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PieGuyRulz
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PieGuyRulz (Web Video)
"Hey guys, PieGuyRulz here."
"Making an episode of a live-action show is a lot like baking a pie. To make a good one requires equal parts hard work, time, and love. If you succeed, you'll create something great to be enjoyed by everyone. But, if you are missing even one of the key ingredients... You will fail. And it will burn. Leaving a lingering scent."
— Bottom of the Bakery intro

PieGuyRulz is a retired YouTuber known for reviewing cartoons and entertainment marketed towards children, primarily Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. His account on YouTube began on April 9, 2008 and since then he had grown a loyal fanbase, with over 75,000 subscribers.

Regarding the name PieGuyRulz, it was initially created for Cartoon Orbit with its random name generator (at least the Pie-Guy part, anyway). The name he goes by in Real Life is A.J.

His series included:

His main YouTube channel is located here.

His Let's Play and Livestream YouTube channel is located here, and he also has accounts on Twitter, Twitch, and DeviantArt.

In early 2023, Pieguy announced his retirement from YouTube, having lost his passion for making videos and the Animation Industry as a whole. Later in 2026 however, he made another post that he sometimes misses being Pieguy, but stated to be doing well in his private life. He thinks media analysis is important and apologized for a video he made on Stephen Hillenburg. He also stated that the second season of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake was a huge mess and made him tempted to get out of retirement to do an analysis on it.

Also do not confuse him for Piemations the creator of Meet the Amazing Team, Suction Cup Man, Sheriff Hayseed, Elements of Cringe and Friendship Is Doomsday.

Tropes relating to PIEGUYRULZ:

  • Accentuate the Negative: He doesn't do this as much as other reviewers do, but the last minute or so of his Awesomeness TV Rant must be seen to be believed.
    I haven't gotten this angry in a really long time, guys.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job: His avatar's hair is a lighter shade of brown than he has in Real Life, which is much closer to black.note 
  • Afraid of Needles: See Berserk Button below for greater detail.
  • Alternate Character Interpretationinvoked: From his A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! review, putting it delicately, Chester and AJ are gay.
  • Animesque: Erin's art for PieGuy's piecons is VERY animesque.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Regarding The Irate Gamer in his 2AM Q&A stream:
    He makes terrible videos... His attitude in general is pretty terrible... Also, he believes in ghosts.
  • Art Evolution: Over the course of his SpongeBob reviews, the graphics used when he declares an episode to be a ScumBob episode have gotten more stylized.
    • As a whole, the art for his SpongeBob Reviews have become much more detailed since they began.
    • In fact, all of his videos have gotten a lot more visually interesting over time.
    • His PieCons were first redesigned in his Henry Danger rant, uploaded July 2015. They became less Animesque and more Western-style.
    • As of September 2018, the PieCons were redesigned again, courtesy of Kuro the Artist. They are back to being Animesque, but with a noticeably different style that is more refined and consistent than that of the previous PieCons.
  • The Artifact: His old channel guide was pretty outdated, with it still being used as his channel trailer despite many series mentioned in it being discontinued or put to the wayside. Luckily, this has been averted with his new channel trailer.
  • April Fools' Day: He has done these types of videos in 2009, 2011, & 2013.
  • Author Catchphrase: "Hey guys, PieGuyRulz here."
  • Bait-and-Switch Suicide: At the end of his SpongeBob Season 7 video, he states that sitting through another ScumBob season made him feel hopeless. He then tells the audience he needs to go do something. This cuts to him emotionlessly shuffling out onto the road, looking like he's about to be intentionally run over. It turns out to be him approaching an ice cream truck to get a SpongeBob popsicle. This is all in reference to "One Coarse Meal", an infamous episode from the season.
  • Batman Gambit: In his Fairly Odd Baby Rant he references the trope word-for-word regarding Timmy's plan.
  • Berserk Button: While he's all Tranquil Fury in the video, the way he describes it in College Confessions #3 he and sharp objects have an...interesting relationship.
    I jump straight onto a thumbtack sticking up. I am terrified of needles. This was a very bad experience for me. If he (his roommate) had been there, he would have heard my wrath.
    — Describing an incident in college.
    Especially for someone like me, who's terrified of needles and sharp objects, seeing the very real pain of getting a splinter on SpongeBob is just so agonizing.
    • He ends his second rant on Teen Titans Go! with an increasingly angry verbal smack down for the episode "Let's Get Serious", which he views as a clueless Take That! to fans of the original cartoon who criticize Go! for being too silly.
    • This video about Nickelodeon disrespecting Stephen Hillenburg’s wishes against a Spongebob spin-off, followed by Paul Tibbitt confirming he would've hated it, was enough to bring Pie Guy out of semi-retirement and deliver the most visceral outrage he's had in years. The sincerity in his voice about Nickelodeon's greed and how it's obvious that they waited for Hillenburg to die to start the spin-off makes every other rant he's ever done look like nothing.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He's usually very nice and calm, but when he's really angry about something, he gives it a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Momentinvoked: Invoked by name in his Season 6 Review, regarding a scene taking place in a science lab in "Boating Buddies" he thinks is this, complete with a graphic inspired by the Trope Namer.
  • Broke the Rating Scale: "Choir Boys" from his SpongeBob Season 6 review gets no less than three ScumBob ratings right off the bat! It is the only time this ever happens in the SpongeBob Season reviews.
  • The Cameo: His former girlfriend/artist makes a brief appearance in his "I'm With Stupid" crossover
  • Central Theme: In his "Every Episode of SpongeBob SquarePants Reviewed" series, the background layout for each season is themed after a certain character (Special episodes or episodes over 11 minutes get their own layouts respectively themed after them, though).
    • Season 1 is themed after SpongeBob himself.
    • Season 2 is themed after Patrick.
    • Season 3 is themed after Squidward.
    • Season 4 is themed after Mr. Krabs.
    • Season 5 is themed after Sandy.
    • Season 6 is themed after Plankton.
    • Season 7 is themed after Gary.
    • Season 8 is themed after Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.
    • Season 9 is themed after Karen.
      • Interestingly, both 9A and 9B each have different variants that are based on both of the forms Karen has taken. 9A is based more on her wall monitor form, while 9B is based on her mobile form.
    • Season 10 is themed after Mrs. Puff.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: He admits in his Cartoon Network Rant Retrospective that he didn't even watch most of the shows he was critiquing.
  • Crossover: He did a co-review with Wiley1080 (now Wiley Koyote) of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
    • Pie Guy did a two part Let's Play of Monkey Quest with Wiley on his channel.
      • Wiley also joined him for his now-taken-down Plot Points series.
    • He also did a debate video with The Mysterious Mr. Enter about SpongeBob's "I'm With Stupid" episode.
    • With fellow YouTube user Nathaniel Bandy, he was in the two part Reaction to MK8 DLC 2 video, alongside Jacob of The Nintendo Project.
    • He discussed Reboots and Sequels in a podcast with Phoenixpen.
      • They also talked about a week of new Steven Universe episodes in a video on Pie-Guy's channel.
      • Then they got together again for a The Powerpuff Girls podcast where they discussed episodes of the original show. (Part 1, Part 2)
      • They later did a similar discussion for the first 12 episodes of the PPG reboot.
      • Then they talked about the Steven Universe event "In Too Deep" in a two part discussion video.
    • With cartoon reviewer Eye Of Sol, he did a discussion video about Pixar in the 2010s.
    • Hosts a podcast called "RE-Cast", with Monsters Review as his co-host. The podcast also frequently features guests in some episodes, such as Nathaniel Bandy, Cosmodore, and even Chuggaaconroy.
    • He was a guest in an episode of AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast (though only his voice was heard).
  • Curse Cut Short: In his co-review of Truth or Square with The Mysterious Mr. Enter, there's this exchange:
    Mr. Enter: We cut right back to the Rolodex.
    Pie Guy: Motherfu-!
  • Cut Short:
    • In a tweet in August 2019, Pieguy announced he will not be reviewing any more seasons of SpongeBob, finally making an official video explaining in Summer 2020, making Season 10 the last season to be reviewed.
    • Due to Pieguy’s retirement from making videos, his last few ongoing series were cancelled (Every Episode of Adventure Time Reviewed, Bottom of the Bakery, and the RE-Cast).
  • Darker and Edgier: The PieCons when he "gets serious" in Teen Titans Go! Rant 2: Let's Get Serious
  • Double Standard: His problem with the Teen Titans episode "Forces of Nature". As far as he's concerned, Starfire is nothing more than a petty hypocrite for the majority of the episode.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In his first couple of SpongeBob season reviews, he ended each episode segment with "Was this episode (joke relating to the episode that amounts to it being good) or was it (joke relating to the episode that amounts to it being ScumBob)?"
    • Also, in the first 3 season reviews, he had a formula for each one of his episode recaps in the videos; after the summary look-over, he would kick off an episode review by stating the fun fact and his thoughts on it, his favorite highlight, states the quote above that ties in and leads to his episode rank, and quickly goes over why he feels the way he said about the episode. This started to fade during his Season 4 review, before being gone completely by the time of his Season 5 review, where, after quoting the summary of the episode, he would usually go straight into his observations and thoughts of the episode in a more lengthy time period before his final rank.
  • Easter Egg: His Season 6 SpongeBob Review has one during The Splinter segment. When he declares that the episode is a ScumBob episode, a link to RebelTaxi's channel pops up over the picture of SpongeBob's Splinter Finger.
  • False Dichotomy: Claims Squidward shouldn’t (openly) like a Boy Band like Boys Who Cry, as he feels it’s the opposite of the high culture Squidward usually enjoys. However, there’s no real reason why someone can’t openly enjoy both high culture and popular culture.
  • Fan Edit: A channel called PieGuy Remastered features updates versions of his earlier Every Episode Reviewed videos (and other miscellaneous PieGuy videos), updated with Piecons and remade visuals (slide formats, episode pictures, ScumBob transitions) to match PieGuy's modern style and quality.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: SpongeBob Season 6’s ScumBob rating is basically given away after he mentions that the Bikini Bottomites angrily chasing SpongeBob was a “wonderfully fitting way for the season to end.” As well as how angrily he says “And that is every single episode of SpongeBob Season 6 Reviewed,” with him assigning the rating to the season right after saying that line.
  • Flipping the Bird: He actually doesn't do it of course, but in his SpongeBob Season 6 Review he calls the cheapness of the show despite its enormous profit note  "the ultimate middle finger to the audience"
    • In his commentary for his SpongeBob Season 8 review, he originally considered having the Scum Bob version of the glove used in the 'Glove World R.I.P.' be it giving the middle finger, but ultimately decided against it as he considered it too inappropriate for his channel, so he decided to do the more light-hearted thumbs-down.
  • Flying Face: When in PieCon form, he's just a floating head. With a disk attached to his behind. Don't worry though, he locks up the disk whenever he leaves.
  • Foregone Conclusion: In his SpongeBob Season 6 video, when he gets to "Truth or Square", he says it's a foregone conclusion that the episode is a ScumBob, given that he'd already given it a negative review twice (once in a review with The Mysterious Mr. Enter, and again in the "Every Patchy Appearance Season 1-6 Reviewed!" Spongey Bits review).
  • Formula-Breaking Episode: His Topic of Discussion on Chipotle.
    Pie Guy: This topic is something that's gonna come right out of left field.
  • From Bad to Worse: In his Bottom of the Bakery Pilot he mentions that Sam & Cat is a show that it "starts off very mediocre and then ends up completely in the garbage."
    • He also feels this way about post-movie SpongeBob, where his previous worst episode was Atlantis Squarepantis, until his Season 6 Review where The Splinter brought back a traumatic experience.
    • This also applies to "Teen Titans Go!" When he first reviewed it, he claimed that it was simply mediocre and the only insulting thing about it was that it was based on the original Teen Titans. In his second rant, he says that it went from that to downright failing as a series and attacking anyone who wants it to be different.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Operation B.I.R.T.H.D.A.Y. R.E.V.I.E.W. note 
  • Godwin's Law: Subverted in his "iOMG" review. In this episode, Carly locks Spencer in a chamber and gasses him with horrible stimuli unexpectedly, which Pieguy compares to...GLaDOS.
  • Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Averted but keeps his videos clean most of the time with the occasional "Crap" or "Pissed Off" thrown in. He somehow finds a way to make the term "as all get-out" sound natural and not like an obvious euphemism.
  • Gushing About Shows You Like: The first three seasons of his SpongeBob reviews are mostly this.
  • Hate Dumbinvoked: In his FAQ video, he addresses a question asking "Why do you watch cartoons even though you're like twenty?" Some will criticize him for reviewing something that wasn't designed for him or simply having another opinion, which he frequently discusses in his videos. The worst it's gotten is in his Anita Sarkeesian Rant where he mentioned via the comment section that he had to delete a handful of comments for being blind haters. He usually wouldn't mention this, but his reasoning was he didn't want to ignore criticism like Anita does on her YouTube channel and Twitter account.
  • Helium Speech: While it doesn't actually involve helium, his voice gets gradually higher-pitched for a brief bit during his Spongey Bits Review of "All That Glitters"
  • Hell-Bent for Leather: He has a rather nice jacket, shown in the epilogue for his Season 7 review.
  • Incredibly Long Note: In his SpongeBob Season 5 Review his Atlantis SquarePantis song ends with the stretching out of the word "ScumBob".
  • The Intern: From Spring to September 2015, he was interning at a production company that makes training videos and other corporate stuff.
  • Joisey: He said in one of his livestreams that he hates this trope, since he comes from New Jersey.
    Pie-Guy: And there's a reference to Jersey being in the toilet. Ha, ha, ha.
    • Discussed again in Part 2 of his and Phoenixpen's Steven Universe: In Too Deep discussion, regarding the Jersey joke in the episode Same Old World.
    Pie-Guy: I jokingly call this episode "Same Old Jersey"
  • Later-Installment Weirdness: Pieguy’s SpongeBob Season 10 review has some notable changes:
    • There is a custom transition between episodes, as opposed to the usual push transition.
    • The thumbnail for the video is also not the usual “I Spy” picture, instead being a frame from “Mimic Madness” with the title of the video typed out.
    • The pie charts for the season overviews now have percentages along with the episode statistics.
  • Meaningful Rename: From College Confessions #1
    Hey guys... PieGuyRulz isn't here right now. No, A.J. is speaking right now. Me, as a person, not as a YouTuber, as a person.
  • Musical Episode: His musical number in his SpongeBob Season 5 Review about Atlantis SquarePantis is this. There's even a Lampshade Hanging.
    Pie Guy: Well that was different.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: This used to apply to him up until he revealed his first name (Alex) in Topic of Discussion #2 and used his initials (A.J.) in his College Confessions series.
  • Only the Creator Does It Right: In-Universe, he feels this way about The Powerpuff Girls after Craig McCracken left, noting that a lot of the heart had gone and the series severely declined in quality afterwards.
  • OOC Is Serious Business:
    • He goes to great lengths at the end of his SpongeBob Movie Review to show exactly what the characters' personalities are and how they should act.
    • In his SpongeBob Season 4 review (and, by extension, in a Spongey Bits addendum), he especially takes note of the episode "Whale of a Birthday" where Squidward is an unapologetic fan of a boy band, one that isn't even portrayed with a Not So Above It All slant, which he feels is a total betrayal to his character, who otherwise is known for being a classical music enthusiast and treating himself as high-class.
  • Orwellian Retcon: The Stinger of the Spongebob Season 10 review had Pie Guy initially retire out of frustration and exhaustion, before immediately coming back and saying he was kidding. Following Pie Guy's decision to actually retire from making Spongebob videos, the He's Back! moment was removed.
  • Pie in the Face: In the Season 6 Review epilogue, someone from Nickelodeon note  does this to him.
  • Precision F-Strike: He doesn't swear that much in his videos, but according to College Confessions #3, he uttered an "expletive" at his second roommate.
  • Public Service Announcement: He can't think of anything else to call his video on The Dangers of Overly Positive Fan Discussion Sites
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Despite PieGuy himself normally avoiding blowing up at cartoons, he does deliver one to the Teen Titans Go! in his "Let's Get Serious" rant:
    Pie Guy: But fine, Teen Titans Go!. If you would like me to get serious, I can get serious. Your show is incredibly stupid. All of the characters are indistinguishable and infantile. All of your plotlines feel like they were written by a fifth-grader and the characters don't care about them, so the audience doesn't care about them. All of your jokes fall completely flat because everyone sees them coming and there's NOTHING to contrast them against. The ONLY reason why this show is continuing to go on is because it is cheap to make and has brand recognition because of the great show that was the ORIGINAL Teen Titans. Your show in what is only the most ironic of ironies, is nothing but a JOKE to the animation industry! You are the equivalent of a Chinese knock-off of an action figure! You took the name of something we loved, you took the likenesses but you managed to screw up EVERY LITTLE DETAIL ABOUT THEM. It's not that we want the show to be more serious, it's that we want the show to be less moronic! The show cannot comprehend the basics of comedy, OR telling a story! Even the most serious episodes of the original Teen Titans are more funny than THIS!
  • Refuge in Audacity: His main complaint with The Splinter is that it lacks this.
    There's no refuge in audacity. In cartoon violence, if you see someone get dropped off of a cliff and flattened by a steamroller, that's funny. That's not painful to you because you've never experienced it. You'd be dead if you did. But this, getting a splinter and not being able to get it out, is a very real pain.
  • Running Gag: His love for pie.
  • Roger Rabbit Effect: Discussed in his "Grow Up Timmy Turner" video, in which he states that CGI Cosmo & Wanda would have been better if they were traditionally animated.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: In 2023, PieGuy announced he was leaving YouTube after losing motivation for making content. He is also not known to be active on any other social media, as his last post on X (formerly known as Twitter) was in June 2022 and it is unknown if he has an Instagram account, so he is nowhere no be found with an active online presence. But his channel still remains accessible, as in his last discussion post, PieGuy stated he would not delete his YouTube channel or any videos as a result of his departure.
  • Seasonal Rotinvoked: One of the major reasons behind his SpongeBob reviews and rants. The same can be said about his Fairly Odd Parents videos, specifically the one about the episode Love Triangle.
  • Self-Deprecation: Defied. At the end of his Problem Solverz Rant he says that he would have made fun of using a "Z" instead of "S" but decided against it.
  • Silly Song: He sings a song out of nowhere in his SpongeBob Season 5 review for Atlantis SquarePantis.
  • So Bad, It's Goodinvoked: He considers To Love A Patty this for SpongeBob.
  • So Okay, It's Average: invoked His opinion of the eighth season of SpongeBob SquarePants. It evens out on everything: 16 "Good" episodes on the cusp of "Meh" (except It's a SpongeBob Christmas and Frozen Face-Off, both of which he found superb), 16 "Scumbob" episodes that weren't too awful (except Demolition Doofus and Are You Happy Now?), and 15 "Meh" episodes that teetered towards one or the other.
  • Slapstick: PieGuy says that his whipped cream video is this in his 2 Year Anniversary Special.
  • Special Guest: Erin, his former girlfriend and artist, votes with him for the 2015 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards.
  • Sucky School: "University X" from his College Confessions series. First roommate turned their room into party-central, second roommate sold drugs right in plain sight. Some students would just barge into other people's rooms unannounced, and others bragged about stealing toilet paper. The English teacher apparently thought Constructive Criticism wasn't a thing anymore and the Computers professor decided to preach about politics. Don't worry, though. He's not going there anymore.
  • Super-Deformed: The PieCons (especially the ones with him getting angry) before the redesign.
  • Terrible Artist: He's extremely grateful that he has Erin to do art for him, because... This was his attempt at drawing Ronaldo for his first Steven Universe Character Review
  • Vague Age: His age was stated as "20-something" up until he celebrated his 21st birthday in Operation B.I.R.T.H.D.A.Y. R.E.V.I.E.W. note 
  • Vanity Plate: During his early years on YouTube, he would end his videos with an image of him holding a lightsaber and the words "A PieGuyRulz Production"
    • While he was at University X, he would end videos with the view of New York City from his dorm while telling people about his Twitter and to like, subscribe, & comment.
    • Even though he stopped using Vanity Plates, he continued to use the song "Super Friendly" at the end of his SpongeBob videos, just as he did for the University X example above.
    • In 2015, he started using a cover of the SpongeBob background song "Tomfoolery" in its place.
  • Video Review Show: The video part is downplayed, though. While he's become more visually interesting over the years, a viewer can still get by with just the audio for the most part.
  • Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: His thoughts on "Babe" from Game Shakers.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He is very Afraid of Needles and other pointy objects, so of course there's an episode of SpongeBob about an extremely gross and disgusting splinter.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: Gets bonus points for not just replacing "s" with "z" in "rules" but for also removing the "e"
    • And in his old ranting logo,◊ he takes it up to eleven with "PieGuyRulz Rantz"
  • Yet Another Christmas Carol: He's actually surprised by the lack of these during his Nickmas recap.
PieGuyRulz, out.

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