The Failure of Channel Awesome's Demo Reel

In which we look at Doug Walker's forgotten attempt to move on past the Nostalgia Critic.
Title Card and Graphics By: Beck "azuill" / azoolaboola
Twitter: / greatcheshire
Patreon: / ladyemilypresents
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[@steamboatwill3.367]

If you want something like Demo Reel but actually good: Show People. ( 1928 ) Movie Crazy. ( 1932 ) The Bad and The Beautiful. ( 1952 ) 8 1/2. ( 1963 ) Contempt. ( 1964 ) Day for Night. ( 1973 ) F for Fake. ( 1973 ) Any Mel Brooks movie. The other side of the wind. Real Life. ( 1979 ) Camera Buff. ( 1979 ) Stardust Memories. ( 1980 ) The Stunt Man. ( 1980 ) Cinema Paradiso. ( 1988 ) UHF. ( 1989 ) The Quinch Tree Sun. ( 1992 ) Visions of light. ( 1992 ) The Player. ( 1992 ) Ed Wood. ( 1994 ) Living in Oblivion. ( 1995 ) Deconstructing Harry. ( 1997 ) Bowfinger. ( 1999 ) Being John Malcovich. ( 1999 ) American Movie. ( 1999 ) Mulholland Drive. ( 2001 Millenium Actress. ( 2001 ) Adaptation. ( 2002 ) Synecdoche New York. ( 2008 ) Be kind rewind ( obviously ). ( 2008 ) The Disaster Artist. ( 2017 )

[@LadyEmilyPresents]

I’m pinning this comment because there’s some really really good recommendations here, particularly Day for Night, American Movie, Ed Wood, and Synecdoche, New York

[@steamboatwill3.367]

@@LadyEmilyPresents ) O.O thank you!

[@steamboatwill3.367]

A few more I forgot to mention ( I don't want to edit the original comment ). Persona. ( 1966 ) The Artist. ( 2011 ) Hugo. ( 2011 ) Birdman. ( 2014 )

[@Penoatle]

Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)

[@lazybacon7520]

In terms of scenes like Rebecca just conversing and blurring the lines between reality and fiction, check out John Cassavetes' movies

[@s.g.7572]

If the Mario joke had ended at "it's time the rest of the world shared my fear", it actually could've gotten a decent laugh. Walker has a real problem with overwriting.

[@henrynelson9301]

He doesn’t even understand what’s funny about the joke he wrote

[@Unexpectedstuff]

Wow, this is so right

[@lunastar89]

Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog: No one is laughing, and the frog dies.

[@Leatherbubba]

Which is funny, because I think I remember Doug saying that MadTV was better than SNL, because SNL dragged out the skits too long.

[@planescaped]

The white face/joker makeup joke got a chuckle out of me, but they held on it way too long. Should've cut before getting a response. The funny part was him asking/the way he asked, the response just made it awkward.

[@mahrinui18]

The phrase "they decide to feed Rebecca sugar" was completely misparced in my head

[@BE-fw1lr]

I was so confused, like... They got who on this show?!

[@hecksnek6158]

It's like an unintentional garden path sentence.

[@SonicPAJ]

Ah yeah.... Cause Rebecca Sugar is a person.

[@DetectiveOlivaw]

Later she said she was on an “Anton sugar rush.” She knows what she did.

[@myrianrose3619]

phew. i was hoping it wasn't just me

[@TheStereotypeA]

"...Doug's attempts to handle the topics of sexism and racism." At this moment, I actually said "oh god" out loud.

[@chuckbatman5]

A rare moment of good decision making from Doug to shelf that episode Except that he still released it later but whatever

[@jonreededworthy7518]

I'm amused by the idea that Doug Walker, Rob Walker, and Mike Michaud are the only content creators on the internet so incompetent that they could make a series with no budget and still somehow end up in debt

[@tylere.8436]

That could happened with Pop Quiz Hotshot... if Indiegogo sent investigators to sense for fraud.

[@timothymclean]

Remember: They didn't just shoot this in someone's apartment's spare room, or in an empty office, or something. They rented (mediocre) studio space. They paid employees (I hope). They bought costumes. There is only so half you can ass these expenses, and Doug was trying to put his full ass into this production. Debt doesn't always come from racking up huge bills. Sometimes it comes from small bills combined with even smaller paychecks.

[@KO-vb4tg]

@@timothymclean “only so half you can ass things.” I spy someone else who has watched the Folding Ideas video about Doug.

[@jeremyzak654]

Larry the Guru is still on that site.

[@MechaKaito]

@@jeremyzak654 mainly because CA quite literally forgot that he is even a part of it, he never got invited to any crossover events outside of maybe one collab in the last decade, he mainly focused on youtube, never really mentions it.

[@BeatRiceIsHere]

Doug Walker's content was usually about criticizing movies that you liked as a kid but disliked as you got older, and now people are criticizing Doug Walker's content, even though they liked it when they were younger. It's incredibly poetic, honestly

[@SupremeCommanderBaiser]

It is. But the whole workplace attitude, suicides and rape aligations did their part too I guess.

[@jormungandr3593]

@@SupremeCommanderBaiser rape? suicide? where did you read that?? i heard about the bad (horrible) workplace attitude that was/is channel awesome, but never rape or suicide

[@SupremeCommanderBaiser]

@@jormungandr3593 I am mostly refering to Jew Wario (suicide and predator aligations) and the freak Noah Antweiler (Spoony).

[@Nelcomarproductions]

People grew up and Doug Walker did not.

[@lovecrafts-cat]

"It is like poetry. It ryhmes." -Some guy idk

[@NyJoanzy]

The thing this kept reminding me of was the quote "Doug wants to be a filmmaker, he wants to make art, but he can't. Because he is a fundamentally incurious person who isn't much interested in how other people think or feel. All of his ideas boil down to 'what if Batman met Mario'." -Dan Olson about every 10 minutes throughout this video.

[@jwood8769]

He’s a better critic then a film maker, but I think he knows that. Because his new content he pokes at himself about it.

[@PeriwinklePangolin24]

When Dan said that, I stopped short to process the accuracy and the intensity of that burn. Will forever be relevant to discussions of Doug.

[@dylansmith5206]

Hey BTW! As far that Mario Met Batman sketch Doug was doing in Demo Reel's first episode is concerned! It get's even worse when you stop and realize that Doug is actively explaining to his audience why Bruce Wayne is dressing up as Mario! Thinking his auideince! To put it bluntly!! Doug is explaining the entire joke!!!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoCzXmWrodZlmM0

[@nate567987]

@@jwood8769 not really all his criticisms are wow you did not hold my hand or this is dumb I'm smart

[@jwood8769]

@@nate567987 that’s fair. He can be like that. Most the time

[@wjzav1971]

This entire video makes me want to walk up to Doug Walker and tell him: "I want you to make a movie. It can be a short movie, maybe thirty minutes if you want. But it must not contain ANY references or jokes to any other movies nor can it be in any way about the film industry or about criticism. It can be a comedy, drama, romance, comedic drama, anything. And preferably, it should not include any characters that you have played so far." If he were ever to do that, if he ever were forced to make something that is completely original and has no references to other works, I would be curious what the result would be.

[@amarevanhook7453]

That shit would be horrendous😭😭

[@psionicsknight6651]

Personally… I think he’d have an existential crisis and would implode, perhaps having to take a break from any and all work as the thought of making something original spirals into a deep-seated phobia that never is able to fully leave him. Like some kind of Lovecraftian boogeyman that is always watching Doug, but is *just* out of sight and everyone thinks he’s just going crazy because he can’t articulate the horror he feels… Or he’d just start it up, immediately get tired of being original, and then immediately break all of your rules you had for him.

[@NobleAbsinthe]

He would have to actually think for once. Doug has the same creative muscles as the people who made RWBY. They only know "creativity" from the stuff they consumed so they basically just make references or steal content whole cloth to make their abominations. Here's what I would do given your challenge if I was in Doug's shoes. It would actually be a movie where he isn't the main fucking character for once. It would be a movie about someone else struggling with depression. 10 years out of college with a writing degree and struggling to write about something meaningful and deep. Their whole writing career online was writing smut for MLP. He dawns a new pen-name and starts being serious. The reality is that every time he tries to write something serious it gets laughed off for being amateur. Eventually they try writing children's stories and he finds success until his account gets hacked and he's ousted as a MLP fanfic writer. We see the rise and fall of a writer who can't escape his past.

[@yourtimetraveleralara]

@@amarevanhook7453yeah

[@PointsofData]

​@NobleAbsinthe A couple sentences into your synopsis I was like "should I tell him that's just Avenue Q?" and then you really diverged and yeah...that'd be good. I personally would go for a time-lapse angle, showing how the multiple fandom they like DID bring them happiness (even if in a shitpost kind of way) and then yada yada the rise and fall and shame but end it on a bittersweet sort of note showing that they do have _potential,_ they have skills they've curated from all the past work they've done and there are many avenues of work they can persue, but they have get out of their own way. Ego, accepting past faults and shame, recognizing their supporters, etc etc. A fictional story about a lolcow essentially lmao. But Doug could never take that kind of angle, he'd either shit on them relentlessly and lose the sympathy part or just make the Gary Stu a self insert.

[@orrinmenkins2916]

I love how the major plot twist of the series (that would've undoubtedly taken far longer to pay off had things gone to plan) was that Doug's character was a horrifically bullied child actor. That it was supposed to be an apology for the disgusting treatment of Jake Lloyd over the years that led to his mental issues, and on a greater scale, an apology to all child actors that dealt with trauma from being exploited at such a young age. And the *very first scene* in the series is mocking the then 9-year-old Haley Joel Osment's line delivery in The Sixth Sense.

[@raijinslider6837]

I love how he had this whole plot about treating child actors better and in his smurfs review he literally said "every time this kid talks cancer gets stronger" like wtf

[@miticaBEP07]

@@raijinslider6837 the irony is that the aforementioned kid is a younger Jacob Tremblay, who’d go on to have an acclaimed career as a child actor in movies like Room, Wonder, Pixar’s Luca and Doctor Sleep. Would it have gone the same way had the mockery been on Jake Lloyd levels instead of “internet reviewer no one cares for” level?

[@ChildrenOfOwls]

@@raijinslider6837 okay I’ve never even seen nostalgia critic or this guy at all but that line made me laugh my ass off

[@JeffGoldblum64]

@@ChildrenOfOwls yeah kids think he is funny

[@ChildrenOfOwls]

@@JeffGoldblum64 neg me harder for having an opinion mommy

[@yserareborn]

You know, when Dan Olson said Doug’s humor was “what if Batman met Mario”, I thought that was hyperbole. I forgot that there actually was a scene where Bruce Wayne references Mario Mario.

[@tuffasgong]

There is no hyperbole with Dan Olsen, you done have learned.

[@ZachGatesHere]

The thing is, the joke could have been decent if done right, but as always Doug had to stretch the joke out for way, way too long and he had to slam the viewer over the head with the punchline.

[@eldanomurua]

Mario's last name is not Mario, man. What gives?

[@themyofmy]

@@eldanomurua yes it is what are you on about

[@shmuels1383]

@@eldanomurua isn't his full name Mario Jumpman Mario

[@SnakeskinSestra]

I love that since Doug is such a horrendous actor each of his characters need to have different hats, because otherwise they'd be indistinguishable from each other.

[@SnakeskinSestra]

@@jacksonteller3973 yeah okay

[@AB-bg2ib]

Oh man, tell me about it. Every technical aspect of these clips are horrible: the acting, the directing, the writing, the camera work, the lighting. I thought I was going to die of second-hand embarrassment during every clip.

[@VeganExtra]

@@jacksonteller3973 You're such a desperate twat. It's pathetic.

[@Senthain]

@@jacksonteller3973 Okay scat fetishist.

[@Senthain]

@@jacksonteller3973 Again, scat fetishist. Go ahead, tell me how literal human waste is perfectly fine. I fuckin dare ya.

[@CambriaBold]

19:06 Right here. This one single dumb moment is a perfect summation of why Doug Walker's attempts at comedy consistently fail, and it's not necessarily because "lol what if batman met mario??" In this moment, he did it. he told a half-decent joke.There's some comedy to be gleaned from Bruce Wayne being so terrified of Mario for some reason that he thinks to dress as him to terrify other people! It's absurd comedy, but it's comedy! All he had to do was stop at "it's time the world knew my fear" and he'd have a joke with a punchline! It's so close! ...and yet, he keeps going. He can't just leave it there; he needs to have Alfred stop and ask *why,* and then he has to stand there and *explain the joke.* He flew right past his own punchline and completely blew any comedic momentum the scene might've had. This is not an isolated screwup; it's how most of Doug's comedic writing is. He'll do something absurd and ridiculous, sometimes juxtaposing opposite things to really lean into the absurdity...and then shoots himself in the foot by talking too much, or giving his actors too much to say. It's like he's not confident in his ability to get a joke across and let his delivery do the legwork so he has to keep fucking going so you're *sure* you know that yes, that was indeed meant to be a joke. Would his work be good if he showed some restraint? Probably not. Would it be *better?* Probably, yeah.

[@YewrinePish]

The guy is Reddit incarnate

[@SmokeyEdits]

i seem to recall his old videos having some similar jokes, but the key difference was that they didn't drag on *too* long past the punchline, and were a lot more self-aware about how the rest of the scene is taking the piss out of the joke. like there used to be some legitimate writing chops there once upon a time but i fear they've long since been lost

[@lordkizzle]

This is exactly what he does all the time. I actually got a chuckle out of the idea that Bruce Wayne might be identified by his hand but he dragged out the whole one-gloved Batman thing for a full minute. It seems like when he can't decide which joke he wants to make about something he'll make all of them instead of just making a joke and moving on to something new.

[@daltonbedore8396]

id guess its because he actually doesn't have a typical sense of irony or what people find funny

[@senorsnout4417]

Didn't College Humor have a video with that joke, but way better? Like, Batman gets hit with Scarecrow's Fear Toxin, and he's hallucinating and Crane is reveling in it, until he realizes Batman is afraid of stupid shit?

[@sz5001]

the best summary of Doug and Rob's skills as film critics is their opinion on Spider-Verse alternating between animating different characters in 12 and 24fps - "I guess they ran out of money for animation or something".

[@skibot9974]

Jesus christ

[@oninaru]

I refuse to believe this is true. It's pretty clear what movie makers were doing with that difference.

[@timothymclean]

​@@oninaru This is the same man who looked at _The Wall's_ songs/scenes of the abusive 1950's British primary school, complete with images of elementary-aged schoolchildren, and assumed Roger Waters was complaining about how high school bites. And who called Waters's reflection on the trauma inflicted by WW2, and _The Wall_ accusing the Allies of following the same path the Axis had, a "World War 2 reference". Doug (and/or whoever else contributes to the criticism components of _Nostalgia Critic)_ is hidebound by a sort of literalism which works adequately for most crummy kid movies people feel a vague nostalgia for, but poorly for anything more ambitious than that. They also don't seem to give their first impressions a second thought, don't double-check it against the actual subject to make sure it fits.

[@oninaru]

@@timothymclean Very fair point. Sometimes I just forgot how surface level and incapable of understand anything deeper than Looney Tunes Doug is.

[@jeltje50]

@@oninaru noo.. Noo he has a surface level understanding of that too

[@LaurasBookBlog]

The craziest thing about Doug Walker and Demo Reel to me is that the man spent years and years watching movies and tv shows and riffing on what made them bad, and yet he doesn't seem to have . . . internalized any of it? Like, he learned nothing about filmmaking or what makes a joke successful or how to create compelling characters. You really have to WORK to remain that ignorant. Especially because (per the Not So Awesome document) some members of Channel Awesome who were actually trained filmmakers offered to help him and he shut them down.

[@StarlightPrism]

I wonder if maybe Doug is one of those people who only looks at the surface level of the media that he consumes. People like that can recognize that something is good but they don't understand WHY it's good. They don't attempt deeper analysis because they view that sort of thing as pretentious and unnecessary. Since they only look at the surface level, they THINK they understand everything that they need to.

[@brianvaira486]

I feel like Doug has this mindset that he's just a silly internet critic, so he can get away with cruddier content. There was a video he made where he was responding to criticism of Kickassia in his "ask that guy" character. And his attitude was essentially, "I'm providing you with free entertainment, you have no right to complain"

[@Xondar11223344]

@@StarlightPrism Considering how he summarized what the Wall was about, I'd say that's a pretty accurate description.

[@rattyeely]

Most of his film criticism was pretty shallow and nitpicky, I don't think he learned anything from his reviews

[@LaurasBookBlog]

@@StarlightPrism It definitely seems to be the case that he's not an especially deep thinker, and the Nostalgia Critic wasn't exactly what you'd call hard-hitting analysis. It's just odd to me that someone who cares enough about sketch comedy to want to make a career doing it devoted so little time and brainpower to understanding what makes it work.

[@JadedJada]

So bizarre to think that there was a time when Doug Walker was popular enough, and Arin Hansen obscure enough, that an episode of Demo Reel could have a cameo from Egoraptor. 2012 was a WEIRD year.

[@MeansofIntrigue]

Arin Hansen obscure in 2012? Nah. He'd been immensely popular since 2008. Granted, he was known primarily as Egoraptor/ an animator rather than that Game Grumps era Arin but regardless: to label him as obscure in 2012 - even obscure 'enough' relative to Doug - is a little strong.

[@rommix0]

Yeah. 2012 was when bronies ruled the earth lol. The early 2010s were a lot of fun but it is weird in retrospect.

[@inspectorjavert9868]

@@rommix0 You mean when Bronies were sent death threats for existing right? Because that's how I remember the old days. It was glorious.

[@rommix0]

@@inspectorjavert9868 not really. 2012 was when bronies were widely accepted. I know cause I used to be one for a brief period. The brony shaming came much later.

[@InsertCleverNameHere0]

@@MeansofIntrigue Well, it's all about degrees. People who were in the know and who liked funny internet animation knew Egoraptor. The individual videos were huge but Egoraptor wasn't a "brand" the way Game Grumps is now a massive brand, or the way Nostalgia Critic/Channel Awesome was (trying to be) a brand.

[@SakiMcGee]

33:38 He did not! I know this because my friends and I are in this episode, entirely without our knowledge! Although it turned out to be extremely hilarious because my friend was literally cosplaying /as/ the Nostalgia Critic. Doug (in character, I now know) asked who she was dressed as and I snark something about her being "some weird homeless guy", I think.

[@jackdavenport5011]

Saying that to his face with him not being able to react because he’s in character is so funny to imagine

[@AngelFace1991]

Considering Doug got (justifiably) angry at the movie Patch Adams for the way it misrepresented a real man's life and distorted the tragic death of his male friend in order to repurpose it for the death of a female love interest who didn't exist its EXTREMELY hypocritical what he ends up doing with Jake and Elizabeth's real struggles here. Does he think because Demo Real isn't an attempt at a biopic it means he can pull the same crap he was previously condemning?

[@GabyyRose]

She really said "My first big video is going to be a 1 hour essay on why Doug Walker bad" and that was the absolute best move she could have made !

[@GabyyRose]

@@jacksonteller3973 I would disagree on the "talented" part but he's a known asshole who covered his boss when he sexuality assaulted several woman so literally who cares if he's talented. Also there's the whole thing about how he treated the actors on the set of "To boldly flee" it's a long story but if ever want to look it up it's terrible and he basically left the actors to get hungry and dehydrated during a very hot day and was an overall asshole on set. So yeah. Don't care.

[@GabyyRose]

Me : I don't support Doug Walker because he covered for a rapist. You : It has been proven to be untrue so you're an asshole. ??? That insult sounds so bad on your part. Like omg I'm so sorry I believed several 1 hour videos that explained everything in detailed and confused TGWTG producer with Jew Wario after several years of this happening while there are stil several accusation of different kinds on Doug and his brother and the former producer of TGWTG anyway. Also good job at linking a video of a guy who turned off comments and likes and starts the video being ultra defensive surely this'll be a good video. Also he even states himself that Channel Awesome is still terrible so why are you attacking me like that hello ?

[@ElvenRaptor]

@@GabyyRose Don't bother with this kid. He's harassing me, too.

[@GabyyRose]

​@@ElvenRaptor Lol I wrote a 3rd reply and KZbin said "Nah fam don't bother" and the comment didn't show up so even them knew x) Yeah I saw him replying several other comments. Dude needs to chill. I mean I'm literally siding with him and saying I was wrong and dude calls me a liar after calling me an asshole because I believde what several hundreds of thousands also believe to be true... like ok...

[@randomrandle9141]

@@GabyyRose your points are kinda bullshit ngl

[@weirdotzero7065]

I swear, Doug Walker is starting to sound like a Greek tragedy for the internet age. A man who quit his soul crushing job to become an internet celebrity with dozens of collaborators for an up and coming website who's job has become as, if not more, soul crushing than his previous job. Who's negligence, narcissism, hubris, and just stupid decisions led to all his colleagues leaving him behind. And is now just a foot note of the internet, who only ever gets brought up when looking back on his bad stuff back then, really REALLY bad stuff now, and #ChangeTheChannel. Stuck doing the very job he tried to escape from.

[@frankreads8618]

His life could make for a compelling movie, actually.

[@TheTrainFan9]

@@frankreads8618 I could see someone like David Fincher do a story about someone like Doug Walker. Fincher has done a lot of interesting character study films like Fight Club, Social Network, Gone Girl. He could definitely make a compelling story of an artist that's so caught up in his vision, he can't see that he's making a big pile of crap.

[@Fernando.lorijola]

I would hardly call someone who can, on a week by week basis, gather anywhere from 300 thousands to 800 thousands views on his videos a "foot note of the internet"

[@starofjustice1]

@@TheTrainFan9 "He could definitely make a compelling story of an artist that's so caught up in his vision, he can't see that he's making a big pile of crap." That sounds more like Mr. Enter trying to get his own cartoon made.

[@TheTrainFan9]

@@starofjustice1 He did? The guy that acted like Teen Titans Go was the most disrespectful thing on planet earth and up until a few years ago was still editing in Windows Movie Maker? That guy tried to get a cartoon made about him? The egos of some people, I swear.

[@raycearcher5794]

I think it's very telling that so many of the people Doug hurt an alienated have gone on to do video essays about him, and the bulk of their reactions are not hate or anger, but a sort of sad, tired pity.

[@annamaria9073]

Who did? All I've seen from the people I watch/watched were like 'please refer to the Change the Channel document I don't want to talk about it anymore'

[@leeartlee915]

Not sure why. He made a lot of money being completely mediocre.

[@margaretmadole]

​@@annamaria9073I really love Kyle Kallgren (Brows Held High)'s essay "Nostalghia Critique." I wouldn't say that one isn't angry, but I'd definitely say there's a lot of pity to it as well

[@annamaria9073]

@@margaretmadole oh I haven't seen that yet. Hold up I have to do something. Edit: I like it, but I feel it's more about the work of a reviewer on KZbin than about Doug or Channel Awesome

[@skibot9974]

@@annamaria9073 Lindsey Ellis left channel awesome in 2015 to do her video essays and that went well too the hate campaign against her in 2021

[@duncandisorderly9445]

That tonal whiplash at the end of Demo Reel… My mind just went to how Ctrl-Alt-Del went and tried to do “Loss”

[@Zappa_boi]

| | | | | | _

[@mattpace1026]

At least the guy making the comic had a reason for doing that. He was trying to deal with his own personal trauma. Doug, on the other hand, just made things up as he went along.

[@ekki1993]

Loss at least delivered a pretty powerful scene (even if it's just a 4-panel comic). I remember finding it without knowing CAD nor having any context and being confused at the memes. The comic is earnestly sad and makes a lot with no dialogue.

[@visitor5451]

you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself doing the supervillain shuffle.

[@sparthyslaysstuff2405]

😂😂

[@jacedjohnson3541]

Get the like train on this comment. Gold

[@lastlife0726]

"They decided to feed Rebecca Sugar" Fuck I'm glad someone did, they're not going to write cartoons on an empty stomach.

[@stingerjohnny9951]

You have to make sure you keep your talent fed, preferably with fresh vegetables and free range eggs.

[@gunnymaru2900]

I for some reason thought that this was a pun on Rebecca Sugar

[@lastlife0726]

@@gunnymaru2900 it was 😭

[@gunnymaru2900]

@@lastlife0726 lol I got your joke, but for some reason I thought Nostalgia Critic was that clever. That was my fault 😪

[@ChristieBrewster]

I had similar with "...the vampires in Twilight sparkle..."

[@AllWIllFall2Me]

I think it's fascinating, as you say, to see how, with more work and a change in tone/discussion the over-arching plot of Demo Reel, if incorporated earlier, would have helped shape and define the series. Like, when you unpack the backstories of the main three, and even, to an extent, the joke cameramen, you find that they're all struggling with legacy/history. Tacoma was awarded for taking down HIS FATHER'S Ponzi scheme, and now no one will give him work. Rebecca is fighting against a sexist and neglectful system while dealing with trauma from childhood sexual abuse and neglect. The crew are implicitly former criminals, working in a legitimate business. A Demo Reel is, by definition, presenting an Actor's past as evidence for their future: here's the good things they did, hire them. The COMPANY Demo Reel is attempting to remake movies that they think failed. The entire series is thematically, all about second chances, on overcoming your past and making something new. Even the specific movies chosen for parody/homage have plenty of space to explore these themes, and how the industry treats women and actors of color, allowing for actual character arcs. Hell, you could even use the redemptive idea/labor of love argument as the counter to the Swede Actor's Guild at the end: it doesn't matter if their movies are GOOD. Making good movies didn't save Dupree's mother. Making bad movies doesn't mean Dupree doesn't have fans. People need things that make them happy, and it's not your place (or, as the pay-off to the character arc) Dupree's place to render judgment on them. But the show, as presented, is almost unaware of these connections, or thinks it would be dumb to delve into them for more than a couple moments. It HINTS at a good narrative, without fleshing it out.

[@timothymclean]

If only Doug Walker was a better writer, Demo Reel could have said something. Something purposeful, meaningful, coherent. Instead, we have "What if Batman met Mario?", jokes about sexual abuse, and appropriated tragedy that builds to nothing.

[@pentelegomenon1175]

Doug has little interest in anything aside from getting a laugh, which does make it odd that he even invoked such controversial subject matter, I guess he was trying to give his humor some teeth.

[@waywardmind]

I think the deeper problem is that Doug Walker isn't capable of following through on any of that. Dan Olson really hit the nail on the head when he said that "Doug wants to be a filmmaker. He wants to make art. But he can't, because he's a fundamentally incurious person who isn't much interested in how other people think or feel. All of his ideas boil down to 'what if Batman met Mario?'." In order for Demo Reel to have gone in the directions that are implied would require someone who understands narrative, and Doug Walker doesn't. At all. He doesn't get *why* good movies work, and his understanding of why bad movies are bad is limited to surface-level plot holes or plot contrivances -- the Cinemasins "gotcha! I win" grade of criticism.

[@xenotiic8356]

Hit the nail on the head.

[@ashikjaman1940]

it's like rwby but for mid 2000s movie reviews

[@indiaknipe7393]

You're so right about the fact that part of the reason everything looks so shitty is because Doug never leans in to the fact that they have no budget. The movie Tangerine is shot exclusively on iphone 5s, and even though this was because of budget reasons, it also helps to create this intimate, fly-on-the-wall feeling and matches the gritty enviornment the characters live in. It makes the story better. Every time I see something Doug Walkers made it feels like he's trying to emmulate a big-budget production, and it just never works

[@danielshore1457]

Aren't like some of the mist cult-classic films made on a shield string budget? Blair witch, cloverfield I believe was, district 9, and I think chronicle was as well as many others

[@waywardmind]

I mean, he's also just flat-out an inept filmmaker, so I don't think it matters what his budget is. Even if he had $10 million, it's highly unlikely he would make anything watchable.

[@phantomzone2725]

​@@danielshore1457 Only The Blair Witch Project had a low budget (between $200.000 and $750.000). The others you mentioned had something between $15 million and $35 million, which is not that low in comparison to what Blair or Doug Walker had

[@NICKtendoReviews]

Thank you, now I don’t have to ever watch Demo Reel.

[@ToonrificTariq]

Nick, we’re watching it tonight. Suit up.

[@CsBTransition]

“Fucks Egoraptor from Game Grumps” Never thought I’d hear that twice in the same video.

[@teddyfurstman1997]

Now, I won't have a reason to come back to Demo Reel and Current Nostalgic Critic content.

[@NICKtendoReviews]

@@ToonrificTariq sorry SON, it’s Tom and Jerry night.

[@tehn00bdude]

@@CsBTransition if you want your poop to be rocky, do it with pocky.

[@AdmiralTipsy]

It fucks me up so much whenever I notice that Doug is FILMING HIS LIGHTING EQUIPMENT. Literally 80% of the shots in demo reel have pretty nice-looking softboxes, light domes, and multiple stands in the background, and yet EVERY SINGLE SCENE is over or under exposed. He's literally only using them as props to remind us that he's playing the part of a "director" on a "movie set" and my mind can't even comprehend how dumb that is. USE YOUR LIGHTS.

[@Outpost38C]

I am losing my mind over how funny this is. He’s too busy using them as props to actually use them for good lighting. Holy shit.

[@timothymclean]

You _can_ do both! Just turn on the lights and move the camera back a few feet or mess with the field of view or something so they're in the shot!

[@WeirdWonderful]

Doug literally burst out laughing when he was told he should provide WATER to a crew of several dozen people filming in the DESSERT. So that doesn't surprise me at all.

[@WeirdWonderful]

@@timothymclean But that's effort Doug can instead use to superimpose his incredibly shit bargain bin "animations" on the screen while he makes an Ernie Hudson refference !

[@goosegas2087]

@@WeirdWonderful Mmm, dessert.

[@WeirdWonderful]

Also the fact Doug did not consider for even a moment that all the other content creators on his site might be hit hard by him surprise-cancelling the website's main draw shows how much he cares about other people.

[@ellipsoidi]

He was arrogant and incompetent enough to think that he could just replace the nostalgia critic with demo reel and every fan would just stay and watch. I don't think you can call him a bad person for that however. Maybe he thought that demo reel would be even more successful because he had more passion to work on it than nostalgia critic, therefore the switch being good for everyone working for the site. He was delusional, sure, but negligent towards the other creators, doubt it.

[@WeirdWonderful]

@@ellipsoidi Oh you can call him bad for other reasons. Like voting to fire their HR person a day after her surgery, or knowing about Jew Wario's sinister side and doing nothing, or keeping as Producer a man who apparently repeatedly lewdly harassed content creators, or that time he burst out laughing when told his cast and crew of 40 ish people filming in the DESERT need water. Or him basically making people spend extra time while on set filming his anniversary movies to record crossovers to make CA even more ad revenue to make up for the fact they had to be given accomodations to sleep in while filming Doug's anniversary movies.

[@ellipsoidi]

@@WeirdWonderful thanks for the lore dump but I was just referring to him switching shows suddenly.

[@PowderedToastMan477]

Considering how HARD it is to gather a solid fanbase/viewers on YT, just up and drop his main draw to his channel was crazy selfish.

[@dracocrusher]

Everything I've seen seems to suggest it's less maliciousness and more that Doug's just a fucking idiot! He's beyond arrogant and doesn't even consider that the stuff he's doing might not be a good way to handle things. And from one perspective, I can kind-of understand? He's a big internet personality doing a weekly show, it makes sense that early on he'd get used to acting first and thinking later, and when that works you're going to get an ego from your fanbase over it. But this is so far after he dipped his toes into 'real' filmmaking, like....... Did he just think Demo Reel was going to be such a big success that it wouldn't matter? Or was he just so blinded by the idea of moving on that he never considered there'd be consequences for trying to drop his biggest project for something new? Because I can easily see both of these being true!

[@phnargg]

That part about Doug’s homage(?) to Jake Lloyd and Elizabeth Hartman sticks out to me, because it really speaks to Doug’s failure to effectively communicate his ideas using the medium. As Dan Olson might put it, Doug just doesn’t understand the language of comedy. He doesn’t understand that using similar-but-different names for story elements makes it sound like parody. He doesn’t understand that using real-life events as backstory for an intentionally obnoxious, whiny character who we’re meant to laugh at frames those events as being kind of a joke too. And he doesn’t understand that positioning an over-the-top kidnapping as next in this sequence of events just… undercuts everything.

[@shaggytheshaman]

Ed Wood objectively knew more about filmmaking than Cinema Sins. Cinema Sins is basically just Nostalgia Critic without the constant screaming.

[@zoewells3160]

Definitely.

[@doraeguyakaneddie6586]

The sad part is that when he's does more straight forward content,it isn't that bad

[@redacted2275]

I hate entitled critics who think their word is gospel. I hate even more the audience who enables them. Cinema Sins and Doug Walker even did a crossover years ago.

[@vanroyal244]

It's a little unfair to compare the two tho, because at least cinema sins doesn't have controversy about an abusive company and don't add stupid skits In the middle of the sins count. At least there make an attempt at a review. At least they don't proclaim that they love the films they are "critisizing" and then stepping on that claim with high heels. Cinema sins may be a bad place to look for actual review content, but at least, at least, someone could enjoy it, and laugh at it. Nostalgia critic fails to do these things.

[@Predator20357]

@@vanroyal244 As much as I find Cinema Sins to be bad for reviews, disconnecting it as a review and it can be enjoyable as dry humor making fun of nitpicky reviewers

[@marcrusso3142]

The issue with Doug Walker is he only knows how to write one type of character and style of humor: basically a Yakko Warner and/or Groucho Marx type character - flippant, snarky, always one step ahead of everyone else, and constantly winking at the audience with random non-sequitur absurdist humor, meta-humor/fourth-wall breaking, and pop-culture references. This character archetype is rarely self-deprecating and constantly torments his co-stars, but theoretically gets away with it because the Universe they inhabit is supposed to be an absurdist realm that transcends any notion of morality. You can tell Doug watched a lot of Animaniacs or Bugs Bunny and loves those type of characters. The problem is that Yakko (along with Yakko's progenitor, Groucho Marx) were written by people with a lot more talent and restraint. These types of characters need to be written in a way that plays up the absurdist nature of the Universe they inhabit - they exist in an amoral Universe where you can torment someone and it's funny. But if mishandled, it's easy for this type of character to come off as egotistical, mean-spirited or nihilistic. I think Doug just too often veered into the nihilistic, mean-spirited side that easily emerges if this type of character doesn't stay firmly within the realm of the absurd. Plus, he depends way too much on obvious, over-saturated pop-culture references or parodies that had already been done to death.

[@TheSoulvian]

I'd recommend watching the vlog "Doug's Top 15 Comedic Influences" from years ago. Explains a lot. He does say that Looney Tunes and Animaniacs are both big influences on his comedy and you can definitely see this. Like a lot of his popculture humor and meta-humor feels very Animaniacs-ish just done with microbudget live-action instead of good animation which detracts a lot. I'd argue you can see the Looney Tunes influence most blatantly in something like Kickassia. However it's actually Daffy Duck who's the biggest influence on the Critic's character. Not Bugs Bunny. He's also cited characters like Professor Fate from The Great Race and even the Queen of Hearts from Disney's Alice in Wonderland as influences on the character. As in, loud angry insecure comedy-foil antagonists. But there's more besides that.

[@oneinathousand2156]

@@TheSoulvian and another influence is the show Blackadder starring Rowan Atkinson as a family of mostly snarky, deadpan, intelligent straight men surrounded by a world of idiots. What works about Blackadder is both Atkinson’s smooth performance that doesn’t make the audience hate him, but at the same time the narrative knows that the protagonists are jerks and so they often get their comeuppance at the end of each season or at least are portrayed as being the terrible people they are who are basically villains.

[@FronkZappa]

I think a big problem is he internalized the "the root of comedy is pain at someone's expense" as the inherent basis of comedy rather than a generalization on how it often functions. It explains why something like his The Wall parody is both so fascinating and frustrating at the same time - he sabotages any comedic potential out the gate because he's so hyperfixated on being snarky and building up the most juvenile criticisms he can through awful "parody". It's even worse because there's plenty of bits in the source material that would actually make for a funny parody or analysis, but he essentially has to ignore everything the movie shows or says to either mock a non-sequitor or engage in weirdly self-aggrandizing segments where he can just say his opinions as a character in the narrative

[@backtoklondike]

@@FronkZappa Even when I was still a megafan of Doug, his statement that comedy should be based on misery always bothered me. I always thought that comedy and horror are opposite sides off the same coin. They both brings in an intense atmosphere and build up to something and then they hit you hit with a payoff. Misery can't part of that, it is common in both comedy and horror that characters are suffering greatly. But you can point to plenty of comedies (and horror movies) where the characters aren't suffering that are still great. Hell, one of Dougs major influences, MST3K, is a great example of that. Now you can argue that the characters are suffering from watching bad movies, but the true meat of the humor of the show is they are shouting one-liners based on whats happening in the films.

[@brandontjy]

@@backtoklondike I think you're probably right, and same about the "misery is the basis of comedy". Horror and Comedy both (as far as I can tell) work by subverting the normal. Horror abjects to create discomfort which then brings terror, and comedy does the same except it brings humour, and the line between the two seems to be very thin, which is actually very odd. Anywho, I don't think Doug understands that, and there is a certain irony that a man whose only understanding of humour being misery is now stuck in his own karmic hell. I know there's a lot of controversy surrounding him but still. Poor guy.

[@Neddyhk]

I actually ran into Rachel Tietz at a local theater. I had seen her in some of the "return of the Nostalgia Critic" episodes, and found her honestly very funny with great comedic timing. So I said I was a "great fan of her work with Doug Walker." (So I wouldn't embarrass her by explicitly saying she was in crappy internet stuff) I feel now like it's a backhanded insult.

[@edgyspaceunicorn7215]

Fun fact: this video has more views than any actual Demo Reel upload.

[@Lawnie]

I never watched Demo Reel myself, but I was friends on Tumblr with at least one person who did and from seeing them, I think it was a bit like BBC Sherlock in that they loved what they could make of the show rather than what it actually was. If you take away the kinda offensive real-world origins of Donnie's backstory, play Rebecca's straight instead of as dark 2012 flippant comedy, and actually explore and address the racial struggles Tacoma has, there's a LOT of interesting material to work with and genuine found-family potential. I feel like the fans were going through a refuse heap to find pieces of straw that they spun into gold while, in some cases, behaving as though the gold was already there and ignoring the trash around it. I love the idea of a female abuse survivor and a man of colour teaming up with a bullied bisexual former child star whose mother was destroyed by the movie industry to take it down a peg or two. But it's also the sort of narrative that needs either own voices creating it or very deft handling with the aid of sensitivity readers, which is the polar opposite of 2012 Doug Walker.

[@LadyEmilyPresents]

I keep going back to this comment because it really captures part of why I wanted to revisit Demo Reel. The way some of its fanbase talk about it, you would think it’s this surprisingly well handled show with a cast of rich and tragic characters and important commentary. And while it has the bones to potentially be something like that, it really isn’t, so fans have to fill in that gap on their own. It’s really interesting to imagine what version of Demo Reel could be made if it actually matched that perception.

[@jellybean_91]

Brilliant comment! And I totally agree with you.

[@zoeb3573]

"I love the idea of a female abuse survivor and a man of colour teaming up with a bullied bisexual former child star whose mother was destroyed by the movie industry to take it down a peg or two." that actually does sound like something I'd love to watch, too bad it was this.

[@michaelvessel4604]

@@zoeb3573 Yeah, you could really create an incredible BoJack Horseman style show about trauma and how truly shitty and damaging the whole entertainment industry is with that premise. Doug Walker should really be ashamed of himself for completely ruining a potentially interesting idea for a show.

[@quidradiobyzendirh.6174]

@@LadyEmilyPresents Let's Nolanize them...

[@zoewells3160]

If they’d been wise enough to stop the whole Mario routine at “Mario scares me. It’s time the rest of the world shared my fear.” it would have actually been an OK joke.

[@tmaxgo6696]

i think it kinda sounds like a bdg line

[@Scroogs]

Yeah Doug indulges in jokes like that all the time, ones with a pretty funny if “easy” punchline, but then another character calls out the punchline for not making sense and then they just talk back and forth for the next minute while you’re waiting for a second punchline that never comes because the humor is in how awkward the interaction is and how dumb one of them is, Mario in this case.

[@krisdoesart9643]

It's the kind of joke that can be funny because it's random and out of left field, if a bit boring and low hanging, but as soon as you try to indulge in the joke it just loses its shock value and falls completely flat

[@Prismashatter]

The reveal that he was in a Mario costume got a chuckle out of me, but as soon as it started dragging on it became absolutely painful.

[@videogamenostalgia]

The whole "lmao Mario jumps on turtles, that's so weird" thing is *so* played out in Internet culture. Like, it was a tired old joke in around 2008, let alone the time Demo Reel came out.

[@theytsnapbacks7776]

There's like two funny visual gags; 12:47 Donnie takes his glasses off, realizes he needs them to see, and puts them on again 18:08 Donnie trying on the Batman mask and his hat at the same time Aside from that, not much else.

[@ltbq]

honestly i always thought the joke about Rebecca Stoné's name having a silent accent was pretty funny

[@GAoftheBlackFlames]

They work because they're one off gags that don't literally go on for 180 seconds

[@danculbert6349]

@@ltbq Meh..

[@signoguns8501]

He was one of the biggest creators on this site at one point. Back when youtube was audience driven. Long before the algorithm we all know and love came into being. You have no else to blame but yourselves ;)

[@theytsnapbacks7776]

@@GAoftheBlackFlames true

[@YossarianVanDriver]

The Evangelion analogy is actually even more revealing, because Eva, like.../isn't/ a deconstruction of the mecha genre. Mecha has known putting kids in war machines is bad since the start, that's what OG Gundam is /about/. Anno made what was both a new spin on the genre and true to its existing strengths. Walker is, like, the polar opposite of that. "Movies are bad, and I'm smarter than them!"

[@timothymclean]

I'd like to point out that just because X is addressed in a foundational work of a genre doesn't mean that X played straight can't become a staple of that genre. Genre-defining works tend to be thoughtful (because you need to be good on _some_ level to inspire a whole genre, and that generally requires thoughtfulness), but genre fiction tends to include a lot of thoughtless crap.

[@ImB4k4]

It can even happen to individual series, not just genres. Rocky and Rambo were both pretty dark character portraits, but the sequels just leaned straight into fun movie violence.

[@noesunyoutuber7680]

I don't think Gundam is really the kind of show Evangelion is subverting - it seems more in line with a twist on the "Super Robot" subgenre of mech anime like Mazinger Z. Both Evangelion and Gundam are deconstructions of that in different ways, with Gundam recasting superhero-like mechs as more grounded weapons in a serious war drama, while Evangelion directly flips Super Robot elements (alien enemies as monsters of the week, the abandoned child who becomes humanity's last hope, the seeming sentience of the mechs, the hot-blooded rival, etc.) into a sometimes lovecraftian psychodrama. Whether or not other series had already deconstructed the Super Robot genre and become more dominant in our view of mech anime (as Gundam certainly did), I think Evangelion still functions as a response to those earlier Super Robot shows. Demo Reel was still bad though, no argument there.

[@tree_tape]

@@noesunyoutuber7680 I think my issue with people saying this is really that it's always people who have little to no familiarity with mecha anime throwing out these claims of "subversion" to a genre they don't actually even know but automatically dismiss. The statement "unlike most mecha anime, this one focuses more on the human aspect rather than the big robots" is kind of a meme in the mecha community because it makes eyes roll. There's this sort of obsession with "subversion"/"deconstruction" within western anime fans that Japanese people just don't really care about and don't even really see/intend, and in the case of mecha anime, it ends up feeling like there's a condescending attitude towards mecha anime. Like you get the feeling that in their subconscious, they're thinking "Evangelion is good, but that's specifically because it's unlike the other childish mecha anime I would never watch!". Of course, people familiar with the genre understand that there isn't really all that much "subversion" or "deconstruction", it's just a different flavour of the same genre, with many of the aspects always having been present anyway. Some fans even dismiss the concept of "real robot" because it isn't really that significant: Yoshiyuki Tomino didn't create "real robot" to stand out or subvert anything, it was simply a different type of mecha. And just like Doug Walker shows here, you can't create with cynicism and distaste: Tomino also made super robots before that with just as much passion. And guess what, some of those were really dark. But this also gets to another point: real robot/super robot doesn't influence tone or subject matter either, another reason why some mecha fans don't really care about the differentiation. This means that the only difference between real robot and super robot is that... I guess the real robot is slightly more realistic. Really, thinking about it this way makes it tough to find a concrete difference between the two. It's not even like real robots are realistic, they're just A BIT more realistic, because they STILL don't make any sense. And fans of mechas like the "two types" of robots for the exact same reason: seeing a cool big robot move and use cool attacks is fun. But in terms of subject matter and tone, there's nothing concretely differentiating the two. You can have a lighthearted "real robot" series as well as a dark and traumatic "super robot" series showing the children piloting the robots getting broken by it, that's not a concept invented or even popularised by Evangelion. And that's fine because Evangelion, unlike popular western interpretation, was not really particularly trying to be subversive, and even if it was, honestly, what a fucking boring idea! That would suck! Why are western fans so obsessed over feeling smart cause their show is "subversive"? It's not smart, it's trite as hell. It's literally the Doug Walker attitude we're meant to be making fun of here, "Movies are bad, and I'm smarter than them!" while understanding nothing. Being really cynical while being uneducated while looking for a reason to feel smart. Just enjoy the damn show, it being a mecha anime isn't a blight that must always be followed by a disclaimer that it's not like the other mecha shows. Yes, it is like the other mecha shows. Sorry if I sound like I'm yelling at you, I'm not pissed at you specifically or anything. It's just the thought of Evangelion fans and western audiences' obsession with subversion that gets me riled up for some reason. It really is funny that an Evangelion analogy was chosen for this video because it perfectly analogues Doug Walker's unwarranted cynicism towards movies.

[@Rokiriko]

Puting teenagers/kids in mechs is a stupid trope and there is nothing clever in "deconstructing it"

[@PerryPlanet]

Wasn't Doug Walker the same guy who criticized Captain Planet for not having the capability of tackling such a sensitive subject as AIDS? And now he thinks he's capable of tackling the issue of suicide?

[@paulmajano]

I’m calling it, he’s going to commit suicide in, while being in character as nostalgia critic.

[@summbuddie9120]

@@paulmajano um.... ok

[@jamesmeow3039]

@@paulmajano someone that deluded probably wouldn't have killed off the Nostalgia Critic and only revive him due the sequel project being a disaster.

[@MrNikk54]

@@paulmajano 0

[@TechnologicallyTechnical]

He made a very similar criticism of M. Night Shyamalan with Split back in 2017, saying he was tackling an issue that he wasn't fit to tackle... So still not the most self-aware person. I will say, I do remember a recent joke where he said something about pretentious wannabe filmmakers or something and flashed images of a bunch of people on the screen in quick succession as examples, the last of which being a photo of himself from like 10 years ago, so maybe he's a bit more humble now?

[@04whim]

In the fullness of context, the Nostalgia Critic suit up at the end feels a lot less 'Tony Stark donning the Iron Man mk3 for the first time' and a lot more 'Darth Vader coming off the operating table at the end of Revenge of the Sith'.

[@Georg3e]

True!

[@Rozilla]

This might be the most perfect analogy I've ever seen. 👍

[@KyleRayner12]

Significantly less cool, though.

[@asteroidrules]

And as pretty much always it's hard to tell how deliberate that was, given how bitter Doug was about having to go back to the nostalgia critic.

[@godzillaeater6261]

I’m so happy you brought up how much tv tropes simps for Doug Walker. There’s been points where I feel like some of the pages related to him are written BY him.

[@henrynelson9301]

I mean there’s an entire page named after Big Lipped Alligator Moment. On the other hand, the Super Villain Shuffle is no longer listed as a moment of awesome lol

[@SuperMarkerComicBro]

@@henrynelson9301 The best part is the explanation for why the Super Villain Shuffle was removed is, "The super villain shuffle song is forgotten for a reason: it sucks."

[@ironmaster6496]

@@henrynelson9301 Hahaha yeah i went to the site this morning to read about it and boom gone, i wonder if this video is the reason of that

[@henrynelson9301]

@@ironmaster6496 it was actually a week after the video came out. Like the other guy said, the person who removed it just said “The super villain shuffle song is forgotten for a reason: it sucks.”

[@Beatdoof]

A lot of the simping for Doug Walker came about in TVTropes pages during like early 2010s (hell Web Originals in trope pages tend to be filled with CA people and Doug Walker), nowadays a lot of the Doug Walker content/trope examples are a lot more curated and you'd rarely see people whole hog simping for him outside of old un-updated trope pages (i.e: The Awesome Moment part of Supervillain Shuffle before someone probably realized it shouldn't be there anymore and edited it out).

[@AconiteCaotix]

What's really offensive is that Walkers character's trauma is played seriously when Rebecca's trauma is played for laughs. I suppose that it could be argued that women tend to buffer their trauma with humor but it doesn't feel like Walker was thinking that deeply about it in that sense.

[@georgebarrett8065]

If Doug actually cared about both traumas, it could have been something like: Rebbeca was abused by her uncle at a young age and got into acting as a way of escaping her trauma. Joining Demo reel and wanting to be taken seriously is her way of proving to everyone and even herself she is more than her troubled upbringing.

[@justintheis9216]

the demo reel tv tropes pages makes repeated references to “the shipping” that the fans did and i have been burdened with this knowledge for years.

[@remysebald8893]

the.... the *what*

[@silveriver4436]

Who...who did they ship.

[@justintheis9216]

Silveriver 44 Doug and Rob. I will not be taking further questions.

[@remysebald8893]

@@justintheis9216 *...*

[@qstionblomens6138]

Oh god, I remember all the Channel Awesome shipping. I remember the CA k*nkmeme too. And I’ll always have that knowledge.

[@theautisticguitarist7560]

This team doesn't tell jokes, they explain jokes. Like Doug dressing up as Mario instead of batman could be funny, but not if he's just standing there explaining why it's funny.

[@greenmushroom2587]

The same goes to parody. The Doug Walker team's concept of parody is remaking the entire freaking scene, with one character going "hey, wait a minute..." around the middle of the sketch, before resuming and go back into remaking the rest of the original scene.

[@trainerflare]

Doug's humor reminds me of those awful Epic Movies when multiple franchises or celebrities are mixed into one film and makes the lowest common denominator go "hey I know what that thing is, that's hilarious!1!1" . Only thing missing is the "adult humor"

[@LeeONardo]

It also didn't help that scene went on and on with many costume changes and lines.. not saying this is any better but just making it quicker like this might have helped - Doug - My outfit will strike FEAR into my enemies ... Guy - (looks) but, it's MARIO?!? Doug - Mario always scared me as a kid. Guy - look think of a beast, a predator of the night. Doug - A bat could be good? Guy - yes! Doug - (comes back dressed as an actual batsman from baseball) Guy - ... oh for gods sake (pushes Doug off as he babbles about the outfit being good) (CUT to next scene where he is finally Batman)

[@mikzpwnz_3199]

@@trainerflare ah those movies burned mainly as most of the movies they were parodied were still in production and pre production so the film would be "current" with the year's releases. So they only had stuff like early trailers and little material and reference to work with and such usually fell flat when they don't fit. The jokes that had potential were usually from the main film they were parodying since they actually had an already and complete film made, released and reviewed to know which points to cover. Problem is that it's usually talentless hacks that write them so they are generally mediocre turned bad.

[@Kiyosuki]

Yeah now that you mention it, that's a gimmick he seemed to really really like isn't it? My only guess is that maybe it's supposed to be some sort of stab at post modernist humor, where we're supposed to laugh at their *attempt* at parody or something, that kinda thing was really popular at the time; but it just kind of rarely if ever hit and they just attempted it way too much imo.

[@schawangus]

I’m listening to this while drawing and I had to stop and laugh my ass off at “This does get complicated when Donnie fucks Egoraptor from Game Grumps…”

[@overwhelmed_cactus6820]

Same I had to pause just to take a few seconds to process it 😂

[@Juliett-A]

As Dan Olson so accurately said: He's youtube's own Tommy Wiseau.

[@obiwankenobi9141]

Complete with the same unwillingness to learn how a camera works

[@Meglizabeth13]

That ending just gave me an intense flash of existential dread imagining this from Doug’s perspective. It’s like a monkey’s paw kinda thing, he got exactly what he wanted but in the worst possible way.

[@CMOYoung]

@@jacksonteller3973 The editorials are definitely still great to rewatch. If he only did stuff like that without his dumbass personality and all that shit.... I'd still be watching.

[@zix1257]

@@jacksonteller3973 lol The Who meaning of “stagnant” is unmoving and unchanging. CA has lost most of its creators and exclusively relies on NC to stay open. That’s literally stagnation. I know you’re autistically obsessed with NC, and any criticism of which hurts you on a deep emotional level, but you gotta move on from this manchild phase. Because right now all you’re doin is proving that the only people who watch NC these days are sad manchildren, and actual children.

[@randomrandle9141]

@@zix1257 still no need to be an condescending asshole about it

[@SuperAWaC]

@@jacksonteller3973 you know, it's really easy to see you going around every comment thread shilling for him.

[@SuperAWaC]

@@jacksonteller3973 everyone come look at the shill and how they react once exposed for what they are

[@triccele]

The problem with Doug Walker is not that he's untalented, is that he refuses to accept it and progress in his craft. He was surounded by so many talented people and he, instead of learning from them, cliped their wings to be as bad as he was. I don't feel pity for him, he's so full of himself he never grew.

[@triccele]

@lucy y yeah, he is, but that is not necesarily a problem. You can learn and develop a talent, but he refuses to, that's the real problem (in my eyes at least).

[@nebufabu]

Essentially he got in on a very short-lived trend when something like the early NC made sense, and refused to notice there are only so many films where his shtick truly works or how the rest of the world moved on. He thought he established a new paradigm for how things are done in this age of -internet- -Web 2.0- social media, old rules don't apply, yada yada... And, in a way, he did, "some dude's over-the-top rants on pop culture" shows, some as old as Nostalgia Critic, are alive and well. But they moved on in a way NC really didn't. (AVGN slowed down as the supply of truly awful retro games that could justify that sort of thing started to exhaust, and started doing less ranty reviews of other media, Angry Joe added news, streaming and cinematography and production values Doug Walker never had...) NC missed that bus and is stuck as a low-effort rant show and nothing more now. OTOH, he could have gone full Carl of Swindon or something like that and got another few years of glory in 2014-19... It's a good thing he didn't.

[@JaredPresleyExperience]

@@nebufabu Totally agree. Plus with AVGN, James had other video ideas and experience that generally went over well with his fans. I checked channel awesome (haven't watched in a decade) and he's doing weekly NC videos. Who still watches that stuff? Lol

[@JaredPresleyExperience]

I met him years ago. He was nice to me but you definitely had the sense he was full of himself, especially at his panel I went to.

[@JaredPresleyExperience]

I met him years ago. He was nice to me but you definitely had the sense he was full of himself, especially at his panel I went to.

[@Spike-Prime]

Ignoring Channel Awesome's scummy history as a company, what I think Doug needed for this series was a real crew. He needed to do what someone like Tomska (Thomas Ridgewell) does, and get directors and writing partners. He also needed to actually DO some filmmaking courses. Not necessarily film school for years, but a few workshops at the absolute minimum. The guy thinks to this day he and his friends can do it all themselves and it'll be great, but Doug's fundamentally untalented and incurious. He refuses to truly grow, yet insist to all he's getting better with every project. But with every vanity project crap he produced, his work reveals greater sloppiness, lack of self awareness, and shallowness.

[@marias-i3333]

Thing is, he had that opportunity. Lots of people involved with channel awesome studied filmmaking professionally. Lindsay Ellis has said that when she tried to offer him suggestions to improve the crossover movies, he would ignore her or brush it off.

[@Spike-Prime]

@@marias-i3333 yeah that's what I mean. I cribbed a bit from Dan Olson there because he put it so eloquently; Douglas is fundamentally incurious. He doesn't want to hear how things can be done better. He's so arrogant that he thinks he already knows best. That which he does not know, he thinks he can learn on the job. But he's wrong, and his work is still bottom tier garbage.

[@richardvlasek2445]

thomas ridgewell is about as much of a narcissistic self absorbed egoist as doug walker is, the only difference between them is that thomas has a bit more natural talent and has managed to find a style that's relatively hard to replicate

[@Spike-Prime]

@@richardvlasek2445 There's that, and the fact Ridgewell is aware of his faults and actively works to try to better himself. He fucks up, makes stupid mistakes and has alienated several friends, but he attempts to make amends and admit to his issues openly. He also doesn't insist that he's talented to everyone and doesn't try to do it all himself. The guy's admitted he's good at getting other, more talented folks around him to help work on the sketches. Finally, Ridgewell went to film school, did media studies and has a Uni degree. Walker doesn't have shit. He just makes it up as he goes along, which is fine for some, but Walker has no real talent at all, yet thinks he can do it without help.

[@Spike-Prime]

@@marias-i3333 I have since learned that Doug actually did film school basically. He minored in film study at college. So he really is just incompetent and there is no getting better as a director for him because he just doesn't have it in him.

[@cymtk]

Here Ill finish the Arby's joke for him. "Wait stop, we cant go in there!" "What is it, guards? Traps? Did you get food poisoning once? A really mean sign that says keep out???" "No, worse. We havent purchased film rights for the location yet." and scene, leaving plenty of room for their villains to develop a little and for the deli fresh stakes to be raised.

[@SpikyChicky]

The ending about how Doug Walker is a sad figure in that he is stuck in a role he no longer finds enjoyable is especially sad when you remember his video where he walked out of his "dead end soul sucking office job". How is the Nostalgia Critic different from where he was before?

[@henriquesoares7893]

Jesus fucking christ, that is a bleak outlook But a very appropriate one, too

[@krh6239]

@@jacksonteller3973 Idk about that. It's been a minute since I've watched NC, but I do recall multiple times when he talks about how stuck he feels from time to time. I've seen entire episodes where he compares the channel in its early days to what it is now.

[@b.parker1740]

As absurd as this may sound, it kinda makes me wish someone would do a dark comedy biopic in the vein of Ed Wood or Disaster Artist about Doug Walker as this as this young, aspiring office worker who breaks into the You-Tube scene early on and gets corrupted with time into this sketchy, abuse-ignoring businessman who does a gig he clearly hates for years and watches all of his old fanbase turn on him.

[@b.parker1740]

@@jacksonteller3973 But like, he kept it hidden from the public, to the point where people didn't know about that until after JW died, and the document is filled with other cases similar to that (where the CA crew kept things under wraps and didn't get authorities involved). Also, like, if he still kept all his subscribers since day one, why have their been so many fan backlashes and people unsubscribing en masse after everything from videos like the Cranks one or the Change the Channel situation? It feels like a lot of those subscribers are either new to the channel or are unaware of everything involved with it.

[@b.parker1740]

@@jacksonteller3973 Yeah, because women being smuggled into women's shelters into the middle of the night is a sign of a loving, respecting employer who deserves defending at all costs. You seem way too sold on Doug's narratives and I'm not continuing this conversation if you can't admit that he did his employees wrong (plus, keep shaming Alison when, at least to her credit, she didn't lie about and blacklist a former co-producer stealing their significant other without said person having any feelings for them to begin with like a certain Brad did). I hope you enjoy knowing that Lindsay Ellis and Linkara will never collab with Doug again.

[@andrewn7263]

At just one minute in, "better known for his character The Nostalgia Critic" is a cold, cold sentence

[@DashingPunkSamurai]

@@jacksonteller3973 please give me your definition of successful? Cause I don’t think it means what you think it means.

[@lefteyereport6354]

@@jacksonteller3973 ok Doug

[@aztn19]

@@jacksonteller3973 it’s a self-defeating cycle of defending someone/something in a thread full of people only here to bash it. Walker’s collaborations with other creatives with notable celebrity like Don Bluth, James Rolfe, CinemaSins, TeamFourStar, among others voice actors and charitable efforts isn’t really up for debate as to his success as the Nostalgia Critic - he’s done alright for himself considering. This very video is the only popular content for Lady Emily, whom is profiting off of pointing out the failures of someone else who so far is way more successful than themselves, the same way as NC does/did. The folks here are hear to pile on hating Doug & laugh at his poor choices and not hear any counterpoints to that feeling. I came for “the tragedy of Demo Reel” too, but not to crap on NC as I still do enjoy his work on Channel Awesome. Demo Reel was a curiosity of a passion project that Doug still thinks has potential 8yrs after its failure; I came to see the origins of that. The show IS pretty crap though, yet it’s kind of a fascination that the remaining Channel Awesome team still looks to Demo Reel to draw inspiration from their biggest failure because they continue to have faith that they can make it work.

[@TheSilverPhoenix100]

@@aztn19 I think the problem with most of the people you mentioned is they got so big SO quickly and never realized how fleeting their success is and sadly most of them dont have a backup plan. Doug for instance kind of self inflicted his wound by killing the Critic to make this show which drove away his audience (though i will also be fair to Doug and say I think he surrounded himself with people who are just toxic to large audiences and then having Blip shut down did more damage long term to CA than killing the Critic did). Im watching now as it really seems that TFS is going down the same route as CA where they kill off the golden goose and frankly arent replacing it with somthing people want to see. Honestly as cruel as it sounds Doug is a great example of what you cant do if you become sucessful which is put yourself before your audience and videos like this kind of need to exist to show where the flaws are so other people dont do the same thing

[@DashingPunkSamurai]

@@jacksonteller3973 No it doesn’t. Working with an acclaimed director doesn’t make you successful, anyone with money can work with acclaimed people. But since you start resorting to insults, I highly doubt you can comprehend an intelligent conversation. And calling me a troll because I disagree with you opinion also just goes to show that you are intellectually stunted as I assumed you would be.

[@Insert.Oregano]

29:33 "They decide to feed Rebecca Sugar" Yeah that line confused me because I already for got the characters' names and thought we were talking about the creator of Steven Universe now

[@drakengodzeke]

Doug was able to fridge a real woman in his show. Impressive.

[@jakedanielsen4512]

Able to what

[@drakengodzeke]

@jakedanielsen4512 It's a reference to the original run of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. In issue 2 of his comic they kill his gf as a catalyst for his character growth and story development. The only reason for her existence was a plot point. I don't remember how it relates to a comment I made over a year ago sorry.

[@jakedanielsen4512]

@drakengodzeke Ahh yes, woman dying for dude's growth I get it

[@multitudeofidols]

"His idea of jokes a lot of time are just to have characters make pop culture references..." Sounds like he would make a great writer for _Family Guy._

[@thematt523]

The difference is that Family Guy never claimed to be a review show or be taken too seriously. When it wants to be taken seriously, it stops with the references.

[@zanite8650]

Back in the 2000s that's what humour 'was'. So glad we've outgrown it.

[@zoewells3160]

Tbh I think it’s unfair on Family Guy to compare it to something like the NC. Family Guy, especially modern Family Guy (although even the pre-cancellation seasons were hit and miss and best), is undeniably awful, but NC, taken as a “series” fails on a level so basic I don’t think there’s even a word for what it doesn’t manage to achieve since a piece of media achieving it is so fundamentally expected. Idk really even how to word this so my comment is probably confusing but hopefully you at least FEEL what I mean even if you can’t quite get what it is.

[@jacksobrooks]

This is worse than that time I was the nostalgia critic.

[@adamg7984]

@@zoewells3160 I don't think his content was a failure at all until he quit the NC the first time. He helped pioneer the genre. Sure, most people grew out of liking his content and his content more or less evolved in a worse direction but I also think people give him way too much shit for attempting to change his format. Frankly, some of his early NC episodes after Demo Reel were genuinely some of his best stuff. That's not saying a ton, but you can tell his jokes had some development. Family Guy is barely any better than a show like Nostalgia Critic. It's reference based humor, it appeals to people up to a point and then becomes incredibly annoying. That's why Family Guy used to be cherished by so many and is now hated. I don't see Doug Walker's shows having any worse or different an arc than 99% of TV shows that were successful. They started out fresh, grew stale and eventually the characters aren't remotely the same as what the show started with and everyone who loved the show initially begins to hate the changes and moves on. People just don't want to move on from Nostalgia Critic's old content, that's what I believe anyway. I don't like his new content but I don't go to every one of his videos and tell everyone he needs to change shit for ME. Yet to some degree, you have people who successfully keep up their show longer than anyone else. AVGN is a fair comparison for that, he's still going, at a slower pace, but most people still love his newer content as much as his older stuff. I think his new stuff is a lot better, personally. But you'll still find people who say he's too politically correct or some other bullshit that they don't like and feel he should go back to doing to please them individually. I'm just saying Doug Walker, Nostalgia Critic, whatever you want to call him, is not unique and is no worse than a lot of TV shows and internet creators. Spongebob, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy are all a few examples of shows I can think of that I adored early on and hated their later content. Very few shows can maintain consistency in both characters and tone, as well as narrative. I can think of Futurama as one where the main cast is mostly the same in the later seasons as in the early seasons. That's why a lot of shows need to die eventually, that's why Nostalgia Critic probably should have died and ended. Now he's so out of ideas, his content is awful.

[@pepi7404]

I think the sketch with Batman dressing up as Mario was genuinely funny ... until he's ask why and attempts to explain it ... and in the process doesn't just completely drag the joke down into the mud, but also reveals he doesn't know what's potentially funny about his own joke.

[@JackedThor-so]

Same

[@gorlomimargheriti8870]

“If you have to explain the joke, there is no joke!” - The Joker

[@Jaros]

Yeah I thought that as well while i was watching this, then as it began to drag and I thought "okay they're probably going to spend way too long on this" the text popped up on the screen saying "this scene goes on for two and a half minutes".

[@TechnologicallyTechnical]

Honestly, this is a problem I have with a lot of modern humor, where a joke that's kinda funny gets dragged out and become completely unfunny. I think Family Guy does this a lot as well.

[@curtailedbike4123]

Same I feel that goes for alot of his jokes. If they are funny he ruins it by making it too long ir does it over and over again

[@2leftarms]

This video is such a love letter to demo reel

[@The7thDraconian]

It's honestly fascinating going back to Doug Walker, a fixture in my teenage years, and seeing just how weirdly bad his stuff was. It's not even like going back to an old show I loved as a kid, cause I tend to just not like those (or realize I wasn't smart enough to realize just how great it was when I first watched it) because his stuff, for as bad as it was, is pretty formative to me. Without Nostalgia Critic, I wouldn't have found creators like Super Eyepatch Wolf, Clemps, or Lady Emily and I probably wouldn't have started writing my own analytical essays. This is such a great deep dive on one of his more notorious projects because it doesn't just go "Ha, internet man not know what he's doing" but tries to understand why he made the decisions he did and what the show says about his worldview. This is honestly inspiring as a first effort.

[@medes5597]

I think Doug did so well because he was the only person who put out videos on a consistent basis, that touched on fairly basic media analysis. If you were a teenager with an interest in film and narrative, for a good few years Doug was really the main draw. Even Lindsay's early work is similarly basic with a chaotic upload schedule. Doug won out as the default through consistency and the sheer amount of content. Its no a coincidence to me that once video essayists became established and began making consistent high quality film content, Doug's viewing figures have never recovered.

[@billyweed835]

Can we all acknowledge the irony that, as you go over at first, the Nostalgia Critic, a show whose entire premise is that things you liked as a kid often turn out to be not that good when you re-watch them as an adult, is now, for you and lots of other people, something they liked as kids but found to be kinda bad when watched in adulthood? That's some Shakespearean tragedy shit, right there. He could save others, but not himself.

[@SemperErato]

"This does get complicated when Donnie fucks Egoraptor from Game Grumps..." This line of summary alone begs several questions. Also, I literally spat tea on my floor and am holding Doug Walker personally liable.

[@eadlynjune]

And why Doug Walker? Arin can do so much better smh

[@DB-su4ke]

@@eadlynjune look, you can only pine for your curly haired former stoner coworker for so long. you gotta get your nut out somehow!

[@KOTEBANAROT]

@@eadlynjune yeah lol i have so little respect for Arin (and so much 'spit-on-the-floor disgust') but its still kinda weird they interacted at all

[@nobodybroda3826]

@@KOTEBANAROT what did arin do? I've been out of the loop on him.

[@MayorOfEarth79]

This was even way before Arin had Game Grumps. When he was just Egoraptor, that guy with the cool voice who did animations about game parodies.

[@gentlerat]

I think that one of the central things about pre-reboot Nostalgia Critic is that it had its niche: Children's movies from the 80s and 90s that most of us who were around Doug's age or slightly older or younger might remember vaguely and have a weird curiosity about not shared by the rest of society, but realized they were kinda dumb and didn't mind seeing someone getting really angry at them while trying to recount their plots. Also they weren't run into the ground yet. (Yup, I watched that old German Columbus movie back in the day, but no one until Doug was talking about it). This made his stuff come off as more groundbreaking because it was original observations, by the very nature that it had to be because no one else was talking about the relevant films as compared to the Nolan Batman films which College Humor had already picked apart.

[@Ninjat126]

It's even in the name. So much media gets made, and a lot of it gets forgotten. That's always the case, but in the case of children's media you've got lots of stuff kids will see at a young & impressionable age and have burned into their brains that then just gets... forgotten. I'm pretty sure that I saw a film in theatres as a child called "Help I'm a Fish" but I haven't seen or heard it referenced anywhere in the world since that day. Was it even real? I guess I could look it up, but "how long can I continue to live my life until someone spontaneously confirms or denies the existence of 'Help I'm a Fish'" is just a game I'm playing with myself now. There's a niche out there for a "nostalgia critic" that does retrospectives like that! It's interesting to see reviewers go back & dissect old media you absorbed before you were old enough to be media-literate, and break them apart like Gordon Ramsey with a fork.

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

​@@Ninjat126 Some people have reviewed that movie

[@cartoonjohnstudios]

Walker is the living embodiment of the Cartoon Rabbits poem: “He found a formula for drawing cartoon rabbits. This formula for drawing cartoon rabbits paid. Yet he could not break the tragic habits Drawing cartoon rabbits made.”

[@TheMajesticJunkyard]

God, any time I hear about Doug Walker I have this weird feeling of melancholy. I used to watch him all the time, he was the person that got me invested in films and filmmaking and now... idk.

[@mollymcdade4031]

I have a similar experience. Nostalgia Critic got me through a lot of rough times mental health times and I looked forward to watching it at the end of a long day. I’ve moved on but it’s still... it’s hard

[@rnezz1310]

I feel the exact same way. Like, the idea that you could think things in a movie were bad was just so novel to me and got me into filmmaking as a career option. it's wild to think about.

[@Hippiethecat124]

Accidentally wrote an embarrassingly long comment to say exactly what you did in a much more succinct fashion, rip doug

[@ElvenRaptor]

Ditto. I used to really look up to this guy. I mean, he was one of the few and the proud who broke away from a normal job and became a full-time entertainer outside of the Hollywood system when that still wasn't the norm. He basically had a budding empire on the old website, That Guy With The Glasses.com. He always seemed like a great guy in all the behind-the-scenes footage, and as far as early internet motion-picture content goes, The Nostalgia Critic and his other characters were just about as good as you could get. But... then he blew it all in 2012.

[@ElvenRaptor]

@@jacksonteller3973 And yet there are people who entered the business of online content creation up to a decade after he did who have enough to subs to make him look like a grain of salt by comparison. There are people who started making web videos up to a decade after him who have transcended into the mainstream. Doug's one million subscribers isn't that impressive when you consider this.

[@couchalmark675]

The best way I can put it is that Doug's story isn't sad because he deserved better, it's sad because he could have been better.

[@IncredibleMD]

The character arc of figuring out why Donnie is so dead set on mocking movies is gonna be disappointing because Doug hasn't reached the end of that character arc himself.

[@ShadowsAndScience]

I think one of my "favorite" parts of all the Demo Reel clips you showed here is the low ambient hum in the background of every single shot, indicating that Doug didn't perform even the most basic audio editing to correct for that. This man claims to be a professional, but doesn't even bother to even out random background noises in his big passion project series. Fantastic analysis by the way, this is one of the best video essays I've seen in quite some time!

[@ZorotheGallade]

I *might* play Devil's advocate here and suppose that the hum was left in intentionally to underline the fact the protagonists are amateur filmmakers...but yeah, when every single scene has that problem it's just inexcusable.

[@WyattoonsComics]

Something I’ve noticed across all of Doug’s projects is that he constantly calls his work “love letters”. That he’s so in love with movies and that all of his work is meant to showcase how great the medium can be. Yet it’s all so mean-spirited you can’t help but wonder if he even likes movies at all.

[@vanroyal244]

His Pink Floyd The Wall review is such a blazing example. Love it or hate it, it's a film that doesn't deserve the disrespect that Doug dumped on it. The lame and insulting parody songs wouldn't make anyone laugh or be entertained, no matter how much you hated the wall or how stupid your humor is. And the actual review at the end is "It was fine!" To justify the 40 minutes of constant torture. And then to rub salt in the wound, he decided to have a ROCK STAR sing the *SpongeBob SquarePants* theme song, because why not? I-I don't even know what audience it's made for...

[@videogamenostalgia]

How can you claim to love TV and film, absorb so much of it and not pick up *anything* meaningful about the artistry or creative process?

[@undeadMonk]

@@vanroyal244 To be fair to Doug, Corey Taylor is somewhat known for playing the spongebob squarepants theme at solo concerts. He didn't conjure that idea out of nothing. To be unfair to Doug, it makes perfect sense that he didn't come up with the gag himself. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h2ayfaeljpxjd6s

[@nebufabu]

He believes all humour is fundamentally mean, which in itself, is a defensible theory, he just never thought deeply about all the implications and edge cases... Like the affectionate parodies and how people can love both them and the works/genres parodied. So, he just decided adding "it's a love letter" is simply a polite thing people say to hide they're being mean, he never thought about how affectionate parodies really work.

[@thatlemonadeguy6742]

Yeah, his "The Wall" review not only showed to his last 3 fans how big he misses the point of what he criticizes, but also how mean-spirited he is. Like when he made fun of Another Brick in The Wall p. II because to him the idea of showing school in such a bad light was ridiculous (even tho it was Waters' experience after WWII) and at the same time thinking that the scene was a reference to the Hollocaust when it was just simply representing a slaughterhouse.

[@marcpaters0n]

After watching the new Folding Ideas, The Algorithm suggested this. All hail The Algorithm.

[@joselocalau123]

i’ve never watched a video by channel awesome and i only know of doug walker and the nostalgia critic very vaguely, but i’m still willing to watch two hours of people talking about them because it’s so entertaining lmao

[@TyCollage]

SAME!! 😂 P.s.: Check his Annihilation movie review as well

[@TyCollage]

@@joselocalau123 This saves you far more time and energy because I've tried and it's crazy, I was there for things like ask a ninja and freddyw's stuff etc etc, stick figures on crack lol It's amazing how much content creators have evolved and some havent

[@orimengu]

Wait SAME

[@PrinceZakariyya]

Yup

[@BMovieMadness]

The fact you watched Demo Reel is one of the most heroic things I've ever seen a youtuber do. Bless you.

[@stardoogalaxie9314]

I cant stop thinking about the “Mario Scares me” joke and how it can be a potentially funny joke a la The Batman Lego movie style where Bruce is scared of Mario, not because of the video game but because Bruce saw the Anti Drug Mario PSA a tad too young and its plagued him since. I like to believe that Alfred would have to question him once and Bruce, all steely would go “Ill make them go to Hell before they die.” And Alfred would go, “Yes, Master Bruce.” But would give him a “would you like to talk about it” look and Bruce would promptly go “I’ll go change.” After like a beat or two of silence.

[@ladybirdg5658]

I'd also like to point out that the reveal of Donnie's mother committing suicide was a sad, serious moment that defined his "tragic backstory," whilst every mention of Girl Character's csa was played for laughs. It's that trope of "woman suffering is sad because of how it makes Male Protagonist sad" versus "woman who brings up her past trauma (that didn't influence male's backstory) is just being a ridiculous whingebag and must be played off for laughs." It trivializes sexual trauma, it trivializes women's trauma, it's sexist as hell, and it "buried a woman" for the sake of furthering a man's backstory. It's gross.

[@tomhur1]

I think the thing that makes it worse is that I actually went back and watched the scene where Rebecca is having a sugar rush(Because I'm one of those morbidly curious types)...and it actually pissed me off more than I thought it would. Because all the stuff she's saying while stuck in the rush shows she clearly has some unresolved issues involving her parents...but it's played off as a joke and Takoma and Donnie react with annoyance at best. Like Emily said. You can't have Donnie's issue's taken seriously but play off Rebbecca's issues as a joke...

[@vanroyal244]

@@tomhur1 I feel like Doug has trouble with choices. Do I make this serious or do I make this funny? Do I make a review or do I make it a skit?

[@Mr_Bunk]

To paraphrase Red Dwarf, this man is only guilty of being Doug Walker. That is his crime, and it is also his punishment.

[@lewa3910]

Oh god, he is a rimmer

[@EmilReiko]

g a s p

[@FrenkTheJoy]

I think that quote fits Spoony way more.

[@FrenkTheJoy]

I mean rephrased to be about Spoony, I don't mean that Spoony's crime is being Doug Walker.

[@BenCol]

Ah, Red Dwarf: as shows written by two guys called Rob & Doug go, that’s one that’s still fun to go back and watch.

[@ragingfred]

James Rolfe and Doug Walker have a lot in common in how their Magnum Opus was an attempt to break away from their mold but instead condemned them to it forever.

[@zackarysullivan9019]

What was James Rolfe’s magnum opus? The AVGN movie?

[@DeviemTwen]

But there is one key difference! James Rolfe is a really nice guy, while Doug is an egotistical jerk.

[@Pundit07]

@@DeviemTwen And don’t forget: James is more respectable as a content creator because he’s made other projects outside of AVGN that were actually good (Board James, YKWBS, Monster Madness, etc.)

[@lsebastian9086]

@@DeviemTwen To this day i still hold more respect to James Rolfe than Doug Walker. Andi have many reasons: Well it's inevitable that something going for long is going to get weak. I mean not all the AVGN episodes are gonna be good, that is boudn to happen. And yet i legit wish he had a better team than Screenwave so he could had spared himself some fiascos And yet there are things i do genuienly admire of him and the way he handles things.I mean the Ghostbusters 2016 non review and his reasons, some of his perspective for Avatar, the final words i recall in the megaman AVGN episode, i felt those things i could learn from and a positive influence and Rlfe is a rather reasonable person in spite of how the Nerd is known for his huge rage. Doug walker?..i lot a lot of respect for him, but its not merely for his reviews as much as the CHannel awesome fiascos and his jarring mistakes, wich i feel i can't just forgive.

[@erich6073]

@@lsebastian9086 People always cite Rolfe's refusal to see/review Ghostbusters 2016 as an example of his commitment to "stay out of drama", but the mere fact that he made the video shows that he WAS indulging in the drama; he just wanted the credit for "staying out of it". Or that he's so egotistical that he thought the world wouldn't continue to spin if he, as a representative of all Ghostbusters fans, didn't issue some kind of statement instead of just, you know, not addressing it at all.

[@jackalobowaitthisnameistaken]

Just goes to show that no matter how cringey a creative endeavour is, the TV Tropes page will always be cringier.

[@morganqorishchi8181]

I remember liking the Nostalgia Critic's early reviews, because he made some good points sometimes about movies. For instance, he pointed out that the Care Bears movie *could've* done the predictable thing where the movie talks about love saving the day and then has something else do it, but instead stuck to its' moral. He talked about how Captain Planet trying to tackle AIDS was really out of its' depth and in retrospect feels poorly done and almost disrespectful. And when he reviewed an episode of Batman: the Animated Series that had a disabled villain, he really had a lot of sympathy for her and talked about how the world failed her. When I was 12, he seemed like a comedian who, as loud and ranty as he could get, had kindness to him and wanted media to not be dickish or insensitive about some topics. Then Demo Reel hit. The sensitive topics were handled so poorly that it ripped apart that mental image of him I'd had, made worse by the series not being very good. Eventually I just stopped watching him and watched other creators I'd found via the site instead. I think your video is the first time I've seen anyone point out how uncomfortable and gross some of the jokes/Doug's character's backstory is, so I'd just like to say thank you. For years I've wondered if I was being too sensitive, but now I realize that 1., it's valid to be made uncomfy by this, and 2. a lot of this was bad at the time, it's not merely a matter of it aging poorly.

[@keybyss98]

Even the way he digests other people’s opinions on movies (i.e. Someone going “Oh, I actually love that movie!”) felt off over the years. Like, sure, the critic himself was known to shit on other peoples’ love for movies he felt were bad, but I felt it was played off as a legitimate character flaw rather than something to support. Meanwhile, non-NC Doug would make it clear that it’s only a silly character thing, and that it’s OK to like movies others might not like. They are movies, after all. Post-reboot, though, things started to feel off. He would start to write fans of certain movies as antagonists in NC (like the “dumb” Adam Sandler fans). His non-NC stuff also started getting a little iffy to said fans, as well. It made me feel rather confused. Like, *is* Doug Walker tolerant of those who like movies he doesn’t? Was the pre-reboot stuff BS or did he legitimately change for the worst over the years? I know this is different from what you’ve mentioned, and maybe this is an unusual point to talk about, but I’ve definitely slowly backed away from Doug’s content for awhile partially because of this (plus the fact that the humor in it just wasn’t personally for me anymore). The whole “not-so-awesome” ordeal didn’t help, either.

[@gayflower900]

I’ve learned in recent years that if you ever find yourself asking “am I being too sensitive,” you’re probably not being too sensitive, you’re probably justified in reacting the way you are People who actually make a big deal over nothing usually don’t have that kind of self-awareness, and toxic people love to use the “you’re being too sensitive” defense to justify the horrible things they do

[@AlcoholicBoredom]

I know this is off topic, but is Lady Emily a "lady?" It sounds a lot like a guy trying to do a girl voice.

[@DBfan12]

@@AlcoholicBoredom I believe she’s a trans woman? Not sure though.

[@DBfan12]

@@AlcoholicBoredom I mean, I'm just assuming. She's still a girl as far as I care.

[@TheLowBrassDude]

According to the Not So Awesome document, Phelan Porteous joked about Demo Reel on his twitter (specifically in saying that there would be a big reveal in his web series that he was actually Sub-Zero) and he was asked to personally apologize to Doug Walker. If that doesn't speak volumes concerning Doug's ego, nothing will.

[@adrenalinevan]

fucking unbelievable...

[@keybyss98]

To be fair, wasn’t it that Mike Machaud (or whatever his name is) guy who generally has a massive history in the document of... just being a weirdo and douchenozzle in general? I’m not suggesting Doug doesn’t have his own garbage he needs to own up to, but if I recall correctly, I don’t think it was Doug who specifically asked Phelan to apologize to him. If anything, wasn’t Doug confused on that whole situation? Correct me if I’m wrong on any of this. I haven’t read/listened to the document in a while.

[@TheLowBrassDude]

@@keybyss98 IIRC The document only stated that Phelan was asked to apologize to Doug, it could have been on the behest of Michaud or even Robert Walker, but I do not recall if either of those were in the document.

[@vanroyal244]

@@keybyss98 Yeah, Douchebag gets all the blame just cause he's the face of the channel, but others such as Robin hood and Mike Ike are also responsible.

[@videogamenostalgia]

​@@keybyss98 In the document Doug just seems negligent, off in his own world and completely oblivious to what his colleagues were thinking and feeling, to the point where it sometimes comes across like he's deliberately keeping himself ignorant of those things, all of which is kind of inexcusable if you're ostensibly the face of the company and very close to the top of the organisation. Also the whole "cover up the fact that a former staff member is a sex offender and even make a loving video tribute to them despite knowing full well what they did" thing.

[@thefunborgpl]

honestly doug walker is like one one of those writing ai's. he got fed tens of thousands hours of media he noticed that good movies do x y and z, so he puts them in his movies thinking it'll work but it doesn't, he never understood why those elements are good or in what context should be used in he just put them because good writers do, and just like an ai he spits out a jumbled mess that not even a bad writer would write

[@rolandthompson8771]

I appreciate the boldness of comparing Evangelion to literally anything associated with the Nostalgia Critic. But from the way you describe Demo Reel, it seems like a better comparison is to Moral Orel on Adult Swim. The start of Orel was a crass, early South Park-esque simple satire of Evangelical Christianity and 50s Leave It to Beaver Americana where every episode was basically same joke of "look how hypocritical Christians are!" But over the course of the series, there is a marked shift away from that one-note structure and towards looking more deeply at character's backstories, interconnections with others, and the arcs of their lives. By the end, it's a shockingly intense and nuanced psychodrama based around the quiet desperation and unspoken darkness at the heart of American small town life, to the point where they deliberately bring back the structure of the early episodes just to hammer home how that violent absurdity is not only now totally out of place, but actually the cause of immense trauma for everyone involved. This is, of course, a fucking insane evolution. The fact that it didn't completely collapse into a tonedeaf mess is itself a testament to masterful writing and such intricate pacing that even a single episode out of place can destroy the whole thing (which Adult Swim actually did, greatly hobbling its effect for most viewers). Needless to say, it was a narrow creative tightrope and required a whole team of writers and directors to pull off. The idea that Doug Fucking Walker thought he could thread the needle of "goofy comedy turns into serious character drama and social commentary" by himself as his first genuine narrative outing is a better joke than anything he could ever write himself.

[@grantus_pax]

this description of the demo reel s1 finale just makes me think of "loss": Hack creator gets tired of writing D- comedy, tries to write drama instead. The result is still awful, and it's even worse bc the creator's main idea is "bring up a really heavy subject, just toss it at the audience like a big dead fish."

[@ZachGatesHere]

This actually could be an interesting topic for a whole long form essay. When creators feel pinned in by their funny creation and feel compelled to make something that involves a big rug pull at the end in an attempt to make pathos.

[@schnarfschnarf5886]

A whopper of a fish

[@RennWickam]

41:07 Jake Lloyd actually went to my elementary school many years before I had attended, and the teacher I had for second grade, Mrs. Talbot, was the last teacher he ever had through the public school system. She used to use him as the example for our class about how bullying can happen to anyone, as he was pulled out of school after all his peers relentlessly picked on him for his acting in Episode I and his small stature

[@DrewSew]

I'll be real, the way you cut the "Batman being afraid of Mario" joke made it seem way funnier than the full 2 minutes

[@lesmortimers4791]

It’s truly baffling to me that Doug has seen and critiqued hundreds of movies and never picked up even basic film knowledge, a sense for story structure or character development. He’s been doing this for 15 years and he hasn’t grown as a person, filmmaker, writer or critic. It’s almost as if he refuses to learn and grow on purpose. I used to watch him back in 2007 when I was 13 years old. In the past 15 years I finished school, university, became a TV producer, quit, started my own company and most of all, I became and grew from a dozen different people into the person I am today. And Doug is still…the same. I don’t care about him as a person, I stopped even before the Channel Awesome document came out but realizing this is honestly upsetting to me.

[@Rexdrinkredbull]

Honestly the Mario fakeout scene *could* have been funny if it had just been Alfred shaking his head in resignation instead of stretching it out for minutes

[@jockohomosexual]

the fucking mario bit made me so mad because that first line of "i'm afraid of mario. it's time everyone knows my fear." is genuinely very funny and absurd. and then they have to explain why he's afraid of mario and that just IMMEDIATELY makes it not be funny. like the idea of being afraid of mario is funny on it's own you don't have to go liek "BROOO WHY ARE YOU AFRAID OF MARIO" because **we know.**

[@timothymclean]

Doug thinks that all comedy comes from misery, so in order for us to find the scene funny, we have to see Alfred be miserable for a while. Somehow, this only makes the audience miserable. (In the same monologue where he explains this-or at least one of them-he also says the Roadrunner Looney Toons work for the same reason as Fury Road, which indicates that he doesn't understand what makes either of them special beyond some idea of simplicity. And that he doesn't recognize the presence of themes in Fury Road despite many of them being only a bit subtler than Yu-Gi-Oh's theme of friendship.)

[@jekblom123]

@@timothymclean You can literally say that about almost every comedy writer alive. And if you've seen the Nostalgia Critic episode on Duckman you would know the common connection between misery and comedy everyone in the world makes.

[@SmokeyEdits]

@@jekblom123 it's so interesting to me that you're trying to argue that all of comedy is based in misery but you didn't even feel comfortable enough to say "every comedian", you had to say *"almost* every comedian", because even you know that not all comedy is based on misery

[@Gammera2000]

Yeah, you could just play the batman intro from there and you have comedy. It'd still be low brow, but at the very least it's not drawn out

[@yurifairy2969]

@@jekblom123 Not all comedy is derived from misery, that is an absurd idea. This is exactly why Doug's comedy is repetitive and boring.

[@talb.1805]

Of all the names in the world I did NOT expect Egoraptor to somehow be involved in this. Like, how strange is it that they knew each other

[@gwammeh]

31:37 the more I watch this bit the more the giant difference in acting skill between Doug and Malcolm just becomes… blindingly obvious.

[@chuckbatman5]

And I feel like there's ANOTHER giant gap between Malcolm and Rachel's acting... Malcolm is good but still like, KZbinr level, whereas Rachel has skill good enough for her to move on to real professional stuff, which I believe is what she's now doing

[@gwammeh]

@@chuckbatman5 Yeah absolutely!!! The scene from The Shining where she's wailing melodramatically when Doug complains about how hard it is to break the door down and asks her to come out and she *immediately* pivots to reprimanding him still lives in my head rent-free. Just absolutely great delivery. I hope Rachel is achieving the career goals she set out for herself.

[@OOO19415]

Fun acting tidbit I noticed: Doug's "serious" acting between Demo Reel and The Review Must Go On are far different. In the former, it feels so scripted and the delivery feels like it's supposed to be resentful but not really convincing at all like Emily stated. But in the latter, there's a lower, slower vocal register and a reserved but darker undertone to Doug's acting that portrays his hesitancy surprisingly well. What I love about this is that in the latter, Doug's nightmare of becoming The Critic again IS what he's genuinely feeling, and so the experiences that create that frustration translate because that acting is coming from lived experience and emotions rather than a character. Make of that what you will.

[@zachflag6506]

It was a real “Say the line, Bart” moment for him. I believe that video was him killing Doug and allowing Critic to take full control. He surrendered to the thing he tried to outgrow

[@tonoornottono]

@@zachflag6506 truly the moment Doug became Heisenberg

[@ECKohns]

So essentially, his serious acting in “The Review Must Go On” is better because he’s not actually acting in it.

[@RedBardIsCool]

I've known in passing that "demo reel was really bad" but I never knew that it really was THIS BAD, hot damn. This took me on a JOURNEY. Incredible first video!

[@LadyEmilyPresents]

Aww thank you so much!! I’m glad I could introduce you to everything Demo Reel has to offer

[@FunnyClementine]

Wait, this is a first video? Holy hell, well done! Consider me subscribed!

[@DalekTheSupreme]

@@FunnyClementine It's her first video? I was about to check out her channel for more.

[@Ontasia2]

@@fakegeek5462 the fact that it's a trigger warning or that they included subject matter that requires it?

[@Kartissa]

@@fakegeek5462 Trigger warnings exist for a reason. People get 'triggered' by talk or depictions of traumatic events. A warning allows them to prepare, or avoid re-living those events in their mind. The fact that one was included shows consideration for the video's audience, and is in no way 'childish' - quite the opposite.

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

"Worse than his review of The Wall." *removes glasses Mother of God . . .

[@ebagentj]

I watched this right after your AVGN video and you have this way of making me kind of feel sorry for these creators who have pigeonholed themselves and are now trapped doing one thing for the rest of their lives because that's what pays the bills. James is obviously a far more sympathetic person than Doug Walker is, but the videos end on a similar sad note that's honestly a lot of food for thought.

[@DragonNexus]

I feel bad for Malcolm Ray in particular. When he's given an acting role, he is a good actor. He's believable in the character he plays and he's wasted being stuck with Doug. Especially when Doug has him try to play a Doug character, gurning and wide eyed and weird. Malcolm deserves so much better.

[@dirklogan4699]

No one has a gun to his head making him stay there

[@DragonNexus]

@@dirklogan4699 No-one said he did. Idiots like you need better rhetoric. Same tired replies every time.

[@beesree39]

@@DragonNexus "wrong statement" *called out on it" "no shut up I'm right"

[@DragonNexus]

@@beesree39 the post I replied to is deleted...so how would you know?

[@pokeguy742]

@@shawnfoster4506 my own personal theory on this is Doug's using some manipulation tactics to get Malcom to stay by reminding him that CA got him his "career" (as much as being supporting characters in stale skits on a channel that's far past its prime could be considered a career, anyways), Doug and the CA crew would be lost without Malcom, Malcom owes it to them to stay there, etc. If Doug takes pride in running a business terribly, I'm sure he'd happily exploit his own employees' emotions in a desperate bid to keep them around.

[@MountieFromHell]

The Supervillain Shuffle is no longer listed as a "crowning moment of awesome" on TV Tropes.

[@freakfoxvevo7915]

Society

[@alicethetransdalek7333]

Literally 1984

[@Adrian_1114]

Aww

[@chinafuture6484]

The snake that eats its own tail.

[@breezingby2611]

And the removal straight up lists it’s justification as “it sucks” and yet no Demo Reel fan has sought to change that yet

[@djdreampunk7885]

The insane amount of lore around this man should be worthy of an entire field of academic research and theory. Like "Channel Awesome Studies" or "Doug Walker Studies".

[@CheddarDrip]

I remember being bummed when Nostalgia Critic was replaced with this but I remember watching it all the time, sometimes on mute, simply because 15 year old me at the time thought Rachel Tietz was like the prettiest woman alive

[@thepixelatedbumblebee9439]

When I watched Doug walker at first I assumed the shitty skits that happened during the reviews were shitty on purpose and that Doug was full of himself because it was funny. The more I learn about him the more I realize they were just shitty and Doug is just kinda full of himself.

[@yakovradloff]

I can't believe that I thought that NC and AVGN were so similar, now when I look back at it I see that James is a beautiful person and not like AVGN, but Doug... I don't want to remember him and I'm a little bit ashamed that I liked him

[@thepixelatedbumblebee9439]

@@yakovradloff I watched Doug when I was pretty young and while it helped to spark my interest in media analysis it made me have so many dumb cringey takes as a kid so I can totally realte to being ashamed about liking him lol.

[@SirDupree]

I started to notice that when he started doing actual reviews with his brother, Sibling Rivalry.

[@ElvenRaptor]

@@yakovradloff Don't be. Doug did a good job pretending to be someone much better than he really is. It's not your fault you fell for the ruse. We all did.

[@Tatolus]

Ive only seen one nostolgia critic review, and I never watched again because he complained that "It was too different from the source material," then in the same video said "They didnt change up enough from the original vereion." Literally contradicts himself with complaints lmao.

[@Melphisto_]

“And I’d like to thank my patrons, Sarah... Zed. Z? Zed? I don’t know.” *Sarah Z will remember that*

[@denizmetint.462]

*grabs tesla cannon*

[@nra3zehuti781]

What does the z stand for?

[@DeiUmbrarum]

@@nra3zehuti781 Zee

[@oneghost1257]

Always thought it was interesting how close Doug could get to making a decent joke before failing to stick the landing somehow. Like, the "Mario scares me." Bit could have been funny if it were shortened and ended with the statement that he's scared of Mario but it just goes on and on.

[@BonnieBugsy]

I spent all of high school and a good chunk of college having my brain melted by this man, and I regret every second.

[@mollz3704]

The crowning moment of awesome is now off the TVtropes page lol

[@mrdelirious8706]

It's such a small thing in a sea of others, but seeing the faux-SWAT guy try to threateningly cock his handgun at 51:15, only for it to hold open on an empty magazine, demonstrating that the gun is definitely unloaded and clear is *chef's kiss*

[@VernulaUtUmbra]

Not going to lie, in something more competently put together that would've actually been hilarious.

[@aliceconnors8478]

“I don’t want that person near my toilets,” is pretty funny in isolation