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
frozenrunner said:
I'm just glad this show is going to get more exposure.

Hopefully Cobra Kai won't jump the shark like Stranger Things did after RLM recommended it...
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It already kinda jumped the shark after the season finale high school brawl, which they mentioned in the video. The strength of the original karate kid movie was that it had this real verisimilitude in between all of that far east mystical mumbo jumbo that comes with martial arts. It felt like real situations happening to real people. The show is entertaining but it's kinda losing the grounding it had in the beginning, and that final fight was so absurd it felt almost like a parody.
 
stuffandthings said:
I know he's been nominated before. Not sure if he won. If he can double-fist Emmys, more power to the matte painting madlad.
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That explains all the goodthink he repeats on Twitter. Noone who says "orange man ok" gets an Emmy.
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I enjoy these guys as much as anyone else. They're pretty genuine, but I have to say the fanbase has the weird parasocial relationship thing with them. They end up desperately needing Mike Jay and Rich to be their best friends. You can see it in the Twitter posts where all the replies are basically half jokingly 'this put me off suicide for another day'.

They do well not to bother with other youtubers, avoid drama (other that one snipe at other YT reviewers) and only really use Twitter to update. It's kept their noses clean and the weird parasocial fans at bay. Even then it only goes so far because of all that fucking shit the fans did with Shatner.
 
I really enjoyed the Willy Wonka ReView with Mike and Jay

Though it was odd to see Mike being the one spouting off the obscure movie facts rather then Jay. Still, pretty decent. I may have to look into watching a few more ReViews as I tend to only watch BotW and spotlights.

Watching Mike actually care about a movie is weird but interesting.
 
Sweet and Savoury said:
I really enjoyed the Willy Wonka ReView with Mike and Jay

Though it was odd to see Mike being the one spouting off the obscure movie facts rather then Jay. Still, pretty decent. I may have to look into watching a few more ReViews as I tend to only watch BotW and spotlights.

Watching Mike actually care about a movie is weird but interesting.
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Re:View tends to be a little more engaging than Half in the Bag, if only because these are always movies they're invested in, whether because they like them or because they're terrible.
 
JonIrenicus said:
I enjoy these guys as much as anyone else. They're pretty genuine, but I have to say the fanbase has the weird parasocial relationship thing with them. They end up desperately needing Mike Jay and Rich to be their best friends. You can see it in the Twitter posts where all the replies are basically half jokingly 'this put me off suicide for another day'.

They do well not to bother with other youtubers, avoid drama (other that one snipe at other YT reviewers) and only really use Twitter to update. It's kept their noses clean and the weird parasocial fans at bay. Even then it only goes so far because of all that fucking shit the fans did with Shatner.
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I mentioned this a little ways back in the thread, but my theory is because the show addresses and jokes about stuff like crippling depression and alcoholism so often, and that's refreshing. I originally got on the RLM bandwagon just because I liked the Plinkett reviews, but I started to get into stuff like Best of the Worst or Half in the Bag after life kind of took a bad turn. There's nothing like a good suicide joke to snap you out of feeling down. It does seem like it goes a lot further for some people though, I figure they're probably even worse off to form such an intimate connection with internet strangers.

That said the explanation may be simpler. They've been airing stuff for technically over ten years at this point, there's probably a bunch of people who literally grew up watching their content. It might just be Pavlovian at this point.

Third Theory:
 
JonIrenicus said:
They do well not to bother with other youtubers, avoid drama (other that one snipe at other YT reviewers) and only really use Twitter to update. It's kept their noses clean and the weird parasocial fans at bay. Even then it only goes so far because of all that fucking shit the fans did with Shatner.
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That kind of behavior is probably why they have such a dedicated fanbase after so many years: they don't air their personal bullshit for the world to see. The fans don't see all of Mike, Jay, and Rich's negative traits and dirty laundry, the best fans can get are random lines in reviews or unverifiable rumors on the internet about their backstage drama. They are smart and manage to separate their personal lives from their professional lives to the point where only the most autistic fans know if Rich has finally married his fiancee or if Mike and Jessie are still together, married, or have kids, or if Mike and Jay had a falling out years ago over a girl. If they have a personal beef with another YouTuber they are smart enough to limit it to a few swipes at the beginning of their videos which won't start any real drama.

Compare their behavior online to Linkara whose porn writings are being uncovered every few years and acts like a pompous asshole on Twitter and in his videos. Linkaras terrible webcomics, novels, and smut has been exposed for the whole world to see so everyone can laugh at them and his messed up relationships are the subject of podcasts. The core trio of RLM have kept their internet presence on the down-low so the chance of the world finding out about their seedy activities drops considerably.
 
Love Soze said:
Rich had a fiancee?!
This is the most shocking thing I've ever seen on this forum.
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I know; I'd figure he had a whole host of wives by this point.


ProblematicUser420 said:
I like Jim on RLM stuff, but holy shit paying attention to your follower count enough to know you lost 4 people is pure faggotry.
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Jim's only addition to most episodes that he's in is how awkward he is compared to everyone else. If it was Colin who was making tweets and acting like this - who cares? Colin is loud, energetic, charismatic and fun. Jim is boring, barely says a word or two, and basically just sits there being awkward while everyone else has a joke and gets along. His only time being passable is when he's one-on-one with someone, and even then, I'd only put him above Josh and Jack in terms of semi-regular guests.
 
Strange Wilderness said:
The core trio of RLM have kept their internet presence on the down-low so the chance of the world finding out about their seedy activities drops considerably.
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That's only true after they took off in popularity though. Prior to that they went to cons to promote their movies, did interviews, had websites up for their films, etc. They put their lives and work out there for the world to see and were generally happy to hear from fans. And try as they might, a lot of it is still out there via wayback to read. But better late then never, they've done a good job since of keeping the line between personal and professional clear. To the point that I can't think of a single million + sub YT personality that keeps their private lives such a secret.
 
Yeah, it's always been impressive to me how much they manage to keep a low profile. The only other drama that I can' think of with them is when Paul Lottsa or whatever his name is (that "cartographer" fag who wanted to be Doug Walker) got trolled into driving to milwalkie to "meet with RLM" and they still basically had nothing to do with that.
 
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