Nostalgia Critic/Tropes N to Z

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

- The rest of the tropes are HERE

N
"Critic: Good God, I've never had a dead person annoy me so much! Casper: TIMING! Critic: ...except for him!"
 * Neck Lift: A rather strong-looking fan does this to him as punishment for disliking Howl's Moving Castle. In the commentary for Ponyo, Doug reveals that he actually got lifted up for real and really wanted the picture to be taken quick.
 * Never a Self-Made Woman: Fern Gully II and The Secret of NIMH II draw his ire for making Christa and Mrs. Brisby stay home and look after things, nobody giving them any credit for what they did in the first installments, and the sequels instead focusing on minor male characters.
 * Never Heard That One Before: "There's only a handful of people that have the name Doug, you know, and they're scarred for life because of this damned show. So many people come up to you and say 'Oh hey, Doug, where's Patti Mayonnaise?' Yeah, I've never heard that one before, you bunch of Hitlers!"
 * Never Live It Down: The ghost of Mako seems to have it out for the Critic since the TMNT review. Lampshaded in-universe.

"Doyle: Bio-Dome. You think that means it goes both ways? Bud: I don't know, but we do. (pretends to kiss Doyle while making an obnoxious noise and waggling tongue) Critic: NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD."
 * Never Say That Again: Paraphrased in the Bio-Dome review:

"Critic: There was an...incident in Nevada...many people injured. I-I can never go back."
 * The Critic requests this in the "Top 11 Coolest Clichés" in regards to a Klingon Chorus.
 * Never Speak Ill of the Dead: He received a lot of flack for supposedly making fun of Mako in his TMNT review, as well as several Michael Jackson jokes in his Moonwalker review despite the fact that the review came out BEFORE Jackson died.
 * Newsreel: The "man is evil" gag from his "Fern Gully 2" and "Once Upon a Forest" reviews is executed in the style of a newsreel, complete with Jack Shaindlin stock music.
 * Nightmare Fuel: The Critic has several In-Universe lampshadings and invocations of this concept.
 * His "Top 11 Scariest Nostalgic Moments".
 * The Critic's review of Junior. Specifically the baby with Arnold's face grafted on.
 * The premise behind SCARY SLOW-MO takes already creepy scenes and slows them down to enhance the nightmare factor.
 * The giant baby from the Baby Geniuses review. Oh God...
 * Nightmare Retardant: Several in-universe failures.
 * Hannibal and the remake of Psycho 1998, according to the Critic in his Top 11 Scariest Performances.
 * He does the same thing with Stephen King's IT, and turns it into a drinking game.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
 * In his Jack Frost 1998 review, the Critic points out that the movie would be much more awesome if Michael Keaton's character had come back from the dead as chained-up Superman with Batman's head, rather than a horrendously creepy snowman.
 * No Antagonist: After My Pet Monster, people directed their anger at the director for the Critic's BSOD. But listen to the phone call again and you'll find he didn't do anything wrong, just defending himself from the idiot that called him. Critic's low self-esteem was the real "evil" there.
 * No Endor Holocaust: Referenced in his Double Dragon review. He points out that the film takes place in the (then) future date of 2007. Since the review was made in 2008, Critic mocks that it was a funny couple of months cleaning up the mess seen in the film.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: On The Neverending Story 3 disk.
 * No Kill Like Overkill: The Secret of NIMH 2 made him so angry he called in The Death Star to blow up the DVD.
 * You think that's going extreme on killing the DVD? Well, that nothing compared to what the Nostalgia Critic did to the DVD for The Neverending Story 3.
 * No More for Me: During IT, the talking head in the refridgerator forces the Critic to end his in-universe Drinking Game early.
 * Non Sequitur Thud: At the beginning and end of the A Kid In King Arthur's Court review, he repeatedly hits his head in an attempt to forget all about the movie, resulting in Mondegreen titles like "A Cat in Bea Arthur's Cooch". Also, at the end, he accidentally says "I remember it so you don't Blue's Clues", instead of his usual catch phrase.
 * Noodle Incident: In the future, seahorses have somehow taken over the world. The only explanation we get is Future Nostalgia Critic saying that they really should've seen it coming.
 * Although the Kickassia saga isn't a Noodle Incident, the Critic speaks of it as one.

"Critic: So while participating in post boat-burning, stepdaughter-kidnapping, inevitable death sex - which let's be honest is the best sex."
 * In Waterworld:

""That's not bad writing; that actually happened.""
 * According to the Insurrection review, the Amish hate Linkara.
 * Critic's kami-con Q&A ends with him finishing off the story of the first time he ever fucked a melon.
 * Nostalgia Filter: Averted, since the Critic's purpose is showing that the eighties and early nineties had their fair share of terrible or otherwise disappointing shows and movies, and mocked on occasion. The exception is his Top 11 lists, which are much more positive. Also, some normals reviews and "Old Vs New", where he picks two versions of one work (both exceptionally good) and compares one to the other to find the better one.
 * Some reviews - like Gargoyles or Hook - he will heavily admit that he truly likes, but even so he still pick out flaws and fridge logic in them.
 * The one time the Critic succumbs to the Nostalgia Filter is during his review of Follow That Bird, forcing Chester A. Bum to finish it for him.
 * Notable Commercial Campaigns: As of 5/24/11 The Critic has done three specials looking at 80s ads -- Nostalgic Commercials!, Return of Nostalgic Commercials, and Revenge of the Commercials - AKA, "We'll Be Right Back", "After These Messages" and "!".
 * Nothing Is Scarier: In the end credits for James and the Giant Peach, the brief moment of silence followed by another gunshot was more effective in painting a horrific picture of what was happening to the Critic than a gorily seen shootdown ever could.
 * "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer:
 * In his review of Space Jam, he refers to Michael Jordan's misguided attempt at playing baseball:

""YES, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!""
 * At the start of his review of Titanic: The Legend Goes On, he not only declares he's not making it up, he holds up the DVD case to prove it.
 * Yes, that really was the Rock Biter in The Neverending Story 3 on a rock motorcycle, singing "Born to Be Wild".

"N.C.: Bad touch! BAD TOUCH!"
 * Early in Inspector Gadget, he gave a Not Editing This Footage Disclaimer—He wanted it made clear he did not shoehorn in the Yahoo! jingle.
 * Also done in Captain N, to say he didn't add "OO-WEE-OH!" noises to a march of guards.
 * Not So Dire: Snarked on in Suburban Commando where Shelley Duvall was only screaming "for health". He thinks next week it'll be running down the street yelling rape to "ease the tension".
 * No Yay: Sometimes pointed out by the Critic in-universe, Kazaam being a major offender.


 * Think about his relationship with Spoony too hard and you might be squicked out.
 * Neutral Female: He points out that JLo's character in The Cell must have a blank slate for a mind, as it was easy to enslave her and also easy to free her.

O

 * Obviously Evil: Pointed out in his review of A Kid in King Arthur's Court - By the way, did I mention that I am the villain? No? Because I don't have to!
 * He does that again in The Lost World with the Men in Suits.
 * And in Quest for Camelot, where the villain has a far more sinister character design than the others knights around him.
 * And in The OTHER Titanic Animated Movie when he points out that the villain has both an evil mustache and an eyepatch.
 * Oh Crap:
 * An EXTENDED Oh Crap. In his review of The Room, he laughs at Tommy Wiseau's performance and asks where the real actor is. As he realizes to his horror that Tommy Wiseau IS the lead actor, his smile slowly fades into a face of pure horrific stupefaction.
 * And another when at the end of his "Old vs. New" of The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt. As, the Critic's face goes through about ten priceless seconds of varying degrees of "...I'm fucked, aren't I."
 * Linkara's initial reaction to Nostalgia Critic at the beginning of their crossover review for Superman IV was FULL of this.
 * This is his initial reaction to the Captain Planet AIDS episode.
 * "...Bothell, Washington? You're bluffing. You don't really have those videos."
 * This is his reaction when, after running through the hotel, screaming like a maniac (albeit pausing to do a Q&A), and hiding in Sci-Fi Guy's hotel room, he turns on the TV...only to see Linkara glaring at him, ready to do a Star Trek crossover review with him, something he had been trying to avoid the entire month.
 * Old Shame: At the end of his A Simple Wish review,.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting:
 * The scene where the Nostalgia Critic realizes where he has to review Good Burger.
 * He also uses it for the moments in the Drop Dead Fred review when he asserts that it's really a horror film.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Bea Arthur in the Star Wars Holiday Special.
 * Operation: Jealousy: He thinks this is happening with Dexter in Good Burger, as Monique looks like the female version of Ed and they're on a double date.
 * Overcrank: The premise behind "Scary Slow-Mo", where he plays a scene slowly to make it more scary.
 * Overly Long Gag: He has a tendency towards this. Some of the more prominent examples:
 * BLOOBITY BLOOBITY BLOOBITY BLOOBITY, BLOOBITY BLOOBITY BLOOBITY BLOOBITY, BLOOBITY BLOOBITY BLOOBITY BLOOBITY, BLOOBITY BLOOBITY...
 * The Critic himself has arguably been guilty of OLGs from time to time. The "laughing at Zack" and "Becky memorial" bits from Saved by the Bell, and the "bunny boobies" bit from Space Jam all dragged a bit.
 * As well as Mr. Tachanova Humpascheier Rickydicky Hamstermaster Pollywolly Wannabingbangme Supercalafragalistic Knickknackpaddywhackgivethedoga Bananafanafofresca Hickorydickoryhockitypockitywockitywhack Angelina Francesca the Third. ("It's Tatapolous.") Whatever.
 * Tone Lōc? Tony Lock? T. One Lock? Tone-Loc Picard?
 * The outbursts of "no" during the Drop Dead Fred review, going on for quite a while, ranging from loud and angry to quiet and disbelieving and back again.
 * The alien from Independence Day asking if it is an old girlfriend ("Stephanie?").
 * Both the Critic's reaction to Apollo getting beat up and the clapping scene in Rocky IV get really drawn out.
 * Spoony-as-the-Critic's crazed laughter in "You're a Dirty Rotten Bastard".
 * Drs. Insano and Smith's maniacal laughter in the The Secret of NIMH 2 review.
 * Soundwave talking about being in his own romantic comedy film in Raiders of the Story Arc: Transformers.
 * Overreacting Airport Security: He complains that he gets uncomfortably felt up at the airport and a rescued Geordi doesn't even get searched.
 * Overused Running Gag: In his review of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, when the Critic portrays the scene of Little Nemo piloting a blimp as the Hindenburg Disaster, a disclaimer acknowledges that the joke has been overused, and claims that it will be the last time he will ever use it. (It wasn't, he used it again in Gordy.)
 * Doug has said he's got seriously tired of the "Bat Credit Card" joke and will only do it once at cons.

P
""Don't make me tell your parents, who may or may not exist and I may or may not be keeping you from.""
 * Pac-Man Fever: Noted in Suburban Commando, where an arcade game shown is portrayed as a game where you fight aliens while the Critic recognizes it as After Burner, which has nothing to do with aliens.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: In Moulin Rouge, the Guilty Pleasures song is the only one where they look down the barrel of the camera, i.e it's more directed to the audience than to Critic.
 * Panty Shot: The scene from Suburban Knights comes up in his review of DuckTales (1987). He's rather proud of it.
 * Parental Abandonment: Parodied in the Care Bears review.

"Critic: How did you get in here? Other character: I broke in."
 * Parental Neglect: In the Chick's TLC review, he angrily defends living with his mother as her being his world. As she's never come to help when he's been blown up, kidnapped, having a breakdown or any other instances where he's got himself into trouble, it's safe to say she doesn't have the same feeling about him.
 * Parody Commercial: One of Nostalgia Critic's occasional jokes is to make one out of one of the items in the work he reviews.
 * Phrase Catcher: The following exchange has happened on at least two crossovers in Walker's house:

""My wand can do anything! It can kill people, destroy cities, and make fashionable fur coats!""
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Seriously, what is Tinkerbell made out of? The Critic points out that she could have easily solved EVERYTHING in the movie by having her beat the living snot out of Captain Hook at the rest of the pirates.
 * Playing Against Type: The Critic points out in Hook that Julia Roberts played character who is traditionally very similar to her real-life persona... by playing it in a manner completely opposite of her real life persona.
 * Playing to The Fetishes: Doug knows that fangirls like seeing him in pain and he's a lot more sexualised now than he was back when he first started. (Goes for Critic, Ask That Guy and Doug himself.)
 * It probably wasn't a coincidence that Critic getting date-raped by Spoony and Ask That Guy getting terrified/dominated by Sage happened at the exact same time.
 * There's even a joke amongst the other contributors that if their video includes Doug or his characters suffering, the views will usually be pretty high.
 * In Film Brain's livestream of reading the Fetish Fuel Wiki, someone asked if Doug was okay with his rather extreme "yay suffering" page. Film Brain's response was that Doug wasn't just okay with it, he loves that kinda thing and feeds off it. So there's that.
 * Plot Hole: The Critic has a specialty of pointing out these.
 * Plot Induced Stupidity: In the review of The Neverending Story 2, he notes that Bastian could simply wish his troubles away. Likewise, he also noted in Captain N: The Game Master that the poorly-defined powers of Kevin could simply be used to warp to the villains and shoot 'em point-blank. And in Neverending 3, juxtaposing that the villains and Bastian's sister wished for things while the Idiot Hero didn't.
 * Police Brutality: He's happy the Transformers movie confirms his belief that police are evil.
 * Portmanteau: In his Batman and Robin review, he said the movie was "horribafuckus", combining the words horrible and fuck.
 * In his Full House review, he said the show was manufactured precious shit... or "precshit", as he liked to call it.
 * Similarly, in his Home Alone 3 review, he said many of John Hughes's '90s movies tended to fall into the category of slapstick shit, or "slapshit", as he liked to call it.
 * Precision F-Strike: Although NC gave Little Monsters a lot of criticism for its use of constant swear words in a kids movie, he gave credit to the "Holy shit!" line that the girl gives when she sees the monster entrance, since it would seem like a legitimate reaction.
 * Pre-Climax Climax: Unfortunately no details, but he calls "inevitable death sex" the best kind of sex.
 * Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Vanilla Ice's character in Cool as Ice, supposedly.
 * Pretty in Mink: Parodied Trope in the review of the He Man and She Ra Christmas Special, when he noticed that Skeletor's want could create parkas with fur collars out of thin air.


 * Pretty Little Headshots: For comedy, time and sanity purposes (because only a minority of people want to see his brain splattered on the wall), if he gets shot in the forehead there'll be only be a small hole there with a tiny bit of blood. If he gets shot in the side, there'll be nothing.
 * Primal Fear: If you feel like you're useless and haven't made anything out of your life, then the commercial special angst will hurt quite a bit more.
 * Princesses Rule: One of his biggest pet peeves. In any movie or TV show where a character is called a princess but is not shown to be the daughter of a living, active monarch, he will mention it and attack the character for it. For instance, in the review for ''Felix the Cat: The Movie," he scratches his head over why Princess Oriana is a princess when her parents are dead and she is ruling the nation, then theorizes that she had her first name legally changed to 'Princess' so she could keep the title.
 * Prison Rape: Implied at the start of James and the Giant Peach. His jacket and tie are missing, he was apparently public enemy number one for the LP, he can't seem to look anyone in the eye, and it takes a while for him to get the slightest bit of confidence back. (Plus, it's Critic, making him a bitch would be easy.)
 * Product Placement: Most of the 2012 Critic episodes have had advertisements cutting him off in the middle of the review. Out-of-universe it's because Doug needs a little bit more money, but in-universe it's been implied that while Critic acts annoyed by them, he secretly likes being a corporate whore.
 * Prophetic Names The Critic wonders if Richie Rich or his dad's lives would have been different if they had been born named "Poor E. Broke." Chester A. Bum claims that it's his legally born name.
 * Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
 * THIS! IS! SONIC!!!
 * WHAT'S! THE! JOKE?!
 * (In a pitched-down voice) YOU! ARE! SCUM!!
 * WAH! WAH! WAHHH!!
 * (As stated earlier,) GO! BACK! TO THE LESBIANS!
 * JUST! EX! PLAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 * YEEES! BATTLEFIELD! EAAAAARRRTTTHHH!!!
 * THIS! MOVIE! WAS! OKAY!
 * TELL! A STORY!!!
 * (In Slow Motion) PLEASE! MOVE! FORWARD!!
 * NOTHING ABOUT THAT SCENE MAKES ANY! FUCKING! SENSE! WHAT! SO! GOD! DAMN! EVER!

Q

 * Quote Swear Unquote:
 * "Zuul, motherfucker, ZUUUUL!!" from Ghostbusters.
 * "Taste the rainbow, motherfucker!" from The Care Bears Movie.
 * Quizzical Tilt: Parodied in The Thief and the Cobbler review when Tak and Yumyum look at each other while tilting their heads left and right, Critic mimics them until his head does a full rotation.

R
"Nostalgia Critic: Anyone who does it should be shot (is shot in the forehead), un-shot (bullet hole disappears), and given a bag of money (bag of money appears)! (offhandedly) How about some lounge music? (lounge music plays) Yeah, that's nice."
 * Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Defied. He sarcastically sums up how Costner's character in Waterworld can be considered a good guy because despite all the horrible things he's done, he didn't take a woman's body when she didn't want it.
 * Reaching Between the Lines: Two characters who aren't in the same frame usually act as if they're talking by a video link, though the Critic throws something at Ask That Guy With The Glasses and knocks him out. He also appears to interact with the physical frame of M. Bison saying "OF COURSE!" and The Cinema Snob's musings on Manimal.
 * Lampshaded by Phelous in the Child's Play review when he comments that the sock he threw at the Critic got much whiter in the Critic's frame than it had been in his.
 * Reality Ensues: When the Critic points out that the protagonists of Bio-Dome are moronic losers with no jobs and really shouldn't have a nice house and hot girlfriends like they do in the movie, 90's Kid shows up to inform him that that kind of thing happened all the time in the 90's. However, he's interrupted when his landlord shows up with an eviction notice. And a battering ram. And a sawed-off shotgun.
 * His phone conversation with the director for My Pet Monster, which started with him calling the director to ask why he would make such a stupid movie, and the conversation turns to him trying to explain that he watches old movies to point out their shortcomings ("It's kind of my job."), and ends in depression which inspires the next episode where he eats junk food and watches old commercials.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: Minor instance, since January 2012 some of his reviews have ads into the middle of the video as well, so he works this into the script of the reviews.
 * The ending of the A Simple Wish review, where.
 * Rebus Bubble: In the Saved By the Bell review, Duck + Oil = Gravestone.
 * Record Needle Scratch: Occurs in the Jack Frost review when he spots a chained-up Superman toy with Batman's head.
 * Recursive Canon: NC has some problems with this occurring in the Double Dragon film.
 * Reed Richards Is Useless: The Critic points the professor in We're Back! could make much better use of his Time Machine than entertaining children.
 * Reference Overdosed
 * Retirony: In his Hook review he's angry because a coconut that Peter cut in half with his sword had just two more days until his retirement.
 * Retroactive Wish: Actually granted in the Nostalgia Critic's SNICK episode, while talking about how screaming loudly in every other sentence isn't funny.

""You know, I really need to learn to keep my fucking mouth shut.""
 * Rhymes on a Dime: For his review on the remake of The Grinch. Doing it all couldn't have been a cinch.
 * Rouge Angles of Satin: The Critic's "Top 11 F* ck Ups" notes his spelling errors from time to time. It even has a deliberate one, Lampshaded by Douchey McNitpick, at the end.
 * Subverted in the commentary for The Care Bears Movie. Doug points out that "penguin" is spelled wrong in a caption, and asks why Rob didn't catch it, because he should know that Doug is "dyslexic as hell." The word was spelled correctly.
 * Rule of Cool: The Critic came back from the dead because Optimus Prime died for his sins.
 * Rule of Funny
 * The "You're A Dirty Rotten Bastard" episode has quite a few Fridge Logic issues (Joe being President Evil, Canada being nuked, certain people being happy bunnies when they had problems that in no way related to the Critic, Critic has said many times that reviewing makes his life suck more etc.) but you've got to remember that it was just a way to make the Critic look like the biggest douche and loser in all of creation.
 * He states in his third "Top 11 F*ck-Ups" video that the main reason he referred to Dunston as a monkey instead of an ape was because the word "monkey" would get more laughs than the movie could ever provide.
 * Rule 63: The title card for Moulin Rouge involves a genderswapped Critic dressed like Satine but with his tie, hat and jacket still on.
 * Running Gag: Many. Somewhat subverted, because Doug believes there is a limit to reusing gags before they become boring, and so, a lot of these already become artifacts before long.
 * OF COURSE!!!!
 * A-CHUCK-A-NORRIIIIS!
 * Non Sequitur Scene! Shared with The Nostalgia Chick.
 * Lampshaded in the Critic's review of Suburban Commando, after criticizing the movie's weak running gags. "But who am I talk about running gags? Non Sequitur Scene-Elephant-Chuck Norris." (the BLAM logo, Burger King and Chuck Norris appear in rapid succession).
 * "How many times are we going to see this kind of scene..." *arbitrarily large number appears on screen* "Okay, I'm gonna kill myself now."
 * "I'm Acting!" or some variation on it.
 * During Nickelodeon Month: “ADVENTURE HO!”
 * "Well, at least they didn't do something like (names a lousy thing)." Movie does do lousy thing, pissing him off.


 * As another form of the above, he gushes about an unexpected cool/funny/awesome thing, then the movie does something to ruin it, and he tries desperately to keep smiling.
 * The Blackadder clips for good news/bad news jokes: something good happens ("Hurrah!"), something bad happens immediately afterwards ("...Haroo.")
 * KHAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!
 * "JOKE ABORTED"
 * Whenever Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up... PUT THAT COOKIE DOWN, NOW! He’ll also comment it with a heavy Arnie accent, with the most common lines about eating kids.
 * It's only a model.
 * Monty Python montages seemed to have been a trend to him these days. The Conan reviews use the "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" and The Swamp Castle scene.
 * "ZUUL, MOTHAFUCKA! ZUUUUUL!"
 * TIMING!
 * BAD TOUCH!
 * I WAS FRO-ZEN TODAY!
 * DOUCHE
 * The Nelson Laugh is starting to become one, having already been used in the 90's Sports Movies, Star Wars Holiday Special and Care Bears movie reviews.
 * Whenever Tim Curry is mentioned, chances are the song Sweet Transvestite is going to play, and/or a picture or video clip of Dr. Frank N. Furter will be shown.
 * "Drat, I've been defeated by the Power of Love!"
 * The Critic demanding an answer to the question "WHAT! ABOUT! [Name of pet placed in peril during the movie]!" and being answered with a heavenly voice saying "[Name of animal] will live", leading to the Critic throwing his arms in the air whilst screaming in joy.
 * SCAAARYY SLOOOOW-MOOOOOOO.
 * "Is the terrible creature known as... MAN?! *Scare Chord* ['50s newsreel-style Could This Happen to You? warning follows.]
 * When the movie makes a bad attempt at slapstick, there is Wah-Wah music and an exaggerated shrug from The Critic.
 * Using the Goofy scream when someone falls off something.
 * In the Care Bears 2 review: DARK HEART!!!
 * The Hindenburg Disaster.
 * CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!
 * In his "Doug's 1st Movie" review: "But I digress", gradually getting more aggravated every time he says it.
 * From the review of Star Trek III: The Search For Spock: Genesis?!
 * Star Trek Month had a running gag of the Critic trying to avoid Linkara making a cameo, fearing he would just completely geek out over every detail.
 * Abbott and Costello!
 * Fucking BUBBLES!
 * Whenever something bad happens to a character that the Critic doesn't like (usually the annoying comic relief), such as getting punched or even getting killed, the Critic will rejoice and request to see the clip played over and over again, until he is satisfied.

S
"GENIUS!!!"
 * Sadist Show: The character was created to suffer. First it was just bad movies, now it's bad movies and well, life in general. Doug even said in an interview that most people just keep watching to see the Critic get tortured all the time.
 * Sarcasm Failure: "I got nothing." Or some variation thereof whenever the Critic encounters something bad enough that even he can't think of a response.
 * In Fern Gully 2, he can't even make fun of one of Batty's impersonations, as he doesn't even recognise it.
 * Sarcasm Mode: The entirety of the Surf Ninjas review.
 * Which was actually

"Oh. My. I wonder where his hide-out is."
 * Also, the end of the Good Burger review, until he breaks out of it with much rage, complete with Demon Head.
 * The Critic has a knack for questioning, in a deadpan, unamused voice, who the villain is in an animated movie when said villain is talking amongst a crowd. Also happens in the review of The Phantom.

""So let me get this straight: Timmy's great destiny was to stop a jealous mastermind who wouldn't have been a jealous mastermind until he had heard that Timmy had a great destiny. In other words, if they DIDN'T FUCKING BUILD HIM UP, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED! TALK ABOUT A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY, YOU DUMBASSES!""
 * Say My Name: JOOOONAAAAASSSSS!!
 * CASPEEEEEEEEERRRR!!
 * Lucas! Darling...
 * "NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD!"
 * "CRITIC! How dare you come here."
 * Scandalgate: Roomgate, after his review of The Room got taken down. This scandal has been resolved, and the review is back up on TGWTG.
 * Scary Shiny Glasses: In the opening splash picture for Rock-A-Doodle and The Secret of NIMH 2.
 * The Scottish Trope: Whenever the Critic says the word "elephant" (but not "elephants"), The Burger King's face flies into the screen, and whenever he mentions Chuck Norris, we're treated to a picture of Chuck Norris over a backdrop of fireworks with a voice saying "A-CHUCK A-NORRIIIIIIISSSS!!" And, as the Critic points out in his review of Free Willy, if he says the full title of a movie, he has to review it next week.
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Critic's variations of "I'm acting!" in Good Burger. "And I ain't acting, I'm really going home! Fuck this movie!"
 * In Rock-a-Doodle, after the Duke of Owls is turned tiny, he says he turned into Cartman, and says, "Screw this movie, I'm going home." Then another scene, followed by, "No, screw this movie, home."
 * When reviewing the Star Wars Holiday Special, he tries to bail out of his introduction in order to get away from it.
 * Self-Deprecation:
 * When Doug was informed that Roger Ebert liked Junior, he responded with "Roger Ebert liked my video; that shows how senile he's getting!"
 * His review of James And The Giant Peach opens with a big segment making fun of how poorly-received his Let's Play was.
 * He's also taken a couple of potshots at his own speaking voice, what with Zack (in the Revenge of the Nostalgic Commercials) listing him as "Obnoxious High-Pitched Critic", and the Bum calling him "an even more high-pitched Sam Kinison" in the Kickassia Bum Review.
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: He uses this trope word for word in The Secret of NIMH 2, pointing out that nothing that happened in the movie would have happened if the townspeople hadn't praised Timmy to be some hero in the first place.
 * Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: He uses this trope word for word in The Secret of NIMH 2, pointing out that nothing that happened in the movie would have happened if the townspeople hadn't praised Timmy to be some hero in the first place.

"Nostalgia Critic: OILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
 * Douchey McNitpick's name.
 * Sequelitis: In-universe, and probably out too, The Critic did not enjoy Sequel Month.
 * Also, The Neverending Story 2 ("So when I heard that there was another movie, I got excited as hell. I loved the first one and I couldn't wait to see another one. It blewed.") and the third and fourth Jaws.
 * Series Continuity Error: He notes that Bastian's father apparently forgets he knows about Fantasia between the second and third The Neverending Story films.
 * Shameless Self Promotion:
 * The Critic identifies Kazaam, Moonwalker, and Sidekicks as these (Though the latter is subverted in that a family member directed the film instead of the person himself).
 * Share the Male Pain: When the robot in Power Rangers gets kicked in the nads, he jumps up in his chair out of sympathy hurt.
 * She's All Grown Up: Critic noted this about.
 * Slow No: It happens in a few episodes.
 * Ship Tease: First with the Nerd, and now usually with The Nostalgia Chick, Spoony and Linkara. He's not the Fandom Pony for nothing, y'know.
 * Shirtless Scene: Two words: "A GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENIUS!"
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Played for dark laughs in the James and the Giant Peach review. He got sent to jail for the below-average Let's Play, didn't exactly have a good time (his jacket and tie are missing), even Chester acts entitled at the press conference, has to be good for a movie he doesn't like because he doesn't want to A) be shot and B) have everyone still hate him. In the end, he gives his honest opinion that he can see why people like it but it's not for him and he gets killed for that.
 * Shout-Out: Has its own page.
 * Shower of Angst: During his psychotic meltdown during his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies (the three live-action ones) review.
 * Shower Scene: In the DVD menu, Rob barges in on him while he's showering. Critic's rather freaked by this.
 * Shown Their Work: In the North review, the Critic goes into a ballistic rage about the infamous "Inuits murder their own people callously" scene, with information that Inuits haven't been doing this for over hundreds of years, they only did it in famine and as a last resort, they certainly didn't set up a theme-park-like business for it.
 * His interviews to the creators of Animaniacs in his tribute to the show are extremely in depth. The clips he includes are hard to find including an original recording of Orson Welles complaining about doing a commercial.
 * His "Top 11 Cereal Mascots" countdown proved he can do a terrific amount of research when he really wants to, finding very old clips to compare the old versions of the mascots with the new, and giving history and background in abundance.
 * His The Thief and the Cobbler review mentioned the film's troubled production and he even saw the "Recobbled Cut".
 * He goes into a lot of detail about Little Nemo's Troubled Production.
 * Done with tremendous effect toward the real Patch Adams.
 * According to Linkara, Doug watched all the Full House episodes so nobody would accuse him of fucking up.
 * Weird as they're played for comedy and most Hollywood portrayals aren't, but people with the actual disorders have remarked that he plays OCD and Dissociative Identity Disorder far more realistically than the usual portrayals, the former with his constantly going back to meaningless details and the latter with his apologizing/not remembering instantly after an extreme tantrum happens.
 * Sincerity Mode: He usually ends his reviews with a much more honest and less jokey review of the movie, seriously saying what the overall problems are and, in many cases, acknowledging the movie's good points.
 * He will occasionally interject a genuine compliment into an otherwise negative review, preceding it with "I'm serious" so it is not mistaken for sarcasm. An example is his high opinion of the "Smooth Criminal" sequence from Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.
 * Skyward Scream: Hilariously done in the Saved by the Bell episode.

"Nostalgia Critic: NEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD!!!!!!"
 * Even funnier was The Reveal that Jimmy from The Wizard (film) grew up to be The Angry Video Game Nerd.

""How's the monster? It's okay. How's the acting? It's okay. How are the special effects? It's all okay! It's like a giant flaming nuclear ball of adequacy!""
 * Sliding Scale of Plot Versus Characters: Very much on the character-driven end, with even the "love/hate relationship with job" arc coming through in character reactions.
 * Slow Clap: The Critic points out its overuse in various sports movies in his 90s Sports Montage, and later on appears to initiate one in Rocky IV.
 * Slut Shaming: If he's ever angry at someone (both genders), the usual shamey words flow freely from his mouth. In return though, Douchey's called him a whore a few times too, Spoony's called him dirty to humiliate him further after getting spooned, and in real life the only person Doug calls a slut is himself.
 * Small Reference Pools: A somewhat strange example is the 2010 Christmas special, where in the commentary Doug apparently thought he was the first person ever to think of doing a twisted inversion of It's a Wonderful Plot. Needless to say, the fans soon put him straight on all the existing examples.
 * Also referenced in some reviews where he gets irritated at the fans who have no idea what he's talking about. "Go watch a black and white movie!"
 * So Bad It's Good: His opinion on The Room, "Babes in Toyland" and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987, to the point where he suggests it because of it. Out of character, Doug Walker declared Devil one of the worst movies he saw in 2010, but recommended seeing it for this reason.
 * Doug and Rob recommend watching The Neverending Story 3 in their commentary to see all the hundreds of other horrible things that they didn't have time to mention without making the review three hours long (for a hour and a half long movie).
 * His review of Dungeons and Dragons starts with him saying that this is probably one of the worst movies ever, which is exactly why it's one of the best movies ever and why people need to see it.
 * Social Services Does Not Exist: Done to keep the Black Comedy going. You'd think somebody would come in to give kid!Critic a break, but nope.
 * Solemn Ending Theme: The ending to the My Pet Monster review when The Critic stares out his window and re-evaluates his life.
 * Something Completely Different: Several examples of episodes which deviate from the norm:
 * By definition, the episodes which don't follow the formula of trashing one bad movie count: "Top 11", "Old vs. New", "Raiders of the Story Arc". The "Old vs. New"s are usually a lot more analytical than usual.
 * Anytime The Nostalgia Critic reviews a movie with another reviewer. See Crossover for the list.
 * "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Launch", which isn't a Nostalgia Critic review but stars the character.
 * "Bebe's Kids", which was the only time The Nostalgia Critic reviewed a video game. It was done as part of a deal between The Angry Video Game Nerd and himself where the two would perform each other's jobs for one review (James Rolfe reviewed the obscure Rocky parody "Ricky 1").
 * He would later review The Blues Brothers on a DVD, and do a Let's Play of the Nintendo Hard Bart's Nightmare.
 * "Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird", which broke The Nostalgia Critic: he was unable to make fun of it because he loves Sesame Street. He invites Chester A. Bum to take his place for the last minute of the video.
 * "Drew Struzan Tribute". Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
 * "Teddy Ruxpin", which was not only the first review based on a toy, but also was done in the format of a slasher/thriller movie in the second half of the video.
 * "The Good Son". Doug Walker had temporarily lost his voice in real life, so he performed this review by remaining silent and writing out his thoughts on cue cards. The only word he uttered in the entire review was "ASS!"
 * "TMNT". While it's still in the typical format, it's from a very recent film (2007), so that breaks tradition of doing solely nostalgic movies from the '80s and '90s.
 * "Transformers 2", which took the format of his earliest reviews, i.e. no film clips, and more like what his Bum Reviews series would evolve into.
 * "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" had Doug in character as Raoul Duke (here named "Raoul Puke") from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
 * "Alone in the Dark", which had The Nostalgia Critic again unable to speak, but this time using Mac speak to convey his thoughts. He was also accompanied by Spoony and Linkara, and the review took place in a different environment than usual.
 * "Baby Geniuses" took the form of a disturbed Nostalgia Critic walking around a convention in a daze after having seen this film, and narrating in the style of film noir.
 * "Commercials", which didn't feature the typical white wall or his usual attire but instead The Nostalgia Critic sitting in a recliner wearing an "I Donut Donuts" T-shirt and watching TV. His review was focused on commercials, not TV shows or movies like it usually is.
 * "You're a Rotten Dirty Bastard Christmas Special" was a parody of It's a Wonderful Life where the Critic sees what things would be like if he was never born. Only problem is, everyone involved with Channel Awesome is well off, and the angel sent to show the Critic the error of his ways lost out on being God's number one guy just because the Critic existed.
 * "Jungle 2 Jungle'" was reviewed in the style of a nature documentary.
 * "Raiders of the Story Arc: Transformers" has Doug playing the character of Optimus Prime.
 * So Okay It's Average: Several in-universe examples.
 * The Critic's reasoning for why Waterworld was a bomb at the box office. He even says that it's not bad as an action movie, but ultimately fails to live up to its high budget (which the movie didn't even manage to reach in cinemas).
 * Cloverfield. Everything about it is adequate to him.

""WHAT THE HELL!? Did they just talk? Did Tom & Jerry, one of the most famous silent duos of all time, just speak to each other?? No. No, no, no, no no no, it's gotta be a mistake. I gotta be hearing things. I'm gonna just go ahead and eat my customary 3-pound watermelon and drink my traditional pitcher of sangria both at the same time while I confirm how wrong I was about this ridiculous misunderstanding...""
 * He found Fern Gully 2 to be quite the forgettable movie, which had no reason to exist beyond milking cash out of those who bought Fern Gully.
 * Song of the South, in "Return of Nostalgic Commercials": "See the movie that that millions of people around the world are calling...OKAY!
 * According to "Top 11 Nostalgia Critics I Will Never Do", this is why he refuses to review Toys.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: He sings "Pure Imagination" over the tunnel sequence of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to demonstrate how out of place it is.
 * He also plays whimsical, uplifting music over the ending of Marley and Me for the same purpose.
 * Smoking Hot Sex: After his fangasm in the Double Team review, he smokes a cigarillo.
 * Space Whale Aesop: Parodied Trope. "The moral of the story is: don't fall into a bucket of cream!"
 * Spank the Cutie: Usually the movie reaction lines he chooses are funny but never really suggesting anything, yet "Old vs. New: True Grit" made it like two characters threatening to spank him.
 * Special Effects Failure: The Critic points it out in-universe in the The Legend of Zelda show, Red Sonja, Captain N: The Game Master, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Tank Girl, Rock-a-Doodle, Superman IV, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Pound Puppies, The Pebble and the Penguin, Ernest Scared Stupid, The Neverending Story 3, Dungeons and Dragons and the first Spider Man movie. He also insults Linkara for having bad effects as well in the Superman IV review.
 * Spit Take:

"John Hughes:"There! I did it! I wrote the worst Home Alone script ever. I know I'm contractually obligated to write at least one more movie, but this script is so terrible no studio would ever buy it. Haha!" Producer:"We'll take it." John Hughes:"My career is over!""
 * Also done in his Video Game Review, when he partakes in the Nerd's favourite beverage during the opening.
 * After performing one in his Milk Money review, he lampshades it by yelling, "Why is it I'm always drinking when a scene like that happens?"
 * Springtime for Hitler: The Critic's explanation for why Home Alone 3 was written by John Hughes.

"Barb Wire: "I'm sure you'll have very strong and smart children." Critic: "If they stay out of sequels...""
 * Squick: His in-universe reaction in the Conan reviews to a segment where Arnold says that working out is "like cumming": "CONAN: THE CUMMER... EW"
 * Stalker Without a Crush: The Ghost Of Christmas Future is just a little too obsessed with getting the Critic to do what he wants.
 * Standard Hero Reward: Discussed in the "Top 11 Dumbasses In Distress".
 * State the Simple Solution: In the crossover for Star Trek Insurrection, Linkara has taken over the tv and plans on continuing with the review and go at Nemesis. Critic is horrified and cannot take it when Sci-fi Guy, whose been standing in the corner for the review, tells him to just turn off the tv. It works.
 * Stealth Pun: He decides to represent Ponyo as an over-the-top Omnicidal Maniac demon for his review of the eponymous movie...with an obsession with HAAAAAAAMMMM!
 * Spoony makes a cameo in the Richie Rich review when the Critic makes a Noah joke. Why? Because Spoony's real name is Noah.
 * Sting: Doug often plays "Shock Horror (a)" by Dick Walter (also frequently heard on The Ren and Stimpy Show) when something he considers shocking appears on the screen. Some examples of when it's played include:
 * The female duck's bare breasts in Howard the Duck.
 * Realizing Jake Lloyd from Jingle All the Way was also in Star Wars: Episode I as Anakin and jumping out a window.
 * Showing a picture of the dog and dolphin hybrids at the very end of his Zeus and Roxanne review.
 * From ''Return of the Nostalgic Commercials, "Wunder Boner".
 * "The creature known as... MAN!"
 * The Stinger: Usually of the "funny quote after the credits" type, but in the Zeus And Roxanne review he follows it with a Brick Joke after playing with the audience's expectations.
 * Another Stinger is actually a two minute pitch of the new upcoming DVD and appearances at cons for the special people that love him so much. This is actually Doug Walker, not Nostalgia Critic.
 * Stock Footage: "OR DO THEY?!"
 * Two clips from the Casper review were re-used in subsequent episodes: "TIMING!" and "Exposition, exposition..."
 * Stock Sound Effects: Two notable examples include whenever there is a fight scene and punching is involved or whenever he fires his gun.
 * Stop Being Stereotypical: He has this view with dorky white guys, like Pauly Shore and Vanilla Ice.
 * He's also Catholic, but calls out people who use the bible as a defense for what they don't understand (Gordy) or that think the rest of the world is evil because they're not the same religion (Exorcist II the Heretic).
 * Story Arc: His massive insecurity with his job. It was set up in Full House where he complains at his fans for not appreciating what he does for them, comes out when he gets upset at other contributors for stealing it and being better than him, ran through Kickassia when he would rather commit mass murder-suicide than lose the power he had for once gained, he breaks down to CR about his Inferiority Superiority Complex and it all culminated in the My Pet Monster/"Commercials Special" double parter. His unhappiness with it still gets referred to every few episodes, though.
 * In a lighter, sillier example, the Nerd/Critic rivalry. Light because it ended in a kickass brawl and didn't include near-Death by Despair.
 * Definite now that Doug says they're finished, the "fuck-ups" lists provided a progression from "I'm unbelievable, I am your Jesus" to giving up and breaking down so hard that Douchey decides to leave him alone.
 * Straw Man Has a Point: In-universe. Amongst other things, one of the Critic's main issues with Patch Adams is how the movie keeps trying to set up anyone who doesn't agree with the titular character's "laughter is the best medicine" policy as wrong, humorless, evil, or any combination of the above, yet he points out that Adams (the character in the movie, not the real Patch Adams, which he emphasizes) acts very unprofessional and that a lot of the people who frown on his manners are perfectly right in pointing this out to him.
 * Stuffed Into the Fridge: In his review of Alaska, he has a rant about how using a parent's death merely as a plot device is disgusting.
 * Stunned Silence: The Critic is left absolutely speechless when he hears Eric Idle singing in The Secret of NIMH 2. He tried to say out some kind of reaction, but just couldn't think of any words to say.
 * Stupid Sexy Flanders: Will Smith; the Critic has to snap himself out of fawning over him ("BOOBS! You like boobs!"). For the audience, that joystick licking in the rematch against Angry Joe. A whole load of fanboys went "I'm not gay but..."
 * Stylistic Suck: The deliberately crappy title card for Sequels Month.
 * Subverted Catchphrase: Done several times, most notably in the review of A Kid in King Arthur's Court.
 * Suckiness Is Painful: His whole schtick, really, is suffering through bad movies until they drive him to rage, weeping, drinking, attempting suicide or trying to escape the review . In The Flintstones, a couple of the puns are so corny they physically hurt him, as did one Plot Hole in Bio-Dome.
 * Alone in The Dark gave him a stroke.
 * Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Lampshaded in the review of Barb Wire when Barb snarks about his ex and their wife:

T
"Conan: Oh no! I'm pulled into Avatar! The visuals will be stunning but the story will be absolute bullshit!"
 * The Take: Notably so in this video.
 * Take Over the World: Mocked with the M. Bison "OF COURSE!", of course.
 * Take That: Used on The Angry Video Game Nerd here at the expense of his special effects.
 * Another example ironically came about as the result of him deciding an insult was too severe. In one of his anti-AVGN videos, the Nostalgia Critic accuses him of having become his Irate Gamer. Boos are heard from the audience and the Nostalgia Critic admits that was going too far and apologizes.
 * In "Top 11 Fuck Ups", we are introduced to Douchey McNitpick, who represents the more hostile side of the people that point out the Nostalgia Critic's mistakes, and he proceeds to bitch and moan about every little screw-up he finds in the Critic's videos. At the end, the Nostalgia Critic tells his viewers to point out his mistakes politely, and not be belligerent like McNitpick, right before he gets fed up with his whining, warps over to his house, and tears Douchey a new one.
 * In the "Next Top 11 Fuck Ups", Douchey becomes much more of a take that. He doesn't complain quite as much, but he's established as just living in a world of nothing but World of Warcraft, pornography, and criticizing the Nostalgia Critic. He also lives with his mother...and apparently masturbates to the green M&M.
 * He apparently doesn't like Jeff Dunham: In the Tank Girl review, he calls the heroine's jokes offensive and unfunny. "Like a female Jeff Dunham."
 * In the review of Conan The Barbarian he took a shot at Avatar:


 * Subverted in the Old vs. New Debate for The Nutty Professor, in which the Nostalgia Critic talks about beating up Dave Chappelle...for leaving his show at the height of its success, and leaving the Critic wanting more.
 * He doesn't seem to like Chris Tucker, as in his Drop Dead Fred review he ranks him just below Jar Jar Binks on his scale of annoyance.
 * The Nostalgia Critic makes two attacks against Twilight in his Care Bears review, Edward Cullen was also on his scale on annoyance. This is by no means the only time he bashes Edward. In A Troll In Central Park, at one point the Critic says that Stanley is "as bland as Edward from Twilight".

And then in Care Bears Movie 2: "Christy: Hey, this is a lot like those Twilight movies-- Dark Heart: "No, it's not! We're BUTCH compared to that shit!""

"Critic as White Rabbit: You might remember this from the much better Disney movie. Critic as Care Bear: Oh, you mean with Johnny Depp?
 * In the Star Trek review, he calls it the franchise that's been setting women back hundreds of years.
 * A brief gag in the A Troll In Central Park review lists all the reasons why Stanley the Troll will never have his own dreams come true. One of them is "He's more annoying than the trolls at Encyclopedia Dramatica."
 * The Critic has made a lot of negative comparisons to the Star Wars prequels to varying degrees of subtlety.
 * Hulk Hogan fighting security guards in Mr. Nanny: "Calm down, dude, you're not on American Gladiators. And even if you were it'd probably get cancelled."
 * Ever since he was forced to take down his review of The Room, he takes any and all opportunities for a Take That to Tommy Wiseau. He even puts on a show in his Tommy Wiseau impression at conventions!
 * The Fern Gully 2 review mocks Batty's non-joke about oysters with "Because if you can't be funny, be confusing! It works really well for the 'New Yorker'!"
 * In the Care Bears Movie 2, Santa Christ pops up for a bit reading the paper, and at one point says "Fucking bears." At first, you might think he's just insulting the Care Bears, until you remember that not only are the Critic and Rob from Chicago, but the Chicago Bears had just lost the NFC Championship game.
 * In the 'Care Bears in Wonderland review, when the characters are falling down in a hole:

Critic as White Rabbit: No, the MUCH BETTER Disney movie!"

"Nostalgia Critic: Oh no, he turned them into YouTube commenters!"
 * Also in The Care Bears Movie, when Nicholas casts a spell in the magic show that turns the spectating children demonic and makes them attack each other:

"Ooh, look at that stuff go! Have you ever seen so much stuff happen in the same time? Ooh, now he's spinning some stuff. That stuff must be important because that stuff allows him to do this stuff..."
 * In NickComs, he calls conservative author "Joe The Plumber" terrifying.
 * The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Reviewing The Thief and the Cobbler, he gets a phone call from Vincent Price, who manages to hold a complete conversation with the Critic despite being dead, even when the Critic tries to catch him out with nonsense. He recorded his end of the conversation years in advance with the help of an oracle.
 * A Taste of the Lash: In his review of Bebe's Kids, as a Shout-Out to Roots.
 * Tear Jerker: Has an episode dedicated to his in-universe musings.
 * Teens Are Monsters/Kids Are Cruel: Any school-related memories will usually involve his getting some kind of abuse, which makes his hate-on for one-note bullies slightly strange.
 * In the review of Doug's First Movie, he just can't suspend his disbelief to buy that teenage girls - the species that pick on thighs for not being perfect - would call the monster in drag "cute".
 * Technology Porn: The description of Waterworld''s action scenes displays vaguely sarcastic excitement over the amount of contraption manipulation involved:

"Critic: (with an Oh Crap face) Oh, snap."
 * Tempting Fate: Happens a lot to the Critic:
 * Repeatedly asserting that such a stupid thing as The Star Wars Holiday Special cannot possibly exist. He suffered for that.
 * At the end of his Flubber review, the Critic proverbally kicks himself in the nuts when he asks if there is a movie written only by John Hughes (a co-writer for the movie) that's worse than Flubber... and he immediately gets Home Alone 3.

"Critic: OOOOOOHHH- (end credits)"
 * Rover Dangerfield: "Well, I suppose it could be worse. I mean, it is a kids' film; I suppose they could be singing a song right now NONONONONONONONONO--" Cue song.
 * The 2010 Christmas Special: "Wait, you're just a two-bit angel without any wings! What are you going to do to me?" [Gets a beating.]
 * Fern Gully 2 wasn't all that bad in the Critic's eyes (at least, it wasn't horrifying godawful), and thinks that if he gets more sequels like that, he'll be able to survive Sequel Month. Cue The Secret of NIMH 2 poster.

"The Nostalgia Chick: Don't you ever try to bring logic into this movie again. This is Fern Gully, bitch!"
 * And a video later he starts wondering where is the spectacular badness of the movie, since it is just a typical dumb sequel dumb. A mere second later...
 * And in the end he says that he doesn't even care what movie he's going to review next. Enter the Care Bears...
 * In his list of "Dumbasses in Distress" he wonders if Princess Peach will start attacking by crying. Cue Super Princess Peach clip.
 * Looks like the Critic should have probably waited until his Star Trek odd-numbered movie review season was over before gloating about the lack of a Linkara appearance...
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The critic thought Sweetheart the rabbit from The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland was a dude, due to having blue fur, gender-neutral voice and lack of feminine features like big eyelashes for example.
 * That's What I Call X: In his review of Independence Day, Will Smith's character says, "That's what I call a close encounter!". The screen then freezes and is followed by the credits to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
 * There Are No Therapists: There was in the beginning, as one of his running gags was complaining about therapy bills, but he went into this trope when the character got crazier. Mostly because it's much more amusing this way.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
 * The Critic complains that this is one of the biggest faults of Last Action Hero, as Big Bad Benedict's evil plan to form an army of the greatest villains in movie history is one of the coolest concepts in the movie but is never allowed to come to fruition.
 * He also complained that the plot of Blank Check could've been interesting (a kid winds up with a lot of money and buys a castle) but it was too bland to pull it off.
 * He accuses The Blair Witch 2 of this, saying that, if you're gonna acknowledge the film is a phenomenon within the film's universe, they should at least maybe lampshade the marketing or commercialization, but they never do.
 * Thing-O-Meter: Used a few times. The Cool as Ice review includes a White-o-Meter.
 * Third Time's the Charm: Referenced by name during The Garbage Pail Kids Movie review, in full Sarcasm Mode since it was directed to one of the titular "kids" when pissing himself for the third time (there's actually a fourth one ahead).
 * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch:
 * "Queen it up, BITCH!".
 * In a variation, he frequently adds "mothafucka" in voice-over to the end of an emphatic and/or tough-sounding line from a character ("Taste the rainbow, motherfucker!"); in his commentary for the Superman IV review he says that he has discovered that you can add special extra oomph to anything by adding the word "motherfucker" to the end of it. And it's true.
 * He's on the receiving end in the Fern Gully review:

"Nostalgia Critic: I don't want to review this movie."
 * This Is Gonna Suck: Pro-tip - if a review starts with anything else besides "Hello, I'm The Nostalgia Critic; I remember it so you don't have to", then the general consensus is that the subject is gonna suck. More specific examples include:
 * Essentially the Critic's reaction when he sees that he will have to review the Good Burger movie to finish Nickelodeon Month.
 * Also used quite literally during the review of Pokémon the First Movie, after the rather Gainaxic opening of the movie.

"Nostalgia Critic: I got nothing. I have absolutely nothing. I mean, what the hell am I supposed to say? "Garbage Pail Kids". Does the title even sound like it's going to attempt to be a good movie? (Long pause). I feel raped. I feel honest to God raped by this movie; it is that bad. There is no talent, no effort, nothing salvageable! Nothing salvageable about this movie at all!"
 * His desk-banging at the beginning of A Kid in King Arthur's Court should be an indication of what's to come.
 * Also used in Follow That Bird; however, if you watched that review...
 * Used in his Garbage Pail Kids review when he tries to describe the movie at the beginning "It's, uh... it's... uh... i-it's... it's gonna hurt. I'm not gonna lie, this is really going to hurt."

""A Troll in Central-- FUCK THIS MOVIEEEEEE! (punches himself) A Troll in Central Park!""
 * In the beginning of his Batman and Robin review, the Critic puts a cyanide pill out of his hat just in case he needs to kill himself to escape the review. He tries to use it after hearing two lines of dialogue.
 * At the start of the Cool as Ice review, he's laughing too hard at Vanilla Ice to say it.
 * In the Tank Girl review he can't even finish his catchphrase without breaking down crying.
 * In the Star Wars Holiday Special review he actually tries to run away before finishing his catchphrase.
 * In the Lost in Space review he tries to hide in the shower in another vain effort to avoid the movie.
 * "Hello, I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it- I fucking hate Bio-Dome, I fucking hate Bio-Dome, I FUCKING HATE BIO-DOME! I HATE IT, I HATE IT, I HATE IT! AYAYAYAYAYA--!!! (]) Thank you. Anyway,... I fucking hate Biodome!"
 * He's been using this trope at the end of several videos, so we know that next week's movie is gonna suck a week in advance.
 * His A Troll in Central Park review opens up with him pacing and trying to express to the viewers how horrible the movie is.

"Nostalgia Critic: I really hope you people appreciate what I do for you, 'cause lemme tell ya: It's not always easy! The stupid ass shit I gotta put up with, well, frankly it's more than I can bear."
 * The Care Bears Movie is a slight exception; his lack of the usual opening is out of the embarrassment of having to admit that his job is to review the movie rather than the quality of the movie itself (not to say he thinks that it's a masterpiece by any means...)
 * Full House:

"Nostalgia Critic: BRING IT ON!"
 * At the end of "TMNT: Raiders of the Story Arc" he announces Sequels Month, only for his joy to quickly turn to horror. Next, the review for The Neverending Story 3 beginning with him wailing pitifully at the quality of the movie and the many more to come.
 * The The Secret of NIMH sequel gets two. At the beginning of the video, he cocks a gun, puts on a SWAT helmet and padded jacket, grabs a set of brass knuckles and finally a Cricket bat before sitting down.

"Nostalgia Critic: I have to be honest, as we near the third act of this film, I'm not seeing the spectular badness it's supposed to have. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's bad, but it's just a basic dumb sequel bad, I mean, nothing really propels it into incredibly awful.
 * And then an unspoken one halfway into the movie.

Timmy: Jenny, look! What happened to them?

Jenny: He's turned the humans into dogs!

(Cut back to the Critic, with a dumbstruck expression. He finally drops the SWAT helmet from the opening over his hat)."

""So He-Man is going to use his awesome cosmic powers and medieval-style fighting moves...in the suburbs of New Jersey?" *sob* "This is gonna suck, isn't it?""
 * In the Masters Of The Universe review he says:

"Nostalgia Critic: To err is human... TO MAKE THE WORST PIECE OF COW SHIT TO EVER STAR A BAD-ACTING, 7-FOOT TALL BASKETBALL SUPERSTAR IS UNFORGIVABLE!!!"
 * He begins his The Magic Voyage review raving incoherently before he can even attempt to begin his opening catch phrase. He then blows fire into the camera.
 * This Is Reality: The Critic mocks this relentlessly (or as relentlessly as possible while drunk) in his review of It.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: At the beginning of the Kazaam review:

"Critic: Don't try to class up this movie, lady. It's not worth it."
 * Training Montage: Parodied, demonstrating the Critic's claim that anything is awesome with fast editing and 80s music, he does so with his morning routine.
 * Threesome Subtext:
 * Critic, Chick and Brentalfloss in the Moulin Rouge review. You've got Floss calling Critic "baby" when they're alone, Floss and Chick dancing together and her spanking him in "El Tango De Pretense" and a basic confirmation that Chick and Critic have had sex (real sex, not g-rated fairy rape) when he recognizes her bedroom immediately. It also doesn't help that all three of them prove throughout the review that they have No Sense of Personal Space when it comes to the others.
 * Throw It In: In the review of Commando, during the fight sequence when Arnold's character and a henchman crash into a porn scene being filmed, the Critic wonders whether the footage of the two fighting actually made it into the porno.
 * Title Drop: Mocks its blatant use in My Pet Monster and the The Lord of the Rings film series.
 * Toe-Tapping Melody: His parody of "Let It Go" talks about how there are so many covers and parodies of the song on YouTube. While at first he's into the abundance, and Tamara dresses up as Elsa to get into the spirit, he then gets annoyed and asks the Internet to choose another song, any song - just not "Everything Is Awesome".
 * Took the Bad Film Seriously: Critic notes this in-universe about Kate Winslet in A Kid In King Arthur's Court:

"Nostalgia Critic: Don't be afraid, people. No matter how hard you laugh, he will always be a genius."
 * Berates Peter Fonda for this in Thomas the Tank Engine because, "IT'S THOMAS THE FUCKING TANK ENGINE!!!!"
 * Too Soon: Pushed his Good Son review back a month due to the death of one of Macaulay Culkin's two sisters.
 * Subverted in his Blank Check review, where he makes a joke about Michael Jackson, waiting just under two months after his death, telling us it's no longer too soon and nothing we can say about him could take away what he truly was...

"Emma Peel: I’m going to start saying something clever while you… John Steed: …finish your sentence. Emma Peel: Witty retort. John Steed: Topped by me. Emma Peel: Winking smile. John Steed: Returned."
 * The TMNT review featured him mocking Splinter's voice, saying it sounded like "Mr. Miyagi if he smoked a million Marlboros". This didn't go over well at all: he was mocking one of the most beloved voice actors of all time, who had recently died of esophagus cancer. In the very next video, the Critic apologized, saying he had no idea who the actor was, that he had died, or even how he died. He'd intended to mock the voice, not the person. 'Course he still gets flack for this, and he even mentioned it as one of his Top Eleven F* ck-Ups.
 * Too Dumb to Live: The Critic's opinion of Doug's 1st Movie uses words to this effect.
 * Top Ten List: Or top 11. Because he likes to go one step beyond.
 * Or Top 12, in the case of Top 12 Greatest Christmas Specials. Why Top 12? Because IT'S CHRISTMAS!
 * In his review of North, The Critic creates a top ten list of double entendres that could be added to Jason Alexander's character saying, "Here, loosen his pants!"
 * Trope Name: This is how the Nostalgia Critic sums up how every conversation in The Avengers goes:


 * Tropes Are Not Bad: His list of "Top 11 Coolest Cliches".
 * True Art Is Incomprehensible: His main problem with The Cell is that it tries too hard to be this trope without any real meaning behind the imagery.
 * Tour Guide Gag
 * All the Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary: Like his fellow Channel Awesome colleagues, he's starting to name drop tropes. Fan Dumb was named in a video where he met Christopher Lloyd, Title Drop in the My Pet Monster review, Ham and Cheese in the Dungeons & Dragons review and Nightmare Fuel in both the Little Monsters review and his list of favorite/least favorite movies of 2010.

U
"Kid: "This is weird." Nostalgia Critic: "THIS is weird?!?!? Uh uh, weird is when your alarm clock goes off like five minutes early. THIS IS THE ABOMINATION OF ANNYOANCE!!!""
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: "You mean a chubby, unattractive male gets a saucy, hot as hell female? Hah! In what media?"
 * Understatement: Lampshaded during the review of A Troll in Central Park.

"Critic: Especially the middle one."
 * The Unpronounceable: The Critic (and several others) had some trouble pronouncing Tone Lōc. He also had some trouble with some names in Drop Dead Fred (including the last name of that guy from The Young Ones, that chick from Gremlins, and OH FUCK YOU!), as well as Hubie in The Pebble and the Penguin (he says it "hubby").
 * Unreadably Fast Text: In his tribute to Siskel and Ebert, after S&E's mocking of protestants in their outtakes, The Critic made a disclaimer that he isn't prejudiced against other religions, except for a really long list that scrolled across the screen.


 * In his review of Junior, after Danny DeVito's character asked Arnold why he couldn't have a baby, The Critic replied with: "That's a very valid question. Why not? Oh wait, maybe because of these." And the screen fills with reasons why not. The list stays on screen for only a second.
 * In his review of A Troll in Central Park, the screen fills with reasons why Stanley won't have his dreams come true. Then it cuts back to the film clips, where Gus says, "You're a coward!", which was one of the choices in the long list.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Critic is careful to point this out every single time it happens, and illustrates in My Pet Monster by being completely unfazed to see that his brother has the head of a dinosaur.
 * Up to Eleven: "Why "Top 11"? Because I like to go one step beyond."

V
"First we will heal patients... and then, the world! Mwahahahahahaha!"
 * Vacation, Dear Boy: The Nostalgia Critic points out that Rob Reiner's North was made as an attempt for the director to go on vacation and get paid for it.
 * Vacation Episode: After the first commercial special, according to Doug the following two were done when the Critic needed a break.
 * Values Dissonance: In-universe. While he understands the original True Grit was filmed in the sixties, he still wants to call PETA for the poor snake getting abused.
 * Video Review Show
 * Viewer Gender Confusion: The "NickComs" video mocks this in-universe with the game "Guy or Girl".
 * A straighter example is with Swiftheart from Care Bears in Wonderland.
 * Viewers are Morons: The Critic complains about this in his Captain America (comics) review, where they put the name of every place, every single time the scene shifts to another scenery. At one point he gets fed up with it and puts captions under every little thing on-screen.
 * In his TMNT review, he finds it an odd contradiction that the opening of the film briefly glosses over the Turtles' origins (which would sound pretty weird to those unfamiliar with the franchise), as apparently this movie is made for the fans, yet when Leonardo first appears, the movie features the subtitle "Leonardo" to let us know who he is.
 * Villain Song: Most, though not all, of the Top Eleven villain songs. The Nostalgia Critic defines it as "songs sung by or about the villain", so they don't all quite fit the trope.
 * Villainy-Free Villain: His take on the antagonist doctor of Patch Adams.


 * Visual Pun:
 * In his The Neverending Story 2 review, an awkward issue (suicide by one of the actors) is pointed out by... an elephant in the room. Who complains about how The Critic has been ignoring him.
 * Done again in his Ernest Scared Stupid review, where Douchey was caught in trap designed to capture trolls.
 * In his review of The Room, he censors Johnny's ass with a donkey head.
 * Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Occurred once during a scene in the Star Trek V: The Final Frontier review. The scene in question involved the Uhura fan-dance.
 * Unproblematic Prostitution: Milk Money had scorn heaped on it for various reasons, but he's particularly pissed about how disgustingly easy Vee found it to out of her job.
 * Walking Into The Sunset: At the end of the True Grit review, complete with cowboy hat.

W
"Critic: Who are you, blue man?"
 * Wasted Song: In the Felix the Cat review, there's only twenty seconds of him singing 80s goodness. This may have been intentional considering the next episode...
 * We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: In the Battlefield Earth review, the Nostalgia Critic decides he needs to "dumb himself down" to enjoy the movie properly, and starts hitting himself in the head with a hammer - but not before cutting to a cheerful "Please excuse this slight mental breakdown" card, with the music from "Holiday Clusterfuck" playing in the background.
 * Wet Sari Scene: Doug even said in a commentary that he had to sell the old Critic jacket because he was getting it soaked too much.
 * Wham! Episode: More personal than most but the ending of My Pet Monster has his low self-esteem and job insecurity (which have been building up from at least the review of Full House) hit him right in the face. The depression carries on to the next episode.
 * Wham! Shot:
 * Doug's A Simple Wish review ends with him trashing Mara Wilson as a child actor, saying that her movies were terrible. Then someone appears on the screen, with a very familiar face, a "modern-day" haircut and a stern expression. It's Mara Wilson, all grown up! Mara proceeds to chide Doug for judging kid actors on their performance and forgetting they were kids. To prove it, she rolls several embarrassing videos that he made as a kid and starts giving them the Nostalgia Critic treatment.
 * Doug once made a video of "Top 11 Worst Avatar Episodes" under the belief that everyone is an adult and since Avatar: The Last Airbender has no technically bad episodes. The show ends with a Gilligan Cut where Rob Walker delivers the news of the fandom being disgraced to a familiar face... Dante Basco, the voice actor for Prince Zuko.
 * What Does She See in Him?:
 * He's so disgusted by Robin Williams's character in Flubber missing his wedding three times, that he suggests with all seriousness to his fiancee that she go Loreena Bobbit on his ass.
 * While Elisa and Nella try their very best to, uh, help her out, he's rather wary of the Chick's craziness over Todd.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: His reaction to the "Bat Credit Card".
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: The Critic points out Death is still in the real world at the end of Last Action Hero.
 * A running gag in his review of Star Trek: Insurrection is his preoccupation with figuring out who was the Bolian from the beginning of the film.

"Critic: Best supporting character, my ass."
 * What Were You Thinking?: A common reaction by the Critic. For example, after realizing that Kazaam was a slave to a little white kid, he blurts loudly, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!"
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Parodied in the Warriors of Virtue and Mr. Nanny reviews.
 * Where Da White Men At: There are some really scary people who take it as an offense that his Even the Guys Want Him moments have been with black guys.
 * White and Grey Morality: The Nerd/Critic rivalry, mostly for how pathetically meaningless it was. Even during the fighting they had moments of being nice to each other. Doug's later writings tuned out the white, though.
 * White Male Lead: Addressed in the True Grit Old vs New. He calls Maddy the lead (as you'd think it would be obvious) and tells The Dude off when he starts whining.

"(As Eric Idle in Casper): I'm far too talented to be in this movie!"
 * He has zero sympathy for the main character's problems in Airborne, as high school taught him it was incredibly hard to be an athletic white PrettyBoy.
 * Who Names Their Kid "Wheeler"?
 * Who's on First?:
 * NC makes an Abbott and Costello routine out of the moment in the Super Mario Brothers Movie where it shows that Mario and Luigi's last name is Mario.
 * Spliced in footage from the actual bit during his review of Hook.
 * Wild Teen Party: In Blair Witch II, he mentions the scene where they all get drunk as capturing his well-known feeling of being the only sober person at a party and increasingly hating everyone else.
 * Willing Suspension of Disbelief: The Nostalgia Critic is often criticized for not offering any. This is for comedic purposes.
 * With Lyrics:
 * Critic's take on Double Dare which predated Doug's Theme Lyrics/Songs that Don't Need Lyrics but I Added Them Anyway. HA!
 * Suburban Commando: The Critic sings "Rip-off, this is a rip-off, this is a rip-off, are you kidding?" to the Star Wars music.
 * In the Alone in The Dark review, Spoony and Linkara use the same music to sing, "Bor-ing! This is-so boring! This is-so boring! Get to the show!" when confronted with the Wall of Text opening.
 * Sings about Spock's death to the tune of "Amazing Grace" in his "Top 11 Saddest Moments".
 * In a scene briefly ripping off ET the Extraterrestrial, he sings to that films theme "ET's a much better movie..."
 * A Wizard Did It: Whenever something happens for no particular reason in Moonwalker, the Nostalgia Critic points out that it is happening because "Jackson wills it!"
 * The Woobie: Invoked. He feels incredibly sorry for the abused slave robot in Doug's First Movie.
 * Writers Cannot Do Math: 9+9+9=21? Even he admitted that was a massive failure on his part.
 * An in-universe example: He missed a large section of the hidden message in The Angry Video Game Nerd's forum post because he "Forgot to carry the 1."
 * Written-In Infirmity: Doug's surprisingly prone to throat infections, forcing him to get creative to make videos without talking. In "The Good Son", he never spoke and communicated through cue cards, subtitles, and the use of sound effects. In "Alone in the Dark", he speaks through MacInTalk (plus he has Linkara and Spoony joining him).
 * What the Hell, Casting Agency?: The Critic points this out in-universe when he sees someone famous in crappy movies or shows.

X

 * X Meets Y: He says that 3Ninjas is just Home Alone meets Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Then brings out the advertisment on the box to prove it.

Y
"Critic: Because that's all you want to see isn't it? You just wanna see me angry! Dance monkey dance!"
 * Yet Another Christmas Carol: Defied. He refuses to do one despite cajoling from the Ghost of Christmas Future.
 * You Are Not Ready: The Critic thought that the Captain Planet episode about AIDS shouldn't have played out.
 * You Bastard:
 * In his video game review for the DVD, he angrily (and quite tearfully) yells at the large portion of the audience who just want to see him suffer. It's actually a surprise that it took him so long.


 * And in his review of Cop and a Half, he calls us all sick pigs for wanting him to suffer through it.
 * A slightly creepy Freeze-Frame Bonus one happens in the review of Once Upon A Forest. The second porn visit is a sex trafficking site that includes a fifteen year old girl. Knowing that he's a feminist Papa Wolf who views his audience as pretty sadistic, you gotta wonder what he's trying to say.
 * In the introduction to his review of Doug's First Movie, he calls out his fans for constantly requesting him to review the movie despite his hatred of everything relating to the show.
 * You Can Leave Your Hat On: In a DVD extra, the Critic stripteases out of his wet Ghostbusters uniform while Rob hums stripper music.
 * You Have Failed Me...: The Critic does this to a behind-the-scenes guy in the first Top 11 Nostalgic F*ck Ups.
 * You Keep Using That Word: "Remake." Only about half the modern movies featured on Old Vs. New are actually remakes, the others are simply different adaptations of the same story.
 * To the pleasure of a certain part of his fanbase, he briefly and correctly touched on the difference between "sex" and "gender" in the Patch Adams review while talking about women stereotypes of the 90s.
 * You Need to Get Laid: Ernest Saves Christmas, word for word: "You need to get laid, Ernest."
 * As well as the whole movie in Sidekicks.
 * You Put the X In XY: In Pagemaster, he says the character Adventure (a talking book, played by Patrick Stewart) puts "the 'dick' into 'dictionary'".
 * You Should Have Died Instead: The Critic calls out the boy protagonist in Alaska saying this to his dad about his mom dying, and wishes he would spontaneously combust once he stormed off to his room
 * Your Head Asplode: Lady Tremaine's stare does this to the Critic. It's also what would happen if John Moschitta (The Micro Machines commercials guy) recorded audio books.
 * Your Vampires Suck: During The Care Bears Movie, the Critic mocks Nicholas by saying that he's become a vampire. Not one of those sparkling ones, though, they totally suck ass.
 * Yo-Yo Plot Point: If you thought he was over all his job problems in the first commercial special, you'd be wrong. Perhaps justified, as singing ain't exactly proper therapy.