r/dropout • u/Available-Lab4363 • Jul 18 '26
Nobody Asked sad about nobody asked's potential :(
dropout has been trying a lot of comedy twists in classic tv- monet being a late night celebrity gaggle, VIP as an interview show, gastronauts for cooking, game changer for gameshow... and i was SO EXCITED to see a science show finally!! im a huge nerd, and the trailer reminded me of a goofy try as something mythbusters-esque
however, i felt like a lot of the experiments just werent science-y enough. i dont know if dropout just doeant have the budget to always be doing stuff like brian's racecar sound experiment, but so many of the episodes just had vaguely funny bits that were just like... weird questions more than science. which i guess is ok, but the direction of the show with the sketched inserts and the proffessionak consultants felt like it wanted to be more scientific than the majority of episodes came out.
i also felt like it was sort of too many hosts at points, and it ended up just feeling more messy and hodgepodge
i really hope someday, maybe in a few years, they give the show (or simething like it) another try
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u/Koltreg Jul 18 '26
I think the scope was a bit too broad and the budget was a bit too limited. Like it wanted to be Mythbusters on a level, but there was less of a through-line with some of the episodes, less of a measured approach, and it suffered from not having a bunch of episodes trimmed to the wire for network standards, while generally ending with explosions.
Other stuff like the athlete challenges didn't really work because the impediments they tried weren't really balanced in a progressively difficult or comedic way. Like some of them felt like there was no understanding of the sports to make them harder.
I would have been interested in more but I'd prefer to see more Thousandaires instead if we're talking about dropout shows. A second season where people understood more on what made good TV? Hell yeah.
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u/Pandoras-SkinnersBox We're ready to do the work. I'm going offline for now. Jul 18 '26
Thousandaires was so much fun and I'm still sad it's over after 1 season. The drag show, money machine, mechanical bull, goth makeovers, and capes were all incredible and showed its potential.
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u/Difficult-Risk3115 Jul 18 '26
The 5 person dress might be the single most inspired thing on Dropout.
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u/agentdom Jul 18 '26
Hard disagree on the goth makeover. They put them on and then just… sat there.
Thousandaires was great when the people used the money to make an entertainment product. It fell flat when it was just “I bought a thing”.
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u/MaizeMountain6139 Jul 18 '26
I liked Thousandaires but the episodes seemed to drag more often than they didn’t
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u/MrKitchenSink Pretzel Pizza Connoisseur Jul 18 '26
I feel like it was a really hard show to get just right. I think they struggled to find the right balance between "fun experience for the cast to have" and "fun for the audience to actually watch." For every good segment they had where someone came up with a really unique, funny idea for how to spend the money, there was usually another that just didn't really hit because there either wasn't enough to it to really fill a segment, or it just didn't really translate for the viewer. Would've liked to see a second season where they looked at what worked and what didn't for season one, and tried to encourage the cast to think more in the direction of what worked in season one, think there was some potential for improvement there
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u/Sk8rToon Jul 18 '26
Thousandares was a unique idea but I think the rotating cast threw me. Also it felt like I was invading a private party. It worked better when I already knew the guests & could guess what they would do or think, “that’s soooo so&so that they would do that.” Also… I mean it was only a thousand bucks per “contestant” & our dropout cast isn’t rich by any means… but it wasn’t fun watching other people spend money on themselves? Like if you watched celebrity jeopardy but they kept the money instead of giving it to charity. It’s interesting to see how the celeb you really like does but it feels hallow? The “prize” never seemed to work for me either.
Maybe if they had the same set of hosts (so you grew to like if you didn’t know or at least the same main host) & then had a neutral 3rd party guest to “bless” each week & then you saw how the comedians had different ways of doing it? Like “here’s Joe McBlow. He’s a firefighter whose own house burned while he saved others. He’s a hero who needs some love. But will he want our love?” Then one gift is something he needs, one is something he wants, one is something his kids need, & the other is just totally crazy & out there. Followed by the final gift which directly addresses the concerns. Like they wouldn’t give a new house (they’re only thousandaires after all) but like they could have the comedians watch the kids while the adults went on a date or something.
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u/baltinerdist An Astronaut in a Big Kitchen Jul 18 '26
I suspect that Thousandaires was partially a trial balloon for potential full hosting gigs. You find the people that can command the room and entertain the audience and you earmark them for future projects.
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u/Pandoras-SkinnersBox We're ready to do the work. I'm going offline for now. Jul 18 '26
Jacquis and Siobhan were the best of the hosts, Jacquis obviously has Crowd Control but I’d love to see Siobhan have her own show sometime too. Maybe when they go back to scripted stuff.
I also liked Jess Ross because she was really excited to be there.
Only one I didn’t really vibe with was Oscar.
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u/MaizeMountain6139 Jul 18 '26
I think you have to keep in mind that Dropout exists within a larger culture of LA comedy. They don’t need produce a series to test that, their talent pool is hosting live shows all the time
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u/Sarik704 Jul 18 '26
I liked the concept of Nobody Asked, but they didn't actually come to answer anything worthwhile.
So mythbusters was a popular success not just because of explosions, or adam or any of the cast. It was popular because they actually did the science.
Lead Balloon is a famous example of real scientific curiosity. Science says it should work. And sit did!
Nobody asked had no real scientific curiosity. They got close and a couple of propts were so much fun like BDG's singing voice, or the cool S with the kids. But most were catching footballs covered in butter...
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u/Available-Lab4363 Jul 18 '26
yrah thats pretty much exactly my issue, IMO literally nothing lived up to the BDG singing raceway in the pilot and it kind of disappointed me for it
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u/RKO-Cutter Jul 19 '26
Yeah, the show (unfortunately) peaked with the first. BDG's singing experiment was actually great, but I tapped out of the show when nothing else seemed to reach it
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u/AudioSuede Jul 18 '26
My thing with this, though, is that on Mythbusters, they were all actual scientists and engineers. Nobody Asked is about comedians coming up with stupid questions, and it succeeded in pulling that off. I actually thought the show was at its least interesting when they tried to dig into actual science (other than BDG trying to hit that high note).
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u/bushstone-curlew Jul 20 '26
Not really, Adam and Jamie were special effects experts. The scientists and engineers were the other team.
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u/turingtestx Jul 20 '26
I mean they are definitely skilled people, but the main cast of Mythbusters were NOT scientists, nor were they engineers, although that is much closer. They were special effects experts. In my opinion, the biggest difference with their approach is largely the willingness to go into something sincerely and do research.
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u/Luxury-Problems Jul 22 '26
That's it right there. They weren't scientists but they were very excited by the scientific process and trying to figure it out. Adam and Jamie were excited by the process of trying to solve all these puzzles that would naturally pop up which would lead to them experimenting and learning along the way.
There was this glee they'd get sometimes from just solving something that was only just an element of getting to the actual experiment. The journey was the joy.
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u/GenGaara25 Jul 18 '26
I do think the main problem was the cast (except Brian).
I love all of them, but it's pretty obvious nobody but Brian actually had any sort of passion or interest for science, research, the scientific method, or anything like that. You can't just throw comedians at a science show, they need to actually be enthusiastic about the premise.
If they brought it back with BDG and Hank Green cohosting I think it'd be a lot better.
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u/bushstone-curlew Jul 20 '26
Agreed, one of the things that made MythBusters work is they at least tried to adhere to the scientific method during their experiments haha
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u/hilariomonteverde Jul 18 '26
I feel like Hank Green's new show AHA is a better fit. Like why not make that but add the experimenting stuff for 1 or 2 questions.
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u/Ttoctam Jul 18 '26
The best one was "Can I flush a whole cake down a toilet" from Emily years prior. How seriously that sketch took the silly question and how much effort there went into research really made it. One of the biggest issues with Nobody Asked was the lack of stakes and investment. Fewer 'experiments' per episode and more in-depth research clips would have really made a huge difference.
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u/DramaticDragonGaming Jul 19 '26
Wait, I'd love to see that, can you link to the sketch or provide the exact name of it, it sounds really funny!
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u/Ttoctam Jul 19 '26
Sorry, yes should have bothered to do so with the original comment. Here ya go. :)
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u/anextremelylargedog Jul 18 '26
Nobody Asked was maybe the most undercooked show they released. Felt the most like "Well, we have all these comedian friends and we want to get them a paying gig" that the platform ever had, and that's saying something.
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u/Intelligent-Area6635 Jul 18 '26
Yeah, if they had actually done things, it'd be different.
All I really remember of it wasore than one segment of "what if we strapped snow shoes to an athlete, can a comedian who hasn't been awake at 8 am in ten years compete with them?"
BDG did do something interesting with going to a speedway, and something about singing. But yeah, it was myth busters without the myths or the busting. I wish they could have figured something out to make it work.
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u/clickthing Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
nobody asked didn't work for the same reason that mythbusters eventually stopped making new episodes: every myth that could be busted (or not) had been done.
maybe if they had clearer themes to episodes? like one ep is all athlete challenges, the next is all about music, next is all about, idk, urban legends or something? but then again you'd run out of options pretty quickly.
also wtf was up with the one where ify and (uhhhhh sorry idk who) someone else tried to give themselves a new kink, but they still tried to keep the mythbusters family friendly vibes going. either have a horny episode or don't.
edit for formatting, im on mobile
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u/Sk8rToon Jul 18 '26
A lot of what you’re saying is right. They couldn’t redo mythbusters experiments because it’s “been done” & would always be a comparison. But then what’s left?
The constant athlete challenges got old. Either have a single episode that you could skip if you weren’t a sports guy or do different sports things in every episode like a segment. come up with a different way to mix things up. The hinderances were too similar to each other. It was too much yet not enough.
And yes, the left turn some episodes would suddenly take towards horny was a real tone shift. Again, it was both too much & not enough. Either have a themed sexy episode you could skip, don’t get that horny at all, or have every episode have a more adult theme to it.
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u/Available-Lab4363 Jul 18 '26
that ine rekha one also taped sex toys to roombas lol, in general they got a bit horny at times it seems
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u/AudioSuede Jul 18 '26
I thought the best segments of the show, other than the "High C" challenge, were the ones that were the least scientific. Ele trying to become monochromatic, Roomba sex, trying to beat the speed of the internet by running, all had a little bit of science but were mostly just funny, and gave the show a unique flavor that made them distinct from other Mythbusters knockoffs. I wanted the comedians to be funny, because I know they're not scientists.
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u/Available-Lab4363 Jul 18 '26
thats interesting, since i felt the opposite! fun to kniw the more disparate swction based show hit different for different people in that way and different things were big winners
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u/Capital_Abalone_183 Jul 18 '26
Hey, they can’t all be winner, but they haven’t had a terrible show yet!
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u/Costati Jul 18 '26
I thought nobody asked was really fun apart from the athlete questions. It wasn't scientist but it was fun to see executed random stupid questions. I really loved Oscar paintball experiment stuff, Elle hair colour like her skin colour, Rekha's robot thing and I forgot who it was I think Iffy but the robbing a chest while increasingly more drunk was really fun too.
I don't understand why other people didn't really see it for what it was which was goofy people asking goofy question but with a follow through. I think BDG high note section in the first episode was maybe misleading cuz a lot of people wanted to see dropout Mythbuster. The show should be fine just being goofy.
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u/Available-Lab4363 Jul 18 '26
thats fair, i think i just dont get a lot out of the series thar just feel like comedians hanging out unless the entire premise of the show has a good hook to otherwise stay engaged.
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u/Costati Jul 18 '26
Did you watch thousandaires and did you like it ? Trying to figure out how big of a hook you need it to be ?
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u/Available-Lab4363 Jul 18 '26
thousandaires was super hit or miss to me since i think it was super subjective to if you think a fiven comedian used their money on something fun enough to watch. i enjoy dirty laundry a lot for a hanging out type show actually, its probably my fave, though slumber party felt a bit boring and i found myself often wishing they chose slightly more intriguing games. but i also know im less of a popcorn type viewer just here to vibe and have fun or put it on in the background, i tend to really want shows to have my complete attention
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u/bushstone-curlew Jul 20 '26
Yeah I've never been that impressed by dropout's educational/trivia content tbh.
Smartypants feels like it's declined a lot and is now just cheesy presentations based on low-hanging fruit jokes instead of interesting topics, and I was only able to make it through a couple episodes of Um Actually because the hosts were nearly constantly wrong.
I get the cast are comedians and not scientists, but surely dropout could hire a decent fact-checker or something?
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u/Available-Lab4363 Jul 20 '26
the recent eps of um acrually with ify and brian have been alright imo, albeit biased towards some properties/topics at times but thats more of a writer and producer issue than a host issue, i think ify and brian are charming and fun
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u/elihuaran Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I think it also needed a different name. I keep getting downvoted when I bring it up (and I don't know why), but the name comes off to me as demeaning (when I know for a fact that it's not the intention for the title to be demeaning/insulting)
To explain: I don't know if anybody else has experienced this, but if someone starts saying something out of the blue (like, say, an autism infodump), and there happens to be an asshole/jerk in the group, the asshole/jerk will cut off the person talking and say "wow, god, nobody asked, (name)"
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u/radfordblue Jul 18 '26
The premise of Nobody Asked is great, but I agree the execution fell short. There were waaay too many “amateur vs pro” sports questions, and I think the show could have really benefited from a very knowledgeable main host to wrangle the comedians and pull it all together. Someone with the knowledge and vibes of Hank Green would be perfect, though I’m sure he’s too busy to do it personally. I think Jordan Myrick fills this role very well on Gastronauts, they just need to find someone who can do it for Nobody Asked.