Bum Reviews

File:Chester A Bum resized.png

"Hello! Am I on the intermanet?!"

"OH MY GOD, THIS IS THE GREATEST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!" —Chester A. Bum, on nearly every movie he sees in his life.

A homeless guy who reviews current movies on That Guy With The Glasses. Since he's just happy to be in a warm building while seeing them, he likes almost every movie he sees.

This character was partly inspired by Doug's first video review of the first Transformers, where he acted very enthusiastic, and by Doug's silly voice in his review of Cloverfield.

A list of films review on the show can be found here.

OH MY GOD THESE ARE THE GREATEST TROPES I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!!

• Acceptable Targets: In-universe.
  • Twilight. Eclipse had manic sarcasm in the place of gushing, and Breaking Dawn was just outright snark.
  • Transformers. In the review of The Hunger Games, he called the third film "testosterone-filled mindlessness".
• Acting for Two: Chester does this quite often.
• Alliteration: In his Pirates of the Caribbean 4 review.

"Blackbeard's Big Bad Bitchin' Boat...Barbecue"

• Adorkable
• Ambiguously Bi: He'll comment on a woman's attractiveness in a movie without fail, but he did make out with Lester and really, you gotta do whatever it takes for chaaaaange.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • In the Watchmen review, "one superhero blows up New York, one shoots women and children, and the last one just flashes people."
  • And in the review of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, with a bit of Take That:

"Voldemort gets all these evil wizards to do all his evil deeds like kidnap people, burn down houses, and work for Fox News!"

• Ass Shove: Chester mentions the scene in Hancock and expresses hope that it happens in The Dark Knight.

"He defeats people by putting them up other people's asses! That better happen in the new Dark Knight movie! The Joker will be like 'I am going to kill everyone!' and Batman will be like 'You are going inside an ass!' Bloo-bloo-bloo-bloo-splut! THE END!"

• Big "Never!": Him doing Jacob of Twilight being told to put on a shirt.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Not that he doesn't have lots of nice moments too, but he used his "innocent harmless bum" persona in a plan to destroy the world (and succeeded as well!), always defends the Critic but also acts like the voice for his entitled fans, and tries to steal things at cons.
• Breakout Character: Bum Reviews has become one of the most popular features on That Guy's website. Quite a feat for a spin off character.
• Butt Monkey: In his coverage of the 2011 Snowstorm.
• Captain Ersatz: Lester B. Bum , Spencer D. Bum and at least two unnamed ones. There's also Pester, who died of alcohol poisoning in his first appearance and the Cinema Bum, who rather than review a movie, lamented the fact didn't have a job or home.
• Catch Phrase:
  • "OH MY GOD, THIS IS THE GREATEST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!"
  • "TV Tropes will ruin your SPOILERS!"
  • "There's this guy! Called..." (usually the second line of the review)
  • "HOORAY!"
    • When something bad follows, "Haroo..."
    • And when it's in the middle... don't ask.
  • "And (insert character here) was like...!"
    • Often a dueling series of these ending with "and he was like - 'okay'."
  • "I used to be/had a (something relevant to the movie) once!"

I used to be an Asian Boy Scout! Wasn't that a weird week.

• • "And at the end they play the famous theme song! * sings said theme song with added lyrics* "
  • "This is Chester A. Bum saying... CHANGE!! YA GOT CHANGE!?!? OH COME ON, HELP A GUY OUT WILL YA!!! C'MON, CHANGE!!! I promise I'll use it to educate people on the difference between a subversion, an inversion, and an aversion!"
• Caustic Critic: Averted usually. Chester is convinced every film is the greatest he's seen in his life, while Doug's real views given at the end are almost always at least lukewarmly positive. The exceptions don't really change his style that much either.
• Cloudcuckoolander
• Comically Missing the Point: All this time, Chester was wishing on stars to help him out, and it turns out he needs to work hard, even get a job. Then he says perhaps he should wish on a star for that.
• Crazy Homeless People
• Crazy Memory: He seems to go through a lot of crazy stuff like having been an Asian boy scout.
• Credits Gag: At the end of each ep, the final card has a small comment that always begins, "Seriously", that outlines what Doug really thought of the movie.
  • Recently dumped for a complete second video outlining what Doug really thought of the movie.
• Curse Escape Clause: In the review of The Princess and the Frog:

"What's up with all the loopholes? Seriously, was this fairy tale written by a lawyer!?"

• Deliberately Monochrome: His review of The Artist is presented as a silent film with captions.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: In the review of The Princess and the Frog:

"So Tiana saves up all her money, and she finally gets her own restaurant! But these two guys are like: (as the two guys) 'We have to close you down because we found a higher bidder!' (as Tiana) 'It's because I'm black, isn't it?' (as the two guys) 'Well, it's the 1920s, so sure.'"

• Despair Event Horizon: After nearly freezing to death in a night snowstorm, his reviews started giving more focus to flaws in movies, instead of just scatterbrained gushing about everything.
• Distracted by the Sexy: When failing to answer a couple Fridge Logic questions in Tron: Legacy, he just says "There's a hot chick!"
• Eat the Dog:

Chester A. Bum: I had an aardvark that took up tap dancing. Until I ate him.

• Embarrassing Middle Name: "A" is for Alfred.
• Expansion Pack Past
• Expy: The first Nostalgia Critic video was actually the Critic acting like the future Chester A. Bum doing Transformers Film Series (2007). This is given a nod with the Critic doing Revenge of the Fallen, and Bum popping up after he leaves, asking if the Critic stole his act.)
  • Not to mention this being brough to its logical conclusion with the Dark of the Moon review when right at the start of the Critic's review, he gets a letter informing him that Chester's suing him for stealing his act (in case you're curious, there IS a review... of Chester's when the judge asks how he'd review it).
• Everyone Has Standards: Unlike Bella from Twilight, even a bum wouldn't forget to put on a coat while hiking in the mountains.
• Fridge Logic: Pointed out In-Universe, and then often spoofed.
  • In the review of "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", he constantly says "I'm Johnny Depp!" while wiggling his fingers and staring at the camera after pointing out a couple of Fridge Logic parts.
• Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: When Scott Pilgrim fights a female evil ex, he desperately hopes for a flashback.
• Gushing About Shows You Like: One of the few in-media examples.
• Hostile Show Takeover: His review of Rango is quickly hijacked by Raoul Puke, on the grounds that he actually appeared in the movie.
• Hurricane of Euphemisms: From the Red Riding Hood review:

Chester A. Bum: They just cut to the credits before anything else happened. What do you think they're doing!? She's taking off his sheep's clothing! He's riding her hood! She's blowing his house down! The better to eat her with! She's taking him to grandma's house! He's checking under her hood! Holy smokes, I could make a book of these.

• Hype Backlash: In-universe example. The Bum actually gave a bad review to Citizen Kane, and this was one of the reasons. (It was a joke of course, Doug mentions at the end that he likes Citizen Kane.)
  • A lot of his criticisms towards District 9 was disagreeing with the movie being as ground breaking as people made it out to be.
• Hypocritical Humor: Chester comments on Family Guy stealing one of his jokes. In the process, he steals "Screw you Guys I'm going home" from South Park and the ending scene with the lawyer is a direct ripoff of the ending of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
• Innocent Fanservice Boy: Like Critic, played for creepy Black Comedy. He somehow got himself into both pole-dancing and prostitution at least once. (Off-screen, thankfully.)
• Innocently Insensitive: When he showed up in the Critic's press conference for James and the Giant Peach, he stated genuinely that it was the best LP he ever saw in his life, but because he was also yelling about how the fans deserved better, Critic still looked like he'd been punched.
• It's a Long Story: Pretty often. Just one variation is "I was a slave once! ...but it's a boring story."
• It's the Best Whatever Ever!: every single movie he sees is the best one. See the Catch Phrase above.
• Jittercam: Done in The Hunger Games to criticize its overuse in said film.
• Jump Cut
• Keet
• Kill the Cutie: The end of his review for Paranormal Activity III. Teddy Ruxpin shoots him for not much reason. He's fine by the next episode of course.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Lampshaded in the review of The Muppets
• Medium Awareness: The Chicago Snowstorm episode, which combines it with a defiance of Tethercat Principle.
• Mood Whiplash: A British accented voice with soft violin music opens every episode, followed by "OH MY GOD, THIS IS THE GREATEST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!"
  • Possibly the most extreme case was the end of his review for Paranormal Activity III. The light cuts out, he gets shot by Teddy Ruxpin, and we see red eyes and hear "come dream with me tonight...". Followed immediately by the usual classical music for the credits.
• Motor Mouth: Something the other bums never quite managed to pull off.
• Nerds Are Virgins: Calling Star Trek fans that.
• Never Heard That One Before: He was told by the subtitles to not compare Real Steel to "Rock 'em Sock 'em" robots, as everyone had already made that joke. Same with comparing it to Transformers. Fortunately, Transmorphers comparisons were free.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: As a result of his occasional Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick lines.
• Nightmare Retardant: The vampires in Twilight, according to Chester (especially how they eat tofu).
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: District 9 inpires the Bum to make a movie called "Batman and the Terminator Go to Jurassic Park", and the sequel "Batman and the Terminator in a Steven Seagal Christmas".
• No Indoor Voice
• Noodle Incident: Often.
  • "I used to be an Asian boy scout!" And adds. "Wasn't that a weird week."
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Chester's surface persona is too in-your-face brain-fried to be taken seriously. However, much of his commentary is actually insightful and well-phrased.
  • He acts In the Style Of a more traditional film critic--until That Guy With The Glasses steals his corncob pipe back from him.
• Omnicidal Maniac: During Part 2 of Linkara's review of Countdown, Chester hijacks all of Earth's nuclear weapons and plots to take over the world (OF COURSE!). He finally gets fed up with arguing with the Critic about it and just destroys the entire planet.
• Only Friend: Critic might hang around with other people more, but Chester is the only one who shows up to defend him in the James and the Giant Peach press conference.
• OOC Is Serious Business: While reviewing The Avengers, Doug literally breaks character, takes off the wig, and says in a serious tone how wonderful the movie is.
• Morality Pet: People being nasty to him is usually a way of showing their Jerkass-ness and Critic giving him money and offering a place to stay manages to get the interviewer in True Internet Story to begrudgingly admit that Critic's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Not So Different: He thinks Ask That Guy's a douche and Ask That Guy thinks Chester is disgusting, but they've both been in porn, both have fantasies (we hope) about killing their parents and both have a talent for evading lawful punishment.
  • Both he and Critic have I Just Want to Be Loved issues - although ironically Chester has more of a backbone about it - and he got rageful when he tried to play the Blue Brothers game Critic threw out because it was Nintendo Hard.
• Precision F-Strike: Chester drops a couple of F-bombs in his Iron Man 2 review, mostly because he's impersonating Samuel L. Jackson.
• Rapid-Fire Comedy
• Retool: The reviewing style in Doug's first Nostalgia Critic review would later become the standard operating procedure for the Bum Reviews section.
• Selective Squick: In-universe and Played for Laughs. He has a Running Gag of demanding Jacob from Twilight to put on a shirt , and Get Smart was criticized for being "heavy on the man-love".
• Sincerity Mode: Doug breaks character a few times during his The Avengers review to assert that no, really, it is a great movie, and that whoever's watching the review should go see it now.
• Something Completely Different: His The Dark Knight review was done in a subdued style because of the impression it left on him.
  • His review of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 was filmed live on location at Daisho Con in Wisconsin.
• Stepford Smiler: A good chunk of episodes imply it. Like in The Day the Earth Stood Still:

Chester: I don't live with lights, cars or electricity and I get along just fine! Please shoot me.

• The Stinger: Chester always adds an extra punchline about the movie into his calls for "CHAAAAANGE!" at the end of the videos. The end credits had a written stinger too (in which Doug Walker gave a one-sentence summary of how he actually about the movie, always starting with "Seriously, though..."), but that's been replaced by a separate and longer "Doug's Review" video that runs below the Bum Review.
• Stoners Are Funny
• Take That:
  • Doug actually takes a minute during his Bum Review for The Princess and the Frog just to thoroughly trash Randy Newman.
  • In both the Twilight and New Moon Bum Reviews, Chester often points out how boring and forgettable Edward is, especially compared to Jacob.
  • His District 9 review, where he declares that it's totally unoriginal.
  • Same with Avatar.

Bum: So I really liked Fern Gully! *buzzer* Pocahontas? *buzzer* Atlantis: The Lost Empire? *buzzer* Dances with Wolves? *buzzer* Avatar? *ding* THE MOST ORIGINAL MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!

• Verbal Tic: Adds the syllable "ma" in randomly, e.g. "that nice Nostalgiama Critic man!"
  • "Hello! Am I on the Intermanet!?"
  • And his cardboard box computer is labelled "Com-pu-ta-ma-ter".
  • "Oh I get it, it's like one of them Sila-ma-tent pictures."
• Wham! Episode: Secondhand. The Dark Knight was so great that it left a huge impression on him. Such that at the end of it he just told us, "You know what? Keep the change."
  • Similarly, The Avengers had Doug briefly break character to emphasize that Chester isn't just doing his typical gushing and that it's really that good.
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Chester states this in-universe about some movies.
• Vocal Evolution: Compare the 2008 episodes to now and it sounds a lot less natural back then, almost like he was clogged up from a lot of coke snorting.
• With Lyrics: Chester commonly does this for film adaptations.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: The end of the snowstorm episode. A nice person from across the street took him inside and gave him a blanket and a hot drink. Then it starts snowing indoors.

Chester [anguished] How does that work?!

• You Bastard: He thinks the audience is sick for watching him nearly freeze to death in a snowstorm for entertainment.

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"CHANGE? YA GOT CHANGE? AH, C'MON! HELP A GUY OUT, WOULD YA? C'MON, CHANGE!"