Kickassia
"I'm the Nostalgia Critic, and I get a feeling that none of you are gonna have a hard time remembering this."
—The Nostalgia Critic in the trailer for Kickassia
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A tale about dreams of glory. A story of conquest, victory and defeat. A classic fable of one man's quest for power, forever shadowed by the cloud of insanity...
Kickassia is a feature-length, six-part original web presentation created by Doug Walker and the rest of the gang at Channel Awesome, including The Nostalgia Chick, Linkara, Spoony, The Cinema Snob, Marz Gurl, and Angry Joe (among others), in honor of the site's second anniversary. The plot concerns The Nostalgia Critic, eager to own his very own country, deciding to organize an assault on the Republic of Molossia a one-acre independent nation within the continental United States and usurp its president, Kevin Baugh. Hilarity, as well as movie references and heavy artillery, ensue.
The series started on May 17, 2010, with a new installment posted online per day. The series is as follows:
- The trailer
- Part 1: The Withering Eye
- Part 2: Triumph and Treacle
- Part 3: Inglorious Glory
- Part 4: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning
- Part 5: The Fall of the Risen
- Part 6: All The Really Bad Shit Happens
- And three blooper videos.
Not to be confused with the comic and film titled Kick-Ass.
A-H
- 0% Approval Rating: The Critic by part 4. Or rather one percent, as Film Brain is still loyal to him. By the end of part 5. Film Brain went to the other side to avenge Santa Christ's murder by N. Bison.
- Action Girl: Marz Gurl. Complete with punching her troops into shape.
- Alter Ego Acting: Fritz Von Baugh repeatedly claims he is definitely not President Baugh... no-one buys it.
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: Yes, Molossia is a real micronation, and that is really its president As Himself.
- Amusing Injuries
- Angrish: What Film Brain spouts as he holds the Cinema Snob at gunpoint inside the hotel room. Lampshaded by the Snob himself.
"Is that even English?!" |
- Apathetic Citizens: None of the people of Molossia cares that their nation is being invaded, nor do they when Molossia IS taken over.
The family: "Mmmmmmhmmm." |
- One of them finally notices in Part Six when Angry Joe announces their freedom.
"What?" |
- Apple of Discord: In Part 3, Baron Fritz von Baugh started to plant seeds of dissent against The Nostalgia Critic, saying that someone else could do better as a leader. Considering these guys, it gets lampshaded but still played straight.
- Artistic License Gun Safety: Justified in that half the cast are homicidal maniacs, but seriously... scratching your chin with an Uzi?
- Attack! Attack! Retreat! Retreat!: When Kevin Baugh pulls a gun, everyone quickly turns back and screams.
- In the more successful assault, the Bum quickly turns away after almost being blown up.
- As Himself: President Kevin Baugh, ruler of Molossia.
- A-Team Firing: Angry Joe was all about this.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Kevin Baugh is skillful with a sword and can teleport!
- Authority in Name Only: Kevin Baugh, both in the series and in Real Life.
- Ax Crazy: A good chunk of the cast including:
- Angry Joe.
"How about we gut them open and wear their organs as hairnets!?" |
- Film Brain who seems way too excited at the prospect of senselessly torturing somebody.
- Spoony in the background, for his own reasons.
- Dr. Insano.
- Bennett the Sage and his suggestion regarding what to do with the Nostalgia Critic: Castrate him with a fork, tie him to a cactus, and play pinata with his entrails. The crew of Channel Awesome immediately lampshades this by staring at him in disgust and pointing out how fast he came up with the idea. Except for Jew Wario, who liked it.
- The Nostalgia Critic. He rigs the entire base to explode in case you're a "nasty-wasty".
- While undeniably one of the more sane and collected members of the cast, Linkara certainly does get into it when he commands an assault on the Critic's regime.
- At some point, almost every cast member can be seen casually brandishing a submachine gun.
- Awesome McCoolname: What else would you expect from a nation called "Kickassia?"
- Back From the Dead: Santa Christ.
- Badass Bookworm: Since when did Dr. Insano learn how to fight well with fists?
- Badass Longcoat: Yanki J (Jew Wario's delinquent character) plays up the "badass" part.
- Barehanded Blade Block: Lee catches Baugh's sword in his bare hands right after becoming 3D.
- Batman Gambit: The Nostalgia Chick pulls one, by letting the others remove the Nostalgia Critic from power. Not only was she relying on the Critic being removed from power by the others, and that she would have no opposition when it came to replacing him as president, but that the others would just let her seize control despite not actually doing a single thing to help them remove the Nostalgia Critic from power.
- Whilst cut from filming, the original script called for the scene where everyone argued over who should be the new President of Kickassia to be longer. In the original scene, Spoony was going to grab the Nostalgia Critic's hat, and give a speech about why they shouldn't fight anymore, which everyone would buy into. At this point, Spoony was going to reveal he was still Dr. Insano, who had been pretending to be Spoony on the off-chance that he would get the opportunity to seize control of Kickassia for himself.
- Battle Cry
Spoony: WOLVERINES!! |
- Beam-O-War: Between Nostalgia Critic and Dr. Insano.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Phelous. Pooooor, poor Phelous.
- Handsome Tom, who is relegated to the job of flagpole.
- Billing Displacement: People are billed roughly according to their prominence on the site, rather than in the actual story. This results in things like fourth-billed Spoony having the second-largest role, and Film Brain, whose name is well into the opening credits, having a much bigger part than some of the people who are listed ahead of him. In contrast, Linkara, who has third billing, also has the smallest role of any of the major characters. This is rectified on the DVD cover.
- Nostalgia Chick herself claimed to be surprised that she received second billing despite her (relatively) small role.
- Black and Gray Morality: Team TGWTG aren't exactly nice guys, but they're a hell of a lot better than the Nostalgia Critic.
- To put that into perspective: they were fine when he was plotting a hostile takeover of a country, comparing them to Nazis to motivate them, and planning to conquer the entire earth, but upset now that he sits around watching Hogan's Heroes all day. Sure, he rigged the place to blow, but they can leave at any time and actually live in a hotel a safe distance away. It's just that blowing the place up would stop them from ruling it.
- While a lot of them did want to rule it, arguably they were also working under the assumption that a guy who'd rig an acre of land with twenty tons of dynamite in the event that someone hypothetically should try to usurp his position is definitely not safe in any position of power.
- To put that into perspective: they were fine when he was plotting a hostile takeover of a country, comparing them to Nazis to motivate them, and planning to conquer the entire earth, but upset now that he sits around watching Hogan's Heroes all day. Sure, he rigged the place to blow, but they can leave at any time and actually live in a hotel a safe distance away. It's just that blowing the place up would stop them from ruling it.
- Bloodless Carnage: Oh so very much. President Baugh bitch-slaps the TGWTG crew with a sword!
- Book End: The beginning started off with the Nostalgia Critic knocking on Kevin Baugh's door and telling him he's going to invade Molossia. The last stretch of Part Six has the Nostalgia Critic knocking on his door again and telling him that he can have his nation back.
- Bored with Insanity: Spoony turning back from Dr. Insano
- Break the Cutie: Film Brain's reaction to the death of Santa Christ.
- Break the Haughty: The Nostalgia Critic gets Drunk with Power. Did you really think he'd get to keep it?
- Buffy-Speak: "Well, I'm sciencier!"
- Butt Monkey: Handsome Tom. First he was offered to be used as a battering ram, then he was told his head is too soft, used as a horse by 8-Bit Mickey, he is used as the flagpole, and punched by Marzgurl for being too tall. It is indeed a sad day for Handsome Tom.
- 8-Bit Mickey also has a few moments of Butt Monkey-dom; someone sits on him in the hotel room without noticing, and Angry Joe punches him repeatedly, also without noticing.
- Phelous comes up with brilliant ideas only to have Nostalgia Critic slap him, then take the idea as his own. He makes it work for him in the end.
- 8-Bit Mickey also has a few moments of Butt Monkey-dom; someone sits on him in the hotel room without noticing, and Angry Joe punches him repeatedly, also without noticing.
- The Caligula: The Nostalgia Critic. Some of his actions included rigging dynamite to blow up Molossia if someone tries to overthrow him, and banishing The Cinema Snob for pointing out the fact that he's, you know, nuts.
- Call Back: To the Brawl.
Nostalgia Critic: Oh! That reminds me, I gotta call Sean. |
- Angry Joe is still bitter about Chik-fil-A being closed on Sundays...
Angry Joe: I'm behind you one hundred and ten percent, Critic! Any Chik-fil-A refusing to serve us delicious nuggets on Sundays from here on out will be blown sky high! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! |
- In Part 2, Linkara's reaction to thinking Marzgurl's been killed when she hasn't is to cradle her in his arms and tell her about Disneyland, which is a Shout-Out to the The Spoony One and his review of Strike Commando.
- Dr. Insano pulls off a "Shoryuken", which Spoony did in the first anniversary brawl.
- Dr. Insano was scared after he got defeated by N. Bison and so he pleaded for help, with the exact same quote the Nostalgia Critic used in his review of the Star Wars Holiday Special.
Dr. Insano: Help me, Santa! Help me, Jesus Christ! Help me... Santa Christ!! |
- "Remember your roots Critic! Remember your roots!!"
- The Cluster F-Bomb battle between the Critic and the Snob seems to be a Call Back to the one between the Critic and the Nerd in the Brawl.
- It almost definitely is, as the Critic says "Fuck you!" in exactly the same way as he does in the Brawl at least once.
- When the other reviewers are about give the Nostalgia Critic his comeuppance and kick his ass, That Guy tells everyone to "Hold it!" from off-screen before making his appearance in much the same way he did in the Epic Brawl a year earlier. However, this time he doesn't get everyone to stop the violence; he simply remarks he's just there to make his cameo appearance, before telling the others they can carry on attacking the Nostalgia Critic.
- "Et tu, Film Brain?" calls back to a similar line to Lee in the Brawl.
- Linkara is seen wearing a Power Rangers communicator, and during the second invasion attempt, both he and Marzgurl are wearing color-coded Sentai-like masks and have synchronised poses. Linkara previously used the Green Ranger's dagger as a weapon in the Brawl and in episodes of Atop the Fourth Wall, and also successfully used a Power Rangers morpher in AT4W.
- There's one to "Off to Beat the Nerd". That song at about 4:15 should sound familiar--it's even cut off at the same point both times.
- The Cameo: Doug appears as Spider-Dr. Smith from the Critic's Lost in Space review in part 1 for a few seconds, suggesting an invasion involving an army of spiiiideeeers. He has another brief one in Part 4, pushing much the same ideas. That idea being spiiiiiideerrrsss.
- The Critic tries calling Goggles, Sean, and Little Miss Gamer, none of whom can make it to the invasion.
- During the invasion in Part 2, Chester A. Bum appeared at one point and immediately ran away when a mine exploded next to him.
- In Part 4, Ma-Ti (or at least the spiritual image of him), along with the Critic's review room, shows up to warn the Critic to stop being such a douchebag.
- Part 5 overflows with them thanks to the death of Santa Christ. Plus, Board James shows up to explain Risk and even lampshades his cameo appearance.
- In Part 6, Ask That Guy shows up, and lampshades this by stating that he's just there for his cameo.
- Catch Phrase: Spoony's new one seems to be "...but that was in the past".
- Film Brain: "SYMBOLISM!!!"
- 8-Bit Mickey: "And 8-Bit Mickey."
- Dr. Insano: "... with SCIENCE!!!"
- And then there's N. Bison.
Chris Larios: Mr. Critic, would you say your diabolical plan is to... take over the world? |
- Jew Wario's "I like it!"
- Chewing the Scenery: Spoony in his scene with the Nostalgia Critic.
- And, well, just about everyone else (except Phelous and The Nostalgia Chick, and even they go pretty nuts by the end). Cinema Snob is an exception...except for his evil laugh at the end.
- The Chick/Dark Chick: Marzgurl
- Civil War: Once the takeover of Molossia is complete, the TGWTG gang starts to fracture over the spoils. Nostalgia Critic goes completely insane with power, and the others having to stop him before he
tries to take over the world. (Naturally.)stops sitting on the couch watching TV long enough to blow everything up out of paranoia. - Clark Kenting: Subverted and parodied with President Baugh's alter ego, Baron Fritz von Baugh. He insists that he's not the President; nobody believes him, but they go along with it anyway.
- And then there's where The Cinema Snob easily recognizes that all Spoony has to do to become Dr. Insano is put on the goggles and labcoat.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Double Subverted. All of TGWTG comes together in a last ditch effort to resurrect Santa Christ. At first it seems to fail, but he needs three days to be resurrected.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Jew Wario.
Jew Wario: Pudding? |
- Jew Wario: I like it!
- Jew Wario: WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?
- Kevin Baugh. In his meeting in Part 1, he consulted with himself as Fritz von Baugh about the Critic's invasion. Justified: he is the self-proclaimed President of a sovereign microstate within the United States. It comes with the territory.
- Combat Pragmatist: "Whatever happened to the purity of unarmed combat?"
- Completely Missing the Point: Some fans take the special too seriously, when it's actually a Parodic Dramedy that was shot in four days under harsh desert conditions with a cast of mostly untrained actors.
- Continuity Lock Out: The movie is almost completely unwatchable unless you already have a decent grounding in the memes and recurring jokes and characters on the site. Even fans of the site found the ratio of "callback jokes":"actual jokes" a bit off.
- Doug learned his lesson from this, and the next year's special Suburban Knights is far less dependent on knowing everyone's schtick.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: The threat that finally makes Baugh retreat is, "Don't make us review you."
- In Part 4, Paw suggests torturing or clearing out The Critic by playing Michael Bolton music. (Then again, blasting music has been used as a tactic/torture technique in real life.)
- Combat Stilettos: Played straighter than straight by the Nostalgia Chick, who literally carries a stilleto heel into battle as her Weapon of Choice.
- Cool vs. Awesome: N. Bison vs Dr. Insano.
- Costume Copycat: Film Brain mentions in his commentary that his character dresses like the Nostalgia Critic as part of his fanboyism, but it ended up not standing out very much because the Critic was wearing his N. Bison costume rather than his usual clothes.
- A tie might have helped. Especially for those who haven't seen a whole lot of Film Brain's videos and might think him wearing a blazer is just normal.
- Cringe Comedy: In Film Brain's commentary, a lot of the funnier stories about his experiences on the trip fall into this category, from him accidentally locking Phelous out of their hotel room to the "moderating the forums" bit. You really have to sympathize with the poor guy.
- Crisis Crossover
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon
Bennet the Sage: I say we castrate him with a fork, tie him to a cactus, and play pinata with his entrails! |
- Also, Angry Joe suggesting they should disembowel President Baugh and wear his organs as hair nets.
- A Day in the Limelight: Compared to the Brawl, which was basically everyone randomly spouting their catchphrases while beating each other senseless, here most of the contributors get a chance to be showcased and can play to their strengths.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much everyone, but especially Phelous.
- Defector From Decadence: Film Brain, who had been the Critic's Yes-Man throughout the whole series, finally turns on his leader after he shoots "one Santa Christ too many".
- Delegation Relay: "Phallus, give the signal".
- Department of Redundancy Department: "Go! And never return! [Pause] Ever! [Longer pause] RETURN! Longest pause] AGAIN!!
- There's also Board James' "...[You have your] game board because every board game has a game board."
- In the loudest and hammiest voice possible: "I know it was your point! It's just that when you say I'm out of order and the system is out of order it's kind of redundant!"
- The Critic: "Give in, Spoony. Give in for me. And the team. And me!"
- And echoed by Benzaie later: "If not the team, then do it for us! The team!"
- Description Cut: Used in Part four:
Cinema Snob: "Look, I'll have a talk with the Critic, see if any of this is true." |
- Deus Ex Machina: The Second Coming of Santa Christ.
- Doing It for the Art: The entire production. The President of an actual micronation agrees to let a bunch of internet wackos make a film about the 'invasion' of his country. After they come together (some from different continents) he lets one of them beat him up on film. In addition, Lordkat, who had an injury during production, kept filming his role to the best of his ability. To say nothing of Rob Walker, who was the camera operator for most of it, and suffered a pretty nasty fall on the very first day.
- The Dragon: Film Brain and Nostalgia chick.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Marz Gurl. She punches recruits to keep them in line, and asks Linkara if he has when he's doing their FBI surprise training.
- Drop the Hammer: A hilariously squeaky one, too.
- Drunk with Power: Predictably, victory immediately goes to the Nostalgia Critic's head. By part 3, all he does is watch Hogan's Heroes and look important while everyone else does the work. He doesn't even want to do film reviews any more.
- He does other things. Full House is on at 5.
- Dull Surprise: Baugh deliberately is acting completely nonchalant about everything. Behind the scenes, he insisted that would be funnier than overacting like the rest of the cast.
- Dutch Angle: All over the place. The greater the tilt, the greater the hamminess in the scene. Maybe The Critic had been reading his notes from the Battlefield Earth review?
- Rob Walker mentions in his commentary that most of the Dutch Angles were his work, partly due to Sam Raimi influence, and partly to compensate for surroundings that were otherwise mildly boring.
- DVD Commentary: Spoony and Film Brain both did commentaries in three parts on the entire series. Doug has also confirmed an upcoming DVD release that may have commentaries by himself and Rob.
- Phelous also has his own commentary [dead link], with Special Guests Cinema Snob, Benzaie and, in Part Six, Linkara. Not sure if this means that Linkara will not have his own commentary.
- Said DVD is out and there are three commentaries - one by Doug, one by Rob, and one by Bhargav (Ma-Ti) and Michael Michaud (owner of thatguywiththeglasses.com)
- Linkara now has a full commentary out along with Phelous, plus Obscurus Lupa and Nash for the perspective of newer site members who were just fans at the time. The result is that half the time, they're cracking jokes about how Lupa and Nash actually were in Reno, and are always doing things just off camera.
- Phelous also has his own commentary [dead link], with Special Guests Cinema Snob, Benzaie and, in Part Six, Linkara. Not sure if this means that Linkara will not have his own commentary.
- The Empire: What the Critic wants to eventually make out of Molossia, using the Nazis as a comparison.
- Enemy Rising Behind: Once Insano thinks he's defeated the Critic.
- Enemy Mine: In a moment of desperation, the group recruits Doctor Insano.
- Enforced Method Acting: Film Brain tried to pull this prior to his Heel Face Turn, so that it would look as if he had been really affected by the Nostalgia Critic killing Santa Christ, so he sat around trying to make himself cry. Only when they came to shoot the scene, his castmates began asking him if he was okay, since he never told them he was going to do this.
- Et Tu, Brute?: "Et Tu, Film Brain?"
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even The Cinema Snob, he who first tries to take down the Critic, thinks that Paw's plan to get him out of Government House by playing Michael Bolton music is going too far.
- On a greater scale, even Bennett the Sage, who is sick enough to gross out even Ask That Guy, is appalled and saddened when The Nostalgia Critic kills Santa Christ.
- Evil Chancellor: The Nostalgia Chick, the Scheming Vice-President variant. She continually plans to off the Nostalgia Critic and take his place, and her schemes seem to have nothing to do with the building rebellion among the rest of the team.
- Evil Costume Switch: Handsome Tom uncrosses his arms to reveal his "Hero" shirt now reads "Villain."
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Nostalgia Critic's and later, the rest of the Channel Awesome team's attempts to draw out Doctor Insano.
- Evil Versus Evil: Dr. Insano vs. Nostalgia Critic
- Evil Laugh: Dr. Insano has what is perhaps his most spectacular evil laugh yet when he is unleashed by Spoony in Part 4.
- The Nostalgia Chick, Cinema Snob, and Linkara pull off their own in Part Six when they each declare themselves the new leader of Kickassia.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Film Brain overhears The Cinema Snob planning the Nostalgia Critic's downfall.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Part 6: "All the Really Bad Shit Happens".
- Exact Words: The Nostalgia Critic promises to book everyone a room at a hotel just outside of Molossia. Gilligan Cut to everyone sharing a single hotel room.
- Face Heel Turn: Pretty much the entire That Guy With The Glasses crew do this when they choose to invade Molossia. Lampshaded by Handsome Tom when he changes his "Hero" shirt to a "Villain" shirt, and by a Genre Savvy Spoony in regards to becoming Dr. Insano. The Nostalgia Critic is a more of a heel right from the beginning.
- Fancy Fucking Hats: The Nostalgia Critic's, of course, though Angry Joe's is nothing to sneeze at either. And Linkara's still wearing his, except when he's channeling his inner Patton.[2]
- Fan Vid: This piece of epicness set the saga to "The Cell Block Tango", making it look like Critic had really got around (in his usual Fandom Bike way) and the others wanted to kill him because of that kind of betrayal. Extra funny because Critic had earlier put Cell Block Tango on his "Top 11 Villain Songs".
- Fastball Special: Benzaie's main attack is throwing Bearie.
- Fauxlosophic Narration: In the last part, when the TGWTG crew are leaving Molossia, the narrator throws around clichéd movie quotes from various sources. The Nostalgia Critic gets tired of him and shoots him.
- Firing in the Air a Lot: Angry Joe
- In a Twitter post after it aired, he claimed he was providing suppression fire in the event Molossia had an air force, or legion of invisible ninjas.
- Flash Step: Linkara does the illusion variety. "As a matter of fact, I'm not even standing in front of you." (appears behind Chris)
- Flat What: The Cinema Snob after N. Bison confirmed that he had been the one to order 20 tons of dynamite in part 4.
- Flipping the Bird: The official salute to Kickassia.
- Forced Meme: There was a push to get #kickassia attached to as many Twitter posts as possible, a dedicated Facebook group, and twibbons for profile pictures.
- Foregone Conclusion: You really think TGWTG is going to come back home with a micronation? Industrial-class spoilage was contained at the Molossian website before the event even aired.
- Similarly, nobody really expected Santa Christ to stay dead. It's worth noting that in the original cut, his death and resurrection all happened in the same episode.
- Foreshadowing: Used quite a bit to build up Spoony's tranformation into Dr. Insano. People keep asking him if he's "that doctor guy," and a few instances where he briefly acts Insano-ish.
- Freudian Slip: At one point, the Nostalgia Critic refers to Phelous as "Phallus". Might not count, since he seems to be doing it on purpose.
- Funny Background Event: Cinema Snob says that most of his favorite Spoony moments in the movie are just him reacting silently in the background of what's happening, especially his face after Sage suggests torturing the N. Bison.
- General Failure: The Nostalgia Critic. His first plan of attack consisted of the various critics running, unarmed, at a rifle-wielding opponent. Once he actually takes over Molossia (through other people's ideas no less), his World Domination plan is put on hold in favor of him lying on a couch watching Hogan's Heroes.
- Genre Savvy: Phelous, who keeps Lampshading the more obvious jokes (sometimes in advance), such as the "I got everyone a hotel room" Visual Pun.
- Naturally, all of them are this to a certain degree, since knowing the genre is pretty much their job. They, for example, almost immediately realize that "Fritz" is trying to turn them against the Nostalgia Critic and suspect that he set up everything to let the NC look like a bigger douche than he actually is. Subverted when it turns out that the NC actually is that much of a douche, since Fritz did, in fact, not order the 20 tons of dynamite.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: What Ma-Ti urges the Critic to do.
- Also Benzaie to Spoony.
Benzaie: Pull yourself together, man! [SLAP!] If not for the team; [turn into Insano] for us, the team!" |
- Glad I Thought of It: The Nostalgia Critic is the leader after all.
Phelous: Hey guys, uh, I got a idea. This might seem like a shot in the dark, but what if we'd just used weapons? |
- In Part 3, Phelous tells the reporter that a frequent routine is that he suggests an idea to the Nostalgia Critic, the Critic slaps him, then claims the idea as his own. It's to the point where we see Phelous suggest charging for tourism, the Critic rejecting the idea, then Phelous counting down on his fingers the exact amount of time before the Critic "suggests" the same thing. It actually gets beyond that point when Phelous invokes the trope by suggesting they banish Cinema Snob forever.
- This Running Gag finally comes back to haunt him in the finale when Phelous tells the Critic he has an idea: Have the Critic tell everybody to kick his ass.
- Glasses Pull: Cinema Snob during the Lock and Load Montage. He pulls off his glasses, spins dramatically and... puts them back on.
- Godwin's Law/Hitler Ate Sugar: In Part 1, The Nostalgia Critic gives a speech that compares the cast to the Nazis both as a positive and a negative.
NC: Are you a Nazi? Or are you a Nazi!? |
- Godzilla Threshold: Releasing Dr. Insano.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: The Nostalgia Critic and Doctor Insano battle each other hand-to-hand in Part 5, but they end up breaking out the Beam-O-War to finish the fight.
- Groin Attack: How the Critic defeats 3D Lee.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: The Nostalgia Critic and Spoony see who can eat the most scenery in the opening of Part 2.
- And this becomes literal combat later on with Critic fighting Dr. Insano.
- The ham becomes a Godzilla-sized monster of its own during the battle when the Critic goes on his rant about superconducting electromagnetism, complete with epic, bombastic music.
- And this becomes literal combat later on with Critic fighting Dr. Insano.
N. Bison: "Certainly you've heard of it? It levitates bullet trains from Tokyo to Osaka. It will levitate my rocket chair....once it finally arrives. And it also levitates....ME." |
- And then the Critic and Ma-Ti.
- Really, it's fair to say the entire movie is nothing but a plethora of Hams duking it out.
- Hand Wave: After Dr. Insano is defeated, he reappears in episode 6 as Spoony. His excuse? He got better.
- Less of one following the reveal that the original script called for Spoony to reveal he was still Dr. Insano whilst everyone argued over who should be the new President of Kickassia. Unfortunately the scene was cut because of time and the fact that Insano's glasses broke the day after the big fight.
- Heel Less Heel Turn: The rest of the That Guy With The Glasses crew, save for Film Brain, turn against the Critic mostly to save their hides and take over Molossia for themselves. The Nostalgia Chick is also against him, but not working with the rest team.
- Later, Film Brain has one after the death of Santa Christ.
- Heel Realization: Film Brain. He slowly realizes that he has sold out in completely supporting the Nostalgia Critic's take over. The ultimate tipping point is when the Critic kills Santa Christ.
- He also starts the realization when NC says they aren't going to do any more reviews. Ever.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Pretty much everyone but special mentions go to Nostalgia Critic, Angry Joe, "Ensign Patton" Linkara, and Dr. Insano.
- "Hey You!" Haymaker: To the Nostalgia Critic by Baugh.
- Hilarity Ensues: Every. Single. Minute.
- Hilarious Outtakes: Oh yes! Also linked on TGWTG website.
- Hulking Out: Don't make Lee angry. You wouldn't like him when he's three-dimensional and KICKING YOUR ASS.
- Hypocritical Humor: "Why a democracy?" "Because I say so."
- "Joe and Linkara have gone insane with violence... DESTROY THEM UNTIL THEY'RE NOTHING BUT RUBBLE!"
- Critic not buying Baugh's alter ego.
- "Joe and Linkara have gone insane with violence... DESTROY THEM UNTIL THEY'RE NOTHING BUT RUBBLE!"
I-P
- I Am the Trope: Used in Part 4.
NC: I am the system! |
- I Don't Like You and You Don't Like Me: Played with when Angry Joe asks Linkara to plan the assault against the Nostalgia Critic:
Linkara: Joe, Joe, Joe, I know we've had our differences in the past... |
- Ignored Epiphany: Sorta, as N. Bison obviously longs for the good old days as the Nostalgia Critic in the Ma-Ti scene, but he refuses to give up his hold on Molossia or his paranoia towards the others.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Pretty much all of Sage's interactions with his weapon. Especially when, after the banishment of the Cinema Snob, Sage wiped his tears away with the barrel end of his Uzi.
- I Lied: Dr. Insano, largely due to his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. Like most of his evil deeds, it backfires on him.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Angry Joe for the most part and lampshaded by Linkara in Part 6 when Angry Joe tries to shoot the Critic down. He never hits.
Linkara: "Excellent job, Mr. Joe. Except for the fact that you missed." |
- Insane Troll Logic: Nostalgia Critic uses this to win over the others. See the Nazi example above.
- Surgeon General Sage proves that holding an Uzi makes you unkillable with overwhelming evidence such that he's holding one and isn't dead. Returns later after Santa Christ is shot, lamenting that "He should've held an Uzi."
- Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Parodied in part 2, with footstools and stepladders ahoy.
Angry Joe: "It's no use! The bullets are just going right through the hooooollleeess!!" |
- A deleted scene shows this being played straight, when Lordkat takes one look at the footstool, and instead opts to go through the gate. Which just happens to be a few steps away.
- Invisibility: As it turns out, Jew Wario is really good at stealth.
- I Resemble That Remark: Angry Joe whips out his gun when he's told he's gun crazy.
- It Has Been an Honor: Beary to Benzaie, immediately before blowing up in Benzaie's face.
Beary: Ouch. |
- It Has Only Just Begun: The title of part 4, The Beginning of the End of the Beginning.
- Jekyll and Hyde: Spoony and Dr. Insano are portrayed this way in 'Kickassia'.
- The Jimmy Hart Version: The opening theme and episode title cards are obviously influenced by HBO's John Adams.
- Kangaroo Court: Really, what trial would work when the only judge and jury is the Nostalgia Critic himself?
- Karma Houdini: The Nostalgia Chick. The Critic got a Humiliation Conga for being a prick, Film Brain got broken when Santa Christ got shot and had to prove to the others he wasn't betraying them again, but the only "punishment" she got for being a Manipulative Bitch was not getting to rule at the end. She even got a present - the game Othello, which she loves.
- Katanas Are Just Better: All right, it's a toy sword, but it gives the president of Molossia the ability to teleport and bitch slap five people all at once with it.
- Keet: Film Brain seems just a little too excited about all this.
- Klingon Promotion: How Nostalgia Chick plans to get the presidency.
- Kubrick Stare: 3D Lee gives one to Kevin Baugh once he shows up.
- Large Ham: The series is pretty much a World of Ham. Of special note are the Nostalgia Critic and Spoony.
- Angry Joe also repeatedly takes large bites out of the scenery.
Linkara: Are you HIGH?! |
- Laser Blade: Spoony can be seen holding one in the first or second episode.
- Technically it was a cheap light saber he won in a casino. In his commentary, Spoony seemed mighty pleased with it and mentioned that he struck a perfect attack pose with it when the reviewers all kicked the president out in the first episode...unfortunately, he's in the back of the group and no one can see it.
- Lickspittle: Film Brain to the Critic.
- Lock and Load Montage: Played straight and subverted as some members of the Critic army didn't really do anything other than change poses.
- Well, Handsome Tom changed his shirt, Benzaie pulled down his sleeves, and the Snob took off his glasses....and then put them back on.
- Low-Angle Shot: Used often with the Nostalgia Critic. Taken Up to Eleven with Dr. Insano.
- In Part 5, The Nostalgia Chick takes to this when she takes the Nostalgia Critic's hat.
- Magic Versus Science:
Insano: "Your superconductor electromagnetism is nothing compared to science!" |
- Mad Scientist: Insano, duh.
- Mandatory Line: Inevitable given how many people are in the cast. Pretty much everyone who isn't given a story arc is reduced to this.
- Manly Tears: Linkara after Marz Gurl has her Disney Death.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Channel Awesome reviewers from around the world came together to film the second anniversary special.
- Pretty much everyone after Santa Christ dies.
- Mood Whiplash: Death of Santa Christ Lampshaded with "Well, gee, that's sad."
- Also done so fast in part six it'll make your neck hurt. First, there's the kitchen scene where everyone is pinning Critic to the fridge, which as it goes on starts to get a bit creepy. Second, Ask That Guy comes in just for his cameo and it's funny. Third, Critic looks terrified and about to cry, which is heartbreaking. Then the crew beats him up Adam West-Batman style and it's hilarious.
- The Movie: Essentially what this whole series turned out to be. If all the pieces were linked together, it would clock in at approximately 92 minutes.
- Mundane Fantastic: No one finds any of the teleportation or superpowers that strange.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: The Nostalgia Chick's method of dealing with the Critic. According to the Nostalgia Critic, though, she is the vice-president and holding out for president is all they do.
- My Friends and Zoidberg: Of course, "And 8-Bit Mickey!"
- My Name Is Not Durwood: The Critic often does this towards
PhallusPhelous. - Narm Charm: Deliberately invoked all throughout the series.
- Negative Continuity: Pretty much everyone is out of character to some degree, in the name of the Rule of Funny. Obviously, the MST3K Mantra is in full effect.
- Evidently hearing a lot of wank about this before the saga had even finished, Lewis noted this in his Twitter:
"To #Kickassia and those who say people are acting out of character, remember that we didn't do anything that we didn't want to do. ^_~". |
- Film Brain responded to this as well, saying that everyone is just playing facets of their personalities, and that he can actually be quite bouncy and enthusiastic in reality.
- Cinema Snob, Phelous and Benzaie's commentary also says that during filming they were doing things like intentionally changing the order they were standing in between shots to mess with the people who were looking for continuity errors.
- Never Trust a Trailer: While everything from the trailer is in the special, the trailer made it look like the invasion would be the major part of the story, with some of the most defining lines deliberately leaving out the Critic being addressed. On the other hand, it made it very obvious that Dr. Insano would show up at some point.
- No Budget: What little money they had mostly seems to have gone to travel expenses.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: In part 3, Nostalgia Chick as Sarah Palin.
- Not So Different: Kevin Baugh's got an alter-ego too.
- Novelization: Kickassia: The Novelization, by Xoanon (unofficial).
- Obfuscating Stupidity: The Nostalgia Chick becomes a flanderized Sarah Palin. The Channel Awesome reporter even discusses the trope with her.
- Kevin Baugh uses his alternate persona of the Minister of Making Things Orderly to appear benign while covertly inciting rebellion among various cabinet members.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Linkara, though it's more that he was never where he was to begin with.
- Oh Crap: Insano's reaction to not having quite defeated N. Bison.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Used in the trailer. Except it's just "Kickassia" over and over again. The end of Part 4 features a straighter example with the reveal of Dr. Insano.
- One of Us: Kevin Baugh has autographed Star Trek photos in his living room.
- Also, in the commentary, Obscurus Lupa refers to "Rule of Funny" by name, and mentions that she is a troper.
- One-Scene Wonder: "It is I, Ma-Ti, from Captain Planet."
- One-Winged Angel: The rebirth of Dr. Insano.
- Only Mostly Dead: Beary apparently had to put himself back together after his premature explosion. But there are not enough stitches to heal the emotional damage.
- Only Sane Man: While most of the commenters during The Kickassian War read their lines in the style of a Ken Burns documentary, Lord Kat sounds perfectly normal, and is rational enough to notice how insane everyone is getting.
- The Only One: The people of Channel Awesome (except Linkara) all agree that only Dr. Insano can defeat the Nostalgia Critic.
Angry Joe: Sometimes the best way to deal with a madman is to send in another madman... |
- Also the reason for the Critic to pick the Chick as Vice-President.
Nostalgia Critic: You're the only one that can keep the Nostalgia name alive... mostly because it's in your name. |
- Orcus on His Throne: Once Nostalgia Critic gains control of Molossia, instead of going through with his plan of eventually taking over the world, all he wants to do is sit on the couch and watch TV.
- Out of Character: Nearly all the reviewers, to an extent, acted at least a little out of character for the special. The most notable example, however, was Film Brain, who was portrayed as more childlike and innocent than his sarcastic self from Bad Movie Beatdown.
- Painful Transformation: What Spoony goes through in order to bring out Dr. Insano.
- Papa Wolf: The Kickassia-themed Ask That Guy is one huge Take That to the Fan Dumb. When it gets into questions of who shouldn't be included, Doug doesn't take it well.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Kevin the President as Baron Fritz von Baugh, Minister of Making Things Orderly. He gets that a lot, though.
- In Spoony's commentary on the special, he mentions that Nostalgia Critic was intially a bit confused about the character, asking Kevin the President, "You don't wanna do an accent or anything?" Kevin explained that the Baron was supposed to be a Paper-Thin Disguise, and that was the entire point of the character - it's obviously him and they buy his excuses. Even after saying "It's so obviously you." "I get that a lot."
- Parodied Trope: About half of them listed here.
- Pay Crazy Unto Crazy: The rationale behind turning Dr. Insano loose on the Critic.
- The Plan: Kevin Baugh possibly planned one as he indirectly dismantled Kickassia's government from the inside out.
- Playing a Tree: Handsome Tom is forced to be a flagpole (and 8-Bit Mickey's horse).
- In a behind-the-scenes video, Doug apologizes to Tom for writing his character as pretty much being "an object." Tom seems pretty cool and says that objects are still useful.
- Power Floats: Subverted in the fight between Dr. Insano and N. Bison. They set it up like N. Bison's levitating, but he's really just walking on his tippy toes.
- Power Walk: Which becomes a Power Charge in the first invasion attempt by the Critic army.
- Put on a Bus: Cinema Snob is banished from Kickassia in Part 4 but returns in Part 6.
Q-Z
- The Quiet One: Kevin Baugh in his presidential persona, who has a total of three lines. His alter ego, Fritz von Baugh, Minister of Making Things Orderly, is noticeably more talkative.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad
- Railroad Tracks of Doom: While passing the Molossia Railroad in part 2, Jew Wario trips and faceplants right on the tracks, and just lies there screaming as the toy train comes toward him.
- Refuge in Audacity: The Critic, particularly when he becomes N.Bison.
- The answering machine message that somehow knows all about The Critic's plans to invade Molossia.
- The Critic somehow inspiring everyone with comparisons to Nazis as he simultaneously puts down Nazis.
- Refuge in Cool: The reason it exists.
- Reference Overdosed
- The Renfield: Film Brain
- Risk-Style Map: Played with in episode 5 as Linkara's map for his takeover plan is Risk.
- Radio Voice: Chris "RolloT" Larios, giving the news report on the founding of Kickassia, has this kind of voice (and always speaks with a newsreel-narrator cadence), but no one else in the report does. (That, or we're accidentally insulting his real voice.)
- You're not. He did that on purpose to spoof the old newsreels. You can hear his regular speaking voice in the Brawl.
- Rousing Speech: The Critic delivers one with...an unusual twist. It appears he's gotten better at inspiring people since the Brawl.
- Running Gag:
- "Aren't you that Doctor guy?" "NO!! I was before but...that was the past...."
- "HOW about a legion of SPIIIIIDERS??"
- Jew Wario and "I like it."
- Given that Nostalgia Critic is wearing an N. Bison uniform, it was inevitable that he would do the "OF COURSE!" bit. It was throughly Lampshaded.
- The Critic constantly stealing Phelous's ideas, with several variations.
- Sage's belief that holding an Uzi will prevent you from dying. Also, his habit of casually misusing the Uzi, including using the barrel of the Uzi to scratch his head or wipe away his tears.
- The Critic and his rocket chair.
- And 8-Bit Mickey!
- Two carried over from The Nostalgia Critic and Atop the Fourth Wall-- "OF COURSE!" and "You magnificent bastard, I read your book!" become more awesome because, instead of the clips, we get Critic dressed as N. Bison saying the former and Linkara pretending to be Patton while saying the latter (and rattling off more Patton quotes). Even funnier is Critic repeatedly trying to avoid said Running Gag.
- The Runt At the End: Said after the entire group runs out the door yelling and screaming:
"And 8-Bit Mickey!" |
- Sanity Ball: It gets passed around quite a lot. Phelous, Linkara and the Cinema Snob are the most common holders. Occasionally vanishes altogether.
- Sanity Slippage: Never exactly a paragon of sanity to begin with, actually having power turns the Nostalgia Critic totally insane.
- The "Nasty-Wasties" monologue is genuinely terrifying.
- And unexpectedly so.
- The "Nasty-Wasties" monologue is genuinely terrifying.
- Sarcastic Clapping: The Nostalgia Chick, after everyone overthrows the Nostalgia Critic.
- Say My Name: *ahem* "MARZGUUUUURL!"
- Say Your Prayers: After being beaten by the Nostalgia Critic, Insano reverts to screaming for help from Jesus and Santa.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Probably unintentional, but in episode 3, when the Critic says the creepy "Forever", the light is reflecting directly into Film Brain's eyes.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Jew Wario
- Sealed Evil in a Can/Super-Powered Evil Side: Pretty much how Dr. Insano is portrayed, with Spoony having defeated his evil split personality, and now determined to never let it out again. It completely clashes with all of Insano's previous appearances, but the character runs on Negative Continuity anyway. As Spoony has said, "There is no continuity: there is only Insano."
- Self-Deprecation: The Critic casting himself as the biggest douchebag/punching bag.
- Everyone involved, for having no problems with making themselves look absurd.
- Sense Freak: Lee's reaction to becoming 3D.
- Series Continuity Error: According to Cinema Snob, Phelous and Benzaie, during filming they were intentionally doing things like changing the order they were standing in between shots to mess with people.
- Shaggy Dog Story: A funny variation though Your Mileage May Vary. A main focus of the series was Spoony's constant struggle to contain the mad Dr. Insano within him. People constantly say that he resembles Insano and he's been asked a couple of times to give in and turn into Insano. At the end of episode 4 he finally gives in and turns into Dr. Insano, complete with transformation sequence and dark music playing. Dr. Insano has finally returned! Then in episode 5 he finally confronts the power-mad Nostalgia Critic.....and the ensuing fight ends with Critic kicking Insano's ass.
- Dr Insano gave the most fight out of any single one of Channel Awesome's cast. The only one with the same kind of "power" was Kevin Baugh. He had Critic on the ropes most of the time, and when the scene cut to Benzaie and Linkara, the CRITIC was the one exclaiming OH MY GOD! And the kicker? Even when surprised by the Critic's "revival", Insano still fought back and DAMN NEAR won the Beam War if Critic hadn't stepped to the side. As the good doctor says, "I'M SCIENCIER!!!!"
- The series as a whole; the former president is given his land again and the team accomplishes about nothing. But at least Lee knows how it is to be 3D now.
- Ship Tease: Linkara and Marzgurl a few times. Part 1, they're shown holding hands, wearing very similar masks, and jointly executing an Anime-esque battle pose. In Part 2, she falls because of an explosion which causes him to cradle her and specifically mention "his masculine arms."
- Which is ironic as hell since the last special had them attacking each other, despite being on the same side.
- At least two commentators have suggested fanfic.
- The Nostalgia Critic and The Nostalgia Chick continue with their weird brand of Masochism Tango, with a bit of clueless respect/affection on his side and homicidal Stepford Smiler-dom on her side.
- Also Chick/Nella in the "Kickassian War" DVD extra - Lampshaded, of course:
My darling Nella, thoughts of you are the only thing that keep me afloat in these dark, dark times, even though I know people will take that quote and use it as an excuse to write erotic fanfiction about the two of us. |
- Shock and Awe: The Nostalgia Critic and Dr. Insano can both shoot lightning out of their hands.
- Shoryuken: Of the Insano variety. Used against a guy dressed as a Street Fighter character, no less.
- Shout-Out: Now has its own page here.
- Small Name, Big Ego: How the Critic (and to some extent other members) act within the special, although none of them are like that in reality.
- Smug Snake: The Critic walking up to Molossia's door, wearing a smile you want to punch off his face.
- Sophisticated As Hell: Ma-Ti: "The warning is... [[[Beat]]] STOP BEING A DOUCHEBAG, IT'S TOTALLY GONNA BACKFIRE!"
- ** The episode titles are pretty serious and dramatic - "The Withering Eye", "Inglorious Glory", "The Fall of the Risen" - but end with "All The Really Bad Shit Happens"
- Spin-Off: YouTube user robertmillion did a series of funny CNN-esque videos relaying the happenings of the series as if they were a real-life, historical ocurrence. Here's one.
- Taking advantage of the once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity offered by all the reviewers being in the same place, oodles of joint reviews followed. Highlights include the second season of Angry Joe's Hotel Awesome, Film Brain and The Cinema Snob's review of McBain, Brain and Linkara's review of The Spirit and Spoony and Lordkat's review of Pumpkinhead's Revenge.
- And the glorious, glorious second episode of The Spoony Experiment Atop The Fourth Wall.
- The Starscream: The Nostalgia Chick toward the Critic. He's completely oblivious to it no matter how obvious she is. Her actions are also completely self-motivated and have nothing to do with the rebellion.
- Stealth Pun: N. Bison makes one in Part Six "Who knew running a dictatorship could be so one sided?"
- Status Quo Is God: The Grand Finale results in Nostalgia Critic being defeated by his former comrades, who in turn have him tell Baugh he can take back Molossia.
- Stepford Snarker: Vice President Nostalgia Chick has signs of this.
- Step Three: Profit: The Critic's original plan amounts to 1) Charge on Molossia, 2)??? 3) Take Over the World![3] The others aren't impressed when they realize this.
- The Stoic: Kevin, whose expression almost never changes, even under the threat of the invaders. He only smirks when his plans go sucessfully. Fritz von Baugh, his alter ego, is the same way.
- Stock Sound Effects: Almost every fight scene One example of this is every time you hear a punch, its basically the same sound effect no matter who is hit.
- Stop Helping Me!: In Part 5, the Critic asks for Nostalgia Chick's help when Insano attacks. She pulls out a baseball bat and...attacks The Critic. He's too dense to realize she's turned on him, but still punches her out all the same.
- Straight Man: Or rather, Straight Chick. At the end of part two, the Nostalgia Chick is drinking some beer during the Critic's rousing speech. Subverted later on, when she pretty much turns into a homicidal Sarah Palin. The Cinema Snob falls under this a good chunk of the time.
- Strange Salute: The Kickassia salute consists of one hand holding out the middle finger while the other hand bars the elbow on the rise of the opposing arm--a combination of the "flipping the bird" and "up yours" gestures.
- Surrounded by Idiots: More like Phelous, Linkara, The Cinema Snob, and The Nostalgia Chick are.
- N. Bison has a moment like this when Baugh is fleeing into his house. Everyone just stands there watching him escape, and once he gets inside, N. Bison turns to his army and says "....Follow him?" in an exasperated tone.
- Summon Bigger Fish: The Channel Awesome crew's solution to dealing with an insane, power-mad Critic? Send in an even more insane and more power-mad Dr. Insano.
- Linkara is the only one to point out "That's a STUPID plan!"
- Sympathetic POV: We're with the Critic for most of the movie, so he's still likable (totally crazy and slightly broken... but still likable). If we'd been with, say, Film Brain for 80% of it, the perception would have been very different.
- Take That: Chick's Sarah Palin-esque facade.
- Also, Paw's reason for why he's a "shock jock" radio DJ.
- Jimmy Carter ("Nice people always do so well in politics. Just look at Carter!") and pretty much every president in general.
Cinema Snob: It's like the job of the president is to sit on his ass completely removed from reality while everybody else does all the hard work. |
- Take Over the World: The Plan.
Nostalgia Critic: First we start with Texas.... Then Canada. Then France. And then...THE WOOOOOORLD! |
- Lampshaded after Chris Larios tries to get the Critic to say "OF COURSE!" when dressed as N. Bison, and proceeds to ask him if he intends over the world, before escalating to the galaxy and finally, being bigger than God.
- Taking You with Me: Nostalgia Critic has this sort of contingency plan for when he ever finds himself in danger of losing his position of power.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: That Chick With The Goggles tricks the Nostalgia Critic with this trope.[4]
- Her answering shows up again later, in Paw's Top 9 Video Game Composers video. It turns out that's just her usual answering machine message. Yes. Including the part about Molossia.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Kevin uses teleportation frequently in the first major engagement - with his sword.
- Teleport Spam: And he knows how to use it.
- Theme Music Power-Up: Subverted - Santa Christ's theme plays...and then he's shot dead just as he walks into the room.
- Played straight when Santa Christ comes back to life three days later.
- Think of the Children: Jew Wario exclaims this in Part 4. Due to it simply being the Critic and Cinema Snob shouting "Fuck you!"s to one another, it only elicits blank stares.
- Throw It In: There was much less Linkara/Insano Arch Enemy-ness in the original script (as Kickassia was about the whole team, not just their fights) and Lewis improvised most of his lines about Linkara's annoyance with the bringing-Insano-out plan. According to Rob's commentary, he even put in the Base Breaker line about telling Critic to kill Insano, despite the fact that his apparent best friend is still in there.
- Took a Level In Badass: 3D Lee -- until he realizes what happened, after which he spends the rest of the plot trying to grasp the wonders of being three dimensional.
- Dr. Insano. For the first time, he actually fights and wins the first round. He also has fingerbeams all of a sudden.
- Nostalgia Critic in the same scenes.
- Took a Level In Dumbass: Most of them, though that was kind of the point.
- Trailers Always Lie: The trailer makes it seem like the entire series is about the invasion of Molossia. It succeeds in Part 2, and the following four (where a good deal of the trailer clips come from) are about the others getting fed up with Nostalgia Critic and rebelling against him.
- It also seems to imply that Chris Larios, from Channel Awesome News would be a big part of the invasion. He appears for all of one episode - not even completely.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Not so much the trailer as other supplementary material: the Molossia website posted an article right after filming that completely gave away the invasion's outcome and aftermath. In Molossia, this was news. Everywhere else, it's a spoiler.
- And after it was released, the Molossia website announced that the whole thing was part of a Truman Show Plot. Yeah.
- The trailer shows that Lee would turn 3D.
- Transformation Sequence: Spoony gets one when he unleashes Doctor Insano.
- Trilogy Creep: The series was originally written as only three parts, but Doug and Rob came up with so much material for the aftermath of the invasion that it was expanded to six.
- It's also been stated that it was released in 6 parts instead of the intended trilogy so they could maximize revenue in attempt to recoup costs.
- Troper Critical Mass: So many tropers were watching this that entries were being posted minutes after the videos were uploaded.
- Troubled Production: Not only they had only four days to shoot, but nearly everyone got injured.
- Two Girls to a Team: Nostalgia Chick and Marz Gurl. Chick turns her Manipulative Bitch side on full-blast, while Marz becomes a Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Unexplained Recovery:
- Beary gets blown up with explosives in Part 2 and in Part 3 he claims he only needed stitches. But there'll never be enough for all the emotional pain he's going through.
- Santa Christ. Like one half of his namesake it takes him three days.
- The Unintelligible: Film Brain when he's arresting the Cinema Snob. According to Film Brain's commentary, this was because Doug Walker's direction told him to act like a SWAT team - not just a member of the team, but everyone on it at once, so most of his speech for that scene was unintelligible yelling.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Angry Joe is firing his guns in the air. President Baugh's family's response:
"Mmm-hmm." |
- When Spoony gives in to the madness and fully transforms into Dr. Insano, Critic goes, "Oh, hey, you gave in to the madness! That's awesome," and goes back to watching television.
- Victory Is Boring: The crew were much, much more fired up about invading a country than running it.
- Villain Protagonist: Nostalgia Critic
Film Brain: We'll annihilate them, Critic! We'll annihilate them !! |
- Lampshaded when Handsome Tom switches from his Hero shirt to a Villain shirt at the end of part 1.
- Viral Marketing: See Forced Meme. There was a push to get #kickassia attached to as many Twitter posts as possible, a dedicated Facebook group, and twibbons for profile pictures.
- The Voice: That Chick With The Goggles and Sean (THE EPIC FAIL GUY!) aren't actually able to appear for the events, just their voices over the phone. And then part 5 came in.
- What Could Have Been: According to Spoony's commentary for Kickassia, he intended to play Spoony in this one as more haunted and scared of Dr. Insano, rather than the hysterical "rape victim" Doug wanted. Your Mileage May Vary on which would have been better.
- Also, in Part 6, the fight over the hat was not only going to include more people, but, Spoony originally gave a That Guy-style speech, Shaming the Mob - and then took the hat and ran, because he was still Dr. Insano. The ending in general had to be cut short due to time constraints.
- Lord Kat was going to have a greater role but he ended up getting a badly twisted ankle during filming.
- According to Doug's DVD commentary, during the revolt, he was thinking of having the Critic using superconductor electromagnetism again against the rebelling Channel Awesome gang only for it to run out of batteries. It's a real shame.
- What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome??: The Critic treats Cinema Snob's banishment as if he's taking the Long Walk from Mega-City One into the Cursed Earth. Cinema Snob strolls down the path casually, saying he'll be at the hotel and the others can call his cellphone if they need him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Why didn't Ma-Ti play a role during the finale? (Answer: He wasn't actually there; he was a vision.)
- Film Brain's commentary states that he was going to be an invader as well, but couldn't because Bhargav spent most of his time ordering everyone's lunch, and didn't want to be typecast as Ma-Ti.
- In part 6, Linkara and Joe enter the house celebrating because they believe they've killed the Nostalgia Critic, only to see the Critic surrounded by everyone else. So exactly whom did they actually kill?
- Given how Angry Joe missed every shot at him, they probably just thought they finished him off when they lost sight of him.
- Where's the Kaboom?: The Critic tries to blow up Kickassia with the explosives he wired in Part 6, even though Cinema Snob informed him that after he was banished, he defused the bombs. He pushes it anyway...
- Whole Costume Reference: The Critic in his M. Bison uniform (of COURSE!).
- Would Hit a Girl: Nostalgia Critic punches Nostalgia Chick when she kept purposely hitting him with a baseball bat.
- World of Ham: Nearly EVERYONE on this series has been Chewing the Scenery, the exceptions being the Nostalgia Chick at the beginning, Kevin Baugh, and Chris Larios.
- And Lordkat, for the most part.
- Brad Jones (a.k.a. The Cinema Snob) was also one of the more subdued actors in the film. In fact, much of the humor related to his character involved his lack of hamminess in contrast to everyone else in the movie.
- The Chick gets a chance to ham it up when we see her as vice-president and she is in full Sarah Palin impersonation.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In the midst of his What the Hell, Hero? speech, Ma-Ti tries to get Critic to remember that he's strong-willed and loyal to the people he actually cares about. Critic's consumed by power at this point, though, so it doesn't work.
- Your Head Asplode: What Link's head does before he finishes his catch phrase while Little Miss Gamer was explaining why she can't help with the invasion.
- Your Mom: This lovely little exchange:
Nostalgia Critic: Any chance you have Sean's number? |
- Played for Laughs in one of the bloopers, when Doug forgot his line:
Chris: Mr. Critic, what are your plans now for this new glorious nation? |
- You Fail Logic Forever: Sage's logic is that so long as he's holding an Uzi, he cannot die.
Bennet The Sage: I'm holding one, and I'm still alive. Science proven. |
- Zerg Rush: Their one tactic is to charge forward screaming. The first time they're not even armed.
- Zig-Zagging Trope: Both Godwin's Law and Hitler Ate Sugar are played straight and inverted in the same sentence.
- Also Narm in the Critic and Spoony's talk about Insano. The scene is simultaneously played for unironic laughs, Played for Drama and meant to be funny due to how badly the two are overacting.
Well , there was an... incident in Nevada... many people injured....I-I-I could never go back... but I'm here now!
—The Nostalgia Critic recalling a certain event.
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- ↑ Extreme front: Ma-Ti from Captain Planet and the Planeteers (Bargo). Front row from left to right: Bennett the Sage, Benzaie, Kevin Baugh, Lord Kat, 8-Bit Mickey, Film Brain, That Other Guy (Rob Walker). Second row from left to right: Rollo T, Marz Gurl, Angry Joe, The Spoony One, The Cinema Snob, Lee, Phelous. Back row from left to right: Paw Dugan, Linkara, Handsome Tom, The Nostalgia Chick, Jew Wario. Top: The Nostalgia Critic.
- ↑ The 'fancy fucking hats' line comes from Paw's rant on the Kickassian radio.
- ↑ OF COURSE!
- ↑ See, it's funny because she had no way of knowing about Molossia!