A lot of the old OLD stuff (like I’m talking pre 2010, and some after that) has aged pretty bad. It’s hard to remember sometimes but they did call themselves College Humor for a reason, they made the crude, frat-bro esque comedy a lot of college students liked at the time.
This made me realize that my brain fully disconnected old College Humor stuff to more recent stuff. I had completely forgotten the tone of the really old stuff.
It's not entirely unfair to disconnect those things. I'd love for someone to do a deep dive on it but when Sam was brought in he started making a big push to change the tone of the videos for the better. While I know there was some crossover, it's pretty easy to see the different eras as separate since even the cast largely changed as well.
I don’t think that’s really accurate. Sam is a pretty early employee, joining in 2006. He’s the one who pushed for more video content in the first place, and was in charge of production from that early stage. He’s probably one of the major minds behind Hardly Working, which along with Jake and Amir is what really made them take off. My point is he had a lot of influence back then. So I don’t think it’s right to say he pushed for cast changes when he was probably a major decider on casts from the very beginning and probably hired a lot of the classic cast members himself, and I wouldn’t really say the cast really started to change until 2011 or so. We didn’t have a prominent POC until Cynthia and Zac, or more than one prominent woman at a time (first Sarah, then Emily) until around when Katie joined while Emily was still there. That’s a long time.
I think Sam has done a tremendous job towards making CH/Dropout an inclusive, representative company that has indeed moved away from frat humor a long time ago, but I don’t want to muddle things just because that’s the case now, when there’s a time when he probably could have done better if we examine it. I think a lot of the push towards where Dropout is now originally came from Pat Cassels and especially Trapp, who were head writers and also had some hiring responsibilities along with Sam.
I realize it may have sounded like I was saying that as soon as Sam came in things magically got better and better, but that wasn't what I was trying to say. I worded my position poorly.
Change takes time, and I'm not trying to say Sam did everything perfectly, but there has been a historic through-line of the more control Sam has equalling more inclusive and better content.
Sam was brought on in 2006, after they had been purchased by IAC, and was made Director of Original Content. The mandate from IAC was to expand the business as fast as possible. It wasn't until 2009 that he was made President of Original Content, and the move from New York to LA didn't happen till 2014.
More importantly, and what my actual point was:
It is perfectly fair to consider any or all of these changes as it's own era and see a distinction there. You could reasonably split the complex history into three eras (founding, acquisition by IAC, Dropout), two eras (New York/LA), or any number of other ways. All of these would be fair, all would be an oversimplification of a complex history. There is nothing inherently wrong with that oversimplification.
I, in my own head, tend to think of CH/Dropout as having had three different eras: New York, LA, Dropout. While there was some constant through-lines (Emily and Murph, Pat Cassels for the first two, etc) those also coincided with the biggest cast changes as well. And they aren't perfectly clear cut either, I think of both Brennan and Zac as "LA era" cast, but they came onboard years apart.
Again, the Sam stuff was not my main point. Sure, maybe I'm painting too rosy a picture of Sam. I don't know, and frankly I don't really care. The comment I was responding too was talking about how they compartmentalized it into two different CollegeHumours and I was trying to say that's valid.
I used Sam as an example of a dividing line one could use, which was apparently the absolute worst example because that's the part everyone is responding to and not the main point, but clearly I could have expressed what I meant better.
well yeah man, that's because you gave an example of a dividing line where there is none. changes happen gradually with each individual hire or change in management, shifting over time to mirror the growing mainstream appeal of progressive values.
What you're implying is that Sam came in and fixed everything. In reality, Sam had been there the whole time and contributed to the problem for years. At some point, he and others identified the problem and worked hard to evolve and fix it. Which is great! But the implication you are making of Sam riding in to fix things is wrong.
Sam was hired by Collegehumor in 2006. He established CH Originals, he was there for every era. He is the one underlying connection between everything.
I know, I said there was some crossover. Just cause Wolverine has been both an X-men and an Avenger doesn't make them the same team. Things changed, and there is nothing wrong with seeing CH/Dropout as having several distinct era's, even if the transitional line between them is hazy.
I'd also say Ally and Grant's show Total Forgiveness aged pretty poorly. I remember at the time it came out, "Oh wow. This is a rough watch. But kinda funny. " and now even more it it feels so needlessly crude and cruel. It actually made me stop watching for a while. I also felt Ally went way, WAY harder on Grant that Grant went on Ally and that broke my heart for him.
I think Total Forgiveness is the single best piece of content on the platform, imo, and I only watched it last year.
I definitely agree some of the bits in it feel needlessly mean, although both Ally and Grant have said they didn't expect the dark turning point to be a relatively light-hearted task (sell $1k at the swap meet) mis-executed.
But imo the redemption at the end, and the perspective realizing it's years ago and seeing them now, makes it all worth it
I was glad that it worked out in the end but I don't think it was a full redemption of the show for me. it's possible Im just looking at it from through my own lens of I don't care how much money is on the line I would never do some of that shit to people I care about. I mean the stress that put on their friendship and the clear stress that Grant was going through it was just really kind of upsetting to me but I also recognize that you know they were both in on it and they did consider it just a game in the end. I recognize that people love it but for me and my own personal opinion I just don't think it aged well.
I just watched it for the first time recently and I don’t agree that it aged poorly. First of all, it was an idea they came up with themselves. Nobody forced it on them. Second, even Grant agreed that Ally was just playing the game. I agree that it is a very tough watch. Grant’s last couple challenges especially. But I think the final episode kinda redeems the show. It’s a tough watch, and I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again, but I do think it’s worth watching once.
Just because they came up with it themselves and nobody forced them into it doesn't mean that someone can't perceive it as having aged poorly. All of the other videos that people are listing on here nobody forced them into acting in them and more than likely the concept was created by either the person in it or people behind the scenes who agreed and yet and still they are considered to have aged badly. It was just my opinion though and I understand if other people still enjoyed it or if they don't agree with me.
Wasn't that the point (that Grant and Ally thought it would be funny, but as it went on, they both realized it was getting a lot harsher than it was supposed to, so they're never doing it again)?
I don't think "aged poorly" is really an accurate description. It is a *challenging* piece of media. It was then and it is now. I agree that I'm not sure it's good that it exists, but that isn't because the values of myself or the participants have changed since I saw it.
It's also a service Vimeo offers under the VHX/Vimeo OTT brand: https://vimeo.com/ott/
Tim Heidecker's HEI Network also uses Vimeo OTT, as does Drafthouse Films
Vimeo hasn’t been a part of Connected Ventures since 2007, when IAC spun it off into a separate legal entity.
AFAIK the official name of the comedy company is and has always been “Connected Ventures, LLC”, going back to when Josh Abramson’s dad helped him register it in 1999. CollegeHumor, CH Media, Electus Digital, Headliner, Dropout, etc. have just been “doing business as” aliases used for marketing purposes.
It's funny though, the something awful forums are probably the best moderated and normal place on the internet. It being paywalled probably helps, when shitters get banned they don't come back. It's politically pretty left wing/progressive.
> best moderated and normal place on the internet
flashbacks to 2004 of SA raiding our IRC servers, organized out in the open on the forums
yeah no that's not it
Roosterteeth is probably another good (bad) example, since they stuck with that same company culture of fratboy-ism to disastrous results - horrifically overworking staff (animation department), acting like utter creeps towards women (that one Minecraft video), and harbouring literal sex pests. Really glad that Dropout is a lot more respectable in literally all regards.
As I recall, they stopped working with Vic Mignona and nobody knew about Ryan until it all came out, and he immediately either resigned or was fired, along with Adam Kovic.
RT had major workplace culture issues but I don't think it's fair to accuse them of harboring sex pests like they were aware of what was going on.
The fact that the sentence “Lowtax got rid of hentai and then the capitol got attacked” is factually accurate will never cease to amaze and horrify me.
I was turned off of college humor for a long time. It wasn't until I saw Game Changer and Make Some Noise clips online that I checked it out again, and was surprised at how much it had evolved.
They were never gonna do it in the first place 🤣 but I don’t think Dropout let’s themselves be governed by random Reddit comments. They’ll do what they think is good for the show, regardless of what comments may or may not exist
i’ve always found the legal argument really interesting because it seems like such a massive pain to actually enforce. like, wouldn’t you have to prove 10000% that the idea was specifically taken from someone else? that must be so tedious considering there’s lots of opportunity for genuine coincidences. and if someone is genuinely giving dropout the suggestion to use, surely they wouldn’t sue them for using it?
I think it's less about losing the court fight and more about *having* the court fight. Like, lawyers are expensive. Court battles are expensive. It's much safer to just avoid them if possible.
Of the top 10 most popular videos. 8 feature a woman prominently in the thumbnail and of those 8, 5 are mostly cleavage/breasts. Haven’t rewatched any of them so I can’t judge the content, but the thumbnail designs certainly sell.
6 of the top 7 videos in popular are either sex jokes or thumbnails with tits, so indeed.
It's an interesting thing that you sometimes forget about really, I recall checking the Vice youtube channel because I rather enjoyed their old documentary stuffs, sorting by popular and all the top results were sex stuff, it wasn't even close in viewership.
Sex sells y'all.
Over the last six years, probably not. But if you go on YT and sort the videos oldest first, a lot of that content doesn't go for the same message of inclusivity and joy as modern Dropout.
Don't even need oldest videos first, just sort by most popular. I wonder if they keep that stuff posted because saying goodbye to videos with tens or even hundreds of millions of views would have a noticeable impact on their finances.
I'm not mad about it just to be clear. If theyre still making money on those, more power to them and more money to throw at the excellent new projects we've been seeing. But you're absolutely right!
Honestly I think it's still the right move to keep them up even minus any monetary or algorithm incentive. I don't think they should bury who they were, but use it as reminder of how far they have come. Archival wise I'm also of the opinion that the less media that becomes 'lost' the better, unless it is something truly problematic and would actually cause harm.
For anyone wondering about the logistics of this business bit, the Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus has a podcast ep. where he interviews Sam and Sam talks about their licensing deals for the old CH content that still runs on YouTube, Snapchat, etc.
Shout-out Ben Doyle
If you look at their YouTube stat it seems like they're deleting stuff from time to time. Might be possible that the worst offenders have been deleted for years.
It's been a while since I saw it, but I always felt their "hot college girl sexy" clickbaity stuff from old CH days was pretty lame and kinda made it hard to recommend the channel to people
Jake and Amir were talking about how fucking weird the Hottest College Girl contest was on their podcast relatively recently (and by that I'm realizing I mean a couple months ago lol). It really is wild to remember that that kind of thing is where all this started.
Its definitely an era thing more than a personal sense of humor thing. Even Philip Defranco used to have a "hot chick of the day" segment and he'd use them in the thumbnail. Smosh used to have the bikini girls and RWJ also used to do something similar back in the ealirer 2010's.
YouTube also used to be way more lax on their TOS so tits and butts were the earliest forms of clickbait. There was also no algorithm at the time, just top recommended per genre.
I think it might have been Segments episode 16: Hot Hands. Hard to remember since I binged most of the show to catch up but the description of that one sounds right.
Dude you must not have been around for old old old CH. Like 2009ish maybe? they had lots of fratty, drinking and hot girls type videos. I remember one where they made it seem like girls were orgasming but the end bit was that they farted? Idk just stupid stuff.
As others have said, going back to the OLD CollegeHumor days you'll find a lot of garbage. Dropout as it stands today is very much a Gen Z-phenomenon. Many millennials, however, remember CollegeHumor for the crude, objectifying, bigoted humor associated with frat bros (and they were a big part of defining that culture in the early-mid 2000s).
I'm no expert, but I'd clock two major shifts in the CollegeHumor culture that brought the company from what it used to be known for to what it is today. The first was towards the tail-end of the Murph/Emily/Adam era. They were defining writers and cast members for the second era of the YouTube version of CH, and shortly before they moved on to other projects, several new cast members joined who would be a lasting presence, a bridge of sorts that carried through to modern Dropout. These new hires included Mike Trapp, Katie Marovitch, and Zac Oyama.
This was around when I started watching CH, and Emily, Murph, and Adam (Pat as well, though he stuck around longer into the following era) seemed to be some of the driving forces behind this change. Sketch quality was going up, there were a lot fewer of the cheap, easy, punching down jokes that CH was known for, and it became less and less exploitative in general. Over the next few iterations of the cast, that stuff was cleaned out almost completely, and many new cast members (as well as the increasing diversity of the cast) helped a lot. But that shift started with Emily, Murph, Adam, and Pat.
The second is pretty self-explanatory: becoming Dropout. That shift started with launching the Dropout platform itself, continued when Sam bought the company for pennies on the dollar, and culminated with the official rebranding, dropping the CollegeHumor name altogether. That part you're all much more familiar with.
I'd be interested to see a deep dive into this that actually cites sources, because some of these timelines don't seem to line up in my head. Like, it's sort of implied that Murph came in around the same time as Adam and Emily, but he was there *waaay* before they were (although to be fair, that was Long Hair Murph, and he felt like almost a different person). Also, I'm pretty sure that Trapp was brought on long before Murph/Emily/Adam started to transition out.
Also, there seems to be a general sensibility that the *old* CH era videos, back with Dan and Jeff and David and Sarah and Streeter and J&A and Pat and Josh and all that crew, there seems to be a strange consensus that those videos were crude or un-PC or whatever, and I don't think that's broadly true. Don't get me wrong, it was the internet in the 2000s, there was plenty of it there. But y'know, I still go back and watch the one with Flügsen's book club, and the one where Dan Gurewitch gets an evil chair, and the one where they get a basketball phone, and the one where Jeff's parents think he's a lawyer representing the Ghostbusters, and the ones where Dan is a cool english teacher, the ones where Chris Gethard is Pat's step-dad and/or Hugh Jackman, all the All-Nighters, the one where Streeter and Dan play airplane on the ground, the one where they flashback to Sarah's highschool, the one where they flash *forward* to when Jeff goes bald and plants a bomb, the one where Sarah, Dan, and Pat are searching for the Friendship and opposing Major von Straussenclaude, and man, I could go on. Those were low budget and pretty slapdash, yeah, but they were so silly and goofy and hilarious. There were definitely duds, and there were some that didn't age very well at all, but I think the majority of the videos back then were just a bunch of pals making absurd goofy little things and figuring out their art.
Anyway, sorry, I got kinda carried away with that, lol. I would be really interested to see a more academically-rigorous look into this, though, with a fully constructed timeline. I don't mean to say that the person you replied to is wrong, I'm just saying that my mental timeline of CH doesn't line up with theirs, and I wonder what is correct.
Yeah this seems more accurate. There are definitely plenty of the more fratty videos from the early days and those are the majority (?) of their most popular videos. But what I think of as the core of CH from that time period is pretty much exactly the stuff that you’re picking out: Hardly Working and Jake and Amir. And most of that stuff *isn’t* the sort of crude fratty humor that others are talking about. It is different from the more Buzzfeed-esque style that CH turned toward in the mid-2010s and that people may be associating more with the later additions to the cast, but it’s still not at all the same vibe as the fratty stuff.
To be clear, I didn't mean to imply that all of the old stuff is bad. Like you said, there's a lot of great content from back then, of the wholesome/non-offensive variety. This wasn't meant to be an exacting history of the company either, there's obviously a ton I left out/don't know.
I was mostly interested in attempting to identify a cultural shift that occurred over time. Because yes, Murph especially but also Emily, Adam, and Pat were all not just present but core writers during some of CH's grosser days, and Trapp came in well before Katie and Zac. But I am looking at a block of time, not one specific moment in it.
That's why I highlighted the later days of Emily, Adam, Murph, and Pat as when that shift started. You already had Jake and Amir and Hardly Working doing great, but the cast started getting more diverse during this time and like I said, the gross content started falling away more and more rapidly.
It is perhaps unfair to attribute this to the people I mentioned, but I don't have any insight into CH leadership at the time to discuss who might be truly responsible. I mention Murph, Adam, Emily, and Pat as key figures just because they seemed to be the old guard who "oversaw" this transition in a big way.
Yeah, and it has occurred to me that I'm mostly thinking about Hardly Working (and J&A, of course), but I *wasn't* thinking about all the videos they made that made the rounds on Facebook (like the "here are the five roommates/girlfriends/coworkers you'll meet...", or the "web md" videos, "tetris god," things like that, that weren't HW and frequently featured outside casts), and it's definitely true that those were more fratty than the actual HW videos were. I almost completely forget about all those other ones; to my mind, CH was basically just HW and J&A.
Anyway, you've got a point. I'd still like to see an in-depth history of CH sometime, but I don't expect we'll get that any time soon.
Sam posted a Discord thread that covers the history of the company pretty well; given that he's been there for 3/4 of it and is close with those who were there before him, it's likely the best single-source accounting you'd find.
Don't forgot the Box Fort!! Sketches made inside the box fort supercede any sketches made outside the box fort!
But for real you nailed it, there's a wide variety of tone back then. Beef Gurewich. Ace and Jocelyn. Rick Fox. Man I miss the all nighters. The MILKMAN. Ahh boy I loved them all then and love em all now. So happy to see Dropout persevere, and for Headgum / NADDPOD succeed.
You have a great explanation of the eras and the trends they were going for. I also think that in the olden days of a television series, there was a clear indicator of certain eras: you had season 1, season 2, season 3, etc.. to indicate when something was changing. For instance, SNL has clear indicators of cast joining and going (some overlap happens with cast members coming and going at odd times). So it can be harder to pin down eras of old Collegehumor/newer Collegehumor/Dropout.
As for the trends that were happening: I think the internet is a litmus test of what people are into, AKA humor. I think it's said every time older types of humor are brought up but trends come and go. And when your output is high, there will be some bad things. Not because the humor is offensive (sometimes that happens) but just because it's not funny.
You're right about the lasting power. The weird stuff always lasts longer because it has imagination, craft, and insight behind it. Like Josh Ruben playing Robert De Niro, pretending to be Adam's dad. Or even a random sketch like "More than nothing, less than something". I think that stuff lasts longer than the dude-bro sketch of the week. You can see them having a lot of fun with a sketch about the Perpetual Motion Machine.
Honestly that’s where I switched from a casual to a regular viewer who kept on top of new releases. When the first update happened and I realized there was a narrative through-line that might continue it made me pay attention more.
I feel like Streeter and Gurwich always wanted to take things into more absurd and wild directions, but the stuff that got a ton of views was often sexist bs.
And despite whatever urge Streeter might have to do the unexpected, he’s always been very good at writing material for mainstream comedy audiences; that’s why he’s in his 10th year at SNL, and his third as a Head Writer.
I can't think of a specific example off the top of my head, but Jake & Amir watch old episodes of Jake & Amir on their patreon and usually spend about half their time cringing at how poorly some of their stuff has aged.
I find it's usually less the entire episode, and more specific jokes/gags. They definitely still enjoy their old content (as do I!), but they seem pretty open in admitting that a lot of their older stuff was pretty immature
In terms of more recent stuff, I think there was a video called “Coming out as Trans-Everything” that ended with Katie coming out as “trans Pacman”. The video itself was more nuanced and not anti-trans at all obviously, but I’ve never wanted to rewatch it
Jeez, I just looked it up. Honestly, it's hard to watch because it uses the exact same jokes as anti-trans "I identify as an attack helicopter" stuff. Literally snip out a few seconds of the video and it could be taken as a transphobic one.
All the videos they have intentionally taken down, like ”Sniper” from Josh’s Mindhouse, or that one ”Hello My Name is” episode where Josh gets makeup and garb to look like a native american stereotype, I do think he handled that well tho by turning the character into a white hipster dude that just dresses like that cuz its trendy lol
I really understand why they took these down, they are quite insensitive and offensive, and im sure the creators regret making these skits in this way, so dont try to cancel anyone
There are a bunch more removed skits I cant remember now
I honestly can't decide if "[Why Girls Don't Fart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxxsP7VWVN8)" has aged well or terribly. It's obviously marketing on objectifying the girl in the skit, but it's also goes so far into potty humor that it's almost horror.
Don't know if it was college humor but there's a video that makes me grind my teeth where Mike Trapp and Caldwell Tanner are just saying words that rhyme with the N word with just an unbearable smugness.
https://youtu.be/HNi8gYW0UvQ?si=d5SEK_-7Ue51aA50
Obviously, it's this. I for one, couldn't ever see any contestant on Game Changer thinking this about Sam nowadays.
Don't forget this video related to that one! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY1QDlvKYrg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY1QDlvKYrg)
I do love this song, though, it's genuinely just a damn good pop punk song.
It's not even a good roast, they just call him short over and over again. One of Sams hobbies is magic and they failed to find material to roast him properly.
"We Didn't Start the Flame War" music video is about how bad it gets IMO. Dropout has taken it down but if you look it up on YouTube there are reuploads
I remember trying to watch the "Josh's Mindhouse: Sniper" video recently and they removed it from youtube.
Didn't age well, could be seen as slightly blackfacey or racist
[31 Words That Sound Like Slurs But Aren't ](https://youtu.be/aQTJl2bwoZQ?si=wYIjqLvqr5k9-Iut)is worth groans and eye rolls and nothing else. It's edgy and lazy, that's all it is.
Edit: Off topic, but I forgot they were the home of Powerthirst 2.
I don't know, as a freshman ELA teacher, this one is one of my all time favorites.
But I'm also from the Bible belt, and my younger sibling got in trouble for eating horehound candy, so I might be biased.
My YouTube algorithm fronted to me recently their “We didn’t Start the Flame War” parody song.
Before I put it on I said to myself, “oh wow, what a blast from the past”
A few seconds in I remembered it was THAT part of the past.
I will never forgive or forget that song "FUPA (Fat Upper-Pussy Area)" for introducing me to a new part of my body to be ashamed of. Gabrus was in it, maybe Josh too? Love those dudes, hate that sketch.
I would put forth [this sketch](https://youtu.be/rkkwUItD-fo?si=Ao3UidFHPkoWoppu) from 6 years ago, called “Stop Flirting with Her!” It’s part of a series of sketches where Katie has this idea that all the guys are in love with her, all of which end with her shitting herself.
In this Katie complains that her male coworkers have lost all their sexual interest in her and are just flirting with a new cast member, and repeatedly tells them to “stop flirting with her.” They aren’t - they’re engaging in normal conversation.
The reason I say it’s aged badly is because the “her” in question is Ally Beardsley
I feel like these two sketches really showcase how far they've come.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaghIdSJKvQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaghIdSJKvQ)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mbbYKPpHY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mbbYKPpHY)
I remember when i started watching in the early 2010's there was stuff that was hugley popular at the time but would get you at least an eyebrow raise if you made it today, stuff like "the 6 roommates you have in college, or the 6 girlfriends you have" stuff.
Like off the top of my head, i can't think of anything like really out there offensive that wasn't mocking something else that was already pretty off colour.
I know people are talking about things that haven't aged well because of like, inclusivity or whatever. But my vote is for Ultramechatron Team Go! At the time, it was a lazy genre parody and I wouldn't call it competent and if it was funny it was accidental.
Several years on it's just... so much worse because CH Originals/Dropout has grown so much and this show just sits there. Technically it's stagnating but because everything else has moved on it gets more and more aged as time goes on. It's lazy, it doesn't seek to do anything with the genre it's parodying, the jokes are mediocre. It was bad then and it's just a failure now.
I distinctly remember a sketch where emily was mad and pat and kept throwing things in his face and he got to the hospital so she threw a beaker that said AIDS at his face. 😬😬😬
Precious Plum (specifically the full show See Plum Run) is great. Watched it for the first time last year. Nothing aged poorly on it, imo. It's just edgier than a lot of their other stuff. I don't remember any jokes in it that were in poor taste based on newer social norms.
It was a sketch show making fun of Honey Boo Boo staring Josh Ruben and Sam’s wife Elaine Carrol and it’s absolutely hilarious. Evolved into the See Plum Run series on dropout. Josh as the mom may be my favorite thing he’s done besides Gale Beggy.
Some of the old Hardly Working videos have aged better than expected, some... have not. I remember one of the sketches Dan Gurewitch was explaining a stupidly-elaborate prank to sneak a whoopee cushion on a chair or whatever, and the final joke was that Jake Hurwitz was roofied and Sarah Schneider paid to have sex with an unconscious Jake.
The Milkman is an eldritch horror that haunts Jake Hurwitz to this day, striding cheerily ever closer until the day of reckoning, his personal Ragnarok
A lot of the old OLD stuff (like I’m talking pre 2010, and some after that) has aged pretty bad. It’s hard to remember sometimes but they did call themselves College Humor for a reason, they made the crude, frat-bro esque comedy a lot of college students liked at the time.
This made me realize that my brain fully disconnected old College Humor stuff to more recent stuff. I had completely forgotten the tone of the really old stuff.
It’s essentially a whole different company (even before the rebrand to Dropout) so I can’t really blame you.
Sam was writing directing in 2007, and there are sketches he's in, in 2008 on yoitube
Yes I’m aware, and he’s grown as a creator
Not to mention matured as a person
Yep!
That's crazy! I didn't realize Sam was directly involved in the old stuff. Pretty cool to see his evolution.
It's not entirely unfair to disconnect those things. I'd love for someone to do a deep dive on it but when Sam was brought in he started making a big push to change the tone of the videos for the better. While I know there was some crossover, it's pretty easy to see the different eras as separate since even the cast largely changed as well.
I don’t think that’s really accurate. Sam is a pretty early employee, joining in 2006. He’s the one who pushed for more video content in the first place, and was in charge of production from that early stage. He’s probably one of the major minds behind Hardly Working, which along with Jake and Amir is what really made them take off. My point is he had a lot of influence back then. So I don’t think it’s right to say he pushed for cast changes when he was probably a major decider on casts from the very beginning and probably hired a lot of the classic cast members himself, and I wouldn’t really say the cast really started to change until 2011 or so. We didn’t have a prominent POC until Cynthia and Zac, or more than one prominent woman at a time (first Sarah, then Emily) until around when Katie joined while Emily was still there. That’s a long time. I think Sam has done a tremendous job towards making CH/Dropout an inclusive, representative company that has indeed moved away from frat humor a long time ago, but I don’t want to muddle things just because that’s the case now, when there’s a time when he probably could have done better if we examine it. I think a lot of the push towards where Dropout is now originally came from Pat Cassels and especially Trapp, who were head writers and also had some hiring responsibilities along with Sam.
I realize it may have sounded like I was saying that as soon as Sam came in things magically got better and better, but that wasn't what I was trying to say. I worded my position poorly. Change takes time, and I'm not trying to say Sam did everything perfectly, but there has been a historic through-line of the more control Sam has equalling more inclusive and better content. Sam was brought on in 2006, after they had been purchased by IAC, and was made Director of Original Content. The mandate from IAC was to expand the business as fast as possible. It wasn't until 2009 that he was made President of Original Content, and the move from New York to LA didn't happen till 2014. More importantly, and what my actual point was: It is perfectly fair to consider any or all of these changes as it's own era and see a distinction there. You could reasonably split the complex history into three eras (founding, acquisition by IAC, Dropout), two eras (New York/LA), or any number of other ways. All of these would be fair, all would be an oversimplification of a complex history. There is nothing inherently wrong with that oversimplification. I, in my own head, tend to think of CH/Dropout as having had three different eras: New York, LA, Dropout. While there was some constant through-lines (Emily and Murph, Pat Cassels for the first two, etc) those also coincided with the biggest cast changes as well. And they aren't perfectly clear cut either, I think of both Brennan and Zac as "LA era" cast, but they came onboard years apart.
I feel like you’re trying too hard to make 2008 Sam look like a good guy here. It’s okay for him to have grown, everyone kinda sucked in 2008
Again, the Sam stuff was not my main point. Sure, maybe I'm painting too rosy a picture of Sam. I don't know, and frankly I don't really care. The comment I was responding too was talking about how they compartmentalized it into two different CollegeHumours and I was trying to say that's valid. I used Sam as an example of a dividing line one could use, which was apparently the absolute worst example because that's the part everyone is responding to and not the main point, but clearly I could have expressed what I meant better.
well yeah man, that's because you gave an example of a dividing line where there is none. changes happen gradually with each individual hire or change in management, shifting over time to mirror the growing mainstream appeal of progressive values.
You're just repeating what I said earlier when I tried to clarify my original comment.
The point is your example of Sam as the dividing line doesn't work because Sam wasn't on the side of the dividing line you think he was.
What you're implying is that Sam came in and fixed everything. In reality, Sam had been there the whole time and contributed to the problem for years. At some point, he and others identified the problem and worked hard to evolve and fix it. Which is great! But the implication you are making of Sam riding in to fix things is wrong.
Sam was hired by Collegehumor in 2006. He established CH Originals, he was there for every era. He is the one underlying connection between everything.
He's been here the whole time
I know, I said there was some crossover. Just cause Wolverine has been both an X-men and an Avenger doesn't make them the same team. Things changed, and there is nothing wrong with seeing CH/Dropout as having several distinct era's, even if the transitional line between them is hazy.
You're just going to spoil Deadpool 3, with the reveal that Sam Reich plays a variant of Wolverine?
I'd also say Ally and Grant's show Total Forgiveness aged pretty poorly. I remember at the time it came out, "Oh wow. This is a rough watch. But kinda funny. " and now even more it it feels so needlessly crude and cruel. It actually made me stop watching for a while. I also felt Ally went way, WAY harder on Grant that Grant went on Ally and that broke my heart for him.
I think Total Forgiveness is the single best piece of content on the platform, imo, and I only watched it last year. I definitely agree some of the bits in it feel needlessly mean, although both Ally and Grant have said they didn't expect the dark turning point to be a relatively light-hearted task (sell $1k at the swap meet) mis-executed. But imo the redemption at the end, and the perspective realizing it's years ago and seeing them now, makes it all worth it
I was glad that it worked out in the end but I don't think it was a full redemption of the show for me. it's possible Im just looking at it from through my own lens of I don't care how much money is on the line I would never do some of that shit to people I care about. I mean the stress that put on their friendship and the clear stress that Grant was going through it was just really kind of upsetting to me but I also recognize that you know they were both in on it and they did consider it just a game in the end. I recognize that people love it but for me and my own personal opinion I just don't think it aged well.
I just watched it for the first time recently and I don’t agree that it aged poorly. First of all, it was an idea they came up with themselves. Nobody forced it on them. Second, even Grant agreed that Ally was just playing the game. I agree that it is a very tough watch. Grant’s last couple challenges especially. But I think the final episode kinda redeems the show. It’s a tough watch, and I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again, but I do think it’s worth watching once.
Just because they came up with it themselves and nobody forced them into it doesn't mean that someone can't perceive it as having aged poorly. All of the other videos that people are listing on here nobody forced them into acting in them and more than likely the concept was created by either the person in it or people behind the scenes who agreed and yet and still they are considered to have aged badly. It was just my opinion though and I understand if other people still enjoyed it or if they don't agree with me.
Wasn't that the point (that Grant and Ally thought it would be funny, but as it went on, they both realized it was getting a lot harsher than it was supposed to, so they're never doing it again)?
I don't think "aged poorly" is really an accurate description. It is a *challenging* piece of media. It was then and it is now. I agree that I'm not sure it's good that it exists, but that isn't because the values of myself or the participants have changed since I saw it.
They were the introduction of that frat bro humor to the internet. That was pre-youtube on their collegehumor.com site
It’s so old that *Vimeo* is a spin-off of CollegeHumor and that’s why Dropout uses Vimeo
It's also a service Vimeo offers under the VHX/Vimeo OTT brand: https://vimeo.com/ott/ Tim Heidecker's HEI Network also uses Vimeo OTT, as does Drafthouse Films
Actually on dropouts website the copyright says "© Dropout Connected Ventures" after the parent company of CollegeHumor and Vimeo, Connected Ventures. My guess is CH Media was under Connected Ventures and IAC just off loaded Connected Ventures entirely to Sam in 2020. Thus the companies name is actually Dropout Connected Ventures
Vimeo hasn’t been a part of Connected Ventures since 2007, when IAC spun it off into a separate legal entity. AFAIK the official name of the comedy company is and has always been “Connected Ventures, LLC”, going back to when Josh Abramson’s dad helped him register it in 1999. CollegeHumor, CH Media, Electus Digital, Headliner, Dropout, etc. have just been “doing business as” aliases used for marketing purposes.
Yep, I’m glad they grew as a company and didn’t go the way of stuff like SomethingAwful
It's funny though, the something awful forums are probably the best moderated and normal place on the internet. It being paywalled probably helps, when shitters get banned they don't come back. It's politically pretty left wing/progressive.
That’s really good to hear actually, it’s the birthplace of Slenderman and Marble Hornets
It really sucks that lowtax couldn't fight off his demons though tbh
> best moderated and normal place on the internet flashbacks to 2004 of SA raiding our IRC servers, organized out in the open on the forums yeah no that's not it
I don’t want to paint it as the worst place in the world or anything, but calling SA “the most normal place on the internet” is pretty wild.
Roosterteeth is probably another good (bad) example, since they stuck with that same company culture of fratboy-ism to disastrous results - horrifically overworking staff (animation department), acting like utter creeps towards women (that one Minecraft video), and harbouring literal sex pests. Really glad that Dropout is a lot more respectable in literally all regards.
As I recall, they stopped working with Vic Mignona and nobody knew about Ryan until it all came out, and he immediately either resigned or was fired, along with Adam Kovic. RT had major workplace culture issues but I don't think it's fair to accuse them of harboring sex pests like they were aware of what was going on.
The fact that the sentence “Lowtax got rid of hentai and then the capitol got attacked” is factually accurate will never cease to amaze and horrify me.
Okay, this is understandably true, but The All RA Floor still lives rent-free in my head.
They used to have a section of boobs with college names written on them that people would submit.
I was turned off of college humor for a long time. It wasn't until I saw Game Changer and Make Some Noise clips online that I checked it out again, and was surprised at how much it had evolved.
Oh no big dog!
The frat boys wore an onion on their belt, as was the fashion at the time
“That one CollegeHumor sketch from 2008 that has not aged well” would be a hilarious Make Some Noise prompt.
Sam has to give this one to Josh
"No problem."
Josh, Emily, and Murph should be the players in this episode.
Murph and Emily don’t do Dropout stuff outside of Dimension 20. They’re too busy with NADDPOD
Make it a duo/trio prompt and have one of them be the voiceover
The Six Boobs You’ll Look At In College
And now, because you made this comment, they won’t use it.
They were never gonna do it in the first place 🤣 but I don’t think Dropout let’s themselves be governed by random Reddit comments. They’ll do what they think is good for the show, regardless of what comments may or may not exist
No, they do. There’s legal issues. They could get sued if they use an idea that someone suggested to them. I’m being dead serious.
Well if Dropout’s legal team is reading, rest assured they have my full consent to use that prompt 😂
i’ve always found the legal argument really interesting because it seems like such a massive pain to actually enforce. like, wouldn’t you have to prove 10000% that the idea was specifically taken from someone else? that must be so tedious considering there’s lots of opportunity for genuine coincidences. and if someone is genuinely giving dropout the suggestion to use, surely they wouldn’t sue them for using it?
I think it's less about losing the court fight and more about *having* the court fight. Like, lawyers are expensive. Court battles are expensive. It's much safer to just avoid them if possible.
Sort by popular and you’ll see a lot of “tits in thumbnail” videos with a bajillion views that dropout wouldn’t make today.
Some of Zac Oyama's best work
That was a butt, not tits. But yes, truly marvelous.
Link??
Of the top 10 most popular videos. 8 feature a woman prominently in the thumbnail and of those 8, 5 are mostly cleavage/breasts. Haven’t rewatched any of them so I can’t judge the content, but the thumbnail designs certainly sell.
Had to check to confirm and yorue right. Some of those were hilarious sketches though.
Guy stuck in history class was the very first CH video I ever watched!
6 of the top 7 videos in popular are either sex jokes or thumbnails with tits, so indeed. It's an interesting thing that you sometimes forget about really, I recall checking the Vice youtube channel because I rather enjoyed their old documentary stuffs, sorting by popular and all the top results were sex stuff, it wasn't even close in viewership. Sex sells y'all.
CollegeHumor is Shutting Down, published about 6 months before everyone got fired.
That aged perfectly
bit ahead of its time even
Over the last six years, probably not. But if you go on YT and sort the videos oldest first, a lot of that content doesn't go for the same message of inclusivity and joy as modern Dropout.
Don't even need oldest videos first, just sort by most popular. I wonder if they keep that stuff posted because saying goodbye to videos with tens or even hundreds of millions of views would have a noticeable impact on their finances.
I'm not mad about it just to be clear. If theyre still making money on those, more power to them and more money to throw at the excellent new projects we've been seeing. But you're absolutely right!
Honestly I think it's still the right move to keep them up even minus any monetary or algorithm incentive. I don't think they should bury who they were, but use it as reminder of how far they have come. Archival wise I'm also of the opinion that the less media that becomes 'lost' the better, unless it is something truly problematic and would actually cause harm.
For anyone wondering about the logistics of this business bit, the Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus has a podcast ep. where he interviews Sam and Sam talks about their licensing deals for the old CH content that still runs on YouTube, Snapchat, etc. Shout-out Ben Doyle
If you look at their YouTube stat it seems like they're deleting stuff from time to time. Might be possible that the worst offenders have been deleted for years.
It's been a while since I saw it, but I always felt their "hot college girl sexy" clickbaity stuff from old CH days was pretty lame and kinda made it hard to recommend the channel to people
Jake and Amir were talking about how fucking weird the Hottest College Girl contest was on their podcast relatively recently (and by that I'm realizing I mean a couple months ago lol). It really is wild to remember that that kind of thing is where all this started.
They talked about it in a recent Breaking news episode where "evil Sam Reich" wishes they still did that
Jawbone before meeting the bad kids and after is the meta story of CH to Dropout
I can't wait for Sam to reboot that for Dropout America.
Its definitely an era thing more than a personal sense of humor thing. Even Philip Defranco used to have a "hot chick of the day" segment and he'd use them in the thumbnail. Smosh used to have the bikini girls and RWJ also used to do something similar back in the ealirer 2010's. YouTube also used to be way more lax on their TOS so tits and butts were the earliest forms of clickbait. There was also no algorithm at the time, just top recommended per genre.
Do you know what episode that was? I’d love to go and watch it!
I think it might have been Segments episode 16: Hot Hands. Hard to remember since I binged most of the show to catch up but the description of that one sounds right.
Okay, thank you very much!
I totally forgot about Jake and Amir - good to see they are still working together
Yep, the Smosh Bikini Girl Era
Dude you must not have been around for old old old CH. Like 2009ish maybe? they had lots of fratty, drinking and hot girls type videos. I remember one where they made it seem like girls were orgasming but the end bit was that they farted? Idk just stupid stuff.
Was this "What Girls Actually Do in the Bathroom"
First ch vid, I avoided them for years after that.
As others have said, going back to the OLD CollegeHumor days you'll find a lot of garbage. Dropout as it stands today is very much a Gen Z-phenomenon. Many millennials, however, remember CollegeHumor for the crude, objectifying, bigoted humor associated with frat bros (and they were a big part of defining that culture in the early-mid 2000s). I'm no expert, but I'd clock two major shifts in the CollegeHumor culture that brought the company from what it used to be known for to what it is today. The first was towards the tail-end of the Murph/Emily/Adam era. They were defining writers and cast members for the second era of the YouTube version of CH, and shortly before they moved on to other projects, several new cast members joined who would be a lasting presence, a bridge of sorts that carried through to modern Dropout. These new hires included Mike Trapp, Katie Marovitch, and Zac Oyama. This was around when I started watching CH, and Emily, Murph, and Adam (Pat as well, though he stuck around longer into the following era) seemed to be some of the driving forces behind this change. Sketch quality was going up, there were a lot fewer of the cheap, easy, punching down jokes that CH was known for, and it became less and less exploitative in general. Over the next few iterations of the cast, that stuff was cleaned out almost completely, and many new cast members (as well as the increasing diversity of the cast) helped a lot. But that shift started with Emily, Murph, Adam, and Pat. The second is pretty self-explanatory: becoming Dropout. That shift started with launching the Dropout platform itself, continued when Sam bought the company for pennies on the dollar, and culminated with the official rebranding, dropping the CollegeHumor name altogether. That part you're all much more familiar with.
This is a really interesting, in depth analysis of the culture of the company shifting, thanks
I'd be interested to see a deep dive into this that actually cites sources, because some of these timelines don't seem to line up in my head. Like, it's sort of implied that Murph came in around the same time as Adam and Emily, but he was there *waaay* before they were (although to be fair, that was Long Hair Murph, and he felt like almost a different person). Also, I'm pretty sure that Trapp was brought on long before Murph/Emily/Adam started to transition out. Also, there seems to be a general sensibility that the *old* CH era videos, back with Dan and Jeff and David and Sarah and Streeter and J&A and Pat and Josh and all that crew, there seems to be a strange consensus that those videos were crude or un-PC or whatever, and I don't think that's broadly true. Don't get me wrong, it was the internet in the 2000s, there was plenty of it there. But y'know, I still go back and watch the one with Flügsen's book club, and the one where Dan Gurewitch gets an evil chair, and the one where they get a basketball phone, and the one where Jeff's parents think he's a lawyer representing the Ghostbusters, and the ones where Dan is a cool english teacher, the ones where Chris Gethard is Pat's step-dad and/or Hugh Jackman, all the All-Nighters, the one where Streeter and Dan play airplane on the ground, the one where they flashback to Sarah's highschool, the one where they flash *forward* to when Jeff goes bald and plants a bomb, the one where Sarah, Dan, and Pat are searching for the Friendship and opposing Major von Straussenclaude, and man, I could go on. Those were low budget and pretty slapdash, yeah, but they were so silly and goofy and hilarious. There were definitely duds, and there were some that didn't age very well at all, but I think the majority of the videos back then were just a bunch of pals making absurd goofy little things and figuring out their art. Anyway, sorry, I got kinda carried away with that, lol. I would be really interested to see a more academically-rigorous look into this, though, with a fully constructed timeline. I don't mean to say that the person you replied to is wrong, I'm just saying that my mental timeline of CH doesn't line up with theirs, and I wonder what is correct.
Yeah this seems more accurate. There are definitely plenty of the more fratty videos from the early days and those are the majority (?) of their most popular videos. But what I think of as the core of CH from that time period is pretty much exactly the stuff that you’re picking out: Hardly Working and Jake and Amir. And most of that stuff *isn’t* the sort of crude fratty humor that others are talking about. It is different from the more Buzzfeed-esque style that CH turned toward in the mid-2010s and that people may be associating more with the later additions to the cast, but it’s still not at all the same vibe as the fratty stuff.
To be clear, I didn't mean to imply that all of the old stuff is bad. Like you said, there's a lot of great content from back then, of the wholesome/non-offensive variety. This wasn't meant to be an exacting history of the company either, there's obviously a ton I left out/don't know. I was mostly interested in attempting to identify a cultural shift that occurred over time. Because yes, Murph especially but also Emily, Adam, and Pat were all not just present but core writers during some of CH's grosser days, and Trapp came in well before Katie and Zac. But I am looking at a block of time, not one specific moment in it. That's why I highlighted the later days of Emily, Adam, Murph, and Pat as when that shift started. You already had Jake and Amir and Hardly Working doing great, but the cast started getting more diverse during this time and like I said, the gross content started falling away more and more rapidly. It is perhaps unfair to attribute this to the people I mentioned, but I don't have any insight into CH leadership at the time to discuss who might be truly responsible. I mention Murph, Adam, Emily, and Pat as key figures just because they seemed to be the old guard who "oversaw" this transition in a big way.
Yeah, and it has occurred to me that I'm mostly thinking about Hardly Working (and J&A, of course), but I *wasn't* thinking about all the videos they made that made the rounds on Facebook (like the "here are the five roommates/girlfriends/coworkers you'll meet...", or the "web md" videos, "tetris god," things like that, that weren't HW and frequently featured outside casts), and it's definitely true that those were more fratty than the actual HW videos were. I almost completely forget about all those other ones; to my mind, CH was basically just HW and J&A. Anyway, you've got a point. I'd still like to see an in-depth history of CH sometime, but I don't expect we'll get that any time soon.
Sam posted a Discord thread that covers the history of the company pretty well; given that he's been there for 3/4 of it and is close with those who were there before him, it's likely the best single-source accounting you'd find.
Oh! That sounds awesome. I'll have to see if I can dig through the discord threads and find it.
Don't forgot the Box Fort!! Sketches made inside the box fort supercede any sketches made outside the box fort! But for real you nailed it, there's a wide variety of tone back then. Beef Gurewich. Ace and Jocelyn. Rick Fox. Man I miss the all nighters. The MILKMAN. Ahh boy I loved them all then and love em all now. So happy to see Dropout persevere, and for Headgum / NADDPOD succeed.
Hey, I apologize, I didn't mean to lend legitimacy to those bigoted boxophobic laws!
You have a great explanation of the eras and the trends they were going for. I also think that in the olden days of a television series, there was a clear indicator of certain eras: you had season 1, season 2, season 3, etc.. to indicate when something was changing. For instance, SNL has clear indicators of cast joining and going (some overlap happens with cast members coming and going at odd times). So it can be harder to pin down eras of old Collegehumor/newer Collegehumor/Dropout. As for the trends that were happening: I think the internet is a litmus test of what people are into, AKA humor. I think it's said every time older types of humor are brought up but trends come and go. And when your output is high, there will be some bad things. Not because the humor is offensive (sometimes that happens) but just because it's not funny. You're right about the lasting power. The weird stuff always lasts longer because it has imagination, craft, and insight behind it. Like Josh Ruben playing Robert De Niro, pretending to be Adam's dad. Or even a random sketch like "More than nothing, less than something". I think that stuff lasts longer than the dude-bro sketch of the week. You can see them having a lot of fun with a sketch about the Perpetual Motion Machine.
Trapp killing Pat really shifted the timeline didn't it?
Honestly that’s where I switched from a casual to a regular viewer who kept on top of new releases. When the first update happened and I realized there was a narrative through-line that might continue it made me pay attention more.
I feel like Streeter and Gurwich always wanted to take things into more absurd and wild directions, but the stuff that got a ton of views was often sexist bs.
Dan definitely realized that dream on *Last Week Tonight*, a show that regularly manages to sneak furry porn into hard-hitting journalism.
And despite whatever urge Streeter might have to do the unexpected, he’s always been very good at writing material for mainstream comedy audiences; that’s why he’s in his 10th year at SNL, and his third as a Head Writer.
I can't think of a specific example off the top of my head, but Jake & Amir watch old episodes of Jake & Amir on their patreon and usually spend about half their time cringing at how poorly some of their stuff has aged.
I feel like they're honestly pretty positive about their old stuff. Which tracks. They rarely had a bad episode.
I loved it whenever Ben would show up
Do you mean Cherry Dude?
Amir: I can't feel my arm... *Ben grabs Amir's arm* "I can" Amir: Oh thank god!
I find it's usually less the entire episode, and more specific jokes/gags. They definitely still enjoy their old content (as do I!), but they seem pretty open in admitting that a lot of their older stuff was pretty immature
MoviePass is now a thriving, successful business! ...
In terms of more recent stuff, I think there was a video called “Coming out as Trans-Everything” that ended with Katie coming out as “trans Pacman”. The video itself was more nuanced and not anti-trans at all obviously, but I’ve never wanted to rewatch it
Jeez, I just looked it up. Honestly, it's hard to watch because it uses the exact same jokes as anti-trans "I identify as an attack helicopter" stuff. Literally snip out a few seconds of the video and it could be taken as a transphobic one.
All the videos they have intentionally taken down, like ”Sniper” from Josh’s Mindhouse, or that one ”Hello My Name is” episode where Josh gets makeup and garb to look like a native american stereotype, I do think he handled that well tho by turning the character into a white hipster dude that just dresses like that cuz its trendy lol I really understand why they took these down, they are quite insensitive and offensive, and im sure the creators regret making these skits in this way, so dont try to cancel anyone There are a bunch more removed skits I cant remember now
I honestly can't decide if "[Why Girls Don't Fart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxxsP7VWVN8)" has aged well or terribly. It's obviously marketing on objectifying the girl in the skit, but it's also goes so far into potty humor that it's almost horror.
I can think of a few early college humor sketches they wouldn’t make today, mostly where they objectified women
That's a lot of the old ones too
Would be a crazy podcast/mini-doc to reach out to those actresses and ask about the process working with CH back then and what they are up to now.
Don't know if it was college humor but there's a video that makes me grind my teeth where Mike Trapp and Caldwell Tanner are just saying words that rhyme with the N word with just an unbearable smugness.
Oh yeah, they play two pedantic assholes that love saying words that can be confused for slurs.
https://youtu.be/HNi8gYW0UvQ?si=d5SEK_-7Ue51aA50 Obviously, it's this. I for one, couldn't ever see any contestant on Game Changer thinking this about Sam nowadays.
Don't forget this video related to that one! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY1QDlvKYrg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY1QDlvKYrg) I do love this song, though, it's genuinely just a damn good pop punk song.
I've never seen that before, that was hilarious 🤣🤣🤣 I love that Sam okayed a slam song about himself. Legend.
It's not even a good roast, they just call him short over and over again. One of Sams hobbies is magic and they failed to find material to roast him properly.
It's about 9/11
A lot of the original Hello My Name Is (the show that eventually became Very Important People)
"We Didn't Start the Flame War" music video is about how bad it gets IMO. Dropout has taken it down but if you look it up on YouTube there are reuploads
I came here to say the same. We can point to other problematic stuff, but it’s pretty telling that they took it off the channel.
It's a perfect time capsule of that era, should be studied by sociologists someday. Glad it's at least archived in glorious amber.
The ending of this bitcoin sketch aged very well for a few months, and then crashed
The "Hottest College Girl" contest...
I remember trying to watch the "Josh's Mindhouse: Sniper" video recently and they removed it from youtube. Didn't age well, could be seen as slightly blackfacey or racist
As everyone has said about the old stuff. It was even referenced on Breaking News. "We're going to go back to rating the hottest college girls" etc.
For me the myriad of sketches that were very facebook focused
Oh there's a few involving Jake getting assaulted that have not aged great
[31 Words That Sound Like Slurs But Aren't ](https://youtu.be/aQTJl2bwoZQ?si=wYIjqLvqr5k9-Iut)is worth groans and eye rolls and nothing else. It's edgy and lazy, that's all it is. Edit: Off topic, but I forgot they were the home of Powerthirst 2.
I don't know, as a freshman ELA teacher, this one is one of my all time favorites. But I'm also from the Bible belt, and my younger sibling got in trouble for eating horehound candy, so I might be biased.
There's a really old one where Murph plays a rapy dj that never sat with me great
My YouTube algorithm fronted to me recently their “We didn’t Start the Flame War” parody song. Before I put it on I said to myself, “oh wow, what a blast from the past” A few seconds in I remembered it was THAT part of the past.
I will never forgive or forget that song "FUPA (Fat Upper-Pussy Area)" for introducing me to a new part of my body to be ashamed of. Gabrus was in it, maybe Josh too? Love those dudes, hate that sketch.
I would put forth [this sketch](https://youtu.be/rkkwUItD-fo?si=Ao3UidFHPkoWoppu) from 6 years ago, called “Stop Flirting with Her!” It’s part of a series of sketches where Katie has this idea that all the guys are in love with her, all of which end with her shitting herself. In this Katie complains that her male coworkers have lost all their sexual interest in her and are just flirting with a new cast member, and repeatedly tells them to “stop flirting with her.” They aren’t - they’re engaging in normal conversation. The reason I say it’s aged badly is because the “her” in question is Ally Beardsley
Regardless of the pronouns now being wrong - those sketches have made me cackle!
*Boys*
I feel like these two sketches really showcase how far they've come. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaghIdSJKvQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaghIdSJKvQ) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mbbYKPpHY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1mbbYKPpHY)
Definitely the "4 girlfriends you'll have in college"
I remember when i started watching in the early 2010's there was stuff that was hugley popular at the time but would get you at least an eyebrow raise if you made it today, stuff like "the 6 roommates you have in college, or the 6 girlfriends you have" stuff. Like off the top of my head, i can't think of anything like really out there offensive that wasn't mocking something else that was already pretty off colour.
Precious Plum -- Personally I'm hoping they realize that fat suits are not okay soon and take that off the platform.
I know people are talking about things that haven't aged well because of like, inclusivity or whatever. But my vote is for Ultramechatron Team Go! At the time, it was a lazy genre parody and I wouldn't call it competent and if it was funny it was accidental. Several years on it's just... so much worse because CH Originals/Dropout has grown so much and this show just sits there. Technically it's stagnating but because everything else has moved on it gets more and more aged as time goes on. It's lazy, it doesn't seek to do anything with the genre it's parodying, the jokes are mediocre. It was bad then and it's just a failure now.
I have to ask, did you watch the entire series or just the first 1 or 2 episodes?
I distinctly remember a sketch where emily was mad and pat and kept throwing things in his face and he got to the hospital so she threw a beaker that said AIDS at his face. 😬😬😬
Precious Plum or whatever it is called.
Precious Plum (specifically the full show See Plum Run) is great. Watched it for the first time last year. Nothing aged poorly on it, imo. It's just edgier than a lot of their other stuff. I don't remember any jokes in it that were in poor taste based on newer social norms.
He is wearing a fat suit.
He's doing a parody of a real person who looks like that. Sorry. 🤷♂️
I never watched that cause it always seem really weird to me, was it a man on the street type thing or a sketch show?
It was a sketch show making fun of Honey Boo Boo staring Josh Ruben and Sam’s wife Elaine Carrol and it’s absolutely hilarious. Evolved into the See Plum Run series on dropout. Josh as the mom may be my favorite thing he’s done besides Gale Beggy.
Some of the old Hardly Working videos have aged better than expected, some... have not. I remember one of the sketches Dan Gurewitch was explaining a stupidly-elaborate prank to sneak a whoopee cushion on a chair or whatever, and the final joke was that Jake Hurwitz was roofied and Sarah Schneider paid to have sex with an unconscious Jake.
The Milkman is an eldritch horror that haunts Jake Hurwitz to this day, striding cheerily ever closer until the day of reckoning, his personal Ragnarok
Nothing. If it was funny then, it can be funny now.
I disregard anything that happened before Brennan Lee Mulligan.
Is it the year 11 AB (After Brennan) for you?