YMMV / Giant Bomb

• Awesome Music:
  • Found Me the Bomb by Buckner and Garcia. Somewhere between Tear Jerker, Awesome, and Heartwarming when you realize this actually turned out to be Gary Garcia's last composition.
  • "Lockdown" the song used in the GotY cop parody, and now used as pre-streaming music.
  • Bitch get Hunked
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Vinny, Dave, Drew, and Coonse before he left. The production department tends to be more popular than the journalists, it seems.
  • Jason Oestreicher, again of the production department, has become one, especially since he does a lot of off-camera work. Any appearances he makes in a video are met with an influx of positive comments.
  • Paul Ryckert (Dan's dad) and his appearance on the 1/30/15 UPF has been very well-received.
  • Henry, a dog owned by one of the staffers, won viewers over since his first appearance as a puppy in the July 25, 2014 Unprofessional Fridays. Unfortunately, his owner has since moved on from the company.
  • Handibot, a troll encountered during the VRodeo of Rec Room who pretended to be a dev created AI. While his status as a human was very easily discovered (due to the sound of breathing over his microphone), his dedication to his gimmick, catchphrases ("Hi! I'm Handibot! Welcome to RecRoom! How may I help you?") and sudden non sequiturs have made him incredibly popular both in GB and RecRoom itself. Several GB users have claimed (only half jokingly) that Handibot should be nominated for Best New Character of 2016 (which he ended up being).
  • In terms of the site's E3 guests, Lorne Lanning is likely the most popular.
• Growing the Beard: Lampshaded down to referencing TNG in the 4/2/2013 Bombcast by an email concerning Patrick's beard growth and the start of the Interview Dump Truck. Brad then name drops the trope by looking up the TV Tropes page on his phone and reading its opening paragraph.
  • The premium Demo Derby series, which goes through old demo discs, started off enjoyable but got a lot better when Jeff became a regular for the series.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In the Bombcast just before setting out for E3 2013, the crew joked about what would happen if somebody stole all of their equipment from the truck on the way there. Turns out the thieves waited until they got it into the studio instead.
  • On July 3rd 2013, this was posted on twitter by Ryan Davis. Ryan Davis passed away the very same day.
  • During the Borderlands: The Handsome Collection Quick Look, Jeff and Brad carry on the "Dave Lang is history's greatest monster" Running Gag by reaction with disgust at the Iron Galaxy (Lang's company) logo, with Jeff sarcastically quipping "Mark of quality, right"? The joke takes on a new meaning after Iron Galaxy was involved (and according to some sources, Mis-blamed) in the utter Porting Disaster of Batman: Arkham Knight for the PC, which led to the game being actually pulled from distribution.
  • A mailbag episode featured items that were connected to a murder case. Multiple items were allusions to the murder plot and the letter was filled with oblique allusions to the murder plot.
• He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: Jeff caused a stir when he gave Super Smash Bros. Brawl 4 stars instead of a perfect 5. invoked He also did it again when he gave The Conduit a 2/5, where most review sites were giving around 7.5/10 or 8/10.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Davis' hatred of the NDX-press is funnier when you realize he brought it on himself. Originally the Nintendo downloads were read on the Giant Bombcast by Ryan with no backing music, eventually they started having the marketplace music, and Ryan got tired of reading the releases and passed the job onto Jeff. In the end the Nintendo downloads were cut to save precious time, leading to Jeff singlehandedly creating the NDX-press and Ryan's anger.
  • When they suggested that Sega stop trying to appeal to mainstream American audiences with the Yakuza series and just bring the series over in the original Japanese with subtitles, with all the niche-y Japanese quirks intact. Guess what Sega ended up doing?
  • During the Far Cry 3 QL, they joke that Ubisoft should start integrating their franchises into a single universe and Vinny remarks that the Abstergo logo should be somewhere in the game. In one of the special pre-order missions, you DO find a folder with the Abstergo logo. There's also this.
    • This has actually become a running thing with ubisoft, with alot of their Tom Clancy games referencing each other as of recently, as well as Watch_Dogs and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag referencing each other.
  • During one of the very first Bombcasts, when it was just Jeff and Ryan, Jeff expressed his anger over an article discussing the possibility of marketing teams coming up with new achievements for games. The author of that article? Future Giant Bomb employee Patrick Klepek.
  • When Vinny's son Max was born, the GB crew commented on the podcast that "When you have a boy, you have to worry about one penis, when you have a girl, you have to worry about ALL of the penises." His second child was a girl. ^Explanation Her name is Roxie, and Vinny ended up skipping PAX Prime 2014 to be there for her birth. Congrats, Vinny!
  • In the 12/02/2014 Giant Bombcast, the crew discusses the disastrous technical problems with the Master Chief Collection launch and the several apologies by the devs, the latest one of which included promises of free DLC as compensation. Drew suggests that the best way to apologize would be to have a remastered version of Halo 3: ODST as DLC for the game and offer it for free to those who purchased the collection during the launch. Lo and behold, that's exactly what happened.
  • In the 04/28/2015 Giant Bombcast, the crew claims that the release of the second act of Broken Age has acted as a sort of book end for the "Kickstarter bubble" that the game created and that multi million dollar KS projects were a thing of the past. The very next month, the Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night both raise millions of dollars each, with the latter even becoming the first video game project to raise over 5 million and the month after that, a Kickstarter for the long awaited Shenmue 3 is announced at E3 and goes on to break the 6 million barrier.
  • It became a running joke to refer to Brad (and Patrick) as an "offical anime editor" This is before Austin Walker got hired, who actually does like anime, particularly of the mecha kind. The title still belongs to Brad, naturally.
    • The site's overall indifference and mockery of anime as a whole, most notably with an oft-referenced clip of Jeff from the GameSpot days declaring "Anime is for jerks", is way funnier after the release of Dragon Ball Fighter Z and the All Systems Goku podcast, which has led to more enjoyment of and content related to anime on the site than ever before.
  • In the Rare Replay Quick Look, Brad mentions that Rare should have made a Battletoads Fighting Game instead of a Beat 'em Up. The very next day, Rash was confirmed to be a guest character for Killer Instinct (2013).
  • Austin Walker's first article on the site was actually a guest Top 10 Games of 2014 List. Same time the following year, he would also have a Top 10 Games of the year list...but this time as an actual staff member.
• Ho Yay: There is a high contingency of this during the Whiskey Media Happy Hours, especially when Screened.com's Matt Rorie is involved.
  • Invoked in the Hitman: Absolution Quick Look, when the Start screen focuses on Agent 47's Icy Blue Eyes:
  Vinny: Brad, do those look like the eyes of a killer?
  Brad: They look sexy.
  Vinny: Look at those deep blues.
  Brad: You can get lost in 'em.
  Brad: He actually has ripped fuckin' abs in this.
  Vinny: Does he take his shirt off?
  • Brought up again in reference to Sleeping Dogs (2012) and the protagonist's skintight Game of Death/Kill Bill -esque skintight yellow and black suit, which clings to his "package" and butt.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Brad's "Space Neon Lobsters, who have to work cooperatively" line during one of the Bombcasts. One of the others comments that it would make a great T-Shirt.
  • Peter Molyneux's balls will change the industry.
  • Is Jeff Bridges in this game?
  • Can you tell me about ze multiplaya?
  • Less than, greater than
  • 775
  • I'm a wizard and that looks fucked up.
  • Strap it on.
  • #Chan
  • No One Trailer Should Have All That Power.
  • Zojirushi.
  • A number of things from the Persona 4 Endurance Run have become memetic largely via Jeff and Vinny bringing them up in unrelated Quick Looks and the Podcast. Jeff and Vinny's interpretation of Mysterious Fox has come up a number of times, and hand-to-hand combat characters in magic or power-based games have been referred to as "Chies" on occasion.
  • #YearOfTheBow for the large showing of bows in 2012's videogames.
  • From the Big Live Live Show: Live 3, CHINA DON'T CARE, FUCK RYAN DAVIS, and #TEAMBRAD. After Ryan's death, FUCK RYAN DAVIS was changed to LOVE RYAN DAVIS and FUCK, RYAN DAVIS.
  • "Small Business Man", which comes from the ad skits Jeff and Vinny perform on some 2014 Bombcasts, where Vinny plays as the technology-challenged Small Business Man.
  • The Mario Party streams have produced quite a few, such as #DWGF (short for Do Well, Get Fucked), DMX Goomba, and NOBODY WINS.
  • Taking a line from a video and presenting it out of context, like a back-of-the-box quote.
  • "Ten games better than X". It first appeared in late 2013, when Brad declared in a podcast that he'd have a hard time finding ten games better than Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
  • POLICE STATE. It got its start in the first "Giant Bomb Makes Mario" video, where someone suggested they write the phrase in coins in the level. They've attempted to put the phrase in subsequent levels they make.
  • REDUCED FAT, which comes from Rorie's rant during their Extra Life 2015 run, where he laments that most of their bagel spreads are as such. The crew also attempts to put this into Super Mario Maker levels they make.
  • Drew Scanlon blinking◊.
  • Following the 04/07/2017 Unprofessional Fridays, any mention of the word "squad" will have other users repeating "squad", after Jeff did so in that video.
• Never Live It Down: Jeff's hatred of Yoshi. In reality, he doesn't hate Yoshi, he just thinks Yoshi should remain a background character/powerup.
• Nightmare Fuel: Luchadeer is watching you while you sleep.
  • After Dan mentioned on a Bombcast about how he almost tried synthetic weed while drunk to help with his anxiety, the Bombcast was flooded with emails detailing how dangerous the drug is, including one from an Australian paramedic claiming that he had encountered a user who was locked in a bathroom to sleep it off and ended up wrapping his throat around a faucet due to extreme thirst and drowning. Brad added that the email also described how the paramedic removed the corpse but everyone immediately decided that part didn't need to be read.
    • Another scary thing is that one of the reasons for the onslaught of emails was due to people feeling the need to warn others that "synthetic weed" really has next to nothing to do with weed (instead it's more of a cocktail of constantly shifting substances to get around FDA regulations to the point that NO ONE knows exactly what effects that has on the human body) and thus could get suckered into trying it thinking it's relatively harmless like weed... which is EXACTLY what nearly happened to Dan. One wonders how many people weren't so lucky...
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Many sitegoers were less than ecstatic when the crew decided to include intern Matt Kessler in on some of the Quick Looks. It got to the point where he seemed to have gathered quite a hatedom. It's calmed down, but there will always be the one or two people complaining about Kessler's inclusion in just about any video he's featured.
  • A similar case has been made as Patrick Klepek increased in prominence.
  • The site was purchased by CBS Interactive and put under the same leadership as the Gamespot site most of these guys got away from. Naturally, this trope is making the rounds.
  • The news that Vinny will be moving back to New York, and will only be regularly working with Alex now instead of the SF crew, had some worrying for the future.
    • Same with the announcement that Dan would be also be moving permanently to New York, specifically its potential effects on the Beastcast (his personality clashing with the Beastcast's slightly more serious dynamic) and Demo Derby (since he confirmed that Drew and Jeff would retain it).
  • The decision to become permanently work from home has been contentious. Especially after saying they would be getting back to an office and keeping it a secret that they wouldn't be returning until immediately after a subscription sale.
  • Jeff Bakalar, once a Beastcast regular from another website, is now the most prominently-featured member of Giant Bomb with him appearing in nearly every video series and podcast. Conversely Jeff Gerstmann became less and less prominent before finally being fired. Many did not take this well.
  • The departure of the Nextlander crew and later the firing of Jeff Gerstmann from the website was contentious, to say the very least. While many are eager to see how the site develops under the new crew and what the old guard can do now that they're no longer chained to a corporation, others argue that without any of the original members there, the site really isn't Giant Bomb anymore.
• Win Back the Crowd: Following the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, Dan Ryckert was brought back saying that there would be a renewed focus on video games.
• The Woobie: The Westcoast crew can fall into this in the Mario Party Party series, where they play 50-turn Mario Party games. Especially in Mario Party Party 6, where even Dan Ryckert, of all people, is practically broken.