The Big Picture: Ninetiestalgia Stinks

[Ritchian]

The Critic would be my favorite animated television show if not for the brief existence of Clerks: The Animated Series. I remembering watching it back in my parents' room (the only other TV we had at the time outside the TV room) when I was a kid and laughing uproariously at it despite only getting a small fraction of the jokes at the time. I really need to track down the DVD release some day and buy it. It's a mix of humor that now seems incredibly dated (Jokes about current political figures and such) and humor that is almost timeless (Pretty much every movie parody.) Season one was funnier than season two, in my opinion, but Alice was a great character in spite of having the smell of shoe-horned love interest about her.

I only found out about the webisodes after they had been taken town. I tracked them down on YouTube, and was sorely disappointed. Stripping out all of the characters save for Jay and a brief appearance by the restaurant owner ripped out the heart of the show. Movie parodies are funny and all and Jay striking out or succeeding to woo the unmemorable blonde lady are good for a chuckle. But at it's heart, the thing that made The Critic work as a show was the cast of characters that interacted with Jay. His parents, his boss, his makeup artist, his best friend, his kid - they're what made the show great. Watching an over-weight, middle-aged, balding film critic strike out with a woman and explain how the latest Hollywood schlock is awful is nowhere near as amusing as watching him spar with his boss or deal with his family life or somewhat ineptly try to be a good father. Good on them for trying, but the project seemed doomed to fail by only concentrating on one small part of the show's magic.

The first two seasons are well worth watching. You may need to jump over to Wikipedia to figure out a joke here and there, but it's one of the smartest, funniest shows ever to be broadcast.

 

[TJF588]

Gotta pause, but the zoom-out to the pie-eating contest reminded me hard of something.

I'll chock it up to Joe Loves Crappy Movies. Might be it, but I doubt, in the wee hours of the morning, I'd be able to figure just what it was.

EDIT (Facebook copy-paste):
This is one of those shows I remember, but not coherently or robustly. Sharpest memory in my mind is the intelligent velociraptor.

EDIT2: Watched four minutes into OmniscientOstrich's (#71) link, and I did find myself smiling. I was kinda ambivalent, as I'd expect (maybe it's the dead air? or maybe it just seems a bit "trying to" when a joke doesn't rightly catch me? or seeing a joke coming? maybe it's played out a bit too long for my mileage?), but particularly the immediate aftermath of the Raul (sp?) insinuation. The execution was great.

 

[scott91575]

I love the critic. I think one of the main problems was the not the setting of the show or even Jay as someone not relatable. It was the fact much of the humor was based around movies and popular culture many of the viewers didn't even know about. This is one of my favorite cultural references on the show (although funny on it's own).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH1PJTY9AVA

In today's internet culture, we are now well aware of the old Orson Welles commercials he used to do and his classic reputation for being a difficult person to work with (like the Paul Masson wine commercial and the outtakes that is now an internet classic). Yet few new about this little gem back then...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V14PfDDwxlE

Knowing about this makes it even funnier, and there are tons of examples like this with the humor in the critic.

 

[NearLifeExperience]

Interesting.. I never watched this show(I had biker mice from mars and the samurai pizza cats back then), but now I find myself intrigued!

I know that episode of the Simpsons, but I didn't realize it was a crossover at the time.
This show seems very interesting, I will definitely check it out. Thank you, Bob!

 

[roushutsu]

I remember seeing this on TV, but I was a young kid at the time so all of the humor flew right over my head. I've caught some episodes here and there afterwards and it's pretty damn funny.

 

[LackofCertainty]

Ah so the title is a reference to the show? I was just thinking it was trolling the wave of hate his previous episodes garnered. Ah the Critic, art style put me off, setting and main character annoyed me, and everything else put this square in the "don't watch" category". Knowing it gave birth to annoying catch phrases and inside jokes among new age film critics only builds my distaste for that show.

It didn't really give birth to catch phrases, and the catch phrase that I mention was contextualized in the show.

In The Critic, Jay is a film critic on his own failing/unpopular tv show. Since the cutaways revolve around making fun of movies, Jay tends to hate most of them and his bad rating is to sum up what he hates about it, and finish with "It stinks!" which is his catchphrase as a reviewer. (similar to thumbs up/down from ebert)

However, the majority of each episode is just his day to day life and dealings with his friends. He doesn't go around spouting, "It Stinks!" in his day to day life, because that's just his catchphrase on his tv show. (same as how sienfeld didn't go around saying, "And what's the deal with [insert thing]" during the sitcom portions of sienfeld.

I guess I can't really argue about it creating inside jokes, but then most comedies generate inside jokes for the fans. The critic's inside jokes just seem more obscure because it didn't do very well, so it's fans are a fairly small niche.


But having said all that, to each his own. (especially when it comes to comedy)

 

[el_kabong]

I love The Critic. So psyched to see it get some love. Upon a cursory glance, I didn't see anybody bring up one of my personal favorite scenes...

Spoiler: If I ever become a media mogul billionaire, these will be in my office.

 

[Hutzpah Chicken]

I have never heard of this one. It does sound like a great show that's not repetitive like Family Guy. If they would have moved this to UPN, maybe they would have cancelled Marker or that awful show with Sir Mix-a-lot. Maybe the network would have been not so dependent on Star Trek Voyager.

Even though you already did a video for this, I think some sort of hint, mention, or obvious reference to Mystery Science Theatre 3000 is in order for 90's month.

 

[Strain42]

"Like most members of America's cultural elite, I worship Pan, the goat god! But thanks for the thought."

I absolutely LOVE The Critic. I was born in 89, so I was only 4 when the show came out, but even at a young age I remember absolutely loving it. I think because even if you weren't that old and didn't understand the jokes, whenever they did a parody of Ah-nold or Jack Nicholson, you kinda got it. I recognized big actors, even if I didn't understand everything.

It was the first show I ever actually bought on DVD, was one of my all time favorites. I remember when it used to air at like 5:30 in the morning on Comedy Central I would wake up early just to watch it.

I actually have a funny story about that. Mike Reiss came to speak at my school (mostly about The Simpsons) but during his speech he was like "I also worked on another show called The Critic." and then you just heard my voice going "WHOOOO!!!" and clapping echoing through the stadium.

After a bit of light chuckling during the semi-awkward silence afterwards he was like "Wow...that wasn't even applause. Applause implies plural, that was just an applaud." and then showed a clip from the show (The Cockroach King, not the best clip to use imo) and it still got a huge laugh and he said "More people in this room have now seen this clip than anyone who watched it on television"

I do mostly agree that season 1 was overall better. The Duke Philips disease episode is still in my opinion one of the best written episodes of TV ever. Non-stop laugh from start to finish there. They also had the truck driving episode which is one I always enjoy.

But yeah, what a great show. I'm glad you did an episode on it. I always knew you liked it, but it's nice to see some conversation on it going around.

It's hard to believe that it's 20 years old this year and is still as funny and (mostly) timeless as ever.

Who else feels as though if the show were brought back now to comment on the movies and stuff of today, it would actually be a huge hit? If I could bring back any TV show, it'd be this one.

Though it would be kinda hard with both Charles Napier and Doris Roberts having passed away. Tress McNeille could sub in for Doris, I dunno how they'd tackle Duke though.

 

[jthwilliams]

Well this reminded me what a great show the critic was and make me want to watch it again. Sadly, I don't appear to be able to find it anywhere for digital purchase, nor hulu, nor netflix. Event target and walmart will only sell it through their online store. Darn you Bob, you have messed with my need for instant gratification!!!!!! Now my only option is to buy online and wait for it to arrive. #1stWorldProbs

 

[grigjd3]

I fucking loved this show!!! No seriously, it was some good humor.

 

[JoeyKingKat]

This show (the Critic) sucks big donkey dicks. It is incredibly pretentious and lacks any form of actual comedy.

 

[angel85]

I am significantly younger than you, but I STILL loved the crap out of this show when it was on the air. One thing I loved that you didn't mention is how the credits would always open with him being woken up by a phone call. I think my favorite was "Jay, we've decided to write you out of the will, you have enough money already...oh and Happy Birthday!" That was like this show's version of the couch gag. I gotta track down that box set...

 

[dubious_wolf]

that looked HILARIOUS. How did I miss this...

TO THE MULTIPLEX!

 

[Dr.Susse]

I'll be your struggling actress Bob.

Seriously though the Critic is still one of my favourite shows that I've ever watched. A regular nostalgia trip for me.

 

[Something Amyss]

I loved the Critic. I was annoyed when it got canned.

Dude drop the 90s we get it you hate it and wish you hadn't been born then.

Did you watch the episode?

Bad=Good oh so he wants him to use the game informer review scale. :rimshot:

Technically, it's the gaming industry scale.

This show got a worse deal than a football to groin!
Well once Seth McFarland finishes with the Flintstones reboot... -_^

He can butcher this so that nobody will ever have fond memories of it again?

 

[Something Amyss]

I'll be your struggling actress Bob.

Seriously though the Critic is still one of my favourite shows that I've ever watched. A regular nostalgia trip for me.

Would that make him...A Nostalgia Critic?

Looks like even Doug doesn't approve of that joke.

 

[Dr.Susse]

I'll be your struggling actress Bob.

Seriously though the Critic is still one of my favourite shows that I've ever watched. A regular nostalgia trip for me.

Would that make him...A Nostalgia Critic?

Looks like even Doug doesn't approve of that joke.

But it was worth the pun damn it!

 

[evilneko]

Yes, yes to Everything Bob just said. Things I still say from 'the critic'

"buy my book! buy my book!"
"You can't lock a raptor in a closet! It's too Smart!"
and
"Pigeons sure seem to like the sound of my voi... (*gagging sounds*)"

and "this is a duke-tastrophe!"

And also, we're in a real qwizybug.

You can't forget that.