Running Gags

Running Gags have been a feature of the site since its inception. These are the jokes that the main contributors of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com have done over and over.



Whole Site
These are special running gags that have become some popular that they are widely used in videos outside of their original creators. In fact, That Dude In the Suede and Benzaie have often copied each other's running gags when they had a fake feud for a few months. Listed are those gags and of course those of the whole site.

Of course!
This running gag was first introduced in The Nostalgia Critic's Street Fighter episode. Whenever the Nostalgia Critic explains that the film's villains "plans to, you guessed it, take over the world", it cuts to M. Bison (Raul Julia) shouting "Of course!" It was then used again in the same video during the Mortal Kombat review. Since then, this gag has since been used in Batman & Robin review (twice), Masters of the Universe review and the Double Dragon review. In the Double Dragon review, the Nostalgia Critic even breaks the fourth wall and says that he's never going to get sick of that joke. However, it appears even the Critic is sick of it, as he, in The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog video, passes over the opportunity to put it in his video after the set-up, stating he's "tired" of it, only for the clip of Bison barge in and overcome the Critic. M. Bison did not appear in another Nostalgia Critic review for three months, until he asked in the Full House review if his viewers could believe Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen tried to take over the world.

In addition, it has been used in similar fashion in videos by That Dude In the Suede, Linkara, The Spoony One, and even once by The Nerd.

"I AM A MAN!"
This gag originated in Linkara's Superman: At Earth's End comic review. In the comic, there is a scene where Superman forcefully punches a character hard in the gut whilst screaming "I AM A MAN!", which Linkara parodied. The parody became instantly popular and as been used in other videos by HopeWithinChaos, Benzaie, AngryJoe and The Spoony One. Linkara even parodied his own joke in the Uncanny X-Men #424 review by first repeating the joke, then proclaiming "I AM A WOMAN!", only to realize it is wrong. He finally does another punch, proclaiming "I AM GENDERLY CONFUSED!" and rambling about mixed gender rights before he completes the punch.

Citizen Kane
Doug, through his characters, often makes reference to the movie Citizen Kane, often acknowledging that it "is considered the greatest movie of all time." In The Nostalgia Critic's review of Surf Ninjas, the Critic compares the low-angle shot used to introduce Leslie Nielsen's character as the villain to Kane. In another review, for Kazaam, he wishes the movie never existed - his wish comes true and he, to his shock, ends up completing a harshly negative review of Citizen Kane instead, resulting in him being booed and someone trying to shoot him. Another Doug character, Chester A. Bum, reviewed the movie, and proclaimed it "the worst movie [he'd] ever seen in [his] life", calling it "pretentious". The end of the Bum Review, which carries Doug's genuine opinion of the movie, reveals he considers it "pretty damn good."

Shrug and Foghorn
Originally, this was intended to mock a goofy situation or one-liner intended as a lame and easy joke by playing cartoony "wa-wa-wa" noise afterwards, complete with The Nostalgia Critic shrugging and holding his hands in the air. This was first seen when Bulk and Skull were alerted to the fact that they were about to dive out a plane without their parachutes in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. However, it is far more widely known as the response to a number of gags revolving around Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat. After a long absence, the sound effect re-appeared in the review of Mortal Kombat's sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, when Cage dies an early death. The sound effect later appears against in The Top 11 Dumbest Superman Moments, to parody the opening of Superman III, with all the slapstick playing with the sound effect. However, there are so many slapstick sounds that an explosion is heard off-camera, and the Nostalgia Critic exclaims, "You broke the wa-wa machine!" After Number 5 gets destroyed in his Short Circuit review, the Critic shrugs, but plays death music from Super Mario Bros. instead of the foghorn. Linkara also used this gag in his review of NFL Superpro #1, where the titular character makes a lame quip (whilst "with apologies to the Nostalgia Critic" appears on-screen).

The More You Know
This gag is a swipe at PSAs, with the viewer being taught something by a character followed by a "The More You Know" clip. This was first seen in The Nostalgia Critic and TheDudette's joint review of Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, where the Critic is taught by the Chick twice, each with a different PSA reference (including the theme from G.I. Joe, referencing it's PSAs). However, it has become used by Linkara in a similiar manner when a character says something obvious and/or educational (such as in Newmen #1 and NFL Superpro #1).

"Big Lipped Alligator Moment!"
This was introduced in the Ferngully: The Last Rain Forest review where both the Critic and the TheDudette comment on a lizard's insanely pointless and weird song about eating people. It refers to the alligator in the movie All Dogs Go to Heaven, who had a huge lower jaw and an odd musical number. It is also used to represent when a random surreal moment occurs during the course of a movie and is never brought up during the rest of the movie in question. Both the Critic and the Nostalgia Chick were both confused by it and pointed it out at every opportunity. This returned in The Top 11 Nostalgia Mindfucks to point out hallucination sequence in Beavis and Butthead Do America is in fact one. While reviewing Rock-a-Doodle, the Critic seemed annoyed that he had to point out Edmond's nightmare as a "Big Lipped Alligator Moment".

It has also appeared several times in the Transmission Awesome episode with TheCat. The Nostalgia Chick pointed out the "Chilly Down" number from Labyrinth as a "Big Lipped Alligator Moment". It has also been used in the Year One video.

One-Use gags
The Nostalgia Critic tends to use running gags throughout his reviews. However, most are often self-contained to the one video. These include (but are not limited to)...
 * The "Ambiguously Gay Duo" theme used to describe homo-erotic themes.
 * Escape and suicide attempts throughout the entire review in Batman & Robin.
 * The ruler hitting him over the head in Captain Planet every time he says "ruler" as a response to Wheeler saying "fire" to make fire appear.
 * Repetitive use of the lines "Ba-Bomb" and "Monkey" from Super Mario Bros. in his review of the said movie.
 * The repeated use of the word of 'Genius!' to describe cheesy scenes and dialogue in Surf Ninjas.
 * Constant references to the line "That's a lot of fish" in Godzilla (1998) as well as continually mispronouncing the main character's last name only to have a clip of him saying his actual last name.
 * He also has a running gag of "Duck-Tits Woo Hoo!" in his Howard The Duck review, a callback to "Duck-Tales Woo Hoo!" which was first featured in Top 11 Catchiest Theme Songs.
 * While reviewing The Good Son, he compares Wendy Crewson's performance to family-friendly commercials and has The Other Guy promote random products to accompany her scenes.
 * He makes many imitations of Number 5/Johnny 5 in his Short Circuit review, which are mostly done by jerkily moving his arms and saying synonyms of his opinion on a scene.

Or do they?!
This running gag was first introduced in the Super Mario Bros. review. Whenever the Nostalgia Critic explains that the film's heroes "live happily ever after, or do they?!", it then cuts to the film ending on a cliffhanger, Since then, this gag has since been used in Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (twice), Godzilla (1998) and The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. In the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation review, the Nostalgia Critic uses the gag at the end of the film, but states that they actually do live happily ever after.

"KAAAAAHHHHN!"
This running gag consists of a quick clip of Captain Kirk shouting "KHAN!" in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, played after the mention of the word "Khan" or variant of it. It was first introduced in the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation video. Every mention of main villain Shao Khan is quickly followed up by the Star Trek clip, which starts to annoy the Nostalgia Critic after a while. In the Top 11 Disney Villains video, the clip is played after the first mention of Jungle Book character Shere Khan, which instantly annoys the Critic. It is played again when the Critic mentions Kaa (another character from The Jungle Book), but the Critic stops the clip mid-cry.

"Y'know, for kids!"
This running gag is based off of NC's reaction to movies that are supposedly for kids, but they tend to have a more adult theme in mind. For example, this comment was made in the Howard the Duck review when a female duck was shown in a bathtub without her breasts covered. It has also been used in the review of Pokemon: The First Movie and Titanic: The Animated Musical. Another variant is "You know, a kids movie!"

The 9mm pistol
This centers on the Critic producing a pistol and either threatening something (or someone) annoying him, or in preparation for a suicide attempt, as in Howard the Duck. This gun has been used to kill Santa in Jingle All The Way, attack several villains in The Top 11 Disney Villains, kill and be-head annoying characters in Tom and Jerry: The Movie, kill an annoying dancing Christmas tree in The Top 12 Greatest Christmas Specials, shoot the Doug Theme in Nicktoons, wipe out the entire Sonic cast in The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and appeared many more times. Its earliest appearance is in the Nostalgia Critic's second review, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, where the Nostalgia Critic kills himself during a song by all the animated characters about the "million wonderful ways to say 'no'".

"Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!"
Used as a sarcastic exclamation to something obvious which is supposed to be surprising. This was first seen in The Wizard when the child catcher expresses surprise at the sight of an elevator, which the Critic then mockingly imitates. It has since been used occasionally, such as in Batman and Robin, The Secret Behind Nostalgic Sports Movies and Jingle All The Way.

"Adventure HO!"
This running gag started in January 2009's "Nickelodeon Month" and featured the The Nostalgia Critic posing in front of an action scene as if an adventure was starting. After the first time, the Critic would show confusion or an annoyance with the subject. Adventure Ho! was said because it was a way to explain a plot such as the show Rugrats being about babies.

"Bad Touch!"
Started in the Kazaam review, this remark returned when the Nostalgia Critic reviewed Good Burger. In both movies, an adult touched a child in what he believed to be an inappropriate way. When such an event occurs, the critic would shout "Bad Touch!" or call the police on his cell phone. A similiar joke was used in The Pagemaster, with the librarian coming across as creepy, resulting in a "Sonic Says" about not having people touch you where you don't want to be touched.

"ELEPHANT!"
This word seems to be the Nostalgia Critic's "safe word" that would bring him back to reality when he sees something totally bizarre. This first appeared during the Critic's month long tribute to Nickelodeon, during his look at the Nickcoms, where he noted that the "Burger King" was creepy. It re-appeared in the Good Burger review later that month, where the Critic shouts the word 'elephant', causing the image of "The Burger King" to appear and bring himself back to sanity. This happens again at the end of The Top 11 Nostalgic Mindfucks, where the Critic is forced to use it to escape from the warped world. He then points out that it didn't appear when he talked about the pink elephants from Dumbo, and then proceeds to say "elephant-s" with a brief pause before the 's'. He does this repeatedly until the Burger King logo falls and hits him on the head. It's used again in the Twister review, but this time, the Burger King is actually frightened by the movie so much that he hides underneath the bed in fear. At the end of the review, the Critic tries to comfort the sulking king, but is hit by him off-screen when he offers the Burger King a trip to McDonalds.

"I'm Acting!"
This joke happens whenever a character in the film is a bad actor in the eyes of the Critic. This first appeared in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, in which Shao Khan is discussing the take over of Earth with his father and says "Earth is under attack and it is glorious", followed by the Nostalgia Critic imitating him and saying, "I am acting!". In Godzilla (1998), when Niko Tautopolis is discussing the species that attacked the Japanese, he says "It could be some sort of mutated apparation", to which the Critic says "Just like my career.... I'm acting". In Jingle All the Way, when Jamie is telling his father that he should keep promises, the Nostalgia Critic reacts by yelling in a high voice "Yay! I'm acting!". In A Kid in King Arthur's Court, the Critic mocks King Arthur's overdramatic acting by imitating him with a frail "I'm... acting..." whilst holding his back. In Garbage Pail Kids, the Critic sobs "I'm...ACTING" in an exaggerated fashion much like Dodger, demanding to know where the Garbage Pail kids are. A variation of the joke appeared in the Rock-a-doodle review, in which the Critic mocked the child voice actor portraying Edmond by imitating his baby talk-like speaking style and instructing him on how to act. In the Red Sonja review, the Critic mocked Brigitte Nielsen by asking, "I'm...acting?"

Good actor forced into bad movie
The Critic first complained about a good actor being in a lame movie when he cursed Raúl Juliá's children for asking him to do Street Fighter (although he quickly apologized, assuming that Raúl Juliá's family kicks as much ass as he does). Later complaints involved showing a clip of one of said actor's movies where said actor is coerced into making the bad movie (using the Critic's best impersonations of the actors in the scene). This version of the joke first appeared in Good Burger (where the Critic shows footage from The Godfather featuring Abe Vigoda) and later returned in Rock-A-Doodle (where the Critic shows footage from The Sound of Music featuring Christopher Plummer).

The Arnold Schwarzenegger Impression
Originally started in the Jingle All the Way review, this running gag appeared again when The Nostalgia Critic reviewed A Kid In King Arthur's Court. Here he imitates Arnold's voice claiming he'll eat children. It could be said that the first instances of this voice were used when Street Fighter and Batman and Robin were reviewed, but not in its current form. The joke appears again in the Red Sonja review (which starred Schwarzenegger) as "Arnold" threatens to have "Chinese for dinner tonight", referring to child Prince Tarn.

One-Use gags
Chester A. Bum tends to use running gags throughout his reviews. However, most are often self-contained to the one video. These include (but are not limited to)...
 * After saying the title character of WALL-E looks like a chicken, he expresses annoyance with chickens several times throughout the review.
 * He occasionally assumes that Coraline has reached a peaceful ending right before another disturbingly bizarre scene happens.
 * In The Neverending Story, whenever Atreyu is mentioned, he makes another character say, "gesundheit".
 * He calls everyone in Star Trek "assholes".

"At the end, they play the famous (show or movie name) theme!"
If the movie franchise or TV show that inspired the movie Chester is reviewing has a famous theme song, he tries to make up lyrics for it. TV show themes he has made lyrics for include Speed Racer, Get Smart, The X-Files (for I Want to Believe), and Star Trek (for the 2009 movie). Movie themes he has made lyrics for include Indiana Jones (for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). Since Up has a talking dog named Dug, Chester tried to make up lyrics for the theme to Doug.

"Yes."
After answering a question with a long answer (most of the time something perverse), he will usually end with a small pause before saying a light "yes."

"Puppies!"
This running gag was first introduced in the Pocahontas episode. After introducing herself, the Nostalgia Chick enthusiastically cried out the word "puppies", which was then followed by an image of puppies and the sound of children cheering. This became a running gag throughout the review. The next appearance of the gag came in the Anastasia review. During a scene in which the character Anastasia, now called Anya, asks for a sign, the Nostalgia Chick asks, "How about a puppy?" Moments later, a puppy appears on screen, greatly pleasing the Nostalgia Chick. Another moment was during the Top 11 Villainesses video. After describing the villainess Cruella de Vil, the Nostalgia Chick looks on as we see a number of puppies, all from the film 101 Dalmatians. The Chick remains stone faced for a number of moments before finally breaking and saying, "Alright, fine...PUPPIES," which was then accompanied by the now expected sound of children cheering.

Singer-induced Daze
The Chick has a habit of spacing out when certain male singers are involved in things she reviews. The first instance came after a cameo by Meat Loaf in Spice World. Justin Timberlake also caused a daze when the Chick included "Dick in a Box" in "Top 10 Disturbing and Inescapable Christmas Songs". While the Chick reviews Labyrinth, she constantly finds herself entranced by David Bowie wearing tight pants. She also goes into a daze after learning Barry Manilow composed Thumbelina, but finds the songs are among his worst.

"Yay!"
The Nostalgia Chick tries to find various uses for her soundbyte of children cheering. The first few came during "Puppies!" scenes in reviews mentioned above. Another use appeared during the Thumbelina review, after one instance of Thumbelina saying, "It's impossible," which the Chick treats as Thumbelina's catchphrase due to her excessive pessimism. She also played it in her Babysitters Club review after successfully finding the pronunciation of Schuyler Fisk on Wikipedia. The sound she uses for the children appears to be the generic "Kids Cheering.gaf" file included with iMovie.

Playing with Toys
Sometimes during reviews, Spoony often gets distracted with the game he is reviewing and ends up playing with his toys on his bed, with the ensuing scene often making little sense and featuring many in-jokes or references to other films and media. This first occurred in his review of The X-Files: Resist or Serve game, where he asked the viewer whether or not they would prefer to watch someone play with toys than watch the stiffly-animated cutscenes. In the recent review of the game version of Hell's Kitchen, Spoony began staging an Iron Chef contest with his action figures when Gordon Ramsey (played by Spoony also) left the room. Some of the action figures themselves have become running gags themselves: the use of Neo from The Matrix and a statue of Dizzy Gillespie (which due to the size difference, is referred to as "Giant Dizzy Gillespie").

"But, Wait!"
This first appeared the episode for GYMDK about the game called "Solstice." During his reviews of GYMDK and GSYMDK, Benzaie would often shout "But, Wait!" when he wants to explain something further about the game such as the music, graphics or anything of that nature. That Dude in the Suede copied that gag in the last AMV Heaven he made in an attempt to insult Benzaie. The moment was a memorable one and still, Benzaie continues to use the gag in each review he's done.

"EXTREME!"
Starting with the review of "Newmen #1", Linkara had screamed that phrase whenever there was a group shot cover or something totally out of the ordinary in one of the comics panels. Usually, it was an extreme close-up.

"Because poor literacy is kewl!"
Beginning with the Sinnamon review, Linkara would say this phrase whenever something is misspelled and the editor of the comic never caught it, or it is intentional. Case in point: In the "Newmen #1" review, a character is named Byrd as opposed to Bird.

"Continuity Alarm"
When Linkara mentions a bit of information regarding the back story of a comic book, an alarm sounds with flashing red letters. Usually it sounds when he goes into detail about a character or book. The joke has been expanded recently so the alarm attacks him if he persists.

Krillin Owned Count
Every time Krillin gets beaten up, a counter of how many times he has been harmed this season appears in the lower left-hand corner. It resembles a silhouette of Krillin with a bandage and the information displayed to the right of it. Krillin Owned Count 1 comes in DBZ Abridged Episode 1, after Raditz flings Krillin into the wall of Master Roshi's house. Count 2 can be found in Episode 2, after Master Roshi asks Krillin to shut up while refusing Krillin's command to stop Piccolo. Count 3 occurs in Episode 4, when Mr. Popo decides to fling Krillin off of the structure instead of answer his question. Count 4 comes in Episode 6, when Krillin gets kidnapped by Mr. Popo and unseen monsters. The part of Episode 8 where Nappa beats up Krillin and his two clones marks Counts 5-7. In Episode 9, Nappa flings a beam at Krillin, bringing the Count up to 8.

"Krillin! Too soon!"
After someone dies, Krillin sometimes makes witty remarks about the situation, which the others find disrespectful. Master Roshi says the phrase first in DBZ Abridged Episode 2, while Goku is dying, and Krillin expresses joy that he is not the first one to die. Tenshinhan says the phrase in Episode 6 as the Z Warriors explore a destroyed village and Krillin asks, "Where are we? New Orelans?" Gohan also uses this phrase in Episode 9 after Krillin informs Goku that Chaotzu is "here, and there, and there, and there."

"Nerd!"
Piccolo often calls Gohan a nerd after he does something wimpy or expressing intelligence. He first does this in DBZ Abridged Episode 3, interrupting Gohan saying that he plans to become an orthodontist. Piccolo also uses that name in Episode 7 after Gohan asks if he can photosynthesize. While Piccolo is dying in Episode 9, he calls Gohan a nerd for asking if he was considered Piccolo's son because of his lack of reproductive organs.

"Dodge!"
In DBZ Abridged Episode 5, Piccolo's training of Gohan consists entirely of putting different obstacles in his way and loudly asking him to dodge. In Episode 7, he tells him to attack Nappa before he can dodge, but conditioning causes Gohan to dodge out of the way instead. In Episode 9, the last thing Piccolo tells Gohan before dying is, "Why didn't you dodge?"

"Are We There Yet?"
As buildup to Nappa and Vegeta's arrival to Earth, Episode 4 of DBZ Abridged ended with them flying through space. Nappa repeatedly asks, "Are we there yet?" to which Vegeta always responds, "No!" Similar footage was used in the beginnings of Episodes 5 and 7. There were also scenes in Episode 8 where Nappa, awaiting the battle with Goku, asks, "Is he here yet?" to which all the other characters respond, "No!"