The ALPHAS Go To Therapy And Get PISSED... 

If you don’t want to date a stripper, don’t date a stripper. Don’t start dating a stripper and then get mad that she’s a stripper. Zero logic there.

I swear one of them could talk about murdering their neighbor and running over his girlfriend with a car and that therapist lady would say "that sounds like good progress John, it must have taken alot of courage to say that".

As someone studying psychology I could NOT believe this was a real therapist- or if she was, she had to have a bajillion complaints against her license - so I did some research. She is a "therapist" but she is not a psychologist (she doesn't have a Ph.D.), she studied Zoology at the University of London, then got a post grad diploma in couple psychotherapy from the University of East London (acceptance rate of over 50% btw for my people who know). She did not study AT Cambridge, she studied IN Cambridge. I don't know much about the UK or their universities or systems, but in the US (where she currently practices), being accredited by the APA or having a licence to practice in your state is what makes someone legit & accountable, if not reliable. So fact check me cuz I didn't stalk her or anything, but there's no public license for her and she is NOT APA accredited. In more understandable terms, she's closer to a "life coach" than a psychologist. People often use "therapist" as a catch-all name, but it does not mean someone is performing accredited, regulated, and empirical therapy. Only a state licence and APA affiliation means that. Be careful people! "Psychologist" is years away from "therapist" in schooling, training, and regulation they have to undergo.

John having straight up dysmorphia, the kind that leads to eating disorders and similar problems, is a different kind of intense than what I expected.

Gunnar watching reality shows is my new favourite thing on RU-vid

Imagine going to couples therapy, but instead of it just being you and your partner, it´s with a bunch of other random couples. And in stead of it being private, it´s broadcast on television for the whole world to see.

charm’s mirror part was such a joke it was painful. & the lip bites “you’re perfect just the way you are, you don’t need the nice shirts, or the best body, or the girlfriend sitting right behind you” 😭

Ah yes, the "look in the mirror and tell me everything you hate about yourself" school of therapy. Also, no building back up after. End with the hating himself and move on.

Its called "biggerexia". I did competitive powerlifting and power building. No matter how big I got, i always saw myself as small, or to fat. Id look at my self and id look great, but see that TINY imperfection in my traps. Now im focused on my traps until they're even or bigger.

John has unbelievable anger issues. I hope that guy gets into real therapy.

body dismorphia goes many ways. It´s told usually as a joke that when you enter the gym for the first time, you´re never gonna be happy with yourself ever again... and there´s a lot of truth to that.

Professional therapist who actually works with people with eating disorders and body dysmorphia-without actually talking to him; it is possible for the same person to see it both ways as fat and scrawny. It’s more likely that the “fat” comment triggered his feeling of insecurity which then triggered how he views himself as inadequate and “the scrawny kid”. So it’s not that he sees himself both ways as much as it is the core belief that he’s worthless and has to change his body to change that. That’s why it’s interesting he used worthless to describe her as it’s likely a bit of projection. A real therapist in an actual clinical setting might have followed up on that, but that’s not the show. The funny part is that most of these guys are deflecting. Two weeks of how they were awful both with cheating and with how they acted with the hidden cameras and now they’re turning the tables by “sharing their feelings”. This is weaponizing self-disclosure and vulnerability. There were some that seemed genuine, but most of them are actually more tool like in their responses this week 😂

WHY DID THIS EPISODE TAKE 13 DAYS GOD DAMN IT GUNNAR

I think it's really weird that one girl started blaming strippers for "ruining families" like, as if the men aren't the ones that are going to see strippers and it's a choice that those men make?

I think John sees himself as scrawny/skinny. He is big in terms of muscle so being called fat is not a compliment

42:55 "Don't make a joke out of this academy" says the man wearing a pink striped tie over a checked shirt, and hair spiked to the ceiling.

John L is literally the hulk "HULK MAD, HULK ANGRY" "YOU WON't LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY"

Honestly I was half expecting Charm to start making out with his reflection.

Honestly some of these guys are scary. They’re not just “tools”.

Shannon's "comment" is so wild, like how are the women at fault when it's the guys that make the conscious decision to leave home and watch the shows and spend their money? The girls are just doing a job, plus I doubt they'd want to be with 90% of the guys they meet at clubs and stuff anyway. Shannon's definitely not a girl's girl with all this.

"Trina, we've realised you're just a tool. Goodbye." Keeping Charm over JD is so messed up. Even though JD blamed his girl, he still opened up and provided ground for working it out as a couple. What did Charm do? Said he loved himself.

I found it wild that nobody asked John to apologize for the things he said to his girlfriend before he stormed out, and it's pretty sad that she was cool with him not apologizing at all. Shows the kind of terrible, toxic dynamic they're in.

Big John really going through it emotionally.....maybe he should lay off the special sauce and get his hormones back in check

yes gunnar, that is body dysmorphia. one day i look at myself and i feel fat as shit, and the next day i feel skinny and scrawny, it typically leans towards feeling fat tho. everyone has different experiences.

John L, Tyler, Dan, and Stew all produced similar content to Shawn and Matsuflex. Apparently Tool Academy sued the site because all the guys were in violation of their contracts.

Gunnar I have struggled with body dysmorphia most of my life, and YES! You can go from 1 extreme to the next in the same 5 minutes rapidly back and forth not being able to decide which one it is

15:06 That dude was definitely just saying what he thought she wanted to hear. the whole point was to reflect on themselves not talk about their spouse, how amazing they are, and how they don't compare. Its supposed to be them looking at *themselves* talking about *themselves* and how *they* feel about *themselves* and shit

I think in the case of Big Tool what he sees in the mirror is his past self, and all the insecurities that he had for being a small skinny guy. Now he is big and muscular, but when someone says he is fat or points to some of the parts he has issues with (like just small muffin top) he is reminded that his "armor" (the big looking muscular stuff) is still hiding his real sel (the small person he was when he was young).

Geeze, I'm seeing a trend this season during the therapy sessions. I call it the "Spartacus" trend of one guy states something and everyone else sees that and then all start parroting the same things and acts. Last episode it was everyone saying "I cheated on my gf" and this one it's "I'm insecure with myself"

Bruh I love how unlicensed these "Therapy" sessions are 😂😂

Cracks me up when men complain about their girlfriend being a stripper when they have no job and can't even contribute half for their lifestyle. Also, if a married man goes to a strip club, that's on HIM and him alone.

men like john are the worst bc they project ALLLL their suppressed anger onto those close to them. WHich can have violent endings

I love how Gunner said season 3. Definitely season 2 because i cant imagine a third season of this crazy ass show

The body dysmorphia ordeal I just wanna say yes it can go both ways lol. I deal with it way too often. Logically my bmi is on point, I have a healthy amount of muscle and body fat. Health wise my body is ideal. But looking in the mirror. There will be one day I feel so skinny and underweight. Feel like I don’t have enough curve and I’m flat. But the same day I can look and feel fat. Feel like I have too much curve and that I look like I need to workout more. It’s definitely a rollercoaster of emotions because I feel I can’t again or loose weight out of fear I’ll just look worse. Even though I know logically I have a perfectly fine body. And I often get complimented but even then I still feel like I’m too fat or I’m nothing but bones. Mostly with like clothes. I’ll put on some jeans and they won’t go over my butt so I’ll cry and feel embarrassed. Or I’ll put on a dress and it’s too big in a certain area so I feel underweight. Never ending but definitely real lol. But I’m not asking for pity I’m okay with my body and I’m very grateful it’s a healthy size so I cannot complain too much since it’s doing me well.

He just had the promise ring in him? He couldn’t take it out of his inventory because it was a quest item.

Booty trench sounds like something you’d catch in WW1.

Girl is really blaming taco bell for selling tacos and not the men who secret eat there at the expense of their families.

You can feel yourself as too small and too big. When I was young I was super skinny and everyone said I looked like a skeleton. Then I got fat overcompensating for that. But I always saw the "skeleton kid" even when I was fat. Then I lost weight because i wasnt happy at that size either. Even today Im slightly overweight because Im mentally fucked about being skinny again, but the fact I have some weight still makes me feel like I may be a human boulder.

Aye yo John just blew up on his girlfriend. Like i understand having a conversation about how mean comments can hurt, but holy cow

As someone who has red hair naturally, I actually get that comment especially from the old ladies who see me in public. People love red hair.

Lmfao@ these dudes boohooing and the gfs eating it up….I roll my eyes so hard. “I feel so bad for him”! After he has shit all over you!? I can’t.. I didn’t feel much of anything genuine goin on here 💀

pink button down guy (John) is TERRIFYING. my God. I'd be horrified if my child displayed similar behaviors, but a PARTNER? A GROWN MAN? lol nope nope nope no way in HELL

John is brillent the way he made the whole room feel bad for him. don't forget who the tool is. John flipped that script like a master.

“Gunnar, I’m sorry you’re a tool” for making us wait for this episode 😔

This is the mid 2000s so I don’t expect sex work to be respected but sex work wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t a demand. The men who want to fuck around will fuck around. It’s not the stripper or prostitute’s fault if he puts his relationship with his GF/wife in jeopardy. This whole idea that sex workers are luring men to make bad choices and cheat is putting the onus on women rather than men for choosing to go through with it. If men are so easily misled by a hot body then they shouldn’t be in a relationship nor should they be going to these establishments. It’s called personal responsibility.

23:32 Mf wearing flannel, asking, "Do I look like a guy to wear overalls?" had me 💀 Yeah - you do

I don't know if I hate or respect Giant Tool more after that session. There IS something there, but he didn't need to make it about her.

okay but the way all the girls walk towards her with open arms after she breaks up with him...my heart 😩💙😭 EVEN IF IT'S JUST FOR SHOW LMAO LET ME HAVE THIS 💀

That ginger had ptsd from sour park still 😂

Those lil yt girls trying to demonize Leah when she has a very real and valid reaction to being judged like that. They're lucky that's all that happened cuz my ass would not have been that calm

The boys are so right The Modesty badge should have been an auto-loss for Charm

I hope big John has gotten himself some serious help. That's a dangerous way to feel.

RIGHT - thank you for pointing that out 😂 "so is everything chill w him calling her worthless? like are they cool now?" exactly! side note: body dysmorphia is BRUTAL - I think HIS particular issue is he wants to be HUGE & muscular w no body fat. that's why skinny is like an insult in his mind bc he thinks of scrawny & fat is ALSO an insult in his mind. rough but it does NOT excuse his behavior - not even a LITTLE

How tf did CHARM win a modesty badge?! They did that to keep the drama.

I'm glad the big guy pointed out his GF's behavior, pointing out fat rolls on your partner is just mean :(

Gunnar should refresh his memory on who actually cheated lol, would be helpful for the audience too

Can we all just be happy at the fact that josh from last season got married to ashley and became a pastor for a church... as many reformation jokes as we make god damn bro became a married pastor of the church lol.

Just to touch on the "does he think he's fat or skinny" it's not always so black and white with body dysmorphia.

Did I watch this live? Heck yeah. Am I gonna watch it again all the way through? Absolutely!

Booty trench? That made me laugh so hard.

Lmao the lesbian tool comment. As a hispanic bi woman, i would love to see the representation on tool academy

Gummy you must know about the British version of this show. It's wacked.

Lurked watching YT vids for a couple months now. You are really good with interactions and engagement! Love the videos, and I'm glad you honed such a skill for our entertainment! (genuine, not sarcasm)

Gunnar being surprised body dysmorphia can go literally SO MANY ways for yes, the SAME person. Where my body dysmorphia people at?? 👀

I have body dysmorphia. The way you broke it down was hilarious (to me, fine if you don’t agree, we’re all individuals). - But to explain it: we see our body in segments, so different parts of ourselves can be seen as skinny or fat at the same time when we look at our “whole” selves. Love the coverage of Tool Academy btw, Gunnar 😂

In a less severe way that was totally a trauma response... That's a person who cannot stand what they see when they look in the mirror

So on the body dysmorphia thing, i feel that was a perfectly reasonable question (im saying this bc some of chat seemed to get slightly mad) from someone who (i assume) isnt well versed in psychological issues. It does seem weird that you could feel too fat and too skinny at the same time.

"You've destroyed me emotionally. I hate you." So powerful.

Lol I was curious about the worthless comment as well. He was doing good until then. It's like the kid who yelled at his teacher then fucked up a single word and ruined it

John, please step forward and receive your badge because frankly, we're too afraid you'll destroy us and this house in rage if we expel you.

That body dysmorphia definitely are real. I am the same way. I either think I'm to small and then later that day I'm to big and fat.

Dates a stripper, decides they hate she's a stripper.

I couldn’t imagine staying with a guy like John….for that matter any of them. But I definitely would’ve quit the show right there

John was super disrespectful. Just SUPER LOW of him. But I can see where it comes from, and that anger is his response to feeling guilt or shame. No excusing it, but therapy is about getting past your negative responses, and learning healthier ways to deal with stress.

John is growing so much through out the show, I mean he's been hitting the gym, I don't know about as a person.

Hey Gunnar! Some insight from my personal experience, just in case you care to learn. Through my whole life, up until I was about 20, I was only 90 pounds. I tried REALLY hard to gain more weight but I couldn’t. I ate normally, ate healthy, worked out a few times a week. But nothing ever really changed weight wise. I didn’t have an ED or anything else like that. But I got bullied pretty relentlessly for looking like a “skeleton” and being “gross and too skinny with no ass”. And lots of other mean comments. I HATED how I looked, even though I knew some people would love to be my size naturally. Around 20 I developed a chronic illness and was put on a medication that made me gain a LOT of weight, to where I was around 160. I wasn’t “fat” per se, but after seeing myself as only one size for my whole life and then having that almost doubled seemingly overnight, it REALLY fucked with my head. I wouldn’t wear anything expect jackets and pants, never wanted to see my arms or stomach or thighs. Would get anxiety seeing myself in the mirror. Eventually I was able to get it down to 130 or so and I’m doing better. But even as an almost 30 year old who generally has my shit somewhat together, I still get sensitive about comments about either being fat OR too skinny, despite the fact that I’m no longer either of those weights. It’s dumb, but humans are complicated, especially when it comes to self-image. We never know what someone else has gone through, and I would hate to invalidate someone else’s experiences just bc it isn’t what I myself have experienced. If someone has lived something, those insecurities don’t 100% disappear bc their body type changes. Also someone’s partner calling them fat and making fun of their rolls would be horrific if it were a girl, so why is it not as bad bc it was done to a guy? If John had said those comments to Sarah you would have called him out for it. He’s allowed to be hurt by it. He’s allowed to have multiple insecurities. Man has a lot of issues and I’m not excusing them, but I was really sad by how his actual issues with his body, and his genuine feelings at being called fat by his own partner were brushed aside by you. Him being upset about being called fat when he’s insecure about his body, and then going on to talk about his childhood experiences of being too skinny and made fun of for it aren’t as drastically different and unrealistic as you seem to make it out to be. I’m sure you’ll never read this, and I’m sorry for the long comment. But it’s just something to think about! Humans are messy and complicated and won’t always make perfect sense to each other, but that doesn’t invalidate their struggles just bc we don’t understand it! 😊

You misunderstood/ it was badly captioned. He said people would “dye” to get his red, not “die”.

I think I’ve decided the therapist is this show’s true villain

As a fellow ginger I wonder why all the elderly ladies and my dad would tell me people would kill to have hair this beautiful. Where did that come from??

What kind of promise is „I will never hurt another girl like I hurt you“ to your gf? Like, no worries babe, when we‘re done imma do better.

i love how that one guy that said he was body shamed called that guy little fella lol you can really tell that he was just tryna manipulate his gf

Finally more reality tv that I’ll only watch with the parasocial internet man

Gunnar: you know you can’t be like ok all you guys well dressed with beautiful physiques Also Gunnar: I feel like his insecurity is something stupid 😂

The way John says "Sarah" sounds like he's saying Sauron 😆 "I was really having a hard time going back in there, facing Sauron..."

Ha, I read the comments and figured literally exactly what john was saying was what happened to him. I mean if he’s with someone with for so long it would be a given that they should know these things about their loved one and to specifically say something to hurt him then to act in a manner where everyone watching sides with them is an incredibly hard thing to handle especially when the moment you hold yourself back you get told in a pretty way that you were being a child for having emotions….by the loved one themselves that obviously going to mean more than others. Damn this is really heavy on emotional abuse belittlment 😮

Big John should voice a deep voiced cartoon character, fucking perfect

I miss the old outro song.

I'd look forward to this but I know the therapists likely aren't even licensed professionals and will mostly be actors

"When I looked in dat mirrah" - John L

John L. was on Howard Stern once. He was working as a guy that gets hired to hit on women whose bfs/husbands suspects them of being a cheater.

I feel the anger frustration and sadness Leah expressed. I too would have made Shannon cry. But not by my fists, with the reality of what being dehumanized to that degree feels like. I would describe in detail what it was like being treated that way and how my life was impacted by something I had to do to survive. To not be on the streets. Shannon would have nightmares

10:33 Lady you gotta just move on after that whirlwind

Love the TV show date nights with Gunnar.

I love this series! Keep em coming Gunnar!

Just to add my 2 cents about the body dysmorphia topic: I grew up very skinny in highschool and college, which was a big insecurity for me. To paint a picture, I was 6'2 and I think I capped at around 150 lbs in highschool? Give or take a few pounds. Anyways, I'm 28 now I've been going to the gym regularly now for about 8 months. Sometimes I see the progress I've made, and even if it's definitely not where I want to be, it is still progress. But then other days I'll look at my arms and think "Jesus I'm scrawny" or I'll look in the mirror and see my gut sticking out a little too much and think about how fat I look in that moment even if I can rationalize it as being bloating from having just eaten or something like that. It 100% goes both ways and it sucks specifically because it doesn't really make sense. I wouldn't even really consider my body dysmorphia "that bad" compared to other people, I don't have a problem with food or anything, but it definitely makes it hard to be comfortable in your own skin sometimes and can feel very irrational.

I love that you kept this as outro music, catch myself singing it randomly ❤

i love the 2000’s style so much they are all slaying

Gunnar just wanted to say I always get super hyped to watch you watch reality tv lol 😂 I don’t watch it myself but you make it entertaining

I really thought Kathleen and J Daddy would last longer since they look like main characters..

The mirror part was trippy for me. I remember I did lsd one night. For whatever reason, I decided to “face my demons” in the mirror that night….boy did I learn a lot about my self lmaoo