RedLetterMedia

"For any slumming celebrities out there who are like, 'I'm gonna be real; I'm gonna connect with the YouTube generation,' NO. This is a fuckin' nightmare."

– Patton Oswald on either RedLetterMedia or HuniePop. We're not sure yet.

"You know, this whole show is like one big wake for VHS."

– Rich Evans, Best of the Worst: Wheel of the Black Spine Plinketto.

Introduction

RedLetterMedia (AKA Red Letter Media or Hack Fraud Committee) is a film production studio and YouTube channel based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and consists of at least ten schlubby middle-aged drunks who, with their dismal cardboard box filler Space Cop in 2016, figured that gradually improving on their film's quality levels with each production wasn't worth their valuable time. Instead, they spend half of their time watching several hours of low-budget garbage per sitting and the rest analyzing them while tipsy on Pabst Blue Ribbon. The three ringleaders, who all met as sexually confused high schoolers, include Mike "Fuck That Grandma Up" Stoklasa, Rich "Be Cool About Fire Safety" Evans, and Jay "Creepy Sex Pervert" Bauman, who have been ordered in this way on a scale from "most into elder abuse" to "least into elder abuse". On their internet shows, such as Best of the Worst, Half in the Bag, and re:View, guests include a bald stick figure, an obese wizard, and two Canadian guys who either laugh tears of joy or just want to go to sleep.

Shows

Since 2011, RedLetterMedia has hosted a wide selection of different shows and gimmicks to demonstrate the numerous ways that their livelihood is one somber, depressing, tragic, and blissful waste of time. The series will be listed in order of popularity, from greatest to least, even though this is essentially nothing more than an alternate way of bragging, "look at how well I know these guys," as no one at RedLetterMedia would bother being so specific.

• Best of the Worst — The darkest of the dark. This show chronicles Stoklasa, Evans, and Bauman as they chug nine-percenters, wobble about, and slouch down with friends such as Jackard Pack, Jon "The Dragon" Wizard, Ham Callin', Max Jimbo, Mister McCulkin, and Jessi Eisonhurgh. From pieces of cinematic perfection like Suburban Sasquatch, R.O.T.O.R., and New York Ninja to unnerving symbols of human depravity like Shark Exorcist, Candid Candid Camera: Volume Six, and Feeders, an endless slew of gimmicks and video selection methods are incorporated. These include the VHS tape-lined Wheel of the Worst that's trapped in an endless cycle of being royally fucked, shoddily reconstructed, rinse repeat; the somehow legally immune Plinketto board that's wasted the little time left in their lives nine times too many; several "Black Spine" gags based around Stoklasa pleasuring himself to his friends' mental collapses while watching unmarked video tapes; a "selection series" in which movies are picked out based on their cover art by disgruntled comic artist Freddy "Big Bang Yung" Williams III; and spotlight episodes where their brain cells are superfluously sacrificed for the sake of one especially magical movie per episode.

• Half in the Bag — Elder abuse and VHS destruction are alive and well. This series takes place in an alternate timeline in which Stoklasa and Bauman are employed at the Lightning Fast VCR Repair shop and frequently come to perform maintenance for a diabetic old man, Mr. Plinkett (Evans), as an excuse to drink and loiter in his living room. The self-retconning timeline has featured countless wild adventures, such as paranormal activity, Mr. Plinkett's raw spam dinner, the race to conserve water pressure while his house is submerged in Lake Michigan, a balloon trip over the Himalayas, Jack Packard getting hot dogs ripped out of his stomach with a steak knife, and life-size dummies being hurled through windows and chicken-wire fences during quarantine. The movies reviewed here are new and old, artistic and appalling, and "catch-up" episodes for selections of films released in the passing year are common. This is the longest running RedLetterMedia show that continues with new episodes to this day, which is a truly disturbing statistic.

• re:View — More standard, contemporary film and television reviews abound, oftentimes with the two hosts sharing common interests. Bauman and Josh Davis are artsy and experimental by nature but doomed to bore their audience, while Stoklasa and Evans bicker like little cucks about Star Trek: The Original Series, The Next Generation, and onwards, viewers only tuning in to hear "modern Star Trek's a shit-fest" repeated in the most creative of ways.

• The Nerd Crew — Yet another fictional timeline in which character is often broken shamelessly for extended periods of time. Stoklasa, Evans, and Bauman are Star Wars fanboys with slavish attachments to the Disney brand, accurately portraying emotionally detached podcasters. These fictitious sci-fi and comic book addicts seek to update viewers on all of the latest Star Wars and MCU news with strange complications arising. Sometimes, a damaged toaster might burn down the whole set, and other times, Evans might fall out of his chair and knock the camera out of place due to overdosing on Batman pills.

• Mr. Plinkett Reviews — Arguably an extension of their early Star Wars prequel reviews, featuring Stoklasa as the voice of Harry S. Plinkett. The old man makes claims that don't always necessarily align with the production crew's actual opinions, but he only exaggerates the crapiness of each film ninety-two-percent of the time—just a half percent more than Stoklasa.

• Half in the Worst — Low-rent spotlight episodes where three sad, flabby alcoholics talk about recent blockbuster disasters.