science

Red Letter Media

Red Letter Media is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Red Letter Media rather than just read about it. In short: Red Letter Media, LLC, sometimes stylised as RedLetterMedia, is an American film and video production company and YouTube channel operated by independent filmmakers Mike Stoklasa, Jay Bauman, and Rich Evans. It was formed by Stoklasa in 2004 while he was living in Scottsdale, Arizona, but has long been based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Key takeaways

Red Letter Media belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Red Letter Media to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Red Letter Media from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Red Letter Media, LLC, sometimes stylised as RedLetterMedia, is an American film and video production company and YouTube channel operated by independent filmmakers Mike Stoklasa, Jay Bauman, and Rich Evans. It was formed by Stoklasa in 2004 while he was living in Scottsdale, Arizona, but has long been based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company attracted significant attention in 2009 through Stoklasa's 70-minute Mr Plinkett Review video essay on the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Via the company's YouTube account, Red Letter Media has created a number of web series, including reviews of contemporary films, retrospective film reviews, and humorous discussions of B movies and direct-to-video films. Videos on the channel typically include dry and blue humor. The company and its members have produced a number of low-budget productions including Oranges: Revenge of the Eggplant, Feeding Frenzy, The Recovered, and Space Cop.

Web series

Mr. Plinkett's Reviews (2008–present) Stoklasa created his first video review for Star Trek Generations after watching the film again in 2008. Stoklasa believed his own voice sounded "too boring" for the review and adopted the persona of Harry S. Plinkett, a character he had previously used in several short films (originally portrayed by Rich Evans). Plinkett has been described as "cranky", a "schizophrenic", and "psychotic", with a voice that has been called "a cross between Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers and The Silence of the Lambs' Buffalo Bill". The Star Trek Generations Plinkett review was met with many favorable comments, inspiring Stoklasa to review the other three Star Trek: The Next Generation films—First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998), and Nemesis (2002). After the Trek films, Stoklasa decided to produce a Plinkett review for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace due to his dislike of the prequel trilogy and the way those films influenced a new generation of blockbuster filmmaking that was characterized by CGI spectacle in lieu of live-action stunts and meticulously crafted sets. Despite a long run time of 70 minutes, Stoklasa's review of The Phantom Menace went viral, receiving over a million views in the first four months of its release, and being shared on social media by Simon Pegg and Damon Lindelof. The review took Stoklasa between seven and ten days to complete. Red Letter Media has also released an audio commentary track done in the Plinkett character for Star Wars, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Subsequent Plinkett reviews have covered Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the James Cameron films Avatar and Titanic, the children's film Baby's Day Out, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and J. J. Abrams' Star Trek amongst others. In an interview, Stoklasa stated that in creating a review, he and a friend would watch the film only once while taking notes, frequently pausing the film to take a drink and discuss scenes. After that, he would write a 20–30 page script for it in the Plinkett character, voice it, and edit it together along with some improvisations. After a five year hiatus, Stoklasa revived Mr. Plinkett in 2025 to address the current state of the Star Wars franchise.

Half in the Bag (2011–present) Half in the Bag is a show where Mike Stoklasa and Jay Bauman review and discuss current movie releases, using a loose framing device where Stoklasa and Bauman play lazy VCR repairmen discussing movies instead of working. The series premiered on March 12, 2011, with a review of Drive Angry and The Adjustment Bureau.

Best of the Worst (2013–present) Best of the Worst is a show in which members of the Red Letter Media cast watch bad movies and discuss them. The show typically features three movies, one of which is judged the "Best of the Worst" at the end, and the worst of which is occasionally destroyed in some way. Special episodes include "Spotlight", where the episode is dedicated to a single movie, "Wheel of the Worst", which focuses on esoteric instructional and children's videos, and "Black Spine", which features unlabelled VHS tapes. Regular panelists include Stoklasa, Bauman, Evans, along with other frequent collaborators. Celebrity guests have included Macaulay Culkin, Jack Quaid, Patton Oswalt, and Josh Robert Thompson. The series premiered January 23, 2013, featuring Russian Terminator, Ninja Vengeance, and Never Too Young to Die.

re:View (2016–present) re:View is a show in which two members of the Red Letter Media cast discuss or review a previously released movie or television series (often one which has sentimental importance or personal value to the hosts) in a more minimalist format. The series premiered 24 May 2016, with an episode on Tremors.

The Nerd Crew: A Pop Culture Podcast (2017–2024) The Nerd Crew is a parody series that features Stoklasa, Bauman, and Evans playing self-described "manchildren" demonstrating excessive enthusiasm for popular media properties such as Star Wars or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where it is frequently made clear that such enthusiasm is performative due to having either received payment to promote the properties or in the hopes of receiving future preferential treatment from the owners of said properties. The videos produced as part of this series have been identified as parodying the content created by groups such as Screen Junkies and Collider. The series premiered January 5, 2017.

Previously Recorded (2014–2018) Previously Recorded is a video game oriented channel run by Rich Evans and frequent Red Letter Media collaborator Jack Packard. The channel was Red Letter Media's second attempt at producing gaming content after Game Station 2.0 (2012). The channel premiered July 18, 2014, with a discussion on Risk of Rain and ended with a livestream in July 2018.

Commentary tracks Since 2012, Red Letter Media has produced commentary tracks for various films, releasing them on Bandcamp.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Red Letter Media

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Red Letter Media claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Red Letter Media before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Red Letter Media ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Red Letter Media

In research: Red Letter Media appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Red Letter Media in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Red Letter Media is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2004 establishments in Arizona, American black comedy web series, American black comedy websites, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Red Letter Media outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Red Letter Media in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Red Letter Media means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Red Letter Media out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Red Letter Media in simple terms?

Why does Red Letter Media matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Red Letter Media?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Red Letter Media.