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Doug Walker (comedian)

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Doug Walker
Walker in 2012
Personal information
Born
Douglas Darien Walker

(1981-11-17) November 17, 1981 (age 43)
Naples, Italy
NationalityAmerican
Occupations
  • Film critic
  • comedian
  • media personality
  • actor
  • YouTuber
Spouse
Robin Poage
​
(m. 2012)​
Websitechannelawesome.com
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2007–present
GenreFilm reviews
Subscribers1.27 million[1]
Total views1.008 billion[1]
Associated acts

Douglas Darien Walker (born November 17, 1981) is an American film critic, comedian, actor, and YouTuber.[2] Based in the city of Chicago, Walker is best known for playing his created fictional character Nostalgia Critic, a vulgar and childish nerd who reviews media content considered to be nostalgic or relevant to western pop culture.[3]

Walker originally posted his media reviews independently with the help of his brother, Robert "Rob" Walker, who often appears in Nostalgia Critic skits as the fictional characters "Chart Guy", a myopic and satirical but well-meaning corporate analyst wearing a power suit (alongside comedian Malcolm Ray as "Chart Guy 2"), and "Santa Christ" (a personified combination of Santa Claus and Jesus Christ).[4] After dealing with allegations of copyright infringement for featuring clips out of various films and television shows, the Walker Brothers got the Nostalgia Critic skits amalgamated into content creation company Channel Awesome, and features of longer media clips were replaced in favour of acted-out skits and cutaway gags.[5][6] Doug Walker continues to appear at conventions and community events to meet fans; since the COVID-19 pandemic, he has largely reduced his physical presence in public spaces.

Early life

Douglas Darien Walker was born on November 17, 1981 in Naples, Italy, the son of Barney and Sandra Walker (1947–2016).[7] His family relocated to the United States after his father's deployment ended. He spent his childhood as a Navy brat, moving from state to state due to his father's career, during which he developed a strong passion for films and television. Walker majored in Communications at Northern Illinois University.

Criticism

Walker was one of a number of employees of Channel Awesome named for a variety of alleged workplace incompetence, although these allegations were mostly targeted towards Mike Michaud. Walker was accused of scripting a scene in one of his videos in which co-actor Lindsay Ellis was to be sexually assaulted, which Walker toned down over concerns that it was an offensive rape joke, but Ellis alleged that Walker still kept parts of the script in terms of strange noises "where it sounds like [Ellis] is being assaulted." According to the allegations, "[Doug's] compromise was to alter it slightly, but it's still very much a rape joke in the final product. Doug didn't understand that it was offensive. He saw it as more of a sex joke and didn't get how it might come off as rape."[8] Walker, for his part, has often expressed disdain towards sexism and violence against women, such as in his review of Catwoman, and has admitted to having a dark sense of humor based in extreme satire, although he has never clarified why the offensive scene in question was so contentious or if the allegations were true. Many Channel Awesome staff members have since left the company over the allegations, moving onto other projects elsewhere.[9]

Doug Walker's "store" on the Channel Awesome website has appeared as a defunct and insecure link to visitors. While this has been deemed problematic, Walker does not have control over the web store section of the Channel Awesome website, and thus is not considered responsible for its general maintenance.[10] Walker continues to sign autographs and sell, give away and sign merchandise at public conventions, although this has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. To interact with fans, Walker and co-stars of Channel Awesome regularly use Twitch, an Amazon-based video streaming service which has no physical contact requirements between themselves and fans.

Walker's Nostalgia Critic character has been known to make contentious and politically incorrect jokes, including a child molestation joke in his review of The Care Bears Movie involving the Nicholas Cherrywood character, a reference pointing out and criticizing communist China's Uyghur genocide in a review of Disney's Mulan remake, several jokes about the September 11 attacks, and a deprecating comment towards autistic people in his review of Ernest Saves Christmas, the latter of which had to be removed from later reuploads after Doug was met with extremely negative criticism from Autism Awareness groups.[11] While these jokes are controversial, Walker does not make such jokes when he is not in character.[12] The criticism of China in particular came out after it was officially revealed that Disney had thanked the Chinese Communist Party for allowing them to film Mulan in Xinjiang, where forced assimilation and human rights abuses were known to be taking place.[13] Walker did not make the reference to this until after it was officially verified to be true in media reports.[14][15][16]

Steals films and sucks up to china: L bozo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfQhVgQU44

Personal life

Walker lives in Chicago with his wife, Robin Poage, whom he married in 2012, and their two cats, Chaplin (a rescued tuxedo cat named after Charlie Chaplin), and Buster (a smaller orange cat named after Buster Keaton that they adopted in 2020).[17]

Nostalgia Critic

After graduating college, Walker worked as an illustrator to earn money, and started making videos on the then fairly new YouTube in his spare time, where his early posts of the "Nostalgia Critic" character grabbed viewer attention. Walker has stated that the Nostalgia Critic character is primarily inspired by Daffy Duck and the Queen of Hearts, as well as by comedians Lewis Black, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Murray.[18] In 2008–2009, during the Great Recession, Walker moved his skits from YouTube to independent site That Guy With the Glasses, and later to Channel Awesome.[19] The majority of his skits have since reappeared on YouTube, and form a full web series spanning several seasons. Walker now works as a full-time content creator and staff member of Channel Awesome in Chicago, under the leadership of CEO Mike Michaud.[20] Walker also performs in other videos for Channel Awesome, notably "Doug Reviews" (in which he gives his own personal opinion on media separate from the fictional "Nostalgia Critic"), "Bum Reviews" (in which Walker plays fictional character "Chester A. Bum", a literal bum with a distinctive voice), and "Charity Shoutouts", which are affixed to the end credits of Nostalgia Critic skits, where Walker promotes various international charities to inspire viewers of Channel Awesome to donate to them. Walker works with fellow actors and comedians Malcolm Ray and Tamara Chambers predominantly, along with Rob Walker.[21]

Walker's Nostalgia Critic character will at times compliment an actor in a film he views as otherwise bad (such as when he praised Sacha Baron Cohen as the personification of Time in Alice Through the Looking Glass), and has been known at times to even get a personal response from actors and celebrities, most notably Mara Wilson, a former child actress who had appeared in two films that Walker criticized. In Walker's review of the film A Simple Wish, he surprised viewers with a guest appearance of the real Mara Wilson, who mocked the Critic in turn for bizarre home videos that he had made in the 1990s. Wilson had grown to like Walker after realizing that Nostalgia Critic was merely a fictional character and that the real Doug Walker held no hatred towards her as a person.[22][23][24]

As a series based in satire, Nostalgia Critic episodes balance comedy with some legitimate critical points about films and television, including the rise of crude humour and sexual content in children's media, the overuse of CGI in modern film-making, the spike in Disney live-action remakes, and the ways in which media portrays minorities and historically disadvantaged groups. The episodes often end with a much more mellowed-out Critic speaking calmly about the ultimate pros and cons of each film he reviews, followed by the Channel Awesome logo appearing with a spoken line of comedic dialogue quoted from some part of the episode itself.

Doug Walker generally does not disclose early any upcoming episodes of Nostalgia Critic, leaving viewers to guess what next nostalgic media will be reviewed by his character. This is sporadic and has increasingly included modern takes on "nostalgic" properties versus actual nostalgic media. While Walker originally limited his reviews to content roughly 20 years in age or older, his reviews in more recent seasons rarely include older media, instead focusing reviews on newer media such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and Disney's adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time (both of which were released between 2017 and 2021). Some older media is now reviewed by Walker in segments separate from Nostalgia Critic. For example, he occasionally reviews what he calls "Freakshow Cinema", that being nostalgic media content considered bizarre, dark and/or politically incorrect beyond normal standards.[25][26] Examples of reviews Walker has done in this segment include reviews for The Brave Little Toaster and Return to Oz. For television shows, Walker does a separate segment called "Dark Toons" (morbid and disturbing children's cartoon episodes).[27][28] Fan predictions of what the next Nostalgia Critic episode will be are generally just based on community guesses on the internet, with no official episode information available until Channel Awesome chooses to air the content publicly. Fan requests not yet fulfilled with a review have included, but are not limited to, Babe: Pig in the City, Watership Down, Lady and the Tramp (digital CGI remake), Patch Town, Birdemic, The Addams Family, Xanadu, Mask, Scary Movie and numerous others. Such requests have led Walker to publicly disclose the names of films that he refuses to review (some of which he has since reviewed, anyway). Channel Awesome accepts fan requests by email, but media content to review is generally left up to Walker by choice and not determined by fans except by popular demand.[29]

Criticism

Walker was one of a number of employees of Channel Awesome named for a variety of alleged workplace incompetence, although these allegations were mostly targeted towards Mike Michaud. Walker was accused of scripting a scene in one of his videos in which co-actor Lindsay Ellis was to be sexually assaulted, which Walker toned down over concerns that it was an offensive rape joke, but Ellis alleged that Walker still kept parts of the script in terms of strange noises "where it sounds like [Ellis] is being assaulted." According to the allegations, "[Doug's] compromise was to alter it slightly, but it's still very much a rape joke in the final product. Doug didn't understand that it was offensive. He saw it as more of a sex joke and didn't get how it might come off as rape."[30] Walker, for his part, has often expressed disdain towards sexism and violence against women, such as in his review of Catwoman, and has admitted to having a dark sense of humor based in extreme satire, although he has never clarified why the offensive scene in question was so contentious or if the allegations were true. Many Channel Awesome staff members have since left the company over the allegations, moving onto other projects elsewhere.[31]

Doug Walker's "store" on the Channel Awesome website has appeared as a defunct and insecure link to visitors. While this has been deemed problematic, Walker does not have control over the web store section of the Channel Awesome website, and thus is not considered responsible for its general maintenance.[32] Walker continues to sign autographs and sell, give away and sign merchandise at public conventions, although this has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. To interact with fans, Walker and co-stars of Channel Awesome regularly use Twitch, an Amazon-based video streaming service which has no physical contact requirements between themselves and fans.

Walker's Nostalgia Critic character has been known to make contentious and politically incorrect jokes, including a child molestation joke in his review of The Care Bears Movie involving the Nicholas Cherrywood character, a reference pointing out and criticizing communist China's Uyghur genocide in a review of Disney's Mulan remake, several jokes about the September 11 attacks, and a deprecating comment towards autistic people in his review of Ernest Saves Christmas, the latter of which had to be removed from later reuploads after Doug was met with extremely negative criticism from Autism Awareness groups.[33] While these jokes are controversial, Walker does not make such jokes when he is not in character.[34] The criticism of China in particular came out after it was officially revealed that Disney had thanked the Chinese Communist Party for allowing them to film Mulan in Xinjiang, where forced assimilation and human rights abuses were known to be taking place.[35] Walker did not make the reference to this until after it was officially verified to be true in media reports.[36][37][38]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2010 Kickassia Nostalgia Critic / Spider Smith / Chester A. Bum / Ask That Guy With the Glasses / Dominic Also director, editor, executive producer, and writer
2011 Suburban Knights Nostalgia Critic / Ask That Guy With the Glasses / Chester A. Bum / Link Also cinematographer, director, editor, executive producer, and writer
2012 To Boldly Flee Nostalgia Critic / General Zodd / Chester A. Bum / Ask That Guy With the Glasses / Soldier / Ships WI system (voice) / Weapons WI system (voice) / Himself Also camera operator, director, editor, and writer
2013 Sonic Forrest G.U.N Soldier Short film
2014 Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Himself Cameo
2015 Atop the Fourth Wall: The Movie Dominic / Lori Prince / Nostalgia Critic
2016 Room Full of Spoons Himself Documentary film
2017 Jesus, Bro! Samuel Tobinski / Kendrick Tobinski
Disco Rudy
2019 Another Cinema Snob Movie Bally Joe

Web

Year Title Role Notes
2007–2012, 2013–present Nostalgia Critic Nostalgia Critic / Various Also director, writer, editor, and producer
2010–present The Cinema Snob Nostalgia Critic / Chester A. Bum / Luigi Mario / Christopher Walken's Arm / Ask That Guy With the Glasses Also writer
2014 Everything Wrong with... Himself Episode: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
2015 James and Mike Mondays Himself 4 episodes
2016 Honest Trailers Himself Episode: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of Their Shells (feat. The Nostalgia Critic)
2018–2020 Cinemassacre Video Himself / Nicolas Cage 6 episodes

References

  1. ^ a b "About ChannelAwesome". YouTube.
  2. ^ DeLand, Adam. "Know Your Meme: Doug Walker". Know Your Meme. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  3. ^ Johnson, Brian (November 5, 2014). "The Nostalgia Critic Interview". emptylighthouse.com. Empty Lighthouse Magazine. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
  4. ^ "Behind The Scenes". channelawesome.com. Channel Awesome. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  5. ^ Blevins, Joe. "YouTube's Nostalgia Critic offers an emergency crash course in fair use". A.V. Club. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
  6. ^ Huller, Jacob. [https://www.thehofstrachroni cle.com/category/arts-and-entertainment/2018/4/10/taking-a-stance-against-channel-awesome "Taking a stance against Channel Awesome"]. The Hofstra Chronicle. Retrieved November 7, 2021. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help); line feed character in |url= at position 29 (help)
  7. ^ "Sandra Polkow Walker". Daily Herald. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  8. ^ Schroeder, Audra. "Former contributors allege mismanagement and misconduct at Channel Awesome". The Daily Dot.
  9. ^ Shaffer, Claire. "After many called out Channel Awesome for workplace issues, they're finding similar issues with YouTube". Polygon. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  10. ^ "Store". theawesomestore.com. Channel Awesome. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  11. ^ "Doug Walker's Biggest Fuckups". Youtube.
  12. ^ "The Nostalgia Critic (2007– ) Parents Guide". imdb.com. The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  13. ^ Singh, Katherine. "Here's Why #BoycottMulan Is Trending". fashionmagazine.com. Fashion. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  14. ^ Ward, Alex. "The international controversy over Disney's Mulan, explained". www.vox.com. Vox. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  15. ^ Walker, Doug. "Mulan (2020) - Nostalgia Critic". www.youtube.com. Channel Awesome (via YouTube). Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  16. ^ Brewer, Spencer. "Opinion: With 'Mulan,' Disney is complicit in genocide". www.theshorthorn.com. The Shoehorn. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  17. ^ Pickett, Leah. "Doug Walker: Biography". The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
  18. ^ "Doug Walker's Character Origins" – via www.youtube.com.
  19. ^ Gutelle, Sam (July 6, 2017). "Nostalgia Critic Celebrates Ten Years Of Videos With A Much-Requested Review". Tubefilter. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
  20. ^ Schroeder, Audra (April 4, 2018). "Former contributors allege mismanagement and misconduct at Channel Awesome". Daily Dot. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
  21. ^ "Channel Awesome". Channel Awesome. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  22. ^ "A Simple Wish". www.imdb.com. The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  23. ^ McPherson, Rebekah (May 8, 2021). "Everything Mara Wilson Has Been Up To Since 'Matilda'". www.thethings.com. The Things.
  24. ^ Walker, Doug. "Shut up and Talk: Mara Wilson". channelawesome.com. Channel Awesome. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  25. ^ "Tag Archives: freakshow cinema". channelawesome.com. Channel Awesome. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  26. ^ Walker, Doug. "Nostalgia Critic Freakshow Cinema". www.youtube.com. YouTube. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  27. ^ "Dark Toons TV Series 2020–". imdb.com. The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  28. ^ "Tag Archives:dark toons". channelawesome.com. Channel Awesome. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  29. ^ Walker, Doug. "Top 11 Movies I'll NEVER Review". www.youtube.com. Nostalgia Critic (via YouTube). Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  30. ^ Schroeder, Audra. "Former contributors allege mismanagement and misconduct at Channel Awesome". The Daily Dot.
  31. ^ Shaffer, Claire. "After many called out Channel Awesome for workplace issues, they're finding similar issues with YouTube". Polygon. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  32. ^ "Store". theawesomestore.com. Channel Awesome. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  33. ^ "Doug Walker's Biggest Fuckups". Youtube.
  34. ^ "The Nostalgia Critic (2007– ) Parents Guide". imdb.com. The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  35. ^ Singh, Katherine. "Here's Why #BoycottMulan Is Trending". fashionmagazine.com. Fashion. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  36. ^ Ward, Alex. "The international controversy over Disney's Mulan, explained". www.vox.com. Vox. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  37. ^ Walker, Doug. "Mulan (2020) - Nostalgia Critic". www.youtube.com. Channel Awesome (via YouTube). Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  38. ^ Brewer, Spencer. "Opinion: With 'Mulan,' Disney is complicit in genocide". www.theshorthorn.com. The Shoehorn. Retrieved May 19, 2022.

Quotations related to The Nostalgia Critic at Wikiquote

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