Red Letter Media

[Acoustic Virgin]

The random element is the entire point. They are going in cold and seeing what they find.

It probably goes without saying, but even the wheel episodes aren't totally "random". Someone pre-screens each video before it earns a place on the wheel -- maybe not the whole thing but at least enough to ensure some acceptable amount of funny. They've made a few throwaway remarks about the prescreenings in previous episodes.

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

crazy cat ladies LARP they can communicate to horses.

They already talked about a video that's exactly the same, it was called "Telepathic Communication With Animals".

 

[moocow]

It probably goes without saying, but even the wheel episodes aren't totally "random". Someone pre-screens each video before it earns a place on the wheel -- maybe not the whole thing but at least enough to ensure some acceptable amount of funny. They've made a few throwaway remarks about the prescreenings in previous episodes.

They've also openly cheated (or at least joked about doing so) when a pick obviously sucked ass.

 

[I.B. Niggin]

It probably goes without saying, but even the wheel episodes aren't totally "random". Someone pre-screens each video before it earns a place on the wheel -- maybe not the whole thing but at least enough to ensure some acceptable amount of funny. They've made a few throwaway remarks about the prescreenings in previous episodes.

I thought they only pre-screened actual films and not the DIY info type VHS.

They already talked about a video that's exactly the same, it was called "Telepathic Communication With Animals".

Throughout that whole segment I could have sworn they had already covered it before but that's absolute lunacy there's more than one video on this quack shit.

 

[Acoustic Virgin]

I thought they only pre-screened actual films and not the DIY info type VHS.

They've been known to preview feature films (I know I've heard some of them remark that it's their personal first time watching a film while other members of the panel had seen it before on unfilmed "Bad Movie Nights"), but there's some level of screening for the Wheel episodes as well.

On the one that featured the Therapy Plus scam medical device, as the doctor guy was introducing the product, Mike remarked: "You'll see why they made this video in about 10 seconds." and the video cut to the young lady in a tube top, implying that he watched the video before and knew what was coming.

I can't remember which episode it was, but in another one, Rich remarked: "This is why I put this one on the wheel!", implying that he previewed the video and found it funny enough for inclusion.

To be clear, this isn't a criticism. I feel like the show -- wheel episodes especially -- would be a disaster if they watched truly random videos. The vast majority probably aren't all that entertaining, so I'm fine with the fact that they stack the deck a little bit.
I don't even mind when they blatantly fake the results of where the wheel lands because they're clearly excited to watch whichever video they force. These hack frauds are most entertaining when they're excited about something, and they're not very entertaining when they're bored.

 

[moocow]

Throughout that whole segment I could have sworn they had already covered it before but that's absolute lunacy there's more than one video on this quack shit.

There's not just more than one video about that kind of quackery, there's veritable video stores' worth of videos about it. Jay has waxed poetic about how "there was a time when you could make a video and actually get it into a video store," and he's not exaggerating. There were two big "peaks" of complete and utter garbage making big inroads into mass production and distribution with VHS -- the first was the advent of the video store and the cheap(ish) home video camera and editing gear. That's the one Jay is talking about. The second was the rise of the late-night infomercial. There was so much fucking garbage peddled on late night cable TV it easily filled Amazon-sized warehouses.

If you could imagine a subject of quackery, you could find a fucking mountain of videos by different dipshits all trying to cash in on it. You can be certain that 99% of the peddlers are cynics who don't believe a word of it and just want to bilk stupid people (no shortage of those), and the 1% who believe are just as stupid as their dupes.

Penn & Teller found so much of it they made eight seasons of a TV show called "Bullshit!" to shit all over it (their episode on ESP & psychics included a segment mocking an animal psychic). Granted, they went after the ideas rather than the shitty VHS tapes, but still. They stopped making the show because they were getting tired of it and other projects interested them more, not because they were running out of stupid shit to debunk. That'll never run out.

 

[Retink Retunk]

Penn & Teller found so much of it they made eight seasons of a TV show called "Bullshit!" to shit all over it (their episode on ESP & psychics included a segment mocking an animal psychic). Granted, they went after the ideas rather than the shitty VHS tapes, but still. They stopped making the show because they were getting tired of it and other projects interested them more, not because they were running out of stupid shit to debunk. That'll never run out.

I remember really enjoying that show as well, it's too bad Penn had to develop complete brain rot.

To be clear, this isn't a criticism. I feel like the show -- wheel episodes especially -- would be a disaster if they watched truly random videos. The vast majority probably aren't all that entertaining, so I'm fine with the fact that they stack the deck a little bit.

The truly random version is black spine, but they watch a dozen or more videos with a lot of them being skipped after the first few minutes.

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

I remember really enjoying that show as well, it's too bad Penn had to develop complete brain rot.

What happened? Let me guess, he tweets 20 times a day about politics.

 

[Retink Retunk]

What happened? Let me guess, he tweets 20 times a day about politics.

He flipped on a lot of his lolbert stances, endorsed Gavin Newsome during the recall. He's also spoken out against Trump, voted for Hillary, I think talked about banning guns, etc.

 

[millais]

He flipped on a lot of his lolbert stances, endorsed Gavin Newsome during the recall. He's also spoken out against Trump, voted for Hillary, I think talked about banning guns, etc.

Also his son trooned out, and now he is an enthusiastic supporter of troonery

 

[Rabo 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Once he got thin it's like all brain rotted away with the fat.

 

[ddlloo]

Also his son trooned out, and now he is an enthusiastic supporter of troonery

I'm shocked that a kid whose parents openly fuck other people and hosted sex parties would end up like this. Shocked.

 

[sneedem&feedem]

Once he got thin it's like all brain rotted away with the fat.

Maybe eating nothing but potatoes had some secondary side effects besides weight loss.

 

[Alabaster Disaster]

I don't know when his kid trooned out but I always thought COVID was what really flipped the switch on Penn. Just based on how he talked in interviews around that time, I think he earnestly Believed The Science that due to his age going outside was disproportionately likely to kill him and his entire peer group, and the fear of that softened his principles due to the hope that a strong central government and various unelected bureaucrats could do something about it. And then Penn being who he is he'll pursue any path he goes down until the trail runs out and he's the one cutting through the underbrush.

What's really disorienting is how quiet and non-committal he seems expressing current year opinions. Fat Penn could drop a verbal five paragraph essay with citations over why mandatory seatbelt laws are ineffective and immoral. Wrinkle Penn just goes "Eeeh well it's important to be kind."

Sorry what thread is this? Uh say that Rich Evans fellow sure has an amusing laugh.

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

Fat Penn

Wrinkle Penn

Sorry what thread is this? Uh say that Rich Evans fellow sure has an amusing laugh.

 

[mlanguishi]

Retroblasting, a fairly obscure nerd channel I've watched for awhile that always loves to shit on other online people gets on RLM's case over Star Wars.

 

[I'm a Silly]

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

Retroblasting, a fairly obscure nerd channel I've watched for awhile that always loves to shit on other online people gets on RLM's case over Star Wars.

he actually has a kiwi thread here but it is barely about him at this point

can we acknowledge now that a lot of rlm's star wars takes are really insular? like suggesting that having darth vader dance gangnam style at disneyland was some sort of selling out moment for the toy vehicle

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god bless that niggas all potato diet

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

In awe at the size of this lad. The DVD cover in the middle is appropriate.

 

[frozen_runner]

To be clear, this isn't a criticism. I feel like the show -- wheel episodes especially -- would be a disaster if they watched truly random videos.

*unrelated file photo of Black Spine episode*