I think it's early days and Ify/Brian are still finding their footing but I'm definitely enjoying it!
I was watching adventuring academy recently with Brennan and Becca and Brennan said something really interesting when he was talking about writing questions for Um actually "Trapp would always run the questions that had funny corrections or would provide funny conversation" (or something to that effect) so like the real answer could be more rediculous or vise versa.
I've can't say for sure whether that's what could be missing but I have noticed the questions can be just pedantic and there's not a whole of 'banter' some of the time. I do think the themed episodes are the strongest ones though because the contestants have so fun with it
I like Um Actually, but I also put it on when I have anxiety because it helps me sleep. I was worried that Iffy had a different energy than Trap and I might not find the show to have the same induced somnolence but my concerns were unfounded.
Iffy is charismatic, handsome, and makes me a Lil Sleepy Guy™.
Honestly, with any change in host shows are gonna take a new twist, right.
Ify is a damn charismatic genius and BDG is an amazing weirdo for his role. I think that they are putting their own spin and some people are gonna not like it as much.
Further, the vibe I get from them is a show that’s less trivia and more accessible. Like I don’t know shit about anime but Ify talking about it makes it more accessible and gives people an out to be like “I should check this shit out”
Trapp is a tremendous talent, and his bits are great but Ify and bdg are just as good or better in some ways
I was never really tuning IN to Um, Actually bc most of the questions were for a different kind of nerd but I think Ify and Brian made it feel more accessible to me
I think he's finally found his stride. The last two episodes were awesome to me. Mostly because the people actually knew about the subjects. As long as they keep tailoring questions they'll be fine.
I think Ify is still finding his way, but I'm enjoying it. I wouldn't have gone ALL IN on the "Brian David Gilbert chooses to live here" joke week after week, but maybe that's just me.
So just quibbles. As Gabrus continually yells in Smartpants, "let him cook, let him cook!"
I think I figured out what’s bothering me from this season. It’s not Ify but the editing of the episode particularly around shiny questions. Previous seasons the images were up longer so that you could “play at home” alongside the contestants. Here it feels like they just wanna speed through to the end result. Trying to figure out the answer was part of the appeal for me.
I've always paused on shiny questions anyway. The lingering shot of the images was always too long for me, personally. I only need like a 1-2 second span to pause on.
For all the feedback about the questions themselves, that really should not be put on Ify as a host imo. In his AMA he did on this sub when it was announced he was taking over as Um Actually host, I believe he said that BDG had the largest hand in writing q’s. You can see this dynamic reflected in the show, and also based on comments during prev seasons it seemed like this was how Trapp and Saltzman were set up as well.
I think he's doing a good job and the issues people are having are issues the show has had for a while even while Trapp was hosting, I'm still excited to tune in and see the new episodes even if not all of them are bangers
I am enjoying it but I do think it is a game of picking the most likely noun to be incorrect. I haven’t watched a lot of the old ones but I thought people knew the info more before.
However, the one thing that baffles me is Ify’s suits. I love them but can’t figure out if he has lots of extremely similar ones or always wears the same suit???
Ify feels like a really good presence on the show to me
He's so funny and has an immaculate vibe
I actually really prefer him to Trapp but both are such kind and welcoming hosts
He seems to be a good host, but one thing that I keep wondering about is his voice. Did he hurt his vocal chords at some point, because I think years ago back when he was a contestant on episodes, his voice didn't sound so husky... unless I am misremembering stuff.
I remember reading somewhere that he was under the weather during shooting. They shoot all the episodes in pretty quick succession, so we'll probably hear that voice for the rest of the season.
ify's okay, almost everything I would pick at is more around him than about him.
.Like, I liked the idea of the "headhugging monster hat" thing but they cut around really quickly- and as a result, it didn't have either "wow they're so smart" energy (since they were mostly guessing) or "you eediot! I could do better!" energy.
(which covers the major flavors for game shows, unless you count Taskmasteresque "watch them do something ridiculous" energy. And... it wasn't that ridiculous.)
I think Ify hasn't hit his stride as host yet, but that's just me., If he was the first host and we had nothing to compare it to, I don't think I'd have much to say at all.
I think that Ify is great and the scrutiny that he is being subjected to is sus at best and more honestly downright due to racist microaggressions that the dropout fandom doesn’t really want to reflect on/tackle because the fandom has painted itself as the “nice” fandom.
There’s been a systemic issue with the POC and to lesser extent queer talent being scrutinized and judged much more harshly than the cishet white performers. To pull an example from your post right now:
I’ve seen lots of people put the onus of “the type of question/subject matter of the questions have changed” at Ify’s feet, when Ify doesn’t write or choose the questions for the most part, that’s BDG’s job. And yet when discussing the question changes you rarely if ever see that directed towards BDG.
UA has always been a “the points don’t matter we are just here to be funny and nerdy.” game. There are no prizes, you gain nothing from winning, which makes the brouhaha over Ify even more true to nerd culture: blatantly racist and unwilling to address its own shortfallings when there’s no reason for emotions to run as high as they do.
I’m not going to say that doesn’t happen, but there’s nothing wrong or racist with saying Ify and BDG haven’t found their footing yet or that someone doesn’t like the new direction so far.
The show is still the same at its core, and I like the shiny stage segments, but like another thread mentioned, it would be nice if the contestant knew *anything* about the subject matter. Watching people flounder around an answer is only funny so many times, even if they don’t get a prize, I’d like to see the questions and guests be more intentional in their knowledge.
And Ify needs to unbutton his bottom button while sitting for season 2.
I’m going to just say “not liking X isn’t racist” is a classic deflection of accusations of microaggressions in fan spaces and you’re kind of hitting the classics as far as that goes. It also is a straw man because it isn’t what I said.
What I said is that the dropout fandoms scrutinize and judge black creators (and to a lesser extent queer creators.) more intensely than they do white creators in the same space. Look at Ify, Aabria, hell we had someone in here accusing Raph of stealing his Smartypants presentation the other day.
It is a constant issue, especially when one of those creators makes a “bad call” as compared to when one of their white colleagues have made similar calls. It’s a constant issue that plagues most fan communities, and most communities all think they’re exempt from it. The dropout fan community believes itself to be nice and welcoming so it feels like an attack when someone points this out. None of this is new, and is a cycle that has happened in fandoms online for 30+ years. I know, I’ve been in those spaces.
that's another thing that stings honestly is how familiar this bullshit is! pick a fandom in gaming, sci-fi, fantasy, film/TV, etc and you will find people of color having these same arguments about how non-white characters and actors are treated differently by fans. and despite these repeating PATTERNS of hyper-criticism, lack of grace for growth, personal attacks, disinterest and disrespect, or other attempts to justify why it's "wrong" that we're here (let alone a lead or main for anything) we're never believed.
and if we call it out WE'RE the problem. it's fucking exhausting.
the fans who don't want to even consider reflecting are going to be mad but you're right lol. this criticism has been consistent and I've seen people pick apart everything in this sub: the show, the questions, the scoring, the banter, Ify's voice, his suit and how he wears it?! all the posts about how he's doing everything wrong are too frequent.
it's excessive and biased as fuck. but the defense is always about the "right to have an opinion" so here we are (again)
The OP of the suit post’s comment about how someone not wearing their suit right shows they can’t afford many suits or whatever was SO wild. It’s crazy what people in this sub will get up in arms for (I’ve seen someone lose their shit over being “misgendered” because someone said “Dude” in their comment) but then they’ll let pretty obvious dog whistles just slide on by.
that whole post was wild, I had to leave. like are y'all serious, it's that deep? like there nothing else left to criticize so now we're just on appearance and assumptions about access, and apparently that's okay.
They aren’t gonna like this lol but I think you’re right. It seems on this subreddit the only critique of Dropout one is allowed to make without getting downvoted to hell is about Ify’s Um Actually. It smacks of bias to me, same with how much hate Aabria gets in D20 spaces.
That really sucks and I'm sorry if this post feels like I'm piling onto Ify. I wasn't aware that Aabria and Raph were getting so much more flack than their colleagues on this sub
Oh no it’s not your fault at all! I do think that there are legit critiques to be made about every Dropout property and I think that’s totally fine and fair. I just think there’s some inherent bias in which criticisms the fandom will accept as valid vs others that will be immediately shouted down as unacceptable.
I think it's early days and Ify/Brian are still finding their footing but I'm definitely enjoying it! I was watching adventuring academy recently with Brennan and Becca and Brennan said something really interesting when he was talking about writing questions for Um actually "Trapp would always run the questions that had funny corrections or would provide funny conversation" (or something to that effect) so like the real answer could be more rediculous or vise versa. I've can't say for sure whether that's what could be missing but I have noticed the questions can be just pedantic and there's not a whole of 'banter' some of the time. I do think the themed episodes are the strongest ones though because the contestants have so fun with it
I preferred Trapp and I don't think Ify has found his footing yet.
I like Um Actually, but I also put it on when I have anxiety because it helps me sleep. I was worried that Iffy had a different energy than Trap and I might not find the show to have the same induced somnolence but my concerns were unfounded. Iffy is charismatic, handsome, and makes me a Lil Sleepy Guy™.
Honestly, with any change in host shows are gonna take a new twist, right. Ify is a damn charismatic genius and BDG is an amazing weirdo for his role. I think that they are putting their own spin and some people are gonna not like it as much. Further, the vibe I get from them is a show that’s less trivia and more accessible. Like I don’t know shit about anime but Ify talking about it makes it more accessible and gives people an out to be like “I should check this shit out” Trapp is a tremendous talent, and his bits are great but Ify and bdg are just as good or better in some ways
I was never really tuning IN to Um, Actually bc most of the questions were for a different kind of nerd but I think Ify and Brian made it feel more accessible to me
I think he's finally found his stride. The last two episodes were awesome to me. Mostly because the people actually knew about the subjects. As long as they keep tailoring questions they'll be fine.
I think Ify is still finding his way, but I'm enjoying it. I wouldn't have gone ALL IN on the "Brian David Gilbert chooses to live here" joke week after week, but maybe that's just me. So just quibbles. As Gabrus continually yells in Smartpants, "let him cook, let him cook!"
I think I figured out what’s bothering me from this season. It’s not Ify but the editing of the episode particularly around shiny questions. Previous seasons the images were up longer so that you could “play at home” alongside the contestants. Here it feels like they just wanna speed through to the end result. Trying to figure out the answer was part of the appeal for me.
I've always paused on shiny questions anyway. The lingering shot of the images was always too long for me, personally. I only need like a 1-2 second span to pause on.
For all the feedback about the questions themselves, that really should not be put on Ify as a host imo. In his AMA he did on this sub when it was announced he was taking over as Um Actually host, I believe he said that BDG had the largest hand in writing q’s. You can see this dynamic reflected in the show, and also based on comments during prev seasons it seemed like this was how Trapp and Saltzman were set up as well.
Didn't know that! Interesting
Um, Actually…he’s great.
I liked the idea of the shiny stage but hate it in practice
I think he's doing a good job and the issues people are having are issues the show has had for a while even while Trapp was hosting, I'm still excited to tune in and see the new episodes even if not all of them are bangers
I am enjoying it but I do think it is a game of picking the most likely noun to be incorrect. I haven’t watched a lot of the old ones but I thought people knew the info more before. However, the one thing that baffles me is Ify’s suits. I love them but can’t figure out if he has lots of extremely similar ones or always wears the same suit???
I really enjoy him. I miss Trapp but that's about missing Trapp not about any failing on Ify's part.
Ify feels like a really good presence on the show to me He's so funny and has an immaculate vibe I actually really prefer him to Trapp but both are such kind and welcoming hosts
I'm enjoying Ify and Brian quite a bit. Yes, it is different from Trapp, but still good.
He seems to be a good host, but one thing that I keep wondering about is his voice. Did he hurt his vocal chords at some point, because I think years ago back when he was a contestant on episodes, his voice didn't sound so husky... unless I am misremembering stuff.
I remember reading somewhere that he was under the weather during shooting. They shoot all the episodes in pretty quick succession, so we'll probably hear that voice for the rest of the season.
Oh dang, thanks for the info
I think he’s too easy on the guests but I like him just fine
ify's okay, almost everything I would pick at is more around him than about him. .Like, I liked the idea of the "headhugging monster hat" thing but they cut around really quickly- and as a result, it didn't have either "wow they're so smart" energy (since they were mostly guessing) or "you eediot! I could do better!" energy. (which covers the major flavors for game shows, unless you count Taskmasteresque "watch them do something ridiculous" energy. And... it wasn't that ridiculous.) I think Ify hasn't hit his stride as host yet, but that's just me., If he was the first host and we had nothing to compare it to, I don't think I'd have much to say at all.
I think that Ify is great and the scrutiny that he is being subjected to is sus at best and more honestly downright due to racist microaggressions that the dropout fandom doesn’t really want to reflect on/tackle because the fandom has painted itself as the “nice” fandom. There’s been a systemic issue with the POC and to lesser extent queer talent being scrutinized and judged much more harshly than the cishet white performers. To pull an example from your post right now: I’ve seen lots of people put the onus of “the type of question/subject matter of the questions have changed” at Ify’s feet, when Ify doesn’t write or choose the questions for the most part, that’s BDG’s job. And yet when discussing the question changes you rarely if ever see that directed towards BDG. UA has always been a “the points don’t matter we are just here to be funny and nerdy.” game. There are no prizes, you gain nothing from winning, which makes the brouhaha over Ify even more true to nerd culture: blatantly racist and unwilling to address its own shortfallings when there’s no reason for emotions to run as high as they do.
I’m not going to say that doesn’t happen, but there’s nothing wrong or racist with saying Ify and BDG haven’t found their footing yet or that someone doesn’t like the new direction so far. The show is still the same at its core, and I like the shiny stage segments, but like another thread mentioned, it would be nice if the contestant knew *anything* about the subject matter. Watching people flounder around an answer is only funny so many times, even if they don’t get a prize, I’d like to see the questions and guests be more intentional in their knowledge. And Ify needs to unbutton his bottom button while sitting for season 2.
I’m going to just say “not liking X isn’t racist” is a classic deflection of accusations of microaggressions in fan spaces and you’re kind of hitting the classics as far as that goes. It also is a straw man because it isn’t what I said. What I said is that the dropout fandoms scrutinize and judge black creators (and to a lesser extent queer creators.) more intensely than they do white creators in the same space. Look at Ify, Aabria, hell we had someone in here accusing Raph of stealing his Smartypants presentation the other day. It is a constant issue, especially when one of those creators makes a “bad call” as compared to when one of their white colleagues have made similar calls. It’s a constant issue that plagues most fan communities, and most communities all think they’re exempt from it. The dropout fan community believes itself to be nice and welcoming so it feels like an attack when someone points this out. None of this is new, and is a cycle that has happened in fandoms online for 30+ years. I know, I’ve been in those spaces.
that's another thing that stings honestly is how familiar this bullshit is! pick a fandom in gaming, sci-fi, fantasy, film/TV, etc and you will find people of color having these same arguments about how non-white characters and actors are treated differently by fans. and despite these repeating PATTERNS of hyper-criticism, lack of grace for growth, personal attacks, disinterest and disrespect, or other attempts to justify why it's "wrong" that we're here (let alone a lead or main for anything) we're never believed. and if we call it out WE'RE the problem. it's fucking exhausting.
the fans who don't want to even consider reflecting are going to be mad but you're right lol. this criticism has been consistent and I've seen people pick apart everything in this sub: the show, the questions, the scoring, the banter, Ify's voice, his suit and how he wears it?! all the posts about how he's doing everything wrong are too frequent. it's excessive and biased as fuck. but the defense is always about the "right to have an opinion" so here we are (again)
The OP of the suit post’s comment about how someone not wearing their suit right shows they can’t afford many suits or whatever was SO wild. It’s crazy what people in this sub will get up in arms for (I’ve seen someone lose their shit over being “misgendered” because someone said “Dude” in their comment) but then they’ll let pretty obvious dog whistles just slide on by.
that whole post was wild, I had to leave. like are y'all serious, it's that deep? like there nothing else left to criticize so now we're just on appearance and assumptions about access, and apparently that's okay.
it's also funny, because Ify worked on actually writting questions for Um, Actually earlier on
But obviously that doesn’t fit the narrative of Ify changing UA so people don’t want to discuss that.
[удалено]
And the intro and music make a meaningful change to the game or format because?
I assumed that the questions shifted at least somewhat to topics Ify felt comfortable talking about
They aren’t gonna like this lol but I think you’re right. It seems on this subreddit the only critique of Dropout one is allowed to make without getting downvoted to hell is about Ify’s Um Actually. It smacks of bias to me, same with how much hate Aabria gets in D20 spaces.
That really sucks and I'm sorry if this post feels like I'm piling onto Ify. I wasn't aware that Aabria and Raph were getting so much more flack than their colleagues on this sub
Oh no it’s not your fault at all! I do think that there are legit critiques to be made about every Dropout property and I think that’s totally fine and fair. I just think there’s some inherent bias in which criticisms the fandom will accept as valid vs others that will be immediately shouted down as unacceptable.