Episode 10.3 — The Final Challenge: Day 3

[Jimmy Dread 5]

It sucks but I guess it won't really affect me much. I knew before even listening to this weeks episodes that regardless of who won I was going to start listening to tlddc and continue to not give a shit about totally laime.

[EliseCz 0]

I think this was ultimately the best outcome possible. Totally Laime is clearly a great fit for Earwolf, as well as being a great show. That said, I was relieved when Matt voted for LDDC - I found them to be the funnier show, and I was glad to hear him agree. In the long term, I hope that LDDC can use this increased awareness and their new influential friends to continue to grow. I've been catching up on old episodes, and they've clearly got a great community of comics in Melbourne to work with. I could see them, in a year or two, expanding into their own little Aussie network and bringing on other shows under a Dum Dum brand. And then, Murdoch-style, spreading to podcasting markets around Australia, before moving to the UK and onto America, where, as an evil international conglomerate, they will build a massively popular comedy network that mercilessly attacks Earwolf at every turn before taking over The Onion and ultimately swaying a presidential election.
.
Ahem. Anyways, I loved the Challenge, and I eagerly await Season 2. I was particularly intrigued by Matt's off-hand reference to an episode he recorded that we'll never hear - a lost episode? That I'd pay $2 for.

[EliseCz 0]

I think this was ultimately the best outcome possible. Totally Laime is clearly a great fit for Earwolf, as well as being a great show. That said, I was relieved when Matt voted for LDDC - I found them to be the funnier show, and I was glad to hear him agree. In the long term, I hope that LDDC can use this increased awareness and their new influential friends to continue to grow. I've been catching up on old episodes, and they've clearly got a great community of comics in Melbourne to work with. I could see them, in a year or two, expanding into their own little Aussie network and bringing on other shows under a Dum Dum brand. And then, Murdoch-style, spreading to podcasting markets around Australia, before moving to the UK and onto America, where, as an evil international conglomerate, they will build a massively popular comedy network that mercilessly attacks Earwolf at every turn before taking over The Onion and ultimately swaying a presidential election.
.
Ahem. Anyways, I loved the Challenge, and I eagerly await Season 2. I was particularly intrigued by Matt's off-hand reference to an episode he recorded that we'll never hear - a lost episode? That I'd pay $2 for.

[auxt 0]

I'm also curious about the mysterious TOO HOT FOR ITUNES episode Matt mentioned.

  
As for the debate on "unfair" late-round challenges, how about simply picking a winner from the top 3? A tie could be resolved with second place votes or a tiebreaker judge (Frank?). Maybe someone's mentioned this already, I've only skimmed the comments.

[auxt 0]

I'm also curious about the mysterious TOO HOT FOR ITUNES episode Matt mentioned.

  
As for the debate on "unfair" late-round challenges, how about simply picking a winner from the top 3? A tie could be resolved with second place votes or a tiebreaker judge (Frank?). Maybe someone's mentioned this already, I've only skimmed the comments.

[Karl Chandler 0]

Hey guys, this is Karl Chandler from the 2nd best podcast in the universe, TDDC (verified).

Thanks a bunch for all the kind words in the forum, and for subscribing if you liked us. We find it extremely fucking cool AND weird that we now have American listeners because of all this. We've both seen America on TV and it looks pretty good.

We had fun doing the competition and becoming best friends with Matt Besser and Zach, and all the nice things you've said about us has totally talked us out of necking ourselves!

Oh, and congrats to Totally Laime! Thanks everyone!

[Karl Chandler 0]

Hey guys, this is Karl Chandler from the 2nd best podcast in the universe, TDDC (verified).

Thanks a bunch for all the kind words in the forum, and for subscribing if you liked us. We find it extremely fucking cool AND weird that we now have American listeners because of all this. We've both seen America on TV and it looks pretty good.

We had fun doing the competition and becoming best friends with Matt Besser and Zach, and all the nice things you've said about us has totally talked us out of necking ourselves!

Oh, and congrats to Totally Laime! Thanks everyone!

[J 1]

I didn't agree with the outcome, but I did call this result early on. The close proximity and the social network of TL and Earwolf certainly favored it.

[J 1]

I didn't agree with the outcome, but I did call this result early on. The close proximity and the social network of TL and Earwolf certainly favored it.

[Foam Corner 94]

Speaking of Karl Chandler, who just spoke, I recommend his twitter. I've been following him for a few weeks or so, and he's already my favorite twitter...person ever. Nothing but gold comes from his brain and fingertips.
http://twitter.com/karlchandler

[Foam Corner 94]

Speaking of Karl Chandler, who just spoke, I recommend his twitter. I've been following him for a few weeks or so, and he's already my favorite twitter...person ever. Nothing but gold comes from his brain and fingertips.
http://twitter.com/karlchandler

[Brendan 96]

Thought I'd comment again, considering my last post didn't talk about the challenge. 
I thought both podcasts put forth very good entries for this last challenge, and both had things that could be improved. I pretty much agreed with the critiques by Matt, Scott & Jeff on the show. Maybe TL could change their tagline, since it didn't really fit. Perhaps the questions aren't the least important so much as the least asked, which is what TL sort of alluded to before, that these aren't the typical interview questions that you usually hear celebrities get asked. LDDC could have tightened things up a little bit, possible the two guests wasn't necessary given the limited time. And the suggestion of breaking it up sometimes with segments or whatever could be beneficial to the listener.
 
Though I knew it'd pretty much be a coin toss as to who won, LDDC was my favorite of these last two submissions, mainly because I thought it was funnier. That's the main thing I was looking for in both podcast submissions.
 
It's a little disconcerting that even though the consensus was that LDDC had the funnier submission and the funnier hosts, it didn't win on what is currently known as a comedy network, in a competition that was judged all along by professional comedians & hosts of comedy podcasts, where being the most funny earned the most praise and being the least funny was the main criterion for being ousted for the majority of the challenges. So, I'm not going to complain too much about that point. Scott and the guys tried to address that already and made their point about why they decided the way they did, but I think it was worth mentioning again.
 
Anyway, congrats again to everyone involved! I hope all the shows gained new listeners. Even though I'm behind on my usual stable of podcasts, I just subscribed to LDDC (I used to listen to a show with Rhys Darby out of New Zealand, maybe I just miss the similar accents)!

[Brendan 96]

Thought I'd comment again, considering my last post didn't talk about the challenge. 
I thought both podcasts put forth very good entries for this last challenge, and both had things that could be improved. I pretty much agreed with the critiques by Matt, Scott & Jeff on the show. Maybe TL could change their tagline, since it didn't really fit. Perhaps the questions aren't the least important so much as the least asked, which is what TL sort of alluded to before, that these aren't the typical interview questions that you usually hear celebrities get asked. LDDC could have tightened things up a little bit, possible the two guests wasn't necessary given the limited time. And the suggestion of breaking it up sometimes with segments or whatever could be beneficial to the listener.
 
Though I knew it'd pretty much be a coin toss as to who won, LDDC was my favorite of these last two submissions, mainly because I thought it was funnier. That's the main thing I was looking for in both podcast submissions.
 
It's a little disconcerting that even though the consensus was that LDDC had the funnier submission and the funnier hosts, it didn't win on what is currently known as a comedy network, in a competition that was judged all along by professional comedians & hosts of comedy podcasts, where being the most funny earned the most praise and being the least funny was the main criterion for being ousted for the majority of the challenges. So, I'm not going to complain too much about that point. Scott and the guys tried to address that already and made their point about why they decided the way they did, but I think it was worth mentioning again.
 
Anyway, congrats again to everyone involved! I hope all the shows gained new listeners. Even though I'm behind on my usual stable of podcasts, I just subscribed to LDDC (I used to listen to a show with Rhys Darby out of New Zealand, maybe I just miss the similar accents)!

[Litiot 2]

hey, that was pretty. darn. fun! good job, condolences, & congrats
my cents: ...i wish that them there dumdum's had been given more of a chance to speak at the end... probably coulda/shoulda repeatedly encouraged everyone to subscribe to their favorite podcasts along the way... idea: PFT vs. Pepitone for 'championship pod-guesting'... i really enjoy listening to this Matt Besser kid... wow, Scott's voice got pretty nervous there... oh look, there are alot of good new albums out this week... tragedy + comedy = beauty?...

[Litiot 2]

hey, that was pretty. darn. fun! good job, condolences, & congrats
my cents: ...i wish that them there dumdum's had been given more of a chance to speak at the end... probably coulda/shoulda repeatedly encouraged everyone to subscribe to their favorite podcasts along the way... idea: PFT vs. Pepitone for 'championship pod-guesting'... i really enjoy listening to this Matt Besser kid... wow, Scott's voice got pretty nervous there... oh look, there are alot of good new albums out this week... tragedy + comedy = beauty?...

[action52 554]

Thank you so much for these past 10 weeks. This podcast has indeed been very educational, especially having Matt as permanent judge to explain and comment on things. Matt is a guy who isn't just good at comedy himself, but he's also good at teaching new comedians how to be funnier. It was a real treat hearing his experiences and insights.

I think a lot of people need to realize that these "reality shows" are always going to be bullshit, to a certain degree. The main purpose of the Earwolf Challenge is not to find the absolute best podcast out there. If Jeff and Scott wanted to do that, there would be no reason to bother with a competition. The main purpose of the Earwolf Challenge, and and "reality" show, is to ENTERTAIN. Give people something they enjoy watching/listening to, and make them want to come back for more. And Earwolf was very successful in this respect.

For the most part, I agreed with the judges' decisions, and I just want to echo people's comments that you should not take the negative comments as a sign that the show is doing badly. In fact, you don't need to take the negative comments seriously at all. That's the problem with people who troll message boards--sometimes people actually listen to them. You have to understand that when people say crazy things like "this podcast is one big conspiracy for Totally Laime," they represent a very tiny percentage of the audience. It just seems like more, because that crazy 0.1% of the population will go out of their way to make their voice heard. But really, you don't even need to respond to people like that. Take in the constructive criticism, but guys like that you need to ignore. Maybe tell them, "hey, if you want to give me some constructive criticism I'm open to that, but if you're just going to bitch and moan then I'm not going to respnd to anything you say." Or not say anything at all, really.

About "this generation" and how much worse the negativity is: I think the main reason it's worse than it used to be is because it's easier. It used to be that the only way you could contact an oranization or famous person was by writing a letter, which is a lot of work. You'd have to track down the person's contact info, write the letter, and then physically go and send it, all at your own expense. Chances are you wouldn't stay mad long enough to go to all that trouble, and even if you did, you'd probably be feeling less angry and more thoughtful. But these days, if you want to complain to a person or organization, you can usually find a message board or twitter feed in seconds. You can get that instant gratification, and moreover you can do it at the height of your own anger.

Oh and Scott, I am going to respectfully disagree with one thing you said on this podcast. You said that publications like the AV Club's Podmass are overanalyzing podcasts, giving them more scrutiny than they should get considering what they are. I think that Podmass gives an absolutely perfect amount of coverage. Because they don't give them a true review--there is no rating, and it just gives a general sense of which ones were good this week, and which ones were skippable. I find it very useful to check up on podcasts that I like, but not enough that I want to listen to every single one. For example, when I saw the description for last week's "Who Charted?" with Howard playing his brother Lee, it didn't sound like something that would be able to stay funny for a whole hour. It was sitting in my mp3 player and I was debating whether to delete it or not. The article said, no, it actually doesn't get old and the character's humor holds out surprisingly well throughout the show. So I gave it a listen, and it's probably one of the best episodes I've heard yet.

So yeah, I'd like to see more publications doing ratings like that. Nothing in detail, just general overviews that can help the casual fans determine which ones are "must listen" and which ones we might not want to bother with this week.

[action52 554]

Thank you so much for these past 10 weeks. This podcast has indeed been very educational, especially having Matt as permanent judge to explain and comment on things. Matt is a guy who isn't just good at comedy himself, but he's also good at teaching new comedians how to be funnier. It was a real treat hearing his experiences and insights.

I think a lot of people need to realize that these "reality shows" are always going to be bullshit, to a certain degree. The main purpose of the Earwolf Challenge is not to find the absolute best podcast out there. If Jeff and Scott wanted to do that, there would be no reason to bother with a competition. The main purpose of the Earwolf Challenge, and and "reality" show, is to ENTERTAIN. Give people something they enjoy watching/listening to, and make them want to come back for more. And Earwolf was very successful in this respect.

For the most part, I agreed with the judges' decisions, and I just want to echo people's comments that you should not take the negative comments as a sign that the show is doing badly. In fact, you don't need to take the negative comments seriously at all. That's the problem with people who troll message boards--sometimes people actually listen to them. You have to understand that when people say crazy things like "this podcast is one big conspiracy for Totally Laime," they represent a very tiny percentage of the audience. It just seems like more, because that crazy 0.1% of the population will go out of their way to make their voice heard. But really, you don't even need to respond to people like that. Take in the constructive criticism, but guys like that you need to ignore. Maybe tell them, "hey, if you want to give me some constructive criticism I'm open to that, but if you're just going to bitch and moan then I'm not going to respnd to anything you say." Or not say anything at all, really.

About "this generation" and how much worse the negativity is: I think the main reason it's worse than it used to be is because it's easier. It used to be that the only way you could contact an oranization or famous person was by writing a letter, which is a lot of work. You'd have to track down the person's contact info, write the letter, and then physically go and send it, all at your own expense. Chances are you wouldn't stay mad long enough to go to all that trouble, and even if you did, you'd probably be feeling less angry and more thoughtful. But these days, if you want to complain to a person or organization, you can usually find a message board or twitter feed in seconds. You can get that instant gratification, and moreover you can do it at the height of your own anger.

Oh and Scott, I am going to respectfully disagree with one thing you said on this podcast. You said that publications like the AV Club's Podmass are overanalyzing podcasts, giving them more scrutiny than they should get considering what they are. I think that Podmass gives an absolutely perfect amount of coverage. Because they don't give them a true review--there is no rating, and it just gives a general sense of which ones were good this week, and which ones were skippable. I find it very useful to check up on podcasts that I like, but not enough that I want to listen to every single one. For example, when I saw the description for last week's "Who Charted?" with Howard playing his brother Lee, it didn't sound like something that would be able to stay funny for a whole hour. It was sitting in my mp3 player and I was debating whether to delete it or not. The article said, no, it actually doesn't get old and the character's humor holds out surprisingly well throughout the show. So I gave it a listen, and it's probably one of the best episodes I've heard yet.

So yeah, I'd like to see more publications doing ratings like that. Nothing in detail, just general overviews that can help the casual fans determine which ones are "must listen" and which ones we might not want to bother with this week.

[EvilBunnySanta 1]

I TOTALLY HOPE KARL WAS TALKING ABOUT ME I NOW HAVE A BEST FRIEND!

[EvilBunnySanta 1]

I TOTALLY HOPE KARL WAS TALKING ABOUT ME I NOW HAVE A BEST FRIEND!

[ZANZIBAR. 0]

Years ago Dunkin' Donuts held a contest to 'Create Dunkin's next donut.' Customers were asked to enter their best idea for the next seasonal donut that the chain would produce and then sell at their stores all over the country. Customers eagerly filled out form after form full of their great flavor concoctions in the hopes of seeing their donut appear at their local shop, assuming that their entry mattered and was truly in the running for the grand prize. The strange thing was that in the 2 years that the contest was held both of the winners chosen by the Dunkin' Donuts company prominently featured Hershey's products in their recipes. ( 2008's Heath bar topped 'Toffee for your coffee' and 2009's Reese's peanut butter cup topped 'Monkey see monkey donut') Dunkin' Brands Inc was engaged in a promotional contract with the Hershey's Company to feature and promote Hershey's brand products in both their Baskin Robbin's ice cream and Dunkin' Donuts locations. Meaning that no matter what, the winner of the contest was guaranteed to be a Hershey's candy branded donut.

So what? Should this matter? No. It's a contest about donuts. However, it begs the questions: 'Well, if you had already decided who was going to win..... then what was the point in having a contest in the first place? Why get the hopes of your fans/customers up to think that there was some sort of competition when no matter how strong or weak the entry, the winner had already been determined?'

Congratulations to all the Earwolf challenge podcasts for their hard work and holding their ground week in and week out. And to the winner, make sure you take a lesson from the short lived 'Toffee for your coffee' and 'Monkey see monkey donut' because no matter how sugary sweet the use of recognized brands can seem, no one enjoys the taste of predetermination for long.

[ZANZIBAR. 0]

Years ago Dunkin' Donuts held a contest to 'Create Dunkin's next donut.' Customers were asked to enter their best idea for the next seasonal donut that the chain would produce and then sell at their stores all over the country. Customers eagerly filled out form after form full of their great flavor concoctions in the hopes of seeing their donut appear at their local shop, assuming that their entry mattered and was truly in the running for the grand prize. The strange thing was that in the 2 years that the contest was held both of the winners chosen by the Dunkin' Donuts company prominently featured Hershey's products in their recipes. ( 2008's Heath bar topped 'Toffee for your coffee' and 2009's Reese's peanut butter cup topped 'Monkey see monkey donut') Dunkin' Brands Inc was engaged in a promotional contract with the Hershey's Company to feature and promote Hershey's brand products in both their Baskin Robbin's ice cream and Dunkin' Donuts locations. Meaning that no matter what, the winner of the contest was guaranteed to be a Hershey's candy branded donut.

So what? Should this matter? No. It's a contest about donuts. However, it begs the questions: 'Well, if you had already decided who was going to win..... then what was the point in having a contest in the first place? Why get the hopes of your fans/customers up to think that there was some sort of competition when no matter how strong or weak the entry, the winner had already been determined?'

Congratulations to all the Earwolf challenge podcasts for their hard work and holding their ground week in and week out. And to the winner, make sure you take a lesson from the short lived 'Toffee for your coffee' and 'Monkey see monkey donut' because no matter how sugary sweet the use of recognized brands can seem, no one enjoys the taste of predetermination for long.

[truthskull 109]

i think with the right kind of hot sauce, predetermination tastes alright. my donut would be two hershey kisses and pieces of a twix bar, it would be called "a kiss betwixt breakfast". zan knows what i'm talking about

[truthskull 109]

i think with the right kind of hot sauce, predetermination tastes alright. my donut would be two hershey kisses and pieces of a twix bar, it would be called "a kiss betwixt breakfast". zan knows what i'm talking about

[Qluke_therin 0]

Truth be told, I was pulling for TLDDC. Look like they made second place in the final week after all - dreams do come true!

That said, this podcast was SPECTACULAR! I came to Earwolf for CDR/CBB, and after finishing all of them off I stayed for The Earwolf Challenge and Who Charted? I have been a fan of Besser for years. Listening to him give podcast/comedy advice is a goldmine. I love how Earwolf makes the listener feel informed by giving a certain amount of transparency to their process and art that normally is buried in other podcasts. I could tangibly feel the tension and catharsis of the judges' decision, and it made for an exciting and highly-enjoyable listen.

Also, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make a Hear Ya Later! shirt. If I can wear a tee donning Besser's lovable mug and his world-famous catch phrase I'll score chics NON. STOP. Please, folks, do it for the 'tang.

[Qluke_therin 0]

Truth be told, I was pulling for TLDDC. Look like they made second place in the final week after all - dreams do come true!

That said, this podcast was SPECTACULAR! I came to Earwolf for CDR/CBB, and after finishing all of them off I stayed for The Earwolf Challenge and Who Charted? I have been a fan of Besser for years. Listening to him give podcast/comedy advice is a goldmine. I love how Earwolf makes the listener feel informed by giving a certain amount of transparency to their process and art that normally is buried in other podcasts. I could tangibly feel the tension and catharsis of the judges' decision, and it made for an exciting and highly-enjoyable listen.

Also, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make a Hear Ya Later! shirt. If I can wear a tee donning Besser's lovable mug and his world-famous catch phrase I'll score chics NON. STOP. Please, folks, do it for the 'tang.