Channel Awesome

ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com is a comedy website run by Douglas "Darien" Walker, a former freelance cartoonist who resides in Illinois. The website is primarily aimed at film aficionados and gamers as the majority of the videos posted on the website was reviews of movies or video games done in a humorous fashion. One tradition of the website is that most of the reviewers on the website portray themselves in-character as complete irrational fools. Walker himself became known in early 2007 with the series 5-Second Movies on YouTube and later The Nostalgia Critic, a highly-acclaimed internet series in which Walker plays an incredibly cynical character who reviews bad movies and TV shows from his childhood. The Muppets have been referenced many times in various series. Henson productions are sometimes reviewed as well.

The Nostalgia Critic

• In one of the very first Nostalgia Critic videos, a review of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, the Nostalgia Critic mentions the Muppet Babies characters appearing in the special, "Because when I think drug abuse, (lips "oh yeah"), I think Muppet Babies."
• In a review of all three live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, the Critic points out the Creature Shop's involvement in the film, mentioning it's not worth thinking about how much the puppeteers squat.
• At the end of his review of the Super Mario Bros. film, the Critic tries to explain the ending of the film as quickly as possible, mentioning that Mario and Luigi turn King Koopa "into a Muppet."
• During a top 11 countdown of the "Catchiest Theme Songs," the Sesame Street Theme appears at #11.
• While reviewing the Hanna-Barbera series Captain Planet, specifically an episode about gang violence, the Critic sarcastically tells the audience to change the channel to Sesame Street, saying that the writers of Captain Planet "don't know what they are doing."
• At one point during the Critic's review of Masters of the Universe, he calls antagonist Skeletor's troops "Skeletor's Muppet demons."
• The Critic reviewed Follow that Bird in a 2008 video and couldn't not find anything to make fun of about it, having too many positive memories of Sesame Street. Chester A. Bum, a character also played by Walker from the series Bum Reviews, then takes over describing the plot of the film in his usual fast-paced style.
• During a top 11 countdown of the "Saddest Nostalgic Moments," the "Saying Goodbye" sequence from The Muppets Take Manhattan appears at #11 and the "I'm So Blue" sequence from Follow that Bird appears at #10.
• In a tribute to prolific movie poster designer Drew Struzan, the Critic comments on Struzan's collaborations with the Muppets, and comments that he was even able to make Follow That Bird look like "a freakin' epic." Although remenicent of Struzan's style, the Follow That Bird poster was actually painted by Steven Chorney. This mistake, among others, came in at #8 on the countdown video "Top 11 F*ck Ups".
• During a countdown of the top 12 "Greatest Christmas Specials", "A Christmas Carol" makes the list and clips from A Muppet Christmas Carol are used as examples of the various variations of the story.
• In response to a random musical sequence in the 1992 animated feature FernGully: The Last Rainforest, the Nostalgia Critic compares the sequence to, among other movies, "Chilly Down" from Labyrinth.
• In his review of Garbage Pail Kids, he shows no interest in the scenes where the kids sit around and do nothing eventful, claiming he doesn't want to see a "high-school performance of 'I Can't Believe It's Not Muppets!'" He later calls them "puppets created by Jim Henson's mentally-retarded brother."
• In his review of The Pagemaster, the Critic remarks, in the scene where Dr. Jekyll (voiced by Leonard Nimoy) turns into Mr. Hyde, that Mr. Hyde looks like "a radiocative ape/Muppet, for some reason."
• At the beginning of his review of the TV series Full House, the Critic quickly touches upon the TGIF line-up Full House was a part of. A picture of Earl Sinclair is shown among pictures of Steve Urkel and the cast of Step by Step as the Critic talks.
• In the review of Captain N, The Critic remarks that a CGI green character that appears in the opening sequence and remarks that it looks like the "CG version of Kermit the Frog and Max Headroom" and does an impression of him ("it's not easy being g-g-g-green!")
• The Critic reviews We're Back!: A Dinosaur's Story as a parody of Hunter S. Thompson, who was often referred to as a "gonzo journalist." Playing on this, his Thompson character introduces himself as the "father of Fozzie journalism."
• In his review of Congo, the Critic jokes about how disturbing it seems that a gorilla named Amy keeps asking to be tickled, which leads to a joke involving a "Tickle Me Amy" doll which asks to be tickled but then makes increasingly more perverted requests, much to the Critic's disgust.
• In his review of Conan the Destroyer, the scene where Conan encounters a magical gem is accompanied with the Critic's Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation: "My God! The Fabulous Baseball Diamond!"
• At one point in his review of Lost in Space, the Critic calls Blawp (created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop) "a pile of Muppet feces."
• For a Top 11 countdown of the "Greatest Villain Songs," "Shiver My Timbers" from Muppet Treasure Island appears at #10.
• In his review for Chairman of the Board, the Critic refers to Carrot Top's character dressed in a chicken suit in one scene as "Big Bird's crack baby".
• At the beginning of his Theodore Rex review, he talks like a producer trying to figure out a movie idea involving an "A- star and whatever's popular at the time". One of the ideas involves "Whoopi Goldberg and the dinosaurs from that TGIF sitcom", showing an image of Earl Sinclair.
• In his review of Hook, The Critic points out a scene where Peter Banning/Peter Pan (Robin Williams) "stumbles upon an old cave from the past... or Fraggle Rock."
• In his review of Mr. Nanny, at one point the Critic identifies the father (played by Austin Pendleton) as "Max from The Muppet Movie" before cutting to a quick clip from The Muppet Movie. At the end of the review, an on-screen note appears reading "Max did not appear in another Muppet movie".
• In the review for Zeus and Roxanne, Doug makes a remark about the villain's lip movements in one scene, asking if he's turned into "Beaker from The Muppets". The clip is then repeated with Doug (offscreen) imitating Beaker.
• In his review of Don Bluth's The Pebble and the Penguin, he brings up his opinion that the film's opening musical number "Now and Forever" sounds incredibly similar to "The First Time It Happens," followed by him alternating between clips from the two sequences, emphasizing the similarity.
• In his NostalgiaWeen review of Ernest Scared Stupid, the Critic says he thinks the locale of Old Lady Hackmore (played by Eartha Kitt) is "the anus of the garbage monster from Fraggle Rock," referring to Marjory the Trash Heap.
• In The Critic's review of the direct-to-video movie My Pet Monster, during a scene that introduces a trio of tribal statues resembling monsters, he notes that they look like "the ancient civilization of the Muppet tribe."
• In his first installment of "Nostalgic Commercials!", one of the commercials that he riffs on is an ad for the Fraggle Rock Book Club.
• In his Christmas video "A Nostalgia Critic Christmas!", The Critic briefly quits and has Ma-Ti from Captain Planet (played by Walker’s friend Bhargav Dronamraju) run the show. Ma-Ti is equipped with a Wembley Fraggle puppet, whom Bhargav refers to as Giggles. Walker brought the re-naming up in his commentary for the video, jesting that the name change was to avoid legal problems with Henson.
• To start off "Sequel Month" (January 2011), the Critic reviewed The Neverending Story III. At one point, he becomes enraged that the filmmakers turned the Rock Biter into a sitcom family, comparing it to The Flintstones and Dinosaurs. In the commentary for the review, Walker acknowledges the Jim Henson Company's involvement with the movie; the Creature Shop supplied animatronic puppets of the fantasy characters (Falcor, the Rock Biter family, etc.)
• In "The Top 11 Dumbest Spider-Man Moments", a clip of Nicky Holiday from "Hey a Movie!" is inserted during the subway scene.
• In the review for The Lost World: Jurassic Park, a clip from The Great Muppet Caper with Peter Ustinov and Oscar is played when the two kids from the first movie make a small cameo.
• In May 2011, the Critic reviewed the film Gordy, about an adventure of a talking pig who searches for his kidnapped family and becomes a hero after rescuing a boy whose grandfather decides to make the two the mascots for his company, when the boy's mother - also looking to be the spokesperson - complains to her sinister fiancee, "How can you even ask me to compete with a pig?" The Critic comments, "You know, unless you're in a Muppet movie, that line should never have any context anywhere."
• In the Critic's review of The Blues Brothers: Jukebox Adventure SNES game on The Best of TGWTG Vol. 2 DVD, he says Elwood's battle cry sounds like Fozzie Bear "if he was trying to go all metal."
• In the website's third year anniversary special Suburban Knights, reviewer JewWario cosplayed as Jareth from Labyrinth, as he did in his review of the Labyrinth video game. In part two, a puppet called Cat becomes the subject of ridicule for the reviewers. The Critic quips "What are you gonna do, start The Muppet Show?"
• In the Rad review, a scene from The Great Muppet Caper is used when a character slams his hand on the desk.
• In his review of the 1998 movie The Avengers, the dinner scene with Neville and Dorcas from The Great Muppet Caper is used in comparison with the former film's polite English bantering.
• In the Critic's review of Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, Stephen Barker Turner's high, weepy reading of a line is compared to Miss Piggy's voice. A brief clip of Miss Piggy (from her appearance on On Air with Ryan Seacrest) is matched with the line.
• In his review of Felix the Cat: The Movie, the Crtic calls the Professor's nephew Poindexter "Dr. Honeydew," and later he refers to audience members as "Fraggle Rock gremlins."
• In a crossover review of the first Child's Play movie, Phelous comments at the point of a lightning strike in a toy store, guessing that it "struck the flammable Elmo part of the store." Later, the puppet-like movements of Chucky running out of the apartment is matched with an audio clip of Kermit announcing The Muppet Show.
• In a crossover review of Star Trek 9: Insurrection with fellow reviewer "Linkara," The Critic mentions when the crew members start singing Gilbert and Sullivan's "A British Tar," that he's heard less singing on Sesame Street.
• In the Alien Resurrection review, when the Newborn kills the queen, a sound clip of Baby Sinclair's catchphrase "Not the mama!" is used.
• During the review of Signs, in the scene where Graham (Mel Gibson) sees a mysterious thin green leg in his cornrows, the Critic exclaims "Oh my god, he's being invaded by Kermit the Frog!" He then says doing a Kermit impression "I understand you haven't subscribed to The Muppet YouTube channel yet. Don't make me shove the Rainbow Connection up your ass. It's not easy being dead."
• In a crossover review of Digimon: The Movie with JesuOtaku, the Critic called Kokomon (in Wendigomon form) a "Muppet Minstrel."
• In the Critic's review of Super Babies: Baby Geniuses 2, he refers to a stage show seen at one point of the movie as "Kermit the Frog and the Jazz Singer."
• In his crossover review of the 1978 movie The Wiz, the Critic notes that the song "He's the Wiz" sounds like it belongs on Sesame Street. A clip of the song is followed by the Critic and Todd in the Shadows singing "The People in Your Neighborhood."
• In part 4 of the fourth year anniversary special To Boldly Flee, when Turl runs off to get to the Critic, Zod says "Come back here you Muppet!"
• The Nostalgia Critic has reviewed several Creature Shop productions, including The Flintstones (1994), Jack Frost (1998), and Scooby-Doo (2002).
• In an editorial the Critic makes a review called What the F*** was up with Where the Wild Things Are?

Ask ThatGuyWithTheGlasses

• In the first episode, a viewer asks how to remove a Fraggle colony from beneath their garden. ThatGuy suggests taking a "Doover" and impale it on a pike with the message "Fraggles Forever" and place it between the Fraggle and Doover colonies, resulting in a war between them that the Doovers would win (as they have weapons of mass destruction). He then suggests killing the Doovers afterwards, with their small size making it easy to do.
• A viewer writes in mentioning that his little brother is scared of clowns and Big Bird and wants to know how he can conquer this fear. Chester A. Bum, the video's replacement host after AskThatGuy died via heart attack, mentions being afraid to clowns and Big Bird as well.
• A viewer asks ThatGuy "Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?" ThatGuy responds with simply using MapQuest.
• In Episode 40, a viewer questions who the heck is in Big Bird's suit on Sesame Street. ThatGuy states that Big Bird isn't a puppet, but the people are. Elmo and Oscar the Grouch are also mentioned.
• In Episode 56, AskThatGuy mentions that he gets his facts on animals from Paranormal Activity 2 and The Muppet Show.
• In Episode 66, AskThatGuy emphasizes that he will not stop making gay He-Man jokes until either "He-Man confesses himself or Bert and Ernie finally get married."
• In Episode 68, a viewer asks "Why are there so many songs about rainbows?" ThatGuy replies that Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Kermit the Frog "are looking to kill us all," adding that the Muppets are "actually flying monkey people."

Other

• In late 2008, Walker appeared in a commercial for a PBS documentary on comedians in Washington, D.C.. Walker filmed a documentary while he was in the city. Upon arriving at PBS' Washington headquarters, he sarcastically points out Big Bird's dressing room, saying that the PBS employees say he's hard to work with.
• "The Nostalgia Chick" reviewed Labyrinth in March 2009.
• A regular series of the site is "Theme Lyrics", where Doug takes TV show theme songs with no lyrics and adds his own. In September 2009, the Dinosaurs theme was added lyrics.
• "ThatJewishGuy", debuted in September 2009 with a review of the Shalom Sesame shows.
• On a TGWTG-sponsored podcast, The L and Zee Show, Marty Robinson was interviewed on episode 8 of the podcast series.
• In "ThatJewishGuy"'s Top 8 List of the Best Hanukkah songs, the Shalom Sesame version of "Eight Beautiful Notes" is used as countdown music. Other clips from the "Chanukah" episode of Shalom Sesame appear.
• When Walker went on a trip to Austria, he began his video diaries with an extensive rant on the low quality of the Vienna hotel he stayed in. In the mist of his rant, he cuts back and forth to clips from the Happiness Hotel sequence from The Great Muppet Caper and his complaining.
• "ThatJewishGuy" re-caped the "Chanukah" episode of Shalom Sesame in December 2010.
• In April 2011, "ThatJewishGuy"'s Passover video features scenes from the "Passover" episode of Shalom Sesame, as well as a clip from Rechov Sumsum where Moishe Oofnik gets drunk at a Passover ceder.
• Paw Dugan reviewed The Muppet Movie as an episode of "Music Movies" in May 2011.
• In July 2011, contributors "The Nostalgia Chick", "Todd in the Shadows" and "Obscurus Lupa" reviewed the musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. At the end of the video, a clip of Sesame Street's parody ("SpiderMonster") is used. It is introduced by a screen of text reading "And now a parody from the forefront of biting satire...Sesame Street".
• In a review of Warrior Comic #4 by "Spoony" and "Linkara", a cover comparison is made with it's previous issues, with "Linkara" singing a brief refrain of "One of These Things."
• For Bum Reviews, Doug Walker reviewed The Muppets on November 28, 2011, as Chester A. Bum and as himself. In the latter video, Walker also briefly talks about the previous Muppet movies, citing The Great Muppet Caper as his favorite.
• In December 2011, Obscurus Lupa reviewed Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. Cookie Monster's dramatic music sting was used twice in her next review, Pee Wee Herman's Playhouse Christmas Special.
• In Phelous' review of Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, clips from A Muppet Family Christmas where Statler and Waldorf heckle Fozzie and the Snowman are mixed with with clips of the puppet-like Jack Frost from the movie.
• Reviewer Dena Natali listed her Top 10 Scariest Moments on Sesame Street in a January 2012 video.
• In Obscurus Lupa's review of the 1990 movie Tremors the puppet-like movements of the Graboids' snake tongues are mixed with music from the Muppet Show theme song
• In a 2012 video Paw had reviewed the movie The Muppets Take Mannhattan for Music Movies
• A Maven's Vampire Review special on Count Chocula features the Nostalgia Critic, who at one point theorizes that the Count from Sesame Street inspired the cereal. Maven corrects him, mentioning that the Count debuted in 1972; a year after Count Chocula was introduced. She then considers that maybe the Count was inspired by the cereal, but the Critic points out that he was inspired by counting. At the end of the video, the Critic, who's turned into a puppet, does a Kermit impression.
• The video "Phelan & Allison Try to Survive Sesame Street" features Phelan (Phelous) and Allison (Obscurus Lupa) driving to a seedy Sesame Street located in Canada.

External links

• ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com