A few final notes on this video before I move on:

1. Some comments have pointed out that the show features a lot of freaky sex stuff, and that the portrayal of these things can be pretty off base. I did have some thoughts about this, but I decided to omit this point from the video. The reason why is because I couldn't figure out how to verbalize my thoughts in a way that felt respectful to the topic and the people. Talking about things like BDSM or polyamory poorly can be very harmful to the conversation, and I didn't feel confident enough in my knowledge to talk about it. Thus I decided to not include it in the script. If someone who is more knowledgeable in these things wants to make their own video on the subject, I would happily encourage that and look forward to that potential video.

2. This video got posted to the Dropout subreddit by someone (Thank you for sharing!) and I saw a few comments both there and here which take issue with me using AE and Guy Branham as an example of bad audience material. The truth is I originally was going to put Sean Chiplock in that slot, but then I actually talked to him and gained a new perspective on his segment. I put in AE because it was the second most obvious example I could think of, and because I could play the clip of Guy explaining what she did wrong. I will however concede the point that Guy's question was a bad question that only had room for a "Yes, and" scenario that AE was not equipped for.

3. Multiple comments have taken issue with my ranking of Atsuko in B tier. That tierlist was meant to be a throwaway gag, and not to be taken seriously. I wouldn't be commenting on this if it wasn't for a common thread these comments shared: Most of the comments criticizing my placement of Atsuko mention the final round when she gets off the stage to avoid doing crowd work. I would argue that the final round of that episode wasn't a crowd work game to begin with. It was musical chairs with extra steps. I contend that Atsuko stepping off the stage was a byproduct of bad game design. While it is true that it did feel like she was struggling the whole episode, I still enjoyed her set. I thought she did well with what she had to work with, especially considering English isn't her first language.

4. I have been made aware that Drew Carrey is indeed a Comedian. I am 22, and I only know him as the guy from The Price Is Right. I watched a few Whose Line episodes when they were on HBO Max before Warner started yanking shit off their platforms. I based my perception of Drew Carrey on those episodes, and the scattered pieces of The Price Is Right I've seen over the years (including the Family Guy gag where Peter killed a bunch of people by spinning the wheel too hard). I will admit I should have researched him more before making that comment.

5. Referring to the Exorcist: Multiple commenters have the described the "ghost SA" he was describing as symptoms of sleep paralysis. I did not come to that conclusion before posting the video, but I do agree with that assessment. That does not change the fact that SA is a very sensitive subject, and that story shouldn't have been shared without permission. While he did technically fulfill Cristela's request by telling her the "worst" story, he should have chosen a different one to share. As one commenter pointed out, "sword guy should've probably known the ghost SA story isn't a thing you tell at parties."

Thank you all so much for watching. I genuinely can't thank you guys enough for the support. Have a look at some of my other videos if you liked this one.

- C11

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i think what really elevated the initial "pilot" that was only done in one of the episodes, is when all the comics bounced around the audience and linked things together — and it compounded when the other comedians jumped in out of turn

I’m a full time video editor and NORMALLY I love Dropout’s editing. Crowd Control was the first show I ever FELT the editing errors. The editors felt like they were trying to hit a length “limit”, with the final goal in mind being between 30-40 minutes, rather than just editing it how it feels best naturally, which resulted in a lot of unnecessary and actively damaging cuts.

As a long time Dropout viewer, I agree with what you said. It's flawed, but overall a good concept that just needs some tweaks and adjustments going forward. Dropout has a great track record with modifying their shows as needed (Make Some Noise didn't need minigames between rounds, but I can no longer imagine an episode without them), so I'm confident these tweaks will be made. All and all this was a great video about one of my favorite niche communities!

I think the easiest way to keep the show good is to make it identical to the game changer version. Points are actually good for this I think, just deciding a winner arbitrarily at the end isn't fun. The "extra rules" round almost always took away from the comedy rather than adding to it. The shirts in the original usually understated the story which lead to a natural uncovering of the interesting qualities. The shirts in the series often overstate what the audience member has to talk about so it results in a letdown both for the comedian and us.

6:37 Hey, that is me!  I am the fountain pen woman.
I agree that my 'quirk' was boring.  Being in that room I had a severe sense of impostor syndrome being there.  This room filled with talented voice actors, someone who had been inside the mariana trench, someone who's dad faked his death, and then there was me.  I like pens.  I quite frankly don't know why I was invited on the show for this reason, I think the casting people just thought it was niche enough and I have dropped just enough money on it for jokes to be made about it.  Thankfully, I was able to at least be a bit funny at the end of the episode there.
I think part of the problem with at least my episode, is that we were all instructed to keep what we said brief and not try to talk too much about our stories.  Which meant that it felt like a lot of people were actively trying to not tell too much.

I will also say, the camera people did not get the shot of me offering a pen to Gianmarco at the end.  I was very quick and immediate with me holding up my pen, I was excited for pens to be mentioned.  The editor just reused the shot of me from earlier in the episode showing my pen.  The two shots are the exact same.

My two cents is they should go back to the 'Ask me About' shirts. It's better.
One example that I remember is in the series there's a shirt that said 'Sinatra Adjacent', wouldn't it be better if instead they wore a shirt that said 'Ask me about my famous relative'?

The thing that unlocked the problem with the show for me was a throw away comment PFT made. At one point he was speed running interactions and made a comment along the lines of "Backstage they told us to get to as many of you as possible." To me this is antithetical to the point of the original GC show which emphasized finding not only the joke in the interaction but the person. You can't hit that same note when your goal is to "get to" as many people as possible in 90 minutes.

33:30 yep and sam deducting points from gianmarco was the BEST part of the game changer episode

Partially unrelated, but I think the "ghost SA" situation is just about a woman having sleep paralysis?? Like, "feeling pressure and not being able to get up from the bed" and all. I mean, there's probably nothing criminal going on. But tbh if you're having vivid SA-related sleep paralysis visions on the regular, that's a job for a psychiatrist, not a con artist.

25:05 DAMN the editors DID do Sean dirty. Even if they didn't want to remove the segment entirely, they could've kept him naming his acts. Hearing a guy drop a bunch of bombshells and then Paul saying "I haven't played any of that" WOULD'VE BEEN AT LEAST A BIT FUNNY. And also let the audience actually see that the guy is a real voice actor instead of framing him as a weird spotlight-hogging asshole

The frequency of poly relationships or kinks might seem quirky, but it's just not interesting most of the time. I think the difference is it's a fact, but not a story. Stories can go somewhere.

“I have been made aware that Drew Carey is indeed a comedian. I am 22.”
I CACKLED.

Sorry, but the "Are only your head and arms gay?" is SUCH a dumb question and I do not know what kind of "non-jokey" answer he expected her to give. Like, what DO you answer to that?

A 40 minute video essay about a Dropout program with the essayist using a Spartan from Halo as their on-screen avatar. Man this Youtube algorithm might know a little too much about me

My biggest thing is that I most certainly found that my enjoyment of the episode completely hinged on the comedians present.
The episodes where the comedians actually played off both each other and had a good repertoire with the audience were the most enjoyable for me, whereas the very mean spirited ones or the ones where the comedians didnt have good chemistry with each other were really hard to watch.
Great breakdown of the series, definitely hoping they improve this one since the premise itself is really fun

The two standouts with the exorcist and the catfisher I also remember as being … total mood killers for a lack of a better word. It made me wonder if this was the point somewhat because the premise of the show originally was to create the crowd work situation where a comedian stumbles upon a touchy subject, right? But then again … this was not funny, just uncomfortable.

Got absolutely sucked into this video, I expected cringe generalization of subjective comedy but got met with an incredible display of research, trust in professionals, and entertaining dialogue. 10/10 video my guy

It's completely possible the exorcist guy suffers some sort of hallucinations or sensory sensitivity that they sincerely interpret as ghosts but even then I think they should've vetted them more first

The exorcist made me uncomfortable too actually. It felt so ambulance-chasy and then when he was asked how to avoid hauntings, he was like "improve your energy. Crystals..." And I was like oh this guy sucks.