The Cole Smithey Thread

[Jewelsmakerguy]

While Cole has found his sweetheart and presumably lives off her income, allowing him to upload his mediocre content to the internet...

It's like they've succeeded at each other's lives.

And that thought alone makes me shudder.

 

[theobservdr]

An interview I found with Cole talking about his career, and what lead him to become a film critic. Once again he's so smug, and pretentious as always.
http://cheunderground.com/blog/?p=10309

But aren't all hipsters smug and pretentious?

 

[RequiredName]

A guy who critiques things on the internet, huh? I guess that's a step above creating Sonichu.

 

[Francine StripeCheer]

I did something I probably shouldn't have, and read through some of Cole's litany of reviews.

I know as a general rule, the CWCki has considered him more successful than Chris, since, y'know, he hasn't managed to spend like five grand on Legos, but really, we have to stop and ask ourselves which one of them is genuinely more successful. Chris may have fucked a snowman and now be indivisible from the JULAAAAAY incident, but at the same time, Chris isn't being an intentionally pretentious bag of dicks. Most of Chris' being offensive are the result of being ignorant or stupid and generally not knowing any better. To his credit, Chris can at least acknowledge some level of levity.

I really have to wonder if Chris' issues are less Autism and more a product of the batshitzania insanity foisted on him by Barbara and Bob.
The commonalities between CWC and Cole are too prevalent to be mere coincidence.

The only reason the CWCki considers him successful is that the article was written when no-one had done much research on him, we took "film critic" at face value

 

[deeman]

Gentlemen, I believe we are being watched.

If only i could Photoshop...

 

[RequiredName]

we took "film critic" at face value

Should we differentiate that this is "more successful than Chris" rather than equating "film critic" with "success"?

 

[deeman]

Should we differentiate that this is "more successful than Chris" rather than equating "film critic" with "success"?

Half as stupid, hundred times as boring.

 

[theobservdr]

Should we differentiate that this is "more successful than Chris" rather than equating "film critic" with "success"?

It is all about perspective, I believe Cole has accomplished more in his life than Chris has. I am unsure how Cole did in school, but it was probably a lot better than Chris. Cole decided to join a band, called The Rockin' Dogs http://www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/rockin-dogs/ I actually like the music, for what its worth it has a nice feel of 1980s classic rock, sure he wasn't a Neil Peart of Rush fame, but his band music is actually not that bad. if anything its better than the stuff on the radio today, I am unsure how successful media critics are (I use media because it may be games, music, movies, books)

Chris had Sonichu and we all seen the leaked school work documents.

 

[Henry Bemis]

I am unsure how successful media critics are (I use media because it may be games, music, movies, books)

Cole probably would have had slightly better luck being a critic (on a purely practical level, at least, if not artistically) if he started a few years before the Internet - and especially YouTube - kicked into gear. These days, as the saying goes, everyone's a critic and they're not afraid to broadcast their opinions, which has effectively changed what being a successful critic entails, for better or for worse.

 

[theobservdr]

Cole probably would have had slightly better luck being a critic (on a purely practical level, at least, if not artistically) if he started a few years before the Internet - and especially YouTube - kicked into gear. These days, as the saying goes, everyone's a critic and they're not afraid to broadcast their opinions, which has effectively changed what being a successful critic entails, for better or for worse.

true, like Doug Walker, Linkara, and AVGN have always been criticized for certain things that they have done or critiqued.

 

[RequiredName]

true, like Doug Walker, Linkara, and AVGN have always been criticized for certain things that they have done or critiqued.

Like the fact that "having an opinion on things" is not a legitimate profession?

 

[Henry Bemis]

Like the fact that "having an opinion on things" is not a legitimate profession?

More the fact that they're not critics, per se, more like "gimmicky summarizers." Entertaining gimmicky plot summarizers, to be sure, but to call them critics - those who analyze a given work in its larger context - might be a stretch.

 

[Strelok]

Like the fact that "having an opinion on things" is not a legitimate profession?

If you can make enough money on it to make a living, it's a goddamn profession. I won't begrudge a man for acting spergy on a camera if it brings in the cash.

 

[DrChristianTroy]

If you can make enough money on it to make a living, it's a goddamn profession. I won't begrudge a man for acting spergy on a camera if it brings in the cash.

This. You may disagree but if they can get money from rubes then more power to them. They're hustle in a way I can't and I respect that.

 

[Artard]

true, like Doug Walker, Linkara, and AVGN have always been criticized for certain things that they have done or critiqued.

I think the point was more that "everyone's a critic" has become more true with every passing year. There's not much reason to bother with Cole Smithey. He's not doing a schtick like YouTube based critics, he's not a very good writer and paid print outlets for movie criticism are dwindling.

It's interesting that Cole is basically self-employed and (as seen in the Toy Story 3 fiasco) is eager to brandish his prestige against criticism, but he hasn't even bothered to collect his work together. I don't know any critic his age or who has been doing it that long that hasn't written a number of books, even if they're simply collections of reviews. "Cole Smithey, author of Touching Myself In The Dark" sounds a lot better than "Cole Smithey of colesmithey.com here!"

 

[HarryHowler]

If only i could Photoshop...

 

[Holdek]

Cole probably would have had slightly better luck being a critic (on a purely practical level, at least, if not artistically) if he started a few years before the Internet - and especially YouTube - kicked into gear. These days, as the saying goes, everyone's a critic and they're not afraid to broadcast their opinions, which has effectively changed what being a successful critic entails, for better or for worse.

Yeah, but the flip side of that coin is that Cole would have had to be picked up by a much more limited number print media outlets.

It's interest that Cole is basically self-employed and (as seen in the Toy Story 3 fiasco) is eager to brandish his prestige against criticism, but he hasn't even bothered to collect his work together. I don't know any critic his age or who has been doing it that long that hasn't written a number of books, even if they're simply collections of reviews. "Cole Smithey, author of Touching Myself In The Dark" sounds a lot better than "Cole Smithey of colesmithey.com here!"

If even Armond White, who is much more interesting in his contrariness than Cole, has a hard time finding venues to pay him for his writing, I can't imagine that Cole would be able to cultivate even a cult following. And at least White has published a couple of books (http://www.amazon.com/Armond-White/e/B001K8Q0I2).

 

[HarryHowler]

In his e-mails to Chris though, Cole said that some newspapers did at the time run his reviews. Presumably he managed to weasel his way into one or two small-town newspapers that were too cheap to employ in-house critics, and was banking on Chris being too lazy and/or naive to bother checking the truth of his claims.

 

[theobservdr]

I think the point was more that "everyone's a critic" has become more true with every passing year. There's not much reason to bother with Cole Smithey. He's not doing a schtick like YouTube based critics, he's not a very good writer and paid print outlets for movie criticism are dwindling.

It's interest that Cole is basically self-employed and (as seen in the Toy Story 3 fiasco) is eager to brandish his prestige against criticism, but he hasn't even bothered to collect his work together. I don't know any critic his age or who has been doing it that long that hasn't written a number of books, even if they're simply collections of reviews. "Cole Smithey, author of Touching Myself In The Dark" sounds a lot better than "Cole Smithey of colesmithey.com here!"

Yea I guess movie, comic book, video game, and music critics aren't really a viable paying job, even Linkara was complaining about people using ad blockers on his comic book reviews.

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

Yea I guess movie, comic book, video game, and music critics aren't really a viable paying job, even Linkara was complaining about people using ad blockers on his comic book reviews.

Getting paid to review something is almost as hard as getting paid to make it. Not impossible, but not easy work to get. Like anything else, you have to be good and you have to work hard. That's problems #1 and #2 for Cole, right there.