Nostalgia Critic/Tropes A To M

"We remember the main page so you don't have to!"

- The rest of the tropes are HERE

A
"The "Childlike" "Empress": We must not give in to the Nasty."
 * Accentuate the Negative: While it's in-character for him to usually cry, rage and tear apart awful shit, he also does tributes, So Bad It's Good movies and Guilty Pleasures. Even with some of the real crap, he'll do a more general review at the end and say if they did anything right.
 * Lampshaded in the review for Ponyo On the Cliff By The Sea. He says right out that it's a movie he generally but genuinely likes, despite a few issues, but as soon as he announces it (Before a crowd at Anime Convention Anime Milwaukee) he's attacked by a mob when everyone assumes that he's going to do a heavily negative review. This continues to be a running theme throughout the review as the 200th Episode cameos all consist of people showing up to beat up the Critic for slamming a film by anime legend Hayao Miyazaki.
 * AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle: Some of his songs' lyrics fit under this trope.
 * Acceptable Targets: In-Universe.
 * Environmental stuff, mostly because the movies are so Anvilicious and the people "delivering the message" are so unlikable and uncaring about anything else.
 * Politicians. He usually tends to attack the right wing, but Obama and Michael Moore have gotten a few take thats too (though such attacks are no where near as harsh).
 * Averted with "Wicca". In his review of the Blair Witch sequel, he says he won't make fun of it because he doesn't know the religion, he just needs Erica to shut the fuck up.
 * Accidental Innuendo: Pointed out in-universe in his review of The Neverending Story 3.

"Critic: Which is the movie that everyone Wax On Wax Off off to? That sounded really bad."
 * Old vs. New: The Karate Kid:

"Critic: The only thing better than a hero is an anti-hero, the person who constantly walks the line between good and evil, and these are two great nuts! (beat) That sounded bad."
 * When the evil aunt in James and The Giant Peach says "I'll be blowed", the critic has to do his best to ignore it because Happiness Is Mandatory, and the fans of the movie will kill him if he doesn't praise it enough.
 * Old vs. New: Manhunter vs. Red Dragon:

"Critic: You did it! You actually did it! You ruined the only funny joke in the movie you jingle balls of ass! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"
 * Acting for Two: Besides any time Spider-Smith appears, Mortal Kombat Annihilation has a dialogue between the Critic, Ask That Guy With the Glasses, and Chester A. Bum, and Captain N has an appearance by Dominic, from Video Game Confessions.
 * When his future self (who looks and acts a lot like Doc Brown) shows up, he plays both characters, and they sometimes even appear in the same shot.
 * Actor Allusion: The Tim Curry Running Gag.
 * If the film he's reviewing has Elijah Wood as a child actor, expect to see some The Lord of the Rings footage spliced in somewhere.
 * When the star of the movie is Matthew Broderick, expect a Call Back to his Godzilla line: "That's a lotta fish".
 * Whenever Malcolm McDowell makes an appearance, expect a reference of him going to the "so'op".
 * Christopher Lloyd usually gets an obligatory "I WAS FROZEN TODAY!" too.
 * Actually Pretty Funny/Actually Pretty Awesome: The Critic does semi-grudgingly point out jokes he finds funny in otherwise terrible movies. One near the end of Good Burger even causes him to drop in shock. In other reviews he does acknowledge when the subject matter puts in some creativity or effort.
 * Also happens when Ivan Ooze shouts "The Brady Bunch Reunion" in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
 * He does say that Larry Miller's performance is the one funny thing in Chairman of the Board starring Carrot Top.
 * Inverted with a scene in Jingle All the Way that contained a funny moment but dropped the funny, which caused the Critic's laughs to slowly turn into roar of anger.

"Critic: It's like a mix between a vibrator and a man who can't get me pregnant. This is every woman's dream come true!"
 * He notes that Once Upon a Forest is surprisingly nuanced for an early '90s environmental message movie, not portraying all humans as evil and keeping one character's parents dead at the end.
 * When Granny gets tackled in Space Jam.
 * And when the reaction the gangster makes in Steel when the grenade falls in front of him.
 * For Moulin Rouge, he angsts over how fantastic "El Tango De Roxanne" is. In the commentary, Doug chooses "The Show Must Go On" sequence as the other bit in the movie he has nothing but love for.
 * Richie Rich gets both Actually Pretty Funny and Actually Pretty Badass. The former is double, consecutive one during the vault scene, while the latter is at the "take a seat" scene.
 * Lampshaded in his review of Junior, where he brings in Dora the Explorer to help him look for a funny joke somewhere in the movie. She does manage to find one...eventually.
 * Adaptation Displacement: In-universe (or in the commentaries at least) Doug's never read the book of The Neverending Story, because he keeps forgetting that there ever was a book.
 * In-character, he seems to have no knowledge of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. Doug does, however, as evidenced by his own review of Turtles Forever.
 * Adult Fear: Especially as we've got to know him and what he was like as a child, his early line about shooting his TMNT doll because he was scared of it. Children shouldn't have guns anyway, let alone children with admitted issues.
 * His kindergarten drawing of his monster parents ripping him in half has the same effect.
 * Affectionate Parody:
 * The "Boring" song from his Junior review seems to owe a lot to the hallucination scene from Beavis and Butt-head Do America, with an equally trippy, guitar-laden backing tune ("Phantoms" by American space-rock band "Paik", to be precise).
 * Also, the end of his review of his The Garbage Pail Kids Movie review there is a direct parody of the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 * The end of Batman and Robin is a direct nod to Mary Poppins, complete with Driving a Desk-style superimposition upon the original footage.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: During his review of Short Circuit, the Critic comments that his microwave is now sapient, and it doesn't like him.
 * Alas Poor Yorick: In the Tom and Jerry review after the titular characters speak.
 * All Just a Dream: The end of the, which turns out to be a , which turns out to be a
 * Alternately, the end of the
 * All Men Are Perverts: Albeit the kind that doesn't alienate the female fanbase (he gives Fan Service himself and most of the time respects the women he has the hots for), but still. He, Bhargav, Rob and another guy go wild over a Mud Wrestling Cat Fight in "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation".
 * All Women Are Lustful: He thinks the villain's voice in Care Bears was a result of her getting oral (he then proceeds to act this out), while we also get this line from Short Circuit:

""TIMING!""
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: The Critic thinks Barry from Sidekicks is schizophrenic. He also believes everyone in Drop Dead Fred is insane, especially the main character in her interactions with her Imaginary Friend. It makes a lot more sense if you see it as a horror movie (not least because it fails as a comedy).
 * And apparently, Casper the Friendly Ghost is psychotic!

""Nintendo: Now, you're playing with pedophilia. And that's just wrong.""
 * He says that Bella of Twilight infamy could actually have made a fairly good Shakespeare villain.
 * Presents Sunny, the mascot of Cocoa Puffs cereal, as addicted to the cereal as a result of his grandfather constantly feeding it to him, then trying to live a normal life once his grandfather vanished but kept getting tempted by kids who offered him more cereal.
 * For his Milk Money review, he believes that Frank might just be a younger version of Denny.
 * NC is convinced that Bronx from Gargoyles is actually a Gargoyle with special needs, and everyone just lets him pretend he's a dog.
 * He interprets Santa of Santa Claus the Movie as a mostly unwilling slave to the elves.
 * He also interprets the old man at the beginning of Rad as being grumpy because he killed a family in WW II and contracted PTSD.
 * Anachronism Stew: During the Home Alone 3 review, The Critic pretends to be John Hughes and says that Home Alone 3 is his plan to get out of screenwriting, as no director would ever think to direct it. He asks who would possibly want to direct it, and then mentions the guy who directed Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Raja Gosnell). Said movie wouldn't be released until 11 years after Home Alone 3.
 * An Aesop: There's a few genuine ones scattered around, like "darkness should have a point", "kids shouldn't be mistreated or their intelligence underestimated" and most importantly "everyone's allowed to have their own opinions on movies".
 * And Starring: Orlando Belisle was credited this way in "You're a Dirty Rotten Bastard".
 * And That's Terrible:

"Nostalgia Critic: What!? Pumpkin!? Buh? Pumpkin!? What!? What!? What!? Pumpkin?! What?"
 * And There Was Much Rejoicing: He cheered when Stanley from A Troll in Central Park was turned to stone near the end of the movie.
 * And again in Dungeons and Dragons when Snails died.
 * Angrish:
 * The Nostalgia Critic gets two in during a review of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog when Grounder blew into his hand and one of them turns into a pumpkin:

"Nostalgia Critic: Wha-!?"
 * Which is called back in his review of The Thief and the Cobbler.
 * ...and another when his buddy Scratch pulled the string on his glove and made a beautiful woman:

""Explain, movie! Explain! JUUUST! EEEEX-PLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!!!!" *causes a nuclear explosion leveling the city, then afterwards he double takes on the wreckage he just caused, then looks at the camera* " Sorry .""
 * He pulls one off where is he actually rendered unable to speak during the beginning of the Good Burger review and he is reduced to terrified whimpering.
 * In the middle of his review of Drop Dead Fred, he is able only to utter the word "No" repeatedly (and at various volume levels) for almost a full minute.
 * A Troll in Central Park reduces him to shrieking incoherent obscenities.
 * The Room, after Lisa asks if Johnny is dead. He then goes into the "Dead Parrot" sketch.
 * The Neverending Story 3 review (a specific scene in particular at the end) drives the Nostalgia Critic into so much built-up angrish that he goes mad with laughter. Then he leaves the house and drives to Home Depot to buy a crowbar, and back again...
 * In The Haunting he goes on an epic freakout over how much he hates the film at the end for nearly two straight minutes that's really rather intense.
 * Angst Nuke: There is one scene where the Critic ends up destroying all of Chicago during his review of Quest for Camelot. He keeps demanding that the movie explain what is going on until his frustration finally erupted in an actual atomic explosion.

""Sorry, I'M GOING FOR TWO!""
 * And then:

"Nostalgia Critic: It turns out these machines are built by Nova, as they look forward to having all the robots destroy evildoers, annihilate their enemies, and serve gin and tonics"
 * Lampshade Hanging: "Allow me to refer you to the previous nuclear explosion."
 * Yet another one appears, though somewhat subdued: a miniature mushroom cloud bursts out of the Critic's forehead.
 * Angst What Angst: The Critic points out in-universe Calvin from A Kid in King Arthurs Court and Ryan in Warriors of Virtue ignore that they are in a different world with no idea what's going on.
 * Armor-Piercing Question: During the My Pet Monster phone call, he starts ashamedly shrinking into himself when the director asks why a twenty eight year old man is watching a kid's movie on his own.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
 * Inverted in the Critic's review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, in which he says of the film, "Thumbs up! Five stars! Greatest adequately-satisfying movie of all time! And I liked it, too."
 * In Nostalgia Critic's Top 11 Mindfucks: "Why is the piano flying into the air? Why is the cat breathing fire?! And...why did Beethoven suddenly turn into Elton John?"
 * John Travolta's character in Battlefield Earth is involved in "harvesting gold, torturing humans and Chewing the Scenery."
 * From the End of Days review: "I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger's already fought savages, terrorists and the horrifying threat of pregnancy..."
 * Also, during the Critic's rant about the AVGN reviewing The Wizard, he calls the Nerd an overly long list of unmentionably vulgar adjectives and punctuates the list with a comparatively mild insult of "asshole". This trope is more evident after the cluster F bomb establishes the contrast. This was followed by him comparing AVGN to The Irate Gamer, prompting a Crosses the Line Twice style reaction from the audience.
 * In the review of the two Short Circuit movies, the Critic says this in regard to the functions of the robots:


 * Artistic License History: Invoked in a joint review on Simon Sez with Obscurus Lupa. The Critic compares a "snappy comeback" with a misinformed take on the famous banter between Lady Astor and Winston Churchill. Lupa questioned his take, and he admitted he took a few liberties.
 * Artistic License Physics: In his review of The Neverending Story II, when they claim that the speed of darkness is faster than the speed of light, a picture of Einstein appears that... shall we say, calls them liars.
 * An Asskicking Christmas: Gives the quote for that page.
 * Ass Pull: The Critic calls out The Neverending Story 3 in-universe when Bastian suddenly kicks the Nasties' asses with kung fu because ...he does.
 * A Storm Is Coming: Clouds and lightning start appearing behind him when he proves once more that he's Too Dumb to Live and asks for anything so he can finish off Nick Month.
 * Audience-Alienating Premise: His attempts at setting up Once Upon A Forest leads to porn being looked up instead and he himself is alienated by the premise of Milk Money.
 * Audio Erotica: In-Universe; Apparently, the Nostalgia Critic would "go gay" for Keith David's voice.
 * And whenever he properly sings, you get a whole load of comments from fangirls who want to hump his voice.
 * Vincent Price leaving a taped message for the critic. Especially when he say "yes."
 * Invoked with his rather spot-on impersonation of Rocky Horror Picture Show-era Tim Curry (both singing and speaking) when he does "Everyone's A Whore On Halloween".
 * Author Appeal: The Critic's mentioned in a few videos how he prefers subtlety in shows and movies' messages.
 * Speaking of, any narrative show that features the Critic and isn't a review has at least one climactic fight scene, with lightning-quick punches.
 * More in the "bow chicka" vein of this trope, he's made his love for assertive women well known.
 * Also, the suggested reason why William Shatner wrote a triple-breasted feline hooker into Star Trek V the Final Frontier.
 * Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Casper was mocked for its brief usage of salty language.

B
"Critic: Yeah, I remember acting like a monkey in eighth grade... God, I was pitied."
 * Bad Bad Acting: In the Moulin Rouge review, after a lot of very good breakdown, he shoots Brentalfloss "for a sad ending" and acts ridiculous to parody Christian's crying that sounded more like laughter.
 * As Turl!Spoony found out, he's horrible at acting angry when he doesn't actually feel the emotion.
 * Bait and Switch Comment: A recent thing for him to do is to repeat some idiot action from the movie he's watching in apparent Sarcasm Mode, but then finish it off in Sincerity Mode with an added how it went wrong for him. For example:


 * Bare Your Midriff: A form of Fetish Fuel for Critic, who actually likes Belle, but the fact that she didn't show her navel left her off his list of hot animated women. On the other hand Jasmine and Ariel were shoe-ins because of this.
 * He points out when Zelda does it in the Captain N crossover episode.
 * Beauty Equals Goodness: He takes Babes in Toyland to task for the wedding message of "only pretty should marry pretty and ugly people are evil".
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: At the end of his Kazaam review, he wishes that the movie never existed, causing it to disappear, and his review to turn into a review explaining why Citizen Kane is the worst movie of all time.

"Critic: Now it's going to say, "Excuse me, this is the Ghostbusters, isn't it?"
 * Better By a Different Name: In-universe, Barb Wire was this to the Critic, back when it was called Casablanca.
 * Bias Steamroller: He occasionally drives one of these. Especially over The Flintstones and Doug, especially the latter for how badly he was bullied over it.
 * Big Fancy House: Both houses that belonged to the Walker boys are as gorgeous, huge and prettily decorated as each other.
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: In-universe. His joint review of Fern Gully with The Nostalgia Chick is The Trope Namer. The review itself ends on a BLAM with the Chick playing the accordion while the Critic dances.
 * NC's Junior review features a "boring" song that has nearly nothing to do with the review. After the song ends, he even asks for the BLAM graphic to be brought up.
 * The final clip from his Top 11 Villains review; he reveals why he's having trouble getting reviews out on time; his computer is haunted. By Ghostbusters.

Dana Barrett: Excuse me, this is the Ghostbusters, isn't it?

Critic: "Yes, it is; can I help you?"

Janine Melnitz: Yes, it is; can I help you?

Critic: You see?!"

""A big-lipped--oh god I'm bored...""
 * The gist of the Top 11 Most Awkward Christopher Walken Moments.
 * The Critic's review of Flubber has an overly long BLAM scene that he can't even bring himself to completely say it.

"Raoul: Big lipped alligator moment? Try Big Lipped Alligator Movie!"
 * Big No: During the Short Circuit Nostalgia Critic review.
 * Also happens when the Critic sees Richard Roundtree in Steel.
 * Also when the Critic discovers that The Star Wars Holiday Special really exists.
 * He even list this trope at number 4 during his "Top 11 Coolest Cliches".
 * Once again during the beginning of his OTHER Animated Titanic Movie review. And the ending, . (both "NO!" directly taken from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith)
 * Bilingual Dialogue: During the Top 11 Most Awkward Christopher Walken Moments, he imagines the screaming Headless Horseman at a Taco Bell drive-thru.
 * Black Comedy: Not to the extent of some on the site, but he'll employ this whenever he feels like it.
 * Black Comedy Rape: Zig-zagged. Like with most of his suicides, the scenarios are played for dark laughs but he's always affected badly by them.
 * BLAM Episode: In-universe, Raoul Puke calls We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story one and the Nostalgia Critic does likewise for the The Star Wars Holiday Special.

"Critic: ...I don't know where I am when he calls."
 * Christopher Walken is the LIVING EMBODIMENT of the BLAM.

"Critic: Oh no, she dropped a can of "Beer" beer. Is that the drink that Steel made famous?"
 * The "Rotten Dirty Bastard" special. After that sketch, the Critic went back to his usual characterization, the others carried on like normal (and The Nostalgia Chick even got her best friend killed) and it was never mentioned again.
 * Bland-Name Product: Mocked in his reviews of Steel and It about a beer named Beer, with this quote from the latter.

"Spoony: In case the Nostalgia Critic here doesn't remember it so I don't have to, I can tell you why. Three words - Ro-hyph-nol!"
 * Blatant Lies: In his first of the Star Trek reviews, he promises to never have another commercial break - after the camera decides to take him seriously when told to - and a break has happened in every NC review since then.
 * Bond One-Liner: The Critic makes a few jokes on this trope in the Commando review, even punctuating one with the YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!! from CSI: Miami.
 * And "The name is Santa Claus." From the Ernest Saves Christmas review.
 * Borrowed Catchphrase: Less borrowed and more mangled, but we get this from Spoony during the eponymous spooning:

"Nostalgia Critic: Well, I find that name obnoxious, and uncreative. I'm going to call you: obnoxiously uncreative."
 * Bottomless Magazines: Seen in his Captain America review.
 * Bound And Bagged: At the start of the Game Heroes promo. And you can see him squirming but not getting much leeway throughout the few minutes it's on.
 * Still on his obsession with trying to get Critic to do a Christmas Carol parody, the Ghost Of Christmas Future ties up Lupa with tape and tinsel. Critic's not amused.
 * Bloodless Carnage: The Critic emphasizes that even though Drake's death in The Pebble and The Penguin didn't have blood, it's still really violent for a kids' movie.
 * Bolt of Divine Retribution: In his comparisons of The Ten Commandments vs. The Prince of Egypt, he claims that God is more likely a kind and loving deity, rather than a vengeful god.
 * Book Ends: With some exceptions, the Critic begins and ends each of his reviews by saying "I'm the Nostalgia Critic: I remember it so you don't have to".
 * Bread Eggs Breaded Eggs: How he invokes Santa Christ — by asking Santa to save him, then Jesus, then… Santa Christ.
 * The Critic mocks this when a character in Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland introduces himself this way:

"Critic: I'll do anything! Shave your back, do your taxes, prostitute myself for money! Just please not another song!"
 * "Nintendo games ROCK. Movie based off Nintendo games BLOW. Therefore, movies about Nintendo games BLOW ROCKS."
 * "It sucks ASS! It sucks BALLS! It sucks ASS-BALLS!"
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: A few, but the one most seem to remember is in his review of the Tom and Jerry movie:

""So as you see kids, it's not about physical violence; it's just about hurting somebody somehow. That's what really counts in life.""
 * Break His Heart to Save Him: One of his Pet Peeve Tropes, as seen in Moulin Rouge and Spider Man 3.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of the common jokes in the series is to replace the in-work dialogue with something production/actor related like "Well, I'll be featured in the sequel anyway".
 * Breaking the Reviewers Wall: The Critic frequently uses his gun to shoot one of the characters in the movie or cartoon he's reviewing. Sometimes he calls a character from the work on the phone and has a conversation with them.
 * Breather Episode: After the disgusting, triggering Glurge-filled mess that was Patch Adams, the next review he did was the light-hearted and cutely bizarre Ponyo.
 * Brick Joke:
 * Chuck Norris and the Burger King sit on the line between Running Gag and this.
 * For the last time, the Critic doesn't believe in fairies! *watches Flora drop dead*.
 * In his Animaniacs tribute, he drinks from a skull while firing his gun in the air randomly, a callback to him doing this in one of his very first reviews (Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat films), two years prior (and again in his Pound Puppies review).
 * In his The Thief and The Cobbler review, the Critic is warned by a voice recording of Vincent Price to "Watch out for that pumpkin." Upon getting hit by said pumpkin, the critic splutters in a manner near-identical to his Sonic The Hedgehog review.
 * His questioning if Care Bears show up whenever someone says they "don't care" about something came back to haunt him during Sequel Month.
 * He brings up the "It's Afterburner!" gag from his Suburban Commando review during his Return of the Nostalgic Commercials episode.
 * In Revenge of the Commercials, early on he talks about how now, the kid on the Zack the Lego Maniac commercials is probably a geeky psychopath who builds bombs to blow up the people who made fun of him. Guess what happens to the Critic in the end?
 * The Buddhist monk saying "IT'S NOT POP-TARTS!" from the commercial reviews also returns in his review of Once Upon a Forest.
 * 'Pot Land' in the Super Mario Bros Super Show review. Twice.
 * In his review of Mortal Kombat, in the beginning he states that playing violent video games like Mortal Kombat as a kid didn't affect his behaviour at all. He then proceeds to shoot a gun in the air while drinking out of a skull. At the end of the video, he starts doing it again as he walks out.
 * In his 2009 review of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, Nostalgia Critic did a rapid style review similar to his Bum Reviews. The Bum appears in the stinger complaining about the Critic stealing his act. 2 years later, Critic starts to do the same for Transformers Dark of the Moon only to get interrupted by the Bum who decided to sue him over plagiarism.
 * Broken Aesop: created in his Pokemon review in terms of the "fighting is wrong" Aesop when the franchise revolves around fighting.
 * He makes a similar argument about Airborne--the main character refuses to use violence against anyone, but still humiliates them.


 * In The Pagemaster, he points out that having an Aesop on literacy makes no sense when the main character is already a bookworm.
 * 3 Ninjas, it's so nice Grandpa is giving his (white) grandkids lethal weaponry to fool around with like shuriken, nunchucks, swords...
 * In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, he notes that a message about protecting endangered species and the environment becomes very much lost when the protagonists who hold to this end up causing most of the problems throughout the film (involving death, destruction, sabotage). There was also the BS about taking the dinosaurs from their "natural habitat," when, in fact, the dinosaurs were CLONED FROM FOSSILS, and therefore, were completely unnatural in the first place.
 * Brown Note: The Critic has a tumour in his brain that grows whenever he listens to the theme song from Doug. He calls it "Porkchop".
 * Buffy-Speak: All the times he describes the action and Technology Porn of Waterworld as "Stufff!" Also "putting things into things" in the "Arnold" song from the Commando review.
 * But Wait! There's More!: The Critic notes that the Rock Biter's sitcom antics in The Neverending Story 3 wasn't enough. It gets worse.

C
"Critic: ...this is awkward."
 * Call Back: In his "Old vs. New: The Ten Commandments vs. The Prince of Egypt" review, he says that one way The Ten Commandments is superior is that we learn Moses's last name. Clips are then shown of various characters saying "Moses, Moses..." Soon after, we see a clip of the "Super Mario Bros." movie where Luigi explains that he and Mario's last names are just "Mario". The Nostalgia Critic then threatens, "Don't start with me!"
 * In his review of The Neverending Story 3: Return to Fantasia, the Critic asks to be taken to Fantasia. The camera zooms in and out on him, repeatedly hitting him. As he's shouting in agony, he calls back to his review of IT as he yells "WHY IS IT SO MEAN?!"
 * Speaking of which, in said IT review, after mentioning that one of the characters as a child is played by Jonathan Brandis, the elephant from his The Neverending Story 2 review shows up for a moment, only to be told to "Piss off!"
 * In his The Thief and The Cobbler review, when a pumpkin falls on his predicted by a past recording sent to his phone, he says "WHAT?!? PUMPKIN?!? WHAT?!?! WHAT!?!...PUMPKIN?!? WHAT?!?!" This was done before in his The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog review when he says this after Grounder blows into his hand and a pumpkin pops out the other.
 * Though he doesn't play his Stephen King Drinking Game (from his review of IT) during his review of The Langoliers, he takes a shot anyway after he finds out that it's set in Maine.
 * In his third Nostalgic Commercial Special, he calls back to his Halloween special from 2008 (so therefore from almost two and a half years ago), bringing back Devil Teddy Ruxpin.
 * In his Little Monsters review, Fred Savage's character said "I want my BROTHER!!", to which the Critic said, "As well as some FOOD!!!"
 * In his The Magic Voyage review, when the Critic asks what you'd call someone pulling a telescope out of their pants, there's a callback to the second commercial special; specifically the Wunder Boner ad. "My wife would like that!"
 * In his Inspector Gadget review, the Critic pondered when Inspector Gadget would ever need bubbles. Cuts to a clip from his second "Commercials" special where he said "Fucking bubbles!"
 * A slightly creepy version happened in the B-Team's review of Avatar: The Last Airbender. His cameo is him fondling a book and asking Takei to teach him the "Spocker", becoming embarrassed when the guys are watching him. Spoony raped him with the "Spocker" in Spooning With Spoony II.
 * In his review of Childs Play with Phelous, when Phelous asks "Why would the police ever suspect a doll?" the Critic responds with "Hey, you should see what my Teddy Ruxpin can do."
 * The third Top 11 Fuck Ups video has a callback to his sped-up "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" breakdown in Battlefield Earth. Only this time it keeps going.
 * The Cameo:
 * Canon Banned: Even though his character hadn't been cemented at that point, there are still lines in the "Top 11 Animated Hotties" that have been proven wrong or he wouldn't dare say now.
 * Captain Ersatz: He lampshades the use of fast talking supernatural characters by multiple in the 1980s in his Little Monsters video, complete with a long segment of 4 characters (Drop Dead Fred, Genie, Beetlejuice, and Maurice from said movie) all talking at the same time in the same tone of voice.
 * Captain Obvious: Referenced in the Red Sonja review; after Red Sonja's sister dies, Kalidor tells her, "She's dead." The Critic responds to this with, "THANK YOU, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS. If I get hit by an arrow, you'll be sure to tell me, right?!"
 * In-universe example: In his Full House review, after The Critic shoots the heads off the Olsen Twins, he remarks: "Ah. I did it. (Beat) They're dead."
 * In his review of Bebe's Kids
 * Critic: Perhaps you remember my video game review of Bebe's Kids. [Clips of Critic destroying the game angrily] I didn't like it.
 * Catch Phrase: "(Hello,) I'm the Nostalgia Critic, I remember it so you don't have to!"
 * "They did it! They actually did it!" when the film does something bad he thought wouldn't happen.
 * "Why top 11? Because I like to go one step beyond." Lampshaded and changed sometimes, depending on the circumstances.
 * "BUT WAIT!! BUT WAIT!! WAIT A MINUTE!!"
 * (Witnessing a disturbing, morally awkward or offensive scene or line) "...really? You're gonna (description)?" shrugs "All right..."
 * "Which makes the previous scene, ENTIRELY POINTLESS.", complete with a point of the index finger and a ding.
 * "This has been another... POINTLESS MOMENT."
 * "Are you even trying?"
 * More recently, "An abomination of ASSNESS!"
 * "It's X the fucking Y!" seems to be becoming one, for whenever a movie tries way too hard for its subject matter, like, say, Felix the Cat.
 * "BOOBS, you like BOOBS!" whenever he's trying to snap himself out of getting distracted by his man-crushes.
 * "You see?"
 * Catchphrase Interruptus: In several introductions, he fails to get through his Catch Phrase before breaking down in rage, weeping, or laughter (See This Is Gonna Suck below).
 * The BLAM signal was cut off partway through on at least two reviews (Flubber and the Star Wars Holiday Special).
 * At the end of the Full House review, his attempts to sign off with his Catch Phrase get interrupted by demonic mutant alien Olsen Twins, causing him to wake up from a Catapult Nightmare each time. After going through this several times, he just looks at the camera and says, "You know what I do, and you know why I do it."
 * Caught With Your Pants Down: In the big group review of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the reviewers think that he set it up like he did for Dragon Ball Evolution the year before. It turns out that he doesn't even know their names and they catch him fapping to George Takei's biography for further insult.

"Man in Turboman Costume Who is Obviously Ahnold: Your dad is not mad at you.
 * Cerebus Retcon: In early episodes, he's proud of how his generation got raised by television. In later ones, not so much. Check out the bitterness when he discusses how Mike Teevee's parents are useless for letting the box take care of their child.
 * Chewbacca Defense: In his Suburban Commando review, the Critic suggests using the line "I was FROZEN today!" for this.
 * He thought Batman and Robin' was so bad that lawyers can use the Chewbacca Defense that their client's offense was a lesser crime than making the movie.
 * Chewing the Scenery: Aside from the Critic himself being a jewel of an example of this, he points this out in a couple reviews.
 * Specifically the Drop Dead Fred review (page quote for the trope page): "This scenery is wonderful! Oh, hey, there's even more background I can chew!"
 * Also, the BAATTLEFIEELD EAAARTH!! review.
 * Chickification: He calls this "Dumbass in Distress Syndrome." Although originally only used for women went stupid in the third act, he expands the trope to include Distressed Dudes later on.
 * Child By Rape: Parodied and inverted by Chick and Critic in the Fern Gully review. After perfectly happy G-Rated Sex, she forces a never-to-be-mentioned-again pregnancy on him and is seconds away from Evil Laughing while he has a breakdown.
 * Chirping Crickets: The Good Burger review uses the tumbleweed variation. On third instance, the tumbleweed quits it.
 * Christmas Episode: "Top 12 Greatest Christmas Specials", "Jingle All the Way", "He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special", "Jack Frost", "The Return of the Christmas Specials", "The Star Wars Holiday Special", "Ernest Saves Christmas", "Rover Dangerfield", "You're a Rotten Dirty Bastard".
 * Chuck Norris Facts: Mentioned loads of times in the review of Sidekicks.
 * Clark Kenting: Mocked by the Critic in his "Top 11 Dumbest Superman Moments".
 * Also extensively mocked during the end of Jingle All the Way review, where the main character's wife and son are unable to recognize him despite the fact that he is Arnold Schwarzenegger:

Kid: How do you know all that.

Critic, as Kid: Yes, do tell strange, muscle-bound, big-teethed, square-jawed, Austrian-accented he-man who isn't in any way my father."

"Walken: Jelly donut... Jelly donut. Goodbye.
 * Classically-Trained Extra: NC identifies Abe Vigoda as one of these in Good Burger.
 * Clip Show: Parodied and subverted; the Critic plans to foist a 'crummy-ass clip show' on his viewers for his 100th episode, but unfortunately the characters in the clip he shows -- Ma-Ti and an earlier version of the Critic -- take exception to this. According to the episode's commentary, Walker was originally planning on doing a Clip Show...albeit one with original clips ("Hey, remember when I fought Satan?").
 * The "Top 11 F*ck-Ups" may serve as a clip show in and of itself.
 * Close Enough Timeline: After returning from reviewing The Room in the future, the Critic discovers that everything is exactly the same except his walls are a different color and he somehow has a tail.
 * Clothing Damage: He's so angry at the end of his The Neverending Story 3 review that his clothes start coming off. He's a total mess by the time he's finished.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Christopher Walken.

Critic: I... I don't even know where I am when he calls."

"Nostalgia Critic: You've turned this character into a fucking sitcom! Like the fucking Flintstones and the fucking Dinosaurs! Don't fucking believe me? Take a fucking look at these fucking scenes of those fucking shows and then fucking tell me they don't fucking look like the fucking same thing you fucking fuck FUCK!"
 * Cluster F-Bomb:
 * This video, in which he rants about . His insult lasts for well over a minute.
 * At one point in the "final fight" between the Nostalgia Critic and The Angry Video Game Nerd, they start firing insults at each other, and eventually it degrades into them just saying "Fuck" at each other repeatedly. A "Making of" video shows that this caused them both to crack up. Rob jokes that the entire Nerd/Critic rivalry can be summed up by this one exchange.
 * A notable one in his Battlefield Earth review. It was undercranked because it is much, much funnier that way.
 * Also "fuck" was heard a lot in one part of his The Neverending Story 3 review, especially in his comparisons of Rock Biter and his family to a sitcom.

"Maybe I should stab her again. Maybe I should stab her again. Maybe I should stab her again."
 * He unleashes another one in his review of Milk Money when a kid brings a prostitute to class for an oral presentation that breaks... just a few rules.
 * Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Critic reviewing Doug, Hey Arnold and the anime series Pokémon the First Movie was based off of. He admitted he had never actually seen them, but argued in the latter case that it could be open to a broad audience not familiar with the franchise.
 * Complexity Addiction: Lampshaded several times by the Critic.
 * We're Back: A horde of superintelligent dinosaurs are helpless to stop an old man because he has a contract.
 * Red Sonja: the sorcerer could have kept stabbing Sonja when she charged him.

"The Critic: Oh my God! We have Mickey Rourke on a mine, in the middle of a minefield, with a FEROCIOUS TIGER, in a COLISEUM, with Jean Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman,, and a BABY IN A BASKET. If this does not deliver the most f***ing epic imagery I have EVER SEEN in my entire life, I have lost ALL HOPE in mankind.
 * A Kid in King Arthur's Court: he points out King Arthur could easily had Balasko executed for treason rather than employ the contrived plot they planned instead.
 * Captain N: He notes that Kevin could have easily used his reality altering abilities in several ways to simply shoot Mother Brain.
 * IT: He wonders why the clown torments the children (badly) when he could simply kill them on the spot.
 * Waterworld: He notices that Kevin Costner's character manages to deliver a long speech and drop a flare blowing the boat up while being surrounded by a ton of armed Smokers.
 * Continuity Nod: In Moulin Rouge, the song "Guilty Pleasures" involves a quickfire list of the movies he's liked for being silly, including Commando, Rocky IV and the Ninja Turtles movies.
 * Cool Old Guy: His grandfather ate sandpaper, told people that haunted woods existed and called himself Vanessa, but Critic still seems to like him.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Joe Don Baker's character in Congo. The Critic also comments that shooting down his satellite as revenge for putting the mission before the death of Bruce Campbell's character would put thousands out of work, but was acceptable as long as JDB learned his lesson.
 * Couch Gag: Every episode since the 100th ends with a quote from the movie played over the Channel Awesome Vanity Plate at the end.
 * Courtroom Antics: In his Transformers: Dark of the Moon review, Chester A. Bum takes the Critic to court for stealing his act.
 * Crazy Awesome: aka "Accentuate The Awesome", from the review of Double Team starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman, of all people. Mickey Rourke played the villain. And yet, at the finale of the movie... the only positive thing that the Nostalgia Critic has to say about the movie.

(after the scene) The Critic: WOOOOOOOOO! BEST! DEATH! EVER!"

"Nostalgia Critic: They'll print anything these days."
 * Crazy Prepared: Vincent Price apparently thought that a conversation with the Nostalgia Critic while he was reviewing The Thief and the Cobbler was so important that he recorded many lines of conversation that somehow were the exactly right lines needed at the right time, decades before this review took place, long after his death.
 * Creepy Doll: Teddy Ruxpin. And Tickle Me Amy.
 * Critical Backlash: In his review of Waterworld, he said in-universe the movie did have its good points, and overall was just mediocre rather than horrible.
 * Crossover: Quite a lot:
 * Fern Gully: The Nostalgia Chick
 * Alone in The Dark: Spoony and Linkara.
 * Superman IV the Quest For Peace: Linkara
 * Leprechaun: The Cinema Snob
 * Simon Sez: Obscurus Lupa
 * Moulin Rouge: Brental Floss and Nostalgia Chick.
 * Childs Play: Phelous
 * Star Trek Insurrection: Linkara
 * Starchaser the Legend of Orin: Bennett the Sage
 * Heavy Metal: Diamanda Hagan
 * Crying Indian: When Tom and Jerry start singing and dancing.
 * And tears of joy when getting his first glimpse of Sonic SatAM.
 * Crystal Dragon Jesus: Evidently, the city of Cincinnati according to Babes in Toyland, where the characters manage to be immune to a Hate Plague by singing a song about Cincinnati.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Little Kuriboh guest stars on the Ponyo review and promptly beats the Nostalgia Critic up with a bat while telling him how angry he is the Critic is going to be insulting towards Ponyo.
 * Cue the Flying Pigs: In his review of Jack Frost, the Critic is astounded by the idea that a light rock band playing "Frosty the Snowman" could make it big. "Yeah, right, and I'm in this month's edition of Entrepreneur." He is. No, really, he is.

"Nostalgia Critic: "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--" *cut to the evil popcorn man*"
 * Curse Cut Short: This happens at the end of the Free Willy review, when the Critic tries not to say the title of the next movie (because if he says it he will have to review the movie), and finally does say it:


 * Cyanide Pill: The Critic has one hidden away when he watches Batman & Robin after being deprived of all his other means of suicide. He tries to swallow it after hearing only two lines of dialogue.

D
""But give him some credit, though. He's tall.""
 * Damned By Faint Praise: In his review of Steel, he had the following to say about Shaquille O'Neal's acting:

"Critic: Oh my God that's even more pathetic! I spent all my time watching the shit that people skip? What the hell's wrong with me? God, this isn't life, this is make-believe I'm pathetic, I'm not a man, I'm not a man... [picks up picture of his younger self] Look at you, you had such dreams ahead of you, such promise, you were perfect back then - okay you had stupid glasses, teeth like a chipmunk and a dumb and dumber haircut that only got dumb and dumber - but you had such hope. There's nothing left me for me anymore, I am a loser. You were right, director of My Pet Monster, I'm a loser, a weak, pathetic loser..."
 * Damsel Scrappy: A Top 11 full of them, the "Dumbasses in Distresses".
 * Darker and Edgier: In a few reviews, the Critic voices his disapproval over shows that were normally light-hearted becoming this, as he felt the changes weren't set-up properly.
 * In his review of Cool As Ice, he makes it to a scene where a kid is being kidnapped, being pulled into a corner, and being shot... Before the Critic admits the kid didn't die, he says that would have been such a dark twist, possibly parodying the trope.
 * But he has also praised those who apply this concept properly, such as the more serious Sonic Sat AM and True Grit.
 * A Date With Rosie Palms: "Oh George Takei, teach me the Spocker!"
 * Dawson Casting: He thought the characters in Saved By the Bell were played by people in their twenties, but that's nothing but a common mistake.
 * A Day in The Limelight: The review of Follow That Bird is a Bum Reviews in disguise, as the Nostalgia Critic couldn't face snarking on the first show he ever saw and bowed out early.
 * Deal With the Devil: made one so that he could see into the future with 100% accuracy. He used this to record a conversation with the critic for when he reviewed The Thief and The Cobbler.
 * Death Is Cheap: Although it doesn't stop him from trying again and again.
 * Deconstructive Parody: Of Totally Radical layabouts (such as those in Biodome, which he was in the course of reviewing) with Mr. Lovhaug's help.
 * Of Innocent Fanservice Boy. His naivete does get him punished, something of which Spoony in SWSII is quite happy to rub in his face.
 * Even of being a Caustic Critic, demonstrating just how pathetic, unhappy and masochistic you have to be to keep on doing it.
 * Of Drunk With Power. He's so powerless that one of Doug's main traits for him is that he's constantly the victim (he's said himself that's a glutton for punishment), so whenever he does get it, he clings down hard before it will inevitably slip out of his fingers again.
 * Department of Redundancy Department/Shaped Like Itself:
 * Regarding Good Burger: "It's like if shit could shit, and that shit could shit, and THAT shit could shit, and THAT shit could raise money to put together a team of filmmakers to produce a steamy flaming pile of shit!"
 * Similarly, regarding "Felix the Cat The Movie" "If a piece of shit took a piece of shit, and that PIECE OF SHIT TOOK A PIECE OF SHIT, AND THAT PIECE OF SHIT TOOK A PIECE OF SHIT etc., etc., etc.,... an that piece of shit made a MOVIE, AND THAT MOVIE TOOK A PIECE OF SHIT! THIS IS A PIECE OF SHIT!"
 * "There are some things we forget about, some things we don't know about, and some things we forget about."
 * "[deadpan] Look, they're all wearing glasses, so they must be part of the losers, because they're all wearing glasses. Losers, glasses, losers, glasses. They're one and the same."
 * From Santa Christ's theme song: "He atoned for all our sins, but he also likes pancakes! He saved puppies from a fire, and he also likes pancakes!"
 * "Here's an insecure douche who's trying to look like a not insecure douche, and yet still comes across as an insecure douche. Douche!"
 * "You know, the lack of logic in the characters' lack of logic really lacks of logic!"
 * Designated Hero: The Critic finds the heroes in The Lost World: Jurassic Park completely unsympathetic, pointing out that they can be held responsible for almost every death in the movie.
 * In Moulin Rouge, Chick rants about how Christian's supposed to be sympathetic and the "good guy" but he completely humiliates Satine in front of everyone, leaving her a sobbing wreck. The boys agree with her.
 * He's not impressed by Hulk Hogan in Suburban Commando detonating a ship with the president on it, senselessly beating people, scaring the shit out the neighborhood and getting the reward of cake.
 * He's equally unimpressed by the usage of this trope when discussing the fictionalized depiction of Patch Adams--perhaps moreso since the movie was supposed to be based around actual events--but especially after Patch and his friend steal from a hospital: "Movie, did you even say this part out loud? Your hero is stealing from a hospital?"
 * Designated Villain: Mocked by the Critic in his reviews of The Wizard and Twister, the "villains" of which were a man who finds lost children for a living, and a rival tornado chaser who dares to have corporate sponsorship.
 * Despair Speech: Said in the first commercials special after he realizes what he's been doing:


 * Didn't We Use This Joke Already: Frequent when a meme he invented come up.
 * Did They or Didn't They?: The hand-holding "now you're pregnant" line and the last scene in the Fern Gully review left fans wondering as to this. In Doug and Lindsay's two years later commentary, they confirmed the characters banged.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Splash Page for Sidekicks, it shows the Nostalgia Critic kicking Chuck Norris in his cowboy ass.
 * He also headshots an angel in the 2010 Christmas special.
 * Discussed Trope: Doug and Rob discuss the Magical Negro trope, and Stephen King's involvement in it, in the commentary for It. Yes, they reference TV Tropes.
 * Disney Acid Sequence: The dream sequence from the Critic's review of Junior.
 * Disney Death: Rocko in The Pebble and The Penguin's apparent demise didn't fool the Critic one bit.
 * He's never fooled by Disney Deaths...see also Rosie.
 * Disposable Sex Worker: In the Last Angry Geek's 50th episode, he admits to accidentally strangling a hooker after the mess that was his Kickassia takeover.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: He got sent to jail for making an unpopular Let's Play.
 * He gets terrorized and later killed by Teddy Ruxpin for giving a negative review.
 * We only hear about it, but he mouthed off to his Dad once with "this is the nineties, old man" and was punished so badly that he never did it again.
 * Douchey's whole shtick is to want the Critic hanged, waterboarded or tortured in some other fashion for the great crimes of things like wearing eyeliner, not being good at maths and mispronunciation of names.
 * Dissimile: In the Tank Girl review: "It's like a comic book coming to life... without it actually coming to life."
 * Divide By Zero: Happens in his review of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, starting at 21:14
 * Domestic Abuse: He praises the Harley Quinn/Joker dynamic, especially the episode "Mad Love", for capturing the essence of abusive relationships.
 * Don't Explain the Joke: He tends to fall into this a lot when targeting comedies, oftentimes substituting explaining a joke for pointing out why it isn't funny. This is most blatant in his review of the Super Mario Brothers movie when he calls out the movie's use of a Who's On First? joke by asking whether or not it's supposed to be a Who's On First? joke.
 * Don't Shoot the Message: In-universe. He knows full well that child abuse is bad, so destroys The Cell for showing graphic scenes just to show that obvious aesop.
 * Double Standard Rape Female On Male:
 * Averted. Even when it's a woman he finds attractive, the "BAD TOUCH!" gag still comes out if she's inappropriate with a child.
 * To a lesser extent (sexual harassment, not rape), mixed in with Hypocritical Humor with his Superman: Story Arc review. He complains that he only hit on "Amanda" once and got in trouble, while female employees can hit on their male co-workers and it's fine.
 * Played with in the Ferngully review, the laughs again coming from how strange the situation is. Chick and Critic have happy G-Rated Sex to parody the movie and then she announces that she's made him pregnant. He starts screaming and crying while she grins and keeps a tight grip on his hands.
 * Downer Ending: To parody the weird ending of the movie, the end to the My Pet Monster review has the Critic insecure and realizing how pitiful he is. This carried into the Commercials Special.
 * The "Top Eleven Dumbest Superman Moments" has him miserable over what happened to the stars of the Superman movies and then going off to kill himself.
 * The 2008 Halloween Special had Critic vs. Teddy Ruxpin..
 * Dramatic Gun Cock: During his review of James and The Giant Peach with Happiness Is Mandatory, anytime the Critic says something not nice, cue the cocking and guns to his face.
 * Dramatic Irony: He hates himself for not having any power, but he can't see that he does. The other contributors might humiliate him, put him back in his place, not listen and so on, but they've followed him willingly, twice.
 * Dramatic Thunder: Combined with Evil Laugh for characters in "Return Of The Nostalgic Commercials", for characters who seem a bit too crazy.
 * Driven to Suicide: NC drives a woman to suicide by singing "Holiday Clusterfuck" to her.
 * The Dreaded: Sage, to the Critic. Maybe because of what he did to Ask That Guy.

"Nostalgia Critic: I already had an abortion.
 * Drinking Game: Does a Stephen King-inspired one with IT, where he drinks for every time he notices a Stephen King cliche. He's drunk about a quarter of the way in; and shitfaced by the halfway point.
 * remarks later in the review that aforementioned drinking game has been known to kill people.
 * He does one for the number of scenes in the opening of Duck Tales that aren't actually in the show.
 * Dr. Jerk: There's been several brought in to stop him killing himself or throwing up, but their only motive is to make him finish the review.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: He is fervent in his belief that Rock Biter's wife (on The Neverending Story 3) is actually a cross-dresser.
 * He's not that far from the truth on that
 * Dude, Not Funny: Several In-Universe uses.
 * Lampshaded in the Casper review:

(Casper stares at the Critic, wide-eyed)

Nostalgia Critic: Okay, that was a little disturbing--

Casper: Wow.

Nostalgia Critic: Okay, that was a little dark humor, I mean it's nothing--

Casper: Wow!

Nostalgia Critic: Okay, okay, let's just move on!

Casper: ...You sicken me."

"Nostalgia Critic: Wow, that was offensive and unfunny. It's like a female Jeff Dunham."
 * The Nostalgia Critic has one of these reactions in his review for Tank Girl.

""Ha ha ha, that's not funny you sick fuck.""
 * NC took "Dude, Not Funny!" Up to Eleven in his North review when he referred to a joke about Governor Ho's wife being barren as "the worst thing ever uttered by mankind".
 * Brought up in The Room review, after Johnny laughs at Mark's story.

""Well, maybe the kids' reactions will be funny..."
 * This is his reaction to both the pranks that the two leads play on random children (which the Critic says are more cruel than funny) in Little Monsters, and to the aftermath.


 * scenes are the kids' parents screaming at the innocent children, the youngest of whom looks to be about four*

"....That was HORRIFIC!""


 * His reaction to the scene in Alaska where one of the hunters use the mother's skin to disturb the baby bear.
 * He found the pain of the robot in Doug's First Movie difficult to watch.
 * He's called himself out on this one, twice;
 * His joke about Splinter's VA sounding like a chain-smoker in TMNT (2007). It was Mako Iwamatsu, who had died of throat cancer before the movie was released, and the movie was dedicated to his memory. He apologized, mentioning he was completely unaware of any of it, and he's made a gag of walking on eggshells around his earlier roles, like in Sidekicks.
 * In the initial version of his Ernest Saves Christmas review, he told a joke about autism as a pot-shot to the puppet show's quality. He considers this a bigger mishap than screwing up basic math, and later edited it out because he found it too offensive.
 * Sometimes, he catches himself about to make a quip that goes too far, stops himself, and the "Joke Aborted" screen shows.


 * Dull Surprise:
 * The Critic mocks Shaq's acting in this fashion with his review of Kazaam and Steel.
 * There's also William Hurt's performance in Lost in Space. "I love you, wife" indeed. "He's so boring the music has to do the acting for him!"
 * And Kevin Costner in Waterworld. The Critic even reacts to a scene where it's said he will be "recycled" with "Into what? Keanu Reeves?"
 * Dying Dream: In Santa Claus the Movie, he makes a joke about this.
 * He has his own near-death one in Surf Ninjas, praising the movie's "GENIUS" after accidentally being shot by That Other Guy at the end of the last episode. He gets better due to Optimus Prime.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Critic himself would turn a therapist's eyes into dollar signs, and none of his recurring guests escape having issues.

E
"Monkeys! Aren't! Funny!"
 * Early Installment Weirdness: The lighting was bad, he didn't have the white shirt and tie, his voice was slower when he was talking and the screaming was more like screeching every word, the videos were much shorter because he was on YouTube and the character was a lot more sterotypically masculine.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: He has to genuinely almost lose the will to live before he gets his self-esteem back. Or at least enough to be proud of his patheticness for the time being.
 * Ear Worm: In-universe, Duck Tales's theme is the biggest offender to Critic, along with the Animaniacs Theme, The Power Rangers theme, and others.
 * Eats Babies: Arnold Schwarzenegger, apparently.
 * Emotional Torque: The reason why he gives the point to the True Grit remake Mattie. The original has more realistic fear, but the "little girl version of The Terminator is far more engaging because she's so damaged and determined.
 * Episode Title Card: Rare; it usually just begins with The Critic's catchphrase and right into the review. But there are a couple exceptions:
 * "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story"
 * "TMNT: The Making of The Coming Out of Our Shells Tour", which features an opening sequence followed by the title card "Critic and Nerd".
 * Everything's Better With Monkeys: Definitely averted. In the Dunston Checks In review:


 * Everything's Better With Princesses: This annoys the Critic when he sees it. The Critic points out that the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon's princess Sally just kept the princess title because it sounds cute, ,so he tells her to "Queen it up, bitch!" He mocks Princess Lana for this too. He makes a joke suggesting that Lana is staying a princess to avoid responsibility. "Politics is fun!"
 * He also guesses that Princess Oriana in the Felix the Cat Movie legally changed her first name to "Princess" (her last name is the name of her kingdom after all...), since we know for certain that both her parents are dead.
 * Evil Laugh:
 * When NC denies the existence of the Star Wars Holiday Special on account of being too stupid to possibly exist, it is immediately followed by a sound clip of Yoda laughing in a menacing way, which freaks out the Critic.
 * In the Junior acid dream sequence, the Judge (as played by Doug's friend Bhargav Dronamraju) has a drawn out evil laugh that borders on Affably Evil.
 * Bennett the Sage chuckles villainously in both his appearances in the Care Bears II and Star Chaser reviews.
 * In his review of A Simple Wish laughs while Critic is begging for mercy.
 * Eye Scream: At the end of Ponyo, when everyone is beating him for not liking Howl's Moving Castle, someone jabs a DVD edge into his eye. Not in real life obviously, but still looks painful.
 * Eye Take: Constantly.

F
""This movie is so bad, I have to make up a new word to describe how BAD it is. It's... it's... Horibifuckus! Horibifuckus!""
 * F Minus Minus / Broke the Rating Scale: In his TMNT trilogy movie review, after a Montage of his freaking out at the utter monstrosity that is the third movie, he makes this memorable quote;


 * At the end of the video, he even put the word on his screen to further prove his point.
 * Face Palm: The Garbage Pail Kids Movie review opens with a two-handed facepalm.
 * Happens again in his review of The Neverending Story III.
 * And again during one particular scene in Felix The Cat.
 * Fail O'Suckyname/Name McAdjective: Used by the Critic in his review of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, in which he acts out the pitch by its creator, whom he dubs "Fuckup McDumbass" Likewise with the Critic's worst fan, "Douchey McNitpick". The review of Pound Puppies gives us Pussy McPantaloon-Britches.
 * Failed a Spot Check: In his review of The Langoliers, he points out that the pilot walks past ten rows of seats before realizing the plane is almost empty and later how the blind girl can detect the gun wielding maniac before the people who are looking directly in his direction miss him.
 * In Alaska, he mocks the search and rescue team flying right past the bright yellow plane they are specifically looking for.
 * Failure Hero: In his reviews of Steel and Captain America 1990, the Critic seems to view the titular characters as this. Also Hulk Hogan's character in Mr. Nanny - he gets owned by the psychopathic kids he takes care of, as well as the mooks of the big bad.
 * Family-Unfriendly Aesop: The Critic loves to point these out.
 * 3 Ninjas: What parents don't like the grandfather of their children (who happens to be Asian when the rest of the family is white) teaching their kids to use shurikens and swords?
 * The Wizard: Too many to list.
 * Blank Check: Money is root of happiness and kids should lie to their parents.
 * Fanon Discontinuity: In-universe. The Critic says, of his disappointment concerning The Neverending Story 2, that he's glad that was the last of the series and they never made The Neverending Story 3. He then turns on the theme music, really loud, to drown out a bunch of voices insisting that they did. He later subverted this, only to regret it severely.
 * In his comparison of the first Batman movie and The Dark Knight, The Critic makes an off-hand remark about how Tommy Lee Jones's portrayal of Two-Face never happened.
 * Ditto for the Bat Credit Card.
 * In his Top 11 Simpsons Episodes list, the Critic claims that the show was "taken off the air too quickly" only to be reminded that the show is in its 23rd season.
 * Fandom Nod: Sage is practically an Audience Surrogate when he gets creepily turned on by Critic's crying.

""Wait a minute! Edison! Like Thomas Edison, the great inventor! I just got it!" *maniacal laughter*"
 * Fan Service: Giving a victory blowjob to his joystick after the battle with Angry Joe. The gesture is appreciated, Doug.
 * He does like showing off his chest, especially that often-shown scene of when he quits his job.
 * This commercial, with the suffering factor set on deliciously high.
 * Likewise, Spooning With Spoony II had him shirtless, traumatized and shamelessly objectified.
 * In the first Care Bears movie, he thinks that the villain is getting eaten out while she does her lines. He then demonstrates by giving us a series of quite lovely orgasm noises.
 * In his Jaws 3D review, he simulates an offscreen sex scene by himself, providing the orgasmic-sounding voices for both the man and the woman. Goodness.
 * The DVD menus seem to be made for this: the first consists of him wearing an air hostess uniform and the second has Rob barging in on him while he's in the Shower Scene.
 * When you don't see Marobot's title card, the screenshot he used for his Duck Tales episode is the Panty Shot in Suburban Knights. (This one may have been more Blip TV's doing since they often go to stills within a video for screenshots, but it's still appreciated by many.)
 * His chloroforming at the hands of The Nostalgia Chick in her Transformers review. Mostly due how to she's enjoying it and he's, well, not.
 * He's been soaked through at least three times. Doug even said he had to sell his old jacket partly because of it.
 * Done in an equal-opportunity way for the Moulin Rouge review. Girls get pregnant from Critic singing while guys get the Chick, Elisa and Nella in boob-enhancing corsets.
 * Other than it being funny, the only reason why Doug's naked and playing a Depraved Bisexual in this advertisement.
 * Slightly ickier example, but it's hard to miss the "I'm having an orgasm" face when he's pissing on the old Doug theme tune.
 * In-universe, this is his belief as to why Catherine Zeta Jones plays up her character's bisexuality in the remake of The Haunting.
 * False Reassurance: In his Animaniacs tribute, one of the writers for the show mentioned that he thinks Daffy Duck is the perfect cartoon character of all time, and thinks he was a big influence in the creation of the show. The Critic nonchalantly responds: "I-I would know nothing about him being an influence." For those of you who don't know the joke, Doug created the Nostalgia Critic to be a sort of real life version of Daffy Duck, copying his mannerisms and sarcastic and belligerent outlook on life.
 * Faux Action Girl:
 * Nostalgia Critic notes a painfully straight use of this, which he calls "Dumbass in Distress Disorder" in A Kid in King Arthur's Court.
 * Inverted with Sparky from Steel, who was crippled by an accident from the beginning of the film. She was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of the movie, but in the film's climax, it was revealed that her wheelchair had weapons and she used them against the bad guys. The Critic points out that the movie probably should have been about her.
 * In the audio commentary for Quest for Camelot, Doug says he wanted to reference Dumbass in Distress Disorder in reference to Kayley, but wasn't sure people would remember the joke after so long. He does later add her to his top 11 list of Dumbasses in Distress.
 * Faux Horrific: Really horrible things make Critic scream.
 * Female Gaze: He'll always point out Male Gaze in a negative way, but likes catering to his female fanbase. Just look at the Fan Service entries.
 * Filler: Regardless of how much Critic suffers or not, most episodes you can tell Doug is passionate and puts as much effort in as he can to produce a good show. But there a few reviews every now and then where it's obvious he just wants to quiet the fan demand and get it out the way, like Pokémon.
 * Flashback Twist: In his 100th episode, the Critic prepares to roll out a "Crummy Ass Clip Show" while he goes off to smoke a joint. It starts with a clip from the Captain Planet review, with the Critic interviewing Ma-Ti. After a few moments, Ma-Ti notices that the Critic is doing nothing but rolling out a clip show for his 100th episode and calls him a wuss for not doing something special. The Past Nostalgia Critic agrees, and they convince Future Nostalgia Critic to review Battlefield Earth. This means that the Critic re-created the Ma-Ti scene for that episode, down to the relative quality of that recording.
 * Flat What: The twist in the middle of The Secret of NIMH 2 is so incredibly stupid that the Nostalgia Critic can only respond like this, at least at first.
 * During his review of James and The Giant Peach, saying it isn't flat enough. He writes it on a piece of paper. Twice.
 * Follow the Leader: The Critic points out in-universe 3 Ninjas tries to cash in on Home Alone and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and later points out Surf Ninjas tries to rip off 3 Ninjas.
 * Forced Meme:
 * "I Was Frozen Today" quote from Suburban Commando.
 * Evil Popcorn Man from Free Willy.
 * With Double Team, there's "Frying the coke". Acknowledged in that he knew it probably wouldn't catch on, but he at least wanted to throw it out there.
 * in The Tommyknockers, he explains the gag, which is essentially a moment that is so stupid and ridiculous, it wraps around and becomes a Moment of Awesome. A...SoBadItsGood applied to specific moments, if you will.
 * Foregone Conclusion: Many viewers already knew how the Nostalgia Critic would feel about Independence Day, because he already bashed the movie in his Godzilla review.
 * Foreshadowing: The He Man and The Masters of The Universe & She Ra Christmas Special contained some ominous signs for the upcoming The Star Wars Holiday Special review. The month-long buildup to that review culminated in his Top 11 Christmas Specials review, which ends with a Sequel Hook.
 * Early on in the review of "My Pet Monster", he said that he was pitied by his high school classmates for not acting his age. Cut to the end, and he gets pitied again by the director of the movie for the same reason.
 * In his "Top Twelve Greatest Christmas Specials", he said he thought he was the only one to hide in the cupboard when he got scared. About a year later, in "Old vs. New: Willy Wonka vs. Charlie", we got what he was scared of.
 * The Care Bears review has another rant about how his job makes him lose any pride and the evil book tells him she can give him a happy ending. The very next week, he's obsessively trying to keep control of a country.
 * His breakdown to Lord Kat about the damage done to his ego with LK beating Bebes Kids is lead-up to his admitting to CR that he can't cope with people going into his territory a few months later.
 * During an argument with the Nerd before they switch jobs for an episode, he asks mockingly if the Nerd thinks his gig is easy. That never came up again.
 * In the Chick's Bratz review, his reason for forcing her to watch it was because he wanted her to be proud of being able to sit through the worst girly movie of all time. His conclusion at the end of his first commercials special is that he's "pathetic but proud".
 * By how often Critic expressed his desire to not have Linkara around in Star Trek month, it would have been more of a surprise if Link hadn't shown up.
 * He set up the Parental Neglect angle early when he mentioned off-hand in the "Top 11 Scariest Moments" that he was allowed to have a gun as a kid.
 * The choice of Star Trek month and the new vast abundance of Doctor Who jokes weren't just Author Appeal, it was setting us up for the fourth anniversary, which was announced as a sci-fi story.
 * Freakier Than Fiction: Well, fiction is stranger than some other fiction, anyway. In reality, he tried to make Duck Tales Darker and Edgier as a joke by suggesting that Scrooge made all his money by racketeering, embezzlement and so on. However, he actually made it in a far worse way: exploiting African natives.
 * Freeze Frame Bonus: During his review of "The Pound Puppies Movie", there's a parody of Fight Club where The Nostalgia Critic splices a naughty frame into a children's movie. In this case, it's two dogs humping. The image is only on-screen for a frame.
 * Fridge Brilliance: In-universe, from his review of Chairman of the Board:


 * Fridge Horror: In-universe. "Wait a sec, next month is January, and you know what that means! SEQUELS MONTH!...... *his smile slowly turns into a look of worry and shock while he reaches for his Dennis Miller doll to try and cheer him up.*
 * Fridge Logic: In his review of Gargoyles, the Critic also points out in-universe the logic flaw of hiding in "plain, vulnerable sight" when they turn to stone during the day.
 * The Critic also mentions that Kevin from Captain N should be able to use his powers, or the abundant warp zones, to just blast Mother Brain with little problem. He demonstrates both scenarios.
 * Similar example used in The Neverending Story II, when he notes how Bastian could have wished all the troubles away.
 * He also noted in the Free Willy review that if Willy can jump over the rocks, why couldn't he jump over the net, which was considerably lower?
 * In his review of the OTHER Titanic animated movie, he wonders why Tentacles the octopus can't move the iceberg out of the path of the Titanic if he can throw it there.

""Let's just say in my Space Jam review, when I said there weren't people out there who wanted to fuck bunnies, I was wrong.""
 * From the Mouths of Babes: In his review of Milk Money, a mother asks her daughter who is with Ed Harris's character. The daughter replies that she's a hooker. The mother seems barely offended by such language. The Critic takes this to the extreme: "She's a bitch ass whore fuck!"
 * Fruit Cart: He is deeply disappointed when Cop and A Half, a 90's buddy cop movie, fails to take advantage of this.
 * Furry Fandom: The Critic acknowledges them in-universe in his review of Sonic SatAM.

"Edmond: I'm a[ll] furry!
 * He actually said that was a little harsh and gave the most general term of the fandom.
 * He later followed this up in his review of Rock a Doodle:

Nostalgia Critic: Kid, you're a little too young to know what that word means. I'm an adult, and I'm still not exactly sure what it means!...Nor do I wish to find out."

"Nostalgia Kitty: A CAT CREDIT CARD?!?!"
 * Though his review of Rover Dangerfield completely ignores the furry connotations, he does create a furry version of himself at the end, "The Nostalgia Kitten."

G
""Bonus points to whoever got that What's Up Doc? reference""
 * Gainax Ending: The end of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie review, in which Critic turns into a turd singing Also Sprach Zarathustra With Lyrics.
 * Genius Bonus: Lampshaded in-universe in the Mr. Nanny review:

"Critic: The only way this could be any more lame/cliche/stupid is if they did [something].
 * In the commentary for the Leprechaun review, Doug notes that three people knew the song "Hop On Your Pogo Stick" from the Goofy cartoon "Victory Vehicles".
 * Gilligan Cut: A Running Gag of his goes something like this:

(Cut to a scene of the exact thing he described in whatever he's reviewing)."

"Critic: And flights of assholes sing thee to thy rest."
 * Subverted in his review of Cop and A Half, where after wondering what the next stupid plot event is, it cuts to him for a moment of silence, and he says, "Oh, I don't have a vid, I'm just asking."
 * God Is Evil: And he's not pleased about being mistaken for kind and loving.
 * Godwin's Law: ALL HEIL MONDO BURGER! Though averted in his Garbage Pail Kids review -- think about it: a society where it's socially acceptable to imprison and kill ugly people.
 * Also, Nostalgia Critic doing the Can-Can with Hitler.
 * You're just standing there, thinking you're about to shake ha- PSYCH! HEIL HITLER * BANG!*
 * Invoked in a serious way during Bebes Kids. When Robin is supposed to redeem himself by going back to the kids, Critic's not impressed and likens "he acted abusive but at least he didn't leave them" to "he killed five hundred people but at least he's not Hitler".
 * Good Night Sweet Prick: From The Room:

""It's just Sonic and a group of industrial freedom fighters, trying to stop Robotnik and bring Green back to the valley. Wait Wait Wait, I can't comprehend this, an environmental message that is SUBTLE!""
 * Gorn: About 80% of the fanfic/fanart with him involves this. The majority of people who do them don't want to actually hurt him though and thankfully, Doug knows this.
 * Grandfather Clause: Like many web review shows, he started out without any intro sequence, theme song or opening credits. Unlike those, however, he still doesn't have them, most probably because it would spoil his introduction style.
 * G-Rated Sex: With The Nostalgia Chick in the Fern Gully review. Confirmed as the characters fucking by Doug and Lindsay in their commentary.
 * Green Aesop: In the Sonic SatAm review.


 * Grey and Gray Morality: Tends to be the case. Santa Christ is a Big Good but can be pushed too far, yet Sage the devil is actually Lighter and Softer than normal Sage.
 * Groin Attack:
 * The Nostalgia Critic does this to himself with a hammer in his Blank Check review.
 * After Conan the Barbarian throws a sword into a guy, the Nostalgia Critic calls it a low blow and calls him "Conan the crotch-stabber".
 * Among the gay overtones perceived by the Critic to exist in Masters of the Universe is the repeated laser shots to the crotch. Granted, the shots often seem, if you examine them closely, to be hitting fairly far away from the crotch, but at regular film speed and at a single glance it is easy enough to make the mistake and it doesn't always seem clear.
 * In Doug and Rob's commentary of "The OTHER Animated Titanic Movie", Rob mentioned that Doug attached clothespins to his scrotum in order to shoot the crying scene.
 * During the Ponyo review, voice actor Spike Spencer comes in and says how much he likes the Critic while the Critic says the same during overlapping conversations. Near the end, Spike Spencer plants a grenade in the Critic's groin and leaves before it goes boom.
 * The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Critic points out the president has no secret service in Captain America.
 * Guilty Pleasures: IN SONG! (from the Moulin Rouge crossover review)
 * The Critic describes the Short Circuit movies and Judge Dredd as this.
 * He also said that he denied watching Gargoyles in public, but he'd actually watch it on a regular basis.
 * He admits that Ernest Saves Christmas is a shallow, stupid movie. He also watches it every year.
 * He just plain adores Commando. And who can blame him?
 * He calls out Hook for its stupidity, but on the whole, he loves the movie. Or at least the first two acts.
 * Through all its faults, he loves Rocky IV.
 * At a Bad Movies Anonymous meeting, he admits that he likes Spider-Man 3, much to the chagrin of the other members.

H
"Critic: YOU DON'T MEAN-
 * Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Referenced in his review of The Secret of NIMH II, in which one of the characters says something about changing his underwear despite not even wearing pants.
 * Ham to Ham Combat: The Critic and Mati in the Battlefield Earth review.

Mati: YYYESSSSS!! BATTLEFIELD EAAAAARTH!!!"

"Critic: But I have to admit, for all the bad times, the Superman movies really do manage to put me in a good mood. Like seeing Christopher Reeve right before he had that tragic accident and died... Or Margot Kidder before she went mentally insane... Or the shots of New York with the World Trade Center in the background... I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I'm going to go kill myself."
 * Hannibal Lecture: Played with, the director of My Pet Monster just pitied him and asked him a few questions which he gave the answers to with increasing shame. His own self-esteem did most of the breakage.
 * Happier Home Movie: Critic may have been ungodly embarrassed by the videos Mara showed of him as a thirteen year old, but they're the nicest backstory for him that we're ever going to get.
 * Happiness Is Mandatory: The Critic during his review of James and The Giant Peach. Whenever he starts complaining, it results in a multiple Dramatic Gun Cock untill he backs down.
 * Happy Dance: Frequently.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: An in-universe example in his "Top 11 Dumbest Superman Moments"

""Heh heh, 'come'.""
 * Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Despite it making his guy parts happy, he still takes The Haunting remake to task for how horribly anvilly they made Catherine Zeta Jones's lesbian character compared to the original playing it subtle (along with the horror) and how her sexuality is just used for fanservice.
 * Head Desk: The beginning of "A Kid In King Arthur's Court."
 * He also does a wall version when reviewing "The Room".
 * Heh Heh You Said X: The Critic does this to himself thanks to the Stephen King drinking game.

""Heh heh, 'marlboros'""
 * And again when looking back at his unfortunate Mako incident.


 * Held Gaze: He and Chick share quite a few in their review of Fern Gully.

""You could be dying of CANCER and a fucking bandage on your head would fix it!""
 * He Panned It, Now He Sucks: His review of James and The Giant Peach is an In Universe example of this.
 * Hey It's That Guy: Anthony Terrell Smith, A. K. A. Tone Lōc, seems to have gotten recognition as "That guy" who's in all the horrible movies.
 * Highly-Visible Ninja: The Critic chastises the ninjas in 3 Ninjas for not being stealthy.
 * High School Is Hell: "The classroom is where dreams go to die, get it right!"
 * Historical In-Joke: Lampshaded in the We're Back! review, as a quote from the Critic flat-out states that anyone unfamiliar with Hunter S Thompson won't understand most of the jokes used in the review.
 * Holding Back the Phlebotinum: The Critic complains about Bastian refusing to use the Auryn to escape danger on The Neverending Story II, predominantly because while the potential for backfire is revealed, there's no way Bastian could have known.
 * Which is nothing compared to his frustration in the third movie, where said disadvantage does not exist yet he still doesn't think to use it, unlike his sister and the Nasties, whom the critic feels are better heroes (more accurately, they'd make better protagonists).
 * Hollywood Darkness: The Critic points this out in his review of "Cop & 1/2".
 * Hollywood Healing: Points this out in The Secret of NIMH 2.

"Critic: (With a plain white background behind him) "I mean seriously, what moron would just have a plain white background the whole entire time? (Beat) He'd be a fucking idiot.""
 * Homage: The entirety of the We're Back review is performed In the Style Of Hunter S Thompson.
 * Hookers and Blow: Pops up every now and then. In what is a nice change from the norm, though, he doesn't act like all prostitutes are women and he's pissed at Milk Money for implying that it's easy to get out of that life.
 * Hostile Show Takeover: The Nostalgia Critic's Transformers: Dark of the Moon review ended up
 * Hot Scientist: In Bio Dome, he complains that Kylie Minogue and the brunette woman ("Miss October") look more like GQ models than real scientists.
 * Homoerotic Subtext: Started with "Nerd-On-Critic action" and then went from there.
 * Humans Are Cthulhu: Invoked while reviewing environmentalist movies.
 * MAN!
 * Hype Backlash: In-universe. The Critic changes the existence of Kazaam in its review, and accidentally badmouths Citizen Kane.
 * Hypocritical Humor: The Critic says he never gets sick of the "OF COURSE!" joke in the Street Fighter movie, but in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog review, he said he's sick of it... and Bison didn't let that be. Hilarity Ensues.
 * "This ripping off of classic comedians has got to stop! Enough is enough. This is the final, the - the very, very last straw!"
 * In the Snick segment, he complained that yelling doesn't make anything funny and that anyone who does that must get shot. Guess what happened.
 * As he puts it... "SCREAMING IN EVERY OTHER SENTENCE IS NOT FUNNY! IT IS LOUD AND ANNOYING! AND ANYONE WHO DOES IT SHOULD BE SHOT! *gets shot in the forehead* UNSHOT! *the wound disappears* AND GIVEN A BAG OF MONEY! *a bag of money appears in his hands to his surprise, a beat...* ...how about some lounge music? *lounge music plays* Yeah!"
 * And in the Critic's Captain N the Game Master review:

"Critic: But luckily all that violence and gore had no disturbing side effects on our decent childhoods! [Drinks from a skull, fires a pistol in the air.] Sorry, I have to do that every twelve minutes."
 * While calling the Nostalgia Critic, "Christopher Walken" objects to painting him the way he did while doing those exact things (pausing and whispering mid-sentence and reading and adjusting cue-cards).
 * In The Nostalgia Critic's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation video, he criticizes the special effects, saying that even The Angry Video Game Nerd could pull them off. The Nostalgia Critic doesn't exactly utilize great special effects either.
 * Street Fighter / Mortal Kombat:

"Critic: Next you're going to be telling me internet reviewers can make lives making fun of movies."
 * From the Zeus and Roxanne review:

"Glen: What the hell is going on? Look at this mess. The hell am I stepping in? Doritos? Jesus!
 * Any case where he criticises anyone for overacting their anger, preferably with a "I am acting!" scene. Those actors generally don't intend it to be funny.
 * He mocks the concept of a Dark and Troubled Past in his Top Eleven Cliches. He himself has a fair amount of Break the Cutie backstory.
 * He says in his "Top Eleven Saddest Nostalgic Moments" list that a guy can't cry because that makes him a pussy and calls "The Little Match Girl" one of the few things he's got teary-eyed at. Critic... how many times have you broken down again?
 * Parodied in his "Little Monsters" review:

Critic: (as Glen) This is worse than that fucking time I caught you goddamn swearing!"

"Baku: Hey! Thanks for saving us with your technology, by the way, we hate all technology!"
 * Star Trek the Motion Picture: "It's like watching clips of a movie and then watching someone comment on it! *beat* Who the hell would want to see that?"
 * Calls the Ba'ku out for their smug superiority complex and anti-technological rants in his review of Star Trek Insurrection;

I
"Critic: So we see our main character Ian Malcolm. Oh fuck it, let's just call him "Jeff Goldblum" because we all know that's who he's really playing."
 * I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: If the actor in any film is famous enough, the Critic will not even bother to learn the characters' names, just referring to them by their actors' names.

"Chester A. Bum: Meanwhile, Bert and Ernie are flying, Super Grover is flying, and Oscar is flying, except on the ground, and Cookie Monster ate his car because he thought it was a cookie! I thought my car was a cookie once! But it wasn't a cookie. Or a car. It was MAN."
 * I Am Not Spock: The Critic refers to the villain in Double Dragon as the Vanilla Ice-1000, in reference to Robert Patrick.
 * Danica McKellar's love interest character in Sidekicks is referred to as Winnie Cooper. The Critic later justifies this by insisting she is just a Captain Ersatz version of Winnie.
 * The Critic himself: The Nostalgia Critic is a character; Doug Walker is the actual person, although as evident by the reviews and comments regarding Disney's "Doug" series, as well as "Doug's First Movie", the Critic's first name is also Doug.
 * Idiosyncratic Wipes: Derides the overuse of curtain wipes in Battlefield Earth. In the Sonic The Hedgehog episode, Nostalgia Critic tried to push the clip with Bison away. In a later review, he kept pulling another shot into frame to see if the Cinema Snob was still talking about Manimal.
 * I Have You Now, My Pretty: The beginning of Starchaser has Sage commit the great feat of giving off major vibes of this without even being in the same room as Critic.
 * Some of the con members in the Ponyo end credits look a little too lusty when they're holding him down or strangling him.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: In the "Follow That Bird" review:

"Howard: Oh no, it's a quake!
 * I'm Going to Hell For This: Invokes this trope after he finished Dunston Checks In.
 * Immune to Bullets: The Critic's gun works on anyone he shoots at, except for Lady Tremaine.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: The NC parodies this in his Commando review by firing his pistol in every random direction he can think of (including at his own head) and still hitting soldiers.
 * Incest Subtext:
 * In behind the scenes videos, Doug and Rob Walker have flirted with this on a couple of occasions. During their slightly drunk Christmas video they managed to go from "I love you, man, you're a kick-ass brother" to "Gay and incestuous! You heard it here, folks!" in about two minutes, via a discussion of Doug's balls.
 * The DVD also has Doug stripping slowly out of wet clothes while Rob films and hums supposedly stripper music, bantering back and forth with lines like "I'm saving this for our honeymoon" and "You know you want this shit".
 * In the second DVD's menu, Rob (or his camera) is rather insistent on seeing Doug in the shower.
 * In the Snob/Phelous review of Troll 4, a weepy, wasted Critic moves his arm down from the Other Guy's shoulder to his waist.
 * In an interview with Random Odds, they admit to being so baity that they didn't even need fic, but Rob still wants more.
 * In a rehearsal video, Doug acts like a pony and asks Rob to ride him. Rob tackles him to the floor and noms on his neck instead.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: This happens a few times, whether or not the Critic is pointing them out in movies, or making them himself. An example from Howard the Duck, which somehow does both:

Critic: Don't you mean a quack?"

"Critic: I guess she had to put her face on.
 * One about Cheetara in Top 11 Hottest Animated Women, saying that she "gave new meaning to the term 'fast pussy.'"
 * In The Neverending Story II...

Audience: Boo!"

"Audience: Boooo!
 * Goro from Mortal Kombat has "really been working on his forearms."

Critic: Oh, what? What?"

"Critic: Well, it looks like somebody's having a bad bear day. *ducks as the audience tries to shoot him.*"
 * From The Avengers, when the heroine gets tackled by her clone, who's wearing a giant teddy bear suit.

"Julie: My name is Julie! My mother's name was Susan! She was killed in a car accident with my father and they're both dead!
 * Incredibly Long Note: He's a master of these.
 * Index Namer: Sorta. He raised the phrase into infamy at least, so he's at least partially responsible for These Tropes Were Frozen Today.
 * Inferred Holocaust: In his review of Congo, the Critic points out that destroying the satellite puts thousands of people out of their jobs.
 * Info Dump: The Nostalgia Critic often criticizes movies for having forced exposition, like in Congo, The Next Karate Kid (see quote below), and Casper.

Nostalgia Critic: And the award for "Worst Exposition Ever to be Uttered in a Movie" is... "The Next Karate Kid"! (applause heard) You suck!"

"Drago: If he dies, he dies.
 * Informed Ability: The Critic points out the warriors in Warriors of Virtue show none of their described attributes.
 * In Name Only: The Critic describes Masters of the Universe like this in-universe.
 * Insistent Terminology: His conviction that Robin's father from Tom and Jerry The Movie is Indiana Jones (complete with theme music).
 * In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You: In the Rocky IV review.

Critic: In Soviet Russia, evil catchphrases say you."


 * The Internet Is for Porn: Pops up in his reviews of Once Upon a Forest and Milk Money. And when he reviews Ponyo and sees Ponyo's human father and spirit-of-the-ocean mother holding the father in his hands, he comments macrophiles are enjoying this before telling the viewers to get away from the search tab to look up what he meant.
 * In the Style Of:
 * The Cinema Snob, for a review with him. He drops it after a few minutes and the realization that he lacks the Snob's pitch range.
 * We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, copying Hunter S Thompson.
 * Ironic Echo: In the Simon Sez review, the breakdown violin music from the commercials special is playing again when he's so overjoyed that someone (Lupa) actually listened to him for once he's got a whole new perspective on life. What makes it this trope and not Triumphant Reprise is that it's a Yank the Dog's Chain.
 * His psychotic breakdown in "fuck-ups part three" starts off being a repeat of his Battlefield Earth tantrum, but then goes into screeching about how stupid and awful everyone is.
 * In the Blues Brothers game review over on the DVD, his getting up in the morning is a forcedly happy version of his morning routine in his look on sports movies.
 * Irony: The Critic making fun of the pretentious goth chick from Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows" is pretty funny considering Doug Walker himself had posted video evidence that he'' had a pretentious pseudo-goth phase once.
 * I Take Offense to That Last One: He says it's unfair to call Anastasia a cheap Disney knockoff: It's an expensive Disney knockoff.
 * It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": While most people believe Mako Iwamatsu's name is pronounced Mah-Ko, the Critic prefers to call him May-ko.
 * One of his "Next Top 11 Fuck-ups" was about recurring mispronounciations.
 * It's a Wonderful Plot: The 2010 Christmas special has the Critic's Guardian Angel show him what others' life would be like if the Critic had never existed. Turns out most of them would have much more successful careers (ranging from The Cinema Snob being a successful porn star to Angry Joe being President Evil) and his Guardian Angel would be God's Number Two.
 * It's Been Done: The commentary of the above mentioned video reveals Doug's disappointment upon finding out that subverting It's a Wonderful Plot wasn't as original an idea as he thought it was. Though at least he's the first to have the story explore what the Guardian Angel's own life would be like without the protagonist.
 * This is also why he will never review The Phantom Menace.
 * It Got Worse: Because of how he and The Sci-Fi Guy were parodying the Face Death With Far Too Much Dignity scene in Star Trek III, his Green-Eyed Monster issues. At least he didn't plan to kill the others whenever they did a review that entered into his "territory".
 * It Will Never Catch On: Critic's attitude towards Power Rangers when he was younger, which he explained in his review of the Power Rangers movie and "this is why [he] is not in the stock market".

J
""What is dumbest fucking possible joke that could be used as a punchline for this scene?" (answer: )."
 * Jackass Genie: In his Kazaam review, the Critic wishes that the movie never existed. This ends up with him bashing Citizen Kane, much to the audience's displeasure.
 * The Jail Bait Wait: He uses the example of how The Olsen Twins grew up from troll-children to anorexic barbie dolls to demonstrate how gross this is.
 * Jeopardy Thinking Music: Used in the North review when trying to find a joke, and then again in the Rover Dangerfield review when Rover in thrown into a truck with a bunch of corn.


 * Jaw Drop: When he sees the Rock Biter singing while riding a rock motorcycle in The Neverending Story 3.
 * Also, when reviewing The Legend of the Titanic, after the scene where the girl's tear magically lets her speak with dolphins, the Critic jokingly speculates that a gang of sharks sank the Titanic. This gets confirmed in the very next scene, and the Critic reacts accordingly.
 * Jerkass: The Nostalgia Critic considers Peter Banning from Hook to be this, then acts out a hypothetical scenario where Peter's kids ask him questions and he answers them bluntly, like refuting the existence of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and God. After Peter's kids cry from this startling info, he insensitively asks, "Oh, WHAT??"
 * Juggling Loaded Guns: The Critic accidentally shoots Bert and Mickey Mouse after watching Quest for Camelot.
 * Jumping the Shark: Used correctly in-universe a few times, but misused other times, like with Independence Day and The Neverending Story 3 uses (since he didn't think those movies were good before the points he mentioned).
 * Though in the latter case, he did say "This is not jumping the shark."
 * Jump Scare: CAAAAATTTT!!!
 * CHAAAAIR!
 * BALLOOOON!
 * In his review of Care Bears In Wonderland, he takes the freaky face the wizard makes during his song and attaches it to the end of the Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark trailer. DAMN, is it effective!
 * In his Superman The Animated Series review he intentionally uses this to draw away the perverts from Lois Lane's panty shot.
 * In his Old VS. New of Manhunter/Red Dragon, at the last second of the review, as he's ordering take-out liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti, Casper jumps out of the phone and latches onto his face.

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 * Kill'Em All: What he does after his Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog review.
 * Killed Mid-Sentence: The alien in the Independence Day review is starting to realise that "Stephanie's" spaceship isn't piloted b-- *BOOM*
 * Spoony-as-Terl in the Battlefield Earth review only gets out "Oh—" as his final words before he's blown to smithereens.

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"(after getting shot in the forehead) "Is it just me or have I been dying a lot recently?" (dies)"
 * Lampshade Hanging: At the end of his Double Dragon review, after having had a pretty rough month:

"Critic: You... dirty, stuck-up, sadistic, shit-eating, cocksucking, buttfucking, penis-smelling, crotch-grabbing, ball-licking, semen-drinking, dog-raping, Nazi-loving, child-touching, cow-humping, perverted, spineless, heartless, mindless, dickless, testicle-choking, urine-gargling, jerk-offing, horse face, sheep-fondling, toilet-kissing, self-centered, feces-puking, dildo-shoving, snot-spitting, crap-gathering, big nose, monkey-slapping, bastard-screwing, bee-shitting, fart-knocking, sack-busting, splooge-tasting, bear-blowing, head-swallowing, bitch-snatching, handjobbing, donkey-caressing, mucus-spewing, anal-plunging, ho-grabbing, uncircumsized, whore mongering, piss-swimming, midget-munching, douche bag, ho-biting, carniverous mail order prostitute...ASSHOLE!"
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Santa Christ does this to Critic to help him forget the Star Wars Holiday Special.
 * Bennet the Sage claims to be the devil, and that he can do this for the Sequel Month. When the Critic takes him up on it, Sage angrily rebukes him for actually believing him. Critic says he would have given Sage "everything" in return, and Bennet decides to play along after all. Strangely, it seems to work, leaving Sage pondering whether he really is the devil.
 * Let's Play: Of Bart's Nightmare. Retsupurae really, really didn't like it, and neither did Doug himself.
 * Lock and Load Montage: He tools up with a pistol, knuckle dusters, cricket bat, padded jacket and SWAT helmet to...review The Secret of NIMH 2. "BRING IT ON!"
 * Long List: In the video where The Critic is pissed because The Angry Video Game Nerd made a review of The Wizard before he did, The Critic called The Nerd a ton of vulgar, disparaging names:

"Santa Christ: And the moral of the story is...! [stares about blankly] Um...[Credits roll]"
 * Loophole Abuse: He got a lot of request to review The Room, but it was made in 2003 - too recently for the "nostalgia" subject. Fortunately, the Critic's future self turned up to take him ahead in time so he could do it.
 * Losing Horns: He uses the ones from The Price Is Right in his review of The Next Karate Kid. And again in Simon Sez.
 * He has also used the generic "wah wah wah" ones a few times, including one review where he uses his own voice to make them… and keeps increasing the volume every subsequent time.
 * Lost Aesop: Even Santa Christ can't figure out what the moral of "You're a Rotten Dirty Bastard" is.


 * Lost Episode: Old vs. New on The War of the Worlds. As confirmed in the Next Top 11 Fuck-Ups, he decided not to do the video because he felt neither movie held up well enough. Thankfully, Tommy Wiseau sued them so they had an excuse to get out of it.
 * Lonely Piano Piece: Ones from various soundtracks play when he's alone and really miserable.
 * Love Hurts: Or as he puts it... "ain't love a bitch?"
 * Love It or Hate It: His in-universe opinion of Hook. He loves it.
 * Lull Destruction: One of his main criticisms of The Magic Voyage.
 * Ditto with the Felix the Cat movie, which he feels was worse because in The Magic Voyage, you could at least make out what they were saying and the constant noise was all the dialogue, whereas Felix had the background noise being heard over the character's thoughts and sentences.

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"*sunglasses-clad Nostalgia Critic*: "Mr. African-American.""
 * Made of Explodium: The Nostalgia Critic's Pun-O-Meter can't count to 6 without exploding.
 * A Running Gag in his and Phelous' review of Childs Play has the Critic 'testing' various objects by hitting them with a hammer, only for them to explode in his face before he can even do it.
 * Male Gaze: In Barb Wire, he lampshades how they try their hardest to make a woman getting tortured be titillating and the man not at all.
 * In the Superman Story Arc, he punishes his male audience with a screamer for being distracted by Lois's partial upskirt shot.
 * According to Elisa's formspring, Team NChick had to force Doug to let them wear the burlesque outfits for the Moulin Rouge review (they enjoy dressing up), most likely because he was worried about this trope.
 * In End of Days when the female lead takes her top off: "hello, pointless breast shot!" *few seconds later* "goodbye, pointless breast shot!"
 * His one complaint about the Batman the Animated Series episode "Mad Love" is the unneeded fanservice of Doctor Harley and her colleague in short mini-skirts.
 * In his review of Mortal Kombat Annihilation, The Critic initially trashes the Mileena vs. Sonya fight as just pointless violence and pandering, but slowly gets sucked into it due to the fanservice. Eventually, he and three others who show up in the background are hooting and hollering at the fight.
 * Over on the DVD review of Reefer Madness, he's a little weirded out on the wife character getting extra focus when she puts on her stockings. Especially when the prudish doctor is supposed to be telling this story to the group of people.
 * He's fairly disgusted by Shatner inserting in a half naked alien lady dancing for no other reason other than the obvious.
 * He might fancy the fuck out of Catherine Zeta Jones in The Haunting, but his top brain wins out most of the time to voice his distaste with her constant Have I Mentioned I Am Gay? moments.
 * Manipulative Editing: In his Jingle All the Way review, the Critic shows us the scene where Ted's reindeer chases Howard through the house. Since he never mentioned the reindeer previously, it's made to look like this reindeer comes out of nowhere in the film (and thus, sort of a Big Lipped Alligator Moment). In reality, the reindeer was introduced early in the film, where it had a nasty disposition towards Howard. So the reindeer's re-appearance is a Brick Joke.
 * In the same review, the Critic makes fun of Howard's line, "I didn't make it." upon seeing the empty school gym. The Critic thought this was pointing out the obvious, but it's meant to be an Ironic Echo to a line Howard said at the start of the film: "I'm gonna make it.", referring to Howard wanting to arrive at Jamie's karate promotion on time. But those clips were never shown.
 * A Man Is Always Eager: Defied. He says, with disgusted sarcasm, "imagine that, a boy being pressured into something" while discussing how awful Bella is.
 * Also defied with him as a character. Despite his perviness and love of sex, we've mostly seen or heard about the times where he really hasn't wanted to instead of vice versa.
 * Medium Awareness: Often used for comedy.
 * In his review of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog when he says that Robotnik plans to take over the world it cuts to him sitting in his chair. And he refuses to use the "OF COURSE!" gag and in fact pushes back the transition to the "OF COURSE!" gag when it tries to slide its way in.
 * In his Kazaam! review, he notices all the parallels between the way the hero treats the titular character and slavery, but he can't quite figure out the word. As he tries figure it out, it slowly appears on the screen below him. He then notices the word on the screen and figures it out.
 * In his review of "Baby Geniuses", he looks down as if to look at the video loading bar when trying to see how long he's been talking about the film in his Noir Monologue.
 * Now that advertisements support the show, the Critic starts a joke about advertisements that is usually completed after the commercial break.
 * Memetic Badass: Mocked in-universe in the Sidekicks video which was a clear ego project about how awesome Chuck Norris was. A-CHUCK A-NOOOORIIIIIS!
 * There's also Lucas, the kid with the Power Glove in The Wizard who the Critic makes out to be a God amongst Men.
 * Parodied with Santa Christ.
 * Mid-Review Sketch Show: Very common in his series, and (along with The Angry Video Game Nerd) the reviewer who popularized the usual TGWTG style of mixing sketch comedy with reviews.
 * The Men in Black: The security guards in Bebes Kids, which prompt the Critic to reference a couple other instances of this trope.

"Douchy's mom: Are you masturbating again?
 * A Million Is a Statistic: The Critic points out the glossing over of deaths in Godzilla, and Titanic the Legend Goes On.
 * Mind Screw:
 * "The Top 11 Nostalgic Mindfucks"... complete with nonsensical numbering system.
 * And the crazy scenes in Tom and Jerry The Movie and Jingle All the Way also made the Nostalgia Critic go berserk.
 * Mistaken for Masturbating: Played with in "Next Nostalgia Critic Fuck-Ups"; Douchy's mom doesn't even come into the room and assumes Douchy is doing it.

Douchy: Mom!

Douchy's mom: Just stop doing it to the pictures of the Green M&M! It's unnatural!"

""Care-a-lot is paying for my new car
 * Mondegreen: In the third commercial special, The Nostalgia Critic misheard Usagi Yojimbo as "You sucky your Jimbo!"
 * He also can't understand what Michael Jackson is singing in Smooth Criminal.
 * Money, Dear Boy: The Nostalgia Critic frequently points out when good actors appear in films he pans; i.e. Abe Vigoda (Good Burger, North) and Christopher Plummer (Rock a Doodle). He figures they only do it for the money.
 * In Chairman Of the Board, Critic announces he's going to do a movie called Critic and Trout (co-starring an actual trout). The reason? They offered him too much money to refuse.
 * Assumes this is why Carole King sounds so bored when singing the opening song for The Care Bears Movie.

So I might as well sing it.""

"Nostalgia Critic: NOOOO, JOHNNY FIIIIIVE! STOP, YOU MONSTERS! HE'S ALREADY DEA-EA-EA-EAAAAAAAD..! *Breaks down crying* "
 * Monochrome Casting: He'll often mention it when there's just a movie full of white people or a Token Black character gets shown for only a few seconds.
 * Mood Whiplash: The Critic points out the sudden dark tone the previously light-hearted Short Circuit 2 takes in its third act.

"(dances for a few seconds with happy dance music playing, interrupted by him punching someone offscreen) I'm a monster. (turns and blocks his face with thunder sound effect)"
 * In his "Top 11 Saddest Nostalgic Moments", he notes how the death of Bambi's mother is followed by a scene of birds singing a cheerful song.
 * He points it out while parodying the concept in Cool As Ice, where, after the entire movie was spent with the titular character chasing down the hot daughter of conservative parents, the girl's brother is kidnapped by gangsters, they pull him off screen and you hear a gunshot. The Critic points out that the gunshot didn't happen, but it'd be cool if it did.
 * In his Top 11 Scariest Nostalgic Moments video, he comments on how the creepy tunnel scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory comes out of nowhere in an otherwise upbeat movie, and is never mentioned again afterwards.
 * In "Top 11 Dumbest Spiderman Moments", he mentions the Mood Whiplash following the dance scene from Spiderman 3, where, after said dance scene, Peter hits Mary Jane, then sulks about it. He then play it out...

{{quote| Critic: (angry) LUCAS. {lovingly) Darling!}} "Nostalgia Critic: Good old Testosterone . ..
 * Mook Chivalry: Mocked in the reviews of Surf Ninjas and Hook.
 * Moral Event Horizon: Invoked. The adulterer in The Tommyknockers loses all hope when he leaves a search for a missing child to go fuck his mistress.
 * More Than Mind Control: Sage realizes that maybe he is the devil when Critic acts ditzier than normal, giving him all his money and jumping off a cliff because Sage off-handedly told him to.
 * Mundane Fantastic: The Critic never finds it strange that people from the movies he watches visit him or any of the other weird things that happen to him.
 * Mundane Made Awesome: Parodied Trope often:
 * The Wizard review, during the infamous Power Glove sequence.
 * In his "Alaska" film review, the grand and whimsical music (while a plane is flying with nothing happening), leads him to sing Clear! Clear Clear Clear... Your Cleaaaaaaaaaaaaar!
 * "Fuck yeah, sparkle sparkle sparkle!" (from his review of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, when he decides that the line "sparkle sparkle sparkle" is actually profoundly meaningful and awesome)
 * The opening credits of Heavy Metal, which features a car in space. He repeatedly mentions to his co-host, Diamanda Hagan, that said car in space renders all logical fallacies in the film invalid. At the end, The Critic is riding the previously mentioned car in space with CR.
 * Musical Episode: The Critic's review of Moulin Rouge.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: He frequently does this to Matthew Broderick's character in Godzilla.

Matthew Broderick: It's Tatapolous.

Nostalgia Critic: Whatever."

"Nostalgia Critic: So after Mr. Tin-Man-Apolous-
 * Then:

Matthew Broderick: It's Tatapolous.

Nostalgia Critic: Whatever."

"Nostalgia Critic: So after that, we see Audrey as she comes across Mr. Teka-novan-humpa-shiar-rikki-tikki-hamster-mamster-polly-wolly-wadda-bing-bang-supercalifragilisti-knick-knack-patty-whacky-give-the-dog-a-bannana-fanna-fo-fresca-hickory-dickory-hockety-pockety-wockety-whack-angelina-francesca-the-third.
 * And finally:

Matthew Broderick: It's Tatapolous.

Nostalgia Critic: Whatever."


 * My Own Grandpa: Since The Thief and The Cobbler ripped off Aladdin, which itself was inspired by the in-development version of the film, the Critic views the situation as animated inbreeding.