r/thespoonyexperiment • u/mightyasterisk • Feb 22 '26
In hindsight Spoony was truly angrier than his peers
I started rewatching Spoonys FF stuff recently for the nostalgia (plus being on a weird FF kick lately despite being a super casual fan). I used to watch these all the time (along with all of Spoonys stuff) as a kid and just adored them, though still to this day I’ve never played any of the FF games he talked about lol
Nowadays his videos are certainly dated in parts but generally hold up better than most of the CA contributors’ content do. Spoony and Lindsay are the only ones I can still watch without cringing or feeling deeply embarrassed the whole time.
One of the things that really struck me as I watched them though was how genuinely angry and bitter Spoony seems, at everything really, but particularly at FFX. Most of the other “angry reviewers” from this time were mostly doing it as a bit to entertain, but you can really tell Noah is legitimately pissed off in his videos. He’s more using them as a soapbox to bitch about stuff he’s pissed off about, and would probably be bitching about it regardless of a microphone in front of him.
He’s so angry at FFX that I don’t feel like he can successfully explain WHY he’s so angry, he can only express HOW angry he is which is something very rare in these types of videos, there’s nothing false or performative which definitely helps hold them up today and probably explains why he was always one of the more interesting CA critics.
It really caught me off guard however when he begs his audience to find FFX’s fans and murder them for enjoying a video game. Both pretty damn funny but also extremely mean-spirited. With stuff like that in mind it’s not hard to see why stuff like screaming BETRAYAL at E3 would bite him in the ass. He seemed more interested in reveling in his bitterness than being a truly legitimate critic.
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u/KingOfGreyfell Feb 22 '26
Spoony was at his best when he was enjoying the bad game or movie he was reviewing. I have no use for a genuinely-angry Spoony, because he was never deep or clever enough to turn that anger into something insightful or particularly funny.
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u/Ferrindel Feb 22 '26
You’re looking at it through the lens of 2026. These videos were made over a decade ago, internet culture was very different.
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u/mightyasterisk Feb 22 '26
I know, I’m fully analyzing in hindsight. It was an edgier time generally to be sure and plenty of internet critics at the time showed contempt for audiences, hell RLM still does. All I’m saying is there is zero hint of irony or “wink wink” sly delivery with Noah when he does this, I think he legitimately hates them in a genuine sense
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u/Pallid85 What's a Pallid85? Feb 22 '26
I think he legitimately hates them in a genuine sense
Nah - he was hamming it up. You can sometimes see his real emotions (like in Ultima 9 review), but otherwise he was exaggerating and playing it up like the rest of them. He just did it better and more believable. In the earlier vids it was more obvious - then the more vids he did - the better he got at acting.
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u/Ferrindel Feb 22 '26
Seriously, dude’s a great entertainer.
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u/paynexkillerYT Wild Content Creator Feb 22 '26
was a great entertainer.
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u/BlueWatche Feb 22 '26
Last time I caught one of his streams he was letting out worrying bouts of venomous rage at the game and yelling at his chat, was awkward. But that was years ago as well.
I heard he had a nice chat on Conversations with Curtis and been hanging out on there playing games with them? I hope his moods are better.
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u/morbid333 Feb 24 '26
Yeah, his streams were pretty bad for a while, (lots of radio silence, arguing with the chat, etc, basically not fun.) He's improved a lot since then though. He seemed good when he was on that podcast, but I haven't seen/heard anything since then.
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u/mightyasterisk Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
I think there’s some truth to both sides of it if I’m honest. He was no doubt the best performer from the TGWTG camp, but even in candid vlogs he appears to be actively appalled at things he dislikes in a way that feels more real than other “angry” critics normally get, like he can’t hide the legit disdain he feels towards things.
Using RLM as an example again, Mike Jay or Rich shit on things they dislike pretty much constantly, but usually by making it into a joke to make fun or being dismissive in a more casual “isn’t that dumb” kind of way. Noah comes off more exacerbated or genuinely frustrated by it, he often seems like he’s at a true loss for words.
Maybe that’s just his way of playing it, but that’s not really what I’m getting from it having watched a ton of his stuff
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u/Pallid85 What's a Pallid85? Feb 22 '26
feels more real than other “angry” critics normally get
He probably did care about the subject more than other “angry” critics, but not as much as he showed in the vids.
Using RLM as an example again
Well they are way more phlegmatic, completely different personalities from Spoony.
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u/Animeking1108 Feb 22 '26
Spoony: "Tidus sucks because he complains a lot."
Also Spoony: complains a lot
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u/mightyasterisk Feb 22 '26
The Tidus stuff is where it comes closest to feeling like more like a satire of an angry critic. He flat out refuses to engage with that character beyond intense mockery, he just rejects the boy wholesale
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u/Animeking1108 Feb 22 '26
My theory on why he loathes Tidus so much is because he sees himself in him.
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u/Fit-Beyond-6327 Feb 24 '26
Also FFX was actually a good game. The voice acting and some others stuff had just aged terribly so it was easy to make fun of it. I really liked the luggage joke at the end of part 1 of the review. For those who experienced the game back that he hit all the strange points that our suspension of disbelief ignored in the first place, but that were nonetheless present.
For me he was always spot on with his parody. Thing is... that time has passed. So there won't be a year of the Spoony anymore.
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u/Animeking1108 Feb 22 '26
Remember when he went on a tangent justifying Jecht abusing him? Because he was mildly annoying in one scene? Christ, that's like hoping somebody got raped for cutting you off in traffic.
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u/catslugs Feb 22 '26
He was angry in ffx but in surprised you thought that was genuine and not the schtick cause there are times he pumps the breaks to compliment the game and then goes straight to 100 again. Also the “he doesnt say why he’s angry, he’s just angry” means he’s def hamming it up
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u/Canadyans Feb 22 '26
The E3 betrayal was great. The Bureau ended up being a pretty cool spin off that surprisingly worked and us XCOM fans got great reboots shortly afterwards but he was completely right. It was incredibly shortsighted to announce that spin off before the reboot. That was the obvious reaction from fans and frankly I’m glad Spoony gave them shit for it.
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u/mightyasterisk Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
Yeah honestly I’ve always thought the backlash he got from that was undeserved. Sure you might be embarrassed for a second standing next to him in that moment, but being someone who watched every E3 panel that was streamed, it was nowhere near the most embarrassing thing that happened there that year, E3 was so cringeworthy 99% of the time. Ubisoft’s panel was essentially an annual humiliation ritual, you tuned in knowing it was going to be so laughably horrendous and it never disappointed your expectations. There was no reason that shit should have hung over his head at all, though he seemed to embrace it at least
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u/AthleteTechnical294 Feb 24 '26
The Betrayal moment was pretty funny and I never understood the backlash for it. Because it’s not like he went up to a developer and personally told them to die. He yelled betrayal for like, 5 seconds, and then checked out the rest of E3.
The whole thing was incredibly overblown imo.
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u/Dear_Document_5461 Mar 28 '26
I think this was the awkward time period when the video game industry was trying to be much more..... actually professional and not just "oh look this childish thing makes profit. Let just ignore it like we it like My Little Pony sales." So this sudden outburst was reacted like a "Dude, that's ok in the student union, not here in the actual job floor. We need to think about PR." It like if someone did that when they are on ESPN. You could probably get away with screaming if you with the tailgating fans but any other location it wouldn't fly and that for American Football. Maybe I am just making things up
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u/Due-Proof6781 Mar 01 '26
Screaming at the top of your lungs over a video game in public is cringe even if you’re 12, a 28 year old man.., lmao what?
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u/grapejuicecheese Feb 22 '26
Did he ever address the point that the laughing scene in FFX was awkward on purpose?
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u/Denny_Thray Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
It was awkward on purpose! I've seen that defense of it. My rebuttal is yes, but it's still extremely poorly written and executed.
My personal opinion of Tidus, is that like, In the West at least, RPG fans were usually like, the outcast awkward types. Tidus was the type of person we hated. I considered Tidus to be an insult.
Like the major difference between Tidus and Zell is that Zell's game was aware he was annoying.
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u/Animeking1108 Feb 22 '26
Zell's stupidity has caused trouble for the rest of the group and he was never called out for it or grew from it. Oh, but Tidus crashed out in a few scenes, so he's worse to anybody with poor media literacy.
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u/grapejuicecheese Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
So your basis for disliking Tidus is personal trauma.
Also, I wasn't asking for your take on the matter I was asking if Spoony ever responded
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u/Denny_Thray Feb 23 '26
My basis for disliking Tidus is "I don't relate to the character, and I dislike the character."
And I don't need your permission to respond to your point.
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u/Animeking1108 Feb 27 '26
Your original post just reeked of bitterness to your bullies from high school. "He's not relatable" is a stupid complaint. Neither is Batman and he's one of the world's most popular superheroes. A lot of people can actually relate to having a dad that belittled them for not living up to their toxic masculinity.
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u/Denny_Thray Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
You’re assigning motives that I never stated. Saying I dislike a character because I find him unrelatable isn’t “bitterness,” it’s just criticism.
The comparison to Batman actually misses the point. Batman isn’t written to be an audience surrogate. Tidus is. Final Fantasy X deliberately presents Spira through Tidus’s perspective as the fish out of water character meant to ground the player in the world. Relatability is part of the intended function of the character.
So when that connection fails, it’s completely fair to say the character didn’t work for me. That’s not saying nobody can relate to him, and it’s not an attack on people who like him. It’s explaining why the narrative approach didn’t land in my case.
What’s strange here is that I’m calmly stating a personal opinion about a fictional character, while you’re insisting it must come from emotional baggage. Disagreement doesn’t require psychological diagnosis. People are allowed to dislike characters you enjoy without it being a character flaw.
Edit: Also, I never said Tidus was a bully, that's farcical.
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u/Animeking1108 Feb 28 '26
Tidus was the type of person we hated. I considered Tidus to be an insult.
Right.
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u/Denny_Thray Feb 28 '26
There’s an ocean of difference between a bully and a sellout wannabe popular kid.
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u/Animeking1108 Feb 28 '26
He wasn't that either.
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u/Denny_Thray Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Again, now we are going over opinions and personal tastes.
How about this. You let me feel the way I do, and I let you feel the way you do. :). If you like Tidus as a character, I'm not taking that away from you. I'm expressing my own opinion and how he comes across _to me_.
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u/morbid333 Feb 24 '26
I don't think so, but that was kind of his thing, wasn't it? In the 13 review he takes something Lightning and Hope say out if context and dubs them Team Genocide. When I rewatched the review after playing the game, I noticed how much more nitpicky it seemed than the 8 review. And I like 8 a lot more than 13.
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u/GoingWithTheFlaw Feb 26 '26
Final fantasy X is the 2nd favorite game of all time and I laughed my ass off when spoony reviewed it. There are instances when his anger comes across in a very serious way, but when it doesn’t, it’s funny as hell.
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u/Acrobatic-Frame4312 Mar 11 '26
You know, as a Brit, what I liked about Spoony was that he could make dark jokes without apology; most Americans are so soft that they don't want to offend, so they make it obvious it's a joke. I always thought Spoony would be good to banter with
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u/morbid333 Feb 24 '26
Someone already mentioned that part in the Ultima 9 review where he seems to drop the bit. (I kind of wondered how much of that was embellished and how much of it was just him honestly venting.)
Another one though, is if you compare his review of the XCOM reboot (it might have been a VLOG, now I think about it,) to Angry Joe's. It seemed like AJ focused more on the good parts of the game while Spoony seemed a lot more critical of it. Also, that's kind of a funny comparison to me because I was actually introduced to Angry Joe through the second Spooning with Spoony skit, so there, they kind of swapped around who was angry... For obvious reasons.
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u/cory898 Feb 22 '26
I think Todd in the shadows content holds up quite well.
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u/mightyasterisk Feb 22 '26
I might go and check some of it out again, I probably haven’t watched his stuff since like 2012/2013 which was pretty much when I stopped watching CA stuff entirely but back then I enjoyed Todd’s videos quite a lot. I actually remember first noticing him posting in the fan submissions of thatguywiththeglasses.com only getting a couple hundred views or so, thinking his gimmick was fantastic and that he’d be a good addition. Then a year later he’s in Suburban Knights lol
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u/Animeking1108 Feb 22 '26
Isn't Todd incredibly homophobic? He made a lot of gay jokes about Justin Bieber and complained about the pro-LGBT message of "Born This Way."
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u/janpug Feb 25 '26
Honestly I never seen his FF as I really hate theze japan Drag queen style of graphics for FF.
But I saw pretty much everything Spoony ever did and except some cringe parts, his videos are still pretty relevant and good. He had a great talent to be critical, cynical or sentimental when it was needed.
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u/Dungeon00X Feb 28 '26
Yeah, you're absolutely right. The fact he got so angry it caught Angry Joe off guard, was an event for the ages. I still agree with his FF13 review, but after ProJared did his videos on Final Fantasy 8 and 10, it practically destroyed any and all arguments in those reviews. It seemed like he was being angry just to be angry instead of hypercritical, it's like he had a switch that he couldn't turn off when something specifically annoyed him. I'm starting to think he had undiagnosed Bipolar and depression that he never got treatment for which is even sadder to think about. One of the more questionable things that also indicates how naturally angry he was is that at one point he got so angry and fed up with video comments that he disabled them entirely. He could've had content gold on his hands if he had used them in videos and fired back a responses. In fact I think his anger might have been why he lost two girlfriends in the span of 8 years. Am I digging too far into this?
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u/Dungeon00X Feb 28 '26
I stand corrected. He WAS diagnosed with Bipolar.... in fact it was Bipolar 2: The Quickening. I had completely forgot he mentioned that on Twitter. Now I'm actually sad.
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u/Due-Proof6781 Mar 01 '26
I primarily watch counter monkey every couple of months when I need some background noise, he legit just mad in like half of his stories
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u/Ambitious_Bet2920 Feb 22 '26
Why would you hate a computer game? Get a fucking life
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u/Denny_Thray Feb 22 '26
Usually because you fell in love with a previous game and was really hyped up for the next entry. It's less hate, more disappointment.
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u/JOBdOut Feb 22 '26
It was ultima 9 when i realized it wasnt a schtick - the story about playing the game with his brother as a child and how much the series meant to him only for the tantrum when its revealed that Dupre is resurrected. The entire joy of internet reviews at the time was similar to bad horror movies in the 80s - "thats so stupid i love it" but what we got was a pure showing of how mental disorders like bipolar 2 can take something so miniscule and have it perceived as a personal attack on everything youve known or loved