TGWTG "Nostalgia Critic" / Doug Walker, Rob Walker, Mike Michaud, Mike Ellis, Holly Christine Brown, et al - The Incompetent Predator-Protecting Upper Management of Channel Awesome, Doug Still Not That Funny

[QB 290]

Spoiler alert: it's fucking dreadful

We wouldn't need a spoiler for that if it was made by doug

 

[Vorhtbame]

It's Batman Forever, no less, which is the lowest of low-hanging fruit. I mean, even The Room can yield some amazing riffs. But that one? It practically mocks itself.

 

[friedshrimp]

3) The Channel Awesome Clique/ Cult of Personality ruled in the day. Nearly no one, sans LordKat, wanted to talk shit about Channel Awesome because it'd be them vs. all of the other content creators AND their fantards. It hasn't been until now where there were enough cracks in the Channel Awesome veneer before people decided to speak up en masse.

Basically. CA for years had this public image of being this "cool" place where everybody was buddies and the rest of the world wanted to be a part of it, not to mention a rabid fanbase. Remember how most people shrug off Lupa and Lordkat when they left and started speaking of CA. It could only work if everyone left in masse.

 

[kobebyarlant]

Is he imitating Linkara?

No this is Linkara.

 

[endofteh]

I can't tell if that's a rhetorical question, but a decent amount of contributors seemed to either live on their own or with roommates/friends. Though I believe Lupa lived with her parents while she was still with CA/while she was having midroll drama with the higher-ups but has since moved into her own apartment.

It's weird thinking how old some of these people are still living at home, I work retail for 12 years and I've managed to live on my own for the past 10

 

[Stephen Micek]

It's weird thinking how old some of these people are still living at home, I work retail for 12 years and I've managed to live on my own for the past 10

Are you insinuating that yelling about movies on the internet is somehow not a real job?

 

[The Nothingness]

Are you insinuating that yelling about movies on the internet is somehow not a real job?

But he's a hip version of Roger Ebert

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Spoiler alert: it's fucking dreadful

Let me guess, he over-emphasizes all of his lines and sticks out like a sore thumb among the group.

 

[UglyOldJafar]

But he's a hip version of Roger Ebert

Wow. Now that is an insult.
At least when Ebert made his awful movie, it did not just reference shit every two minutes

 

[More Spicey Than Coolwhip]

It's weird thinking how old some of these people are still living at home, I work retail for 12 years and I've managed to live on my own for the past 10

I think location plays an important role here. Many of channel awesome contributors want to be immersed in woke culture so they move to places like LA, Chicago, New York etc. if they weren't already born and raised there anyway. Of course, all of these hipster havens are expensive as fuck so the pitiful to mediocre returns they see on the videos do nothing to help them achieve independence. This forces them to either shack up with 4 others in an apartment or settle down with any city dwelling relatives they have.

 

[The Funk Soul Brother]

Wow. Now that is an insult.
At least when Ebert made his awful movie, it did not just reference shit every two minutes

Are you referring to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls?

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Spoiler alert: it's fucking dreadful

Proof that just because you know the notes doesn't mean you can play the music.

 

[TyrannoNinja]

This Mike Michaud guy just seems like the biggest asshole. Like... how has this group survived this long under his management?

If Mike and Doug ever fall out with one another, that'll probably be the death knell for CA. Doug has always been CA's main attraction, so their survival depends on his being happy above anything (and anyone) else. AFAIK, he's never been anything other than a beneficiary of this whole mess. It's still possible that Mike will end up screwing even Doug over (assuming he hasn't already), but until then, it's probably Doug that is keeping them in business even after all these mass exoduses.

 

[Puddleduck]

I wonder what the IP for the Nostalgia Critic consists of. Could Doug continue to do "funny" reviews in front of a plain wall, with "funny" skits intercut, and just not call it Nostalgia Critic?

 

[The Funk Soul Brother]

I wonder what the IP for the Nostalgia Critic consists of. Could Doug continue to do "funny" reviews in front of a plain wall, with "funny" skits intercut, and just not call it Nostalgia Critic?

For all we know, he could have signed an agreement that allows him to not work in that industry for a set amount of time which could be the case why he has not left. Considering that administrator had to sign one to get severence pay, I would not be suprised if this is the case.

 

[Henry Bemis]

For all we know, he could have signed an agreement that allows him to not work in that industry for a set amount of time which could be the case why he has not left. Considering that administrator had to sign one to get severence pay, I would not be suprised if this is the case.

Considering Channel Awesome's questionable management, I can only imagine just how effective and enforceable their non-compete terms would be.

"You'll never work in this town again!"

"In Naperville? Well, thank God Chicago's right there."

On that note, I wonder if Holly could find grounds to sue for earnings lost over whatever agreement she signed, if the terms were bogus, at least.

 

[LordofCringe7206]

This actually raises an interesting question: why did Doug sign his rights over to Mike in the first place? Why would he ever think that's a smart thing to do?

 

[Splendid]

God, this blew up like crazy. Any chance we can get a quick recap in the OP or something?

 

[Puddleduck]

This actually raises an interesting question: why did Doug sign his rights over to Mike in the first place? Why would he ever think that's a smart thing to do?

It was probably so Michaud had something concrete to attach himself to the product with - Doug is the NC; Rob is (I think?) a production assistant, occasional extra, and of course Doug's brother. Finding someone to run the business side of things wouldn't be too difficult, so perhaps Michaud wanted a solid stake in TGWTG, so he wrote it in that he owned the IP? Even then if his shares were bought out, he'd still effectively have a modicum of control.

 

[Magnum Dong]

This. I also think another reason why ChannelAwesome became so popular, has to do with the "nerd mentality" around 2008.
Lets face it: 10-12 years ago, with youtube emerging, suddenly there was a plattform for nerds to exchange information not just by post, but also video. And I am not just talking like comic, or videogame nerds, but just in general fans of anything. I think one reason why many of these reviewers managed to get some sort of popularity out of it was, because for the audience they were some sort of surrogate. You know: Someone you can listen and who assumingly shares similar interests than you and can tell you something about a certain movie you heard of and make fun of it.
I think this "surrogate friend" mentality is what made some of these reviewers popular with the audience. And then when channelawesome came along and made their crossover shit, they also conveyed like this image of comradery between reviewers, which people may have hoped they can also find when doing the same shit as them, leading to some degree to the reviewer boom (incombination with others thinking, internet reviewing makes a lot of money) but now the sad truth is out: This "community" is sterile, everyone was pretty much forced to do what Doug and Michaud wanted, the "heroes" of some of these fans are pretty shit when you dig deep enough and there are too many reviewers as that something interesting really comes out.

The reviewer bubble is finally bursting and ChannelAwesome is just the beginning.

You're touching on a very real phenomenon that extends beyond the 2008 nerd mentality as well. The idea of the "surrogate friend" has also been more widely called a parasocial interaction: an illusion in which media audiences interact with personas (characters, actors, YouTubers, etc.) as if they're in a meaningful reciprocal relationship. The belief is that, not only do these reviewers have the same interests as you, but over time you grow familiar with their lives and little nuances and become convinced that they talk and think in the same way you do, so you think you could feasibly become their friend if they only knew you.

I'm actually surprised CA hasn't had a larger problem with weird fans in parasocial relationships, but then again I think the advent of vloggers, Twitter/IG personalities, etc. who post about their lives more candidly may have steered more folk in that direction.

Like I think the only contributor I've seen have to warn about "if you're a fan, remind yourself you're a stranger to me, you know more about me than I know about you, I'm not your friend" is Lupa. Which seems odd at first, since she's not one of the top-tier contributors you'd expect to have this problem, until you remember she's more of an open book than some others (active Twitter and Tumblr presence, very candid about her special interests, once did a video tour of all the memorabilia in her house) and it starts to make sense.

And then there's other contributors who've used parasocial relationships to their benefit, such as the unnamed predator, plus I recall Brad Jones's ex Violet was a fan who met him at Midwest Media Expo before dating. So there's that. (Edit: I don't mean to imply Brad's the predator, it's just 2 separate examples of dudes who have become very close to fans in one way or another)