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What is The Chris Gethard Show? The Chris Gethard Show is a variety talk show from the mind of one of the most brilliant improvisers and storytellers in the New York underground comedy scene. It’s experimental, it’s interactive, it’s chaotic, it's bizarre, it's hilarious, and it's incredibly fun. As Chris puts it, "The target demographic for this show is goons, goofs, freakazoids, blookies, oddballs, the sexually confused, dingbats, dinkuses, the socially awkward, people with mild depression, dorks, asthmatics, underdogs, dweebs, people with severe depression, and jabronies.”  Starting out as a UCB stage show, in 2011 it jumped to public access on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. There, it grew into a monster of creativity and gained a large internet and call-in following that grew into a community of fans that were encouraged to push the show into new and interesting directions.  The public access show ranged from an incredibly silly episode where Chris and Zach Galifianakis give audience members terrible haircuts to an incredibly moving episode where Chris asks the viewers what is making them genuinely sad and gets a call with a man who feels sadness and relief that his mentally challenged brother’s body had just been discovered after having been missing from his care facility for years. The show has cardboard robot fights, dominatrixes, sex education, beefy man contests, fan fiction theater, an hour long song, a turtle birthday, and so, so much more. It’s a genuinely unique show. How do I watch it? Here’s where it gets interesting. See, TCGS is not a standard show. The final, fully-edited episodes air Thursday nights at 10/9c on Fusion. However, because the show is fully interactive and relies on audience participation, the experience starts with the live show taping. Viewers can watch the show being taped online every Tuesday at 8pm and participate by calling in via Skype, doing anything from showing the weirdest thing about their body  to firing a nerf cannon in a game of human Duck Hunt  The stream is available here on the Fusion website under the episode number, or on the live TCGS Youtube stream - no Fusion subscription required. The episodes are then edited and air on Thursday, then show up on Youtube the following Friday. Back Episodes? The first episode is titled “Show Us The Weirdest Thing About Your Body” and has guests Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer from Broad City. You can find it in its edited version is located here. The second episode will be up online next week. We had a pretty good public access years show thread going until they taped their Comedy Central pilot, so hopefully there’s enough interest or new viewers to sustain this thread. If anyone can find that thread or the one I made in RGD, I'll put a bunch of the OP stuff in here too, but the SA search is failing me, as is Das Saas. I absolutely loved the taping of last week’s episode, a human duck hunt with Wyatt Cenac. Tons of fun watching the episode being taped, from them keeping the audience hyped between bits to watching them constructing the show on the fly for the edit. I believe the taping was 2 or 3 hours last time, and the whole drat thing was fun and worth watching.  Episode 3 tapes tonight
feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Jun 9, 2015 |
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Jun 9, 2015 21:50
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Just going to bump this in case there's any interest. Here's the livestream, live in 10 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49t03SIp19c
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Jun 10, 2015 00:50
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This is basically MTV's Oddsville in the modern century. It's ace.
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Jun 10, 2015 01:28
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I was wondering if the OP (or anyone else) has been able to watch the live streaming of the taping and compared it to the edited version for TV? I caught the public access version here and there and really enjoyed the free-wheeling style. I thought the edit of the first episode did a pretty good job of keeping that atmosphere, but I am wondering what got left on the cutting room floor.
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Jun 10, 2015 01:49
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I'm watching the live thing now and i don't know what is going on.
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Jun 10, 2015 01:56
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AKMoose posted:I was wondering if the OP (or anyone else) has been able to watch the live streaming of the taping and compared it to the edited version for TV? I caught the public access version here and there and really enjoyed the free-wheeling style. I thought the edit of the first episode did a pretty good job of keeping that atmosphere, but I am wondering what got left on the cutting room floor. I haven't, but I can report back in from episode 2 once I watch it. Some of the most fun stuff happened during the breaks though. This taping was waaay less straightforward than last week's. It was really fun still, but I have no idea how they're going to edit that into a 22 minute episode. You could really tell how written down Chris was.
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Jun 10, 2015 03:05
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The edited version is really weird. It's still good fun but...weird.
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Jun 17, 2015 00:23
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Thank you for this. I watched the two eps you linked to. Now I'm starting from #1 - it is so rough. EDIT: Oh wow, this is something terrible. Chris is so angry and snappy at everybody 
Lampsacus fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Jun 17, 2015 |
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Jun 17, 2015 02:15
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A new episode is about to livestream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wysgoeQezGE Guest is Ellie Kemper who you may know from The Office (US) and Bridesmaids.
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Jul 1, 2015 01:00
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feedmyleg, thank you for the heads up on this show. Its got me through some crappy months. What I love most is 'No cool kids'. I think this show attracts a certain hip crowd, especially in the more recent eps, but the first 50 or so so far cope with that pretty well. I think Random Jene is one of the reasons for this. She set this ethos of clumsiness that kept the show's social space open. Nobody is trying to be cool or say the funniest thing or mug the camera. Its just a bunch of 'losers' doing stupid skits on public tv. She was the early counterweight to Chris and the other big comedians in the front row. here she gets into a fight with Chris' improv friend (can't remember her name) over something stupid. The theme of the episode is nobody is allowed to laugh. Chris: I think gum is ok, gum is fine. It doesn't effect hiding laughter. Improv friend: I'm chewing gum - in my rear end in a top hat. Random Jene: You don't even have teeth in your rear end in a top hat. Improv friend: Yes I do. Random Jene: No you don't. Improv friend: If you were method you'd have teeth in your rear end in a top hat too. *everybody laughs* Random Jene: Yeah well, YOU'RE A oval office  Chris: That wasn't even funny. I can't stop checking out everybody's reactions. That rawness is something you'd never have to sit through on a bigger tv show or podcast. It is so human.
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Jul 20, 2015 04:05
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Didn't realise there was a new thread for this, awesome. Only thing I don't like about the new show is that I live in the UK, so can't really stay up to watch the livestream, and it's super annoying that they don't keep it saved to watch anywhere. Other than that, the Fusion show is pretty much as good a crossover to actual TV as I could imagine, and they've done a really good job taking advantage of the obviously increased budget, etc. That said, it is just lacking a little bit of the strangeness that helped the MNN show reach its absolute peak moments (e.g. the post above), although I'm guessing that might be a bit more present in the live show/will develop as the show goes along (assuming it gets picked up for another season). I'd also like to see some more interaction with the regular audience members, since that was one of my absolute favourite things about the old show. Speaking of, Alyssa done good. They did an episode at Comic-Con that's online now, in case anyone didn't see that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rXc7VRu0vk
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Jul 20, 2015 18:25
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I like the new show fine enough but at times it definitely feels like it's moving a bit too fast. I liked the pace of the public access show more where all their weird ideas had more time to breathe. It's a minor thing though, the Fusion version is still great.
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Jul 20, 2015 21:21
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We got about 200 hours of the old style show up on the tube so yeah, I'm not complaining until I run out of them. I liked their approach to the comic con. No cringe-shaming.
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Jul 21, 2015 01:23
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This show is amazing how have I not heard of this. I plan on watching all of them, asap.
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Jul 21, 2015 05:44
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I was at a live Gethard Show at the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival a few years ago. Chris lost some contest they put on, I don't remember what it was, but as he lost, he was tied shirtless to a chair on the stage as he was beaten with dildos, and this bizarre band (Dolchnakov Brigade) played and handed out onions to audience members for them to dance with. I know describing it sounds like a fever dream, but that's sort of how it felt live. It was an amazing thing to see. Also, later on, I saw the Human Fish in a bar. It was weird seeing him dressed and acting like a normal human.
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Jul 21, 2015 06:36
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Favourite episodes/moments, everyone? Of any iteration? Off the top of my head, Crowd-Sourced Character Contest #1 and #3 are both great - the third one for Cum Pappy alone. Also, I will totally admit to finding Messenger Bag inexplicably fascinating, very glad that he's remained a regular part of the show.
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Jul 21, 2015 08:13
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I think Milkshake of Death was the first one I ever saw and it's still one of my favorites.
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Jul 21, 2015 10:25
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I don't know if it counts as a TCGS, but Truth or Myth With Smith is just a great slow burn that gets more and more unhinged over the course of an hour. And any bit with Horse and Bee.
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Jul 21, 2015 12:50
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I think the combination of watching the live taping + the edited episode is just as great if not better than the public access show, but I totally agree that I want the full versions available to watch, especially since I've had to miss 2 or 3 so far. I'm actually all about the reduced audience interaction that the new format provides. About halfway through the public access years that monster grew way out of control and took the reins away from Chris in an actively negative way. The Chat Rats (et al) were really straining my patience, and clearly Chris's as well when he had to keep yelling at callers to actually have something to talk about or at least to know the episode's subject when they called in rather than just having it be a big ego thing to get on the show. I'm glad in season 2 Chris shut that down - though the least interesting part of the show to me right now is still the callers. Also I was really annoyed when (prominent audience member) Julia jumped up onto the stage to look at the kittens during the Ellie Kemper episode of the show. GraPar posted:Favourite episodes/moments, everyone? Of any iteration? Off the top of my head, Crowd-Sourced Character Contest #1 and #3 are both great - the third one for Cum Pappy alone. Genuine Sadness. Probably he most genuine emotion I've ever seen on TV, most specifically the guy's story about his mentally handicapped brother's body finally being found after years and having that be cathartic, which was able to exist in an episode that was also goofy and dumb and fun. That and the saga of Alyssa starting out as an awkward shy girl, watching her gain confidence, meet her heroes, and eventually host her Beyonce episode like a boss. I love it that she's now a really active performer and improviser in the UCB scene. But the best moment of all time? The absolutely shock at the betrayal in The Villain's Journey. I was just as blown away as Chris was. The whole Messenger Bag saga was amazing, especially after a couple of duds of Randoms (boring Ellen, absent Manesha, quiet Maxine), and I'm so happy he's in the LLC now. feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Jul 21, 2015 |
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Jul 21, 2015 15:14
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Taping for this week's episode starts in 10 minutes or thereabouts. This week is a show for dogs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T1mthwA08Q ElNarez fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Jul 22, 2015 |
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Jul 22, 2015 00:49
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This is going to be a complete logistical nightmare and will never work properly. I can't wait 
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Jul 22, 2015 01:16
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I tried to watch it live in the UK but it didn't work, but glad I came back to watch an edited episode (the sleep deprived one). I meant to check out the PA one for so long but kept forgetting, so glad the archive is online. Time zone kills most chances of watching live though which sucks. Shame they don't do what fishcenter do and roll the episode for 24 hours.
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Jul 25, 2015 00:58
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Also OP couldn't find the old thread, I did some digging and here it is - http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3569580
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Jul 25, 2015 14:50
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Just checking it to say that the new dog-centric episode is pretty great. Probably the most Public Access-style show so far: deeply strange, at points barely even entertaining, at other times completely brilliant. Jason Sudeikis went all-in.
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Aug 1, 2015 21:46
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I'm glad someone else posted as I really didn't want to do three in a row. Been watching from the beginning, and loving it. It's insane how fast the show finds itself, improves in technical abilities etc. I did enjoy the very first one though, so many bits being done at once... changing to the smaller studio for a few eps really changed the show's style and approach, so fun to see how it probably looked on stage before it became a TV show. Have done 28 episodes of the original run now, enjoying every one of them. The Fusion one I stayed up late to watch live for the most recent episode. Was fun to see all the behind the scenes stuff, and elements that won't make the final cut... but argh the swear/content filtering kills some of the conversations completely. Can understand Fusion not wanting some legally dubious stuff going out 'on air', but filtering the swearing seems over the top. It's still fun though, and I think it's great that they've got a bigger outlet for their show and it's great to see people who you can't help but really like do well for themselves. Wonder how long it'll take me to catch up fully...
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Aug 2, 2015 16:43
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EL BROMANCE posted:I'm glad someone else posted as I really didn't want to do three in a row. I think the show's been able to be so flexible over the years because it's always been in a state of flux, transitioning locations and mediums and studio sizes. Speaking of, there's some great clips out there of when it was a UCB stage show, such as this (nsfw) and this
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Aug 2, 2015 17:14
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Yeah, I find myself just as intrigued about how the show will look/where it will be each episode as much as the topics. Looking forward to seeing studio changes ahead. Thanks for the links, will check those out. I've just passed The Spirit of Gethard, but it wasn't in my download pack and the teaser clip didn't sell it massively to me. I can see it's online to stream, worth visiting at some point?
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Aug 2, 2015 23:28
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I think the lower level, highly screened audience participation works okay because the Fusion show is higher quality. The comedy bits are just funnier and better produced. But you also lose that factor that makes episodes like the Human Crane or that awful word game great, where the show is literally unravelling before your very eyes, and all they can do is take calls of confused people asking them what the hell they're doing. Things like Calstead or Suto or that weird guy sexually harassing Don Fanelli or their cadre of sad teenagers giving life updates or the funny-drunks are what make the early episodes fun to watch. Even the bad callers are fun for their unpredictability. I'm only ~70 episodes in though, maybe it gets real bad? Also whoever said Random Jean is a core element of the show is right, I spent a long time really cringing whenever Jean said some shockingly oblivious thing, but after awhile I realized - she's not a fuckin comedian, she's just some random eccentric girl and I should just chill and accept the awkward weirdness for what it is. Periodiko fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Aug 4, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 03:25
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IIRC it's around 100 when the callers and chat start getting really obnoxious and cannibalizing the show. They had to reset with Season 2 because of it and Season 2 rules. My favorite element of unpredictability was Random Sandy. It's a shame the fans were such assholes to her and drove her away, it was really great to see someone so outside of the sad teenager and UCB comic mentality and sense of humor constantly throwing everyone for a loop - felt a little like 80s/90s public access to me.
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Aug 4, 2015 06:24
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Periodiko posted:I'm only ~70 episodes in though, maybe it gets real bad? Also whoever said Random Jean is a core element of the show is right, I spent a long time really cringing whenever Jean said some shockingly oblivious thing, but after awhile I realized - she's not a fuckin comedian, she's just some random eccentric girl and I should just chill and accept the awkward weirdness for what it is. Ha, feel the exact same way. Usually my reaction is along the lines of how Chris feels... sometimes she has a killer burn and you're happy for her, sometimes she says the most pedestrian thing (and usually it's something she's wrong about) and you can't feel anything other than "Random Jeaaaan!". She's definitely an odd one and it's good when she succeeds, and adds a level of awkwardness to the show it would be missing otherwise. Just finished the Random Lauren vs Random Melissa. Random Lauren definitely did the marketing to friends for voting or something because there were about 5 auditions that were way, way better than hers. Disappointed not to see Random Vim or the guy who'd never even seen the show before for the finale. Oh and the Alyssa episode ruled, and I cheated and checked for her name on Twitter and I'm super happy that she embraced everything that was said to her while a cavalcade of celebrities/awesome people came out.
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Aug 4, 2015 10:58
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They're taping the final episode of the season (and maybe ever) tonight. It's supposed to be secret but I went on the site to check when the taping would be and this is the description.quote:Throughout the episode TCGS and guest Michael Cera will be taking calls from the across the continental U.S. After the show is over Chris and Michael will walk out of the studio, get into a car, and for the next week drive across country to personally thank those callers for supporting the show. That sounds loving nuts.
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Aug 11, 2015 14:21
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Final episode up on Youtube now - not quite what's described above, but it's pretty brilliant and mental. Two final scenes are pretty much perfect. Some top-notch character work from JD Amaton and Dru Johnston.
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Aug 22, 2015 11:00
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I blame Chris Gethard for corrupting this quiet young lady and turning her into a menace against corporations. http://splitsider.com/2015/09/oshkosh-bgosh-wants-youtube-to-remove-this-commercial-parody-because-its-disastrous-to-our-brand/ Go Alyssa, haha!
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Sep 19, 2015 18:52
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This is coming back in March and I just heard Chris say on the Best Show that the new episodes are gonna be an hour. 
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Jan 20, 2016 22:45
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It's a shame it's hour including commercials so it'll probably still be cut down a fair bit from the live one, but it's definitely an improvement. So yay!
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Jan 20, 2016 22:58
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Absolutely an improvement. Though if you can watch the tapings you'll still have access to the 3+ hour versions, so in the end it's way more!
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Jan 20, 2016 23:02
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I watched a few tapings, my only issues were 1. Being in GMT timezone they were really not sleep friendly (not gonna affect many though) 2. Entire conversations were censored out, presumably for legal reasons. It was super fun to watch a show get put together though, and I've still got like 100 of the public access episodes to go so definitely no complaints here.
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Jan 20, 2016 23:05
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arghhh this show is so good but also so poo poo. I think thats the point duh but. The injokey/cliquey side drains the good side of the show. 'we might be a cult show but we are not a cult' yeah but you sort of are. You've created the cool kids. In my personal perfect universe chris gethard would completely reinvent the show and start again. destroy the idols these kids love dear.
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Jan 21, 2016 09:29
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Lampsacus posted:arghhh this show is so good but also so poo poo. I think thats the point duh but. The injokey/cliquey side drains the good side of the show. 'we might be a cult show but we are not a cult' yeah but you sort of are. You've created the cool kids. In my personal perfect universe chris gethard would completely reinvent the show and start again. destroy the idols these kids love dear. Actually it is just good and they should change nothing and also have Chris's brother on more.
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Jan 21, 2016 15:55
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I too find the community obnoxious, but burning it all to the ground isn't really a great solution.
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Jan 21, 2016 21:36
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