YMMV / Todd in the Shadows

• Awesome Music: Manages to do a pretty good piano cover of whatever song he's about to review, whenever the episode starts.
• Bizarro Episode:
  • "Top Ten Groin Shots In Movies" and "The Top Ten '90s Buses", where Todd counts down various nut shots and memorable buses in the pop culture of the '90s, respectively.
  • "I Fact-Checked The Worst Video-Essayist on Youtube", an all-audio breakdown of James Somerton's factual errors, has none of Todd's usual style. It’s a companion to video essayist and friend of Todd’s HBomberguy’s video on James and plagiarism. Fittingly, for a guy who talks about one hit wonders as much as he does, it is one of his most successful videos of all time.
• Broken Base:
  • Putting "Closer" by The Chainsmokers at #1 on his "Best of 2016" list was possibly his most controversial decision yet. While about 95% of his fans hated it, half of his fans admitted that while they hated the song, it was Todd's list and they had no right to complain or tell Todd what his own opinion was. The other half got very angry, stating that Todd must have been out of his mind to put it at #1. Some went so far as to stop the video right after the honorable mentions so they could pretend his #2 pick ("24K Magic" by Bruno Mars) was his #1 pick. This gets a callback in his 2017 best of list, where he states he was tempted to put Chainsmokers on number one again out of spite. ("Paris" ended up being number two, second to "Green Light" by Lorde.) The dishonorable mentions in his 2022 list also mentions Machine Gun Kelly as "up there with The Chainsmokers as guys I stuck my neck out for and rewarded it by making bad music even I couldn't defend", though immediately follows it up with "I was still right, for the record."
  • Todd's Best of 2016 list in general is quite split among his viewers. While one side, again, respects his choices (even the odd curveballs he threw in) because it's his list, many others called into question the legitimacy of most of his choices because he seemed like he was criticizing them more than praising them.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • During his review of "Turn Up the Music", the description of Chris Brown's assault on Rihanna is used as this.
  • In his review of "Best Song Ever," he compares 90s boy bands to Hitler and Stalin, thoroughly lampshading it.
    Todd: Now I do realize that I can say controversial things sometimes, but I think we can all agree, comparing the Backstreet Boys to Hitler is entirely accurate and proportional."
  • In the "Jealous" review, he mentions that he does not get jealous over other guys... that's why he has been cheated on multiple times. He then does a sketch of it.
  • Mocking the "Who Can Relate, Woo!" line in Logic's "1-800-273-8255" by turning it into a Call-and-Response Song:
    Todd: All my ladies with suicidal depression say "Hey!" And all my fellas who have self-endangering mood disorders say "Ho!" When I say "Self", you say "Harm!"
  • The "If I Die Young" review contains a rather morbid bit where, in response to the lyric "send me away with the words of a love song" Todd plays the chorus of "I'll Make Love To You" by Boyz II Men.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Some of the people who hate "Closer" instead pretended that "24K Magic" was his #1 song on his Best Hit Songs of 2016 list.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Did you notice how he performed Friday in a much less mocking manner than most TGWTG cast members? Do you recall when he told his fans on Twitter that he wasn't going to make fun of the song, as "at this point, it would just be cruel?" He gave his word.
  • In his One-Hit Wonder review of Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting", his suggestion that the song's lyrics sound like the excited babble of a young fanboy who's just come out of a kung fu film set to music. And also his reasoning to support his theory that African-Americans in the seventies loved kung fu films.
  • Todd gets roped into reviewing Crossroads with the Nostalgia Chick after she tries her hand at playing "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman". While she wasn't doing it well, there may be another underlying reason for him to intervene, given a musical taste he established in his later Worst Songs of 2011 review. He prevented the Chick, who is definitely white, from playing the piano.
  • At the end of the "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" review, he plays Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"... in particular, the part that was sampled in Kanye West's "Stronger", which similarly referenced Nietzsche's famous quote.
• Growing the Beard:
  • By Todd's own admission, his first two episodes weren't that much, but the third, "Party in the USA", was "the first video where I figured out what I was doing, really". He also thinks that his Trainwreckords series really started to gel with his The Funky Headhunter review.
  • As Todd's work has continued and he has drifted away from the Caustic Critic review style and Channel Awesome, his work started to include a lot more insight and deep diving into the subjects he discusses, and his comedy style has become more natural without the apparent pressure to include edgy, angry jokes everywhere.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Frequently. With as often as his "Toddstradamus" predictions go awry, occasionally they go awry in heartbreaking fashion. Examples are listed here.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Todd ends his Funstyle Trainwreckords episode noting that Liz Phair "started thinking about shoring up her own legacy and leaving things on a good note. I hope she does." One year later, he was pleased that "my one kind statement in a very unkind review came true", as she released Soberish, a significant improvement on the deranged silliness of Funstyle. It gets even more heartwarming when he names it his favorite album of 2021 during his cameo in Mic The Snare's "An Eiffel 65 Christmas" video.
• He Panned It, Now He Sucks!:
  • He briefly came under fire for his attitude towards the adult alternative genre after he explained it at length in "The Lazy Song" review.
  • Todd has also received several accusations of being homophobic for his negative reviews of Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" and "Born This Way".
  • He's also gotten some backlash from frustrated EDM fans after he called the genre "boring" and "having no personality to it" during the "Wrecking Ball" review. In his "Worst Songs of 2013" list, he had Zedd's "Stay The Night," a song that got a lot of critical acclaim from both EDM fans and music critics, as a "dishonorable mention" for being bad due to the repetitive lyrics (even though this is a commonplace thing in vocal EDM in general). He also made a potshot against Swedish House Mafia, which didn't exactly help his case.
  • He's been getting backlash from Fall Out Boy fans after putting "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)" on his "Worst Songs of 2013" list, despite saying that he likes Fall Out Boy and many of their songs, such as "Dance Dance". To be fair, he stated in the video that he was expecting backlash, and what most people took issue with was that Todd called them assholes when they're actually considered nice and adorkable guys. He also received some flak for putting "Demons" on the same list (although his later inclusion of "Thunder" and "Believer" on his Worst of 2017 list was far less controversial).
    • He references this in a Played for Laughs way in the "Best Songs of 2014" list when Todd mentions how Fall Out Boy couldn't make a song about the real world like Paramore would with "Ain't It Fun" for various reasons... before immediately saying he likes Fall Out Boy for those reasons and asks the fans not to hurt him.
    Todd: The first time I heard Paramore, a friend of mine dubbed them "Fall Out Girl." But whatever else you want to say about them, though, they're a much more direct band than Fall Out Boy ever were. Fall Out Boy would never, ever write a song about living in the real world, and if they did, they stuff it full of parched, trying-too-hard metaphors that don't make sense. (quickly) And I mean that in a loving way, I like a lot of Fall Out Boy's songs because of all those things, please don't hurt me. (awkwardly gives a thumbs up)
  • Todd's "Worst of 2013" list has received a fair bit of scrutiny, notably mostly because Todd listed other songs but didn't bring up any of Miley Cyrus' music, even though he'd given a scathing review of two of her singles, and "Blurred Lines", which Todd gave a scathing review, only had a passing mention.
  • Lampshaded in the "Worst of 2014" list, in which he put "Take Me to Church" on the honorable mentions for the worst list despite being asked if he would put it on the best list.
  • Todd's negative comparison between Powfu and Epic Rap Battles of History earned him quite a bit of flack, especially considering his target audience. While he didn't directly imply ERB to be bad per se (he called them lame and white, which is part of the ironic charm of the series), his comments were still rather surprising considering his major respect for successful comedy musicians and love of acts such as Flight of the Conchords and The Lonely Island.
  • He anticipated this when he put "Ice Cream" on his worst of 2020 list, stating his terror that Blackpink's fanbase would tear him apart given the vocal followings most K-pop acts have. While Blackpink does indeed have a large fanbase (called "Blinks"), the ones who commented on Todd's video stated that "Ice Cream" wasn't very good and most of the fans don't care for it.
    • Same goes for BTS' "Dynamite", which was a #1 hit and more loved within BTS' fandom, described by Todd in the same video (though not making it part of the list itself) as radio filler with no ambition but to be inoffensively catchy before being forgotten about forever. Despite this and the inclusion of Blackpink's "Ice Cream", these fandoms seem to have largely not affected him, as the Worst of 2020 video has a very solid like/dislike ratio on YouTube, in contrast to the large number of dislikes for his Worst of 2018 list, where he included Juice WRLD (granted, before he died and before he grew on Todd), as well as Eminem.
  • Invoked again when he put "Surface Pressure" from Encanto at #10 on his Worst of 2022 list, claiming that he disliked most of Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs in general. He began the entry by stating that he preferred to leave controversial entries until later on in the list, so it was going to be unusual to start with one.
  • Todd stating that he thinks Jack Black's "Peaches" from the The Super Mario Bros. Movie "fucking sucks" caused plenty of backlash from people, accusing him of "hating fun" and "taking it too seriously".
• Hilarious in Hindsight: So many examples to list that there is now a separate page dedicated to Todd's accidental predictions — and wrong predictions — about the trends in pop music.
• Ho Yay:
  • During his Best of 2011, he has a Freudian Slip towards Usher: "The women want him and the men wants him... wants to be him."
  • In his first episode of One Hit Wonderland, he calls the lead singer of a-ha a dreamboat and gushing about his attractiveness.
  • Admitting to find John Legend as attractive as Alicia Keys during his "All of Me" review.
• Jerkass Woobie: Todd has also portrayed himself as acting dickish to his fellow contributors. He laughed for about 20 minutes at the idea of reviewing comics with Linkara, promoted Pushing Up Roses' video as "worse than Friday", called JesuOtaku fat in a misguided attempt to demonstrate a lack of self-esteem in young women^note the video was made and published before JesuOtaku came out as a trans man, and shouted at Nash's Stickboy for making eyes at "his girl". Simply the highlights of a long, long list.
  • The artists covered in the Trainwreckords videos often come across this way. The series frequently explores how their personal faults contributed to the failures of their career-ruining albums, but also shows empathy towards the frustrations, insecurities and personal problems that drove their unsuccessful attempts at changing direction.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Todd acts like he's going to cut his hand with his machete during his review of "Grenade".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • A surprising amount related to the I fact-checked the worst video essayist on youtube video:
    • "Todd in the Shadows with a steel chair!" ^ExplanationA common joke after Todd released his own essay on James Somerton within a day of H Bomber Guy released his "Plagiarism and You(Tube)" video, as many were eager to reference old Professional Wrestling bit about an unexpected blindside on someone using a steel chair.
    • "Sir, a second video essay has hit the James Somerton!"
    • "Plagiarism Month" ^ExplanationThe proliferation of videos on plagiarism in December of 2023 from Hbomberguy, Todd, and numerous others led fans to declare December 2023 "Plagiarism month."
• Misaimed Fandom: The Ship Teasing between Todd and Obscurus Lupa was played for laughs, yet the shipping is occasionally taken at face value by fans.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Trainwreckords and One Hit Wonderland regularly get just as many if not higher view counts than the main pop song reviews. Todd has been repeatedly praised for the insight and analysis of not just the music itself but also the acts behind them in these videos, prompting Todd to make more of them.
  • Trainwreckords in particular appears to be becoming the most popular series he makes, with nine of his top ten most viewed non-list videos being Trainwrecks^note His most viewed non-list video, by the way, is his James Somerton video.
• Narm Charm: Invoked.
  • This is more or less the main reason he loved Biz Markie so much.
  • Todd also admitted at the end of the Trainwreckords episode on Billy Idol's Cyberpunk that even though it wildly missed the mark on reinventing Billy Idol for The '90s, he still had a fondness for the album.
    Todd: It's a cheesy, gaudy, insta-dated disaster, but it just speaks to the dork in me. There's just absolutely nothing like it.
  • One time, Todd actually had an interesting explanation for how something can achieve Narm Charm status to the general public. When Todd took a look at Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" for One Hit Wonderland, he gave this speech about the secret behind "I'm Too Sexy" and how a song so boneheaded can achieve such massive success. He even uses a "Harlem Shake" video to punctuate his point.
    Todd: Every so often, there comes along an idea. Could be any kind of idea, sometimes just a phrase, that is just so goddamn stupid that it can't help but take the world by storm. Pet Rocks. Mutant Ninja Turtles. Where's The Beef? And it's not like it's something you enjoy, exactly; it's just that it's so perplexingly stupid that you can't stop thinking about it. It becomes like a splinter in your brain. 'What's going on here?' 'What's the point of this?' And no one can forget it, and suddenly, it's a pop culture phenomenon. Well, anyway, that's my best guess for how this happened.
  • This is the reason Todd likes Hamilton in terms of Lin-Manuel Miranda's writing. As he finds Manuel's nerdy rap flow to only really fit an equally nerdy concept like Hamilton.
• Older Than They Think: The term "white guy with (acoustic) guitar" was around before Todd made frequent use of it.
• One True Threesome: As mentioned, a large percentage of TGWTG fanfic that involves Todd is him in an OT3 with frequent collaborators, Paw and Roses.
• Squick:
  • Judging by the comments on his old YouTube page, quite a few people were grossed out by him Erotically Eating fast food in the "Carry Out" review. So was he apparently; that shit got everywhere according to the outtakes.
  • The numerous clips of gorillas mating in the "Gorilla" review. Justified in that that was the point (to show how unattractive the metaphor proposed in the song is), but that doesn't make it any less difficult to watch.
  • In his "7 Years" review, the line where he refers to Denmark as a "backwater swampland" is accompanied by an image of a rotting sheep in a bog with its spine sticking out that's rather hard to look at.
• The Woobie:
  • Has made multiple references to being dumped, and something about him is so... Adorkable. On top of that, some of the songs he reviews push him to the edge of his sanity, to the point of tears, as demonstrated by Hannah Montana: The Movie. It makes you wanna hug him.
  • Also in his Hannah Montana review, his last birthday was rather... depressing.
  • In his review of 'Fifteen', he bitches about how the song doesn't apply to anyone who wasn't an attractive blonde girl at fifteen (or anyone who wasn't Taylor Swift) and then says that since he's not a girl, or fifteen, or attractive, none of it applies to him- especially not the bits about dating or having friends. Aw.
    • He also admits that despite it being Played for Laughs, the Bait-and-Switch story about a girl breaking up with him (only for it to turn out to be from an episode of Saved by the Bell) was actually not too far off from something that really did happen to him, so the emotion in his voice there is genuine.
  • And in his "Worst of 2010" review he talked about how the period between his videos was longer because he wanted to relax over Christmas and also he got MRSA.
  • In his Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2010, Todd remarks after hearing "Nothin' On You" by B.O.B saying "what girl could possibly listen to something so lovestruck, so happy, and not be swept off her feet?" On this realization, Todd excitedly goes to talk to Lupa... but then quotes "Carryout". Cue disappointed slump. Aaawwww.
  • As if that wasn't bad enough, later on after listening to "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum causes him to get drunk, Todd calls Lupa and pours his heart out to her. Except it wasn't Lupa he called, it was Lordkat.
  • Reading on Twitter about Todd's struggle to get internet after he moved also warrants this (along with laughs).

---