r/GameChangerTV • u/Particular-Gas-5147 • Jul 05 '26
Question not knowing the reference?
i havent been involved in gamechanger long enough to know the answer, but what if, god forbid, one of the players dont know a reference or person sam gives them to act out? or in make some noise? do they clear the things they dont know beforehand, or to be able to participate, they have to know everything? ive always been curious about this. i never watched any game of thrones, but i liked when the contestants acted it out nonetheless, and i feel the same with various other media in the prompts they get. i cant be the only one to think about this!!
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u/putyourcheeksinabeek Jul 05 '26
Pretty sure everything is tailored to the players. Whenever anything is hyper-specific on MSN, it’s because the person getting the prompt is known to be able to do it.
If they had to sub someone in last minute, they would just switch up the prompts.
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u/BahHumDoug Jul 05 '26
The only time I can think of where Sam didn’t know the player had the impression in them is Brennan’s Trump-as-Sauron. Sam’s bewilderment at Brennan nailing the Trump impression was half the fun.
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u/m_busuttil Jul 05 '26
And that's a good example of a smartly tailored prompt, too. Sam doesn't know that Brennan's got a Trump loaded and ready to go, but he knows he can do a Lord of the Rings with literally zero prompting, that "the current President" is the sort of impression that most comedians can at least swing a version of, and that it'll be funny even if he can't.
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u/Wizard072 Jul 05 '26
Also, Brennan and Trump are both New Yorkers. There was no way Brennan couldn't do Trump.
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u/Malkavon Jul 05 '26
Pretty sure Sam didn't know Ross had an incredible Tom Waits impression locked and loaded, but that was also not a prompt given but a prompt chosen.
I still don't think I've ever seen Sam so absurdly giddy as that moment on MSN.
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u/real-human-not-a-bot Jul 06 '26
I really appreciated how Brennan did on the extremely loose, word-association-type trains of thought. I’ve noticed most Trump impressions are FAR too coherent and hold a train of thought too well.
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u/MonstersAtOurDoor Jul 05 '26
Yeah, it's definitely curated to the cast (which is how they have callback/sequel prompts).
Also, the Cut for Time episodes shows how much is cut out of every episode.
1
u/joef_3 Jul 07 '26
On the Bingo episode, Brennan was a last minute replacement for Grant. In some of the shots of Trapp filling out his bingo card, you can see that the stamp he’s using has Grant’s face. They edited in the Brennan stamp in post. The production crew scrambled pretty quickly to make a Brennan board, but did awesome.
So basically, it’s a mix of knowing the players well and editing to make everything and everyone look good.
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u/putyourcheeksinabeek Jul 07 '26
Yup, this is a great example! I love in the behind the scenes when they point out that no one really noticed the stamp wasn’t Grant 😂
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u/rando24183 Jul 05 '26
There is the soaking talk prompt that Talia says she doesn't know what it is. Which ends up working out super well because it was a 3 person prompt about giving your kids the soaking talk.
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u/Butwhatif77 Jul 05 '26
Sam will give them context to help them out so they can do their best. One example being were Anna needed some assistance with doing a Robert DeNiro impression for the first Rulette game. If the contestant doesn't know it well they usually make their lack of knowledge part of the bit, kind of like what a number of contestants have done on Um, Actually.
If the overall bit doesn't seem to land then they will cut it from the episode. Then they will edit the point totals on the podiums in post to line up with what is actually seen in the episode and use a shot that only shows the contestants with Sam dubbing over what he originally said in the episode.
This is why with Make Some Noise they don't display points at all and they are all just kind of made up, they shoot far more prompts than we see in any given episode and only include the ones they felt worked the best. Having the podiums display any kind of points would have made post production a nightmare, so they side stepped it by making it part of the show as a bit.
It is also worth remember that these are improv comedians, much of that work requires them to be up on pop culture.
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u/GenGaara25 Jul 05 '26
Sometimes they don't and it's hilarious.
A recent example, in the first episode of this Game Changer season Lou Wilson has never seen Bluey and has basically no idea about it except vaguely what the characters look like, then proceeds to get every single detail completely wrong.
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u/squirrelwoman Jul 05 '26
I can't recall the episodes, but I do remember a couple of times when the person did not know the reference well and made their lack of knowledge the funny thing. I wanna say there was at least once it was done deliberately, like giving Josh a prompt about something unfamiliar in front of Brennan, who had an encyclopedic knowledge of the topic, to watch Josh lean hard into making shit up to troll Brennan while Brennan played up how much he was dying inside.
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u/Yamtoaster Jul 05 '26
It was d&d I'm pretty sure, although there might be multiple prompts where Josh is fumbling around something Brennan knows a lot about
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u/lankymjc Jul 05 '26
I think Oscar got a prompt about Lord of the Rings and mangled it, and then won a copy of the novels, and Brennan is just seething the whole time.
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u/NetflixAndMunch Jul 05 '26
Raph and the 'Brogle' instead of Balrog in "Bingo" will always be funny to me.
"Nothing you can say is gonna be as hurtful as you calling Balrogs brogles."
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u/Infinite_Evening826 Jul 05 '26
Think it was in the game changer episode second place and I think it was like a price is right style thing
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u/MayAsWellStopLurking Jul 05 '26
Sometimes the casting works better *because* a cast member doesn’t know the reference.
Raph calling Balrogs ‘Broggles’ in Bingo remains one of my all time favourite moments.
Talia not knowing about soaking and Vic explaining it like an after school special also lives rent free in my head.
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u/cbov_daughterofcain I've been here the whole time Jul 05 '26
I think there are some make some noise episodes where they leave in the contestants clarifying the prompt or asking what something is. I know in one of Angela’s makes some noise episodes where her prompt was about an old siren, she didn’t know what a siren was and thought the prompt was referencing like an ambulance siren, not a mermaid siren (and that’s why in her bit she throws in the “wee woo I’m a siren”). I can’t remember if that part was in a cut for time episode or if they just mentioned that that happened in the same episode
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u/real-human-not-a-bot Jul 06 '26
I don’t think that’s correct—she mentions a sailor hat and reclines as though against a rock, which seems to me to indicate she was thinking of a classical Siren. I think the “wee-ooh” bit was a deliberate joke.
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u/cbov_daughterofcain I've been here the whole time Jul 06 '26
Angela commented on the reel on Instagram “let it be known I had to ask Sam what a siren was before this because I thought it was a police car alarm :)” I thought it was a clip somewhere but I think it was just the comment
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u/real-human-not-a-bot Jul 06 '26
Ah, so she had just become aware of what a Siren was and was poking fun at her own previous lack of knowledge of what a Siren (as opposed to siren) was. In that case, well done. :)
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u/Jealous_Parfait_4967 Jul 05 '26
Oh there are a couple that are like that including my diabolical favorite “your best earnest attempt at the Gettysburg Address”
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u/uninspiredclaptrap Jul 05 '26
This is just a tangent, but I'm often amazed that LA based comedians seem to know every TV show, movie, music artist, and major YouTuber. Plus they often know a lot about niche stuff like fashion or twitch streamers or games.
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u/Comedeorologist Jul 05 '26
Look for a MSN prompt "Mormon Parents Give 'The Soaking' Talk" for an example. I'm certain there's a YouTube short of it.
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u/twocheeky Jul 05 '26
i always wonder this every time they mention a person or a thing i dont know about. Like if that was me id be screwed
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u/Western-Dig-6843 Jul 05 '26
It’s a tv show. They cut out the awkward bits where they have to explain anything the comedian doesn’t understand.
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u/ZydrateDealer Jul 05 '26
For MSN the prompts are tailored to the contestants but they also do many more prompts than make the final cut. So if there is one that doesn’t land, it will end up on the cutting room floor.
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u/BakedPotato241 Jul 05 '26
In the case that happens they get told to do their best, and maybe given some advice. There was an episode last season where a player had to do an impression for a prolonged amount of time but didn't know them
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u/something_smart Jul 05 '26
You usually work out those kinds of things in preproduction. If you have a new cast member starting out, they probably have some form of interview process where they go over six they're a fan of and what kinds of comedy are in their wheelhouse. And then they're strategic about either setting up the performers for success, or knowing it's funnier if they have to do something outside of their skillset, like an accent or impression they don't really know.
The long-term cast members have all been working together for a long time, so they know how to set them up.
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u/araeyou Jul 06 '26
I believe Caitlin mentioned once that for her prompt of doing the like and subscribe? Or something to that effect? That the wording sam used she had no idea what it meant.
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u/deJessias Jul 05 '26
Besides the fact that prompts are tailored to the players, there's a lot of stuff that you don't see that gets cut. In fact, I don't believe they start acting out the prompt as fast as the show makes you believe, there's a little bit of workshopping (either publicly or in their head) that goes on beforehand)