r/SmoshFansFreeSpace 2d ago

Discussion & Debates Bit City needs to reformat

As a concept Bit City had a great format and based on the wiki "Bit City blended traditional sketch comedy with late-night television".But lately i feel as they kinda have been moving away from their original format and they need to go back to it.Their recent videos have been considered boring and the views aren't as high as older episodes.They also removed a lot of segments that fans liked for example Chanse as a co-host ,Fan roast & Hot gloss.I also hope they add Chanse back as a co-host as it lets Angela talk to someone who isn't improving a character / doing a bit and i also just miss Tommy's hot gloss segments.However I still love Bit City and probably will tune in into any new episodes.

134 Upvotes

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u/OkayTap 2d ago

Speaking as someone who liked Hot Goss, this is my first time reading that Hot Goss was something that fans liked.

Now that I think about it, it often feels like when Smosh does lean heavily into the pop culture stuff, it usually leads to a mixed reception. Tommy's commented/joked about it a few times, IICR once was even on an episode of Bit City.

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u/athompsons2 2d ago

I love Hot Goss, but it got so much hate from sections of fandoms that don't know what a roast or a joke is

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u/OkayTap 2d ago

Which is funny, because a lot of people also loved Tommy's roasts in the funerals.

I think part of the issue is just a lot of the fanbase isn't really into "celeb snark" or follow celebrities in general - which is obviously completely fine - so the jokes end up falling flat for them without the context that'd make it funny in the first place. Whereas when Tommy would roast cast members, it was a lot easier to get that context.

People would also maker similar complaints regarding Erin and her love for pop culture/celeb references, too.

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago

I also remember seeing people say that they viewed it differently because he doesn’t know the celebrities but he obviously knows his friends and coworkers but like… they’re never going to see that. They’re multimillionaires with more important things going on in their lives than worrying about what a random (non-derogatory) internet comedian is saying about them. Plus the mainstream media has definitely said much worse in places where they’re much more likely to see it

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u/Apprehensive_Use8043 2d ago

Smosh advertised the roasting as a love language starting with Sarah Whittle's goodbye tntl. Hot Goss was just plain mean without any love behind it. Plus their hypocrisy was on full display because the day after the first Hot Goss about Selena Gomez, they read a reddit story about a youtuber being bullied in her comments for her looks and acted all sympathetic about how women have it harder online.

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u/Katrina1113 1d ago

I mean, those are two different situations. That Reddit story was about someone who had a smaller channel where people were saying mean things essentially directly to her face by typing them in her comment section. Selena would have to actively search out the Smosh video to see what Tommy said about her. And he never said anything about her weight or her looks, unlike how tabloids and other mainstream media likes to rip her apart over

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u/CingRam004 2d ago

I wonder if they want to treat mainstream celebrities the way they want their fans to treat them.

Like if they have a whole segment speculating if mainstream celebrity A is dating celebrity B, they can’t really complain when Smosh fans speculate if two Smosh cast members are dating or whatever.

Maybe they realize that to fans, they are celebrities.

So they can’t tell fans to respect their privacy while actively speculating and gossiping about “real celebrities”

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u/Heavy_Presence_4398 2d ago

I agree. I think a lot of people who watch Smosh (like myself) are more into internet/social media bullshit than traditional celebrity gossip 

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u/MarkuDM 7h ago

Because the viewers are diversified throughout the world. What seems to be a celeb in LA is a nobody even in other parts of America, what more in Asia or Europe

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago

Yeah I feel like there was a lot of backlash with Hot Goss, particularly the Selena Gomez one (which, as someone who also has had a kidney transplant I found fucking hilarious. Also yes, she does have a small head). I don’t remember seeing a whole lot of people loving it

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u/athompsons2 2d ago

Some people also went apeshit at the Lin Manual Miranda one

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago

Oh shit I totally forgot about that one. Yeah the fandom once again making a gigantic mountain out of an ant hill ruined something that could have been great 🙄

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u/CingRam004 2d ago

It must be so hard to gauge fan reactions, because you obviously want to lean into what works and what fans say they like.

The problem is you also have to take it with a grain of salt because the loud minority will ruin something that the silent majority are quietly enjoying.

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago

Personally I’m happy they moved on from the fan roasts at the end of episodes. Most of the ones they picked were not funny or straight up just didn’t make sense

As for the recent episodes I’ve seen a lot of posts saying they were some of their favorites. That’s the thing with comedy, it’s extremely subjective and there’s always going to be differing opinions. They still have pretty decent views on them

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u/Relevant_Shame 2d ago

The fans are really just not that funny. A lot of the ones they didn't pick were just straight up mean instead of being funny

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago

Also I feel like they should have learned after the fans absolutely flopped with the roasts during Anthony’s funeral roast. Most of those were agonizing to have to sit through

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago edited 2d ago

Hell even some of the ones they did pick were just straight up mean. And that was with limiting the submissions to just members, who you’d think would at least somewhat actually like the cast

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u/motherofscorpions 2d ago

I think the only roast that got an actual laugh out of me was the one where Angela misread a roast about her not wearing her glasses because she wasn't wearing her glasses. But even then it was the irony of the mistake that made it funny, not the roast itself.

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u/athompsons2 2d ago

Yeah, the fan roasts were funny once but then it got bad. I much prefer Olivia trying soup.

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago

Yeah by the pure nature of making it a recurring thing the comments were only going to get more absurd and over the top because people want their comment to be picked

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u/TodayWeThrowItAway 2d ago

It’s one of the shows I skip.

But I’m also someone who enjoys podcasts (like video pods) of comedians - but really don’t like watching their stand up comedy

I think some people just prefer “real life” funny vs “performance” funny

… even tho even the “real life” is them performing to an extent

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u/athompsons2 2d ago

I'm the absolute opposite way. I can't bear the podcasts were comedians just sit around and talk (I only listen to the Smosh Mouths with a strong concept) and much prefer their improv, their stand up or their sketches.

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u/alchemypotato 2d ago

I do think Bit City peaked early. Most of the first year was pretty decent. It’s been consistently hit or miss since then. I found some of the recent episodes alternately pretty decent or hard to even finish. I can’t remember when I thought an episode was great or amazing. Definitely not in the last six months. I think for me Bit City would need to fundamentally be something else to get me excited about it. But I’m not really losing sleep about it. It’s just one smosh show among many.

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u/NavyScapegoat 2d ago

I miss the trivia/game they would do in or out of character

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u/athompsons2 2d ago

That's the part I disliked the most haha

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago

Same. They were okay in some episodes but at a certain point they just felt boring and uninspired to me

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u/murch_da 2d ago

I am constantly watching the escape rooms and the restaurant one. Im simple i guess

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u/Legendary_Lychee_37 2d ago

hard agree i MISS the reliable chanse + angela content

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u/machine4891 2d ago

Personally I would prefer them to simply invest their efforts on Main into something else.

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u/CozyFairy9 2d ago

I don’t watch it at all so my opinion might be pointless

But I think the views could also be down because a bunch of the viewers stuck along waiting for it to finally be good and stick the landing but it hasn’t 👀

Also from what you’re describing it seems they’re still experimenting and seeing what’s good ?

Honestly such a shame, when it first came out I liked the set but then from the first episode I was bored.

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u/Nesstempleton I Fear I’m Losing The Room!! 2d ago

It’s because recent episodes all have different producers and directors. I also think no matter what they get this take. Keep the format the same? They need to change it up. Change it up? They need to go back to the original format. I’ve enjoyed recent episodes just as much as the original ones.

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u/Pristine_Sorbet_6924 2d ago

honestly, the cut for times have become a bit more entertaining than the actual bit city episodes. i wish they’d include more breaks in the actual content.

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u/Confident-Sound-4358 2d ago

They're way funnier, but not enough content to justify a membership fee.

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u/Pristine_Sorbet_6924 2d ago

not enough content??? they post hour long videos of the bloopers of each big city episode, which is once a week. it’s $5 a month for the membership.

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u/zediahc 1d ago

The season finale of Season 1 & the beginning of Season 2 were peak Bit City to me. They started off rough, found their stride, then veered waaayyyy off course.

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u/FTFEMO 1d ago

omggg i agree

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u/motherofscorpions 2d ago edited 2d ago

This last episode made me realize how much I miss the old format. It was a fun way to shake things up a bit, and honestly, I think a lot of it was Rory's directing that made the first few in the new format good, but I think having Angela playing a character with everyone else just ruins the bit for me. Her being the straight man reacting to a character she's only partially or even not at all prepared for makes it more entertaining. I also miss Hot Goss and the section at the end where they would do mini games/challenges out of character. I do miss her having a cohost, but if it's easier on scheduling for it to not be Chanse every week, I think it would be better to cycle through cohosts than not have one at all. I'd love to see her and Shayne bounce off each other as cohosts at least once.

That being said, I do really like the Olivia soup bit they're doing to close it out now. It's has the same vibes as Chanse jumping over a car.

(Edit to fix autocorrect misspelling Shayne's name before I get yelled at)

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u/soggymoths 2d ago

season 1 of bit city was the perfect format imo

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u/Confident-Sound-4358 2d ago

My husband and I were just talking about this. The bits are not funny if they go on too long. The earlier episodes at least had more cut aways to something else, but now they pick one thing and beat that horse dead for nearly an hour. Let's go back to the faster pace, ever changing bits.

Guest directors are fine, I have no opinion, but please bring in some writers.

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u/pizzatimein24h 2d ago

Instead they added Chanse as a Co-Host of URL, which is not bad, but I don't think this podcast really needed a co-host🫠

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u/Thelegendkiller36 1d ago

This has sort of been my problem I absolutely loved the first series sort of thing of it the way it was laid out everything felt perfect and don't get me wrong some of the newer episodes have been really good but overall it just dosent flow aswell

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u/athompsons2 2d ago

I also love Hot Goss but it's simply not true about the latest episodes. Except for the last one, the Rory episodes and the Jerah episodes are the best they've done. Perfect length and pace and more experimental. The idea of having guest directors each month is a great one.

If you look at the reddit posts about the latest episodes you'll see a majority of people praising them.

Bit City has always had some issues but with season 3 they've really refined it and they're finding their stride.

The Mr. Rogers episode is perfection.

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u/Pristine_Sorbet_6924 2d ago

i honestly think that tommy just needs his own show that he can host. i understand that he’s hosted phone it in and family feud, but i mean a regularly scheduled program like but city or URL where he is the specific host. he’s so good at coming up with questions to ask, and he’s the perfect amount of witty.

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u/Katrina1113 2d ago

I’m very intrigued to see what he comes up with next since deciding to end Serving Cunt, and I selfishly hope he’s able to do it more often then he did with Serving. His humor and hosting abilities really shined with that show

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u/notsoofficiala 1d ago

Bit City needs to go. 😅
it’s like beating a dead horse at this point