Kickassia.
  • Freudian Excuse: Inverted. He had all kinds of bullying, shitty parents and retreated into obsessing over TV like the Chick, but he trashes this belief in The Cell by saying having a tragic past isn't a good excuse for doing things wrong as an adult.
  • Freudian Slip: From the A Kid in King Arthur's Court review.

Nostalgia Critic: Hey, they're actresses first and sisters second, and that's good enough in my porno--book.

    • Barb Wire: "I remember it so you don't boobies! I mean, boobies, in the boobies boobies..."
  • Funny Character, Boring Actor: Doug isn't really boring, he's funny and the commentaries on his own have some very nice character information, but he's gold bantering with Rob.
  • Gag Penis: Thanks to Catherine Zeta-Jones, The Critic is unable to stand up from his chair and walk away at the end of his review of The Phantom. Even he's embarrassed by it. It's also big enough that it keeps thumping against the desk during his review of Blank Check.
  • Genius Ditz: He's silly, gullible and not all there, but he's eloquent when not swearing up a storm, is very fond of black-and-white movies, can apparently follow black hole theories, is disgusted by the lack of history awareness in The Magic Voyage and has a brain when it counts.
  • Genre Savvy: "I know how this works. If I say the entire title that means that I've got to review it next week."
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Getting splashed with water is probably one of the nicer ways of doing that.
    • When he has a whimpering breakdown about the Nightmare Sequence in Good Burger, he has to take a minute to hit himself in the head and "pull it together". He needs to do it again at the bizarre yet so unfunny scene of Ed's hijinks as he tries to get to work.
  • Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The heart ring in Captain Planet makes him feel perfectly fine before a ruler snaps him out of it.
  • Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: He appreciates two girls together very much. This has lessened lately however, in the Haunting remake his Celeb Crush Catherine Zeta Jones plays a bisexual woman. He loves this plenty, but also calls out the movie for her offensively fanservicey writing.
    • Lessened even more by Alien: Resurrection, as he's mostly just confused by the Sigourney Weaver/Winona Ryder character flirting and gets angry by how they didn't even have all the balls to go beyond just teasing.
  • Girls Have Cooties: Before he hit puberty early, they were cootie-filled loudmouth annoyances.

Critic: I don't know, maybe it's my inner little boy, but I just hate this fucking character [Webby], with her pwecious little bow and her cutie-cute dress and those cootie-filled eyes... boys forever! No girls allowed! I'm never going to like girls until the day I die! [shows cleavage] Aww shit, boobs ruin everything.

Critic: Yeah, if High School has taught us anything it's that it's very, very difficult to be a beautiful, white, athletic male.

  • Green Eyes: A greeny-blue, so that's his temper, naiveté and ditziness sorted.
  • Growing Up Sucks: A slight variation of the trope:

Critic: "When you're a kid all you can think about is being in high school. When you're in high school all you can think about is being in college. When you're in college all you can think about is being an adult. And when you're an adult all you can think about is being a kid again. LIFE FUCKING SUCKS!"

  • Grumpy Young Man: Comes with trashing the Nostalgia Filter.
  • The Grunting Orgasm: Subverted. As usual, he's stereotypically feminine about it and whenever he acts one out, it's about as high-pitched as you can get. And with the Chick also being established to be noisy in bed, one wonders how loud their sex was.
  • Guyliner: In the "Top Eleven Dumbest Superman Moments". He'll never be allowed to forget it.
    • You can also see smudges in other episodes, which nobody really makes a fuss about anymore.
    • It makes a celebrated return in The Exorcist II, being completely slathered on around his eyes and him wearing it with black lipstick.
  • Happy Place: Catherine Zeta Jones wearing a tie, glasses, a baseball cap and a long sweater is the best ever image he can conjure up.
    • His kid fantasy was a naked April O'Neil covered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
  • Hates Small Talk: The awkward, filled-with-this date with the Chick drove him to breaking point.
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Critic does this to himself.

Critic: {{[[[Stupid Sexy Flanders]] fantasizes about}} Will Smith] [slaps himself] BOOBS! YOU LIKE BOOBS!

    • He does the same thing when he's porning over Hugh Jackman in the Chick's review of Kate and Leopold. As he's basically giving a handjob to a stick of butter, it's even less credible than the first time.
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: While very active, he tries to convince us that he's a player, and not that his sex life is a weird mess.
  • Hearing Voices: Of the kids who bullied him over Doug, as well as genuinely creepy laughter.
  • Heartbreak and Ice Cream: When he's suffering from depression after being called pathetic, he eats his weight in junk food.
  • He Cleans Up Nicely: In the Chick's Worst Witch review, despite the ridiculous wig, he manages to pull off an all-white suit quite impressively.
  • He's All Grown Up: To be as kind as possible, thank all the Gods the greasy hair/acne/horrible teeth combo he had as a preteen didn't last long.
  • He Knows Too Much: When he realizes the Olsen twins are evil bent on world domination, they keep trying to kill him.
  • Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Critic in the title cards is far more villainous, masculine and competent than our version.
  • Heroic BSOD: Has one during Spooning With Spoony 2.
    • Also, the Critic's "mourning" of Tom and Jerry a la Hamlet seems to have him rather depressed.
    • The Garbage Pail Kids Movie has him starting the review feeling like he just got raped.
    • The Critic opens the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog review like this, apparently still in shock from the insanity of the show.
    • Another one happens in his My Pet Monster review, where in the end he gets asked by the producers of the movie why he is reviewing kids movies and getting incredibly wound up by them at the age of 28. He decides he needs ask himself some hard questions, and spends the credits just sitting on a chair while sad music plays. The depression lasts until the next week where he's pigging out on junk food, his self-esteem is six feet under and he would have given up completely if it hadn't been for an epic He's Back number.
    • His most recent one as him aimlessly wandering around Animarathon recalling Baby Geniuses and that the movie was so horrible it left him unable to review it. He scares a random cosplayer, angsts a lot in his hotel room, punches a guy's lights out, screams at the convention audience in his Q&A panel and stares at the wall three times, each time forcing himself to look away. He snaps out of it when he realizes that his inner monologue counts as a review.
  • Hero Worshipper: "Lucas! ...darling."
  • He's Back: He gets to have a kickass song and say he's proud of his patheticness at the end of his first commercial special.
    • Happens in Moulin Rouge, again with an epic song and putting on his signature outfit.
  • He's Got Legs: Suburban Knights gives them a lot of attention. And Lupa said in a stream that he didn't even shave them. You may now start hating him, ladies.
  • Hidden Depths: He knows his Chinese, he plays the clarinet, his childhood idol was Mary Poppins and he's a Shakespeare and Greek Mythology buff.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: While also sad and inducing a lot of Fridge Horror, his childhood and the Trauma Conga Line that went on is built on Black Comedy.
  • Hollywood Nerd: How many "geeks" do you know that can pull off eyeliner as well as he did?
  • Honor Before Reason: He couldn't stop himself from saving a little girl in Care Bears II even when he knew it was a trap (thus getting himself kidnapped), and he still tried to protect his team against Malachite even after his groin must have been smashed into jelly.
  • Hope Spot: His hopes for actual comedy in Bio-Dome went up when Tenacious D made a cameo. They were crushed quickly.
    • During his review of Howard the Duck, near the end, he sees Howard talking like a Dark Overlord, and says, "Oh good, he's possessed! Does that mean we can kill him?"
  • Hot-Blooded: He finds it incredibly difficult to hide any emotion, whether it's happy, depressed or angry.
  • Hot Dad: For a Mister Seahorse joke in the Fern Gully review.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: While easily being able to spot Obviously Evil in the movies he looks at, he's not so good when it comes to people in his own life. The Nostalgia Chick and Ask That Guy With The Glasses are perfect examples.
  • Humiliation Conga: Pretty much the entire reason for the existence of the James and the Giant Peach review is because the Critic was forced at gun-point to give a positive review of a movie everyone liked to rectify the public's shameful opinion of his first (and probably last) Let's Play, which was posted a week earlier.
  • Hotblooded Sideburns: In episodes where Doug's grown his hair out more.
  • Hypocrite: Demanding pure logic in the silliest of cartoons, but running totally on emotion himself.
    • Even though he has a ton of guilty pleasures, he never fully gets that people can like movies that he can't stand.
    • He's so unwilling to accept Ma-Ti's death that he'll try and find (or make Chester find) a supernatural book that would raise the dead, but even in the movie where the aforementioned dying happened, he never fought back when he thought he was about to be killed.
  • I Am Not My Father: From what we've heard of Daddy Critic's... parenting attitudes, Critic is trying his best to go the opposite way and be like a designated defender of kids everywhere.
  • I Am What I Am: After receiving a big blow to his ego that he's just a loser who reviews nostalgic things and wallowing in despair for an entire video, he comes to realize (in a manner similar to a certain skeleton) that he likes being who he is, pathetic as he may be.
  • I Call It Vera: Parodied. He hasn't named his gun, but he's called a very rarely used baseball bat Amber.
  • Iconic Item: His tie has become this, and his gun to a lesser extent.
  • Identical Stranger: He shared a great resemblance to comic book writer Ed Brubaker, known for his run on Captain America (comics). And yes, that does make his review of the Matt Salinger Captain America (comics) movie hilarious for those that follow Captain America (comics) more than they do the Critic.
  • If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him: During one exchange with the The Angry Video Game Nerd.
  • Ignored Epiphany: At the end of Surf Ninjas, after having a Dying Dream where he likes it, he says he'll never like anything ever again. The next episode after was the "Top 11 Nostalgic Animated Shows", so that really didn't last.
  • I Just Want to Be Loved: The business in the James and the Giant Peach was partly Happiness Is Mandatory and partly he really needs people to like him again. Another instance of showing just how bad this is, he's overflowing with joy at the end of the Little Nemo review because "he's never felt so loved". Seeing as he's only being celebrated because he didn't make a Finding Nemo joke... oof.
  • Ill Boy: As we all know, he's very prone to losing his voice. Although when you shout the Losing Horns by yourself, you only have yourself to blame.
  • Informed Attribute: His AVGN-style song brags that he's the world's biggest and greatest cynic. If you say so.
  • Informed Flaw: Joked about in the Junior Dream Sequence. What are these "crimes against humanity" again?
  • Innocently Insensitive: Much like Horrible Judge of Character; fine with movies but sucks in real life. He doesn't get that being nice to Luke in front of Film Brain, congratulating the Chick on being a female version of him or assuming Chester didn't need the residuals of the Non Sequitur Scene meme, would most definitely piss them off.
  • The Insomniac: Nyquil and Vicodin together? Ain't so healthy.
  • Internalized Categorism: He's Catholic and yet the religion is one of many on the list he's prejudiced against.
  • In Touch with His Feminine Side
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Particularly bad reviews will have him reaching for stuff like Jack Daniels or Jagermeister. Titanic: The Legend Goes On had him reaching for progressively larger bottles, culminating in one larger than he was.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: His screaming rants have become little boy tantrums and Doug revealed he shouts at things because what's on the screen is scaring him, he can't hold onto being the "bad guy" for very long and he's easily prone to crying.
  • Inelegant Blubbering: His knowledge of a traditional breakdown is one where you're puffy-eyed, sniffing, snorting and can barely talk.
  • Innocent Fanservice Boy: Deconstructed. He likes teasing his audience and bragging about how cute he is, but it's been hinted a few times that he has no idea what he's doing. As examples, the skirt in Suburban Knights, drinking with Spoony when he's a complete lightweight and getting a stalker partner when he was a teenager.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: He finally breaks down and says in the CR crossover that he doesn't want anyone going into his territory because they'd do it better than him, while the "Commercials Special" goes into his lack of self-esteem even more.
  • In-Universe Catharsis: Shooting things mainly. When he was a child, it was particularly goofy acting, the kind that he would want to bury from the public forever.
  • In Vino Veritas: He's not all that surprisingly different to us, but Phelous and Snob get pretty shocked when they see him vulnerably hanging onto The Other Guy and totally wasted in their "Troll 4" review.
  • I'm Your Biggest Fan: Said in-universe when Christopher Walken starts calling him. The strangeness doesn't deter him at all.
  • It's All About Me: He cares about other people certainly, he's still pretty self-obsessed. He's not based off Daffy Duck for nothing.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Done in a more passive-aggressive style and God knows what the real situation, but even though there's hints that he feels abandoned by the Chick's obsession with Todd, he doesn't push anything too much and he generally just wants her to be okay.
  • I Want to Be a Real Man: In his Top 11 Cereal Mascots, he mentions that the cool, strong, athletic Tony the Tiger is the cereal mascot everyone wanted to be, and he praises the Geek Fight cards for making him look strong and masculine. He's mostly grown out of the mindset and gone into full In Touch with His Feminine Side.
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: Put on when he's faced with Tastes Like Diabetes films, although they keep falling off when it comes to Sesame Street.
  • Jaded Washout: He's usually too childish to notice how pathetic he is, but he has a few moments of self-awareness. The "Commercials Special" is a good example.
  • Jerkass Facade: Not that he isn't a genuine dick, but coupled with Sympathetic POV, there's no indication that the other characters know what we know about him. Or that he'd be willing to tell them.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He fiercely protects kids but has no patience for annoying dogs, he trashes other people's nostalgia but can't make it through Follow That Bird without squeeing, he's demanding of Chester but is the only to give him money and a place to stay, he's a bastard to people but is so very loyal to the ones he cares about, he has a temper but heartwarming moments come regularly... let's just say this guy can get complicated.
  • Keet: When he's actually enjoying himself.
  • Kick the Dog: Played for Black Comedy, but how he treats animals - gleeing when dogs have a chance of dying, throwing rocks at pets to see if their owners laugh, chucking a spider through a window because he's scared of it - will remind you that he's a Psychopathic Manchild if you ever forget it.
    • While he's actually pretty nice (or at least high on tolerating Douchey's shit) in the Top 11 NC Fuck-Ups, he beats on a guy who mistakenly caused him trouble until he's collapsed and bleeding.
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: Usually done with The Last Angry Geek. Like when Geek put massively pricey, not needed shoulder pads on his bill, he said he was going to stop the Geek's show.
  • Kidanova: After calling a kinky fantasy starring April every kid's dream, he defensively reminds people that he was an early bloomer.
  • Kiddie Kid: At first it sounds like he's being sarcastic about acting like a monkey in eighth grade, but then he turns out he actually did.
  • Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: When he watched Cool World as a young'un, he ran for the exit like the screen was on fire.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: In "Holiday Clusterfuck", he steals a woman's money after the Christmas stress drives her to suicide.
  • The Klutz: Parodied when Phelous throws a sock at his head. He falls around his house so much that he ends up shooting himself with his gun.
  • Kubrick Stare: He often makes this expression (the grimacing kind) while reviewing movies that are frustrating him, most notably in North.
  • Large Ham: Word of God says that the hamminess comes from Daffy Duck, Jack Lemmon's performance as Professor Fate in The Great Race, and the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.
  • Laughing Mad: In The Neverending Story III review, after finishing the movie and getting mad, in Chairman Of The Board where he laughs manically when he gets the meaning of Edison's name, when Jingle All the Way ruins the one funny joke they had and when Zack shows his new haircut in Saved by the Bell. That last one gave him an orgasm.
  • Leaning on the Furniture: In a brief cool moment, he leans against the wall while the Grinch narrator is talking.
  • Licked by the Dog: Even though they have their arguments, Chester always calls him nice and will be the first to defend him.
  • Leitmotif: You'd expect a theme of his to be loud and fast-paced, so it's a surprise when different parts of this soft, sad piece play for him the most instead.
  • Limited Wardrobe: According to the drawing in the Willy Wonka episode, he's worn the same clothes since kindergarten. However, he has another shirt with the words "I [donut] donuts" when he needs a break and watches commercials, and in the beginning he had the jacket, hat and jeans but he'd wear a different t-shirt each episode and the tie would come later.
  • L Is for Dyslexia: He's seriously prone to misspellings.

Critic: It's like if you cross a dyslexic with a complete idiot.

Earthworm: Remember what your parents said, James!
Critic: ..."Look out, a rhino"?

Critic: Ain't love a bitch?

  • Looks Like Cesare: Made fun of in the "Top 11 NC Fuck-Ups". He mentions the emails he got saying he looked like a goth's drag show when he wore eyeliner, when really he just looked slightly girlier.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Evidently the only way his parents could give him any kind of love was to give whatever kind of toys he wanted.
  • Loners Are Freaks
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: When he was a teenager.
  • Loser Protagonist: He lives with his abusive mother, has a load of issues, doesn't own a car, his job is the only life he has and the other one just was being a Crusty Caretaker, doesn't particularly have a lot of talent and has No Social Skills.
  • Lovable Coward: He gets freaked out constantly and driven to tears by things he could just turn off, but he's fun to watch.
  • Lovable Nerd: Being played by Doug certainly helps.
  • Love Before First Sight: It's lucky that Lindsay!Chick had so much chemistry with him, but from the way he acted in the "Search For The Nostalgia Chick", he was going to be in love with whatever woman won.
  • Love Martyr: From his knowledge of how abusive relationships work, it's safe to say he's had experiences with going back to a horrible partner.
  • Love Redeems: Disney can bring him back from being a psychopath and his enjoyment of Christmas can never be broken.
  • Lust Object: Spoony has lust for everyone, but he's really proud to have Critic as a conquest. And we're guessing he didn't blackmail others or break into their houses.
  • Made Myself Sad: Remembering all the bad things that happened to the Superman cast makes him end the episode by miserably going off to kill himself.
  • Madden Into Misanthropy: His temper usually builds up using this method.
  • Madness Mantra: All he could write while watching Bio-Dome was "why why why why why why...", and in Drop Dead Fred, after the friend praises the lead for her craziness: "No! No! No! No! No! No!..."
  • Magnetic Hero: In a stereotypically feminine way. No matter how much the others like hurting him, no matter how dickish he can get, if there are tears they'll get sucked right in and want him to be okay.
  • Male Misandrist: Oddly (given what she's like), he's complained more about Male Gaze, the White Male Lead trend and apparent "what about teh menz" feelings in movies more than the Chick ever has.
  • Man of a Thousand Voices: Every episode he does will feature at least one impression or fake accent. He's usually very good at them, but his Morgan Freeman voice sounds nothing like the man.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Feminine Boy to the Nostalgia Chick's Masculine Girl. He also acted as the Feminine Boy to Obscurus Lupa in Suburban Knights.
  • Mean Character, Nice Actor: Doug Walker is nothing like his pathetic, crazed character in real life. Most audio commentaries are far more lenient to the show/movie's good points. Even on The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, which he finds irredeemable, he's a lot calmer as to explaining why.
    • If there was any doubt that Doug is one of the nicest guys ever, check out Noah's commentary of "Zombie 5". They both had the same idea of acting like The Cinema Snob, Doug got there first and felt so guilty that he called Noah to apologize profusely when he really didn't have to. We imagine Noah felt like he had just kicked a puppy.
  • Memetic Outfit: Baseball cap, white t-shirt, black suit jacket and a loose red tie. (And jeans of course.)
  • Men Are Uncultured: Back before he became a Sissy Villain, he was much more interested in sports and it was far easier to get him bored.
  • Miles to Go Before I Sleep: He admits in the Gordy review that he's so tired.
  • Misaimed Fandom: In-universe, he totally looked up to Oscar from Sesame Street. Oscar is supposed to be an Anti Role Model, albeit a endearing one.
    • You also get it in his "Top Eleven Villain Songs" when it comes to The Cell Block Tango from Chicago. It's supposed to be an indictment of these horrible women who committed Disproportionate Retribution on their husbands, yet he'd actually be fine with them killing him if they played the song.
  • Misery Builds Character: It's been said by fans and by Doug, he's far more entertaining and interesting when he's being a victim or breaking down.
  • Mister Seahorse: The Nostalgia Chick forced him to get preggers through fairy sex one time.
  • Mood Swinger: He's a bit like a Hollywood-style manic depressive.
  • Momma's Boy: A rare tragically-funny one. Even in the Tank Girl review, his "better things to do than watching this movie" list includes calling your mother.
  • Motor Mouth: One of the issues with his Let's Play is that he never stopped talking. Granted, Bart's Nightmare is not much to look at, but quiet moments in LPs are encouraged.
  • Mouthy Kid: Inverted. One small bitch to his Dad and he got punished so severely that he became an Extreme Doormat.
  • Mr. Imagination: He manages to outdream Stanley in the A Troll in Central Park review. Only his dreams are slightly more... painful to the titular troll. And when he can't stop himself from imagining the babies between Goliath and Elisa, he bitches that his mind never does what he tells it to.
  • Mr. Fanservice: He's cute and knows it, suffers well, likes taking his shirt off, enjoys making orgasm noises, has given a blowjob to a joystick, looks very nice in a short tunic with no pants or tights and in the advertisement for Geek Fight, he says he won't get naked for the cards... yet.
  • Mr. Vice Guy: If we listed them we'd be here all day.
  • Must Have Caffeine: Who in the right mind has coffee before going to sleep?
  • My Beloved Smother: "Hey, she's my world!" But like Ask That Guy, he can't stop himself from having a fantasy about her dying every now and then.
  • My Biological Clock Is Ticking: In late 2011/early 2012, there's been a reference in nearly every episode of wanting to be or acting like a father.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: He has a crying fit when his Nintendo disappears after he stops playing it.
    • In his third Nostalgic Commercials special, he orders an off-screen minion to inject five people with diabetes (however that's supposed to work...) then stops and says, "Dear God, I think I might be horrible."
    • Accidentally killing Mary Poppins, his first childhood icon, crushes him.
    • After making the obligatory gay joke about Bert And Ernie, he breaks down to all the cast of Sesame Street and apologizes for trying to review the first show he ever saw.
    • The lyrics Lindsay used at the end of "Thanks For The Feedback" implies this:

"Baby come back, you can blame it all on me. I was wrong..."

    • He breaks down immediately after shooting Floss for no reason other than getting a sad ending.


Critic character tropes N-Z

  • Necktie Leash: Done more and more as times goes on, but averted in his review of Batman and Robin. They took it away so he wouldn't hang himself.
    • In their battles, The Angry Video Game Nerd has pulled his tie so many times, some of which he didn't even need to do.
    • Three words, given by Spoony: "ride the pony".
    • The Game Heroes also pull his tie while forcing him to promote their t-shirts. Slightly unnecessary as he's also tied up, at gunpoint and clearly not going anywhere, but nobody's complaining.
    • Even the fans join in the fun during the Ponyo credits, to punish him for his dislike of Howl's Moving Castle.
  • Nerds Are Sexy: He has the hots for an Asian scientist (who you may know from Twin Peaks) in his review of Judge Dredd.
  • Nervous Wreck: He's pretty easy to stress out.
  • Never Bareheaded: He rarely takes off his hat on the show. Exceptions are his Batman and Robin review and his Siskel and Ebert tribute.
  • Never Live It Down: In-Universe, the series Doug. Bring it up in a conversation, or even play just the theme song, and he'll go SERIAL KILLER ON YO' ASSES!
  • Never Hurt an Innocent: He's seriously upset when Quest for Camelot makes him kill innocent Disney characters.
  • Nice Hat: His baseball cap. He's one of the few men over the age of twenty who can make it look cool.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: He's usually a Lovable Coward but he has his moments. As an example, he's rather happy about imagining the creator of Chairman Of The Board getting beheaded. He also curses his love for wanton destruction when the trailer for Godzilla draws him in.
  • Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: That drawing of his parents. Fangs, claws, bb!Critic getting bloodily torn apart... and this was done in kindergarten.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: More minor than Ask That Guy, but he still does things like drink from a skull while shooting at the air.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He hates his audience for being sadistic, ungrateful pricks [2] but will put himself through an ungodly shitty film because they requested it all the time. This usually doesn't end well for him.
    • Even though the Ghost Of Christmas Future has been an annoying, stalker-like bastard throughout Babes in Toyland, when the Critic sees that he's depressed, he acts very fatherly and comforting towards him. He then makes the mistake of letting the ghost choose what movie he should suffer through next, and the ghost immediately picks The Grinch.
  • No Guy Wants an Amazon: Subverted with a passion. Put an Action Girl in a movie (but don't chickify her) and he'll fall in love.
  • No Indoor Voice: If his voice starts to go up, either a higher pitch or just louder, he's either upset, angry or excited.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: With the Chick. Seeing as how she's just as bad, she doesn't seem to mind too much.
    • In Star Trek Insurrection, he was close enough to That Sci-Fi Guy to look particularly molesty. Not to mention they were lying in bed together.
  • Not Distracted by the Sexy: Although he's shown a lot of attraction to the Chick before, he's more annoyed that even she enjoys Moulin Rouge than anything else. He doesn't even seem to notice that she's wearing burlesque.
  • Not So Above It All: At the end of his Lost in Space review, he rants to the first appearance of Dr. Smith about nobody can trust him, but then he's easily manipulated and gets shot by his own gun.
    • He calls out the Care Bears for falling for Christie's and Darkheart's trap, but her screaming breaks him down and he goes to help, getting bagged in the process. He can't resist their The Power of Love moment either, and shouts out for Santa Christ.
  • Not So Different: There are an essay's worth of similarities between him and The Nostalgia Chick. Ask That Guy is also his Evil Counterpart.
    • In his review of Bio-Dome, the Critic screams "ASS!" to express rage - a trademark of his rival.
  • Not So Harmless: Shown in Kickassia where he's willing to commit mass murder-suicide through dynamite if anyone threatened the power he'd finally managed to gain.
  • No Social Skills
  • Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: In the He Man and The Masters of The Universe review. Even Doug and Rob admitted soon after that the review was not one of their finest moments, and maybe it's not a coincidence that the Critic character started getting progressively girlier in later episodes.
  • Older and Wiser: To a degree. A lot of his anger about Bella comes from the fact he at seventeen didn't make good choices or have results that worked out in his favor.
  • Older Than They Look: He's thirty but the only thing's that changed in his basic face since he was sixteen is that he's lost the chubbiness. And when he got rid of the beard for two episodes, most of the comments were about how he looked like a teenager.
    • When he's hitting on Catherine Zeta Jones, he tries to get with her by saying he's really eighty four.
  • Old Shame: In-character, he calls his old college film "The Room" one of the worst movies ever and "Melvin, Brother Of The Joker" is a failed sketch he did.
    • He acts horrified when Mara Wilson reveals some of the videos he made as a teenager.
  • One of Us: He's used the words Nightmare Fuel, Fan Dumb, Tear Jerker and Squee.
  • One-Note Cook: He can only make cereal. Lampshaded in "Fuck Ups Part Three" where he notes he should probably spend more time in the kitchen and less time gobbling junk food.
  • The Only One: It's in the Catch Phrase, although if the movie's bad enough or he's miserable enough, it'll be forced on him.
  • The Only One Allowed to Insult You: When he thinks Linkara is calling The Nostalgia Chick a wussy, he tells him he's not allowed to insult her in that way.
  • Only Sane Man: But only when compared to Chester and Ask That Guy. Which probably says a lot about them.

Critic: If the KGB is watching you, then there's something wrong with you!

  • OOC Is Serious Business: Even disregarding angry cluster f bombs, swearing is a fairly natural part of his vocabulary. So when he goes Gosh Dang It to Heck or doesn't swear at all, something's either gone very wrong or very right.
  • Oral Fixation Fixation: That joystick can't have tasted all that nice.
  • Out-of-Character Moment: In the middle bit of Airborne, he comes across (unintentionally) as a bit of a Heteronormative Crusader who thinks the lead isn't a proper man because he wants to be a pacifist and not fight. He gets out of it near the end, but it was a weird period for a Sissy Villain who hates morals of "solve problems by fighting".
  • Papa Wolf: Even if he thinks the kid's a Bratty Half-Pint, treat a child badly or don't take responsibility, and Critic will hate you.
  • Patriotic Fervor: Subverted. He apologizes on behalf of America for the corny lines of Spider-Man, explaining that it was after 9/11.
  • The Perfectionist: One of his major problems is that he always expects too much out of everything and so sets himself up for disappointment.
  • Persona Non Grata: In his review of Jaws 3D, NC states that due to an incident, he can never go back to Nevada.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: In his Quest for Camelot review, he got so angry with the movie for not explaining anything that he accidentally caused a massive explosion that destroyed an entire city. Twice.
  • Perverse Sexual Lust: For Catherine Zeta Jones, as we find out in his Top 11 Villain Songs video. It's an inverted example as the Critic is a fictional character while Catherine Zeta Jones is a real life actress.
    • He also has one for most of his Top 11 Hottest Animated Characters, especially April O'Neil.
    • Jennifer Connelly can roam his labyrinth any day.
    • Shay in Blank Check, although he's still squicked by the Shotacon aspect of the movie and doesn't get why she's not pissed at a nice outfit getting destroyed.
  • Phobia: He sees a spider and chucks it so hard that the window breaks.
  • Ping-Pong Naivete: His intelligence and competence will vary depending on who he's with and if it's funny for him to be stupid or not.
  • Pink Means Feminine: His bedroom has pink curtains. Amusingly, the first time we saw them was when he was writing in his diary like a teenage girl in the My Pet Monster review.
  • Plain John: You wouldn't think it now with the way he brags about being cute, but he used to think of himself as just another doughy nerd. But even then he had half-clothed Showers Of Angst.
  • Please, I Will Do Anything!: Quite frequently. He did it when Tom and Jerry were going to sing another song, when he was made to review the Star Wars Holiday Special and even though it wasn't begging, he did say he would give Devil Sage everything if he took his memories of Sequel Month away.
  • Prematurely Balding: Lampshaded this, noting that he used to have a mop of hair back in high school. He promptly breaks down in tears. Also inverted. For comedy and bad wigs, older versions of him have his hair longer and blonde.
  • Pretty Boy: He and others certainly think so: he calls himself pretty rather than handsome in his Battlefield Earth review, Spoony made him dress in drag and took pictures while raping him, the Chick went into bad touch land after chloroforming him, the Game Heroes had fun manhandling him while he was their Dude in Distress and both Linkara and Film Brain have fairly obvious crushes on him.
  • Properly Paranoid: He drives himself crazy trying to decipher the Nerd's "compliment", but when he's ready to give up and admit that the Nerd might be a nice guy, he finds the insult.
    • When he's ready to snap and cry because he thinks he and his world is all Alec Baldwin's delusion, he's only a couple steps away from the truth.
  • Proud to Be a Geek: He calls himself enough of a dork to purchase the Tom and Jerry limited edition DV Ds.
  • Puppy Dog Eyes: Usually a side-effect of when he's really suffering, and not just because of bad movies. Turns into Quivering Eyes occaisonally.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: He's like a twelve year old kid with a gun.
  • Raised as the Opposite Gender: For a short period.

Critic: Now granted I didn't grow up as a girl... for long. *looks embarrassed and about to cry* I have a history.

  • Raised Catholic: Most obviously implied in the IT review where he kisses a tiny silver cross out of fear. (Plus Doug is/was Catholic.)
  • Rage Against the Reflection: In the "OTHER Titanic Movie", he has to take a few breaks to look at himself in the mirror and cry. According to the commentary, Doug helped the broken look by attaching clothespins to his scrotum.
  • Raging Stiffie: The target of the odd joke or two.
  • Rape as Backstory: On his prom night, even. Low blow.
  • Rape Is Love: Somewhat creepily, seeing as how he was so traumatized when it actually happened. In the big Avatar review, Critic was getting off to the same book Spoony had in SWS2 remarking on the prospect of "The Spocker", and at a con, he dreamily remembered Spoony as very giving as well as taking.
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: He's incredibly pale (he even disappears due to Cool as Ice being far too white), and is at least meant to be attractive. The downside of this is that it makes it very obvious when Doug demonstrates his lack of familiarity with sunscreen.
  • Really Gets Around: Just not quite in the way he wants.
  • Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Believes in this pretty heavily. As an example, Princess Peach using a frying pan to knock out an enemy disgusts him. As another example, he calls the possessed person in Star Trek with "no emotions, no feelings and no needs" the perfect woman. Although like Chick and Lindsay, this is just meant to be the character being an idiot and not Doug's real feelings on the subject. In Doug's own reviews of Disney movies, he even argues why leads like Ariel, Cinderella and Snow White aren't the feminist nightmares they're made out to be.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Does this to himself. The Nostalgia critic's the red oni, to the real life Doug Walker's blue oni.
    • Nicely swapped round with Linkara in Star Trek Insurrection. To perhaps show Critic has grown up a bit, he shouts very little and tries to be optimistic while Linkara spends a lot of time angry and yelling.
  • Relationship Upgrade: With a few people. The Other Guy is now Critic's brother as well as Doug's when originally he was just a guy who hung around the house. The Ask That Guy/Critic relationship has had a Sure Why Not to them being related when their first interaction was more like acquaintances. Dr. Smith killed him in his first appearance, yet now they're sorta friends. He and Chester have an Odd Friendship while Lindsay and Doug have confirmed that their characters are in a Dating Catwoman relationship.
  • Repressed Memories: From the review of Hook: "I have the same unquestioned repressed childhood memories that everyone has." Beat "What?"
  • The Resenter: Well-deserved or not, he's no good at moving on or letting go of a grudge.
  • The Rival: To The Angry Video Game Nerd, who really doesn't know why he hates him so much.
  • Reluctant Fanservice Boy: Whenever someone else (Game Heroes, Spoony, Chick etc.) makes him the victim.
  • Sad Clown: Under all the jokes and snark, he's really quite depressed. He even takes it one step further by feeling insecure about his abilities for comedy.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Very often and typically for long periods of time.
  • Secretly Wealthy: Sage is actually shocked when he sees it all come through. So much so that he offhandedly tells Critic to go jump off a cliff afterwards instead of using the More Than Mind Control to his advantage.
  • Selective Obliviousness: In some ways he knows the Chick better than anyone, but he blinded himself to what she was doing in Kickassia because he thought she had his Undying Loyalty, he assumed she would feel the same pride that he did when he sat through a bad movie, and he views her as a lot tougher than she really is.
    • Not just with Chick. He's pretty good with denial as a whole, like when he was complaining about his job for years but only sank into major depression when a director inadvertently made him realize his life was meaningless.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to the Other Guy's Manly Man.
  • Serious Business: He's been criticized sometimes for taking comedies too seriously (which might be why he doesn't do them much anymore). Also, even doctors brought in to stop him throwing up or killing himself have the goal of making him finish the review.
    • The Nerd/Critic fighting. It even lampshaded how utterly pointless it was.
  • Sex Is Violence: He looks suspiciously post-coital after he causes a mass explosion. And the chaos of the "Pink Elephants On Parade" makes him exhaustedly ask "Was it good for you?".
    • Also, Star Trek Insurrection has him pawing That Sci-Fi Guy enough to raise some eyebrows. What makes it this trope is that three episodes before, Sci-Fi Guy killed him.
  • Sexy Coat Flashing: Done in his review of the Flinstones Movie, where he acts out Halle Berry trying to comfort the audience.
  • Sexy Stewardess: In the first DVD menu, he bizarrely (but not problematically) dresses up like a flight attendant who has a lot of skin showing.
  • She Is Not My Crush: The boy doth protest too much about having a thing for JesuOtaku.
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids: Although he's an easily emotional, giggly kid himself, he's nearly never impressed with The Power of Love, a lot of picks for his Top 11s are actually kinda sad and he has a big rant about believing in dreams in his A Troll in Central Park review.
  • Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids: No question that he likes the Determinator kind of love, it's mushiness that he can't stand.
  • Sissy Anti-Hero: Although not with the usual Unfortunate Implications. He's a pathetic jackass, but not because he's "sissy". That's just part of his personality.
  • Sir Swearsalot: The only episode where he didn't swear was in Follow That Bird, which is very sweet.
  • Sitcom Arch Nemesis: The Angry Video Game NEEEEEEEEEEEERD!!!
  • Skewed Priorities
  • Slasher Smile: Not quite as much as Ask That Guy, but it can get creepy. Although at least he invokes When He Smiles just as much.
  • Sleepyhead: While finding it hard to sleep at night, if it's a boring movie he'll go right to having a nap.
  • Something Else Also Rises: Nostalgic Critic's finger in his reviews of Red Sonja, Barb Wire and Full House (Becky was talking about playing Romeo in her all-girl high school's production of Romeo and Juliet, where he reconsidered then kept it up).
    • Also occurs in his Tank Girl review, where his hat flies off his head when the title character kisses another girl. He says, "This movie just went up a notch... Or something else just went up a notch."
  • Some of My Best Friends Are X: Parodied when people accuse him of being an anti-groundite. He goes on to say they're hard-working, have feelings and some of his good friends are floors. His own floor then tries to shoot him.
  • Sophisticated As Hell: Showcased in The Room where he ends up shouting the "Dead Parrot Sketch" from Monty Python's Flying Circus, and uses a quote from Shakespeare seconds later.
  • So Proud of You: Doug most likely knew that Lindsay didn't invent the concept of The Smurfette Principle, but Critic acted like the Chick did.
  • Sore Loser: When he loses the third match against Angry Joe, he's a whiny, angry brat who accuses Joe of cheating. Possibly justified, as he won the first two, Joe was not particularly gracious either and since when does he ever win?
  • Smart Ball: Invoked in The Chipmunk Adventure. When he gives a too-well-reasoned argument about the Chick growing out of the site-planned Girl Show Ghetto and doing her own thing, Chick meta-brags that what he's saying sounds like her writing.
  • Speak of the Devil: He pops up in the Chick's review of Transformers when she says the word "manchildren".
  • Split Personality: Done in the more realistic fashion. Three times now something bad has happened to really trigger him off, he'll react with intense distaste (Hearing Voices with the Doug bullies, long Angrish with how childish The Happening remake was, exploding cities with Quest for Camelot) and then he'll come back with apologies or would have to be made aware of what he just did.
  • Spoiled Sweet: He has a Running Gag of whining after Christmas that he didn't get one specific thing in a large array of goodies, but he's the only TGWTG member nice to Chester, does charity work if the Tank Girl list is any indication, knows his economics and is naturally on the 99 percent's side in the Wall Street debate.
  • Stalker with a Crush: In his teenage years, he broke up with someone three times.

Nostalgia Critic: How many times can you break up with someone before they turn into a psycho and start stalking you? *looks around scared and whispers* Three.

    • He himself approaches stalker territory when he first pretends to be Rasputin to have a conversation with the Chick and secondly hides in the bushes to capture her and make her watch Bratz. She finds the former endearingly annoying and doesn't seem to mind the latter, however, probably because she chloroformed him first.
  • Steel Ear Drums: Played straight most of the time and subverted once. All that shooting in close spaces doesn't affect him, but a girl's annoying voice pierces right through.
  • Stepford Smiler: A mix of type C/type A and much more than you'd expect from him. Like in the beginning of the Blues Brothers video game where he's waking up in the morning, it's actually rather unsettling.
  • Stepford Snarker: It gets quite manically perky.
  • The Stoner: While he bears none of the character traits associated with the trope, he does make a few references. His plan for the 100th episode was to show a crummy clip show and smoke some pot. He's also on an ongoing search for "Pot Land" according to his review of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.
  • Strange Boy: He'd still be pretty bizarre even if you took away all the self-confidence issues, the flightiness and the temper tantrums. People in crossovers are only just now starting to notice.
  • Stroke the Beard: Parodied. The only time he does it is when he doesn't have a beard anymore.
  • Stubborn Mule: He calls himself a stubborn old curmudgeon in the "Willy Wonka" Old vs New.
  • Stupid Sexy Keith David, Hugh Jackman and Will Smith.
  • slaps himself* BOOBS! YOU LIKE BOOBS!

Critic: Effort! Honest to God effort!

  • Testosterone Poisoning: Literally. He takes pills that he owns to make him sound like Kevin Conroy, and his voice drops much lower as well as his balls.
    • He almost certainly was trying to invoke this at the beginning. Sexist, homophobic, a lower-pitched voice, still wasn't smart but had much more Common Sense, owned a Hair-Trigger Temper, slobby, easily bored and none of the femmy, childish behavior we know him for.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Even though it's his job to smash the Nostalgia Filter, he's only human and can fall right into it, especially when there's a remake of something he loved as a kid.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Santa Christ showing up to erase his memory of the Star Wars Holiday Special. And "Poor Critic" at the end of his Commercials Special has him getting his self-confidence back.
    • In the NickComs episode, Tempting Fate actually works in his favor for once and gives him The Adventures of Pete and Pete.
    • After being so deathly boring for the majority of time, Junior gets funny and stupid with Arnold in a dress and spouting one-liners.
    • Double Team more than satisfies him with the "BEST! DEATH! EVER!".
    • After going through hell with Sequel Month, he gets to enjoy himself with Dungeons & Dragons.
    • Considering how depressed he was that he couldn't muster up the courage to talk to the Chick during the failure date, their relationship becoming Dating Catwoman probably counts.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Plenty of instances. Examples include taunting Disney villains, tempting an angel to kick his ass and God to strike him down, trusting people he shouldn't and following the orders of Sage when he believes he's the devil.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: When he's parodying being a Dude in Distress in the Sidekicks review, he sounds less defiant and more excited about being electrocuted.
  • Took a Level In Dumbass: Not a bad thing, but he wasn't always lacking in a lot of common sense.
  • Took a Level In Kindness: As a result of Doug deciding to do more stuff he likes (at least in a Guilty Pleasure sense) and saying what the movie actually did right. The Hidden Depths and the Pet the Dog moments help too. Of course he's still a broken, immature asshole.
  • Trademark Favourite Food: He has a rarely-mentioned obsession with breakfast cereal, which shows up in his cereal mascots review (obviously) and a crossover sketch with the Nostalgia Chick.
  • Tragic Hero: Tragically funny. He genuinely wants to be a Nice Guy or at least feel more optimistic about things, but he can never quite quell his temper.
  • Transparent Closet: The door will be opened and closed for Rule of Funny and Rule of Cute. Sometimes he'll valiantly attempt to be all about the boobs, other times he'll fangirl guys without the slightest bit of regret.
  • Trauma Conga Line: It is profoundly entertaining to see what horrible thing will happen to him next, either in the present or in his childhood.
  • Trigger Happy: This bites him in the ass twice; when he panics and shoots Santa Christ in Kickassia and when he kills his childhood icon, Mary Poppins, after Quest for Camelot.
  • Troll: A totally failed one at the Harry Potter launch. He does a lot of annoying things but people he's trolling either find him endearing or funny.
  • Troubled but Cute: Boy is pretty damaged.
  • Troubled Child: He shot his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle doll because it scared him, hid in the cupboard whenever he got scared, drew his parents as monsters in kindergarten and went slightly overboard when it came to his excitement for the Ninja Turtles movies. On the other side, it's said in the commercials special that he had such dreams, promise and we know he went through some really awful bullying.

"I had issues."

  • Tsundere: Showcased in pretty much the entirety of the "Follow That Bird" review.

Nostalgic Critic: Big Bird! Oh my god! He is just as big as I remember him! Some things never change when you're a chi- IT'S A MAN IN A COSTUME! ...A big...loveable...heartwarming costume...

  • Twinkle Smile: Done in the Quest for Camelot review, where he makes fun of how easy it is for Kaylee to come along.
  • Uke: Even Chester lampshades the implications of "Nerd-On-Critic action". Not to mention that if he spends any time with a woman, it'll end up in Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy.
  • Undying Loyalty: As lampshaded by Ma-Ti in Kickassia. If he does actually care for someone, he'll cling on tight and do anything for them.
  • Unfazed Everyman: Despite his cowardice, he's perfectly accepting of characters from the movies he's watching talking to him
  • Unkempt Beauty: He looks much better with a rumpled suit and baseball cap than he does in 'proper' clothes.
  • Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Maybe it's a good thing that he never wins, because when he does (and that's rare), he acts like a prick.
  • Unstoppable Rage:
    • In response to the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, the Nostalgia Critic shoots the show so many times it literally goes up in a giant explosion.
    • And then again for Blank Check.
    • For Quest for Camelot he gets so angry that the movie keeps making shit up with absolutely no explanation that his anger destroys a town with a nuclear explosion. Then it happens again mere moments later when one of the characters makes a horrible Dirty Harry pun.
    • The Neverending Story 3 certainly did piss off the NC to no end, but the last straw was, instead of the theme song to the series, they place Rockbiter singing "Born To Be Wild" during the motorcycle scene on the end credits. This sends the NC laughing all the way to Home Depot, buying a crowbar, coming home, and then mercilessly beating and raping the DVD to pieces.

I'm fucking the DVD! I'm fucking the DVD!

  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Not in the "was nice but is now evil" way, but the "hoped for far more than this" version.
  • Vanity Is Feminine: He frantically paws at his face before running off to print out pictures of it in the photocopier. This is apparently his secret hobby.
  • Verbal Tic: The Critic has an extremely prevalent one that typically appears multiple times in the span of every single review. Once you notice it you'll hear it all the time.[3]
    • He will almost always provide a summation of his review along the lines of "The <noun> is <adjective>, the <noun> is <adjective>, the <noun> is <adjective>... In short, it's an <adjective> <noun>."
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Chester. Critic steals Chester's drugs and lets him search for the necronomicon by himself while Chester is somewhat of an Ungrateful Bastard who will blow up cities just to upset Critic. However, Critic gave Chester a job, a safe place to stay and is the only one on the site to give him money, while Chester will be one of the first to defend Critic against anyone else.
  • Vocal Evolution: The Nostalgia Critic's voice was much more drawling and manlier in his earlier episodes with Doug's real Chicago accent coming through, with almost none of the high-pitched screaming and animated excitement he'd become known for.
    • His Arnold Schwarzenegger impression is improving as well. Impressions in his Schwarzenegger month videos are deeper than his earlier reviews, and pretty close to the real thing.
    • His female voice is getting better too. In early reviews, it was just slightly more high-pitched than his child voice. Now it's almost sounding like a woman is talking.
  • Weakness Turns Them On: Even the other TGWTG contributors like him better when he's vulnerable. Spoony especially.
  • Weak-Willed: In the Top 11 Cereal Mascots, he goes out (twice) immediately to buy something because advertising told him to. And Devil!Sage manages to control him easily even after he's said he's not the devil.
  • Weapon of Choice: A Cool Gun he uses with wild abandon. Word of God says it was done for the funny, the menacing aspect and also because it's really quite pathetic.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: It's great that you want the Chick to be proud of herself, but forcing her to watch Bratz is kinda harsh.
  • What Beautiful Eyes!: They're large, change between gray, blue or green and he uses them to his advantage.
  • When He Smiles: Look at the top picture of the three Critics on his blip page. The first is him being goofy, the second is him looking angry while pointing a gun, and what does the third involve? A cute smile with his dimple showing.
  • White Knighting: While obviously not as hardcore as The Nostalgia Chick's fanbase, his fangirls do have a tendency to believe that he's like a four year old boy who needs protective Mama Bears to save him from the trolls.
  • White Male Lead: He doesn't fit the description (you couldn't really view him as privileged other than having a fair amount of money and he's not overshadowing any minority), but he views himself as one.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: On the TGWTG Vol. 1 DVD, he dresses up like an airline stewardess.
    • Douchey has a picture of him wearing Marilyn Monroe's dress, which Critic gets embarrassed by.
    • He once dressed up as a female irish janitor and recorded things in the girls locker room.

Critic: Why don't you just forget I said that?

    • And of course, there's Suburban Knights, where he wears a very skimpy costume. Critic didn't know what he was doing, but Doug evidently did.
    • When his early teenager self says "I like to wear women's clothing" and dresses up in a blonde wig, present!Critic's already high embarrassment goes through the roof.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: He's killed people who bullied him about Doug.
  • Wife-Basher Basher: Due to that scene in A Clockwork Orange, he shoots the lead in Singin' in the Rain because he thinks he's a rapist.
    • A bit more noble example occurs when he tries to shoot Lady Tremaine for her abuse of Cinderella.
  • Worthy Opponent: The Angry Video Game Nerd. He even says "You are indeed the most worthy adversary" during the second episode of the feud.
    • Arnold Schwarzenegger is probably the only reoccurring person in his reviews that he can both make fun of and have affection for.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He pouts pretty hard when he learns his temper tantrum destroyed a whole city in Quest for Camelot.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Mostly The Nostalgia Chick. Naturally, she likes beating on him just as much.
    • Although it seems he only does this with women who can give as good as they get. He's disgusted with Good Burger for Carmen Electra getting beaten up and having it played for laughs.
  • Yaoi Fanboy: He sees the Ho Yay in Superman/Lex Luthor, Frodo/Sam, Simon Cowell/Ryan Seacrest, Batman/Robin and Leonardo/Raphael.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: Looking forward to The Neverending Story theme at the end of The Neverending Story 3, Critic? How about a montage of extreme Character Derailment instead?
    • When he starts to be sure that Jingle All the Way has ended on at-least-not-so-bad note, the movie proves him wrong. He doesn't take it well.
    • He was on the verge of solving world hunger and cure all unknown diseases when DuckTales (1987) popped into his head and broke all concentration.
    • After having an adorably fun time with the creators of Animaniacs, he fucks up at the end because of an immature request.
    • In Simon Sez, when Obscurus Lupa accepts him not wanting to do a crossover with her, he's almost heartbreakingly delighted that someone actually listened to him. Of course she's only messing around.
    • At the end of Exorcist II the Heretic review, the "great spirits" let him know that he doesn't have to do Nostalgia-Ween anymore. What he has to do instead? Dougs First Movie.
    • As soon as he says he doesn't want anything more to do with Doug after making it through without having to hear the dreaded theme song, guess what plays?
    • He spends most of Star Trek month paranoid that Linkara will show up and nitpick in his usual way. When he thinks it's over and he's free, guess who shows up?
  • You Are What You Hate: For a while he didn't have much love for guys who were kinda girly. This is a man who constantly Screams Like a Little Girl, owns testosterone pills and was raised as the opposite gender for a time.
  • Younger Than They Look: He was 25 when he first started, but with the horrid lighting and unflattering clothes most thought he was ten years older. But now that he is actually thirty, he looks early twenties at most.
  • Youthful Freckles: Not on his face, but the rest of his body. Which is fitting for how many times he's taken his clothes off.
  • You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry: As pathetic as he is and as pathetic as even the gun is (according to Word of God), you can't really say he doesn't leave an impact when he's genuinely pissed off.


Guest characters

Casper

A not-so-friendly ghost that first appeared in the review of his live action outing.

"Oh please, don't you know what the true essence of comedy is?"
Critic goes on with his review for a minute.
"TIMING!"

Douchey McNitpick

An obsessive fanboy whose sole purpose in life is to find every single error in the Critic's videos.

  • Aesop Amnesia: No matter how many times he gets humiliated, insulted or beaten up for his crap, he'll keep annoying the TGWTG crew.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: DOUCHEY!!! ARE YOU MASTURBATING AGAIN??!!
  • Annoying Laugh: And he even thinks he's funny.
  • Anti Role Model: The Critic tells you it's okay to point out any errors you find in his videos, as long as you're not an ass about it like Douchey.
  • Basement Dweller: As of The Next Top 11 NC Fuckups.
  • Breakout Character: Due to the fact that he can easily represent any Fan Dumb, he's annoyed both The Nostalgia Chick and Linkara.
  • Catch Phrase: "Hold it right there!", "OOOOOH!", and "(insert INSULT here)"
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Invoked. The Critic eventually offers him a position as his official fact checker, and he turns it down because then he wouldn't be able to complain about things.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: In his appearance in Linkara's "Comic Book Ads", he tells him he should look more like Benzaie. And he also insults Critic a few times by calling him a whore. For a straw fanboy like Douchey, that's slightly... odd.
  • Everyone Has Standards: He's able to pity the Critic for his breakdown in part three of the fuck-ups, and tells the rest of the audience to pray for him.
  • Fail O'Suckyname
  • Fan Dumb/Hate Dumb: An In-Universe spoof of them.
  • Fetish: He keeps ordering midget porn.
  • Grammar Nazi: "'Made' is spelled wrong!"
  • Heteronormative Crusader: He hates the Chick for not being his standard of beauty and one of the things he considers a fuck-up is the Critic wearing eyeliner. On the other hand, his standard of beauty turns out to be Benzaie.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: It takes Linkara less than a minute to confuse Douchey by easily countering his Insane Troll Logic right back at him.
  • Hollywood Nerd: The first kind; Nerd Glasses, a permanent scowl, an unflattering shirt and unwashed, stringy hair.
  • Insane Troll Logic: According to him, posting on the internet makes him right, using people you admire for cameos is stupid, and Frank Miller is God.
  • Internalized Homophobia: He's at the very least curious, but has deep loathing for anything not "normal".
  • Internet Tough Guy: As soon as he meets up with the Critic and Linkara in person, he's a lot more cowardly.
  • Jerkass: Douchey just loves to torment the Nostalgia Critic, even playing the Doug theme when he knows that would set him off. It's also telling that Douchey isn't the one to remind the Critic of the autism fuck-up.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: At the end of “Fuck Ups Part Three”, he finally realizes that Critic really has had a number put on him by, well, everything and so tries to make up for his part by leaving in peace.
  • My Beloved Smother: Douchey still lives with his mother, which he tries to conceal.
  • Name McAdjective
  • Nerd Glasses: Unlike the decent ones Doug wears for the Critic, Douchey's are huge and ugly.
  • Parental Obliviousness: His mother doesn't get that he and the Critic aren't friends.
  • Perpetual Frowner
  • Perverse Sexual Lust: While arguing with The Nostalgia Chick, we get this little line in the rapid fire insults.

"Jokes on you! I'm still going to masturbate to your picture tonight!"

    • When he's not masturbating to the Green M&M.
  • Pet the Dog: He decides to leave the Critic alone after a particularly psychotic breakdown ensued in his third Fuck Ups video.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: He has a screeching temper tantrum whenever he doesn't get his way.
  • Shadow Archetype: To Chester. Both have No Indoor Voice, go off on random tangents and have the same wi- hair, but while Chester is generally a good guy who gets idealistic about every movie he sees and deals with a sucky life through drugs and alcohol, Douchey is an entitled whiner who disproportionately complains about everything.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: Whenever he pops up to complain now (outside of fuck-up lists), Critic either just agrees or disagrees and then shoots him offscreen.
  • Stalker with a Crush: He's just a touch too obsessive, what with waiting until three in the morning to watch the videos as soon as they come out.
  • Static Character: He's a personification of Jerkass fans, why would he change?
  • Straw Fan: Doug and Rob have even reduced his appearances so that it doesn't look like they hate all their fans.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: Invoked. He comes up whenever Critic does something "wrong", but does it in such a Jerkass way.
  • Straw Misogynist: He calls The Nostalgia Chick a whore for not conforming to his standards of beauty.
  • They Copied It, So It Sucks: His in-universe reaction to both Linkara's Top 15 Screw-Ups and his comic book advertisement reviews.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Not like he really deserves it, but he's had two doses of satisfaction; in the "Old Vs. New: Willy Wonka" where he got to torture Critic with evil ear worms with no retribution and in the "You're A Dirty Rotten Bastard" special where without the Critic being alive, he would have been the best fan ever.
    • The Critic asks him honestly if he wants a job as a fact-checker, but Douchey refuses him.
  • Troll: An In-Universe spoof.
  • Too Dumb to Live: If he's the Critic's "biggest fan", then wouldn't he realize that pushing his patience beyond its limits (especially when Critic is trying his best to keep calm) is a really bad idea?
  • Unpleasable Fanbase: He declares a pox on the Critic, IMMEDIATELY after the Critic sarcastically says "Who am I to doubt the logic of internet commentators?"
  • Villainous Crossdresser: That's why Douchey knows the difference between a 18th century dress and a Victorian one.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Declaring any mistake Critic makes to be worthy of cruel and unusual punishments.
  • Who Names Their Kid Douchey?

Dr. Smith

Doug plays the villain from the film version of Lost in Space, always seen through a portal to the future. So far he has appeared in the review of that film, in the Quest for Camelot, IT, Kickassia and The Secret of NIMH 2.

Future Nostalgia Critic

He appears in the Nostalgia Critic's review of The Room, and takes NC to his future where seahorses rule. Then to the past in The Langoliers review to see if the titular creatures actually exist. They do.

Raoul Puke

A pioneer in "Gonzo Fozzie Journalism", essentially a Shout-Out to Hunter S. Thompson, who reviewed We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. His name is a pun on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' Raoul Duke.

Ma-Ti

The TGWTG version of the Captain Planet character with the power of heart (or at least someone CLAIMING to be him), as played by Doug's friend Bhargav. Appears in the Nostalgia Critic's Captain Planet review, the anniversary brawl video, NC's Battlefield Earth review, Kickassia, and Suburban Knights.

Santa Christ

What you get when you fuse Santa Claus and Jesus Christ together into a divine mix of awesome. Santa Christ first appeared in The Nostalgia Critic's review of the Star Wars Holiday Special to erase his memories of ever having seen the Special and cure his undiagnosed diabetes.

Santa Christ is played by Doug's brother, Rob.

Critic: Help me, Santa! Help me, Jesus Christ! Help me...Santa Christ!

Roger

An angel-in-training that "helps" the Nostalgia Critic in the 2010 Christmas Special, officially called "You're A Rotten Dirty Bastard." Played by Orlando Belisle.

The Other Guy

Another "character" played by Rob. Older brother to the Critic and Ask That Guy.

Zach the Psycho Maniac

Dr. Bitch Spasms

A clown doctor who appeared in the Patch Adams review.

Mara Wilson

A certain nostalgic person, playing herself in a... rather different persona that the roles she's known for.

  1. ↑ he says this is the only way He-Man and She-Ra could get his attention
  2. ↑ note that Doug loves his fans
  3. ↑ It's "on top of that".
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.