Todd In The Shadows

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Is Todd In The Shadows a lolcow?

  • Yes

    Votes: 126 30.2%
  • No

    Votes: 61 14.6%
  • Todd is Lolcow Adjacent

    Votes: 230 55.2%

  • Total voters
    417

Random Internet Person

kiwifarms.net
Joined
Jun 28, 2019
Todd Nathanson is Todd In The Shadows, a music critic that makes videos on YouTube talking about pop songs.

Todd got started in 2009 making reviews about the hottest songs on the Billboard charts at the time. And at the end of the year, Todd would also countdown the worst and best songs of the year (in his opinion). And after a few of these, he ended up getting a call to join the big boys: That Guy With The Glasses/Channel Awesome.

(Todd calls this the worst song he’s reviewed, and it was before CA).

Going faceless was a stylistic choice Because Todd didn’t want the videos to meddle in his personal life, and the faceless aspect would also be incorporated into crossovers and the anniversary specials. But after the videos took off, the shadows now stay as a stylistic choice/gimmick.

Background

Our faceless cuck who goes by Todd in the Shadows was born Kenneth He Munson in San Diego, CA on June 3, 1984. His mom is a Vietnamese woman who immigrated under less than legal conditions and his dad is a basic American white guy with Irish heritage. They moved to Virginia Beach, VA to work for the IRS and because the feds really don’t like doxing on federal employees even if retired and Null has enough problems, that’s all that will be said about the parents Munson. While Todd had a running joke for years about his ambiguous ethnic heritage of “brown”, he also brought up the fact that his uncle was killed in a Communist labor camp, which pointed rather clearly to Vietnamese ancestry. He has one younger brother, Victor, who goes by @WafflesInc on Twitter and has his own podcast of zero note or interest called the Joestar Allstars. Victor is married to furry/changeling artist Acacia Munson, found on Twitter at @AliceColorized, @AliceRouged and @AcaciaMunson. She also had a furaffinity account at @aliceinco which may have been nuked. Why mention it? Because it’s funny. They have one son.

Todd went to Princess Anne high school in Virginia Beach, VA and attended Lynchberg University. His undergraduate studies were journalism and music theory and his graduate program was in teaching. He worked as a substitute teacher for a while but hated it, tried writing for a local newspaper and had a blog (scrubbed from the internet, he claims) and eventually started making comedic videos about music around 2009. This was because he wanted to scratch his attention whore itch but used a gimmick of covering his face in shadow for plausible deniability. Using his eight years of piano lessons, he played pop songs and did typical for the time angry reviewer shtick. Todd has said that he grew up only listening to country music and only started listening to pop as a teenager when his car could only get the local pop station.

This was successful enough to get attention from TGWTG and he joined the site as an independent producer in 2010. On the set of Suburban Knights in 2011, Todd met Lindsay Ellis aka the Nostalgia Chick and they started a long distance relationship which lasted until 2014. At some point during this, he moved from Virginia to NYC while Lindsay was attending NYU.

In addition to his pop song reviews, Todd also has two additional shows that some argue are bigger and better than his main song reviews: One Hit Wonderland, “where we take a look at bands and artists known for only one song”, in an attempt to figure out if they deserve to be known for more, and Trainwreckords, where Todd analyzes albums that derailed if not straight up killed the careers of big name artists.

(The most viewed of the respective shows)

CA would be a fruitful time for Todd, appearing in the films Surburban Knights and To Boldly Flee, and becoming part of Lindsay Ellis’ web circle Chez Apocalypse (even dating her for a while), and Todd would stay on the site until 2018, when he left during the height of the #ChangeTheChannel saga.

Since then, Todd continues to Do his thing on YouTube, with his year end lists being the only ones to crack a million.
(Todd’s most popular video at 1.8 million views)

As it stands though, Todd is one of the biggest names on YouTube when it comes to talking music. He also has a podcast called Song vs. Song where he and his co host Lina Morgan debate similar songs in a discussion to determine which song stays if one has to be erased from history forever.

All in all, a pretty decent run if you ask me. And it doesn’t look like it’s stopping anytime soon.

(Also, I made a thread on this guy long ago, but I deleted it because I wasn’t sure if it fit here or in the lolcow section. And if you frequent the Lindsay Ellis thread, he comes up a lot, but the sense is he only briefly has cow qualities, and OHW and TW can wipe the slate clean, so…here we are talking about the hooded Icarus. If you have some stuff that could be put into the OP, it’d be much appreciated.)

Useful links:

Todd’s Twitter
Todd’s Patreon
Song vs Song Twitter
Song vs Song Patreon
Song vs Song on Spotify
 
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Compared to the other CA alumni, ole Toddy is just plain boring. Barring his twitter hot takes (which are a dime a dozen these days) he's just another generic YT reviewer chasing the algorithm for that easy AdSense money/Patreon grift. He's definitely not as prolific as boozy Lindsay, sadsack Spoony, or Linkara, I don't think there'll be much milk about him unless he majorly jumps off the deep end on twitter.
 
I liked him back when his style of content was hard to find on the internet, but at this point he's a dime a dozen, and in particular has this shtick of taking lyrics completely literally to, I hope, stretch a forced joke, that it just winds up making him look stupid.

I forget who, but someone on KF recently referenced a review of "Sweetest Pie" where Todd was acting confused at how one drove a pie, and that it made him just look like he couldn't pick up on an obvious "this singer likes cowgirl" reference. It hit home that, despite me not watching a single review of his in like 7 years now, Todd is still doing the exact same thing he was back in 2015. What a rut.
 
I forget who, but someone on KF recently referenced a review of "Sweetest Pie" where Todd was acting confused at how one drove a pie, and that it made him just look like he couldn't pick up on an obvious "this singer likes cowgirl" reference.
I'm gonna take his side here and say he probably does this as popular music usually isn't "supposed" to be deep. Again I agree though it makes him look stupid.
 
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His overly-negative persona is not so funny as it is dated to me. Given that it's gone on this long, I suspect it's part of his personality. Todd's simply unpleasant to listen to when he focuses on being as sour as possible, rather than providing witty and informative commentary.

I like his Trainwreckords series, though I can't stand when his social/political views come up 'cause he can't be chill about them. He comes off as genuinely petulant and angry.

AdoseofBuckley has a similar theme to his content, though somehow he maintains a more mature and ironic air — probably because he is indeed older, and I suspect he doesn't take himself nearly as seriously as Todd does.

I like Todd's videos well enough, but I think his lack of humility holds him back.
 
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I remember this dude coming up in the older TDS thread ages ago. Seems like another terminally online faggot like everyone else who has to constantly politisperg for validation.
His claim to fame is being a third rate player on a shit website full of spergs who almost all of them have threads on this site and being cucked by a woman whose Masters thesis was a film about her abortion. He's a sad joke. His online presence is deader than Lindsay Ellis child.
 
His claim to fame is being a third rate player on a shit website full of spergs who almost all of them have threads on this site and being cucked by a woman whose Masters thesis was a film about her abortion. He's a sad joke. His online presence is deader than Lindsay Ellis child.
And he’s only gotten this far because Red Letter Media doesn’t talk about music.

His claim to fame is being a third rate player on a shit website full of spergs who almost all of them have threads on this site and being cucked by a woman whose Masters thesis was a film about her abortion. He's a sad joke. His online presence is deader than Lindsay Ellis child.
And he’s only gotten this far because Red Letter Media doesn’t talk about music.
 
I love Todd’s videos and think he’s a decent writer and reviewer when he has a script in front of him. As a person he’s cringe but I am impressed for the most part it doesn’t bleed into his videos.

Honestly I just wanted this thread to exist so we can talk about the podcast and his videos.

Lina is definitely a lolcow and not a good podcast cohost. His sense of humor is terrible and he’s apparently acted like a weirdo sex pest before trooning out (shocking I know.)
 
Could've sword he already had a thread, weird
Made it, deleted it, decided to try again.

I love Todd’s videos and think he’s a decent writer and reviewer when he has a script in front of him. As a person he’s cringe but I am impressed for the most part it doesn’t bleed into his videos.

Honestly I just wanted this thread to exist so we can talk about the podcast and his videos.

Lina is definitely a lolcow and not a good podcast cohost. His sense of humor is terrible and he’s apparently acted like a weirdo sex pest before trooning out (shocking I know.)
Well…wish granted.
 
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Could've sword he already had a thread, weird
He didn't, people just used his exe's thread to talk about him forever before tonight because he wasn't interesting enough to get one of his own.

Tbf I think he's joked about this before
If he did, I didn't see it. Then again, I don't watch most of his vids.
 
His claim to fame is being a third rate player on a shit website full of spergs who almost all of them have threads on this site and being cucked by a woman whose Masters thesis was a film about her abortion. He's a sad joke. His online presence is deader than Lindsay Ellis child.
He makes a ton of money from Patreon and sponsorships. He was doing 1-2 videos per month and at $7K+ per video (after fees), that is a very decent income for relatively little work. Todd is also friends with the main editor of Billboard.com, most of the former Gawkerverse writers via Beth Elderkin, quite a few writers from Cracked and of course Breadtube. As part of being in the Standard/Nebula stable and Lindsay's pet, he's connected to a huge amount of lefty internet.
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Lina is definitely a lolcow and not a good podcast cohost. His sense of humor is terrible and he’s apparently acted like a weirdo sex pest before trooning out (shocking I know.)
Dany is obnoxious. In the Grammys podcast this week, he was in full-on "well let's not speculate" holier-than-thou mode which on top of his voice, laugh and personality made it hard to listen to. Anyway, I wrote more extensively about him here:

Yes. It's Dany Roth, who officially trooned out last year (but has been about that ace tranny life for a long time while married to a they/them theater girl) and now goes by Lina Morgan. He's been a hanger-on to the Chez Apocalypse crowd for a decade and was getting some traction as a podcaster and movie commentator on SyFy when he publicly sperged about giving positive reviews to movies in exchange for access and derailed his own career. He still does a fair few podcasts as a sad semblance of a livelihood, including and most prominently Song vs Song with Todd, but his reputation in the industry is shit even though he wasn't wrong in claiming "everyone does it".

He was also sort-of-cancelled when Kyle Kallgren's ex-fiancee Jourdain Searles claimed Dany sexually assaulted her by kissing her at a party when they were drunk. She also fancies herself a movie critic and professional Strong Disabled Black Woman so she accused not just Dany but that entire clique of Dany, Todd, Lindsay, Beth Elderkin and their cronies from Gawker Media and CA of being racists covering up her abuse. It caused Kyle to defend his lady love and lose that entire friend group, while Jourdain made shady comments whenever she could about how terrible they all were. When Lindsay was getting flamed over the Raya Incident, Jourdain brought it up again and it did get more attention, to the point where both Dany and Todd released longass Google docs (Todd and Dany) about what really happened from their point of view.

So after being cancelled twice, he trooned out and changed his name despite having a unisex one in the first place. But you can't escape your past. As a 40+ year old man, he's kind of grown up enough to see why cancel culture is bad but not enough to not make that statement All About Him. He also never shuts the fuck up on the podcast, constantly bitching about queer shit in media.

Anyway, short answer: yes, that's a guy.

ETA: and just for fun, here's a more recent pic of Todd aka Ken He Munson
View attachment 2867153
 
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