Thats like some ancient sphinx riddle. "How does one man win, come in second, and finish last in a competition?" Edit: just to be clear, I know how it happened cause I watched the whole episode lol. I'm just saying its funny how brennan ended up being 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the same time, so it sounds like such a contradictory outcome that a sphinx would present as a riddle to trick you while still being technically true. But still, i appreciate those explaining what happened in case someone else doesnt have context 👍
at least based on this ep, they got the concept first, and then either picked who the participants were or started planning at least some of it before deciding on the cast. they specifically picked these three because they would be the perfect trio to play off each other for this specific game. sam has already said before that they adjust aspects of the game so that the participants really shine. so even thou this game wasn't created to mess with brennan, sam and the entire crew are too good to not do things to make their cast tick 😌
"It was just a little side bonus. It wasn't the intent, but if we can do what we were gonna do anyway AND mess with Brennan, then we might as well enjoy it!"
It's amazing how small and agile the production for GC is. They make the wildest ideas happen, and it's always premium quality. Really goes to show how professional and passionate every member of the team is.
It's the way the anger is silent and always throwing him for a loop, like he always needs a minute to process his anger before it fully hits him that he is angry.
Ally pulled off the genius move in this ep by making their score the same as Oscar’s, the only way Brennan could get second place without getting a higher score than anyone else.
I love Terry Pratchett and think Dimension 20 has a lot in common with Discworld. There are some excellent parts of Discworld where characters get very angry. What about Brennan's anger specifically makes you compare him to Si Terry?
@@8Rincewind Sir Pratchett was, according to some, a very angry man; angry at the ridiculous, needless, and hurtful things in life. It fuelled a lot of his writing.
... I spent all of 30 seconds thinking that there was some controversial opinion Pratchett and/or Brennan held about calendar date systems that precluded them from being the same person (before realizing "Oh, you were just saying Pratchett didn't die soon enough")
Um Actually isn't so much trying to make Brennan get mad, it's to not let him get away with bullying Trapp on technicalities. See: The Howard the Duck discourse on whether 4th wall breaking is a superpower!
Best of Brennan mad: “RIGGED FROM THE BEGINNING!” “Hell, where famously the SUN is!” “You’re at the WHIM… of a bit!” “To reach a hand down to somebody, they need to be BENEATH YOU!” “You gotta wake up pretty early in the f***in’ morning to go, ‘Oh, here’s a range extender for your lav, Brennan!” “You’re not a coward, Adaine, you’re sick! You just need medicine!” “Some of our ~bodies~ are betraying us constantly”
Jacules already gave the right answer, but I'd suggest that there is an overarching narrative of the Most Brennan eps: 1. Lie Detector - First gamechanger episode, established brennan's persona ("There is not one corner of my heart I would not turn over for 5 points") 2. Yes or No - First game explicitly to make Brennan Mad by making him lose ("I CANNOT WIN.") 3. As a Cucumber - Fucking with brennan in a different way. He states he will stop his heart if that's what it takes to win. ("There are rivers of sweat running down my back." "Did it break on a specific bird or just, right away?") 4. Second Place - Brennan fights himself between wanting to win by being best and wanting to win by winning the game.
At first, probably not many, but as they figure out Brennan's ticks more, they start to realize what they can get away with that'll not only work, but make Brennan increasingly more furious.
I literally 100% no joke read the title as "sam reich on making banana bread" and didn't realize until halfway through the video that he would not be talking about baking sweet bread
Personally I'm a little upset that Brennan did not clock that he in fact DID NOT come in second, as while the other two tied for first that would STILL put Brennan in third. There was in fact no one in second place.
It genuinely is my favorite episode. Because Brennan, Who is the ultimate winner, Was so convinced he wouldn't win, Because he is a winner, And being a winner means loser here, Just so happened to win. Winningly. By losing. Meaning he won. He lost so fucking hard, Just like he said. He got last place.
I get it, but if the goal is explicitly to achieve second place and the challenges are themed around that, then loosing just enough points to achieve second overall is also technically part of the challenge, of which he succeeded (perhaps not intentionally). If the option to take acceptable losses to result in a future win presented itself in any other game Brennan would be all over that, but because the points are king hes mad about it. I suppose if he'll turn over every corner of his heart for points then the points really are king, but I thought thats because points equal winnings... turn out its just cause number go up.
See it's kind of paradoxical(?), because as soon as Brennan realized that the aim of the game was to come in second place, he *decided* that he was going to do his best to get the most points regardless, ie aiming for "first place" even if it would cost him the win. But in his valiant effort to do his best and come in first, he not only ended up coming in second (giving him the win), he also simultaneously ended up with the least points of all the contestants (which goes against everything he stands for as a points lover). So not only did he lose in the sense of fulfilling Sam's wishes, he also lost in the mission he set out to do at the beginning of the game. Makes the loss sting twice as much
It's not just about number go up, I think. My read on Brennan is that he compulsively likes to win and is such a never-ending font of trivia and improv that he can achieve that often. Understanding that the actual "winning" of Dropout shows is often pretty arbitrary (very much like "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?") means that actually being called the winner isn't as emotionally important as the score which counts how often he was right. I'll admit my bias, though: that's how I am, so I could be over-interpreting.
The math is quite simple: Angry Brennan = Historical rant Ranting Brennan = Many videos made of him being unhinged Unhinged Brennan videos = Free advertising for dropout = PROFIT!!! 🤑
Well technicly Brennan would have been third, since if two people tie for first place, the next position to be applied to would be third. the two people who tied for first, would also tie for second place, since the number of points they have both are better than what Brennan had, he had the third highest number of points, so he should have been third, and the two who tied for first and second place should both have been declared the winner
But there has to be a winner, and in that moment, to decide who should win, the question became "What would piss Brennan off the most?" and the answer was obvious; since the other two were tied for first, Sam chose to declare Brennan the winner.
I don't LOVE that this is Sam's M.O. When it becomes such a reliable trope, it just makes him sound like jerk. And the entire reason I love Dropout is because it's run by people who are nice! IDK, there's a lot of meticulously crafted sadism in modern entertainment. Seems like he could switch it up. They even had a sneakily nice episode of Breaking News about Grant, so we know it's possible.
Brennan needs yoga or therapy or a low salt diet. Being that easy to tweak seems unhealthy. Our enjoyment may one day come at the expense of his early heart attack.
i apprreciate where yr coming from, but i definitely dont think the anger is all real/real enough to be truly concerning -- he's a pro, and i think while there's a possibility there's some genuine frustration in his reactions, he also knows that playing mad for the cameras+his friends is a fantastic comedic choice and only gets funnier over time lmao. going on an outsized tear over smth relatively small is just *fun* imo -- thats smth i do to make my friends laugh all the time. its fun to complain theatrically, and its EXTRA fun to play the heel!! he clearly has a grand old time playing BBEGs, so i think getting to act all riled up and spit fire villain-style monologues as HIMSELF for once is probably like enrichment in his enclosure:]
He's a big practicioner of meditation and there's an episode that they had everyone have a heart monitor attached, and he was surreal in how calm he was.
They’re just bullying a dude who decided to homeschool himself both because he was smart enough to do so and also because we was being bullied in public school. Now his workplace is bullying him, be his workplace also allows him to make tens of thousands of dollars to play make believe, so I guess he’s just calling it even?? Anyway, yeah, we all know Brennan isn’t acting during these scenes, all of this anger is coming from a real place, and the entire production is toxic as fuck.
Fortunately he’s able to needle everyone else back… he’s thrown some good on-camera barbs at Sam in the No-Laugh Newsroom show, and probably has done so in other GameChanger episodes.
And he’s not shown even a hint at there being any toxicity at Dropput. If he didn’t feel like he’s being treated well, Brennan is influential enough he could probably pull a Second Wind on Sam.
God. This is a stupid take on so many levels. I can’t fathom. Brennan himself has told multiple times how fortunate he feels to be a part of dropout and able to work on dimension20. These guys are friends, actors and comics. The line is where they define it. Not where you or me think it is. They have worked on such skits and shows for years now. They have enough understanding on how to address grievances and sensitive topics. As an improv artist, you can see Brennan clearly enjoying these challenges and having a good time. Please don’t think of him as a one dimensional character who only wants to win. Brennan is the one who is at the centre of this and he can make decisions for himself. He knows very well how to handle anything if there’s any bullying involved.
buddy... the "anger" is a part of the game. he's playing the heel for the cameras and to make his friends laugh. the game wouldnt be funny at all if he had zero reaction beyond "fine okay thats the rule ig" -- theres no entertainment in that. the premise of this episode is an obvious setup for how he specifically should respond; he's just delivering the punchline.
