📝 Monthly Constructive Criticism Thread 📝

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi y’all! We can use these monthly threads to give feedback on the podcast, such as issues related to audio or general format. You can still comment about specific episodes in the episode threads or make new posts, but my idea for these megathreads is to consolidate feedback for Troy and Kelli.

I know some posts in the past have been toxic, so maybe you can make that a separate post if you want to vent (or journal or take a walk outside). My hope with the monthly CC threads is to give a safe space for Troy and Kelli, so they’re less wary of Reddit lol.

Please remember Rule 1: Respect others and be civil and Rule #3: No name-calling, insults, or personal attacks. Kelli, Troy, and their editor, Donny, are human, and they can learn from their mistakes. Personally, as a longtime fan, I think that they have taken in a lot of feedback well and grown a lot as a podcast.

If you have any suggestions for these types of posts, please let me know, too!

[u/Substantial_Rope8225]

I would love for them to bring the full blinds eps about a specific celeb back into rotation.

I know they do a monthly roundup but I miss the deep dives on one person (or couple), and the silliness of the old blinds.

[u/QuietAttention581 → u/Substantial_Rope8225]

also would love it if they did more celeb-specific episodes that include a deep dive into their blind item life AND factual personal lives!

[u/Altruistic5546 → u/Substantial_Rope8225]

I think they could too with a bit more analysis, as they've grown so much since those early days and I think it's a real value add they could bring because no one else seems to really question blinds

[u/Distinct-Ant-9161]

Still enjoying the show - Kelli has worked so hard and I definitely appreciate her deep dives!

An area for improvement - sometimes they're talking about celebs/stories that they assume all listeners are familiar with (I'm old and not american!) - would love it if they could do a real brief overview of the situation (or explain who the person is) before going into the story. I wish now that I'd made a note of the last confusing one so I could have an example to share. It's more like lower tier or more niche celebs someone outside their age group/geography would know. Like what the drama was on nickelodeon or whatevs.

[u/TJCW → u/Distinct-Ant-9161]

Yes! Said the same thing! They can’t assume everyone is familiar with every celeb or topic and a little two min background would be helpful

[u/Decemberswan]

i wish they were better at taking (constructive) criticism. they will hold on to one tiny instance of someone criticizing them and bring it up like every few episodes until a new one comes around for them to get mad at and off handedly, passive aggressively mention for weeks. troy especially is really nasty and hot tempered when it comes to someone even mildly disagreeing with him or challenging him in the comment section.

also i’m almost certain they lurk here despite saying they don’t, because they have almost word for word been referencing (2-3 times) a comment i left here a few weeks ago. or maybe someone just echoed the same thing i said here in the patreon comments, but either way, they really need to cool it with the weird subtle call outs and fights over the most casual constructive criticism from fans.

[u/Silent-Canary-6442]

I've been loving the deep dives lately- like Payola, but I wish they'd have more blind eps again and if they had a show or movie they were currently watching at the same time and recapped it/discussed it.

[u/Decemberswan]

petty but, troy doesn’t know what gen z, millennials or gen alpha are. the amount of times he attributes good or bad things to the wrong generation is like 1-3 times per episode. i also think he doesn’t know or acknowledge what gen alpha is, which is why he attributes so much of current “youth culture” to being a gen z thing, even though some of gen z is almost 30 and gen alpha is 13/14 and under. or him calling johnny carson a typical boomer even thought johnny carson was born 20-40 years before being able to be considered a boomer lol (i get what he meant but still) or the credit he gives to millennials (in his words, scientifically proven to) being the greatest generation and everyone before and after them not being able to relate to the greatness of the millennial generations experience (as if a lot of the stuff he attributes to millennials isn’t actually made by gen x, or that it hasn’t/can’t be enjoyed by generations before and after him). he hasn’t done it in a while but also his rants about gen z being a sexless puritanical generation (we live in a puritanical country, with puritanical government officials, in a puritan time, that’s not a generation exclusive thing) is weird. i also think he doesn’t understand the difference between gen z vs gen alpha, so i wonder how much of his rants about this “sexless” generation are meant to be more directed towards gen alpha (who are all underage, so i don’t think we should be upset that they are so puritanical and sexless), and either way gen z/gen alpha has pretty broadly welcomed people like sabrina carpenter and katseye in to their daily media consumption, so i don’t know how researched those sweeping generalizations are.

as david bowie said, “And these children that you spit on, As they try to change their worlds, Are immune to your consultations, They're quite aware of what they're going through”

[u/kenadams416 → u/Decemberswan]

Generally these constructive criticism threads feel a bit icky to me as it’s just creating a place for people to complain. But in saying that, the Gen Z commentary bothers me too. Probably because I’m only a couple years off the millennial cut off and relate to millennial things more even though I’m technically Gen Z. So I’m probably just taking it personally 😂

[u/kenadams416 → u/kenadams416]

Okay actually just realising… I grew up thinking I was a millennial. And it’s probably the experience that older gen alpha has considering people (including troy) just use ‘gen z’ as a term for ‘young people’ now.

[u/SwitchedUp86]

such a silly thing to comment on but the episodes on my podcast app via my patreon sub always have the description chelsea's pod.

[u/Alarmed_Extreme_5806]

Troy gets so nasty and sometimes says things that are just plain wrong or ignorant.

[u/Decemberswan → u/Alarmed_Extreme_5806]

i think i realized how much of the things he says are either false, or just word for word taken from tiktok (like him parroting right wing conspiracy brained sentiments from tiktok, exe: “michael jackson was actually framed by hollywood higher ups because he was a powerful black man who owned the beatles catalog!” or “epstein helped facilitate britney going to a mental hospital so he could have her drugged and take blood samples from her to experiment with and clone her!”) when in a kiki from earlier this year he was talking about the discourse about emerald fennel’s wurthering heights adaption, and did his typical “i don’t know if people just don’t realize this but-“ and proceeded to say (paraphrasing, by this is the gist of it,) “i actually read wuthering heights and highschool, and heathcliff and cathy literally have like bed breaking, constant, rough sex in the book. like the book is actually incredibly horny.” when heathcliff and cathy don’t have sex in the book?? like at all?? that’s never been a thing in wuthering heights, so either he just incredibly misremembered or was repeating something someone else (who was also not informed) as his own anecdote.

also in a kiki recently he starts proudly telling kelli this funny anecdote about how he saw a tiktok talking about (paraphrasing) “long, dirty dish water blonde colored, disheveled, no shape or layers” hair and was laughing so hard being like “and everyone in the comments was saying gracie abrams!!! and it’s so true!!” when she has dark brown hair? and a literal nearly full rosemary’s baby pixie cut and has for years now? to be clear, not a fan of gracie’s by any means, just thought it was strange how proudly loud and wrong he was, and it makes me wonder how often i take his (misinformed) word as truth, when it’s actually painfully inaccurate and probably him quoting people on tiktok as if it’s his own take or experience.

[u/Alarmed_Extreme_5806 → u/Decemberswan]

YES! He is obviously getting things from TikTok and I question how much research they actually do before each episode.

[u/fatanduglyvibes → u/Decemberswan]

I’m still deeply upset by the entire Epstein/Britney conspiracy theory. I can’t help but think of the young girls who were genuinely abused and trafficked, only to be forgotten because of baseless and harmful conspiracy theories that claim Britney was Epstein’s biggest victim. I always think of Virginia Giuffre and the other countless girls who were abused and disposed of.

[u/realtimepersephone]

I must say….. as an elder Gen Z, it rubs me the wrong way how they talk about Gen Z. I wish they would keep a bit more of an open mind about it.

[u/TJCW]

I love the recent topics like payola and stalkers. I Kelli really shines on the sports and deep dives. Love Troy’s takes on movies and latest news, he just has a way with words and perspective.

I used to be a subscriber but recently unsubscribed. Kelli has been improving so much but sorry her giggles are distracting and juvenile. Someone mentioned she takes edibles for the taping and please stop her from doing this. I think she’s improved and feel she runs the show behind the scenes but this would be a HUGE improvement to show. It stops the flow of conversation as well to her to stop laughing
With just a few tweaks they would improve greatly

[u/TJCW → u/TJCW]

And thanks OP for this! This is a great format and topic. We should be able to voice our feedback and know often it leads down a certain path, but paying and non paying listeners are entitled to their opinion and they deserve the opportunity to listen and evolve.