The Spoony One

Noah Antwiler as Tandem the Spoony - Noah is the terrifying result of a generation raised on MTV and films by Jean-Claude van Damme and Steven Seagal at the height of their popularity. Writer, director, editor, and star of The Spoony Experiment.

About Spoony
Noah shares a love for the three things author Neal Stephenson writes are the things America does better than anyone else: music, movies, and microcode. He created the Experiment as a homage to Mystery Science Theater 3000, the first show to scream back at the culture that raised him. He's been a published poet in Seattle, and has acted in community productions of Grease, Our Town, Dags, Baby, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Interview With The Vampire. Most recently, he has appeared in an ASU Mainstage production of Stolen Children as Father Mandin.

Noah initially began on the Internet writing comedic movie reviews called Tandem's Movie Rants, which are film critiques, live movie recaps, or essays on recent trends in film or TV. With a viewpoint always controversial, Noah's rants are usually critical of both mainstream popular media culture and the detail-obsessive "fanboy" community. Over the years, these rants have evolved in form in the hopes of being entertaining but also to elevate moviegoer expectations. Thanks to the creative input and support (and a fair amount of harsh derision from some) of the Kenzerco Forumites, Noah has come to this new media to give back as much of the entertainment as possible that MST3K gave him. Until recently, Spoony also wrote the Gamer's Rant on the Movies column in Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine, a national monthly gamer magazine available at all fine friendly local game stores, but the section was discontinued due to lack of popularity.

For the February 12 to the 13th donation drive, Spoony did a special review of the game "Star Trek: Borg" for the PC and was one of the first videos the team played at the event.

Where does the whole "Spoony" thing come from?
The story of the "Tandem the Spoony" mantle is, of course, an extraordinarily nerdy one that started at a Dungeons & Dragons table, where Noah played a swashbuckling (and often accident-prone) bard. While playing the game Final Fantasy 2, Noah came across a scene where the game's bard, Edward, was getting the crap beaten out of him by an old sage. During this Rodney King-esque beating, the sage howled in badly-translated Japanese rage "You spoony bard!!" Noah still doesn't know what the hell it means, but after some in-jokes exchanged at a Dungeons & Dragons session in reference to his bard character "Tandem," Tandem the Spoony was born. Today, spooniness indicates a devil-may-care swashbuckling spirit, where all men are equal and free and should be generally nice to each other, and embrace wine, women, and song. Now he carries the name as an Internet handle, because-- while silly-- it's infinitely more memorable and interesting than Noah Antwiler.

Later on, the site was originally launched to host comedic, MST3K-style commentaries for more-modern movies complete with host-segments where the Spoonster is subjected to "Experiments," hence the title. Due to fidgety technical details, time constraints on the part of all the people involved, and a generally "meh" public response, the project was largely dropped. Now the site is host to movie reviews and various other miscellany.

Burton the Robot


Spoony has employed a toy robot in his videos, which has served as a sort of mascot for his site. In his own words, this is how Spoony found the robot, which can be seen in almost every Spoony video:

"That’s my robot, Burton. A few years ago, I’d gotten it in my head to write, produce, and shoot a feature-length film about my own experience working at a game store, so I wrote a screenplay, bought a decent DV camera, and had even gone so far as to hold auditions when suddenly the location I was using closed down, and it de-railed production. I was on a micro-budget as it was, and I couldn’t afford to go anywhere else. It was probably a good thing, because I have to admit that the screenplay I ended up with was not very good.

Anyway, I ended up stuck with this camera, and I had another mad plan to shoot some Mystery Science Theater-style videos using public domain movies as fodder, complete with robot puppets and a storyline. To that end, I enlisted some help to construct the robots, named Burton, Sorbo, and Morgan (after Big Trouble in Little China’s Jack Burton, Hercules star Kevin Sorbo, and nerd vixen Morgan Webb). Burton was the only robot we managed to finish, and he’s unarguably the best of the bunch. He’s got an expressive face and a cool color scheme, and I really think he blows the other two robots away. Sorbo is a stainless steel robot made out of a disinfecting UV lamp, and Morgan is a modified salon hair dryer, but they don’t have the distinct look of Burton’s cyclopean Dustbuster head and floppy red useless arms.

I ended up retiring the MST project also. I began to realize that what I was attempting was bigger than something I’d be able to do on my own, obviously because I would need at least one, hopefully two, and ideally three other people to host the video with me (to run the puppets and play other characters). I toyed with the idea of doing it solo without robots, but I didn’t like it much. Part of the fun is having more than one person to bounce jokes off of, otherwise who am I talking to? And I hadn’t even gotten into the manpower needed to produce the show. I couldn’t find anyone willing to devote the time to write, film, or do any meaningful work for the show. And I can’t blame them. It’s a lot of hard, unpaid work for a pretty pathetic nerdy exercise.

After all that, I didn’t really have anywhere to store poor Burton, my robot without a function in life. The other robots I could throw in the closet; they hadn’t been finished yet and so there wasn’t much to damage, but Burton is a fragile guy and I prefer to keep him where I can see him, sitting upright so he doesn’t fall and break off any pieces. So there he sits, behind my recliner, watching disapprovingly as I review games and movies instead."

Dr. Insano


Dr. Insano is a mad scientist villain created by Spoony. The character's outfit consists of a white lab coat worn over green scrubs, a stethoscope hanging from his neck, and a pair of large, spiral-patterned goggles. He speaks in a higher pitched, sinister voice and laughs manically throughout his scenes. His catch phrase is "With SCIENCE!" punctuated with sticking his finger in the air, usually given as an glib explanation for how he has accomplished some amazing feat.

In Linkara’s review of Uncanny X-Men #424, Spoony made a cameo appearance as Dr. Insano for the first time. He appeared in Linkara's first "Previously on Atop the Fourth Wall" segments saying "Soon, the world will tremble at the mere mention of the name Dr. Insano!" This set up the running joke that Dr. Insano is Linkara's arch nemesis.

He came up again in Spoony’s own Final Fantasy VIII part 8 with a “press announcement” saying that he was elected the President of America. He mocks the people of the world for voting such an obvious evil villain. His Vice President was Fu Man Chu, who had nothing to say on the subject.

Dr. Insano came up yet again in Linkara’s review of Neutro #1. He was using Neutro to try and destroy Linkara and take over the world. Luckily, Linkara was able to defeat him easily by growing to Neutro's size and destroying him.

He showed up in Spoony's Final Fantasy VIII part 9 in a parody infomercial. After Noah starts ranting about the "anti-magic field" that is brought up in the game, Insano comes out saying that he's developed an Anti-Magic Field Generator Kit and is selling it to the masses at a bargain price.

He again showed up in another "Previously on Atop the Fourth Wall" segment in Linkara's Daredevil #306, threatening to kill someone he's calling "Nurse" if she drank the last Red Bull.

Dr. Insano is also featured in a small comic book made by a forum member of Spoony’s site named Sky Render. It is a small, two-part comic where he once again takes on Linkara.

In AngryJoe mini-series Hotel Awesome, Dr. Insano shows up again, being tormented by Joe's constant knocking of his door. Finally, Joe knocks him out and he collapses to the floor.

Dr. Insano also appeared in the special Year One crossover where Linkara reviewed "Wolverine: Adamantium Rage". He showed up at the end to taunt Linkara. Linkara attempted to guess Dr. Insano's secret identity. Linkara incorrectly guessed that Dr. Insano was really ThatChickWithTheGoggles After being knocked over by Linkara, Dr. Insano takes out a devise in order to take down Linkara once and for all. He activates it as the episode ends on a "To be continued."

In the next episode, Linkara and Spoony swap roles so that Linkara plays Dr. Insano and Spoony must review the "worst comic ever written," Warrior #1. Dr. Insano explains that he's caused a reality shift and Spoony says that he might cause a paradox in the universe. What follows is many random clips showing the world getting mixed up with other dimensions, such as a dimension of teddy bears, a dimension where That Chick with the Goggles plays Dr. Insano and Marzgurl plays Linkara. At the end of the episode, the team of Blistered Thumbs comes in and beats up Dr. Insano (who is finally once again played by Spoony), thus saving Linkara.

In Linkara's Superman vs. Terminator #1 review, Linkara is accidentally sent to the future. His future self explains that it's a residual effect of Dr. Insano playing around with hyper time. At the end of the episode, Dr. Insano starts bragging that his Orbital Death Ray is now complete. He calls Linkara to make demands only to find a cyborg Linkara in his place.

In Spoony's review of Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, Dr. Insano tried to create a monster to take over the world. Instead, he created a cute, cuddly, squishy pink blob. Though he was angry at first, Insano soon grew to love the blob, accepting him as his son.

In Spoony's grand finale of Final Fantasy VIII, Dr. Insano gives Spoony a "time compressor" in order to allow Spoony to go through the game faster. After Spoony insults him, Dr. Insano leaves in a huff, vowing to get revenge. He takes over Spoony's TV later and mocks him, saying he sent someone to kill him who turns out to be Squall from the game come to life. Spoony tries to reason with Insano, saying that he and Spoony were the same person. Dr. Insano didn't listen. The review ends with Spoony dying as his house blows up.

Dr. Insano appeared in both parts of Spoony's Clones of Bruce Lee review, mocking the mad scientist characters in the movie. It is explained that Linkara made multiple clones using a piece of Spoony left over from the explosion. He made one normal, one Dr. Insano, and another Spencer D. Bum. Dr. Insano and Spencer live with Spoony in his new place.

He appeared in Nostalgia Critic episode Alone in the Dark. He appears after Linkara makes a comment that the people that the main characters in the movie are shooting at could be innocent bystanders. Dr. Insano comes in saying "I brought science!" and promptly gets shot in the head. He appears again after the end credits in a special picture with Chester A. Bum, 90s Kid from Linkara's reviews, and Mati from the Captain Planet review by the NC.

A running gag featured during outtakes is Dr. Insano laughing, suddenly going rigid, then keeling over and falling out of frame (parodying Vizzini's death in The Princess Bride).

In the TGWTG Two year anniversary video, it appears Dr. Insano was Spoony all along, meaning that either Spoony was always insane and just imagined Insano every time he saw him, or it's just some stupid internet show and there is no coninuity. But it seems he has tried to "control" Insano and stop becoming him, but in part four of the anniversary video, Spoony gives in to the madness and Insano returns...

Spencer D. Bum


Spencer D. Bum is a clone of the Spoony one made by Linkara. Dr. Insano complains that the character of the bum is copyrighted and shouldn't be used. (He is of course talking about Chester A. Bum.) Insano then suggests that they get rid of the other one... permanently! Spoony and Spencer just ignore him.

Spencer first appeared in Spoony's review of the old NES game Dirty Harry: The War Against Drugs, lampooning the appearance of a homeless man in the game who inexplicably gives the player extra lives of the player eats chili dogs in front of him. He appeared in Spoony's Clones of Bruce Lee review, making comments about the movie along with Spoony and Insano. At the end of the review, he breaks out some board games and says they should play. He says they are "the greatest board games [he's] ever seen in [his] life." Spencer is often criticized by Noah's fans for being annoying and unfunny. Noah made fun of this when Spencer later appeared in the "Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge" review and sadly walks off after Noah bashes him.
 * Information taken from the Spoony FAQ.

Specials

 * Sage and Space Thunder Kids Commentary (January 2nd, 2010)
 * Santa With Muscles Outtakes & Bloopers (January 4th, 2010)

Official Websites

 * SpoonyOne on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com
 * The Spoony Experiment
 * The Spoony One's (abandoned) livejournal