That Guy with the Glasses

That Guy with the Glasses
File:Nostalgia Critic.jpg Doug Walker as the Nostalgia Critic
Genre	Physical comedy, reviews, satire
Created by	Michael Michaud Doug Walker Michael Ellis
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Production locations	United States France United Kingdom New Zealand Canada
Running time	Various, usually 5-20 mins.
Original release
Network	YouTube Revver blip.tv G4
Release	April 6, 2008 – present

That Guy with the Glasses is a website that showcases original entertainment for an audience including video game enthusiasts and movie buffs. It primarily stars Chicago native Douglas Walker aka "That Guy with the Glasses." The founder and administrator of the site is Michael Michaud, in addition to being the CEO of the parent company Channel Awesome. The site was launched in April 2008 after the original videos were removed from YouTube following complaints of copyright infringement. That Guy with the Glasses has been a success, with 800,000 unique visitors, generating revenue of over $10,000, per month. As a result of this, several sister sites are planned, beginning with Bar Fiesta and Blistered Thumbs.

The website is home to several episodic series, starring Douglas Walker and others. The main Douglas Walker series are 5 Second Movies (hyper-edited feature films), The Nostalgia Critic (reviews of 1980-90s films and television), Ask That Guy with the Glasses (comedy question and answer show) and Bum Reviews with Chester A. Bum (reviews of current feature films). Other videos and written articles are hosted on the site, including some minor series and sketches starring Walker. Videos are now hosted by Blip.tv after problems with earlier provider Revver.

History

Walker's first appearance on the web was on the video website, YouTube, in which he created satirical video reviews of films and other media entertainment of the past and present. While the videos gained a large fan-base, the series drew complaints from major studios like 20th Century Fox and Lions Gate over alleged copyright infringement. Despite Walker explaining in his videos that his videos are satirical, and thus protected by the "fair use" copyright clause, pressure from the studios resulted in his Youtube Channels and video content being taken off the website. Walker attempted re-upload his content by assigning each video a new, separate channel so that if one were deleted, the others would be left intact. However due to continuing issues with Youtube, Walker decided to leave the website altogether, and create a website called That Guy with the Glasses with Internet webmaster Mike Michaud. Michaud had created the sites' parent company, Channel Awesome, after he and two others were laid off from Circuit City in 2007. He has stated that "If we didn't lose our jobs, [the business] wouldn't have happened anytime soon."

The site was re-launched in April 2008, and all of Walker's future videos would only be posted there. The site later expanded to feature content from various other contributors. In December 2008, Walker appeared in a commercial for the PBS documentary Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, performing a series of brief imitations of famous comedians, from Charlie Chaplin to Stephen Colbert. In 2009, Doug and Rob Walker and Brian Heinz produced an iRiff of The Lion King for RiffTrax. In March 2009, the iRiff was chosen as the winner of the website's RiffTrax Presents contest, and the performers will receive $1,000 and instruction from Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett in the development of a RiffTrax Presents title.

The Nostalgia Critic show averages 100,000 to 200,000 viewers per week and the site as a whole has 14 million page views per month. As of July 2009, the site earns more than $10,000 per month in advertising revenue and has received over $11,000 in online donations, with the company expecting to earn $150,000 by the end of the year. The success of his shows has allowed Walker to make a living performing and to quit his previous job as an illustrator, as well as pay the salaries of Michaud and co-founder/COO Mike Ellis.

Channel Awesome has plans to build on the success of That Guy with the Glasses with a network of new websites including Bar Fiesta (covering Chicago entertainment and nightlife), Blistered Thumbs (a spin off incorporating the current site's videogame content) and an unnamed site for anime and comic books. Mike Michaud told the Chicago Sun-Times that he has 300 new show ideas in the works, intends to discover more performers like Walker, and has plans to increase revenue through sponsorships and merchandising.

Revver issues

After contracting with Live Universe, Revver's earnings from July 2008 onwards were still "pending", meaning that that Revver had delayed payments to unspecified date. On December 9, 2008, Revver sent a message to all its users saying that earnings from June were transferred, and the other earnings would be transferred as soon as possible. However, many people still have yet to receive these payments.

Several of their most popular content providers including ScrewAttack and That Guy with the Glasses have also publicly posted complaints of Revver owing them vast amounts of money on their websites and have begun moving their content over to Blip.TV

5 Second Movies

Walker is seen as an important figure in the "hyperediting" trend. Currently, 5 Second Movies has had a total of 131 episodes. After the 101st episode, Walker said he will only make them if he thinks of a very funny idea, because he has almost run out of ideas and he does not want to run the series into the ground and grow stale.

Nostalgia Critic

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Nostalgia Critic logo as used on the Youtube Channel

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The Nostalgia Critic battles The Angry Video Game Nerd in The Final Battle

See also: List of The Nostalgia Critic episodes

Along with the 5 Second Movies, The Nostalgia Critic is the most popular video series created by Walker, in which he plays the titular Nostalgia Critic, a grumpy and easily aggravated character who reviews mostly entertainment from the 1980s and 1990s. His catch-phrase "I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it, so you don't have to" usually opens and ends each video. Not all reviews are negative, such as the review of Double Dare and the "Top 11 Nostalgic Animated Shows" countdown.

There are several running gags in his videos. For example, whenever a villain in the review is revealed to have a generic goal to "you guessed it, take over the world" (or sometimes take over a city, as in Double Dragon's case), the Critic will interrupt that video by inserting a clip of M. Bison from Street Fighter (played by Raul Julia) yelling "Of course!" The Critic "dies" on several occasions, and even complains in the Double Dragon review by stating "Is it just me, or have I been dying a lot recently?" Whenever a suggestive or violent scene occurs in a children's movie, he smiles and says sarcastically, "You know, for kids!" In response to a surreal and pointless scene, the Critic will deem the scene as "A Big-Lipped Alligator Moment" in reference to All Dogs Go to Heaven (also used and created by another comedian on the site, the Nostalgia Chick). He makes fun of bad actors by saying in a mocking tone "I'm acting!" Also, whenever the critic says "elephant", the burger king pops up. In movies where two girls fight each other, he takes his bent finger and straightens it out. These running gags are often subverted or lampshaded in later videos.

In August 2008, the Nostalgia Critic sponsored a contest to find someone to play the "Nostalgia Chick", who would act as his female foil and answer requests he received to review female-targeted shows and movies. The contest ended in a three-way tie between Lindsay Ellis (who reviewed Disney's Pocahontas), That Chick with the Goggles (who reviewed Sailor Moon), and MarzGurl (who reviewed The Last Unicorn). The Critic ended up giving the title to Ellis, who later adopted the moniker "The Dudette", but still allowed That Chick with the Goggles and MarzGurl to post videos on the site.

Appearances in Other Walker Videos

On April Fool's Day 2009, the Critic hosted "Ask That Guy Episode 34".

Nostalgia Critic vs. The Angry Video Game Nerd

Walker gained even more fame when he, as The Nostalgia Critic, launched a satirical attack on fellow web comedian The Angry Video Game Nerd (played by James D. Rolfe). This fictional feud has been covered by Internet Superstar host Martin Sargent, who interviewed Douglas Walker's character.

In June 2008, the Critic went to the Nerd in person at a video game convention in Clifton, New Jersey, exchanged satirical fighting words leading to a fake brawl in the parking lot, along with another Internet personality, Captain S. The Nerd agreed to review a bad film (the low-budget spoof film Ricky 1), as long as the Critic reviewed a poor video game (the video game version of the animated film Bébé's Kids). The mock feud culminated in "The Final Battle," a lengthy fight scene parodying popular films and cliches. Later "Geek Fight," a collectible card game based on the feud and things on their respective websites, was released.

On May 10, 2009, Critic and the Nerd starred in "TGWTG Team Brawl", which was filmed on location in Chicago, IL, and celebrated That Guy With the Glasses' one-year anniversary. Various personalities from both the Critic and Nerd's sites participated in a battle between reviewers and gamers. The battle featured numerous references to videos of all the Internet personalities. After the battle, the Critic and the Nerd called truce and later reviewed a documentary about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' "Coming Out of their Shells" concert together.

Ask That Guy with the Glasses

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Walker as That Guy with the Glasses

See also: List of Ask That Guy with the Glasses episodes

The segment involves Walker, wearing a blue robe, red ascot and carrying a pipe and book, answering questions from his fans. He starts out each segment by saying "Hello, didn't hear you come in" (saying hello in a different language each time), followed by "Greetings and Welcome to Ask That Guy with the Glasses". The narrator reads each question and Walker responds with a comedic answer, sometimes commenting on the person who asked it. He ends each video with, "This is That Guy With the Glasses saying, there's no such thing as a stupid question until you ask it." "That Guy" is portrayed as an upper-class, yet perverted and mentally disturbed person who is all-knowing (it is said in several episodes that he is really a woman). He also sometimes says "yes" after answering a question to confirm what he just said.

In "Ask That Guy Episode 30", That Guy with the Glasses asked his own set of questions and invited viewers to submit their own answers. Some of them were later featured in "Ask That Guy: User Edition".

Appearances in Other Walker Videos

That Guy with the Glasses also appeared in Nostalgia Critic's review of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. The Nostalgia Critic explained that he no longer had a beard because he lost a bet with That Guy in which if Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election (which he did), the Critic would have to shave his beard off. Unfortunately, That Guy also shaved his beard off, thinking he lost a bet about the release date of "Ask That Guy: User Edition" (it was not released until January 4, 2009). It was later found out in an online interview that he simply shaved it so he could be The Joker for Halloween. That Guy also hosted a special in which various members of the site wished their fans Happy Holidays. On April Fool's Day 2009, That Guy with the Glasses reviewed Monsters vs. Aliens for "Bum Reviews". During "TGWTG Team Brawl", That Guy arranges for everyone to begin working together and takes their group photo.

Bum Reviews with Chester A. Bum

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Walker as Chester A. Bum

See also: List of Bum Reviews with Chester A. Bum episodes

Chester A. Bum (full name: Chester Alfred Bum), is a character created by Walker to review current and new film releases (usually the film opening with the widest release that weekend). The character was created after the Nostalgia Critic's review of Cloverfield and Walker loved the voice of his impersonation of Hud from the film so much that he created Chester out of it, though the origins of the character came from Doug's review of Transformers. It is mentioned several times that he uses drugs, which seem to be the source of some of his erratic comments ("Submarines are not monkeys, they are human beings!" or claiming that he used to live in a pie). On some occasions when he sees an extremely strange film he thinks it might have been on drugs at the time (such as Hellboy 2). He also frequently voices his disgust about him being a bum, and will comment on a movie being good, because "it was shown in a warm, warm, building!" .

Chester starts off most of his reviews stating "Oh, my God! This is the greatest movie I've ever seen in my life!", regardless of Walker's actual opinion of the movie. Throughout the review, he questions many aspects in the film and even compares them to himself. His reviews consist of detailed plot explanations, usually spoiling the films' endings. They also follow a non linear structure, in which he will sometimes talk about something completely unrelated or go off screen. He is also prone to shout the word "Hooray!" when he is pleased with something.

He typically ends every review with his final verdict and a plea for some change in his Styrofoam cup (shouting out, "Change! You got change? Oh, come on help a guy out will ya?, Come on, change!"). Walker's actual opinion of the film is presented in the end credits card (e.g. "Seriously though, Indiana Jones was okay." or "Seriously though, Watchmen was, um, weird [sic].").

His first review was released in early May 2008 on the movie Speed Racer. Videos to depart from the format include the Bum's reviews of The Dark Knight (in which Chester is left almost speechless due to the overall depressing plot and says at the end " You know what? Keep the change."), "The Angry Video Game Nerd vs. The Nostalgia Critic: The Final Battle" (in which he reviews a Nostalgia Critic video instead of a movie), Citizen Kane (in which he tears apart one of the most widely acclaimed movies of all time), and Monsters vs. Aliens (in which That Guy With the Glasses took Chester's place for April Fool's Day).

Appearances in Other Walker Videos

Chester also hosted an episode of The Nostalgia Critic; after the Critic couldn't give a negative review to Follow that Bird because of his childhood love for Sesame Street, he pays Chester $20 to review the rest of the movie. He also hosted Ask that Guy after That Guy died of a heart attack after getting scared by an internet screamer. Chester then did his best to answer everyone's questions in the following. During the Nostalgia Critic's review of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Chester A. Bum announced that he shaved in order to fit in with the Critic and That Guy With the Glasses, who had shaved their beards off, as well. In the Nostalgia Critic's SNICK video, Chester made a cameo when the Nostalgia Critic noticed that Kenan Thompson sounds familiar to him. He also appears in the Critic's review of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons, when the Critic states "You must be this high to watch [Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]," and prompts the audience with an image of Chester. During a fund-raising event Chester made a brief live appearance via webcam. On April Fool's Day 2009, Chester reviewed The Neverending Story for the Nostalgia Critic. He also defends the Critic from the Angry Video Game Nerd in "TGWTG Team Brawl," before the Nerd distracts him with thrown loose change. After the Nostalgia Critic reviewed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in the same high-octane, praise-heavy manner in which he reviewed Michael Bay's first Transformers film, Chester A. Bum peeked in and asked if the Critic stole his act. When a homeless man in the Nostalgia Critic's review for Steel walks across the street, Chester's voice was dubbed over, asking for change but running off after finding out he was on the set of a Shaquille O'Neal movie. He also made a cameo in the Barb Wire review.

Other sketches and series

In addition to the above series, Walker also performs short sketches. Some of them later received sequels or are parts of newer, smaller series.

The Bjork Show

The Bjork Show is a series written by Walker and starring a friend of Rob named Victoria. She portrays a fictionalized version of Björk as the host of a surreal talk show on Icelandic Public Television. The show's humor relies on a series of non-sequiturs from "Bjork", who is portrayed as childish, unstable, sociopathic, and somehow omnipotent. Bjork interviews celebrities portrayed by Walker, including Edward Norton and "Weird Al" Yankovic, who act as a straight man to Bjork's insanity, particularly being forced to speak to inanimate objects such as a decaying baloney sandwich and an armchair as though they were real people.

Cheerios 2

The commercial begins with Doug Walker enjoying a bowl of Cheerios. Suddenly, an invisible announcer (voiced by Doug's brother Rob Walker) invites him to try the new cereal "Cheerios 2" which contains more "whole grain oaty goodness", fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Doug initially resists the announcer's pitch since he does not want Cheerios to change from those he enjoyed as a child. The announcer finally convinces Doug by beating him up, then admits that Cheerios 2 are just the original cereal with a 2 on the box. The Cheerios 2 box has gone on to make cameo appearances in various videos starring the Nostalgia Critic.

Lori Prince Live

In late July 2008, Walker posted a pilot for a series titled Lori Prince Live. The show is a fictional news show, its name being a satirical corruption of Larry King Live, that airs on GNN (Gotham News Network) and takes place in the same continuity as the films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Prince (played by Walker) is the host of a round table discussion show talking about the impact of such issues as violence and drugs on society. The Joker and Batman, The Mad Hatter and The March Hare have guest starred. In these videos, Doug Walker voices the Joker and his brother Rob voices Batman, primarilly imitating Bale's gravelly-voiced portrayal of the character.

Theme lyrics

Each episode consists of Doug Walker playing the opening sequence to a 1990s TV show and singing original lyrics for the music. The lyrics are often made to give the basic summary of the show, and often times either praise or criticize the show itself. Sometimes the lyrics simply correspond to events that occur during the intro. Each video begins with him quickly saying, "Songs that don't need lyrics but I added them anyway. Ha!" The first show he did this for was X-Men in February 2009.

Video Game Confessions

A new series that Walker started on April 7, 2009, Video Game Confessions features a British bartender named Dominic (played by Walker) who works at the Pixel Palace, a restaurant for video game characters. The show focuses around him telling of his recent encounters and experiences with the video game characters in a documentary style fashion. The characters' recollections reveal them to engage in less clean activities than in their video games. For example, episode one tells about Mario and his marital problems with Princess Peach and episode two talks about Sonic and his drug-like obsession with Power Rings (which are actually crystal-meth rings). Each episode ends with Dominic acknowledging, "You see a lot of strange things as a bartender. You see a lot of strange things at the Pixel Palace. So, I see a lot of strange things as a bartender at the Pixel Palace. And that's no lie. Swear to it."

Other sections of the site

Video Producers

• That Dude in the Suede (William DuFresne) hails from New Zealand, and currently has several long running series. The first of which, AMV Heaven, looks at the best animated music videos all over the net. The second, Animenia, has him reviewing some of the best and worst anime out there. He has also made several 5 Second Movies. Suede went on hiatus in January 2009 due to his affiliation with the Mormon religion, going on a two-year mission for his church.
• The Dudette (Lindsay Ellis) lives in Los Angeles, and is from Tennessee. Having been crowned the "Nostalgia Chick" by Doug Walker, she mostly reviews movies and television shows meant to appeal to girls and produces lists, such as the "Top 11 Villainesses" and the "Top 10 Disturbing and Inescapable Christmas Songs". She also stars in Thanks For The Feedback!, in which she responds to comments left to her on the site. She appeared alongside the Nostalgia Critic in his review of FernGully: The Last Rainforest and in specials such as the "TGWTG Team Brawl" and the visit to "Urkel House" from Family Matters.
• MarzGurl (Kaylyn Dicksion) lives in San Antonio, Texas. Her videos include A History of Animation and What's That Animé [sic]?. Like That Chick with the Goggles, she joined the site after being a runner up for the Nostalgia Chick position.
• Linkara (Lewis Lovhaug) is a comic book critic who started with his own blog called Atop The Fourth Wall and doing movie reviews for The Agony Booth. The actual show uses an abbreviation of the blog's name, making it AT4W. His reviewing style consists of buying issues of bad comic books, poking fun at several factors such as bad dialog (usually done in a dramatic voice), art inconsistencies, and terrible story-lines. He also did a Top 15 WTF Moments in Comics list for his first video and creates 5 Panel Comics. For April Fools Day 2009, he did a homage to Walker's Bum Reviews, reviewing "Watchmen" as Lester B. Bum. On May 10, 2009 a theme song contest was announced; the winner was revealed June 12th as the "Gunslinger Theme" by Vincent E. L..
• Paw (Paul Schuler) hosts Full Circle. His material tends to circle around music.
• Phelous (Phelan Porteous) reviews poorly made horror movies as well as directing his own comedic shorts such as Mortal Komedy and DragonBall CG.
• Press Start Adventures (Ed Glaser) episodes are released on TGWTG.
• Little Miss Gamer (Lindsey Briggs) reviews retro games from all consoles.
• Y Ruler of Time (Nicholas Freeman) hosts Read Right to Left, a series in which he takes the viewer through a manga series pointing out annoying characters and plot points.
• Team Four Star consists of various amateur animators and voice actors from the United Kingdom and America. Together, they produce DragonBall Z: The Abridged Series and comically redub various episodes of the anime.
• Film Brain (Mathew Buck) runs a portion of the site called Bad Movie Beatdown, in which he gives negative reviews to films he dislikes. He is also one of the article writers, reviewing current movies.
• Lanipator (Nick Landis) is a scriptwriter and voice actor of Team Four Star and he does a segment on the site called "Outside the Otaku" where he comments on popular manga and anime. He also does an abridged series of his own on YouTube entitled YuYu Hakusho: The Abridged Series.
• MasakoX (Lawrence Simpson) is one of the actors of Team Four Star and he has started a six part series on tips for voice acting called MasaVox. He, along with Vegeta3986, makes Naruto: The Abridged Series on Youtube.

Blistered Thumbs

Blistered Thumbs is a video game subdivision of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com, mainly focusing on video games. They produce comedy/spoofs/sketches, review video games and produce a weekly podcast called Transmission Awesome.

• Rollo T (Chris Larios), and Hope Within Chaos (Sean Fausz), host That Guy with the Glasses' official podcast, Transmission Awesome. The show generally recaps the week, and usually has a special guest (usually a featured talent) and talks with the guest about his/hers work they contribute to the website. Former co-hosts include Coldguy (Patrick Burden), Mike Michaud, and Dr. Gonzo (Billy Smith). While still employed by the company, ThatAussieGuy would sit in as a substitute if one of the co-hosts is absent.
• Benzaie (Benjamin Daniel) is from France and is the creator and host of Games You Might Don't Know. Once joining the site, he added other shows, including FAQ You!, Game Soundtracks You Might Don't Know, Top 5, 5 Second Games, and Benzaie's Hard Corner.
• The Spoony One (Noah Antwiler) lives in Arizona, owner and proprietor of The Spoony Experiment teamed up with Walker and now posts several of his videos on the site.
• Hope Within Chaos (Sean Fausz), was given a spot as a featured author for his Epic Fail series of videos after spending a long time in both the blogs sections, which hosts non-featured authors, and as one of the hosts of Transmission Awesome.
• That Chick with the Goggles (Krissy Diggs) lives in Missouri. She hosts the series Games I Grew Up On and Quickies (two minute-long reviews of various video games). Like MarzGurl, she joined the site after being a runner up for the Nostalgia Chick position.
• Bennett The Sage (Bennett White) reviews new video game releases, good and bad, primarily for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and hosts a show called Fanfic Theater were he reads the best of the worst of fan fiction. He's also does an anime abridged series on YouTube entitled Elfen Lied: The Abridged Series, which he has recently discontinued due to his workload.
• Lee Davidge is the host of Still Gaming, a video game review show that reviews games from all eras, from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo Wii. Instead of recording himself on a video camcorder, Lee uses still images from a digital camera. His fiancée, Dena Natali, also talks about certain video games (usually survival horror) on her similarly-done show, The Game Den.
• AngryJoe (Joey Vargas) produces material that is mainly about parodying and presenting the latest in gaming.
• Guru Larry & Wez (Larry Bundy Jr. and Wesley Lock), also known as ScrewAttack Europe, present Wez and Larry's Top Tens, Guru Larry's Retro Corner, Gamed1k and video game reviews form the UK point of view.
• JewWario (Justin Carmichel) reviews Japanese only games in a show called "You Can Play This".
• Ashens (Stuart Ashen) does reviews of old, obscure games (terrible old games of which you probably never heard off). He also does reviews of terrible ripoff consoles on his Youtube channel.

Article Writers

• Matt Briner does DVDiablo, straight to DVD movies. Recently, he has been reviewing the series Firefly.
• TheCat (Cat Thompson) is an anime and manga reviewer.
• Coldguy (Patrick Burden) does miscellaneous articles mostly related to gaming.
• Last Angry Geek (Brian Heinz) does comic reviews.
• The Other Guy (Rob Walker) is Doug's brother and does various reviews.
• Storage and Disposal does animation reviews.

Site Affiliates

• Marobot (Maro), is the official artist for ThatGuyWithTheGlasses's The Nostalgia Critic reviews as he draws accompanying art for each episode. He started with a picture showing the Transmission Awesome team and has even been featured in the Best of Blogs and Awesome Blogs of the Week. Administrator Mike Michaud saw promise in his work and he's been drawing pictures for the site ever since. His work started with the Critic's Garbage Pail Kids review and eventually became official with the review of Rock-A-Doodle.
• Welshy (Mat), maintains the official YouTube channel for the site, making trailers as well as the new Dailymotion and Break channels.

Former Members

• ThatAussieGuy (Daniel Rizzo) reviewed video games and was released from the site in June 2009.

External links

• ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com
• Official MySpace
• Official YouTube
• The Channel Awesome Wiki The official wiki for Thatguywiththeglasses.com/Channel Awesome.
• That Guy With The Glasses on Ebeeto Videos/OMGWTF?! Wiki