The Nostalgia Chick/Tropes M-R

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• MacGuffin: In her review of Dune, she introduces "Lord MacGuffin" a character who specifically describes her definition of what a MacGuffin is. He even tries to inject them into the review itself.

Lord MacGuffin: The Spice must flow. Nostalgia Chick: What? Lord MacGuffin: The Spice must flow. Nostalgia Chick: See... I don't understand what you mean. See that's my problem with this movie in general is the fact that- Lord MacGuffin: [Pulls out a handgun, cocks it, and points it at the Chick] "The Spice. Must. Flow."

• • He is later seen with a jar of mayonnaise, which is later revealed to have been filled with plot device and turns it into a portal. It also enables Lord MacGuffin to return from the dead.
• Made of Plasticine: The friend from Teen Witch, after she trips over a stepladder.

Nostalgia Chick: What, are her legs made of balsa wood?

• Mad Scientist: Discussed in detail in her special on Hollywood Science.

Nostalgia Chick: Where did you learn your science ethics, sir, the University of Mengele?

• Male Gaze: She has a quick rant about how even though Jessica Rabbit is an interesting, noir-like character, all she's remembered for is the giant boobs.
  • Maven is a little confused as to why Selma Hayek needed to do a sexy bikini dance when all the humans were trapped in the bar already.
• Mama Bear: Do not screw around with Lindsay when it comes to her friends or co-workers. She quickly came to the defense of Nella after the Grease review, was quick to correct anyone who thought Doug was making fun of her abortion in the Christmas special, heavily flamed a troll who put up vicious rumours about Elisa, and when some My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fans came after Obscurus Lupa because she did not mention the show when she did a review on an old made-for-tv My Little Pony movie, Lindsay had this to say:

Lindsay: Guys. It ain't that they're grown men watching a cartoon. Good on 'em. It's that they're crazy obsessive and trying to spread the goddamn gospel, like crazies on the corner. THEY WILL NOT SHUT UP AND LEAVE US WHO DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ALONE. People inform me that I should be glad because it's a show made for girls that doesn't suck and has mass appeal. I might have been interested, but Jesus Christ, you people, BACK OFF. I'm with Lupa; if there was a shit to be given, my box of shits have long run dry, as has my box of fucks. I am out of fucks to give. You guys can have your fucking show. Please don't assume that anyone else gives a fuck about it, lest the backlash get backlashier. Let me reiterate in case I was not clear, for apparently clarity is not my strong suit. It's not that it's grownups watching cartoons. It's that (some of) you are crazy, tunnel-visioned, DEFENSIVE (did I mention defensive? God, if there's one trait that grates on me...) and annoying as hell. Sane ones, if you exist, tell your crazy friends to shut the fuck up. Stop being so goddamn defensive. Enjoy your goddamn show; leave us out of it. Jesus.

• A Man Is Not a Virgin: Hocus Pocus's obsession with this amuses her greatly.

Nostalgia Chick: What are you doing if you're in high school and still a virgin?

• Manipulative Editing: In The Fifth Element, a lot of Leeloo's more Badass scenes aren't shown because that would ruin the Real Women Don't Wear Dresses joke.
• Manly Tears: "Bruce Willis cries like George Washington. Those aren't tears, that's just testosterone overflowing through his eyes."
• Mars Needs Women: "Everyone wants to get into Thumbelina's tiny cotton panties. Frogs, beatles, fleas, lican, the Dark Lord Xenu, dark matter... everyone. And she's a pretty passive player in all of this."
• Meaningful Name: Nomi Malone in Showgirls. "Geddit? No-Mi I'm alone. Genius!" Said with almost manic sarcasm.
• Memetic Badass: In-Universe. Every time she says James Cameron, a choir pops up.
• Men Are Generic, Women Are Special: Mocked hard in the Critic/Chick duet. Chick gets more to say about her gender stereotypes, but Critic has the last word with "stiiiiiill got that peeeeenis!"
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: She notices that only the men get their hearts ripped out in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
  • In Maven's Vampire Vlog of Underworld Awakening, she theorizes that the main character is supposed to be sympathetic and ass-kicking because she kills only men, and not other women.
• Men Buy From Mars, Women Buy From Venus: Mel Gibson is able to read girl thoughts from a bath filled with feminine hygiene products, so she's able to read boy thoughts from a bath with junk food, beer and a lad's mag.
• Men Don't Cry: She did call Goliath a pansy for his "My... angel of the night" line, after all.
• Mid-Review Sketch Show: To the point where it's actually rather weird to see her doing a straightforward review now.
• Milestone Celebration: To celebrate her three year anniversary of being on the site, she did a DVD commentary on her first episode Pocahontas.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: She looks ready to kill herself in frustration when she kidnaps Todd again and listens to his brain, only to find out the only thing in there is Lupa.
• Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: In Sleepless In Seattle vs. When Harry Met Sally, she calls snoring in bed a deal-breaker.
• Misaimed Fandom: Pointed out In-Universe.
  • She joins the long list of people who point out the flaws in Taylor Swift's logic in "Love Story":

Nostalgia Chick: It's at this point that you start to wonder if Taylor Swift even knows how Romeo and Juliet ends!

• Misaimed Marketing: As it completely goes against the original message, all the tie-ins to The Lorax get a lot of time devoted to how stupid they are.
• Missing Mom: She theorizes that the Disney company usually commits matricide right after their hero/ine is born.
  • In Pocahontas: "And if you're wondering where her mother is, just remember that this is a Disney movie, and Disney movies have... PUPPIES!."
• Misplaced Wildlife: There are no moose in Southeast Virginia.
• Mister Seahorse: Gleefully got the Critic pregnant through fairy magic in the Fern Gully review.
• Mood Dissonance: On the Mood Whiplash-ing song in Mulan:

"We were too busy being outrageously horny to notice the smoky red sky of decimation in the distance."

• Mood Whiplash: the TLC video, just the TLC video, damn!
  • In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to demonstrate how Disney held themselves back from brilliant darkness by way of the gargoyles, she edits together Frollo being judged by the eyes of Notre Dame followed by the statues clicking their fingers in "A Guy Like You", and "Hellfire" to all the pop culture references.
• Money, Dear Boy: She's visibly distressed when she discovers George Carlin did the voice of the misanthrope ape in Tarzan II.
  • This was the theory of Todd and Lindsay to try and explain all the cameos of talented people in the Transformers III movie.
• Moral Event Horizon: Parodied In-Universe with this:

Linkara: [over the phone] I don't know what's going on where you are, but here in Minnesota there's pandemonium everywhere, everything is falling apart, and the big ball of twine is on fire!!! Nostalgia Chick: [distraught] Not the big ball of twine! God, she's evil! Even Roland Emmerich didn't destroy the big ball of twine!

• Most Writers Are Adults: Comes up in her reviews of City of Angels and The Christmas Shoes, her theory for this being the innocent, mature, perfect children there are how the writers want children to act.
• The Mountains of Illinois: Discussed Trope in her very first review, Pocahontas; she's baffled by all the sheer cliffs in the area around Jamestown.

Nostalgia Chick: Have these people ever been to coastal Virginia?

• Musical Episode: Her review of Les Misérables ended with the entire TGWTG team singing "One More Day".
  • And The Little Mermaid ends with the TGWTG girls singing (except for Nella, who is voiceless and just mimes) "Part of Your World".
• My Friends and Zoidberg: While talking about the design of Pocahontas:

Nostalgia Chick: And this can possibly attributed to the fact that her design was based on the looks of models such as Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Barbie... and Janice from the Muppets.

• Narm: Pointed out In-Universe.
  • She's pretty shocked over the "They're not like you and me, which means they must be evil!" line in Pocahontas.
  • She also doesn't seem to think much of Demona's "The access code is... alone" line in Gargoyles while talking about her in her "Top Eleven Villainesses" countdown.
  • All the so-called "angst" in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas comes off as emo
  • The death scene in The Man in the Iron Mask reminds her of the intentionally silly death in Megamind.
  • "Beneath A Moonless Sky" from Love Never Dies is the funniest thing ever because it takes itself so seriously.
• Nature Abhors a Virgin: "Fucking virgins! Why do we need them around anyway?"
• Needs More Love: The in-universe purpose of her three-part look on the Oscar shorts, a lot of which were better than some of the feature-length nominations.
• Never Live It Down: Lampshaded hilariously in the "NChick Labs". "We do not talk about the rape rap!"
  • When Dark Nella starts reviewing Tron, the Chick says that reviews of sci-fi movies never go down well, "At least, not for me."
    • Pushing Up Roses recalls that too: "Between The Little Mermaid and Dune, it's a wonder you're still alive!"
  • She plays the "I'm so excited!" scene from Saved by the Bell a few times in the Showgirls review, mostly to remind us that Elizabeth Berkley has always sucked as an actress.
• Never Trust a Trailer: When learning that Xanadu had robots and ELO, she was pretty excited. Obviously, her hopes were dashed.
  • She also talks about this in the "Disney Vs. Dreamworks" video, how "serious" animated movies will have a fun, feisty trailer to draw people in.
  • The "Dark Nella Saga" trailer led viewers to assume that Dark Nella was going to be a clone created by Dr. Tease. In the X-Men review, however, the Chick vetoes the cloning plan and Dark Nella is actually the real Nella resurrected.
• Nightmare Fuel: Pointed out In-Universe.
  • The "footbinding" images in her review of Mulan scares the shit out of her.
  • So did Binx (the cat in Hocus Pocus) having a Disney Death of getting run over by a car.
  • As do the children in The Baby Sitters Club. They weren't Creepy Child, she's just scared of the little beasts in general.
  • The Will Smith fish haunts her nightmares.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: On Kirk in the second Star Trek movie:

Chick: How about your hubris leading to the untimely death of your best friend that will plague your smarmy ass with regret?

• "No. Just... No" Reaction: She shakes her head with a Death Glare when Nella tries "sexy dice".
• Non-Singing Voice: She's quick to notice that the grandmother's gritty voice in Mulan becomes much softer and higher when she's singing.
• Noodle Incident: In The Stinger for Daria, the Chick kills Nella and Elisa's excitement for Magfest by saying they're not allowed to go onstage because there was an unfortunate incident with a guy and he doesn't want them near him.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Just before Dark Nella makes her first appearance, the sound and background gets all out of focus and you can see someone following the Chick. Freakier than any horror movie.
• Nostalgia Filter: Played with in the X-Men review. Whenever she has to smash the filter and talk about the show's problems, she'll be her usual self. When she's fangirling, she falls right in.
  • She says people switch off their brains even more when it comes to Christmas songs.
  • On Transformers: The Movie: "Yeah, I know, people are really attached to this movie, but that is that whole purpose of lifting nostalgia goggles, is it not? I mean, the show is usually watchable at times and sometimes even enjoyable in its campiness. This movie? Less so."
• No Swastikas: The title card for Der Fuhrers Face has the Chick in the position of Donald Duck with his costume on, but the middle of the armband (where the swastika would be) is hidden by her pigtail.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer:
  • In her Transformers: The Movie review, points out that, yes, girly shows really had character names like that, and that the point of the movie was to kill off the old cast to make way for the new.
  • "Top Eleven Villainesses": she adds "No, really" after she says Ursula's design was based on a drag queen.
  • In her Showgirls review, she subtitles the first reenactment scene with the line "actual dialog from the movie."
  • Maven doesn't particularly relish having to say she's serious when she notes that film!Buffy had period pains as a spidey sense.
• No Yay: Pointed out In-Universe.
  • She's made deeply uncomfortable by the father/daughter subplot in The Baby Sitters Club.

Nostalgia Chick: Is she your daughter or your estranged ex who lost a lot of weight?

• Nuns Are Funny: The whole premise for the Sister Act review.
• Nuns Are Scary: Her parents were apparently Raised Catholic, so they had lots of horror stories to tell her about eraser-throwing, ruler-whipping demon nuns in the classroom.
• N-Word Privileges: Parodied in her review of Song of the South. Before she can get out the name-drop of Magical Negro, Nella (dressed like a stereotypical black maid) cover it up with the hoover. Chick complains that "[we're] not even allowed to use that now?" and Nella snidely repeats "we?".
• Of Corset Hurts: When the Makeover Fairy tries to get Nella into a corset, Nella understandably tells her how much she hates her right now.
• Oh Crap: Nella gets a particularly muggy one on her face whenever she sees the Makeover Fairy nowadays.
  • The Chick gets one where she realizes she's sung "Part Of Your World" way too enthusiastically for someone who can't stand the movie.
• Older Than They Think: Nella points out the "attitude" in direct competition with Disney goes back to the Looney Tunes shorts vs. the Classic Disney Shorts long before Dreamworks Animation existed.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: "DARK NELLAAAAAAAAAA!"
• One-Winged Angel: In "Top 11 Disney Deaths", she gives the advice not to turn into a giant reptile as it never works.
• Organ Theft: Apparently the Chick's computer cost three organs on the black market. It's probably best not to think about who she got them from or how.
• Our Nudity Is Different: In her review of Kate and Leopold, she lists "can't show your ankles" as one of the problems with Leopold's time period.
• Overly Long Gag: "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..."
• Overly Narrow Superlative: She describes Bratz as "the worst, most racist movie that stars Jon Voight, came out in the summer of 2007 and was based on a line of toys". And yet it was still a Bait and Switch of Transformers, especially after mocking Michael Bay for three successive videos.
• Overused Running Gag: "PUPPIES!" was put to sleep after her countdown of animated villainesses.
• Painting the Fourth Wall: In the X-Men The Animated Series review, without Nella the Chick's reviewing style becomes overly dull and analytical, which is shown by the video being washed out and lower quality. As soon as Dr Tease injects her with Truth Serum to liven it up, it goes into full colour and higher quality.
• Padding: She sees both Spice World and Xanadu as being filled with it:

Nostalgia Chick: For the love of God! Cut half of this shit out, guys, c'mon!

• • And then there's Earth Girls Are Easy:

Chick: Cos every movie needs an aliens-watching-TV scene.

• Papa Wolf: Because of the Fan Dumb in the Comically Missing the Point example above, Mr. Ellis got involved to confirm that his daughter is an awesome woman and that she and Nella are best friends.

Probably the #1 fan of the "NOSTALGIA CHICK", for I go back farther than anyone else knowing her, for I helped "make" her some 26 years back. You guessed it, I am her dad. James Carroll Ellis. Since leaving home for NYU, and then on to USC, I have watched her mature into a young adult while establishing a wonderful fan base and friends, which is deeply appreciated and I simply say "Thank You". Her talents are obvious, having many, just like her ol dad. As for NELLA, SWEET, SWEET, NELLA, Lindsay and Nella, (Antonella) have been and are the best of friends. Any remarks, suggestions, and/or references to her were done as a professional actor, and certainly no malice was intended. She (Nella) has visited our home many times, and she is a superb beautiful human being. The world would be a better place with more NELLAS.

• Paper-Thin Disguise: Mocked in the Mulan review:

Nostalgia Chick: Just put your hair back up, it's like the gender equivalent of Clark Kent's glasses.

• Parental Neglect: She theorizes that Thumbelina's mother just lets her get into trouble because she's bitter that she got the short end of the stick.
  • Like so many others, she wonders where Beast's parents are when he's a teenager on Christmas.
• Parody Commercial: Because of all the Product Placement in You've Got Mail, she does her own commercial of her Visa Credit Card.
• Periphery Demographic: Pointed out In-Universe on Dragonheart - "Let's face it, we're all here for Connery."
  • And for the other gender, Titanic.

Chick: But you saw it. You know you saw it.

• Perverse Sexual Lust: With All Women Are Lustful in full force, plenty of it going around:
  • In the Top 10 Hottest Animated Guys video, we get good details on the three leading ladies' animated hottie preferences: Elisa likes them stoic and brooding like Goliath and Batman, Nella just goes crazy over Thomas and Dmitri (the latter partly because he resembles the former), and Chick has had childhood crushes on Aladdin and... Batty.
• Petting Zoo People: "Why does Mirage have a cat head? Who cares?"
• Pink Means Feminine: "Because she's PAAAAANK!"
• Pillow Fight: With Critic during the Fern Gully review and with Little Miss Gamer during the Brawl.
• Please Don't Leave Me: Referenced at the end of the first "Thanks For The Feedback". Critic's had a Am I Just a Toy to You? breakdown and stormed off, Chick's ran away in relief but then "baby come back, you can blame it all on me, I was wrong..." starts playing when they're both offscreen.
• Plot Armor: Nella concedes that Kirk always got out alive and everyone else died because he was the main character.
• Plot Hole: In her review of She-Ra: Princess of Power - "By the honor of plot holes, I have the Plot Device!"
  • Trying to figure out all of the ones in Hercules drives her crazy.
• Political Correctness Gone Mad: Disney changing the design and name of the lead in The Princess and the Frog.
• Poor Communication Kills: The Grease II makeover only happened because the Makeover Fairy thought she was getting Todd the right manliness level for the Chick, and Todd thought she was getting him perfect for Lupa.
• Poor Man's Substitute: "Can't afford to get Elton John? Well there's always Barry Manilow."
  • She calls Tim Curry the poor man's bad guy in all things.
• Porky Pig Pronunciation: She chokes on the word "nice" in her "Top Five Least Worst Disney Sequels", so settles for "less mean".
• The Power of Friendship: The only plus she can give the Spice Girls is at least they were marketed on them being friends.
• Power Perversion Potential: She theorises about the possible unmentioned extensions of Dragonheart's "dragon and human share their pain" plot.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: The rap sequences of Teen Witch.

This movie is whiter than Pride and Prejudice!

• • When she's calmed down from the unholy terror that is Shark Tale, we get this lovely quote:

This is what happens when white shut-ins try to be hip... and do so with fish."

• Primal Scene: Two unseen people creaking the bed is what gives "Baby Scarred For Life" her name.
• Product Placement: On the McDonalds in The Fifth Element: "Why do I suddenly want french fries?"
  • "Identify with this product, little girls. Be a Jem girl."
  • In What Women Want, she visibly drinks alcohol and eats chips while wondering why every movie lead is now an ad exec.
  • Likewise, she opens the You've Got Mail review with a glowing endorsement for Starbucks coffee liqueur - "providing my stimulants and my depressants in one useful dose." The credits feature "I except my check any day, Starbucks."
• Pseudo Crisis: Played for laughs in her review of Anastasia:

Chick: [very seriously] Hi, I'm your Nostalgia Chick. And my glasses have been taken by communists. scary music plays* Chick: [with glasses on again] But it's okay because I got new ones.

• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "The. Spice. Must. Flow."
  • On X-Men 3: "FUCK. THAT. MOVIE."
  • Nella in Grease II: "I! Deserve! Better!"
  • On Disney sequels: "BRAND. NAME. RECOGNITION."
  • In Pocahontas: "Blow. Shit. Up".
• Puny Humans: Dark Nella is not very impressed with us. Watching Tron does nothing to heighten her opinion of the human race.
• Purity Sue: Points out In-Universe that Cinderella's traits are just that she's nice and pretty.
• Rape as Redemption: Inverted. To finally get over her rape by him from three years ago, she rapes Spoony and tells him to "cry it out bitch" when he's having a breakdown about it.
• A Rare Sentence: Team NChick's Elisa tweeting about her role as Dr. Tease:

ElisaInTime: I never thought I'd see the day when I received an email from my mother with the subject line 'Your "death" by the evil intergalactic clone'.

• Reality Subtext: What drives half of the humor in the Chick>Todd storyline. In real life they're an adorably sickening couple, in-show she's hopelessly deluded that he'll one day love her back.
• Really Gets Around: The Chick says Kirk is just a manwhore who would stick his peepee into anything with a hole in it.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: She makes a Running Gag of freaking out at one of the My Little Ponies having red eyes.

"And what's with your demon eyes?!"

• Refuge in Audacity: Whenever she's in a dark mood.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: In her review of Teen Witch, the Chick points out Louise could use her magic powers to fix the world but instead uses it on petty gain.
• Rhymes on a Dime: As it's based off Dr. Seuss, the beginning and end of her review of The Lorax, the latter promoting the merits of drinking until you puke.
• Rooting for the Empire: In-Universe. The good guys are so insufferable in Hercules that she wants Hades to win.
• Rule of Funny
• Running Gag: ... because, well, her Labyrinth review has a literal one across the bottom of the screen.
  • In her video on The Smurfette Principle, "And she's PAAAAANK!"
    • Referred to in "The NChick Labs". The Makeover Fairy shouts "PAAAAANK! PAAAAANK!"
  • "Say that again.", generally followed by massive violence.
  • She also has "PUPPIES!"
  • Non Sequitur Scene! (Pointed out In-Universe.)
    • The Xanadu review has it keep coming back again and again, despite her yelling at it not to.
  • It's only a model.
  • "That's what she said."
  • Thrusting her hips every time there's a rape implication in what she's reviewing.
  • Going into Perverse Sexual Lust-induced bliss whenever there's a good male singer.
  • She has, on more than one occasion, referred to breasts as tracts of land.
  • Tracing a tear down her cheek whenever there's a scene she perceives as Narm.
  • Dark Nella stuffing her in the fridge at the end of the episode looked to be heading this way, but didn't make it to the Rule of Three.
  • A soundbite of children going "YAY!".
  • In her Hocus Pocus review, Dramatic Thunder happening every time she says the word "virgin".
  • In Mulan: "Horrific implication time!"
  • Smiling wildly while holding two thumbs up, done either genuinely or sarcastically.
  • In the VLogs, they use Jew Wario's "I like it!" from Kickassia a lot.
  • She has a counter for the amount of deaths in Transformers: The Movie.
  • Repeating really stupid lines in slow motion so she can react to them properly. For example: "They're not like you and me, which means they must be evil!", "Everyone got AIDS and shit!" and "Ursula's crazy sister!".
  • Happens more in crossovers and yearly specials, but she'll be disinterestedly drinking something or playing on her phone any time something "important" happens.
  • Drinking a cup of coffee that didn't exist in the previous shot.
  • Phelous will always come in when she needs a brilliantly silly singing or announcing voice.
  • Inserting sad or smiley faces into usually horrific pictures of history.
  • John Malkovich dining at the Olive Garden and overpronouncing everything he says.