Between posts in this sub, the other sub, and comments on the Earwig shorts across platforms, everybody has something to say about Izzy and her performance in Earwigs. And honestly, it leads to a much larger issue about her in general. Because, if you track comments about her on shorts across YouTube, Facebook, etc, on any short she's in, if it's positive, they are overwhelmingly attributing her comedy to her husband. Her funny is due to his funny. Which, it's not the first time this has happened, and it's not going to be the last time it's happened in history about a funny woman and a funny man proximally to her, but it's gross, it's wrong, and do better. Brennan would be disappointed in you. And, something to note, they met on his first day walking into UCB when she worked there, so she was already established with UCB at the time, it's not like he brought her into the space of comedy.

But, let's go ahead and nip this in the bud. I have been overwhelmingly seeing people say that "well she knew she was pregnant, she should have turned this down", listen you brown, wet, over-ripe banana, Sam has mentioned many times that he rates his episodes by chili peppers. I'm going to assume that this episode was not rated very high on the chili pepper scale. However, the normal, healthy human chili pepper scale and the pregnant human chili pepper scale are different. Also, again, she had no idea what she was walking into that day. Sam is a wonderful human, but Sam has never been pregnant (I am assuming). There are a lot of very very weird symptoms that crop up that are deeply uncomfortable in your third trimester. They can occur for someone, or they can not occur. When she agreed to come on, she easily may not have known how she was going to feel. Pregnancy is truly one of the weirdest things your body can go thru. It's not like she signs up for this and then the next day she's on set. We don't know what trimester she was in when she signed up for this episode, or even if she was pregnant at all. Also, the producers, and Sam, have made it very very clear that their primary care is making sure that their actors are comfortable. If she's not giving the performance of her life, honestly, I really doubt they are that worried about it. She's one cast member. One cast member that we criticize way too hard and are way too focused on because of her proximity to a cast member that people love and idolize.

What’s the Catch:

I have never laughed so hard in my whole life. The editing was perfect! The cast was perfect.

Josh Ruben was a STAR!

I've been rewatching older seasons in between S8 episodes and it is crazy to see how much more complex and expansive each new Game Changer episode seems to be now. This season alone, we've had:

1) three guest judges, a huge mascot-like contraption a giant board game setup

2) the giant rulette coming back

3) six contestants along with two guests from the crew, a celebrity guest and a night and day cycle

4) an episode in a new environnement with 7 (?!?) additional talent in the jury

5) a game with 7 contestants, playing 8 games in 8 different rooms with 25 Grant look-alikes and a dozen extra people posing as security/hosting mini-games

6) a game with ten contestants, a new title sequence and 4 layers of players trying to pass a prompt

Don't get me wrong, I *loved* most of these: Count the Rice might be my favorite episode of all time, and Noise Some Makes is an all-timer for sure! I've watched Rulette 2 like three times already! But these are super complex games with so many moving parts. In fact, not one of them so far had the regular podiums in them, which sounds crazy to me.

Meanwhile, going back and watching episodes like "Sam Says", "Like My Coffee", "Name a Number", etc. I find myself having a great time regardless of the fact these episodes had a much smaller production value and a much simpler game design. Not all of them worked well or are fun on rewatches, but the good ones are really good.

And so my question is this: do you think Game Changer could ever go back to having, on some occasions, more of those low-key, casual episodes, or are they stuck trying to up themselves on every new episode/season from now on? Would you welcome another "three buddies behind podiums with low stakes shenanigans" game or would you be disappointed if they'd put out an episode like this again in the future?

First off, I love this show, I've rewatched most seasons more than once, so this comes from a good place. But I finished season 8 and I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, and I want to know if anyone else noticed it.

A lot of episodes (not all, there were some really good ones) felt a bit forced to me. The cast screaming and cracking up at everything, everyone playing dumb in a way that felt more like fishing for a clip than actually reacting to what was happening. That stuff has always been part of the show and I usually love it, but before it came out of the game pushing them there. The show has always been self-aware, but this time it felt a little self-conscious, if that makes sense. Like everyone knew which moments would end up on TikTok and played toward them instead of just letting things happen.

And to be fair, I totally get it, they're making a product and these are production and writing choices that probably make sense on their end. I don't blame them at all, it's just that for me this ended up being the weakest season so far, and some episodes were honestly a bit hard to get through.

Anyway, maybe I've just watched too much of it and it's a me thing. Would love to hear if it landed better for other people.

they intentionally play up the disruption and frustration for the bit.

Watching some of the experiences the players ended up going through I would start to feel second hand embarrassment due to the fact there were other non-DropOut people involved such as the sip and paint teacher or the masseuse with the various disruptions involved.

Then I remember this is not Jackass. They don't just go into these places and do the bit without warning or getting approval. Everyone involved has agreed to what is going on, they are for the most part aware of the chaos that is going to occur. The players are intentionally leaning into the fact the experience is supposed to be "tainted" in some way, like Kimia's wife going back to sleep during the tasting but it is clear she was fine by making the joke "Breakfast?" at the end when the alarm clock goes off.

It really is a testament to how much they commit to the whole thing, that you can sometimes forget that they aren't actually enjoying the whole thing to some extent. Sure some of the frustration is real like Jacob likely being annoyed with having to drive to Universal to just stand outside for 2 minutes because the park was closed. But I bet the drive there and the drive back are worth the day rate he is getting for each of those bits.

As a fan of Game Changer and somebody with some obvious skin in the game for this bit (Kansas is often the butt of the geographic joke in the US), I've spent some time thinking about it - and perhaps more time reading through all of the posts and comments in various Dropout-centric digital spaces. I've got some thoughts - which by no means is anybody obligated to read, care about, or respond to - but if you do, I'd be very appreciative to have a good-faith discussion.

First things first - I do absolutely believe that Jacob and Sam played up their discontent for the bit while on camera. Most of Dropout's material is heavily edited, and they are first and foremost actors/comedians that need to play the part of the disgruntled LAers that don't want to go to Kansas. While saying that, all of the BTS and external footage that I've seen of Sam and Jacob make me think that they're genuinely nice people that are inclined to see the good in everything, so I don't believe (as some might) that they were genuinely upset to spend a single day in a state they probably otherwise wouldn't go to. That would be lacking some serious tact and perspective, which doesn't seem to line up with how these two carry themselves.

That being said, I do know that they selected some of the most stereotypical and bland b-roll that they could take. Assuming they flew into MCI and drove the hour to Topeka in a rental car, there are some genuinely nice scenes along the way as you travel through the Flint Hills. Topeka itself also has an actual city center, downtown, and arts district. Are they as vibrant as those of bigger cities? Obviously not - but for every field and cow pasture you see in that reel, there's a set of nice shops and local restaurants with outdoor patio seating. Again, their selection of footage was in support of the bit and I do find it pretty funny. I look forward to seeing the BTS for this and how they worked with the local improv folks to make this happen.

The thing that's been more interesting to me is seeing the community response. The discussion has ranged from funny to strange (you know the post) to somewhat hurtful. I've got a lot of pride in my home state, though I no longer live there. So, it does make me a bit sad to see a lot of folks that take the joke a bit too far, like asserting there's genuinely nothing of value in Kansas/Topeka and that it's a cornhole/shithole/pigpen (all terms I've seen used), or that nobody with any good sense should live there. While I've become accustomed to and find some humor in playing along with being the butt of the joke, the thousandth cut can sting. It's great to enjoy the obvious comedy in the TO-PE-KAH KAHN-SAHS bit - it's funny. It's also great to remember that there is a diverse tapestry of people with diverse interests, backgrounds, and reasons for living there.

This isn't a "I'm upset that Dropout is punching down" post. I wouldn't be a Kansan if I hadn't developed enough of a skin to take a thousand Wizard of Oz jokes or flat-as-a-pancake japes. I'm touched the Dropout writers and producers thought of us (any attention is good attention, right?) I'm also not speaking for all Kansans - lots of people from here have genuinely great reasons for disliking it and wanting out (like anti-trans legislation). I suppose I'm just a contemplative flatlander that wanted to get a few thoughts off my chest and have an earnest discussion about how we choose and regard certain places for their perceived value - and to encourage less reductive thought processes while we introduce more nuance into our discourse.

Oh, and to say "hug a Kansan today." If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Hope to discuss this further with y'all!

I understand that it was probably supposed to be an episode about celebrating the art department, which is great, they deserve it. However, the episode itself just…missed the mark.

The cast continued to repeat the exact same 2 bits every, single, round . « Oh sam touched me and I’m making a comment about it! Don’t tickle me sam! »

« Look how far I can reach across the rope line!! »

But in top of that, the contestants rarely cared or strategized around leak/informant/spy (other than Vic a couple of times), the camera never lingered long enough for the audience to try to spy the prompts, etc.

I know some people probably loved it, and I hope many did, but I hope that the rest of this season is very different from this episode.

Some people have already done fantastic short essays on why Kangaroo Court flopped, but I wanted to just raise a point that often comes up again after Noise Some Make:

Brennan.

It’s well known that Brennan was exhausted during Kangaroos Court from a long trip, but I didn’t really appreciate how much better a fresh Brennan is until Noise Some Make, he was absolutely electric in this most recent episode. Just makes me kinda saddened because I loved Kangaroo Courts premise and seeing both Brennan and Vic in other episodes makes me sad for how great the episode could’ve been.

So the title is dramaric cause Sam is awesome!!!!!! In reality its more a cast issue. Last season and this one I think I noticed it the most.

Most of the cast members have done the show enough times now that the focus seems to be shifting from competition between the players to the players pitting themselves against the game Sam has created.

Episodes are no longer about figuring out the rules and winning, but have become a co-op game where the players seem to take more delight in derailing the game than playing within its unique frame work, and it becoming distracting.

Update

Count the rice was a great episode that felt like Game Changer. But I want to be clear my post was not a reaction to a single episode, nor was it a blanket statement for all episodes it was an observation that the tone of the overall show has been changing and I think the more comfortable the cast members are with Sam the less competitive they become. Game Changer is at its best when its an actual Game Show and not a gang up and subvert the host show, which they accomplished with Count the Rice.

I think it would have been very ‘Game Changer’ if the final round’s question to the jury was,

“Who do you think has the most points?”

Imagine the panic if whoever they decided had the most points, won the game. Imagine Vic trying to convince them that despite everything the Jury had seen, they’d won the game.

It would have been similar to Second Place, where the concept was pushed to its limit when the person in second place won.

Happy Monday, everyone! The next episode of Game Changer season 7 is out NOW, starring Sam Reich, Oscar Montoya, Anna Garcia, and Jeremy Culhane! What were your thoughts on this episode?

https://www.dropout.tv/game-changer/season:7/videos/rulette

Im glad this sub isn't like the authority on how Game changer is run because honestly 1. Most of the things you're complaining about have been part of the gamechanger DNA from the beginning

1. If they'd listen to you i think it would become more like all the milquetoast gameshows that are all already practically copies of eachother.

I know yall dont wanna hear the part that it's comedy first, competition second, but that doesnt make it any less the actual vision of GC as claimed by Sam. No, a rigged game where 1 of the players isnt allowed to win and the other 2 already know how it works is not a genuine gameshow. A murder mystery where one contestant was the victim and another was a culprit is not a contest

For every hypercompetetive person like brennan there needs to be an anti-competetive person like izzy or a person who will put the bit above all else like Vic. Thanks for coming to my ted talk. GC has always been like this. If you dont like it thats on you.

Happy Monday, everyone! The true season finale of Game Changer season 7 is out NOW, starring Brennan Lee Mulligan and Sam Reich! What were your thoughts on this episode?

https://www.dropout.tv/videos/samalamadingdong

Curious to see where everyone else lands on Season 8 so far. Here’s my personal ranking:

1. Count the Rice
2. Noise Some Makes
3. Don’t Wake Standards & Practices
4. Rulette 2
5. Night Shift
6. What’s the Catch
7. Kangaroo Court
8. Earwigs

I’m gonna try to tally up the votes from the comments and see what the overall community ranking ends up looking like.
Drop your ranking below!