Channel Larry (EDIT: Channel Awesome renamed to just Nostalgia Critic)

[Silverstar]

I liked Demo Reel. The opener was a little long (2 parts), but I genuinely thought it was funny.

Of course, a lot of people are crapping on it, but I can't help but think that some of the backlash Demo Reel is getting is simply because this is what Doug and Rob killed the Nostalgia Critic to do. Pretty much anything Doug would do after NC would/will be met with a fair degree of hate just because it's not the Nostalgia Critic. But if this is what's going to be TGWTG's main show now, I'm cool with that.

Also, Todd reviewed The Monster Mash for Halloween on One-Hit Wonderland. The song that gave birth to all of the wacky TV shows and movies about Hollywood's classic movie monsters coming together to cut up and party.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I thought it was OK. Not great by any stretch, but I didn't necessarily get bored with it, either. I think its a promising series that can be great, but a lot of the writing in this premiere honestly felt really stale. It still had funny moments, and I do think its at least a mark better than the average NC video from the past couple of years as his quality was slipping, but overall its a mediocre start to a series that could either end up being really successful or bombing hard. I do agree with Silverstar, though, that some people are unfairly bashing this series from the get-go just because it replaced the NC. I'm going to give it a fair shake, personally, and at least watch the first few episodes and see if its for me or not. As of right now, I'm pretty indifferent to it, but like I said I think the idea is really promising and it can turn into something truly great with they incorporate wittier writing into the mix.

[No-Personality]

Well... I just saw the first half of Demo Reel, ep1, and like with the trailer, I thought it was pretty darn awful. There were 3 things I thought worked. Rob: easily the best thing about this (and I didn't like his character in To Boldly Flee), One-Woman Titanic: the only thing I thought was clever, and the black actor dressed as The Joker: the only thing I laughed at. Because he freaking really looked like Prince in the Batman music videos. If that was the intention, it was brilliant. The reason the trailer was such a surreal, "this is going to be a disaster" experience is because it's just Doug being goofy in general with a couple of actors I don't think anyone knows. We have to get to know them through this series. And... frankly, I think their instincts are to mug for the camera. Well, hers especially. She kept posing, perkily. The black guy was just plain terrible. She was terrible as well, but with the Titanic section, the joke was good- her fondling herself while playing two different characters and the shot of underwear shading the camera lens. Artsy. I liked that. It was the only thing that seemed unpredictable. Also... I will admit I also liked the "Three Weeks Later" thing, after Doug's Batman predicts the Joker won't be a threat.

Also, Todd reviewed The Monster Mash for Halloween on One-Hit Wonderland. The song that gave birth to all of the wacky TV shows and movies about Hollywood's classic movie monsters coming together to cut up and party.

I'm a huge fan of this series he's doing.

[Avaitor]

An actual Demo Reel short is up.

I like it! But hey, Rob Paulson. How can it not be fun? Also, watch the second video. Even though it looks like a retread of the ending from the main one, it's a cute alternate take.

[Peanutbutter]

That short is why I still have faith in Doug. Demo Reel's pilot wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't that bad either. I really miss when Doug would do random short sketches, as they're usually funny. Hopefully there'll be more like this in the near future.

[Silverstar]

Episode 2 of Demo Reel, which was supposed to air this Tuesday, was pre-empted another week for retooling. Doug's brother Rob, aka The Other Guy elaborates on TGWTG's forums:

We don't want to drop the whole remake concept, but we will lessen its impact. Since the launch, I've been working hard to come up with ways to do a similar a remake concept but give it a much better twist. One idea is they actually take inherently dumb ideas and make them cooler -- similar to the Youtube sketches that do serious trailers of Dora The Explorer or Carmen Sandiego. The idea itself wouldn't be bad, but legitimate logistical errors would derail it. This is more closer to our original concept, which was more like Home Movies and Noises Off in that it showed the breakdown of films gone awry, and the creative process involved. That's just one of many. I want to get away from straight up parody only remakes, though... so that will be slowly phased out in favor of more variety.

I want to focus less on direct parodies of the movie and let their stuff bring something legitimate to it. For me, it should be more about how unlucky their projects are. I think Doug focused too heavily on Donnie being a total psychotic buffoon, which is something I'm gonna slowly change. We both agree he'll have more of an Ed Wood quality (or, as I'm seeing it, a combination of Ray Stanz crossed with Sam Raimi) -- over-enthusiasm overriding his sense of decent filmmaking and occasionally the physical well being of his crew. But not in a MALICIOUS way. Which is a very common problem with many films, btw. I think he wants to do seriously good work, but just doesn't have the tools or experience to make it happen... which can lead to real character studies (what happens when realizes he'll never be good?). As it stands now, we may have just made him too crazy.

Episode 3 (now 2 coming out next week) will be the least remake heavy. It focuses mostly on Rebecca and Tacoma, with a side story from Karl and Quinn. It's actually not very Donnie centric at all. It's more about the behind the scenes stuff involving character backstories, onset animal wrangling gone wrong, and the perils of juicing your actors up to keep them working into the late hours of the night. It's also a Thanksgiving special. Satirical stuff will be more along the lines of Seinfeld, Home Movies, etc... where the movie world sort of intrudes on everyday life.


Episodes 4 and 5 (aka now episodes 3 and 4) will reveal everything about Donnie. He'll be a fully fleshed out character that has a story arc. And it will bring the antagonists into full swing.

I've tried my best to listen and fix things as best I could. I'm not saying I took ALL the advice. This isn't a democracy. Art still depends on a vision, and there are some things that we feel may still work -- some may like them, some not. But I looked at the things that I felt in my gut were correct observations: Donnie is a monster, he's NC light or Ask That Guy light, he and the actress have no character, the remake stuff adds little, the behind the scenes stuff is more interesting, there's no story arc, etc... Being asked to fix these things all in ONE episode is near impossible, though. To do so would be awkward. You'd have nothing but a giant plot dump of info in a desperate attempt to flesh characters instantly. I prefer organic approaches to writing. It's how I wrote the first act of To Boldly Flee: let the plot develop via the characters and their interactions, and don't worry about spelling everything out in the first five minutes (like dumping all characters in a room from scene 1 and handing them a treasure map). I think organic storytelling is much more rewarding. The trade-off, though, is that the audience will have to be patient at this point. Yes, we got behind the 8-ball. Yes, it means it will take awhile now to get things back in gear. But episodes 3 - 5 (now 2-4) I think, will take the show in a better direction. Honestly, it's the direction I wanted originally, but we lost our way over the years.


Despite everyone's obsession with Be Kind Rewind, that was never our inspiration. I still have yet to see that movie. Our inspiration was Home Movies, which inspired the idea some six years ago. It was a brilliant show. Still is. And kudos to the few who NAILED it and said it reminded them of Brendan Small and his misadventures. Ever since watching it years ago, Doug and I took a lot away from it, and you can probably find some of its humor even in NCs or the Anniversary specials. But time got ahead of us. The pilot we shot years back may have gone over great had we investors then (the production company we were interested in partnering with folded). But since then, Be Kind and Robot Chicken and College Humor and everyone else under the sun cropped up. That's the one thing that sucks about being ahead of your time... if you don't pounce, you miss your opportunity. We never pounced with Demo Reel and did with NC. It's a good trade off, since the NC worked, but there it is.


Now it's either give up something Doug wanted to do from the very beginning, or find a way to adapt -- to take an idea and breathe fresh life into it. I'd rather do the latter than just give up. I like a challenge, and so does Doug.


Our biggest mistake was not reading the culture shift or realizing the impact that Be Kind Rewind had on pop culture. What could've flown six years ago will not now, and we didn't update the idea since its original inception. This made it inseparable from anything else out there. Whatever originality the idea could ride back then, it can't NOW as is. In addition, we also lost our way. I told Doug after episode 2 (the original episode 2 that will now be a special episode) that we need to go back to our roots and look at Home Movies. Parodies should be the seasoning, not the whole meal. Some of that losing touch with the original vision was a result of catering to one audience for so long, an audience that can be hard to read sometimes. Thing is, we didn't read the shift in our fanbase. That our fans want smarter humor is AWESOME, but was unexpected. Not to say we don't think they're smart. I know they are! But our style with the Critic's stuff has been very... er... blunt. But I love smart humor. I love character. I tried to at least give half of TBF more of an edge plot-wise over the previous specials. But we were still in the mindset of Bum, Ask That Guy, even The Critic -- which depended on a lot of shouting and physical gags and lines like "hippopotamus anus!" to get the point across. That our fans want something more is really gratifying, and I'm gonna try my best with Doug to give them something interesting. But yeah, after doing the Critic for four years, it's hard to get out of that mindset. But now that we know that the bulk of our fans want more, we can start retooling.


Again, though, all I can say is it's gonna take time. We're 2 eps behind the 8 ball, and I want this thing to develop NATURALLY. Anything else would smack of desperation. I'd rather tell a story... even if it means acknowledging our faults here and finding ways to incorporate them into the show. That's part of the fun of the creative process, which is what the show will be about. And it's something the internet used to champion over the networks' ratings based slash and burn mentality. So all I can ask is for you patience. Don't play Fox. Let us develop this thing before cancelling it in your mind just as it starts getting good.

-Also, Todd reviews the Top 10 Worst Songs...of 2004.

[Avaitor]

Well that sounds promising. It proves that Doug and Rob care a lot about this project, and are willing to do what's best for it.

[No-Personality]

Also, Todd reviews the Top 10 Worst Songs...of 2004.

I'm inclined to characterize that video as a disaster. Even though I agreed with 9 out of 10 of his choices, enthusiastically, and that should be enough to call it a success...

but, one GIGANTIC flaw:

"Milkshake" is amazing. I don't know what he was smoking but he was wrong. I'd accept #4 placement on a Best of the Year list. But, not the Worst. Also, in his summary he said "she never explained what a Milk Shake was." Um... that's because a lot of people already know.

Also, Todd's a fan of 8 Mile and I think it's crap, and I was not amused by his "eat a dick" comment. There's way too much homophobia on TGwtG and he already had an overwhelming case against the song ("Why?" by Jadakiss).

[Avaitor]

8 Mile's just Purple Rain with Shady. The soundtrack is good, but the movie's forgettable at best.

[Foggle]

There's way too much homophobia on TGwtG

Is there? I never really watched anyone other than Doug and Linkara, and even then I didn't exactly wait on baited breath for their next episodes, so I have no idea. I'm surprised the staff would allow any kind of bigotry on there, though.

[No-Personality]

I should make it clear that most of it is casual, but it still bothers me since you know a lot of little adds up after awhile. I'm talking about the constant references to how disgusting men's bodies are sexually. I could make a fortune off an "If I Had a Dime for Every" fund for references Doug's made to how dehumanizing it is for men - while his routine assumes every man is straight or that this is even what most men find funny - to be confronted with dick and balls (I don't care what people are grossed out by but... think about it: when are you as a heterosexual male actually ACCOSTED by men's privates and if you ever were, wasn't it a drunk STRAIGHT guy who thought it was hilarious to put something you didn't want in your face?). Now I've noticed Todd doing the same, and Paw Dugan's review of Rocky Horror Picture Show was full of very uncomfortable comments about gender roles (it's bad if a man's voice is of indeterminable gender, it's gross that FrankNFurter took Rocky to bed with him, it's surprising for a femine man to have a decent singing voice), as well as the frequent "eww, guy on guy" shit in their yearly specials. It makes frequent appearences in bits, but the one that absolutely crossed the line for me was the "I'll eat your pee-ness" bit from Suburban Knights. That's clearly Doug or Rob and Doug at work, but the fact that Joe, Matthew, and Luke agreed to act it out makes me furious. And I've paid very close attention to Doug's criticisms of movies and male characters who aren't extremely masculine are frequently made into objects of ridicule (meanwhile, where's the rule that states every likable protagonist or threatening antagonist must be more masculine by nature?) and criticized in general.

Furthermore, Amazing Atheist / Distressed Watcher actually mentioned that he had a video rejected based on the site being afraid of attracting comments, either way. Which he said he found strange given that Diamanda Hagan is gay and that he believed the site was very passionately opposed to discrimination (truthfully- it's a matter of some producers being more open-minded than others and others just being very stupid on occasion and not thinking). I'm inclined to believe that.

Frankly- that site doesn't give a shit at all what anyone says or does so long as they don't turn off advertisers with sexual content. This would be great for creative freedom and some people thrive on it. But, too many people on the site do not care if they are contributing to a still-way-too hostile culture of intensely anti-gay sentiment. Their viewer base is already very young and sometimes extremely immature as it is. I mean, the Blip.tv commenters are all I read now (I don't watch any videos on-the-site anymore, I ship off to Blip for all of them). And they have a better sense of self-control- only 1 nutbag sometimes makes it into a comments section there (I seem to remember Lindsay's video on Ender's Game got a homophobic girl and a black guy claiming homosexuality is not a struggle merely because racial struggles were much worse).

[Avaitor]

Another One-Hit Wonderland from Todd. And I honestly didn't know that Chumbawumba were an anarcho-punk band.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I say without irony or exaggeration that the Brows Held High review of Melancholia is the best blip video of 2012.

[No-Personality]

Ehhh... I give it a C+.

[talonmalon333]

You guys been watching Disney-cember?