Rutabaga

I thought the episode was really great. I haven’t heard Paul talk at all about tech or his involvement, and he was super interesting. Him going out and commenting on some video site about an episode of The League just for fun is very cool. But, terrible transition, please do not add threaded comments to this message board. Threaded comments are awesome on blogs, but they are clunky and awful on a message board. Quotes serve the exact same purpose. This message board looks awesome, and has a few really good ideas in it (like the alternating colors for posts). It is just lacking a handful of really basic functions like line breaks, quoting, a new posts link, and a jump to first new post button on individual threads. I think with those 4 things added you’d see a large increase in back and forth discussion, the one thing this forum is missing (outside of The Earwolf Challenge and Analyze Phish where people struggled to make it work).

This is pretty much a perfect podcast. I had never heard a Phish song - that I know of *Hi 5* - before the first episode, so it has been really fun getting to both laugh and be judgmental. I typed it before elsewhere, but I am just so amazingly impressed by Harris' ability to "Yes and..." every single thing that Scott says. It is pretty cool that Phish fans are getting into it too, and Harris should definitely read some critiques from people on the hardcore Phish messageboards. More please!

I really enjoyed this episode too. When Peter said he didn’t believe that audio was a compelling medium, it was great that Jeff battled back. I still think podcasts are only beginning to explore all the places the audio/podcast medium can go. Mike Detective is a really cool thing, and more serialized things with a story / arc could be really popular. Even the through-line created in The Earwolf Challenge provided a ton of interest to people on the forums, and created more real discussion than probably any other podcast. Serialized stuff was out of vogue on TV 10 years ago, and now TV is better than ever since it has come back. Even Comedy Bang Bang maintains its own canon as the characters return and continue to develop, and that adds so much to the listening experience. I wonder if in weeks where a character returns to the show, if back episodes with that same character get downloaded more in the following week? Every time I listen to The Wolf Den I get more excited for the future of everything.

Congrats to Totally Laime! It was a well deserved win. I thought the reasoning for the judges only looking at the 30 minute submission was perfectly laid out and totally logical. It would be cool if marketability and fit were a challenge though at some time in next season’s competition, and it could easily be a part of making them do an actual show pitch to the judges. I am a huge Wolf Den fan though, so maybe that’s not something everyone wants to hear about. I also want to echo people’s comments about how great the show was. The producers did an awesome job. This seemed like so much work, and I think they really nailed it. And, Matt was an amazing host. People have commented that they thought the show needed to be more concise in the beginning, but I thought the absolute height of the show was Matt just going off on what defines things like a good recurring segment or theme song / intro. If anything, I think the show could have easily had more somewhat meandering conversations about those topics with Matt and guest judges or even just Matt and the producers. I learned so much about comedy in the first couple weeks of the show, and I think once the challenges started repeating a bit, the show got away from that more than it needed to. There were a handful of places where I really wanted the guest judges to tell more stories of really bad or really good experiences they had relating to a challenge’s theme. During the Bait and Switch challenge, Matt Belknap didn’t tell the tale of NNF having Maria Bamford just not show up for a taping and Dave Holmes showing up 30 minutes in to the show as a guest. But during the Using the Guest challenge, having Matt Besser talk about all the great things Howard and Kulap did on Who Charted was one of my favorite discussions of The Challenge. Even though it is a lot more work, I really agree with the comments that there should have been notes / discussion time given to the top podcasts each week. The Challenge maybe had too much discussion of what didn’t work and why instead of what did work, and how others can do it too. At the end of the day, I really really really hope there is a Season 2!

Congrats to Totally Laime! It was a well deserved win. I thought the reasoning for the judges only looking at the 30 minute submission was perfectly laid out and totally logical. It would be cool if marketability and fit were a challenge though at some time in next season’s competition, and it could easily be a part of making them do an actual show pitch to the judges. I am a huge Wolf Den fan though, so maybe that’s not something everyone wants to hear about. I also want to echo people’s comments about how great the show was. The producers did an awesome job. This seemed like so much work, and I think they really nailed it. And, Matt was an amazing host. People have commented that they thought the show needed to be more concise in the beginning, but I thought the absolute height of the show was Matt just going off on what defines things like a good recurring segment or theme song / intro. If anything, I think the show could have easily had more somewhat meandering conversations about those topics with Matt and guest judges or even just Matt and the producers. I learned so much about comedy in the first couple weeks of the show, and I think once the challenges started repeating a bit, the show got away from that more than it needed to. There were a handful of places where I really wanted the guest judges to tell more stories of really bad or really good experiences they had relating to a challenge’s theme. During the Bait and Switch challenge, Matt Belknap didn’t tell the tale of NNF having Maria Bamford just not show up for a taping and Dave Holmes showing up 30 minutes in to the show as a guest. But during the Using the Guest challenge, having Matt Besser talk about all the great things Howard and Kulap did on Who Charted was one of my favorite discussions of The Challenge. Even though it is a lot more work, I really agree with the comments that there should have been notes / discussion time given to the top podcasts each week. The Challenge maybe had too much discussion of what didn’t work and why instead of what did work, and how others can do it too. At the end of the day, I really really really hope there is a Season 2!

Both final episodes were good. It is a tossup. I think they should both win because that would probably anger the most people.

Both final episodes were good. It is a tossup. I think they should both win because that would probably anger the most people.

I too have really enjoyed the whole season and think you must do a second season or continue the show in some form. I am really interested in hearing what LDDC does now. Totally Laime set a very clear bar to compare them against. This TL episode wasn’t the funniest or the most compelling thing, but I can definitely see why people listen. It seems like the one downside of TL is that they are always interviewing someone they don’t seem to know that well. A lot of my favorite podcast episodes are ones where the hosts and guests have a real friendly relationship regardless of how big the guests are. It is what made the original Scott Aukerman episodes of NNF so awesome even though I had no idea who he was then, and is what made the recent Wittels, Peretti, Scott episode of CBB so so so amazing. That’s probably a dumb criticism since it goes against everything their show is, but I am just not compelled to subscribe to their show, and I think that is the reason. I could see 9 out of 10 TL listeners saying Totally Laime is their 10th favorite show, but I would be surprised if many put it in their top 1-2 because it just doesn’t have that pizazz (or potential for it) that many of the top podcasts have. At this point I don’t even listen to 10 weekly podcasts, so I just can’t get that excited about it. Though I’d guess if someone prefers a relaxing conversation with famous people as their entertainment, this would be the perfect show.

I too have really enjoyed the whole season and think you must do a second season or continue the show in some form. I am really interested in hearing what LDDC does now. Totally Laime set a very clear bar to compare them against. This TL episode wasn’t the funniest or the most compelling thing, but I can definitely see why people listen. It seems like the one downside of TL is that they are always interviewing someone they don’t seem to know that well. A lot of my favorite podcast episodes are ones where the hosts and guests have a real friendly relationship regardless of how big the guests are. It is what made the original Scott Aukerman episodes of NNF so awesome even though I had no idea who he was then, and is what made the recent Wittels, Peretti, Scott episode of CBB so so so amazing. That’s probably a dumb criticism since it goes against everything their show is, but I am just not compelled to subscribe to their show, and I think that is the reason. I could see 9 out of 10 TL listeners saying Totally Laime is their 10th favorite show, but I would be surprised if many put it in their top 1-2 because it just doesn’t have that pizazz (or potential for it) that many of the top podcasts have. At this point I don’t even listen to 10 weekly podcasts, so I just can’t get that excited about it. Though I’d guess if someone prefers a relaxing conversation with famous people as their entertainment, this would be the perfect show.

I never realized Cracked.com has only been around since 2006 and that it has only been the main focus for less than that. I don’t read it that often because there are just too many pictures and too many awesome jokes that make it pretty obvious I am not working, but man is Cracked.com funny and weirdly informative. I thought it was pretty interesting and cool the way Jack responded to Jeff’s comment / question about Demand Media being somewhat of a freelance content farm. Anyone who hasn’t read about them at all should check out this info graphic. Jack seemed really proud of Cracked, and he should be. It must be frustrating sometimes being lumped in with eHow when the quality of writing at Cracked is so so much higher. Their content could actually play really well as a podcast if they found the right format.

I never realized Cracked.com has only been around since 2006 and that it has only been the main focus for less than that. I don’t read it that often because there are just too many pictures and too many awesome jokes that make it pretty obvious I am not working, but man is Cracked.com funny and weirdly informative. I thought it was pretty interesting and cool the way Jack responded to Jeff’s comment / question about Demand Media being somewhat of a freelance content farm. Anyone who hasn’t read about them at all should check out this info graphic. Jack seemed really proud of Cracked, and he should be. It must be frustrating sometimes being lumped in with eHow when the quality of writing at Cracked is so so much higher. Their content could actually play really well as a podcast if they found the right format.

I love Doug Benson talking seriously almost as much as I love him being silly, which is a lot. I think Bob and Dan just got a bit scared to be themselves with Nick Thune and I think the judges’ criticisms were spot on. I would have loved to see them just fit Thune into one of their recurring games or topics and try to let him be funny. It may have failed spectacularly, but at least it would have been them. Several of the contestants have tried to say, “But you told us not to do that last week…” and to me that is a bit of a cop out. I liked that Matt battled back at them and told them that they didn’t follow his advice. It was true of The F+ and Totally Laime as well, but over correcting on a note is the contestants fault, not the previous judges or Matt. I wish we got to hear more of the notes come to fruition / get implemented. That's the only thing missing from the show for me thus far, and it is one of the downsides of elimination reality shows in general. . Super good week of shows. I can’t wait to find out what the last two challenges will be.

I love Doug Benson talking seriously almost as much as I love him being silly, which is a lot. I think Bob and Dan just got a bit scared to be themselves with Nick Thune and I think the judges’ criticisms were spot on. I would have loved to see them just fit Thune into one of their recurring games or topics and try to let him be funny. It may have failed spectacularly, but at least it would have been them. Several of the contestants have tried to say, “But you told us not to do that last week…” and to me that is a bit of a cop out. I liked that Matt battled back at them and told them that they didn’t follow his advice. It was true of The F+ and Totally Laime as well, but over correcting on a note is the contestants fault, not the previous judges or Matt. I wish we got to hear more of the notes come to fruition / get implemented. That's the only thing missing from the show for me thus far, and it is one of the downsides of elimination reality shows in general. . Super good week of shows. I can’t wait to find out what the last two challenges will be.

Maybe just have Matt do a final “What We Learned” wrap up of the episode with Frank, and send that to everyone. I’d be pretty interested in what Matt believes are the most important things he talked about in the coaching sessions anyway. Obviously he won’t re-hit every single point made during the episode, but any huge revelations that might come out after 2-3 calls won’t be missed by those first 2-3.

Maybe just have Matt do a final “What We Learned” wrap up of the episode with Frank, and send that to everyone. I’d be pretty interested in what Matt believes are the most important things he talked about in the coaching sessions anyway. Obviously he won’t re-hit every single point made during the episode, but any huge revelations that might come out after 2-3 calls won’t be missed by those first 2-3.