The Worst Sitcom Ending of All Time - Two and a Half Men 

Been a fan since the Fesh Pince video, this one was really good. I'd assumed the show was just cancelled, so finding out they pivoted to Foodfight 2 was really something

You said the viewers didn't deserve this. But counterpoint: they were watching Two and A Half Men.

They don't make haters like Chuck Lorre anymore

A second piano has hit the set of two and a half men

Chuck Lorre actually ended the show by depicting Charlie Sheen as the soyjak and himself as the chad, what a guy

Ending your long running popular sitcom with a fourth wall break and pissing on the actor who made the show popular is indeed a way to end a sitcom

Chuck Lorre dedicating the finale of a 12 season show on his grudge for Charlie Sheen only to kill him off again is Reverse Flash levels of petty.

This was akin to a creepypasta. When Ashton Kutcher stared down the camera i genuinely felt a chill go down my spine. This is genuinely so f*cking strange.. like a fever dream.

Everybody liked the show while it was airing (prior to Ashton Kutcher). The moment it finished, the public consciousness shifted to "Yeah the show was always trash". This phenomenon has become so common in recent years, it needs a name.

If I were still in High School, I'd greatly consider "If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really mad" as a senior quote.

This whole Charlie Sheen thing feels strangely modern, like it should've happened ten years later than it actually did, even Alex Jones is involved

I feel like the second piano is also saying something. That Lorre *knows* the grudge is terrible for him to hold onto and he just can't drop it. That it killed him just as much as it killed Carlie Sheen.

Truth be told I was put in a mental hospital in high school and one of the forms of entertainment was a TV which for some reason was stuck on this cable channel that only played classic sitcoms. So whenever we watched TV it was Two and a Half Men, Family Matters, and the George Lopez show. During my stay one of the other patients hurled a box of crayons at the TV after it cycled through 5 episodes of Two and a Half Men.

In my mind, the fact Charlie Sheen managed to live rent-free in Lorre's head for that long counts as winning.

35:33 So intersting that the creator of Big Bang Theory of all things dismissed pop culture reference jokes as cheap and easy

The show was never a high-brow critics pleaser. It's a sit down and enjoy dumb jokes about this scared-of-commitment man, his pedestalizing-of-women brother and a literal child trying to navigate a world of commitments, connections and obligations to others. I still watch reruns of the first half of the show whenever they pop up. Because the jokes land, and they're varied enough between episodes to not get tiring. Other than the very obvious "men are horny", which frankly is such a dead horse Kharon is looking to hire it, to expand his transportation business.

"The guy who made JFK" - You mean Vietnam Veteran, Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient Oliver Stone? Yeah I think he's allowed to have opinions on the government and Vietnam.

when ashton kutcher looked into the camera i was genuinely shaken

Holy shit, that finale actually looked deeply disturbing. Like lost episode, creepypasta vibes but genuinely unsettling

"Can you legitimately think of a sitcom ending worse than this"? I dunno, How I Met Your Mother gives it a run for its money, at least.

That ending is the most petty thing in a show/movie I've ever seen. Makes pro wrestling promoters look sensible.

That final vanity card is baffling. "Charlie Sheen wanted to do a heartfelt ending that could lead to a new beggining for the series, but I wanted to spend the whole episode making fun of his breakdown then throw a piano at him". If I wanted to make myself look like the bigger person in this conflict, I would NOT admit something like that.

The absolute gall to make fun of Charlie Sheen for not wanting to do a scene where he references a breakdown he had years ago that he regrets and wants to move on from

Hearing stories like Chuck Lorre just makes me hate the current industry. Cause back in the day you could just randomly meet a guy who knew a guy and get a job. Now a days you gotta fight thousands of people, fight against a robot and then do 4 rounds of interviews before you get a chance at being hired.

In an alternate timeline, the show ends with a satisfying last episode starring Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre getting wasted together. 😂

Finding out Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men were made by the same guy was like the modern version of finding out Darth Vader was Luke's father for me

So charlie sheen has a highly successful career, goes to rehab, goes on alex jones to say anti semetic remarks, has insane interviews and has multiple publicists quit. Charlie Sheen is the OG Kanye West

That's really sad, it sounded like Sheen wanted to give fans the ending they wanted and Lorre made the ending about himself.

I don’t know why I just watched a 47 minute video about a shitty sitcom, but here we are

That early 2010s TV "tech guy" trope was such an odd entity. Genius programmer who's also very business savvy, and also hot and a ladies man, and made their money by selling out to Microsoft or Google. I don't think that guy ever existed outside of television.

"If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really pissed." This is so simple but hilarious

It should be noted that Lorre seemed to understand the lose-lose aspect of this mess: the second piano falls on him as he says "winning". Given all the mayhem and bitterness on all sides, it wasn't surprising to my father and to me that the show ended this way. My father enjoyed the show, was critical of it during the last seasons, and still enjoyed it. And part of that, I feel, goes to an unsung hero in this essay/autopsy: Jon Cryer, who is not simply "the guy who played Alan", but the actor who stayed on board from start to finish, and, like all the best actors, gave 100% to his character and the silly scripts. I wish you had mentioned his situation in all of this, as he was basically left to carry what was left of the series on his shoulders, all the way from maintaining some kind of tone to shepherding Kutcher through his initiation. I can't help but feel that, though the stars of this autopsy are, without a doubt, Lorre and Sheen, it's Cryer who truly deserves the glory. I can also venture to say that, though Sheen was the name and the draw for the audience, I remember many, many, of the actual stories centering around Alan.

If I can give Chuck Lorre anything, he managed to make me side with Charlie Sheen. Now that’s impressive.

so the biggest lesson to learn here is that if america had a universal single-payer healthcare system, two and a half men could have been prevented from airing.

Ashton Kutcher just flat out saying he can't wait for the show to be over is the most relatable thing ever.

As a kid I normally hated whatever my parents put on tv but this was one of my earliest memories of them switching my shit to this and being like it’s alright

I don't know how to feel about this ending anymore with all this context. Seems like everyone was so full of spite

The fact that Lorre and Sheen ever worked together again after this is very weird.

The fact that they tried SO hard to keep the show going after Sheen left is ASTONISHING.

Two and a Half Men was ahead of the curve when it came to a show about a bunch of awful people. It has it's own charm, can't deny that.

The way I see it, this type of unhinged meta commentary is genuinely good entertainment. It's not high art, sure, but it carries an honesty and a transparency that are refreshing. That, combined with the two pianos that fall on the two men involved in the feud, respectively, is almost poetic. I could even begin to argue that this is actually a move of camp genius. That the piano is the perfect symbol of coarse but earnest entertainment, borrowed from the cartoons of the childhoods of Two and a Half Men's leading viewing demographic. That, in its simplicity and crassness, it's a message about the double-edged sword that is a grudge held for too long; an acknowledgement that using his position as master puppeteer, in his writer's chair, to drop a piano on Charlie, puts Chuck on the same level. So, with the break in the fourth wall theme, TV logic extends itself into the real world, and Chuck gets the same karmic punishment. I could argue that the animated sequence is ugly on purpose, that the absurdity of Rose's well prison, along with the 4th wall breaks, Schwarzenegger, and the ending itself, along with the stabs at the quality of their humor, are all a meditation on the shift TV programming saw in the 12 years since the Pilot aired. Because, when they started, TV was viewed as low grade entertainment, but it grew and garnered prestige in the meantime, and shows that remained on during that shift and retained their initial tone, began to look dated, suddenly being criticized for not reaching a level of quality they never signed up to offer. Do I believe all of this is true? No, but some of it might be. What is certain is that I am glad Chuck was given the freedom to make the strange and unusual choices he wanted to make. I am glad this finale exists, however absurd, however childish. It's a brand of artistic freedom

calling george costanza similar to allan isn't exactly incorrect but it feels wrong to me on a spiritual level

"I've never seen a show hate its audience this much" Alright, this show vs Velma.

Before 2011 there weren't enough subcommunities online? Mate get your facts straight, you can't be much older as 20 if you believe that.

Ehh, still better than the final season of Game of Thrones.

Idgaf what anyone says, Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer had amazing chemistry and portrayed one of the best brother/buddy dynamics in comedy.

Charlie Sheen: We can end it with me apologizing to my brother and reuniting amicably, then maybe we can start a new show, start over, and do this right. Chuck: haha drug addict Porky Pig monster and then murder

_"I don't think I could come up with a worse ending."_ ...Ever watch St. Elsewhere?

Two and a Half men was worlds funnier than Big Bang Theory. The former at least tried at jokes, while the latter thinks using pop culture references is a good substitute

If I had a nickel for how many men, I would have 5 nickels, or 2 and a half dimes

Guy was a crackhead making 27 mllion a year. It's frankly amazing he's alive at all.

critics calling two and a half man bad while all ragin about friends is wild to me

I had no idea about the final season or episode. I think most people had stopped caring by time the show actuality ended.

Ending your 12 season sitcom by declaring that it was garage at the whole time is the most mid-2010s thing I’ve ever heard. The 2010s truly were the best time to be alive (for meta jokes that killed the audience’s investment in the story).

they always wore the worst clothes the entire show

Bush doing 9/11 is actually one of the least crazy, and commonly accepted, conspiracy theories we have in the states lol

Seeing Aston's character makes me actually really wanna see a show where its a normal person dealing with the hijinks of a preestablished group that is wacky and WAY out of their comfort zone. Like a soap opera character joining a comedy sitcom

Chuck Lorre and Charlie Sheen getting back together to make a new series together is probably the funniest thing to come out if this.

The worst part of Two And a Half Men is how catchy the intro was. My dad liked it so I heard it from the living room. Over a decade later I still have the “men men men men, manly men men men-“ stuck in my head like a parasite

From this video alone the ending sounds genius tbh, why should a terrible show respect its viewers keeping the show alive when the show would've been better off dead long ago?

Chuck Lorre was a hater and wasn't ashamed to admit it, respect.

Lorre created Two and a half men AND The Big Bang theory !? Shouldn't he be on trial for human rights violations for that?

There was an anonymous quote from an agent during the writers’ strike that i keep thinking about; something like “nobody wants to write two and a half men, everyone wants to write barry. But a lot of people watched two and a half men, and nobody watched barry.” I think there’s a kernel of truth to this, but also that there isn’t some secret way to make two and a half men type sitcoms again that people are refusing, the era is just over. The 2011-2016 era of pop culture was so surreal.

Is it really "bad comedy" if millions of people enjoy it? I don't like Lorre work but from an alien from another planet perspective, you could say Arrested Development first seasons (as great as they are) are bad since a lot less people watched it. Of course there are a lot of factors in play but you get my point, I just don't believe we (the intellectuals that enjoy real comedies /s) can shit on Two and a Half Men or Big Bang Theory

I hope Chuck got vaxxed

“The phrase ‘9/11’ comes up on his Wikipedia page way too much for [Charlie Sheen to be considered a good person]” I like how this almost implies that Charlie Sheen had a hand in the September 11th attacks

Something about the _Two and a Half Men_ finale that I can't shake it off me is the feeling that Chuck Lorre always planned for the show to end with an scene similar to the one of Alan, Walden and Bertha sitting on the balcony. Remember how Robert Kirkman once said "I have an idea of how _The Walking Dead_ will end but its just something I prepared for the inevitable moment in which the series isn't selling anymore"? I think Chuck Lorre had a similar "In case of cancelation break the glass" finale, but firing Charlie Sheen derailed the whole plan. Like a minute before they drop a piano over Charlie, Alan and Walden talk about how it doesn't matter than none of the women on their lives care if they live or die because they have eachother, its easy to imagine Charlie and Alan reaching to that conclusion if they where allowed to have character developtment... instead, the series ends by demolishing the Fourth Wall with an sledgehammer

Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife was actually the first meme to get a more successful remix

If you think about it, rick and morty is just two and a half man + two women + sci fi...

I have to appreciate the lengths someone has to go to make themselves look petty in comparison to a serial drug abuser who was going through a mental breakdown.

Watching this while glancing sidelong at my shelved bowling shirts. Will their time come again?

2 and a half men was a success because of the hot women. Thats it. It was glorious

its adorable when zoomers say "no one remembers"

- detailed backstory about a piece of pop culture - Exploring a topic barely anyone's covered or even referenced since it happened - 2010s nostalgia - Quality commentary oh yeah this one's a banger

i still remember "tigers blood" and "winning" what a time to be alive

21:40 people use the phrase "going mainstream" all the time today

A very simple reason nobody talks about it over here is because it never aired officially. So that might explain overseas (and thus a part of the internet) not knowing about it.

This is going to be a strange take away, but the description of the finale (and the last season) reminds me of a potential “lost episode” creepypasta, only so much more fascinating. It has the template of a show not doing what’s expected of it, but instead the horror coming from characters having hyper-realistic eyes/blood or killing themselves/others, there’s the unsettling feeling that the world is breaking. The storytelling you’d expect from a finale is gone and replaced by very contemporary yet personal jabs at itself and Charlie Sheen. Characters are looking to the camera and addressing the audience when that’s never happened before. The vibes of the notes Lorre left at the end of the episodes changes in a similar way. The bizarre CGI could be seen as a replacement for something suddenly being hyper realistic. Of course, there’s the still from 37:42 that would probably be the moneyshot associated with this creepypasta, just edit it to be spookier. Oh and great video!

Using the end title cards as a way to tweet about Charlie sheen is hilarious

It's not really a satisfying ending, but it's a work of art and genuinely creepy and funny at the same time.

Can I just say that for everyone thinking this guy is British, he doesn't sound that way at all. Sounds more like an Australian or Kiwi accent...and secondly no...we Brits pretty much know that The Fresh Prince isn't a real representation for the majority of black Americans let alone for us to get the TV show (like honestly...what in the actual fuck?? lol) However it is 2024 and people say the dumbest of shit these days....and even scarier is how many people believe them...

"Bizarre sense of euphoria you get after vomiting" is one of those phrases that'll rattle around my brain for decades

That Bookie reveal at the end had me scrambling for more information, what a wild way for the story to end.

I remember for like, 4 months after that, no mention of the word winning could happen, without everyone blurting out their favorite line from that interview. Wild time.

Sir, Rick and Morty has been actively hating its audience for the past 7 seasons XD

Side note, Oliver Stone is the only Vietnam veteran to make a movie about Vietnam. He was an infantryman.

My mom still says "Duh, Winning" whenever it can be applicable. Charlie sheen's psychotic break was felt by EVERYONE.

You definitely don’t need to know anything about black culture to enjoy fresh prince. As a 9 year white Canadian confirm I can confirm this. The shows just fucking good and the serious bits were never ham fisted and always felt authentic.

dang charlie really lived in that directors head rent free for like 4 years

Everytime you say Sheen instead of Charlie, I imagine Jimmy Neutron's Sheen doing it. Hey Jimmy I'm doing crack but I can handle it socially!

20:51 you must be younger. Because dude there was SO MANY NICHE websites. Now, just everything is on either Reddit or Discord.

Your analysis of the early internet sounds like you read a speculation piece written by somebody born in 2005. Lmao. It's like you read major topic points from that era, then just completely made up the the filler dialogue.

Actually that's a really REALLY clever ending. It doesn't hate the audience. It hates it's own concept and sends itself off with practically 0 grace. That's wonderful actually. It's a great ending for specifically Two and a half men

People talked a lot about how Game of Thrones disappeared from the public consciesness after season 8. But I think I've never even thought about Two and a half men in the years since it's conclusion and haven't heard of it from anyone as well.

It's kinda sad to be known as the guy who both created the worst sitcom finale and The Big Bang Theory.

Chuck Lorre ending up being the biggest loser here.

I once told friends that Two and a Half Men didn't end, it was put down with prejudice.

Fantastic video. To be completely fair, if I was forced to constantly re-write a generic sitcom for years because the main actor started going crazy, I'd probably want to vent my frustrations, too. It's definitley not a "good" ending, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fascinated by it. Spending the last episode of your show pissing all over the main star of the cast, and then proceeding to kill him at the end takes an insane amount of guts. I don't think Chuck Lorre is putting himself on a pedestal in the last scene by saying "winning," though; I think Chuck Lorre knew for a fact that he was about as "winning" as Charlie Sheen said he was during that ABC interview, so he ended off the show by making fun of both himself and Charlie Sheen (hence both characters dying in the most stupid way possible via falling piano). He knew that spending an entire episode making fun of the biggest cast member was incredibly low-brow, but at this point he really just did not care lol. That's my interpretation though

I enjoyed the show back in the day for one simple reason. It's the classic funny man/straight man setup but the twist is both charlie and alan can be either. Either Charlie or Alan can be the butt of the joke, often times both at the same time because Jake is there too. It's not that complicated but it doesnt need to be. A sitcom's purpose is to set up comedic situations for the cast to be put in. A rich, bitter womaniser who wants to be left alone is forced to live with his divorced neurotic brother, dimwitted nephew and sassy maid, all while dealing with the fallout of his many failed relationships and crazy one night stands. The amount of jokes you can write with that setup is nearly limitless. But it's not the Charlie show. The show is about the two and a half men. Any of them can be what an episode revolves around, with all three of them bouncing jokes off each other. This isn't like other sitcoms where one guy is the "funny one", or the "grumpy one" or the "normal one". Charlie can be just as silly as the cast then miserable about living with them, then happy he has somewhat of a family to be around. Ashton Kutcher didn't work because he's just Alan, but rich. It's like Lorre wanted to make Big Bang Theory but with only two guys and none of the uniqueness of BBI's characters. Charlie and Alan couldnt be more opposites of each other. That conflict stimulates story telling. Also their mother is hilarious

Okay but maybe the most insane thing I've learned here is that Ryan Stiles was in literally any episode of Two and a Half Men CYVUCYVUUVUVHIVUUF Edit: AND ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER???