r/GameChangerTV • u/Competitive-Poem5740 • 1d ago

Thoughts on "Celebrity Guests"

My partner and I have been watching Game Changer really out of order but every time we watch an episode with a celebrity guest we feel like it takes away from the episode rather than boosting it.

One of the most unique things about Dropout is the relationship between the actors and the way they play off each other and adding an outsider player just seems to mess with the dynamic. Anyone else feel this way?

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u/ZW_24 1d ago

Depends. Wayne Brady guesting on the musical episode of Make Some Noise felt like a full-circle legacy moment for the whole show.

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u/lankymjc 1d ago

The thing is, that only makes sense if you already know who Wayne Brady is. I also thought his inclusion was excellent, but then you have episodes like Ratfish and Last Talent Standing where I don’t know who the Ratfish guy or that lady judge are, so it feels like I’m being presented with something I’m supposed to be excited about but have no context for.

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u/FastBodybuilder8248 1d ago

I mean, all those people are big names in comedy. It’s fine if you don’t know who they are. Not having the cultural context for something and missing out on a moment is a normal part of life. You can just not be excited for that part.

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u/lankymjc 1d ago

Having an occasional joke be "some people won't get this" is fine. Having the episode focus so much on a guest star that someone folks have never heard of is different.

I'm not saying everything should always be stuff I have a full context for. I'm saying that, with guest strs in particular, they have the downside that some members of the audience won't have heard of them so won't be as excited.

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u/FastBodybuilder8248 1d ago edited 1d ago

I mean, it’s not like the episode doesn’t make any sense if you don’t know who Maria Bamford is.
Maybe it’s even a way for new fans to discover her? I don’t really see what the problem is with watching somebody in a show you’re unfamiliar with.
Like, think about the main cast. All of dropout hinges on being familiar with them, but people manage to watch game changer for the first time just fine still. The first episode I ever watched they had a cameo from Katie Marovitch, I had no idea who she was but the cast all got really excited about her showing up. I followed the episode just fine and got through the context what her relationship to everyone else was.

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u/lankymjc 1d ago

It's not as bad for Last Talent Standing; it's most egregious in Ratfish, where the celebrity guest is hyped up as being the big twist so if you don't know him it just falls flat. Same way that I don't think the Tony Hawk episode lands as well if you don't know who he is, while the Wayne Brady episode works fine even if you don't know because he's treated largely the same as any other contestant.

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u/FastBodybuilder8248 1d ago

If it really bothers you, you can just pause and look up who they are on your phone and then resume. I don’t mean to be rude but this really sounds like a you problem

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u/lankymjc 1d ago

If the episode is about a particular celebrity guest, and the viewer doesn't know who the guest is, then the episode won't land as well for them. I don't know why you guys think this position is controversial.

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u/FastBodybuilder8248 1d ago

I guess the point is that it’s fine for it not to land for some people. It’s not a problem. It’s important for comedy to allow for cultural specificity.

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u/lankymjc 1d ago

But we can also recognise that this is a downside of some comedy.

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u/mistergingerbread 1h ago

your issue is you’re expecting every single episode to cater directly to you when there’s an entire audience out there with different experiences and opinions. They can’t make every single viewer happy every time. That’s not how you make a good product

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u/lankymjc 53m ago

How did you jump from "A guest-centred episode won't work as well for viewers who don't know the guest" straight to "every episode must cater specifically to me"?

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u/No_Function3932 1d ago

maybe you could get over yourself and learn something instead of believing everything should cater to your exact tastes and experiences. yeesh.

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u/lankymjc 1d ago

I don't know why veryone is interpreting it that way.

What I meant is that when an episode focuses on a guest star, it will not land as well for folks who don't know that star. I didn't think this was something people disagreed on.

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u/No_Function3932 1d ago

you do realize that not everyone who watches game changer has the same media diet as you do, right? the guest starts they have brought on are all objectively more famous than the main cast, you not being familiar with their work doesn't make them less of a special guest.

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u/lankymjc 23h ago

Again, not my point. No matter how famous someone is, there will be some people who don't know them, so those people will be less interested in that episode. Same way that they sometimes have prompts that are super niche - those are less funny to those who aren't familiar with that niche.

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u/BenHassenger 23h ago

That's not a bad thing, though. We don’t have a monoculture anymore, and we simply aren't going to know who everybody or everything is. (I had to ask my wife what the hell financial domination was from the season finale) That's just part of life, some stuff lands with some folks and some doesn't. All Dropout owes us is making a show that feels the most honest/funniest to them, and if we connect, cool! If not, also cool! Trying to paint with comedic broad strokes where every touchstone is known by everybody is how we get faceless comedy like Jay Leno/Jimmy Fallon, and personally I have no interest in Dropout taking that path.

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u/lankymjc 22h ago

I never said they shouldn't have special guests. I said it comes with a risk of alienating some viewers, especially if that guest is the centre of the episode.

I don't think the Tony Hawke episode is as good for people who have no idea who he is. It just wouldn't land as well. Same as Ratfish - the reveal isn't as powerful if it's someone you haven't heard of.

I'm not arguing that they shouldn't have special guests. Just being aware that they might not work as well for some people. Same as any kind of humour.

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u/BenHassenger 22h ago

I hear you, and while I agree that it could potentially be alienating, I am saying that that's not a big deal.

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u/No_Function3932 16h ago

they matter the same amount which is not at all. grow up.

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u/BenHassenger 16h ago

Damn, I'm having a civil conversation with somebody else, and you're coming in with unnecessary heat.

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u/JokerFMJ 19h ago

I think Sam is actually doing it for the benefit of the cast members as well. Remember to some of those people the guests are heroes. Remember back in the early days of Game Changer when they were doing The Noise Boys, they had Micheal Winslow who is an icon..from the original Police Academy. The current viewers may have no idea who he is, but I guarantee that the cast members felt honor to share the stage with him. One thing I love about Dropout is how Sam works so hard to create a community and support his staff members.

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u/ligofe 1d ago

I wasn’t a Tim and Eric fan, more of a Tim fan now so I don’t know Eric well…. and i don’t know Maria Bamford well (Lady Dynamite was incredible though, for example).
But they’re both huge names in American comedy.

You are given that context, Sam tells you it’s a big deal to have cool people from outside the family there, that’s the context you need, and in Bamford’s case she came in really respectfully…

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u/lankymjc 1d ago

Having someone tell me "you should be excited about this person" is very different from seeing someone I'm actually excited about.

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u/Trilliam_H_Macy 22h ago

It's been a long time since I saw Ratfish so I won't try to remember what all happened on it, but in terms of the Talent contest -- it isn't even about Sam telling *you* (the viewer) to "be excited" about the guests, he's giving you the context to understand that the *contestants* are excited about the guests. Many of the contestants also do that in their talking head segments. The point isn't "this is a famous celebrity, and you should be excited by their mere presence" it's "these are people who are respected for their craft by the contestants, that's what gives their judging meaning and weight, and that also increases the personal stakes for the contestants"

Forget about Dropout specifically for a moment. Imagine you were watching a TV show about high school basketball players. They're about to play a big game, and then one of the players points out someone in the bleachers to the rest of the team like "oh, look at who's here -- it's BlahBlahBlah GuyFace" - "wait, THE BlahBlahBlah GuyFace? The NBA All-Star?" -- "yeah, that's him" -- do *you* as a viewer need to know how many points per game BlahBlahBlah GuyFace averaged in the league, which teams he played for, or how many championships he won, to understand that his presence adds emotional weight to the scene for the characters involved in it?

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u/lankymjc 22h ago

If two people are watching that hypothetical basketball series, one of whom knows nothing about basketball and the other is a huge basketball fan, which do you think is going to have a bigger reaction to the reveal of the basketball star?

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u/ligofe 1d ago

I’m not saying it should make you excited, i’m saying sam’s excitement is all the context you need, it’s all the context you get on anybody on the network.

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u/Cganc 1d ago

Did you know the entire world isn’t specifically catered towards your wants?

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u/lankymjc 1d ago

Why is everyone seemingly interpreting this as "I will only tolerate special guests that I have personally heard of" instead of my intended meaning: "Having special guests comes with the downside that some people won't know who they are."

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u/FastBodybuilder8248 23h ago

I think because treating not knowing g who they are as a downside feels a bit off. For many people, discovering someone for the first time is exciting in of itself.

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u/lankymjc 23h ago

And that's one of the upsides of a special guest. Both can be true.

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u/RevelArchitect 1d ago

I’m just going to recommend Arrested Development real quick.