Check out www.piavpn.com/Joon for an 82% discount on Private Internet Access! Edit#1 Commenters helped confirm the defecation clip origination from CKY 2K and though he did use the clip it is not in fact Doug Walker in that shot.

"Doug wants to be a filmmaker, he wants to make art, but he can't, because he's a fundamentally incurious person who isn't much interested in what other people think or feel, and all his ideas boil down to “What if Batman met Mario?”." - Dan Olson

As I heard someone say; Doug's greatest strength is also his biggest weakness. He's basically immune to criticism, brushing it off like it's nothing or playing along with it. It's incredible for him because he's never discouraged and never crushed by people making fun of him or parodying his stuff. Yet that same issue is the flaw, as any problems you have with his work he just shrugs it off, so he never feels the need to change. The heaviest armor is great for blocking swords, terrible if you're trying to swim.

that angry joe interview was _painful_ to watch. he doesn't just come across unprepared, he comes across like he thinks he's too good to prepare and already knows everything.

Man the OG youtube was such a lawless wasteland, you forget how much different it was until you go back

I think a major problem with Pop Quiz Hotshot is a combination of the facts that Doug just _cannot_ handle not being the funniest person in the room, and that it's really, _really_ easy to find rooms with people who are funnier than Doug Walker in them.

To briefly summarize what happened with the Nostalgia Critic, his audience grew up, he didn't.

I almost refuse to believe Doug Walker could make content for so long without figuring out lighting, audio, white balance, blocking, composition, or even how to tell a story. And yet here we are.

I think it's interesting because Doug himself doesn't seem to be an awful person but more an accidental inconvenience, like a baby walking through a loony tunes construction site

My brother loved The Wall. He introduced me to it, and he would listen to it over and over and learn the songs and make pedals to recreate the sound of it. He died in 2016, and now I have another thing I'm grateful he didn't have to experience.

Hearing Oney and Zach doin their bits amidst a serious documentary really made my day

Out of everything I learnt from the drama around Channel Awesome Doug taking a shit on camera was one I didn't need to know about.

Mike Michaud looks like he'd punch someone for saying Limp Bizkit sucks, but only after they've turned away from him.

LordKat's self pitying rant at Spoony and Joe never fails to make me laugh

There are times I truly, genuinely feel empathy for Doug Walker. It cannot be easy to be so driven, to have such a passion (for filmmaking, in this case), and yet to be SO BAD at it, no matter how long you work at it. Gotta be tough.

Watching Doug quit his job reminds me of that kid in high school who tried way too hard to be the class clown and no one caring

Its hilarious how "5 second movies" was repeatedly banned and yet some of the most popular growing channels right now are literally just a robot reading a synopsis of the full movie intercut with clips. At least those were "transformative" because they were jokes.

Nostalgia Critic and Cinemasins used to be making fun of snob critics who always cherry picking some of the smaller aspects of the movies that needs to be criticized as a joke, but now became the very thing they've been parodied.

amazing how James Rolfe and Doug Walker started so similarly and ended up so differently

Apparently the Nostalgia Critic lives right next to my hometown, along with the VeggieTales creator and Danny Gonzalez, in the Chicago suburbs. Small world

"Making a fucking jackass of yourself" is for whatever reason such a hilarious and deep personal insult. I love it 😂

Hardcore explicit scat content from Doug walker is something that will forever haunt my mind Thanks

I always forget how painful that review of The Wall is until someone actually shows a clip of it. The part that always gets me is when Doug says "It's a love letter to Pink Floyd" after A) mocking it relentlessly in bad faith ways and B) demonstrating clearly that he really didn't get it at all

Great video Joon. I can’t believe Joe posted that interview with Geoff online. If I got roasted like that I’d be smashing the SD card in the parking lot within 5 minutes out of embarrassment

This is a tale that really illustrates for me why actors, authors, musicians have managers and agents. You need someone detached from the work to take care of internal and public relations. Yikes.

We've gotten to the point where Oneyplays is now integral to the history of The Nostalgia Critic. What timeline am I in?

In an odd sort of irony, the Nostalgia Critic himself makes me realize that maybe the times I feel nostalgia for weren't so great after all. Looking back and realizing that we used to think his videos were funny puts into perspective just how powerful rose colored glasses can be.

"It turns out the critic is a terrible ruler and is overthrown." - Kickassia Summary Oh no. Foreshadowing.

I think the Walker brothers’ big underlying mistake was signing over the rights to his character to Michaud (something not discussed in this video but which is probably crucial to the story), who then had complete leverage over them. And then I think Michaud made the even bigger mistake trying to build That Guy with the Glasses into a company with multiple content creators that both he and the Walkers were simply too unqualified and lazy to run. If they had just stuck to developing the Walkers and their friends’ content, the channel would still probably be successful and respectable if a little passé. Instead, they got greedy, everything collapsed when the company grew beyond their friend circle, and now they’re back to square one anyways.

Man it's insane to think how big Channel Awesome used to be compared to how it is now

what fascinates me about channel awesome is that it follows the same pattern as its contemporaries like machinima and rooster teeth. like them, channel awesome built their legacy through the network of channels and personalities that they would acquire but would eventually crash and burn due to personalities departing, network channels becoming less relevant and more obsolete, and horrific controversies/abuses. in a way, i find that machinima's demise was a sign of what was to come for it's contemporaries such as rooster teeth, channel awesome or college humor as these type of networks became less relevant for the ever growing/evolving landscape of internet video sharing

Mike Michaud is mentioned in this video almost as much as Michael Eisner is in Defunctland videos.

Man. Spooning with Spoony has merit as an idea. Imagine if it was a Bob Ross-esque game review where Spoony was snuggled up in a blanket while quietly and calmly reviewing a game. Could’ve been fun.

2 hours long, and this video is still over an hour shorter than To Boldly Flee, and 10 times as entertaining.

I like it how Linkara called him out on how Batman having a bat credit card wasn't really as far fetched as he thought

“Nonsensical” is simply the best way to describe the channel awesome journey. The Melvin joker thing legitimately leaves me dumbfounded

I met Doug at an anime-con back in about 2013 or so. He was incredibly friendly and even bought me and my gf Starbucks and talked with us for about an hour. He was really great!

A few years back i had a rly rough time around the holidays and since this is the time of year i watch the nc most i wrote him a mail that was waaaay longer then it had any right to be, with the usual stuff like this and that bad thing happened to me and ur vids always cheer me up and stuff. He answered not even 12 hours later, demonstrating he read the entire wall of text showing compasion and thanking me for being a fan. I'm not ashamed to admit how happy i was and still am to have this personal piece of conversation from a creator i'm watching for almost ten years now.

I remember I met Doug at a anime midwest he was really chill. Didn’t charge for autographs or selfies.

This is the most even handed and nuanced take on the CA drama I've ever seen.

I spent a chunk of my late 20's and early 30's sick with health issues and Bipolar II depression. Channel Awesome, its creators, and its apparent comradery kept me company while I was stuck in bed. It was often the only bright spot in my days of misery. I had a huge crush on Spoony, and NC's reviews of video game-based TV shows brought back good memories. So when the creators in the Anniversary videos started leaving the site, I was really bummed. When Allison and Phelan left, I realized they were largely miserable making those movies, and the illusion of a happy family was shattered. The Change the Channel document was so disheartening, I can't watch my Anniversary video DVDs anymore. They feel like 2-hour long lies. Doug comes off as a genuinely nice guy who's prone to going along with more assertive people in his life, which is a shame because his drive to create, while flawed with a lack of desire or ability to improve, is impressive. I can see in Spoony's videos how his Bipolar II diagnosis (which, btw, to me sounds more like Bipolar I) set in and sadly inflated his ego. His Thank You video for his Mashable award in 2009 was sweet. By 2011-2012, his depression became apparent in his addiction to Twitter and his inability to accept concern or help during his rants that I got over my crush on him. Anyway, thank you for making this video. It's the most comprehensive overview of the website that I've been able to find, and your inclusion of an early timeline of the site brought back memories. I witnessed all of it. I donated $25 to thatguywiththeglasses.com for BTS access to bloopers. You might have used some of the clips I saved from that site for your video, which means people have seen them and that makes me happy. The thing that other retrospectives seem to gloss over is how fun was genuinely had in TGWTG's early years - that old fans' experiences like mine were legitimate.

I've heard LordKat's idiotic blame game before, but this shit gets me every time. Knowing he will never be part of the fake world of gaming journalism is an absolute delight.

Been waiting for this. So much lore to cover. I used to watch CA religiously. Their downfall was so depressing. We've been needing a comprehensive summary of their failings for a while now. Thank you Joon

You missed one prominent bit of drama from around the third anniversary movie and Phelous. The site made a HUGE deal out of hosting a competition to select the effects editor for the film and it was a paid position etc (way underpaid for the job, but still) and then after everyone submitted, they just gave it to Phelous who agreed to do it for free which saved the site MAYBE $500 total, and THEN they complained about the effects. It was CA's OWN COICE to contract it out for free to avoid paying less than 1/2 a grand to someone for professional effects.

The Channel Awesome situation becomes a lot less funny when you remember they aren't teenagers messing around and wasting money they're not supposed to have and are a bunch of actual adults doing stuff like this.

To this day I still like Doug's Disneycemeber/DreamWorksuary's because they aren't littered with obnoxious screaming and elongated skits, it's just Doug's unfiltered thoughts played completely straight. I also enjoy the Bum reviews because they're intentionally dumb and inaccurate, even though the screaming can get annoying, you can tell that he's having fun doing those reviews because there's little production value and it feels more like a hobby than a job like his nostalgia critic videos, I only ever enjoyed the channel awesome videos when they felt like people making them for the fun of it and not for another paycheck.

I think alot of the reason why he's recovered from the drama as much as he has is because of him shouting out OneyNG in a couple of his streams and being a good sport of all the light hearted digs they make at him. Shows his ego has been curbed at least a bit from back then.

Doug Walker is a person who is basically a case study of arrested development. Not that he can be blamed for this entirely, because really, much of his audience was always immature people. When he tried to break out of it somewhat, it failed spectacularly, basically leaving him with but two options: Continue doing what made him famous or quit and do a normal day job. Of course, option #2 was unthinkable for him, and so now, even though his audience has by now either grown up or left for greener pastures, he must continue the Nostalgia Critic for as long as possible. Of course, all of this pales in comparison to things that genuinely are his fault, like sweeping many terrible things under the rug (being an accomplice to abuse) or doing awful things himself (violating his workers' rights). The Nostalgia Critic is a prime example of what happens when you ride on the coattails of people's success (AVGN and other reviewers from that time) without having genuine creativity or passion to keep you going.

Watching internet nerds fight amongst themselves is actually pretty entertaining.

I loved the Nostalgia Critic in my early teens. I even met Doug and his brother Rob at a Barnes and Noble meet and greet in 2016? 2018? Got a few pictures that have since been lost to time, (A.K.A. I formatted my SD card on accident) a few autographed photos (including a poorly drawn duel of Doug and James Rolfe of AVGN fame, Doug got a kick out of that!) Doug seemed like a really nice and considerate guy, but I could definitely see how his enthusiasm and clearly apparent disdain for confrontation could lead to hubris spiraling into controversy. While I don't watch his content anymore I wish him and his associates all the best! Great video!

I’d like to think I’m pretty well caught up on my Doug Walker/Channel Awesome lore due to being around to witness most of it, but that’s legitimately the first time I’ve ever heard about the Batman & Robin defecation footage. I have no words other then, wtf…

Honestly, Doug effectively revolutionized KZfaq content creation with his style back then. To this day, we don't do much else than watch "react" videos, after all. He simply was the first one to do it and he took it pretty far with lots of simplicity. I can't fault him for otherwise being a relatively incurious person, who's only interested in spreading their creative wings. Just being good at one thing doesn't really mean anything bad imho. Lots of people are dogshit at everything, because they lack passion, ambition, skill or simple charisma. So "Oh he's just good at doing a single thing" is always a dumb criticism, I think. We don't all need to be multi talented gods. That being said, the abuse and mismanagement of Channel Awesome and all the previous iterations really are genuinely despicable. I think with a more competent CEO, Channel Awesome could've gone far. But as incurious as Doug is in terms of analysing art (See his lackluster The Wall), Mike seems to be even more incurious about.. well.. doing his job managing a thing that hundreds of thousands, if not even millions world wide, have appreciated over the years.

Can we just address the fact that Doug Walker's skits just aren't funny?

Doug's downfall was his hubris. He was so caught up in his own little world that his ego blinded him to the cracks forming around him. This ranges from his content style being dated, decisions that will clearly not go over well, and bad actors committing heinous acts under his nose. His reality check was when everything collapsed. Instead of just fading away in shame, he picked himself up and made the most of what he had left. He has clearly grown from the experience as seen in interviews and takes the criticisms and roasting in stride, which is respectable.

Never expected the funny meme guy who makes movie reviews from time to time to have such deep lore

I wasn't prepared for the secondhand embarrassment from the Angry Joe interview again.

Angry Joe became huge on his own after the whole betrayal thing. If LordKat idea that Joe being dum was the reason of his own downfall, then the math doesn't add up. It didn't stop Joe, did it? Feels like this LordKat guy needed Joe to be the reason why he failed at having a career lol

Never forget the line. I was physically 18 but mentally 16

I'm so glad the lovely fellas of Oneyplays had their own section in this video.

I think it's worth noting that while Linkara did say some negative things in that live stream, he has since revisited that statement. He has said his problem is less with OneyPlays, and is more with the influx of Oney fans who spammed Linkara's socials with comments that, out of context, could be seen as insulting. Before he even knew what the context was, his view of the videos was painted by that spam and it is hard to shake that. IIRC, he also apologized for how dismissive of Oney he was in the stream.

Nothing against Doug Walker personally, but it fascinates me how someone who is THAT bad at writing, directing, producing, filming, editing, gaffing, foley, special effects, and post production can unironically harshly criticize films, tv shows, and even video games for their low quality and then turn around and defend himself with "it's just a comedy sketch bro not a big deal".

I always love the game show is meant to be Doug Kidnapping people but everyone just looks like friends fucking around while the interview show that was meant to be Doug hanging around with his friends looks like he's kidnapped them.

As much as I was super into CA, I was never that crazy about Doug and the Nostalgia Critic. His content was what initially brought me to the site back in 08-09 but his character wore out it’s welcome with me and I got way more into Spoony, Linkara, Lindsay Ellis, Brad Jones, and then later Todd in the Shadows than I ever was into NC. However to watch how epic this downfall was in real time was amazing to watch, and Doug to me doesn’t seem like a terrible person, just incompetent, annoying, and arrogant, and there’s way worse things you can be.

Channel Awesome got me through college, especially Spoony. His downfall hit the hardest for me bc he was my favorite content creator. I practically binged his stuff everytime I sat down to draw

Idk how much this goes into the Lordcat situation, but Spoony shouting betrayal was absolutely not the reason he lost his interview with notch. Angry Joe running around with press credentials trying to "gotcha" Jeff at his own award show I guarantee blacklisted Channel awesome a million times more than him doing a short yell in a mostly empty convention room. Also, who even is lordcat? Nobody cares about that guy, why would notch want to be interviewed by someone with no reach?

I’ve always found the OneyPlays stuff really funny in how it really brought more respect to Doug's name- all he had to do was laugh at some jokes made at his expense, and he's now seen as a genuinely cool and respectable guy by many.

I bet Chris is psyched that he and the boys are part of Channel Awesome lore now.

I really hate how he Americanized the entire concept of Pink Floyd the Wall

It’s exhausting trying to keep up with all this internet drama, I can’t even begin to think what it was to research it, put it together, and make a video of it.

Doug has his flaws, there's no denying that, but I've always appreciated how the man can take a joke.

Damn, back when I first got into Nostalgia Critic in 2011-2012, I was completely unaware of all of this happening. Then again, I was in middle school.

The mid 2000s were a different era of KZfaq where people who yelled at bad video games or movies got tons of subscribers and engagement. The likes of Nostalgia Critic, AVGN, Irate Gamer, Spoony etc could be considered in this category, where their angry reviewer trope was extremely popular. That kind of humor might appeal to our teenage selves, but as we grow up and become adults, we would either find it unfunny or annoying instead. AVGN's content evolved (which is why he is still quite relevant), but the NC did not, which was why many of his fans left him, while Spoony (sadly) had a ton of personal problems that made him not continue making videos.

I forgot Lordkat was a person and I wish I didn't have to remember him

Even though everyone wants to make a performance of themselves quitting their most disliked job like Doug did, businesses have a tendency to look back at past jobs for reference as to how eligible for hire one is. And uploading it to KZfaq only makes that easier. As a piece of advice, I'd strongly advise anyone considering doing something similar to just... not. It's a miracle Doug actually managed to make a career after that.

I just came from watching a half dozen retrospectives on the failures of Channel Awesome and this one just dropped. ...well, I'm always in for another one.

Finding out that Lindsey Ellis started out on Channel Awesome was a horrifying discovery

It's always a good sign when some documentary talks about a new website being launched, and the very next sentence starts with "The last image available on the WayBack Machine..."

There’s more documentaries on Doug Walker than there are for Napoleon.

Didn’t expect Chris and the boys to get a six minute segment but I’m here for it

I would just like to throw my experience meeting Doug out there and see what you people think or if you have had similar/different experiences: I met him when he came to Syracuse, NY a few years ago. It was just him, meaning his brother, Tamara, Malcom, etc. were not there. I went with my sister and a friend of mine, the latter of whom wasn't sure about going at first after the controversy got going. However, he was glad that he went after seeing everything and actually meeting Doug. He even started watching more CA's content again afterwards (not much, but it's something). Anyways, when it was our turn to say hello to him, he had the BIGGEST smile on his face. We all talked about how we loved his videos, the laughs he and his team have given us, and all the different things we quote from him. With this being the first time any of us had met him, we couldn't resist giving him a Bat Credit Card, which he found very amusing (btw, he still apparently loves the joke and hasn't gotten sick of it). At this point, the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie had not been released yet (this was before it was postponed too). I asked him if he planned on reviewing it at some point, to which he responded, while smiling and laughing, "I think it's impossible for me NOT to". At that point, I told him I am a MAJOR Sonic and that I would love to help him review the film. My idea was that he could talk about it from the perspective of a film critic the way he traditionally does, while I talked about it from the perspective of a Sonic fan to see how similar or different our thoughts were. I knew it was a long shot, so I fully expected him to say no, which he did. HOWEVER, he didn't actually flat out say no, he told me that he loved the idea. He just couldn't do that idea simply because he had other people he was going to work with already, which made perfect sense to me. But he didn't stop there. Upon my initial offer, he seemed pretty surprised (in a good way) that someone would go out of their way to even ask to do something like that. I swear i almost saw him shed a tear as well. And he still took a moment to say "Thanks for the offer though" and that it meant a lot to him that people in the fanbase wanted to help to such an extent. We then got a picture with him, and I still look back and smile at it today :) Lastly, I told him about another friend of mine. This particular friend was and still is a big fan of his, but unfortunately, he wasn't able to come with us that day to meet him due to his personal schedule. I proceeded to ask Doug if we could record a video of him giving a shoutout to my friend so that he still had some form of an experience with him. He immediately agreed to do so without question. I went to pull out my wallet, fully expecting to pay for this since that is what normally goes down when you get an autograph/merch/video from someone at a convention. He actually had me PUT MY WALLET AWAY, made a great shoutout video to my friend, and he didn't even charge for it!!!! We were so thankful and it was a wonderful message in the end. We then told him how much it meant to us to meet him, and we went on our way. We then went to his Q&A session soon after, where many other people were! We all gave props to Doug for his incredible patience, as almost everybody came up with at least 2, sometimes even 3, questions to ask him, and that line was LONG!!! He, and the guy that was helping him run it up there with him, only started to cut down on the questions asked when they were running short on time. Basically, they wanted to make sure everybody that wanted to ask a question had the chance to. That being said, you could tell that Doug felt bad about doing this, as he was excited to answer any and all questions that came up. That was the extent to our experience with him, and we absolutely loved it, easily having it as the highlight of that day as well as one of my personal highlights of that year; right up there with graduating from college and meeting Vic Mignogna a couple months or so later.

I used to watch the Nostalgia Critic every week from 2009 to early April 2010. I took a family vacation in April 2010 and missed some videos. I ended up never catching up with the videos that I missed, and haven't watched anything on Channel Awesome since then.

Here I thought Doug's "I Quit" video was a bit into the Nostalgia Critic run. I suppose that over-confidence has served him in ways, but goddamn his art never improved.

I can’t believe how different of a sense of humor I used to have 13 years ago. I can’t look at most of those old reviews before either gritting my teeth through them or closing the tab in embarrassment. I know part of it has to do with growing up, but it also had to do with the disdain for public and cable television in my generation. Having grown up becoming tired of what TV networks were regurgitating for us, it made seeing regular, average people running wild and free with content on the Internet feel like such a breath of fresh air.

I hate to say this, but it cannot be understated how Doug's own borderline non-response as Mike botched everything saved his own ass. Channel Awesome would bounce back, even as their content just got infinitely worse. And its led to a Spongebob parody. Yes, a mainstream television show paid homage to the dude who Tommy Wiseau'd his way through multiple film productions while also shitting on Tommy Wiseau.

You missed the chance to say: "Hello I'm Joon the King. I cover it so you don't have to!"

I like to think of Channel Awesome as an extinct pantheon. Everyone still knows about it, but nobody follows any of the characters, and the few that are still active or relevant have evolved well past how they were in the ensemble.

The Batman and Robin in 5 seconds thing that’s a clip from CKY 2k, where Bam Margera did skits and pranks with his friends. In particular a prank where they smeared feces on one of their friends, complete with the shot of the guy defecating in the toilet

I cannot *imagine* filming a movie and putting *so* *much* time into a *company* project that actually just turns out to be a passion project because hey no one gets paid and you also don't get insurance if you get hurt filming said film.

I have been a big fan of nostalgia critic and a subscriber of channel awesome for so long now that it feels like forever. This channel never fails to put a smile on my face. Thank you

Joon the King remembers it so I don't have to

Well researched summary. Not the first one I've seen about channel awesome, but one of the few that acknowledges that some of the criticism (specifically most of what lord kat said) is overblown. That guy just needed a scapegoat for his own lack of success. Let's not pretend he was one Notch interview away from blowing up.

You don't need to say "Quote unquote" every time you read a quote, that is reserved for brief quotes, such as individual words. If you read a full direct quote from someone, you only need to say "quote". Hurts especially around 1:30:00 when you read around 10 quotes in a row.

Considering how just generally kind and supportive everyone says Linkara is in general and how specifically supportive he was towards the people CA was screwing over, this paints him in a weirdly negative light for what little he's mentioned.

In middle school, I was a huge fan of nostalgia critic, but no one else in my friend group was, so I didn't really have anyone to watch it with or talk about it with. I stopped watching years ago, but have been brought back to Channel Awesome memories by OneyPlays. Channel Awesome was something that other youtubers didn't talk about for a long time, and it was interesting to hear from others who used to be fans.

I remember a comment from the DTRH Spoony video about the Lordkat section and how pathetic the rant was, and now hearing the rant again, that comment aged like fine wine. Great coverage overall, by the way, thanks Joon

I remember when I first found him. Him and AVGN got me through some real tough years as a teen. I'm 31 now- still love them.

Chris's wildest dreams have come true. Oneyplays is officially part of the Doug Walker story

i never noticed how weirdly sexual they all were. i wonder if that has anything to do with the madness

Everything Channel Awesome did has the feel of children making stuff with a shitty camera in their bedroom or backyard. Unfortunately, they tried to act like some kind of multimedia conglomerate

-The Lightbringer's- Linkara's early fetish forum posts are hilarious.