Two Inversely Related Cultural Critics

Ok, so if the internet is a valuable medium for any types of media besides pornography, it's commentary on things people in their mid-20's might find nostalgic. For me, there are two such critics that stand out above the rest. The more prominent of these is the Angry Video Game Nerd, whose basic idea is ridiculing terrible retro games.



And believe me, I've played a gargantuan share of NES games in my time. The basic trope of that era was to make the game as difficult as possible as to to make the kid playing the game devote as much time as possible to it and fool the parent who bought the game into believing it was a worthwhile waste of $50. In reality, this difficulty was usually not generated by an intelligent and fun game, like any Mario or Mega Man, but by irrationally and frustratingly absurd games. These are the kind of games that AVGN takes up and exposes for the trash that they are.

However, while I greatly enjoy AVGN, I have to admit that a lot of the enjoyment comes from nostalgia. I laugh because I remember playing a lot of these games, remembering exactly how goddamn awful they were. He draws upon the same life experiences that I have. I'm predisposed towards liking him and his show because I know exactly what he's talking about and am begging to laugh at any of his jokes.

The Nostalgia Chick works on the same level as the AVGN, but in an inverse way. AVGN isn't witty, but is fun because I'm obsessed with his source material. The Nostalgia Chick, on the other hand, reviews shitty movies from the 80s and 90s that were marketed towards girls. Not having a sister or any young female friends, my knowledge of 80s and 90s girl culture is more deficient than my knowledge of girl culture today. So, the Nostalgia Chick is reviewing culture that I don't know a damn thing about. Luckily, she's as witty and intelligent as AVGN's source material is familiar to me.



I've never been a fan of Disney animated films or She-Ra, but the Nostalgia Chick is so brilliantly smart, funny, and - yes - cute, that it doesn't really matter. I still wait readily for her next posting. Still waiting for that mixture of a really intelligent and witty person to review things that I like...