Episode 7.2 — Original Content: Day 2

[Mike Q. 1]

Alternate road jerseys: "Everything's Coming Up Wheelhouse"

[mattbesser 605]

Sorry, I'd use other phrases but they're not in my wheelhouse.

[epoch 0]

Now that they've done General Content I'm really curious what the rest of the challenges will be. I nominate 'Ability to Generate Hate on the Message Boards' or 'Most Likely to result in people claiming this was fixed.'

[bpiddy 0]

Really likin' Left-handed Radio- I think they've proven every week that this is what Earwolf needs. Chat shows are a dime a dozen and the only ones I listen to currently are the ones where I know the hosts are superb comedians. I'm warming up to the F+

Getting exciting!

Glad to hear Matt B taking the feedback and working to make a great show. Also seems like he's back on his regular coffee blend again...little more pep in his talk.

[auxt 0]

I really enjoyed Bob and Dan's submission this week. They'll probably be at the "top of the bottom" again, but I think they finally presented a good representation of their style.
 
I agree the F+ has a "listening curve" but that hasn't stopped me from subscribing.
 
My only beef with LHR is ... I liked their original intro! Hack schmack, it worked fine for me. At any rate, it's nice to hear them thriving in this competition.

[halffiction 1]

Its getting harder to pick my favorites as the pack gets smaller. I'd have to see tops for me this week were the Little Dum Dum Club. LHR had some good stuff as well.
I think Totally Laime's gotta officially step down as the frontrunner, with two mediocre entries the past two weeks.
As much as I enjoy them, I was disappointed by Bob and Dan this week, and I get the feeling they'll be on the bottom again, probably with F+. Got the feeling F+ will be going home, I enjoy what they do but the medium of podcasting doesn't mesh that well with their structure, as its very easy to get lost. Since they are such a large group its sometimes hard to know who is saying what.

[Jonathan Michaels 0]

It's obvious that LHR was the winner this week, and I can accept Dum-Dum being safe, even though I laughed more at Bob and Dan.

But the fact that Totally Laime has collapsed these past two weeks is a bad omen for them, F+ was a bit confusing, but still entertaining, TL wasted far too much time in the beginning and end of their clip and the middle was nothing to write home about.

The thing about these contests is you have to give the benefit of the doubt to the one who is improving over time as opposed to the one who showed a lot of skills but struggled late.

[Monty 2]

I'm starting to turn against F+. I think their clip was just too mean for me. I'm okay with making fun of people for writing crazy things on the Internet, but I guess I don't like making fun of them for their crazy fetishes.

Also, am I crazy or was the intro music for Bob and Dan "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" from Evita?

[Mark1326657704 0]

So, what was the big production about the podcasts not having their introductions, and then having the podcasts have their introductions? I'm not sure Earwolf knows what some words mean.

Here's the critique in the order of how they did:

LHR: Much duller than last week, but still better than the nonsense from the other shows. That dog lawyer thing was bad. Talking in a dog's voice is a one-line sketch at best. I agree with Jordan that a dog-lawyer premise is funny, but the execution was all wrong. If you want to have a human lawyer talking to a dog who's answering in a dog voice that the lawyer can somehow understand, I'm onboard. Bob Newhart did one-sided conversation shit like that all the time back in the day, and it KILLED. The men are filthy bit was trite and stale. The Orson Welles bit went on too long, but the "sweaty dumps!" line saved it. In fact, it single-handedly saved their entire submission. If you could promise me that a character on that podcast would drop that line at least once every other episode, I'd subscribe immediately. Meanwhile, I like the radio tuning bit and think it's used perfectly, so me and Jordan are right and you others are wrong.

-

Little Dum Dum club: hard to follow, not because of the accents, but because it just wasn't that interesting. The boys remain charming, but mindless chatter is hard to disguise no matter what your inflection is. I wish these boys had more of a hook.

-

Bob & Dan: I agree with what the poster who's name I'm too lazy to go back two pages to find said: they sounded like they were on the verge of cracking up at any moment, which wouldn't be that bad except their stuff wasn't that funny. It had a very forced energy, very morning radio (in the worst possible way). I did enjoy the "African Amerians and standard Americans" line. But in general, the discussion was terribly boring.

-

Totally Laime: so dull. So very, very dull.

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F+: I think these guys have run out of chances. I think their show suffers badly from too many cooks syndrome. The central conceit of the show seems like it would lend itself to no more than two guys trading back and forth. Maybe they could rotate members from show to show? And they need to decide exactly what they're going to do with the things they read: are they going to read them and then discuss them? Turn them into little sketches? Rip them apart while they read them? Seemed like they were doing all three at once, and that combined with the 27 guys who were participating turned the whole thing into a horrid mess. If they had one guy doing the reading, with another guy sparsely deconstructing it as it's read, then, after it was done, they could both have a short discussion about it, and then follow it up with a sketch where one of the guys pretends to be the person who wrote the letter, while the other is a therapist or scoutmaster or biology teacher or some such....then the whole thing becomes much easier to follow, it flows nicely, and the humor potential is dramatically increased.
I feel like these guys have been on the verge of a decent show for the entire contest, but just can't agree on how to get there. I think they need to pick a showrunner and get some kind of structure together.

-

If I were judging this week, I'd send Totally Laime packing, because they've never been entertaining, and they've hung around far too long. However, I think the judges are going to axe F+, and I can't really disagree, because these guys have had weeks to get their act together, and haven't been able to pull it off. I'd love to give them one more shot, but I don't think it would help until they find a unifying voice.

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Meanwhile, I'm disappointed that no one shouted "Meta!" at Besser today, as I really enjoy hearing him Hulk out.

[Julia 477]

Little Dum Dum Club was the only clip that made me laugh out loud this week.

[Anonymous Coward 57]

I think the F Plus could work better as a more heavily-produced show. Layer the music with the readings (like in a This American Life segment) and save the riffing for interstitial segments, and I'd be more likely to listen to it

_
Yes, the show needs a production boost bad. I think you could get away with having the riffing as it is now, provided that you had some soft music playing under the readings (for the sake of clarity). If anything, lack of production will be the reason the show can get eliminated this week - aka the same shit they've been facing for a while now.
_
Jordan was a great judge, the best the show has had so far in my opinion. But the submissions were pretty blah from all parties, so it will be hard to put together a bottom three. So my guesses are The Little Dum Dum Club (who will be the first safety, but the judges will talk about how they need to be more accessible/less local referential), Totally Laime (who will do something stupid like reject the feedback and still not get eliminated) and the F+ (who will go home).
_
Glad to hear Matt B taking the feedback and working to make a great show
_
Also glad that they are willing to take on user suggestions, even if the tone is less than ideal.

[BFH 0]

As a podcast host and producer myself, I made a choice to reserve comment on anything involving this show. I'd rather just enjoy it and see what helpful advice I can glean from it. Also, I've not wanted to be mean when either a guest judge or a contestant comes off as clueless about something, as not to burn any bridges just for the sake of expressing an opinion. And also, as has been hinted at on the show, a lot of you posting on these forums are terrible, terrible people that I don't want to engage in discussion with.

But between Jordan Morris and Mark Thompson, I have simply had it.

If you do not understand why a talking dog lawyer that says bark and woof and arf between human words and that offers a settlement of 8 million snausages is the most hilarious thing that has ever happened on this podcast, you should be shot into outer space in a rocket aimed towards the sun so that your disease does not spread to the rest of the human population.

[DirkGently 0]

@Brodie lol wtf

I dunno what's up with that.... Dogs are cool dude.

hey Matt! I thought you said who charted shirt is out now...? Not seeing it in store....

[shahruz 5]

@Dirk it'll be up at midnight tonight!

[hubkingz420 0]

I'd like to thank Matt for clarifying the way judging is being done. Though not as much as others, I was a little unhappy and confused after TL wasn't eliminated from last week as I was under the impression that judging would be based on weekly performance instead of overall performance.

Judges continue to be my favorite performers. Everyone does a great job of keeping things compelling even when submissions aren't fantastic.

[Mark1326657704 0]

@Brodie,

Hope there's room on that rocket for most of the human race. Your average fart joke is more sophisticated than that bark-woof-arf nonsense. Enjoy spending the rest of your life surrounded only by people whose favorite Christmas song is the dogs barking Jingle Bells.

[JW Buchanan 1]

The dog lawyer class action lawsuit ad was my favorite of their sketches. So now Earth has a population of two, at least.

[RobM 66]

"I think the F Plus could work better as a more heavily-produced show. Layer the music with the readings (like in a This American Life segment) and save the riffing for interstitial segments, and I'd be more likely to listen to it."

Sorry to reply so late, but this suggestion by JW is fantastic. Play up the dramaticness of the reading in order to differentiate it from the casual commentary. They could even preserve the old format by recording the reading early, editing in music, and then playing the reading with music during the group recording but pause it for a second if they want to make a good comment. Then once the reading ends, riff to their heart's content.

[Mark1326657704 0]

Relax, everyone! Brodie and JW will repopulate the Earth!