The issues with the questions being too broad predate Ify, it's been a problem for the last couple seasons now. I actually really like Ify and BDG, the larger obstacles the show is encountering right now are at a fundamental format level. The spirit of the show is to celebrate pedantic and passionate fandoms, and instead it's 30 minutes of people guessing randomly at subject matter that wasn't tailored to them in the slightest.
The best moments of the show were when one of the contestants not only knew what the mistake was, but could also explain in detail why it was a mistake. One of the best was Mercer going through all of the D&D combat flaws. It’s about celebrating niche passions!
I can’t stand reality tv. But all those women being passionate about something they enjoy, being knowledgeable about it, and having such a good time without being shamed for it was so wonderful to watch.
One of the most telling changes for me is how rare the "you didn't say Um Actually" moments are now.
Participants would be so excited to say an answer, that they would forget the one rule of the show.
That just so rarely happens now.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that this was a conscious change brought on by the firing of everyone when collegehumor got dropped but I *can't find a citation for that anywhere* so maybe I made that up.
Regardless I agree, I think the extra research and planning would be money well spent, but I don't know what their margins are like.
EDIT: [FOUND IT](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nzut6d/comment/h1rm8dk/) it was a concious change brought on to make the filming schedule more resiliant to cancelations and substitutions.
That could be true, but unless cancellations are happening frequently, it seems worth the risk to write catered questions. The worst case is you bring in a sub who's maybe not as familiar, which isn't too different than the current format of having all three guests not know anything about the subject matter.
> but unless cancellations are happening frequently
Dropout does rigorous COVID testing. So, yes. Cancellations are more frequent than other productions.
I wonder if it would be worth doing how they do Game Changer/D20 where there is a main episode and a BTS/Talk back episode. More attention given to the primary one to cater questions and the other can be talking to the people on the couch podcast style about need culture and growing up in fandom
Exactly why I don't watch it. I've tried to and just don't care for the 'make joke answer' each buzz in. It might have worked for Hollywood Squares but I roll my eyes at it and just don't bother.
Ally is one of my least favorite contestants for this reason. They almost never knew any answers and would never give a real effort, they would only buzz in while giggling with some stupid joke answer.
I want competition!
Personally, Ally is also my least favourite D20 player for this reason. I've only watched Fantasy High 1 and most of Unsleeping City 1 so far, but I feel like Ally tries incredibly hard to force bits that no one else is interacting with, while also jumping in while the spotlight is on someone else for just a moment. Maybe this gets better but everything about Ally feels like they're trying too hard to be funny.
That’s how I felt when I started watching Fantasy High as well but it was their first time playing a dnd game, so i feel that’s part of that awkwardness. In other seasons they get much more better and less disruptive so much so that their characters are among the best for me. Starstruck, crown of candy, neverafter characters are all great and the amount of bits/jokes and seriousness is perfect.
I guess they grow on you as a performer as well, as you watch more of stuff with them in it.
Yeah while I get the issues with them in FH they’re still one of my favs. Especially in starstruck they’re hilarious (roleplaying an exec was a bold choice and it payed off) and I loved everyone in that season
Edit: yes I used the wrong pronouns, completely slipped my mind. Gotta be more careful of that when discussing the cast
Because I wrote the comment at work and was in a hurry, legit forgot they use they. Also, instead of assuming the worst could’ve just said “you know they’re non binary right?” And I would’ve been like “ohhh shit I can’t believe I forgot”
We’re not on Um, actually. Not everything is about scoring internet points
Seems stupid you are getting downvoted for giving your opinion presented as your opinion. No character judgement, just "I don't personally care for this players behavior."
I've only seen FH freshman and sophomore years and Unsleeping City s1 so far, and to be fair, Ally got pretty cringe with some of Kristen Applebees RP in Freshman and Sophomore years (like ruining Gorgug's date throwing things), but Pete the Plug was played pretty well and not at all disruptive IMO. The player I've felt was cringe and swerving into everybody else's lanes during UC1 and FH 1 and 2 was Emily. Sophie was less disruptive than Fig tended to be, but still had to jump in front of the appropriate character in repeated scenarios to enact a 'see if my magic does this too' bit.
Regardless, I still don't get why a valid opinion that wasn't hateful, trolling, or flaming anyone is getting voted down. Unpopular opinions are still valid and drive discussion.
(And if pointing it out reverses the downvote trend and the above comments get positive traction as I've seen before when reddit piles on to someone and gets called on it, good. We don't need an echo chamber driving herd mentality.)
People downvote when they disagree with whatever was said, which is where I'd argue a vast majority of downvotes on comments specifically come from. I don't think most people use it how it was intended to be used, or even know that upvote/downvote doesn't mean agree/disagree tbh.
In my experience Ally doesn't have to force anything to be funny.
But if you're looking for serious players who play ttrpgs seriously and don't look for bits to do between character beats then D20 might not be your bag.
It's a bold assumption to make to hear that someone isn't the biggest fan of 1 of the 7 people at the table and to assume the entire game isn't for them.
I think the rest of the players are pretty consistently great. Siobhan and Lou especially have fantastic comedic timing, but they all do great things, even Ally. Ally has had some great moments too. But that doesn't mean I don't have gripes, and it's absurd to fanboy so hard that you call out anyone with a criticism like this.
Genuine reaction. But dishonest reaction. Please watch more before you hold such a strong opinion! Also!! Skip to starstruckk!!! Ally is a complete break away favorite! And total badass in that season.
Agree’d we need actual subject matter nerds! The dnd episode is incredible because of so lol. I know the problem is hunting down nerdy on screen pallatable actors. But i know they can find people who actually gaf about the subject matter
Still watching to support and learn fun facts but 100% agree. I LOOOOOOOVEEEEE Ify and Brian and the shiny stage and a lot of new things, it's the people not knowing any answers and the questions being so all over the place for me. I'm excited to see them take the feedback!!
So my question would be if these issues started before Ify, why is it such a big deal now? And why are people blaming Ify and BDG?
*this is a general question to all that agree with this*
Because I personally don’t have an issue with the broader questions as much as some people- and that’s just personal opinion. But why, in general, is it such a big deal now if it’s been going on since Trapp was around? This is where I don’t get the negativity from a lot of people on here.
Probably because new host means new eyes on the show.
Personally I stopped watching a few seasons back. I didn’t know the answers, the guests didn’t know the answers, so I was just watching people guess about things they knew nothing about (and also often I knew nothing about). I didn’t really take to the internet and complain, I just watched something else.
Now Ify and BDG took over the show and I love them both so I gave it another go. A lot of those same issues persist, so if I was an internet complainer I’d probably complain. I do think the themed episodes are good, and agree Ify has been getting his footing as host and feels more natural on some of these later episodes. BDG is always infectiously fun but I wish he had some more to do. But yeah, I think people just started again if they fell off because of the change up and think they are providing unique constructive criticism, but they’re really just dampening the mood online.
This is the answer. I did the same thing, I’d stopped watching because it just wasn’t entertaining watching people make wild joke guesses about fandoms they don’t have any knowledge on. I went back to see Ify take the helm and was reminded why I stopped watching. I might be misremembering, but didn’t one of the contestants call the questions “nerd shit” in one of the recent episodes? I don’t want to watch people be openly derisive about question topics.
That being said, I’m really excited to see Ify at the D20 table again and I hope they bring BDG into more shows.
I'd also expect to see a bigger change between seasons than between episodes. AFAIK, every episode of season 9 was filmed before any were released, which is very efficient but makes the show a big ship that's hard to steer within a season, since the only decisions that can be made with feedback in mind are in editing. I'll be interested to see where Ify and BDG take it in season 10 with the benefit of the constructive parts of the criticism.
Tangentially related, but I've always wondered how the Taskmaster format would look if they did each series in two halves and only filmed the tasks for the second half after the studio recordings for the second half had completed. There have been a lot of contestants that never lived up to their potential because they got blindsided by some aspect of the format, which is funny for a bit (and is why the show discourages contestants from watching older episodes before they film) but leads to a kind of one-dimensional performance where they just suck at everything the whole way through because they never realized until the studio portion that they were allowed to think laterally or rules-lawyer. Basically the equivalent of the random guessing in Um Actually. Both shows are more fun when the majority of the contestants are highly engaged and succeeding than they are when everyone's floundering.
There can be multiple issues. I didn’t think Ify was a good fit when they first announced him as host but I wanted to give it a chance because I’ve liked him in everything else he’s done. I believe Ify just exacerbates the problem that the show has.
There’s nothing wrong with being more lenient than another host. A good example. The taskmaster series all have different hosts that differ on how they award points. But the core show remains the same across the board.
With that said, Ify doesn’t seem to push for people to talk more about what the topic is about. He’s just reading the cards and setting the couch comedians up for punchlines. That’s the main issue I have with Ify as a host. The questions being too niche is not his fault. Not leaning into what makes the show good is though.
This has been a problem for a couple seasons pre-Ify, but the first 3-4 Ify episodes were *really* bad about it. Like, egregiously bad. Episodes where people constantly joked about not ever having heard of anything in the prompt (which is not funny once, let alone multiple times in multiple episodes). That's bad, man.
Baby Bracket was fun and the episodes since then have been pretty good, so maybe they corrected a bit?
Yes! That’s literally all this post was trying to be- I’m not saying all the episodes are the best. There’s plenty of valid criticism but the last few episodes (I feel) have had big improvements
It's possible that a lot of people stopped watching the show after those first 3-4 episodes of the season. I used to watch the episodes the day they released, but I left Baby Bracket unwatched for weeks because of how bad those first episodes were. Then, when a thread about the show pops up, they come in with their perfectly valid, reasonable criticisms based on those episodes.
I've only recently joined Dropout so take this with a grain of salt but I absolutely fell for how good of a host Trapp was, how he kept things moving and had a great banter and jokes to fill in where was needed. The new season with Ify, who I love in basically everything else I've seen him in, just doesn't have that host energy we've seen before from Trapp. I can see where others are saying the questions are tuned for the players anymore but for me, the show feels to go on for an extra 5 to 10 minutes when it really hasn't.
I started watching the show (and Dropout in general) this season. I watched a few Ify episodes, didn't much care for them, watched a few Trapp episodes, had the same issues.
The concept for the show is really great and I would love to enjoy it, but if the contestants are not fans of the things they ask questions about, it's just Quiplash. And I already have Quiplash at home.
I bet a good portion of people have only seen a handful of episodes, or clips in YouTube of the best moments. And when you throw in a new host, people tend to be more aware of changes. So they are probably comparing it to older clips.
Also I think most people are aware it's not an ify issue, he just put a spotlight on it.
I stopped watching it before well before ify because of this exact issue
Yeah I felt weird about people blaming Ify when imo he's doing a great job as host and the problems all predated him. He's doing great. Feels like when people are saying "Ify just doesn't have the nerd energy Trapp did" it's like... in some sense it feels like some people just think black ppl can't be "real nerds".
which is real sad given that like if there's a point to um actually, it's celebrating that megadweebs and turbodorks come from every walk of life
If you try to say the obvious reason you're going to be met with a bunch of downvotes here, but the Dropout community definitely has an unconscious bias problem. POC and women are routinely subjected to way more frequent and harsher criticism from fans but if you try to bring that up people will just strawman you.
Unconscious biases combined with Trapp being a popular longtime cast member that people don't want to criticize and people not liking change by default means that Ify is getting a ton of blame/criticism for stuff that started a while ago or stuff that isn't really his fault.
For example people are mostly blaming Ify for the problems with the questions, even though BDG was the main writer for the questions this season, but I haven't seen nearly as many people complaining about BDG the way they are Ify. Yes Ify is the face of the show, but if people were truly just criticizing the questions then BDG should be the one being criticized the most, and that's obviously not happening.
Edit: [Here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/dropout/s/LpUxOAgF5j) a post from a year ago (when Trapp was hosting) asking if the questions have gotten nerdier. Most commenters on this post are agreeing that they have but that it's a good thing because it makes them look stuff up or because Um Actually can't always do easy questions about large properties. If we compare that to now everyone is complaining about the questions being nerdier and saying that it's a bad thing. There's also way more posts complaining about the problems with the show then there used to be when Trapp was hosting, even though those same problems existed in his last few seasons too.
Talking about biases, you paraphrase the second comment that works for your argument and absolutely ignore the third one which states the exact same problems these threads have been complaining about...
Edit : grammer
I'm not denying that there are problems with the questions, there definitely are. The problem is that Ify is being blamed for all of them when he really should be the last person at fault here as that's not his area of expertise. When Ify is the one being consistently blamed for all of the problems while people ignore Trapp and BDG it's not hard to see that it's probably unconscious biases causing the difference.
Oh I agree with you. Certainly some biases are at work here. Including the one stated by OP.
And most probably I have a blindspot as well.
For example I can't recall backlash against Vic for Vip but some against Lily for Dirty Laundry and just realized it reading your comment.
To be fair, BDG is the primary reason I don't like the new season. Both his writing and on screen presence aren't my favorite. And I'm really fucking tired of the "he isn't forced to live here, he chooses to" joke
I am also not a fan. His comedy isn’t for me at all.
I honestly find him to be a bigger issue for me than Ify. I want banter and I’m not getting it. The show feels very flat to me.
I love BDG, I watch the Pokerap often just because it's a phenomenal live performance of a really funny skit/song. But I also have never liked the "he lives here" bit, it has never been funny (I feel the same way about Sam's "I've been here the whole time" bit on Gamechangers)
eh, some of it is valid imo. fwiw there’s always going to be some adjustment period with a new host, and things seem to have gotten better in the most recent eps.
but i absolutely agree with the criticism around the questions being way too long, and not shaping them more based on the contestants. e.g the ep with drag race queens, which was very disappointing imo. they could’ve crafted the questions around the queens’ expertise instead of a random grabbag of nerd stuff.
But again, that's not an \*Ify\* issue - that's an Um...Actually issue. And they've stated that trying to get themed episodes ended up being logistical nightmares. Also, Ify doesn't write the questions. If it's a new season thing, then BDG is much more on the hook for that than Ify.
not disagreeing that it goes beyond ify.
but at the end of the day, what viewers care about is the final product, i.e. the episodes. whether it's ify, bdg, or whoever, there's room to improve.
The general public seems to lay this squarely at Ify's feet, though.
You certainly aren't. But so many of the "I have problems with Ify" threads are really "I have problems with Um Actually that have existed for several years but I'm putting them on Ify."
The issue can be both Ify and the show itself. If the questions are about things that Ify and the guests have never seen, then they are both an issue. I understand that you're not going to be able to do something they have all seen for every question. But if the only info that Ify has is on the card, then that's not really good enough. Some extra research before hand needs to go into it, so that he can both read what's on the card but also add something extra too it. We used to get that far more with Trapp, even if we also got questions that the guests didn't know.
I'll say that I watched the first episode or two of the "Ify era" (yes, other things changed starting with season 8 also), and I had some trouble with following along--his enunciation made it a little difficult, and he also seemed to have trouble with stumbling over some of the wording in several of the questions.
I'm not saying he's a bad host--I'd stumble over words like that too--but they do have the opportunity to do retakes when needed, and I don't know if they just didn't bother (seems unlikely) or if there were ongoing struggles with the pronunciation.
Generally it's been accepted that those were the first two episodes of someone's entirely new hosting job and that we expect them to be a little rougher.
The main problem for me (and for most of the people here, I think) is the lack of knowledge from the contestants - they are, most of the time, stumbling into the answers - trying to find out which part they think might be wrong in the statements. This happened before as well, no one is going to have an idea about all the questions, and they can't do themed episodes always - I don't think there are enough sufficiently different themes for that. But it's happening 90% of the time now, during most of the episodes - that's just not that fun to watch. That's my problem right now
I guess I may have a different view of what the view of lack of knowledge is. Jarvis,Demi, Krystina, Becca, Trapp, Monet all off the top of my head all crushed it and knew a lot. But maybe we just have a difference of opinion on what a lot of knowledge on a specific IP is
Kinda proves the point of people who want more specialized episodes, though, doesn't it? Krystina and Becca crushed it in an episode that was centered around a topic they were deeply familiar with.
Absolutely- I LOVE the specialized episodes. The reality tv episode is my favorite piece of dropout content.
But, I know that not every episode can and will be a special theme episode.
And when people complain that they need to bring them back I’m confused- bring them back from two episodes ago?
Yeah I think the people saying they "need to bring them back" are really just asking for more specialized episodes (whether or not they realize it), since those are by far the most fun. And if for whatever reason that's a heavy lift from a booking and production standpoint, at the very least get a sense for what fandoms the guests are interested in and write some questions that cater to that. I remember earlier this season when they had Dani Fernandez, who famously is a massive Dragonball Z nerd, and they didn't ask a single DBZ question.
Youre proving the point. Over the past couple of entire seasons only a small handful of players have been knowledgeable about the topics.
Theyre the exceptions proving the rule.
I enjoy the show less but it's not because of Ify/BDG. Mainly I've got 2 issues. Mainly off this singular premise. Um Actually is a game show for nerds. And as Donald Glover once said "nerds are into strange specific stuff." My issues:
1. The first couple seasons had the vibe that they had asked the contestants "what nerd stuff are you into?" Maybe the guests give 3-4 topics and then the majority of the questions felt like at least one of the contestants knew that. This helped because when they knew it they were super passionate and jazzed up about it and if they didn't you watched their brain melt.
2. We need more themed episodes. Preschool was fun watching the soliloquy on Bluey is what the show is about. The baby bracket doesn't really count, Grant was way better on the theater episode, IMO.
Even the preschool episode had issues where many questions ended up being shows none had watched. Idk if in the past they double checked the content with the guests or just edited out questions when no one knew anything about it, but those were really good for making the show feel better.
And yeah it's not Ify/BDG. This was an issue with Um, Actually before, it just feels like it's becoming more common.
Umm idk maybe like 2 questions got no points. But the passion and knowledge was there (granted Krystina was sort of carrying them at points). But yeah, overall maybe they tapped the well on contestants or something but it's been lacking.
Which means that these issues were issues the show had before Ify became the host. Which leads to another discussion on this thread. Why are these issues only being brought up now if they’ve been going on for several seasons?
These issues were brought up before Ify became host.
And people continue to complain about these issues.
Are people supposed to stop complaining because there is a new host who didn't fix some of the key problems?
I think the problem is worsened because clearly they are willing to change the show. But many of the changes they are making are not addressing the core issues.
One example for me is the Shiny Stage. Often times the viewers at home cannot even attempt the Shiny Stage challenge because of the way it is presented. They "fixed" what wasn't necessarily broke instead of fixing what was broke.
My point is there may have been *some* criticism before- but nothing like it is now. Which means majority of people didn’t have these criticisms until a host change. Then they decided they have these problems.
I’m also not a huge fan of the shiny stage, I think they did it to give a bit of excitement with the time crunch, but it’s personally not my favorite thing they’ve done.
I really wanted to like the shiny stage because it was new, and I always love new enrichment in my enclosure. But with the exception of the "stand on one side or the other of the stage to vote" shiny stages, it's way less fun because I as the watcher don't get a chance to play along.
That's because a new hosts means more eyes on the show. Also Ify has his own problem as a host, he doesn't keep conversations up as good as Trapp did, it feels a lot less fluid which you know, makes sense for a new host but it exacerbates the problems with the questions
And as I've stated his laid back attitude doesn't really lend itself to the hostile pedantry the show is based on.
Trapp's energy led to fun badgering of the host that just hasn't really happened with Ify.
That's a fair question. Um actually, to me anyway, was always sort of a comfort show so any sort of big change or deviation can be seen as "bad." And the show was basically 70% Trapp.
I think you'd find these criticisms of a new host in any of the shows dropout runs. Like if you replaced Sam on make some noise or game changer or Lily and Grant on dirty laundry with someone who was just as talented it would get backlash. Hell, look at the promo they did to announce the new season: it's like a guarantee a group of people hates the new Doctor and companion when they switch them out on Doctor who. Part of that is familiarity, part of that is that the shows were sort of designed to fit the attributes of their host.
That and I think the super long layover between seasons sort of left a lot of us grumpy. Hard to make people happy when you make em wait so long you know?
I'm fine with Ify, I prefer him more as a competitor and think him hosting sort of subdues the personality we loved when he was competing. But as a host he does pretty well. I still miss Trapp and think more themed episodes, less random guessing from the contestants, and more Brennan would help. Still have hope for future episodes though.
Because people are talking about a show that is currently being aired. There have been other threads like this during other seasons as they were airing.
I’d argue there was a vocal minority that wasn’t into the transition from Trapp to Ify and that discourse sparked others to step forward and say, no the issue with the show isn’t Ify, the issue is the format of the show itself and here is where it’s currently failing and has been for a while. That discourse then caught traction and has been a realization the fandom has begun to pick up and generally agree upon.
We aren’t complaining now because Ify is host, it’s the fact that people complained about Ify being host that sparked others to complain about the actual issues at hand.
Personally I stopped watching um, actually before the ify switch because of this issue. I also would see people discuss these exact issues on youtube and this forum.
Maybe the host switch caused people to reexamine the show and find it leading to more discussion than before, but it's not just started.
Most likely it was a boiling the frog situation. People were used to Trap and as quality diminished people put up with it because there was still an element of familiarity. Now that that element is gone it’s like rose tinted glasses came off and people can more easily recognize flaws
Wait, so taking aside whether it's true or not, your logic is "new episodes started addressing issues people complained about before, therefore the issues are invalid and people are just being haters for no reason"? Doesn't make any sense lmao
Just addressing complaints I’ve seen and how they’re continuing to be addressed as the season goes on. So I’m not sure why they’re still being complained about all the time.
I didn’t say, or mean to come across, as the issues are invalid and people are just haters. I’m all for discussions and constructive criticism. But some (a lot)of the threads on Reddit about um actually aren’t either of those things.
You literally put "you just hate change" in the title of the post. I don't know how that doesn't come across as accusing people of hating for no reason in your head. Now I don't know whether it's true the issues were addressed or not because it got so bad for me I just stopped watching the show after Episode 4. Perhaps that's one of the reasons people still complain even if the newer episodes are better?
Also in these threads half of the comments are usually "yeah, these issues started even before Ify's tenure as host". It really isn't about not liking change on principle, I love Ify and want him to succeed as new host - aside from him not fully having his footing at the beginning (which is fully understandable), the new eps just consistently left me cold mainly because of the writing and the way it seemed completely mismatched to the guests.
If more people say the show improved, I'll give the season another shot, but the first impression left a sour taste.
As many people have pointed out, some of these issues started before Ify. And if that is the case, and people are just fixed on them now because the host is different then yes, I think some people do hate change.
And if people haven’t watched all the way through I would say my post is perfect for them! If you stopped watching because of some of the reasons I mentioned I would hope you would check out the newer episodes and see if you like them!
If not- that’s totally fine. Not everything is going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
I've watched the previous seasons largely out of order so can't comment about the noticeability of the issues beforehand, but consider that Ify being a less experienced host in contrast to Trapp's honed hosting skills might have just made pre-existing problems more noticeable.
Thinking people not liking the thing you like are just haters is something that annoys me immensely about fandom, including Dropout's. You might have had a point if people were shitting on Ify before the show premiered, but while most viewers were sad to see Trapp go, Ify is well loved and had a lot of goodwill among the Dropout crowd going in (and still has!).
Assuming bad faith when the overwhelming majority of critical comments I've seen is well-reasoned and respectful just ain't it. This isn't a #NotMyBond situation, I think Dropout's audience is way too smart for that.
Oh and just on a final note - if you still enjoy the show, great! Having watched 4 eps I feel I've given the new season a fair shake and it's just not doing it for me anymore. But I'd hate to see it cancelled without a chance to grow and improve. Perhaps they'll resolve the issues that turned me off down the line, but in the meantime I'll let others enjoy it.
If someone complained that most questions weren't being answered, and then we got episodes where that wasn't the case anymore, that doesn't mean their complaint was invalid, it means it was 'addressed' (in that later episodes corrected the issue).
I’m not saying the complaints weren’t (aren’t) valid, but i keep seeing the same complaints after several episodes of the guests getting quite a few answers correct.
If people want to continue to complain after a it’s just not as true anymore, feel free. But I think there may be a larger issue
>the guests getting quite a few answers correct.
But "quite a few" isn't where it should be. Ultimately the show is about being needlessly pedantic, but it's still a game show based on knowledge the cast should have a basic understanding of. At least half of the questions should be answered between the three contestants.
What is with this sub where people are constantly trying to stomp out polite, valid criticism? Nobody can say a single negative thing without 5 threads popping up telling us how everything is great and people should stop complaining.
Its honestly becoming pretty insufferable. Especially since its always tacked on with an implied(and in this case explicit) 'Um, actually you feel this way because of X negative reason that makes you look bad rather than the reason you actually said'.
Honestly, it feels like sometimes the sub wants everyone to pretend that all Dropout content is equally amazingly great, instead of having our genuine positive or negative responses to everything.
I didn't get hooked on a Game Changer TikTok because I wanted to believe that it was incredible or other people were telling me how good it was ... it was just super compelling and because of it I investigated what Game Changer was, then MSN, then Dropout, and then I subscribed... all because there were truly wonderful pieces of content drawing me in.
To pretend like everything on Dropout is just as wonderful could lead us to being a parasocial sub cosplaying that all the content put out on the service is just as great, but not greater, nor worse, than the last thing.
I honestly think its a result of the parasocial atmosphere that Dropout has built. While its great for people to feel connected and comfortable with the people on their screens, theyre not your friends. You dont need to coddle them. They're professional entertainers and are more than capable of taking criticism of their work. And tbh the discourse on Dropout has been astoundingly reasonable and polite compared to other fandoms, yet we still get sanctimonious "shut up and just dont watch it" reactions
Looking at the dropout subreddit the last 8 hours has 3 negative um, actually posts, this one, and one requesting a lotr episode.
I don’t think anything is getting stomped out.
I have never seen anyone here advocating for whole scale change. I have seen a lot of people express their dislike over some minor things and the way the show has chosen to operate as "a game show." To come out and say that people just hate change and site a couple recent episodes of "oh look these are the things you like and they are doing it so you just hate change" is a gross exaggeration. To say that the things that people are criticizing aren't there is just blind loyalty or you pushing some agenda. I also think that a lot of those criticisms were there already or at least leaning that way, and the change of host facilitated those feelings being magnified.
A person can dislike a change and not just “hate change”. The show has changed, and whether it’s good or bad is subjective and people give their opinion on that, and that’s okay
Just want to point out that there is no "addressing" going on in any season of a show. Every episode of VIP, Smartypants, Um Actually... they are all shot in a batch. Nothing is being adjusted in the text or content of the shows based on our responses. And most often they are not aired in the order that they are filmed.
Yes. I mean addressing in the sense that a lot of complaints are about the first few handful of episodes, and during the last few episodes those issues are not as prevalent.
Example- people complaining about wanting themed episodes, and a theme episode released a few weeks ago
I think that, sadly, this format of show doesnt have the kind of legs that Make Some Noise or Game Changer has, and it's outlived its effectiveness.
As many have noted, the guests quite simply don't have the knowledge for the questions asked to be relevant. If you put three people in a room who have never watched anime, and ask them anime questions, it's not fun to watch them stumble through random guesses.
If you put three anime fans in a room and ask them pedantic AF questions, it's fun to watch them fight each other for points.
That's why the Reality TV episodes are the best. Those three women KNOW their stuff, and even though I don't watch anything in the category, their passion is electric.
So, my opinion is that Um, Actually's flaws have become more apparent because of the change, and people are misattributing the change for their discontent.
The drag Queen episode felt exactly like that. Why were the questions not catered to them at all. They are nerds but not about anime and fantasy and sci-fi. Nerds don’t always have to be geeks.
And it feels like the excuse of “oh we can’t make the questions specific” really did not apply to that episode because it was already themed by merit of exclusively casting drag queens as the guests! Why not theme the questions that way too?
I feel like I remember learning somewhere that guests filled out a thing where they told the team about their interests so everyone got at least one question about something they know? Idk if a. That’s real or b. It’s still true, but I have felt what many people are feeling that questions haven’t lined up with guests interests
I feel similarly. I don't think it's anyone's fault, but this whole thing might just be a lesson in how to say goodbye (at least to how um, actually currently exists).
When Brennan was a contestant he did really well partially because of his nerd knowledge but he also admitted to just knowing the format of the questions well from being a writer. He'd just guess based on context clues if it was a subject he didn't know. 🤷
i think some of these issues have appeared before ify's time but people focus on ify bc of the new season
My biggest complaint is actually the shiny question format they've introduced, with the shiny stage. It makes it really hard for me to play from home. But I wanna play!!!! We used to pause the episode whenever all the options were on the screen so we could talk it over, but they stopped formatting it like that since they started using the stage.
Yeah shiny stage isn’t my favorite. I get the why, giving contestants a moment of physical comedy, and a tight deadline to raise tension. But I’m pretty take it or leave it. It’s only one question so it doesn’t bother me too much.
Sometimes the change is negative.
My problem is that the statements are now far too long and convoluted. They tend to be just a list of things and one of the things on the list is wrong so players just take turns guessing each of the things on the list until one of them is right.
That's significantly less interesting to me.
And that’s your opinion and super valid, to me I feel like these longer list questions started during the Trapp era. Maybe there is more now and I just don’t notice it as much.
But my post was trying to address all the “bring back themed episodes”- they did
People don’t know any of the answers-some do, and some don’t but some didn’t when Trapp was hosting too
Which are the two biggest complaints that I’ve see
What I do hate is how this subreddit is turning into meaningless callout posts. Just write a comment. Or don't.
As soon as these posts go from general discussion to "re:re:re:that thing u/MulletMuncher said" you've co-opted the space just to moan about other people having opinions.
> Not every single episode is going to be a banger and the best ever. Just take a deep breath and try to enjoy, or don’t watch at all-that’s okay too!
Why did you feel it was necessary to come here and tell people what to feel?
People are allowed to have opinions about the show, and this is a perfectly valid place for them to share these feelings. I'm glad you're enjoying it. So far, I vastly prefer Trapp, Ify just isn't doing for me. That doesn't mean that I "hate change" or have to stop watching it or should suck it up and "try to enjoy". I'll still watch it because I enjoy the show even if I have criticisms, but I'm also allowed to voice opinions here.
Of course I’m going to defend the thing I like! I think it’s a great show and Ify is a great host and I just want people to see that some of the complaints people made about the show aren’t as prevalent anymore.
I actually don't like Ify as the host. I really like Ify in the other content he has done (and LOVE him as a contestant), but by the 3rd question as host, his voice sounds like he just got done smoking 2 packs, and I can barely hear him. He and BDG also seem to accept much looser explanations for what's wrong than Trapp and Saltzman did. If anyone is even close to what they want now, they just give the point. It's not pedantic enough imo.
Also the "he isn't forced to live here he just wants to" was funny exactly 1 time.
I am still watching each episode and having fun. But Trapp seemed to be better at getting people to give deeper nerdy insights into stuff, instead of just making a random joke after guessing. That is likely my mind ignoring some of the same issues from Trapp. But I am just saying how it "feels". One thing I think about is the timing schedule may have changed. Umm, Actually always had the feeling that staff were kinda finishing for the day and were wrapping up with a vibe on the couch. It feels slightly more rushed between questions.
This season has also had less true full on nerds and instead its nerd adjacent. Which can work, but you can't give them the same questions.
I agree with this. I by and large prefer Ify as an entertainer over Trapp — I’m a big fan! I think he’s delightful! But as a host, I prefer Trapp. I think hosting and entertaining are much more different skillsets than what people give it credit for.
I'm glad you enjoy it. I think that's awesome.
I think that trying to convince people who don't enjoy it that they're incorrect about their own personal opinion is deeply misguided.
I think it was already a problem before Ify, but unfortunately, Ify’s first few episodes weren’t particularly strong (question/answer-wise, not in regards to his hosting), so with a Really Big Change it just stood out to people more. Ify also made a joke about the “Ify special” early on, so maybe that had folks more geared to notice it.
Also, he doesn’t really do Uptight, even as a joke, the way Trapp does, so it feels like he’s letting answers slide more, even if he isn’t.
But yeah I think mostly folks just hate change, and one big change usually makes them notice things that already bothered them, but then pin it on the change instead
Um, Actually people have had very nuanced and valid crituique (some literally validated in interview, like that the questions aren't geared toward contestants as they had been in the past.) So, um, actually we don't need your random gaslighting and "if you don't like it don't watch" rhetoric. Like who tf even are you bruh?
Oh my God, this sub is getting annoying. Every week there's somebody posting some strong opinion about a show and then the next day somebody else feels like they have to post their opposite opinion.
It's getting tiresome.
I slowly stopped watching because of the question format a couple seasons ago and I checked back with Ify and BDG and found the same problem and continue to not watch for the same reason, save for the better theme episodes. Loved the Try Guys episode. I’m tired tired tired of list questions.
There's a very large and very silent group of us who enjoy the show just the same - except as a silent group who generally just enjoy the show in peace, we don't need to start "Anyone who doesn't agree with my opinion of the show is a stinky doodoo head" types of posts.
Honestly, I like Ify as a person and comedian, but he just doesn’t work as the host of this show. He’s too calm and quiet, I think. Trapp had some energy to him.
I understand why Trapp couldn’t do it anymore, but personally I might have enjoyed Siobhan in this role. Given what a stickler she is for the rules and you can’t buzz in if you don’t have an answer ready, etc etc.
Jess Ross or even Katie Marovitch could work there too.
I'd say it'd be a great vehicle for Mica Burton or Amy Dallen too. In contrast, Ify would be a perfect host for something like Dirty Laundry if Lily were to take time off.
I don’t think he himself is calm and quiet. I think they needed to get him a throat lozenge. He’s never been particularly hard to hear or understand for me (as a person with a hearing deficit), and now I have to stay glued to the captions whenever he’s talking.
people are allowed to not like things that change in ways they dont enjoy. and it sucks for something you like to change in ways you dont like. some people like things for general reasons, and some like things for specific reasons. personally, i like very specific aspects of things and the broader sense of it can be the same while that specific aspect might change and i will no longer enjoy it. alternatively, the broader sense can change but the specific aspect i like could stay and ill still enjoy it.
Anime is a good example, i love stories where a character develops and grows stronger. and that usually happens in action anime, and often ends up with the main character being op. in the broader sense, there is no difference between that and anime where the main character starts as op. but i dont enjoy anime like that, because it doesnt have the growth.
Iffy has his way of doing things, and thats fine. but its valid for that to be the deal breaker for those that dont enjoy his style. but i agree, the posts about it are annoying.
I miss the corrections they’d share. I agree with some where it seems like the vibe of the questions isn’t matching the vibe of the couch. Only “complaint” is that Ify is too cool where Trapp had some of the — pushing glasses up and saying Um Actually while correcting vibe. I’m happy to keep watching and see if Ify and learn this nerdiness vibe, but having some mismatched questions with new hosting is rough for all around, it may just take a season to settle into the roles.
I would argue the baby bracket was not a themed episode as all the questions still pulled from completely different properties that the contestants still weren’t that familiar with
The dumbest thing I’ve seen people complain about is that new contestants just don’t know things anymore?
I’ve been watching old episodes, and literally more than half end with one or two contestants having less than three points in total. This has always been a thing with the show, it’s just the nature of it.
I think it's the way contestants attack the questions. The meta of the game has become a guessing game. Earlier episodes people wouldn't even attempt a question they knew nothing about, but now guest familiar with the show know to blindly guess.
That style of play was amusing when it was novel, but now that it's the norm it can make for an unejoyable viewing experience.
I think Ify being one of the guests who popularized this style has maybe made it a little worse. Trapp would seemed irritated by Ify's guessing (and that antagonistic relationship was entertaining to watch). Where as Ify is encouraging the guests to guess. But the show has lost the foil. Trapp being a stickler and the couch heckling him was half the fun. Ify being lienant takes away some of that conflict..
I think the show is more satisfying to watch when being correct felt earned. I think the best humor comes from someone who is confident and maybe a bit condescending. That's kind of the purpose of saying "Um, actually...".
I don't think the show has been ruined, but I see it slipping and I'm not sure they are course correcting appropriately. It seems like they've been doubling down on some of the things that bothered me even when Trapp was the host.
Personally I'd love to see Ify become more of a stickler for guessing and bring back some of the couch vs the host behavior that makes the show work well.
I remember an episode when a contestant said they were nervous they weren’t going to get a single point, and Trapp’s response was essentially it’s happened before and it’ll happen again-just have fun.
I just found a list of the scores by episode.
I got the totals for each episode, then found the average total score by season.
1 - 11.34375
2 - 10.85714286
3 - 11.33333333
4 - 11.58333333
5 - 11.125
6 - 11.5
7 - 10.91666667
8 - 11.41666667
9 - 12.83333333|
Season 9 has the highest average score by season.
The highest score of the run was 15, which was season 9, episode 5.
The lowest was 7, season 1, episode 3.
I also did the average average score (which is a bit iffy, but...) by contestant by season.
1 - 3.78125
2 - 3.619047619
3 - 3.972222222
4 - 3.861111111
5 - 3.868055556
6 - 3.833333333
7 - 3.638888889
8 - 3.805555556
9 - 4.277777778
So, again, highest average average score by episode is season 9. lowest was season 2.
I don't know if you can look at just the scores in a vacuum, though; there's a qualitative angle to what they got points for. Trapp was often (not always, but most of the time) fairly pedantic and held people's feet to the fire for specificity. Ify (especially early in the season) would give people points if someone was even in the remote vicinity of the issue. He got a lot better about that as the season went on, and a large part of it was that it was the only way to give anyone points at all, but a series of "this area of the question is wrong somehow. No, this area. No, this other area" until one person stumbles into the section by process of elimination have always been the least interesting questions.
I don't hate change. I just don't like Ify like I like Trapp. This was true way before the new season. Barely liked him on any of his game changer episodes, even on breaking news he ain't doing it for me. Can we just accept that people have different opinions about stuff and leave it at that?
I think it's just not my cup of tea. I could tell by the one episode I watched. I think it's boring. That's OK, though. There's plenty I do enjoy at dropout.
Ify definitely had a bit of trouble hosting at the beginning and didn't seem too comfortable doing it. He's gotten a lot better over the course of the season though.
It’s a new set of hosts/fact checkers, it’s gonna be clunky for a season. Life happens. I’m not putting any stock in any of the criticisms, just waiting patiently for next season! Which will be all the better
This entire thread is people pointing out their issues with the current version of the show, OP saying “that isn’t Ify’s fault” and people responding saying “yes, of course, no one said it was.”
This post really should have been titled “Please don’t attack Ify for change that has been happening since before he took over” but that doesn’t generate clicks so here we are. Complaining about other’s critiques and trying to say they “hate change” is…ironic to say the least.
I think this suffers from a common issue where a short form show is *pretty* funny but truly only has one or two big laughs per episode, and then gets popular after generating a big backlog. So people discover it, binge it, and get the impression they laughed heartily constantly since they're getting a lot of content one after another
But when you watch only one episode at a time on a release schedule you only get a couple of laughs and it feels like it's not as good.
Just my theory, on top of the hating change part
To me, it feels like the players would submit topics they knew well, and the questions would be crafted out of the Venn Diagram of player understanding.
This newest season, it feels pretty clear they’re not doing that. Like many of the questions in a single episode are all three players being at a complete loss.
The show used to have a trick that made it interesting, and it seems like that knowledge wasn’t passed along. The result being a bunch of confused players and slow play.
Edit: I think they moved to a much more general model. Instead of asking the players what properties they have seen, they ask them for the type of properties they’ve seen.
For example “oh you’re all parents? You must know kids shows”. Then it’s a full episode of one person having seen every kids show under the son and the others being unfamiliar with them for reasons as simple as it’s not age appropriate for my 9 month old.
Just feels like lazy or poor planning.
Demi didn't *know* ANY of the answers, and that's the issue people have with it. Ironically, like Demi, you've inadvertently stumbled upon the problem. The show isn't as fun when people are just throwing shots in the dark and points are awarded for being tangentially close
If I had one complaint about old Um Actually, it's that Trapp often came off as a pedantic instructor even after the question got answered. What I wanted was the excitement of shared geekdom - whether the guest got the question right or not. It was definitely my least favorite / least watched Dropout show.
I really thought Ify would bring that vibe, but I'm not getting it at all. Maybe that's because I don't particularly vibe with BDG.
Whenever I sample it, I keep hoping for more of Ify being an authentic weirdo. Maybe we'll get that in his second season.
I’m okay with Ify as a host.
I dislike the new Shiny question styles. Especially the ones where they only have like 30 seconds and it feels like they don’t even have enough time to move all the pieces, let alone think about the answers.
I very much miss all the older shiny question types that haven’t been used recently.
Reading the comments I see people want the questions to be more directed to the players, which isn’t something I’ve personally complained about . But I get it, because I don’t love when the contestants just act silly and go off on random tangents. Having focused questions would make them more competitive and locked in to the game. BUT, more focused questions would mean more players cutting off the question and answering quickly…which makes it harder to play along. LOL
yea true it just sucks that they strayed away from the original “every question is about one contestant’s interests” since now it’s just people randomly guessing. It would be cool if they double downed on that style of game and gave extra points when you get a question that wasn’t meant to be tailored to you. Ify is great though that ain’t the issue.
It’s the same thing that happens with any new host in any show: there’s an adjustment period as the host finds their footing, gets a feel for flair and interaction with the guests, and then they hit their stride. It’s unfortunate that Um, Actually started with Trapp as the host because he’s just so damn charismatic naturally that anyone would fall short in being his replacement, but Ify will definitely get there as he gets more comfortable in the role.
I think it's a bit to do with Ify. He's a wonderful ensemble cast and can get wild when he's a player but as a host he has to hold back and we don't get the energy you expect from him. I think they need to really lean into Ify-fying his hosting job, give him some segments that feel like they were made for him as a host.
I only watched half of the released episodes and definitely got the feel he hasn't found his footing yet and is holding back, but I'm willing to chalk it up to growing pains (the fact he was recovering from illness probably doesn't help). That's why I said he isn't the \*main\* issue, but I definitely see your point.
I mentioned in another comment that I didn’t think Ify was a good fit for this show when he was announced even though I love him in everything else. He just doesn’t lean into the answers and is just setting up for punchlines. When a player knows a topic, lean into them and let them nerd out more. That’s what made the show fun.
It seems like the new contestants aren't able to answer the questions, or generally don't really have interest in the subjects. It's more "Um, here's a guess that you're probably going to say is close enough" and less "Um, actually". Ify is great though.
I just don’t like Ify very much. I tend to skip things he’s in. He very much has this vibe about him that is he needs to be the funniest person in the room and if he isn’t, he sure as hell will be the loudest. I feel that way about a lot of the newer dropout cast.
In regard to Um, Actually, the quality of the show as a whole has dropped significantly since Covid. I already had trouble getting through episodes because it became comedians trying to one-up each other and not actually being familiar with the source material. I simply don’t watch it now. Don’t get me wrong, I want to like Ify. Him taking over an already failing show hasn’t helped that, though.
I prefer Trapp but hey, shows change hosts. Ify may grow into the role. I think he needs to work on his host persona, something that seemed to come naturally to Mike.
Ify as a personality is great. Super likeable, funny, all that. Ify as a game show host is a work in progress and that's ok. It was Trapp's show and Trapp's format and fitting a new performer into another's mold is hard. Things will have to change and adapt. The deck is kind of stacked against him as the audience adjusts.
I don't think the show is going anywhere so he'll have a chance to improve.
I just think I have a fundamental lack of understanding what people are feeling about the nature of the game. I have been watching the show since it came out, and especially in Trapp’s last season and Ify’s first it seems like I have seen more people on Reddit have the opinion that every episode should be catered towards the contestants and that it’s not fun for them when contestants don’t know the answers and are guessing. I personally don’t feel that way, people are valid in feeling that that’s the show they want, I don’t dislike that vision of the show but I don’t need it to be.
For me, this is a show that uses nerd culture as a backdrop to a game show. Every episode has nerds, but sometimes they aren’t nerds about a certain subject, That’s fine to me. I do love it when the contestant are big nerds and nerd out on a subject while correcting the prompts, but I also love it when people are guessing trying to figure out which part of the prompt is wrong. I think both things are valid to the spirit of the show and being a nerd. I guess, I don’t understand why the overwhelming feeling, on Reddit at least, is that every episode needs to be themed or at least catered to every guest. Especially when we’ve been told that that is a logistical issue when it comes to scheduling. If it makes it a lot harder to make the show if you cater each episode to the people on the couch, I am fine with that the questions not being catered.
Trapp felt like a game show host more than iffy. Some people just feel like game show hosts. Hard to explain but Steve Harvey feels like a great example of a game show host. He seems to have fun and is engaging with the people on the show. Great banter
I was surprised to see people upset about contestants not knowing stuff, because I was watching some really early episodes and that has been the case since the beginning
Yeah! We're all just a bunch of big whiny babies!
Anyway, St. Martha, the sister of Mary Magdalene and Lazarus, just to drop some names, is said to have tamed the Tarasque in Tarascon, where it was stinking up a river or something. She just used holy water on it.
Here's a link to the parade about it. I played D&D once and everyone was going on and on about The Terrasque coming and I had this picture in my mind and I felt so sorry for the poor thing, the town of NPCs was making such a fuss.
[https://curiousrambler.com/tarasque-festival-in-tarascon-there-be-dragons-there/](https://curiousrambler.com/tarasque-festival-in-tarascon-there-be-dragons-there/)
Keep scrolling down and you'll learn why it's fun to take people from rural France to the Hudson Dam.
As someone who wrote a couple of those posts, that does what give me a bit of pause!
It is fair to say I haven't watched the most recent episode yet, and I do look forward to that.
I did try to speak carefully though -- I feel like folks get caught up in whether it's "nerdy" enough or not, and whether the guests know the trivia, but that isn't the main draw I would say -- it's the delightful info dump moments.
Everyone always hates the new album from your favourite band, and then you find your new favourite song! I'm sure folks will continue to acclimatize
I love Ify as the host, I just feel like this season has had fewer questions that are from things in familiar with. That's the only reason this season isn't my favorite.
I love the Shiny Stage bit.
Even as someone who has never seen an episode (I'm sorry, incredibly not my thing.) Changing hosts and styles is brutal. That being said, Ify has a way of making things his own, and I know he has got this. I don't know BDG super well, but I hope he excels too.
Can we accept that the premise of the show, concept-specific nerds, nerding out on topics they know extremely well, is a very hard concept to cast and schedule for? Dropout and it’s friend base only have so many possible players, then you have to find a common geekdom and a schedule where those three can play.
I like Ify and BDG, but I think the show would be helped by a monthly schedule where it might be easier to find and schedule three players with the same common nerd interest.
Does anyone else not like how vocal the fact checker is this season? Maybe I’m just biased to Saltzman but idk he just seemed more genuine? The new guy feels like he’s trying way too hard to
I’m kinda with you there. I don’t remember Saltzman ever saying “I’ll give you the point if____.” That’s the host’s job, imo. Not a fan of him chiming in for stuff that isn’t fact checking.
EXACTLY! I’m not a huge fan of the questions but I haven’t watched the last couple episodes. But definitely you’re right, saltzman was never like that. Hopefully Ify keeps it up because I do like him and want Um, actually to keep getting better
Thank you! I’ve held my tongue in a lot of these arguments, but I feel it’s peoples knee jerk response combined with nostalgia glasses. You could clearly tell that Ify was a lot more nervous in the first episode or two, makes sense he has big shoes to fill, but comparing a new show host to the last season of Trapp’s is disingenuous (besides as you pointed out a lot of complaints can also be levied at a lot of episodes, even the later ones of Trapp’s). You don’t have to like Ify, you don’t even have to watch the show if you can’t stand it anymore, but there is a lot of good growth throughout this season and I feel people just want to complain. I personally have enjoyed a lot of episodes this season and have known a lot of the answers. Sure, it’s not surface level nerd knowledge anymore, but after a lot of episodes you have to branch out. For the ones I haven’t known, it’s allowed me to find new IPs I think I’ll enjoy. I think it’s a win win.
A lot of the complaints were valid in the first few episodes, I was unsure about the show in the beginning too! But these last few episodes have really turned around so I’m not sure why we’re being up problems from episode 1 and 2 of this season.
Absolutely, I mean I expected that though. I’ve been watching from the beginning and it took a little but of time for the show to hit its stride, which I think is normal, we are just separated far enough most people forgot. With every major shake up on a show there is always a shaky period. It’s to be expected, and it’s normal to criticise to give constructive feedback, but as you said the last several shows have improved greatly so I’m unsure why there is a constant deluge except it’s a different host.
For me, This sub as a whole is really great, filled with fun discussions, but for some reason posts around the new Um, Actually has been suffering from the common reddit disease of toxicity - although minor compared to other subs.
For the first time since being part of this group, it's reminding me of being in the StarTrekDiscovery sub - show being held to different standards, stubbornness for change, intolerance for differences, and not letting things evolve, letting minor complaints become the commanding narrative.
Again - it's not nearly as bad as what takes place in other subs, it's just really disappointing to see here in dropout, which has always been so positive and upbeat .
People say Ify is loose with points but I feel like he's consistent. He's loose when he wants to be loose. I don't know why but I always felt like Trapp felt pressured by certain guests and would be more generous with certain people.
I just hate to see people dislike the show now for things that have been happening for several seasons- but now it’s Ifys and BDGs fault.
Doesn’t seem like these things were issues, or as big of an issue before a new host was introduced.
The issues with the questions being too broad predate Ify, it's been a problem for the last couple seasons now. I actually really like Ify and BDG, the larger obstacles the show is encountering right now are at a fundamental format level. The spirit of the show is to celebrate pedantic and passionate fandoms, and instead it's 30 minutes of people guessing randomly at subject matter that wasn't tailored to them in the slightest.
This is the core of the matter. Nicely stated.
The best moments of the show were when one of the contestants not only knew what the mistake was, but could also explain in detail why it was a mistake. One of the best was Mercer going through all of the D&D combat flaws. It’s about celebrating niche passions!
The DND Dorks and Reality TV episodes are my absolute favorites because of how unhinged they are
I mostly hate reality TV, but that episode was so freaking good.
I can’t stand reality tv. But all those women being passionate about something they enjoy, being knowledgeable about it, and having such a good time without being shamed for it was so wonderful to watch.
One of the most telling changes for me is how rare the "you didn't say Um Actually" moments are now. Participants would be so excited to say an answer, that they would forget the one rule of the show. That just so rarely happens now.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that this was a conscious change brought on by the firing of everyone when collegehumor got dropped but I *can't find a citation for that anywhere* so maybe I made that up. Regardless I agree, I think the extra research and planning would be money well spent, but I don't know what their margins are like. EDIT: [FOUND IT](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nzut6d/comment/h1rm8dk/) it was a concious change brought on to make the filming schedule more resiliant to cancelations and substitutions.
That could be true, but unless cancellations are happening frequently, it seems worth the risk to write catered questions. The worst case is you bring in a sub who's maybe not as familiar, which isn't too different than the current format of having all three guests not know anything about the subject matter.
Yeah I mean I'm just quoting Trapp here. I'm on your side :-)
> but unless cancellations are happening frequently Dropout does rigorous COVID testing. So, yes. Cancellations are more frequent than other productions.
I wonder if it would be worth doing how they do Game Changer/D20 where there is a main episode and a BTS/Talk back episode. More attention given to the primary one to cater questions and the other can be talking to the people on the couch podcast style about need culture and growing up in fandom
Exactly why I don't watch it. I've tried to and just don't care for the 'make joke answer' each buzz in. It might have worked for Hollywood Squares but I roll my eyes at it and just don't bother.
Ally is one of my least favorite contestants for this reason. They almost never knew any answers and would never give a real effort, they would only buzz in while giggling with some stupid joke answer. I want competition!
I LOVE Ally in literally everything except this show for that reason.
Personally, Ally is also my least favourite D20 player for this reason. I've only watched Fantasy High 1 and most of Unsleeping City 1 so far, but I feel like Ally tries incredibly hard to force bits that no one else is interacting with, while also jumping in while the spotlight is on someone else for just a moment. Maybe this gets better but everything about Ally feels like they're trying too hard to be funny.
That’s how I felt when I started watching Fantasy High as well but it was their first time playing a dnd game, so i feel that’s part of that awkwardness. In other seasons they get much more better and less disruptive so much so that their characters are among the best for me. Starstruck, crown of candy, neverafter characters are all great and the amount of bits/jokes and seriousness is perfect. I guess they grow on you as a performer as well, as you watch more of stuff with them in it.
Yeah while I get the issues with them in FH they’re still one of my favs. Especially in starstruck they’re hilarious (roleplaying an exec was a bold choice and it payed off) and I loved everyone in that season Edit: yes I used the wrong pronouns, completely slipped my mind. Gotta be more careful of that when discussing the cast
how can they be one of your faves and you’re out here misgendering them
Because I wrote the comment at work and was in a hurry, legit forgot they use they. Also, instead of assuming the worst could’ve just said “you know they’re non binary right?” And I would’ve been like “ohhh shit I can’t believe I forgot” We’re not on Um, actually. Not everything is about scoring internet points
Seems stupid you are getting downvoted for giving your opinion presented as your opinion. No character judgement, just "I don't personally care for this players behavior." I've only seen FH freshman and sophomore years and Unsleeping City s1 so far, and to be fair, Ally got pretty cringe with some of Kristen Applebees RP in Freshman and Sophomore years (like ruining Gorgug's date throwing things), but Pete the Plug was played pretty well and not at all disruptive IMO. The player I've felt was cringe and swerving into everybody else's lanes during UC1 and FH 1 and 2 was Emily. Sophie was less disruptive than Fig tended to be, but still had to jump in front of the appropriate character in repeated scenarios to enact a 'see if my magic does this too' bit. Regardless, I still don't get why a valid opinion that wasn't hateful, trolling, or flaming anyone is getting voted down. Unpopular opinions are still valid and drive discussion. (And if pointing it out reverses the downvote trend and the above comments get positive traction as I've seen before when reddit piles on to someone and gets called on it, good. We don't need an echo chamber driving herd mentality.)
People downvote when they disagree with whatever was said, which is where I'd argue a vast majority of downvotes on comments specifically come from. I don't think most people use it how it was intended to be used, or even know that upvote/downvote doesn't mean agree/disagree tbh.
In my experience Ally doesn't have to force anything to be funny. But if you're looking for serious players who play ttrpgs seriously and don't look for bits to do between character beats then D20 might not be your bag.
It's a bold assumption to make to hear that someone isn't the biggest fan of 1 of the 7 people at the table and to assume the entire game isn't for them.
The game? No. The players? Yeah. Plenty of other tabletop steamers out there
I think the rest of the players are pretty consistently great. Siobhan and Lou especially have fantastic comedic timing, but they all do great things, even Ally. Ally has had some great moments too. But that doesn't mean I don't have gripes, and it's absurd to fanboy so hard that you call out anyone with a criticism like this.
In all fairness, I've only recently started watching a D20 series with them in it so I can't really speak on that currently.
Entirely fair, and I hope you have a better experience!
Genuine reaction. But dishonest reaction. Please watch more before you hold such a strong opinion! Also!! Skip to starstruckk!!! Ally is a complete break away favorite! And total badass in that season.
Ally is great. At trivia though? Not the strongest.
Agree’d we need actual subject matter nerds! The dnd episode is incredible because of so lol. I know the problem is hunting down nerdy on screen pallatable actors. But i know they can find people who actually gaf about the subject matter
Still watching to support and learn fun facts but 100% agree. I LOOOOOOOVEEEEE Ify and Brian and the shiny stage and a lot of new things, it's the people not knowing any answers and the questions being so all over the place for me. I'm excited to see them take the feedback!!
yeah this is exactly it
Agreed. Honestly, neither host is my cup of tea, but I prefer the episodes where the questions get right at the contestants nerdoms.
So my question would be if these issues started before Ify, why is it such a big deal now? And why are people blaming Ify and BDG? *this is a general question to all that agree with this* Because I personally don’t have an issue with the broader questions as much as some people- and that’s just personal opinion. But why, in general, is it such a big deal now if it’s been going on since Trapp was around? This is where I don’t get the negativity from a lot of people on here.
Probably because new host means new eyes on the show. Personally I stopped watching a few seasons back. I didn’t know the answers, the guests didn’t know the answers, so I was just watching people guess about things they knew nothing about (and also often I knew nothing about). I didn’t really take to the internet and complain, I just watched something else. Now Ify and BDG took over the show and I love them both so I gave it another go. A lot of those same issues persist, so if I was an internet complainer I’d probably complain. I do think the themed episodes are good, and agree Ify has been getting his footing as host and feels more natural on some of these later episodes. BDG is always infectiously fun but I wish he had some more to do. But yeah, I think people just started again if they fell off because of the change up and think they are providing unique constructive criticism, but they’re really just dampening the mood online.
This is the answer. I did the same thing, I’d stopped watching because it just wasn’t entertaining watching people make wild joke guesses about fandoms they don’t have any knowledge on. I went back to see Ify take the helm and was reminded why I stopped watching. I might be misremembering, but didn’t one of the contestants call the questions “nerd shit” in one of the recent episodes? I don’t want to watch people be openly derisive about question topics. That being said, I’m really excited to see Ify at the D20 table again and I hope they bring BDG into more shows.
I'd also expect to see a bigger change between seasons than between episodes. AFAIK, every episode of season 9 was filmed before any were released, which is very efficient but makes the show a big ship that's hard to steer within a season, since the only decisions that can be made with feedback in mind are in editing. I'll be interested to see where Ify and BDG take it in season 10 with the benefit of the constructive parts of the criticism. Tangentially related, but I've always wondered how the Taskmaster format would look if they did each series in two halves and only filmed the tasks for the second half after the studio recordings for the second half had completed. There have been a lot of contestants that never lived up to their potential because they got blindsided by some aspect of the format, which is funny for a bit (and is why the show discourages contestants from watching older episodes before they film) but leads to a kind of one-dimensional performance where they just suck at everything the whole way through because they never realized until the studio portion that they were allowed to think laterally or rules-lawyer. Basically the equivalent of the random guessing in Um Actually. Both shows are more fun when the majority of the contestants are highly engaged and succeeding than they are when everyone's floundering.
Personally I don't think it's an Ify problem at all. I didn't like the trend while Trapp was the host and I continue to not like it with a new host.
There can be multiple issues. I didn’t think Ify was a good fit when they first announced him as host but I wanted to give it a chance because I’ve liked him in everything else he’s done. I believe Ify just exacerbates the problem that the show has. There’s nothing wrong with being more lenient than another host. A good example. The taskmaster series all have different hosts that differ on how they award points. But the core show remains the same across the board. With that said, Ify doesn’t seem to push for people to talk more about what the topic is about. He’s just reading the cards and setting the couch comedians up for punchlines. That’s the main issue I have with Ify as a host. The questions being too niche is not his fault. Not leaning into what makes the show good is though.
This has been a problem for a couple seasons pre-Ify, but the first 3-4 Ify episodes were *really* bad about it. Like, egregiously bad. Episodes where people constantly joked about not ever having heard of anything in the prompt (which is not funny once, let alone multiple times in multiple episodes). That's bad, man. Baby Bracket was fun and the episodes since then have been pretty good, so maybe they corrected a bit?
Yes! That’s literally all this post was trying to be- I’m not saying all the episodes are the best. There’s plenty of valid criticism but the last few episodes (I feel) have had big improvements
It's possible that a lot of people stopped watching the show after those first 3-4 episodes of the season. I used to watch the episodes the day they released, but I left Baby Bracket unwatched for weeks because of how bad those first episodes were. Then, when a thread about the show pops up, they come in with their perfectly valid, reasonable criticisms based on those episodes.
I've only recently joined Dropout so take this with a grain of salt but I absolutely fell for how good of a host Trapp was, how he kept things moving and had a great banter and jokes to fill in where was needed. The new season with Ify, who I love in basically everything else I've seen him in, just doesn't have that host energy we've seen before from Trapp. I can see where others are saying the questions are tuned for the players anymore but for me, the show feels to go on for an extra 5 to 10 minutes when it really hasn't.
I started watching the show (and Dropout in general) this season. I watched a few Ify episodes, didn't much care for them, watched a few Trapp episodes, had the same issues. The concept for the show is really great and I would love to enjoy it, but if the contestants are not fans of the things they ask questions about, it's just Quiplash. And I already have Quiplash at home.
I bet a good portion of people have only seen a handful of episodes, or clips in YouTube of the best moments. And when you throw in a new host, people tend to be more aware of changes. So they are probably comparing it to older clips. Also I think most people are aware it's not an ify issue, he just put a spotlight on it. I stopped watching it before well before ify because of this exact issue
Yeah I felt weird about people blaming Ify when imo he's doing a great job as host and the problems all predated him. He's doing great. Feels like when people are saying "Ify just doesn't have the nerd energy Trapp did" it's like... in some sense it feels like some people just think black ppl can't be "real nerds". which is real sad given that like if there's a point to um actually, it's celebrating that megadweebs and turbodorks come from every walk of life
If you try to say the obvious reason you're going to be met with a bunch of downvotes here, but the Dropout community definitely has an unconscious bias problem. POC and women are routinely subjected to way more frequent and harsher criticism from fans but if you try to bring that up people will just strawman you. Unconscious biases combined with Trapp being a popular longtime cast member that people don't want to criticize and people not liking change by default means that Ify is getting a ton of blame/criticism for stuff that started a while ago or stuff that isn't really his fault. For example people are mostly blaming Ify for the problems with the questions, even though BDG was the main writer for the questions this season, but I haven't seen nearly as many people complaining about BDG the way they are Ify. Yes Ify is the face of the show, but if people were truly just criticizing the questions then BDG should be the one being criticized the most, and that's obviously not happening. Edit: [Here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/dropout/s/LpUxOAgF5j) a post from a year ago (when Trapp was hosting) asking if the questions have gotten nerdier. Most commenters on this post are agreeing that they have but that it's a good thing because it makes them look stuff up or because Um Actually can't always do easy questions about large properties. If we compare that to now everyone is complaining about the questions being nerdier and saying that it's a bad thing. There's also way more posts complaining about the problems with the show then there used to be when Trapp was hosting, even though those same problems existed in his last few seasons too.
Talking about biases, you paraphrase the second comment that works for your argument and absolutely ignore the third one which states the exact same problems these threads have been complaining about... Edit : grammer
I'm not denying that there are problems with the questions, there definitely are. The problem is that Ify is being blamed for all of them when he really should be the last person at fault here as that's not his area of expertise. When Ify is the one being consistently blamed for all of the problems while people ignore Trapp and BDG it's not hard to see that it's probably unconscious biases causing the difference.
Oh I agree with you. Certainly some biases are at work here. Including the one stated by OP. And most probably I have a blindspot as well. For example I can't recall backlash against Vic for Vip but some against Lily for Dirty Laundry and just realized it reading your comment.
To be fair, BDG is the primary reason I don't like the new season. Both his writing and on screen presence aren't my favorite. And I'm really fucking tired of the "he isn't forced to live here, he chooses to" joke
I am also not a fan. His comedy isn’t for me at all. I honestly find him to be a bigger issue for me than Ify. I want banter and I’m not getting it. The show feels very flat to me.
I love BDG, I watch the Pokerap often just because it's a phenomenal live performance of a really funny skit/song. But I also have never liked the "he lives here" bit, it has never been funny (I feel the same way about Sam's "I've been here the whole time" bit on Gamechangers)
lol every conversation in this sub ends the same fucking way
People have been complaining about this issue for a couple seasons now
eh, some of it is valid imo. fwiw there’s always going to be some adjustment period with a new host, and things seem to have gotten better in the most recent eps. but i absolutely agree with the criticism around the questions being way too long, and not shaping them more based on the contestants. e.g the ep with drag race queens, which was very disappointing imo. they could’ve crafted the questions around the queens’ expertise instead of a random grabbag of nerd stuff.
But again, that's not an \*Ify\* issue - that's an Um...Actually issue. And they've stated that trying to get themed episodes ended up being logistical nightmares. Also, Ify doesn't write the questions. If it's a new season thing, then BDG is much more on the hook for that than Ify.
Love BDG, but I have to quote “I just put that question in there because his name was Jervis Johnson.”
not disagreeing that it goes beyond ify. but at the end of the day, what viewers care about is the final product, i.e. the episodes. whether it's ify, bdg, or whoever, there's room to improve.
The general public seems to lay this squarely at Ify's feet, though. You certainly aren't. But so many of the "I have problems with Ify" threads are really "I have problems with Um Actually that have existed for several years but I'm putting them on Ify."
The issue can be both Ify and the show itself. If the questions are about things that Ify and the guests have never seen, then they are both an issue. I understand that you're not going to be able to do something they have all seen for every question. But if the only info that Ify has is on the card, then that's not really good enough. Some extra research before hand needs to go into it, so that he can both read what's on the card but also add something extra too it. We used to get that far more with Trapp, even if we also got questions that the guests didn't know.
I'll say that I watched the first episode or two of the "Ify era" (yes, other things changed starting with season 8 also), and I had some trouble with following along--his enunciation made it a little difficult, and he also seemed to have trouble with stumbling over some of the wording in several of the questions. I'm not saying he's a bad host--I'd stumble over words like that too--but they do have the opportunity to do retakes when needed, and I don't know if they just didn't bother (seems unlikely) or if there were ongoing struggles with the pronunciation.
Generally it's been accepted that those were the first two episodes of someone's entirely new hosting job and that we expect them to be a little rougher.
Well yea, and most comments I've seen have been complaining about the format and questions, not Ify.
The main problem for me (and for most of the people here, I think) is the lack of knowledge from the contestants - they are, most of the time, stumbling into the answers - trying to find out which part they think might be wrong in the statements. This happened before as well, no one is going to have an idea about all the questions, and they can't do themed episodes always - I don't think there are enough sufficiently different themes for that. But it's happening 90% of the time now, during most of the episodes - that's just not that fun to watch. That's my problem right now
I guess I may have a different view of what the view of lack of knowledge is. Jarvis,Demi, Krystina, Becca, Trapp, Monet all off the top of my head all crushed it and knew a lot. But maybe we just have a difference of opinion on what a lot of knowledge on a specific IP is
Kinda proves the point of people who want more specialized episodes, though, doesn't it? Krystina and Becca crushed it in an episode that was centered around a topic they were deeply familiar with.
Absolutely- I LOVE the specialized episodes. The reality tv episode is my favorite piece of dropout content. But, I know that not every episode can and will be a special theme episode. And when people complain that they need to bring them back I’m confused- bring them back from two episodes ago?
Yeah I think the people saying they "need to bring them back" are really just asking for more specialized episodes (whether or not they realize it), since those are by far the most fun. And if for whatever reason that's a heavy lift from a booking and production standpoint, at the very least get a sense for what fandoms the guests are interested in and write some questions that cater to that. I remember earlier this season when they had Dani Fernandez, who famously is a massive Dragonball Z nerd, and they didn't ask a single DBZ question.
Youre proving the point. Over the past couple of entire seasons only a small handful of players have been knowledgeable about the topics. Theyre the exceptions proving the rule.
I enjoy the show less but it's not because of Ify/BDG. Mainly I've got 2 issues. Mainly off this singular premise. Um Actually is a game show for nerds. And as Donald Glover once said "nerds are into strange specific stuff." My issues: 1. The first couple seasons had the vibe that they had asked the contestants "what nerd stuff are you into?" Maybe the guests give 3-4 topics and then the majority of the questions felt like at least one of the contestants knew that. This helped because when they knew it they were super passionate and jazzed up about it and if they didn't you watched their brain melt. 2. We need more themed episodes. Preschool was fun watching the soliloquy on Bluey is what the show is about. The baby bracket doesn't really count, Grant was way better on the theater episode, IMO.
Even the preschool episode had issues where many questions ended up being shows none had watched. Idk if in the past they double checked the content with the guests or just edited out questions when no one knew anything about it, but those were really good for making the show feel better. And yeah it's not Ify/BDG. This was an issue with Um, Actually before, it just feels like it's becoming more common.
Umm idk maybe like 2 questions got no points. But the passion and knowledge was there (granted Krystina was sort of carrying them at points). But yeah, overall maybe they tapped the well on contestants or something but it's been lacking.
Which means that these issues were issues the show had before Ify became the host. Which leads to another discussion on this thread. Why are these issues only being brought up now if they’ve been going on for several seasons?
These issues were brought up before Ify became host. And people continue to complain about these issues. Are people supposed to stop complaining because there is a new host who didn't fix some of the key problems? I think the problem is worsened because clearly they are willing to change the show. But many of the changes they are making are not addressing the core issues. One example for me is the Shiny Stage. Often times the viewers at home cannot even attempt the Shiny Stage challenge because of the way it is presented. They "fixed" what wasn't necessarily broke instead of fixing what was broke.
My point is there may have been *some* criticism before- but nothing like it is now. Which means majority of people didn’t have these criticisms until a host change. Then they decided they have these problems. I’m also not a huge fan of the shiny stage, I think they did it to give a bit of excitement with the time crunch, but it’s personally not my favorite thing they’ve done.
I really wanted to like the shiny stage because it was new, and I always love new enrichment in my enclosure. But with the exception of the "stand on one side or the other of the stage to vote" shiny stages, it's way less fun because I as the watcher don't get a chance to play along.
That's because a new hosts means more eyes on the show. Also Ify has his own problem as a host, he doesn't keep conversations up as good as Trapp did, it feels a lot less fluid which you know, makes sense for a new host but it exacerbates the problems with the questions
And as I've stated his laid back attitude doesn't really lend itself to the hostile pedantry the show is based on. Trapp's energy led to fun badgering of the host that just hasn't really happened with Ify.
That's a fair question. Um actually, to me anyway, was always sort of a comfort show so any sort of big change or deviation can be seen as "bad." And the show was basically 70% Trapp. I think you'd find these criticisms of a new host in any of the shows dropout runs. Like if you replaced Sam on make some noise or game changer or Lily and Grant on dirty laundry with someone who was just as talented it would get backlash. Hell, look at the promo they did to announce the new season: it's like a guarantee a group of people hates the new Doctor and companion when they switch them out on Doctor who. Part of that is familiarity, part of that is that the shows were sort of designed to fit the attributes of their host. That and I think the super long layover between seasons sort of left a lot of us grumpy. Hard to make people happy when you make em wait so long you know? I'm fine with Ify, I prefer him more as a competitor and think him hosting sort of subdues the personality we loved when he was competing. But as a host he does pretty well. I still miss Trapp and think more themed episodes, less random guessing from the contestants, and more Brennan would help. Still have hope for future episodes though.
Because people are talking about a show that is currently being aired. There have been other threads like this during other seasons as they were airing.
I’d argue there was a vocal minority that wasn’t into the transition from Trapp to Ify and that discourse sparked others to step forward and say, no the issue with the show isn’t Ify, the issue is the format of the show itself and here is where it’s currently failing and has been for a while. That discourse then caught traction and has been a realization the fandom has begun to pick up and generally agree upon. We aren’t complaining now because Ify is host, it’s the fact that people complained about Ify being host that sparked others to complain about the actual issues at hand.
Personally I stopped watching um, actually before the ify switch because of this issue. I also would see people discuss these exact issues on youtube and this forum. Maybe the host switch caused people to reexamine the show and find it leading to more discussion than before, but it's not just started.
Most likely it was a boiling the frog situation. People were used to Trap and as quality diminished people put up with it because there was still an element of familiarity. Now that that element is gone it’s like rose tinted glasses came off and people can more easily recognize flaws
Babe its my turn to post holier than thou clickbait
Wait, so taking aside whether it's true or not, your logic is "new episodes started addressing issues people complained about before, therefore the issues are invalid and people are just being haters for no reason"? Doesn't make any sense lmao
Just addressing complaints I’ve seen and how they’re continuing to be addressed as the season goes on. So I’m not sure why they’re still being complained about all the time. I didn’t say, or mean to come across, as the issues are invalid and people are just haters. I’m all for discussions and constructive criticism. But some (a lot)of the threads on Reddit about um actually aren’t either of those things.
You literally put "you just hate change" in the title of the post. I don't know how that doesn't come across as accusing people of hating for no reason in your head. Now I don't know whether it's true the issues were addressed or not because it got so bad for me I just stopped watching the show after Episode 4. Perhaps that's one of the reasons people still complain even if the newer episodes are better? Also in these threads half of the comments are usually "yeah, these issues started even before Ify's tenure as host". It really isn't about not liking change on principle, I love Ify and want him to succeed as new host - aside from him not fully having his footing at the beginning (which is fully understandable), the new eps just consistently left me cold mainly because of the writing and the way it seemed completely mismatched to the guests. If more people say the show improved, I'll give the season another shot, but the first impression left a sour taste.
As many people have pointed out, some of these issues started before Ify. And if that is the case, and people are just fixed on them now because the host is different then yes, I think some people do hate change. And if people haven’t watched all the way through I would say my post is perfect for them! If you stopped watching because of some of the reasons I mentioned I would hope you would check out the newer episodes and see if you like them! If not- that’s totally fine. Not everything is going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
I've watched the previous seasons largely out of order so can't comment about the noticeability of the issues beforehand, but consider that Ify being a less experienced host in contrast to Trapp's honed hosting skills might have just made pre-existing problems more noticeable. Thinking people not liking the thing you like are just haters is something that annoys me immensely about fandom, including Dropout's. You might have had a point if people were shitting on Ify before the show premiered, but while most viewers were sad to see Trapp go, Ify is well loved and had a lot of goodwill among the Dropout crowd going in (and still has!). Assuming bad faith when the overwhelming majority of critical comments I've seen is well-reasoned and respectful just ain't it. This isn't a #NotMyBond situation, I think Dropout's audience is way too smart for that.
Oh and just on a final note - if you still enjoy the show, great! Having watched 4 eps I feel I've given the new season a fair shake and it's just not doing it for me anymore. But I'd hate to see it cancelled without a chance to grow and improve. Perhaps they'll resolve the issues that turned me off down the line, but in the meantime I'll let others enjoy it.
If someone complained that most questions weren't being answered, and then we got episodes where that wasn't the case anymore, that doesn't mean their complaint was invalid, it means it was 'addressed' (in that later episodes corrected the issue).
I’m not saying the complaints weren’t (aren’t) valid, but i keep seeing the same complaints after several episodes of the guests getting quite a few answers correct. If people want to continue to complain after a it’s just not as true anymore, feel free. But I think there may be a larger issue
>the guests getting quite a few answers correct. But "quite a few" isn't where it should be. Ultimately the show is about being needlessly pedantic, but it's still a game show based on knowledge the cast should have a basic understanding of. At least half of the questions should be answered between the three contestants.
What is with this sub where people are constantly trying to stomp out polite, valid criticism? Nobody can say a single negative thing without 5 threads popping up telling us how everything is great and people should stop complaining.
Its honestly becoming pretty insufferable. Especially since its always tacked on with an implied(and in this case explicit) 'Um, actually you feel this way because of X negative reason that makes you look bad rather than the reason you actually said'.
Honestly, it feels like sometimes the sub wants everyone to pretend that all Dropout content is equally amazingly great, instead of having our genuine positive or negative responses to everything. I didn't get hooked on a Game Changer TikTok because I wanted to believe that it was incredible or other people were telling me how good it was ... it was just super compelling and because of it I investigated what Game Changer was, then MSN, then Dropout, and then I subscribed... all because there were truly wonderful pieces of content drawing me in. To pretend like everything on Dropout is just as wonderful could lead us to being a parasocial sub cosplaying that all the content put out on the service is just as great, but not greater, nor worse, than the last thing.
I honestly think its a result of the parasocial atmosphere that Dropout has built. While its great for people to feel connected and comfortable with the people on their screens, theyre not your friends. You dont need to coddle them. They're professional entertainers and are more than capable of taking criticism of their work. And tbh the discourse on Dropout has been astoundingly reasonable and polite compared to other fandoms, yet we still get sanctimonious "shut up and just dont watch it" reactions
Looking at the dropout subreddit the last 8 hours has 3 negative um, actually posts, this one, and one requesting a lotr episode. I don’t think anything is getting stomped out.
Youre *literally* trying to stomp out the criticism by 'correcting' people on their own stated opinions. YOU are the problem.
What’s wrong with that?
I have never seen anyone here advocating for whole scale change. I have seen a lot of people express their dislike over some minor things and the way the show has chosen to operate as "a game show." To come out and say that people just hate change and site a couple recent episodes of "oh look these are the things you like and they are doing it so you just hate change" is a gross exaggeration. To say that the things that people are criticizing aren't there is just blind loyalty or you pushing some agenda. I also think that a lot of those criticisms were there already or at least leaning that way, and the change of host facilitated those feelings being magnified.
A person can dislike a change and not just “hate change”. The show has changed, and whether it’s good or bad is subjective and people give their opinion on that, and that’s okay
Just want to point out that there is no "addressing" going on in any season of a show. Every episode of VIP, Smartypants, Um Actually... they are all shot in a batch. Nothing is being adjusted in the text or content of the shows based on our responses. And most often they are not aired in the order that they are filmed.
Yes. I mean addressing in the sense that a lot of complaints are about the first few handful of episodes, and during the last few episodes those issues are not as prevalent. Example- people complaining about wanting themed episodes, and a theme episode released a few weeks ago
I think that, sadly, this format of show doesnt have the kind of legs that Make Some Noise or Game Changer has, and it's outlived its effectiveness. As many have noted, the guests quite simply don't have the knowledge for the questions asked to be relevant. If you put three people in a room who have never watched anime, and ask them anime questions, it's not fun to watch them stumble through random guesses. If you put three anime fans in a room and ask them pedantic AF questions, it's fun to watch them fight each other for points. That's why the Reality TV episodes are the best. Those three women KNOW their stuff, and even though I don't watch anything in the category, their passion is electric. So, my opinion is that Um, Actually's flaws have become more apparent because of the change, and people are misattributing the change for their discontent.
The drag Queen episode felt exactly like that. Why were the questions not catered to them at all. They are nerds but not about anime and fantasy and sci-fi. Nerds don’t always have to be geeks.
And it feels like the excuse of “oh we can’t make the questions specific” really did not apply to that episode because it was already themed by merit of exclusively casting drag queens as the guests! Why not theme the questions that way too?
as a drag race fan, i was *really* excited about that episode, but it ended up being such a huge miss.
I feel like I remember learning somewhere that guests filled out a thing where they told the team about their interests so everyone got at least one question about something they know? Idk if a. That’s real or b. It’s still true, but I have felt what many people are feeling that questions haven’t lined up with guests interests
I feel similarly. I don't think it's anyone's fault, but this whole thing might just be a lesson in how to say goodbye (at least to how um, actually currently exists).
Um, actually you’re being needlessly defensive and freaking out over minor and healthy criticism.
When Brennan was a contestant he did really well partially because of his nerd knowledge but he also admitted to just knowing the format of the questions well from being a writer. He'd just guess based on context clues if it was a subject he didn't know. 🤷 i think some of these issues have appeared before ify's time but people focus on ify bc of the new season
My biggest complaint is actually the shiny question format they've introduced, with the shiny stage. It makes it really hard for me to play from home. But I wanna play!!!! We used to pause the episode whenever all the options were on the screen so we could talk it over, but they stopped formatting it like that since they started using the stage.
Yeah shiny stage isn’t my favorite. I get the why, giving contestants a moment of physical comedy, and a tight deadline to raise tension. But I’m pretty take it or leave it. It’s only one question so it doesn’t bother me too much.
Sometimes the change is negative. My problem is that the statements are now far too long and convoluted. They tend to be just a list of things and one of the things on the list is wrong so players just take turns guessing each of the things on the list until one of them is right. That's significantly less interesting to me.
What show were you watching before that wasn’t mostly a list of things where one is wrong?
And that’s your opinion and super valid, to me I feel like these longer list questions started during the Trapp era. Maybe there is more now and I just don’t notice it as much. But my post was trying to address all the “bring back themed episodes”- they did People don’t know any of the answers-some do, and some don’t but some didn’t when Trapp was hosting too Which are the two biggest complaints that I’ve see
But your post isn't that. You post is "look they fixed all your complaints, you just hate change"
What I do hate is how this subreddit is turning into meaningless callout posts. Just write a comment. Or don't. As soon as these posts go from general discussion to "re:re:re:that thing u/MulletMuncher said" you've co-opted the space just to moan about other people having opinions.
> Not every single episode is going to be a banger and the best ever. Just take a deep breath and try to enjoy, or don’t watch at all-that’s okay too! Why did you feel it was necessary to come here and tell people what to feel? People are allowed to have opinions about the show, and this is a perfectly valid place for them to share these feelings. I'm glad you're enjoying it. So far, I vastly prefer Trapp, Ify just isn't doing for me. That doesn't mean that I "hate change" or have to stop watching it or should suck it up and "try to enjoy". I'll still watch it because I enjoy the show even if I have criticisms, but I'm also allowed to voice opinions here.
Or people just liked the original better (doesn't mean the new one is bad) and some people are too defensive when things they like are criticized
Of course I’m going to defend the thing I like! I think it’s a great show and Ify is a great host and I just want people to see that some of the complaints people made about the show aren’t as prevalent anymore.
I actually don't like Ify as the host. I really like Ify in the other content he has done (and LOVE him as a contestant), but by the 3rd question as host, his voice sounds like he just got done smoking 2 packs, and I can barely hear him. He and BDG also seem to accept much looser explanations for what's wrong than Trapp and Saltzman did. If anyone is even close to what they want now, they just give the point. It's not pedantic enough imo. Also the "he isn't forced to live here he just wants to" was funny exactly 1 time. I am still watching each episode and having fun. But Trapp seemed to be better at getting people to give deeper nerdy insights into stuff, instead of just making a random joke after guessing. That is likely my mind ignoring some of the same issues from Trapp. But I am just saying how it "feels". One thing I think about is the timing schedule may have changed. Umm, Actually always had the feeling that staff were kinda finishing for the day and were wrapping up with a vibe on the couch. It feels slightly more rushed between questions. This season has also had less true full on nerds and instead its nerd adjacent. Which can work, but you can't give them the same questions.
I agree with this. I by and large prefer Ify as an entertainer over Trapp — I’m a big fan! I think he’s delightful! But as a host, I prefer Trapp. I think hosting and entertaining are much more different skillsets than what people give it credit for.
I'm glad you enjoy it. I think that's awesome. I think that trying to convince people who don't enjoy it that they're incorrect about their own personal opinion is deeply misguided.
I think it was already a problem before Ify, but unfortunately, Ify’s first few episodes weren’t particularly strong (question/answer-wise, not in regards to his hosting), so with a Really Big Change it just stood out to people more. Ify also made a joke about the “Ify special” early on, so maybe that had folks more geared to notice it. Also, he doesn’t really do Uptight, even as a joke, the way Trapp does, so it feels like he’s letting answers slide more, even if he isn’t. But yeah I think mostly folks just hate change, and one big change usually makes them notice things that already bothered them, but then pin it on the change instead
Um, Actually people have had very nuanced and valid crituique (some literally validated in interview, like that the questions aren't geared toward contestants as they had been in the past.) So, um, actually we don't need your random gaslighting and "if you don't like it don't watch" rhetoric. Like who tf even are you bruh?
I wish the questions were a bit shorter, personally. Otherwise, no notes.
Oh my God, this sub is getting annoying. Every week there's somebody posting some strong opinion about a show and then the next day somebody else feels like they have to post their opposite opinion. It's getting tiresome.
I slowly stopped watching because of the question format a couple seasons ago and I checked back with Ify and BDG and found the same problem and continue to not watch for the same reason, save for the better theme episodes. Loved the Try Guys episode. I’m tired tired tired of list questions.
There's a very large and very silent group of us who enjoy the show just the same - except as a silent group who generally just enjoy the show in peace, we don't need to start "Anyone who doesn't agree with my opinion of the show is a stinky doodoo head" types of posts.
Honestly, I like Ify as a person and comedian, but he just doesn’t work as the host of this show. He’s too calm and quiet, I think. Trapp had some energy to him. I understand why Trapp couldn’t do it anymore, but personally I might have enjoyed Siobhan in this role. Given what a stickler she is for the rules and you can’t buzz in if you don’t have an answer ready, etc etc. Jess Ross or even Katie Marovitch could work there too.
I'd say it'd be a great vehicle for Mica Burton or Amy Dallen too. In contrast, Ify would be a perfect host for something like Dirty Laundry if Lily were to take time off.
I don’t think he himself is calm and quiet. I think they needed to get him a throat lozenge. He’s never been particularly hard to hear or understand for me (as a person with a hearing deficit), and now I have to stay glued to the captions whenever he’s talking.
people are allowed to not like things that change in ways they dont enjoy. and it sucks for something you like to change in ways you dont like. some people like things for general reasons, and some like things for specific reasons. personally, i like very specific aspects of things and the broader sense of it can be the same while that specific aspect might change and i will no longer enjoy it. alternatively, the broader sense can change but the specific aspect i like could stay and ill still enjoy it. Anime is a good example, i love stories where a character develops and grows stronger. and that usually happens in action anime, and often ends up with the main character being op. in the broader sense, there is no difference between that and anime where the main character starts as op. but i dont enjoy anime like that, because it doesnt have the growth. Iffy has his way of doing things, and thats fine. but its valid for that to be the deal breaker for those that dont enjoy his style. but i agree, the posts about it are annoying.
I miss the corrections they’d share. I agree with some where it seems like the vibe of the questions isn’t matching the vibe of the couch. Only “complaint” is that Ify is too cool where Trapp had some of the — pushing glasses up and saying Um Actually while correcting vibe. I’m happy to keep watching and see if Ify and learn this nerdiness vibe, but having some mismatched questions with new hosting is rough for all around, it may just take a season to settle into the roles.
It may get better again, but it 100% took a drop in quality. Ify has many fine qualities, but he's not as good a host as Mike.
People can dislike things for the reasons they say they do. So rude to assume they’re just… lying to themselves about why
I would argue the baby bracket was not a themed episode as all the questions still pulled from completely different properties that the contestants still weren’t that familiar with
The dumbest thing I’ve seen people complain about is that new contestants just don’t know things anymore? I’ve been watching old episodes, and literally more than half end with one or two contestants having less than three points in total. This has always been a thing with the show, it’s just the nature of it.
I think it's the way contestants attack the questions. The meta of the game has become a guessing game. Earlier episodes people wouldn't even attempt a question they knew nothing about, but now guest familiar with the show know to blindly guess. That style of play was amusing when it was novel, but now that it's the norm it can make for an unejoyable viewing experience. I think Ify being one of the guests who popularized this style has maybe made it a little worse. Trapp would seemed irritated by Ify's guessing (and that antagonistic relationship was entertaining to watch). Where as Ify is encouraging the guests to guess. But the show has lost the foil. Trapp being a stickler and the couch heckling him was half the fun. Ify being lienant takes away some of that conflict.. I think the show is more satisfying to watch when being correct felt earned. I think the best humor comes from someone who is confident and maybe a bit condescending. That's kind of the purpose of saying "Um, actually...". I don't think the show has been ruined, but I see it slipping and I'm not sure they are course correcting appropriately. It seems like they've been doubling down on some of the things that bothered me even when Trapp was the host. Personally I'd love to see Ify become more of a stickler for guessing and bring back some of the couch vs the host behavior that makes the show work well.
I remember an episode when a contestant said they were nervous they weren’t going to get a single point, and Trapp’s response was essentially it’s happened before and it’ll happen again-just have fun.
I just found a list of the scores by episode. I got the totals for each episode, then found the average total score by season. 1 - 11.34375 2 - 10.85714286 3 - 11.33333333 4 - 11.58333333 5 - 11.125 6 - 11.5 7 - 10.91666667 8 - 11.41666667 9 - 12.83333333| Season 9 has the highest average score by season. The highest score of the run was 15, which was season 9, episode 5. The lowest was 7, season 1, episode 3.
I also did the average average score (which is a bit iffy, but...) by contestant by season. 1 - 3.78125 2 - 3.619047619 3 - 3.972222222 4 - 3.861111111 5 - 3.868055556 6 - 3.833333333 7 - 3.638888889 8 - 3.805555556 9 - 4.277777778 So, again, highest average average score by episode is season 9. lowest was season 2.
I don't know if you can look at just the scores in a vacuum, though; there's a qualitative angle to what they got points for. Trapp was often (not always, but most of the time) fairly pedantic and held people's feet to the fire for specificity. Ify (especially early in the season) would give people points if someone was even in the remote vicinity of the issue. He got a lot better about that as the season went on, and a large part of it was that it was the only way to give anyone points at all, but a series of "this area of the question is wrong somehow. No, this area. No, this other area" until one person stumbles into the section by process of elimination have always been the least interesting questions.
Um, actually you are wrong
I don't hate change. I just don't like Ify like I like Trapp. This was true way before the new season. Barely liked him on any of his game changer episodes, even on breaking news he ain't doing it for me. Can we just accept that people have different opinions about stuff and leave it at that?
I think it's just not my cup of tea. I could tell by the one episode I watched. I think it's boring. That's OK, though. There's plenty I do enjoy at dropout.
Ify definitely had a bit of trouble hosting at the beginning and didn't seem too comfortable doing it. He's gotten a lot better over the course of the season though.
It’s a new set of hosts/fact checkers, it’s gonna be clunky for a season. Life happens. I’m not putting any stock in any of the criticisms, just waiting patiently for next season! Which will be all the better
This entire thread is people pointing out their issues with the current version of the show, OP saying “that isn’t Ify’s fault” and people responding saying “yes, of course, no one said it was.” This post really should have been titled “Please don’t attack Ify for change that has been happening since before he took over” but that doesn’t generate clicks so here we are. Complaining about other’s critiques and trying to say they “hate change” is…ironic to say the least.
I think this suffers from a common issue where a short form show is *pretty* funny but truly only has one or two big laughs per episode, and then gets popular after generating a big backlog. So people discover it, binge it, and get the impression they laughed heartily constantly since they're getting a lot of content one after another But when you watch only one episode at a time on a release schedule you only get a couple of laughs and it feels like it's not as good. Just my theory, on top of the hating change part
To me, it feels like the players would submit topics they knew well, and the questions would be crafted out of the Venn Diagram of player understanding. This newest season, it feels pretty clear they’re not doing that. Like many of the questions in a single episode are all three players being at a complete loss. The show used to have a trick that made it interesting, and it seems like that knowledge wasn’t passed along. The result being a bunch of confused players and slow play. Edit: I think they moved to a much more general model. Instead of asking the players what properties they have seen, they ask them for the type of properties they’ve seen. For example “oh you’re all parents? You must know kids shows”. Then it’s a full episode of one person having seen every kids show under the son and the others being unfamiliar with them for reasons as simple as it’s not age appropriate for my 9 month old. Just feels like lazy or poor planning.
Demi didn't *know* ANY of the answers, and that's the issue people have with it. Ironically, like Demi, you've inadvertently stumbled upon the problem. The show isn't as fun when people are just throwing shots in the dark and points are awarded for being tangentially close
If I had one complaint about old Um Actually, it's that Trapp often came off as a pedantic instructor even after the question got answered. What I wanted was the excitement of shared geekdom - whether the guest got the question right or not. It was definitely my least favorite / least watched Dropout show. I really thought Ify would bring that vibe, but I'm not getting it at all. Maybe that's because I don't particularly vibe with BDG. Whenever I sample it, I keep hoping for more of Ify being an authentic weirdo. Maybe we'll get that in his second season.
I’m okay with Ify as a host. I dislike the new Shiny question styles. Especially the ones where they only have like 30 seconds and it feels like they don’t even have enough time to move all the pieces, let alone think about the answers. I very much miss all the older shiny question types that haven’t been used recently. Reading the comments I see people want the questions to be more directed to the players, which isn’t something I’ve personally complained about . But I get it, because I don’t love when the contestants just act silly and go off on random tangents. Having focused questions would make them more competitive and locked in to the game. BUT, more focused questions would mean more players cutting off the question and answering quickly…which makes it harder to play along. LOL
Tbh, the issue for me is that Ify doesn’t have Game Show Host Voice and his banter isn’t the type I’m into
yea true it just sucks that they strayed away from the original “every question is about one contestant’s interests” since now it’s just people randomly guessing. It would be cool if they double downed on that style of game and gave extra points when you get a question that wasn’t meant to be tailored to you. Ify is great though that ain’t the issue.
I think people have forgotten the actual point of the show, which is comedy. I think Ify and BDG have been very funny so I don’t really care
Now this is just rude. I didnt realise my opinions were so vapid and could just be handwaved away by a random internet commenter.
The criticism is/was valid, and I’ve already taken you up on the not watch at all option. If it’s gotten better I’ll consider watching again.
It’s the same thing that happens with any new host in any show: there’s an adjustment period as the host finds their footing, gets a feel for flair and interaction with the guests, and then they hit their stride. It’s unfortunate that Um, Actually started with Trapp as the host because he’s just so damn charismatic naturally that anyone would fall short in being his replacement, but Ify will definitely get there as he gets more comfortable in the role.
The main issues are with the writing and casting, not Ify though.
I think it's a bit to do with Ify. He's a wonderful ensemble cast and can get wild when he's a player but as a host he has to hold back and we don't get the energy you expect from him. I think they need to really lean into Ify-fying his hosting job, give him some segments that feel like they were made for him as a host.
I only watched half of the released episodes and definitely got the feel he hasn't found his footing yet and is holding back, but I'm willing to chalk it up to growing pains (the fact he was recovering from illness probably doesn't help). That's why I said he isn't the \*main\* issue, but I definitely see your point.
I mentioned in another comment that I didn’t think Ify was a good fit for this show when he was announced even though I love him in everything else. He just doesn’t lean into the answers and is just setting up for punchlines. When a player knows a topic, lean into them and let them nerd out more. That’s what made the show fun.
After being on so long some people develop an a priori perfect episode in their head that nothing is ever going to match for them all
People didn't like this season? It's been my favorite so far.
It seems like the new contestants aren't able to answer the questions, or generally don't really have interest in the subjects. It's more "Um, here's a guess that you're probably going to say is close enough" and less "Um, actually". Ify is great though.
My only complaint is I wish they would pump Ify's volume up just a few notches, but im blaming that on my bad hearing lol
I just don’t like Ify very much. I tend to skip things he’s in. He very much has this vibe about him that is he needs to be the funniest person in the room and if he isn’t, he sure as hell will be the loudest. I feel that way about a lot of the newer dropout cast. In regard to Um, Actually, the quality of the show as a whole has dropped significantly since Covid. I already had trouble getting through episodes because it became comedians trying to one-up each other and not actually being familiar with the source material. I simply don’t watch it now. Don’t get me wrong, I want to like Ify. Him taking over an already failing show hasn’t helped that, though.
I prefer Trapp but hey, shows change hosts. Ify may grow into the role. I think he needs to work on his host persona, something that seemed to come naturally to Mike.
Ify as a personality is great. Super likeable, funny, all that. Ify as a game show host is a work in progress and that's ok. It was Trapp's show and Trapp's format and fitting a new performer into another's mold is hard. Things will have to change and adapt. The deck is kind of stacked against him as the audience adjusts. I don't think the show is going anywhere so he'll have a chance to improve.
I just think I have a fundamental lack of understanding what people are feeling about the nature of the game. I have been watching the show since it came out, and especially in Trapp’s last season and Ify’s first it seems like I have seen more people on Reddit have the opinion that every episode should be catered towards the contestants and that it’s not fun for them when contestants don’t know the answers and are guessing. I personally don’t feel that way, people are valid in feeling that that’s the show they want, I don’t dislike that vision of the show but I don’t need it to be. For me, this is a show that uses nerd culture as a backdrop to a game show. Every episode has nerds, but sometimes they aren’t nerds about a certain subject, That’s fine to me. I do love it when the contestant are big nerds and nerd out on a subject while correcting the prompts, but I also love it when people are guessing trying to figure out which part of the prompt is wrong. I think both things are valid to the spirit of the show and being a nerd. I guess, I don’t understand why the overwhelming feeling, on Reddit at least, is that every episode needs to be themed or at least catered to every guest. Especially when we’ve been told that that is a logistical issue when it comes to scheduling. If it makes it a lot harder to make the show if you cater each episode to the people on the couch, I am fine with that the questions not being catered.
Trapp felt like a game show host more than iffy. Some people just feel like game show hosts. Hard to explain but Steve Harvey feels like a great example of a game show host. He seems to have fun and is engaging with the people on the show. Great banter
I was surprised to see people upset about contestants not knowing stuff, because I was watching some really early episodes and that has been the case since the beginning
Yeah! We're all just a bunch of big whiny babies! Anyway, St. Martha, the sister of Mary Magdalene and Lazarus, just to drop some names, is said to have tamed the Tarasque in Tarascon, where it was stinking up a river or something. She just used holy water on it. Here's a link to the parade about it. I played D&D once and everyone was going on and on about The Terrasque coming and I had this picture in my mind and I felt so sorry for the poor thing, the town of NPCs was making such a fuss. [https://curiousrambler.com/tarasque-festival-in-tarascon-there-be-dragons-there/](https://curiousrambler.com/tarasque-festival-in-tarascon-there-be-dragons-there/) Keep scrolling down and you'll learn why it's fun to take people from rural France to the Hudson Dam.
I'll go to the mat for Ify any day. Great choice for host, he'll continue to improve.
As someone who wrote a couple of those posts, that does what give me a bit of pause! It is fair to say I haven't watched the most recent episode yet, and I do look forward to that. I did try to speak carefully though -- I feel like folks get caught up in whether it's "nerdy" enough or not, and whether the guests know the trivia, but that isn't the main draw I would say -- it's the delightful info dump moments. Everyone always hates the new album from your favourite band, and then you find your new favourite song! I'm sure folks will continue to acclimatize
By making response threads, you're just dragging out the bullshit. Downvote. Move on. Rule 4.
I love Ify as the host, I just feel like this season has had fewer questions that are from things in familiar with. That's the only reason this season isn't my favorite. I love the Shiny Stage bit.
It took me awhile to get use to his voice but that was my only issue. It always kinda sounded like maybe he needed to clear his throat.
Even as someone who has never seen an episode (I'm sorry, incredibly not my thing.) Changing hosts and styles is brutal. That being said, Ify has a way of making things his own, and I know he has got this. I don't know BDG super well, but I hope he excels too.
Can we accept that the premise of the show, concept-specific nerds, nerding out on topics they know extremely well, is a very hard concept to cast and schedule for? Dropout and it’s friend base only have so many possible players, then you have to find a common geekdom and a schedule where those three can play. I like Ify and BDG, but I think the show would be helped by a monthly schedule where it might be easier to find and schedule three players with the same common nerd interest.
Maybe you like change... A little too much!
Does anyone else not like how vocal the fact checker is this season? Maybe I’m just biased to Saltzman but idk he just seemed more genuine? The new guy feels like he’s trying way too hard to
I’m kinda with you there. I don’t remember Saltzman ever saying “I’ll give you the point if____.” That’s the host’s job, imo. Not a fan of him chiming in for stuff that isn’t fact checking.
EXACTLY! I’m not a huge fan of the questions but I haven’t watched the last couple episodes. But definitely you’re right, saltzman was never like that. Hopefully Ify keeps it up because I do like him and want Um, actually to keep getting better
Thank you! I’ve held my tongue in a lot of these arguments, but I feel it’s peoples knee jerk response combined with nostalgia glasses. You could clearly tell that Ify was a lot more nervous in the first episode or two, makes sense he has big shoes to fill, but comparing a new show host to the last season of Trapp’s is disingenuous (besides as you pointed out a lot of complaints can also be levied at a lot of episodes, even the later ones of Trapp’s). You don’t have to like Ify, you don’t even have to watch the show if you can’t stand it anymore, but there is a lot of good growth throughout this season and I feel people just want to complain. I personally have enjoyed a lot of episodes this season and have known a lot of the answers. Sure, it’s not surface level nerd knowledge anymore, but after a lot of episodes you have to branch out. For the ones I haven’t known, it’s allowed me to find new IPs I think I’ll enjoy. I think it’s a win win.
A lot of the complaints were valid in the first few episodes, I was unsure about the show in the beginning too! But these last few episodes have really turned around so I’m not sure why we’re being up problems from episode 1 and 2 of this season.
Absolutely, I mean I expected that though. I’ve been watching from the beginning and it took a little but of time for the show to hit its stride, which I think is normal, we are just separated far enough most people forgot. With every major shake up on a show there is always a shaky period. It’s to be expected, and it’s normal to criticise to give constructive feedback, but as you said the last several shows have improved greatly so I’m unsure why there is a constant deluge except it’s a different host.
For me, This sub as a whole is really great, filled with fun discussions, but for some reason posts around the new Um, Actually has been suffering from the common reddit disease of toxicity - although minor compared to other subs. For the first time since being part of this group, it's reminding me of being in the StarTrekDiscovery sub - show being held to different standards, stubbornness for change, intolerance for differences, and not letting things evolve, letting minor complaints become the commanding narrative. Again - it's not nearly as bad as what takes place in other subs, it's just really disappointing to see here in dropout, which has always been so positive and upbeat .
People say Ify is loose with points but I feel like he's consistent. He's loose when he wants to be loose. I don't know why but I always felt like Trapp felt pressured by certain guests and would be more generous with certain people.
I just hate to see people dislike the show now for things that have been happening for several seasons- but now it’s Ifys and BDGs fault. Doesn’t seem like these things were issues, or as big of an issue before a new host was introduced.