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 that 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!" This has been used a couple of more times. 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.


 * NC Street Fighter
 * NC Mortal Kombat
 * NC Batman & Robin - (twice)
 * NC Masters of the Universe
 * NC Double Dragon - And breaks the fourth wall saying that he's never going to get sick of that joke.
 * NC The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - It appears even the Critic is sick of it, the video, passes over the opportunity to put it in his video after the set-up, stating he's "tired" of it.
 * AT4W Watchmen - The clip is not used. Instead, Linkara, aka Lester B. Bum acts out the scene himself.
 * NC Full House
 * Let's Play Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force
 * NC Barb Wire - In a variation, this doesn't appear after the Critic said someone is taking over the world, but when the villain is stated to be "M. Bison's twin brother" (although Raul Julia had nothing to do with the movie).
 * AT4W Blackest Night:Linkara and Spoony - Instead of the usual clip of M. Bison saying of course, a clip of Red Skull saying the infamous line is used.
 * AT4W "Maximum Clonage" The Usual Clip.

"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!", followed by "wait, that's not right." He finally does another attempt, proclaiming "I AM CONFUSED ABOUT MY GENDER IDENTITY!", 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 again in the Nickcoms review after a "Dysfunctional Family" sketch from You Can't Do This on Television.

It was also used 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!" Instances that followed this destruction used different music. 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. He also shrugs in the Gargoyles review as Brooklyn, Broadway, and Lexington mess up a kitchen, this time with the theme from The Three Stooges shorts. The wa-wa machine seems to be fixed now, as the Critic was able to use it twice in the Blank Check review after each time the thieves slipped in a fountain. Since then, the gag has appeared in the Suburban Commando review.

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 been used by Linkara in a similar 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 commented 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 was in 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. To quote Lindsay, "The scene comes right the fuck out of nowhere, bears little to no impact on the plot and once it's finished, no one ever speaks of it again." Both critics were both confused by it and pointed it out at every opportunity, even trying to make some of their own. This returned in The Top 11 Nostalgia Mindfucks to point out hallucination sequence in Beavis and Butthead Do America is in fact one. In fact, a lot of the mindfucks were considered BAMS. While reviewing Rock-a-Doodle, the Critic seemed annoyed that he had to point out Edmund's nightmare as a "Big Lipped Alligator Moment". It was also used in the Nerd and Critic joint review during a song involving surfing alligators. The Critic also called We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story a "Big-Lipped Alligator Movie" since it did not make much sense. Made a return in Nostalgia Critic's and Linkara's review of Superman IV where Lex Luthor was dancing with someone in an early victorian wardrobe and in just a couple of seconds and is never heard from or mentioned again, and caught himself trying to explain it to Linkara only to say "It's something the Nostalgia Chick came up with"

It has also been mentioned several times on TGWTG.com starting with the Transmission Awesome episode with TheCat. The Nostalgia Chick pointed out the "Chilly Down" number from Labyrinth as a "Big Lipped Alligator Moment". She also used the gag in the Year One video. While reviewing Xanadu, the Chick explained no single scene in that film can be considered a BLAM because "in a movie where shit just keeps happening and no one ever mentions it again, this just doesn't work." Phelous also references the gag in his review of Cabin Fever, in regard to a scene where one of the characters sees Bugs Bunny operating on someone in a hospital.

The Critic made this gag happen again only to change it up a bit in his Tank Girl Review...This happened during the horrible musical number in the Tank Girl movie that he started showing images of the starving children they could've helped with the money they put into this abomination of a movie and called it a "Big Lipped Starving Children Moment"

Doug
Doug is a 1990s cartoon that debuted on Nickelodeon and later moved to ABC. It has reportedly scarred Doug Walker for life since plenty of people compared him to the boring title character while Walker was growing up. It was first mentioned in episode 16 of Ask That Guy With the Glasses, when Walker sarcastically claimed the show was about him after being asked, "Were you the inspiration for the smash Nickelodeon series 'Doug'?" He first referred to the trauma the show caused him in The Nostalgia Critic's "Nicktoons" video. The Critic called Doug "the scariest, ugliest, most horrifying creation that Nickelodeon studios has ever produced", discussing the show reawakened taunting memories, and even playing the theme song caused him to go ballistic. In the "Nickcoms" and Gargoyles reviews, the Critic refused to refer to Doug by name. During the Bum Review of Up, which features a talking dog named Dug, Chester A. Bum proclaimed that he loves Doug and figured out that the Nostalgia Critic hates it mostly because one of the characters (which he falsely assumed was Patti Mayonnaise) has the same name as him. Walker also attempted to feature Doug in Theme Lyrics, but ended up calling the writers "Hitlers" and threatening to kill them. The Doug theme returned to haunt the Nostalgia Critic once again in "Top 11 F*ckups", after he demanded the crew to stop playing the theme to Melvin Brother of the Joker, and "Old vs. New: Willy Wonka", after he demanded the crew to stop playing "Wonka's Welcome Song" and "It's a Small World".

The Nostalgia Critic
The Nostalgia Critic has employed a series of running gags on his site. For a comprehensive list, please see NCgags.

Bum Reviews with Chester A. Bum
For a list of the Bum's gags, please see BumGags.

Ask That Guy With The Glasses
For Ask That Guy's gags, please see AskGags.

Nostalgia Chick
For a list of The Nostalgia Chick's running gags, please see NChickGags.

Spoony
For a list of Spoony's running gags, please see SpoonyGags.

Benzaie
For a list of Benzaie's running gags, please see BenzaieGags.

Linkara
For a list of Linkara's running gags, please see LinkaraGags.

Team Four Star
For a list of Team Four Star's running gags, please see TeamFourStarGags.

Phelous
For a list of Phelous's running gags, please see PhelousGags.

Film Brain
For a list of Film Brain's running gags, please see FBGags.