Red Letter Media

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Favorite recurring character? (Select 4)

  • Jack / AIDSMobdy

    Votes: 257 24.0%

  • Josh / the Wizard

    Votes: 77 7.2%

  • Colin (Canadian #1)

    Votes: 460 42.9%

  • Jim (Canadian #2)

    Votes: 230 21.4%

  • Tim

    Votes: 386 36.0%

  • Len Kabasinski

    Votes: 208 19.4%

  • Freddie Williams

    Votes: 274 25.5%

  • Patton Oswalt

    Votes: 27 2.5%

  • Macaulay Culkin

    Votes: 541 50.4%

  • Max Landis

    Votes: 64 6.0%
  • Total voters
    1,073
whogoesthere said:
Kinda like how soap operas are cheap and easy to make, but men have zero interest in them. Make a soap opera for men, dress all the blokes up in some LOTR gear, throw in some dragons, boom , game of thrones, a soap opera men might actually engage in. Men are always the issue with media, its hard at times to market to them (its why women get so much service, much easier to work with).
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Well, Twin Peaks and Dark Shadows were both fantasy themed soap operas, and were popular with men from what I’ve seen. So you might be onto something there.
 
whogoesthere said:
Kinda like how soap operas are cheap and easy to make, but men have zero interest in them. Make a soap opera for men, dress all the blokes up in some LOTR gear, throw in some dragons, boom , game of thrones, a soap opera men might actually engage in. Men are always the issue with media, its hard at times to market to them (its why women get so much service, much easier to work with).
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It's not even that. Most demographics are really easy to market to and create content for. Especially in this day and age of data being so easily obtainable.

The problem is the insatiable nature of media companies and the overall general concept of infinite/unsustainable growth and the expectations it creates. You have companies that are trying to appeal to demographics that weren't part of the existing demo or are trying to create such broad, mass appeal that you either end up alienating your existing market (do I really need to go into particulars here?) or are such a bland, homogenized mess that we end up with crap like 2023 Night Court.

Instead of creating media that might have crossover appeal but will almost assuredly have appeal to a niche demo within your market, you end up with garbage like Velma or She-Hulk.

Like, we had a 'soap opera for men' and it was wildly successful. Blew the fucking doors off of the television medium. It was called the Sopranos. It didn't try to create a 'mafia show, but for minorities/women', and, in fact, there was a 'soap opera for women' that was right there on HBO and even included diversity by having the first horse as a lead since Mr. Ed with Sex in the City.
 
Well Intentioned said:
It's not even that. Most demographics are really easy to market to and create content for. Especially in this day and age of data being so easily obtainable.

The problem is the insatiable nature of media companies and the overall general concept of infinite/unsustainable growth and the expectations it creates. You have companies that are trying to appeal to demographics that weren't part of the existing demo or are trying to create such broad, mass appeal that you either end up alienating your existing market (do I really need to go into particulars here?) or are such a bland, homogenized mess that we end up with crap like 2023 Night Court.

Instead of creating media that might have crossover appeal but will almost assuredly have appeal to a niche demo within your market, you end up with garbage like Velma or She-Hulk.

Like, we had a 'soap opera for men' and it was wildly successful. Blew the fucking doors off of the television medium. It was called the Sopranos. It didn't try to create a 'mafia show, but for minorities/women', and, in fact, there was a 'soap opera for women' that was right there on HBO and even included diversity by having the first horse as a lead since Mr. Ed with Sex in the City.
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I think with the more modern issue, burnout is hitting in somewhat. Do you really want to watch another 8 series show, each season 25 episodes long, about a bunch of people cheating and backstabbing each other?

Not to mention, shit like Rings of Power does have a fanbase, but it has very poor crossover appeal. It's as if mainstream has become the new "political correct media", more about its own existence that whatever engaging or just fun story to tell. I think the lack of humour is what's so fucking tedious with a lot of things. That Buffy/Clerks style quips, neutered beyond belief, is just not cutting it any more.

We do not create culture any more, only consume it. No one wants to take a gamble on a wholly new idea, instead its endless refinement of whatever worked last year.

Last Guy is perhaps the best example of modern cinema, masturbatory.
 
This Is Hard To Do said:
Good, anyone should never associate with that nazi fuck
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I agree.

The Nazis were monsters who murdered millions of innocent people.

Patton Oswald killed his wife deliberately or through negligence.

Gavin McGuiness and his Proud Boys movement might be a bunch of cringeworthy faggots but even they don't deserve to have their names associated with murders like the Nazis or Fatton Oswald.


xXx: State of the Union said:
I never heard of Night Court until I started watching RLM tbqh

I thought the joke was that it was never funny so it being the purpose for Plinkett needing his VCR was funny.
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Same. I thought they picked Night Court as Plinketts favorite show the same way they kept referencing Applebees, Taco Bell, and Indian Casinos. That all these were crappy establishments and only low class dumbasses would ever go there. Night Court was just a joke on the character of Plinkett that he liked some lame 80s/90s sitcom enough he would hire two drunken con-artists to fix his VCR to watch rerurns of a crappy show.

I have only seen one episode of Night Court and wasn't impressed personally. I know a certain heart ripping priest of Kali did write a defense of the show either here or in the MovieBob thread so maybe he's the guy to talk to about if Night Court is actually a decent show or some lame sitcom from the past remembered as a punchline for RLM jokes.

TVBForever said:
How could you forget Malcolm in the Middle
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Legit one of the best sitcoms ever made.
 
Strange Wilderness said:
I have only seen one episode of Night Court and wasn't impressed personally. I know a certain heart ripping priest of Kali did write a defense of the show either here or in the MovieBob thread so maybe he's the guy to talk to about if Night Court is actually a decent show or some lame sitcom from the past remembered as a punchline for RLM jokes.
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In a fit of nostalgia I did a rewatch, start to finish. It's actually an interesting piece of ephemera -- the earliest seasons really feel more like an artifact of the Seventies, reminiscent of Barney Miller (which had some of the same creative people behind it). The middle seasons are very 80s, and the end seasons awkwardly try to embrace early 90s sensibilities, which doesn't help the obvious creative exhaustion. Part of it have aged very badly. But a lot of it is still very fun -- goodnatured, as bawdy as you could get for not-quite late night network tv in the 1980s, and usually no overbearing agendas. It was the cast that really carried it, primarily John Larroquette and Richard Moll, but everyone was good (certainly better than the dead eyed homunculi of the current iteration). Sometimes it's a cheesy sitcom, sometimes it's a piece of absurdist comedy reminiscent of The Far Side, sometimes it's a little maudlin. But there are fun performances, a game cast, and occasionally clever writing. I'd say it's a little more offbeat than a typical sitcom of the time, with no concern for accuracy or realism. Just a fun goof to unwind with at the end of the day before the news and Johnny Carson came on.
 
I liked Night Court but then again I also loved the entirety of MASH and Barney Miller, so maybe my taste in sitcoms is suspect.
 
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Next victims of the curse?
 
indomitable snowman said:
Who are those people?
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Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel, creators of the Adult Swim show Smiling Friends, in which Mike voiced a character.
Michael also does another show called YOLO Crystal Fantasy and did that Australian parody episode of Rick and Morty.
Zach is also a classic Newgrounds animator and a member of (now dead) podcast Sleepycast and (still alive) LP channel OneyPlays.
 
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