The Creepy Bald Guy takes on the end… of the beginning, which was the end.
OH MY GOD THIS TURNED OUT TO BE SO TEDIOUS! It took about a full weak to film and edit because I kept blowing my lines or would change my mind about the script. What’s funny is that my facial hair becomes more prominent as the review goes on, because I obviously had to shave. While it’s clear I’m rushing a bit near the end, I’m pretty happy with this video. When it didn’t look like I was going to get done yesterday (when I promised), I actually considered splitting this video in two. It would’ve ended when I smile at the camera after a gag. But then I decided it wasn’t worth it.
Reviewing Spoony isn’t easy because reviewing Spoony is like reviewing every other angry reviewer. Their strengths and weaknesses tend to be the same. But I want to stress that I don’t dislike TGWTG or all Angry Reviewers. Many Angry Reviewers DO find something different to do with it (The Cinema Snob is still a favorite and I do enjoy Nostalgia Critic’s works more than not). TGWTG is still a website I frequent often enough, even if I don’t watch every review of every reviewer whom I like.
Want to read the original draft of the script?
(Remember that this was for me to understand, not you, if you get confused)
Hello this is that creppy bald guy and now we have officially established that we all have way too much time on our hands. So You’ve smelled the foulness of my breath, and now you may taste the sweetness of my tongue in my real review of Spoony! (theme song begins but is cut off) Already played the theme song! Now let’s bring up the reviewer triforce and break him down.
Even though the humor is his main priority, I am going to do things out-of-order because everything serves to drive the comedy. So let’s start with the technicals.
Can you be one of the most popular TGWTG reviewers and have subpar production values? Um, yes. Spoony’s earlier videos had grainy video and the audio was very unbalanced, although neither were intolerable..But let’s read about it from the man himself. His first videos were largely improvised, slipshod efforts that mainly consisted of him slapping together loosely-edited footage and then narrating over it on a headset microphone. Hey, Yet he eventually upgraded his equipment and joined the ranks of the most prestigious video makers on TGWTG. The audio allows every tremor of his voice to be captured and the video enables you to decipher every poster in the background. The editing was tightened and professional, albeit uninspired compared to reviewers like B-lee427, Acorn Cinema and oddly, Iron Liz.
– But how do the production values benefit the sketches, which are prominent in his reviews? They’re good?
Spoony makes a good use of after effects, green screen work and hell, he even plays dress-up when performing in front of the camera. -Let it be known as good after effects in the context of video reviewing isn’t the same as good special effects- The editing is actually stronger here, with some of the shot compositions standing out as exceptional. His delivery in these skits works because he’s never timid, but has a lot of talent when it comes to using different voices and facial expressions. His acting is actually pretty good.
-And by good, I mean…bad. Video reviewing is weird because good acting equates to being loud, corny, quasi-annoying and hammy. But fewer people are even on Spoony’s level when it comes to being loud, corny, quasi-annoying and hammy.
Spoony plays many different characters and he does generally do a good job but why is it every reviewer has to have at least one irritating asshat like Chuckles, Douchie, Cobra, Shitpickle, that sock (Neckbone), everyone played by Mike Mattei and MartialHorror.
Note: I cut out the Mike Mattei line because I had mistaken him for someone else.
But joking aside, Spoony is easily up there with the best when it comes to producing sketches. So what’s the problem? Well, these sketches always seem so out of place, stopping the review in its tracks.
Now some you might might be thinking, but MH, Spoony is supposed to be more of a comedian than a critic and yeah but, it shakens up the pacing for me. Guys like Linkara, Apollo Z Hack and the Irate Gamer focus more on the overarching plots than reviewing, but Spoony doesn’t so…it bothers me. You’ll have a good review like Wing Commander end with Spoony talking to a spoof from Battlefield Earth. Or what about this? Imagine you want to watch a review of an Ultima game and it ends with this (clip). What. The Fuck. Now, I hadn’t seen his crossover with Linkara that features this character at the time, so it’s confusing. I thought I had taken acid!
Although it is possible that dropping acid right before I watched the video contributed to that. But why is it so many TGWTG members whore in-jokes like this?
Spoony also uses a lot of those fake memes that TGWTG tries to force down our throats, such as that Of Course gag that I thought was supposed to die with Kickassia.
-It’s like TGWTG members WANT us to have to watch every video of every reviewer on TGWTG just so we can understand whats going on. Actually that’s pretty smart when you put it that way. What do you think Anguirus? Now you have to go watch every video I’ve ever produced so that you know what
-But I’d probably love Spoony’s sketch insertions had I still cared for that kind of stuff, so it’s up to you whether or not this is a legitimate criticism. But let’s move on to the critiquing.
The structure of his video game reviews varies, talking about one aspect of the game before moving on to the next. With the move reviews he has the streamlined format popularized by the Nostalgia Critic. The film reviews are pretty conventional. Explain. Complain. Explain. Complain. Because that’s where the comedy comes from. With his game reviews, he discusses how it worked before critiquing it. He does really do a good job at articulating why the game works or fails, even when the complaints are purely subjective. I for example do enjoy PS2’s “The Thing”, but I never had any issue with Spoony disagreeing with me because he had some really solid points. With movies, I wish I could be as obnoxiously critical as him. He’ll single out plot holes and continuity errors that I failed to notice, and I consider myself to be pretty pompous when it comes to dissecting films. This is actually more noticeable with his written reviews, which serve to showcase his hawkeye analyzing skills. He’s also very bold and very unapologetic with his opinions, which I respect.
-But you have to remember that he’s primarily doing this to make you laugh and sometimes it does really feel like we’re being manipulated into thinking the subject is worse than it is. He is clearly nitpicking at times and yes, you can find mistakes within his information or maybe he’ll miss the point about why fans feel a certain way.
But this is mostly redeemed by the tone of his reviews. I really love how you can tell whether or not he hates something based on his attitude. When he’s reviewing something he loathes, his fury seems genuine. When he’s reviewing something that he appears to enjoy- whether it’s bad or not- he seems more amused at the badness. His voice inflection is perfect.
-Very few caustic critics can successfully pull this off. So props to you Spoony.
Now we’ve come to the humor and…well, I’m honestly done. The jokes are derived from the sketches, subject and sometimes sodomy. So what do I add? He’s got a personality that fits perfectly with the video reviewing mold and has a voice that people can remember. But you can find him irritating and pompous, a representation of everything wrong with video reviewing. I reiterate my point that enjoying Spoony comes down to what you feel about the angry reviewing trend. So lets leave the final arrow open ended. Because clearly a picture with crappy drawings of arrows means so much.
I think Spoony does a good job at being an angry reviewer, in a sense being the quintessential caustic critic, but he never exceeds the limitations of being one nor does he do anything different with it. I do think Spoony has comic timing and his producing and critiquing skills are impressive too. But trapped with the confines of angry reviewing, they don’t always go well together, although this is spoken from someone who believes that the trend has become fatigued, Still, Spoony IS Angry Reviewing, the good, the bad and the bizarre…so he gets a ¾ stars.
-So you’ll probably like him if you like angry reviewing, which I can enjoy if I’m in the right mood. Since I’ve already explained this in the first video, you’ve pretty much wasted all your time. Please everyone, remember that this is only my opinion you don’t have to agree. If you have any other reasons as to why you like or dislike Spoony, please share in the comments section. Links to Spoony’s website, youtube page, channell awesome page as well as my website and twitter account can be found in the description.
Please comment, rate, etc and I hope you enjoy!
Spoony’s website
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