On advice of counsel, I’ve steered clear of any online discussion of The Earwolf Challenge, especially on the Earwolf forums. The intent, of course, is to keep these write-ups untainted by public opinion.
However, every now and then I can’t help but encounter someone on the Internet who has an opinion about this podcast and how things are going. This week, it was former guest judge Paul F. Tompkins on Who Charted?, who had this to say about the Challenge:
“That show is very exciting because they almost have it narrowed down to a winner, and they almost have the rules to their own show figured out. It’s a race to see which happens first: Will someone win before they figure out what the show is?”
Which, really, kinda nails it. On the one hand, the show’s easygoing tone feels comfortable and conversational, without the enforced seriousness or melodrama of its reality TV influences. On the other hand, that same tone gives the impression that Earwolf didn’t have a clear vision of what the Challenge was going to be, or even what it is right now.
Speaking of things getting nailed online, you know who does read the Earwolf forums? Matt Besser, that’s who. He and his co-host/producers, Frank and Peter, spend about five minutes addressing concerns and issues raised in The Challenge forum, mostly by politely shooting them down. And with good reason: why people expect The Challenge to hold itself to the same rigorous standards as, say, Project Runway is beyond me.
Before we get into the actual challenge, though, it’s time for “This Week in Passive Aggression” with Matt Besser and Producer Pete:
Peter: You’re the boss.
Besser: I’m not the boss. Let’s make that perfectly clear. Otherwise, I’d have a coffee today.
Peter: [defeated grunt]
Besser: Yeah. Exactly.
It’s that kind of warm camaraderie that keeps me coming back week after week. Also, I promised I would. So, there’s that, too.
Episode 7.1: Coaching Sessions
Hey, it’s Concept and Content! Yes, the time has come to start recycling challenges from the days of yore. The only real differences between Weeks 3 and 7 are that the clips can be longer (three and a half minutes - longer than most episodes of Affirmation Nation!), the content has to be original (instead of pulled from a show’s archives) and there are only five competitors left instead of 9. Yeah, it’s a pretty vague theme for a challenge (again), but this is the sort of thing I don’t mind seeing in the latter half of the show. It’s like on Top Chef near the end of the season, when they start to let the chefs do whatever.
Matt BesserHowever, for a show that already has, as has been pointed out, a problem defining itself from week to week, a challenge this broad is potentially problematic. In an attempt to give things a little focus during the coaching sessions, Besser adopts the persona of a big-time podcasting executive asking for pitches from the Final Five. Some contestants respond to this better than others.
Totally Laime stays “on message” by repeating their slogan like a mantra. It almost feels like they’re trying to ward away evil spirits. Yes, we get it: important people, unimportant questions. It’s a good angle, but angle alone isn’t going to (or shouldn’t) win this thing. Elizabeth and Andy have only been in the Bottom 3 once. Their output has still been rather uneven from week to week. But Besser likes their plan of doing a full show and picking out three minutes as their submission, so he gives them basically no feedback and moves on.
The F Plus doesn’t exactly display the same confidence or clarity of vision. When asked for their pitch, they crack wise about Steve Gutenburg (for some reason or other). Then follow it up with several seconds of awkward silence. Eventually they get around to something about the Internet being a mirror for mankind’s “basest and weirdest impulses.” Fair enough. However, that soon leads to an anecdote about an online community for hyper-sexualized treatment of Pokemon and the revelation that “a worrying amount” of the show is just covering sexual fetishes. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it is indicative of a greater problem. It’s Week 7 and Besser still isn’t sure what their show’s about. So, business as usual.
Unsurprisingly, the perennially affable hosts of The Little Dum Dum Club don’t have what you might call a “plan” for the week’s challenge. Much like in The Princess Bride where Inigo Montoya and Westley reveal neither is left-handed, Tommy and Karl don’t mind the whole “original” content thing because they’ve been doing original material every week. “We’re not spooked,” asserts Karl. “We’re fine.” What can Besser say to that? This: “Not a good pitch, but it’s true what they said.” Thanks to their intangible, unpitchable rapport, they’re the only show left to avoid the Bottom 3. The new frontrunners?
Speaking of frontrunners and being left handed – last paragraph call back! - Left Handed Radio is belatedly crowned the winner of Sketch Week. I guess we’re declaring winners now? Good. In describing what sets them apart from all those other sketch podcasts out there, they cite That Mitchell and Webb Sound as an influence, which is almost enough to make me forget their diss on Superego back in Week 1. Yes, I’m still holding that grudge! And I’m not the only one: apparently they’re “getting smeared on the forums.” The forums I don’t read. Smeared! Besser doesn’t have much to say to them, because what can he really say to anyone when the challenge is as broad as “Three-and-a-half minutes of material?”
Back in the beginning, Bob and Dan said they wanted to be the competition’s underdogs, and by God, they sure are. Like The Little Dum Dum Club, The Bob and Dan Cast doesn’t have a good pitch and seems to get by on the rapport of its hosts. They never have a plan, but, as Besser says, they “deliver every time.” But he goes on to point out that without an angle, there’s no way for Earwolf to market them. They’re not famous enough to have a built-in audience. And not unique enough to have a hook.
This seems to be the first time the whole concept of marketability has been brought up. Week 7. Arguably one of the most important features of any podcast on Earwolf. All but ignored until now. Just saying.
Episode 7.2: The Challenge
This week’s guest judges...don’t inspire a lot of confidence, truth be told. We had such a strong start with Jimmy Pardo and Jason Sklar. Now we have Jordan Morris and Kulap Vilaysack. Morris immediately displays his podcasting bona fides by joking about a puddle of ejaculate he’s left in the corner. Charming. But I’m still putting more stock in his opinion than in Vilaysack’s.
Kulap Vilaysack
Jordan MorrisLook, I have nothing against Vilaysack. She seems nice. I like her on Children’s Hospital, partially just because I can identify her. But I question why she’s judging The Challenge. Her podcasting tenure is equal to Howard Kremer, judge from a couple weeks ago. True. Yet, she doesn’t take primary hosting duties on Who Charted? I mean, I had my doubts about Kremer, but as a professional comedian, I at least trusted he’d be able to offer an authentic critical comedian’s perspective. By contrast, Vilaysack’s role on Who Charted?, apart from “keeping the charts,” seems to center around enthusing about dance music no one else likes and being familiar with comic-book movies. So...I’m skeptical.
As it turns out, Morris’s the big disappointment when it comes to critiquing LHR’s submission. Besser thinks it’s really strong (he’s right), but Morris utterly misses the point of their first sketch, incorrectly theorizing that it would’ve been funnier without “having every other word be ‘bark’ and ‘woof.’” That is, in fact, what makes it funny - that we, as humans, clearly aren’t the target demo for the commercial. Those “barks” and “woofs” somehow have meaning to dogs. That’s the joke.
Worse, both Morris and Vilaysack apparently didn’t realize it was a sketch show. “Didn’t they say that in the first sentence?” Besser asks, as bewildered as I am. “Did they?” Vilaysack asks. “Shoot. Did not hear that for whatever reason.” Morris thinks the announcer said “it’s a sketch pod--” before a sound effect cut him off (and no one contradicts him, except for me shouting at my iPod). The actual line was “Today’s sketch comedy - today!” Guys, come on. There’s no way you can be this confused. You’re the judges. I’m just some guy on the Internet. Why am I paying more attention to this than you are?
It’s frustrating, that’s all. I’ll move on.
Totally Laime’s clip contains the phrase “asking the most important people the least important questions” twice in three and a half minutes, and closes with a brief discussion about The Challenge itself. Stay on message! The clip lives up to their mantra, I guess, but it also doesn’t seem to really go anywhere. The judges wish it had. Me too! Weirdly, Andy comes off as the host and Elizabeth as the sidekick. Plus, the sound quality’s worse than usual, which doesn’t help. The whole thing feels like the cracks are starting to show.
The Little Dum Dum Club manages to seamlessly integrate the setup of its clip with the clip itself, which right off the bat makes it feel much more natural than Totally Laime’s submission. In terms of content, it’s pretty similar, but the conversation feels much livelier and more organic. True, it’s largely about some local Australian stuff with which most of us have no direct experience, but it’s nothing so obscure as to be inaccessible. The judges don’t have a bad thing to say, other than Vilaysack’s confusion over whether Karl’s a host or the guest and which somehow leads her to bring up Ricky Gervais’ podcasting sidekick, Karl Pilkington. In other words, this is yet another week of maddeningly inexplicable competence from Tommy and Karl’s apparently hook-free podcast.
Ordinarily, I’m quick to call out the judges for being too easily confused over the most minor of missteps in a competitor’s submission. As seen in the previous paragraph. That said, The F Plus’ submission is a frickin’ mess. I’m never so lost that I can’t understand what they’re doing, but then again I’ve been listening to these guys on this show for the past seven weeks. Needless to say, Morris and Vilaysack understandably have no idea what’s going on. It’s not even the trusty confusing format excuse. Or that their clip isn’t especially funny. The mess is they could present any three and a half minutes they wanted, and they chose this clip. If nothing else, it’s a case of Bad Song Choice.
And no, “commentate” isn’t a real word. Come on.
In the Frickin’ Mess category, though, The Bob and Dan Cast really gives The F Plus a run for its money. Bob and Dan’s riffing in their submission can fairly be called “aggressive” - they ping-pong between topics, from backpacks to Cuba Gooding Jr. and back. There’s an unfortunate whiff of desperation about it. Vilaysack compliments the professionalism of their clip, but can’t identify anything else she really likes about it. Besser compares it to the set-up for a Harold, which is fair but not especially favorable.
Episode 7.3: The Judgment
Despite their frustrating confusion, the judges give top honors to LHR, although Besser has The Little Dum Dum Club neck-and-neck with them. Interesting! Feeling kinda stupid that I’d predicted they’d be among the first to go, but I’m glad I was wrong.
Thanks to subtraction, the Bottom 3 equals The F Plus, Totally Laime and The Bob and Dan Cast. The latter two feel pretty safe. Totally Laime has too good a track record to go out now, and the worst the judges can say about The Bob and Dan Cast seems to be that they didn’t follow through on the promise of their opening credits. Piddling stuff, really.
The F Plus, on the other hand, has had a bumpy road since Week 1. Their difficulty in articulating just what the heck their show’s about week after week, capped by an especially weak submission, make them the odds-on favorite to get the boot. Bunny, Lemon, Bread, the Skipper, Gilligan, Zeppo, Gummo, Curly Joe, et al. sound genuinely surprised their clip confused anyone. None of their listeners have ever complained about their format. It’s safe to say the fourteen-man F Plus band must’ve listened to their clip before they sent it in. There’s just a fundamental disconnect.
They do manage to call out Besser for apparently contradicting himself during the competition - initially saying they should break up their readings with commentary, then criticizing them for doing just that this week. True, but it’s a pretty weak point of contention. There’s a middle ground, guys.
It’s The F Plus that bites it, of course. But even after the bad news is dropped, there’s still, like six and a half minutes left in the episode. What gives? In an unprecedented show of respect, or possibly just a failure to control the show, The F Plus gets a few minutes of riffing and general grab-assery before being shown the door.
I’ll be honest, The F Plus has always sounded like a hard show to listen to for an outsider. But you know what? Tradition is tradition. So, off I go to listen to an episode. If it doesn’t have a worrying amount of weird fetish material, I’m going to feel pretty ripped-off.
Monday, August 6, 2012 at 5:23AM 
Pete Holmes is getting dangerously close to making it really hard for people to not know him. You know, that perverbial random stranger on the street kind of knowing. And it's going to be fun, a little weird but a lot of fun. Holmes continues to accel at stand-up and all things comedy, including his regular intimate and thoroughly engaging podcast offering, You Made It Weird. Picking an episode with another fellow comedic peer seemed like the right thing to do. Check-out my excerpt from last week's Splitsider "Week In Comedy Podcasts" round-up:
