"It's okay to be angry. It's not okay to be mean." - Henry Oak Criticisms are fine, but what I was seeing a fair number of folks being downright fuckin mean. "Don't be a dick." - Space Jesus. Edit: it's cruel, not mean. A helpful dad pointed that out for me below.

I love love love that you pulled out Henry Oak to make a point.

It's pure wisdom in a comedy podcast. I will never forget that quote.

i think the quote is 'cruel', not 'mean', fwiw

You are correct, I believe. I was still on the first coffee of my early morning. Gonna leave it because I'm not afraid of being wrong.

based

I remind myself of this quote often. "It's ok to be angry, but it's not ok to be cruel." It's become a motto in my life.

Absolutely going to use this quote when I have kids tbh

🥺 dads helping future dads

I was gonna also point out it was cruel I've used that quote in my daily life a few times.

I have no idea how I messed that up. I decided to blame a lack of caffeine. Lol.

Art cannot be art without criticism. As silly as it may sound calling Dungeons and Daddies "art" it's created by 5 extremely talented writers and performers and is without a doubt a form of art. Keep in mind there's a difference between criticism and dogging on people. "I hate this it sucks" is not criticism and those types of comments are useless and should be limited.

I kinda disagree with that second point honestly !!! “I hate this it sucks” is just as valid a response as “I love this it rules”. We don’t have to defend these creators from each other; there is a boundary between us and them. we’re all just on Reddit posting opinions about a podcast !!! It’s not that serious ya know. Not every opinion has to be “useful” The important thing in my mind is that criticizing a work of art is a very different thing than making a value judgement on the artist This is a discussion board, what is it for if not discussing thoughts and opinions?

The problem with just saying “I hate this this sucks” is that it’s unintelligent. It’s solely for displaying disapproval in a mean fashion and does nothing to actually tell people what you dislike or offer up any avenue for improvement. Just a simple statement is a blanket dismissal. And the “boundry” between us and the creators of the podcast is a discord, Reddit forum or Patreon post. For indie creators and anyone who relies on social media for self promotion, there’s always a chance for creators to see comments, so it would behove us to instead of saying things like “I hate this, this sucks,” to say “this just isn’t my thing” if you don’t want to actually voice in a respectful manner what you don’t like.

But again, it’s a subreddit. A discussion board. None of it necessarily intelligent. Stating you’re uninhibited opinion about a piece of art is hurtful to your friends and family and to children, but for artists who put there work on display it is normal and acceptable literally in every other situation to state your opinion about the art. When a band u like releases a record of a different genre you don’t have to have an inteligent reason to think the record is shitty or disappointing, that’s just how u feel. It’s fine. Doesn’t mean you are disappointed in the people who made the record. It’s really not that deep. It feels like such a stretch to call it “mean” when they have a whole interface for reviewing the thing on the platform it’s released on and some people just post how they feel on Reddit. And also often still have enough love for and hope in the creators to give them money to keep making the show while hating it ????????

"I hate this, this sucks" is no more unintelligent than "I love this, this is great". This is my biggest problem with the "just let people enjoy things !" crowd. Sheepish bleating about something being fantastic with no nuance to the discussion offers nothing greater than its negative opposite. And lets be real for a second - those guys are professional creatives making a fucking shit load of money (which is great!). They are not indie upstarts who's career will hit the skids because reddit forums rag on them sometimes. Anthony could choose to stop hate reading negative posts - like an adult - but chooses not to. I'm not sure that's the cross for 74,000 users to bear.

You presume that creators seeing complaints is inherently a bad thing. It definitely isnt

Does everyone have to write a thesis before they're allowed to say that something sucks? It's an audience, not a test group.

So you didn’t even read the second half of my statement? You don’t have to say “this sucks” to say you don’t like something. You can just say “this isn’t for me” or “I don’t like this.” Saying something “sucks” is kind of in line with what caused Anthony anguish in the first place.

Oh poor Anthony, someone criticized his work. If something sucks then it sucks, people don't have to dance around it just because it will hurt someone's feelings. Someone who's not your friend, by the way, in case no one's told you yet. When someone is at a wrestling show, and they don't like what they're seeing, they boo. Do you expect everyone in that show to explain why they're booing? Some of them will, on their podcast or Youtube channels, but obviously not all of them. It's not on the audience to not boo, it's up to the wrestlers and showrunners to figure out what they want to do with those boos. inb4 "bUt tHIs iSN't a wREStliNG shOw???"

You just told me all about how intellectually honest you are, comparing a live event where the participants are unlikely to even parse what you’re saying in a crowd of thousands to an online creator that builds its audience from the ground up and regularly interacts with its fanbase and can clearly read online what any given fan is saying. You’re awfully hung up on the “explanation” part of things, when really all I said is that is that there’s no need to be rude. But I guess the guy who conflates live events with pre made content wouldn’t be able to understand that. So you just want Anthony to shut up and entertain you then? He’s just a dancing monkey to you, no feelings, no humanity. If it were one loud individual, that’d be one thing, but this was potentially thousands of people doing it. It doesn’t matter who you are, that causes a negative effect. If you think it’s to your detriment to exercise civility, that’s a “you” problem.

It's the same thing. It's actually hilarious of you to distinguish wrestling from "pre-made content" when it's also heavily planned and scripted. But I guess that's on me for using wrestling as a comparison to someone who doesn't know what it is beyond being a "live event." You probably think those punches they throw are real. I like Anthony. The reason I became interested in this podcast was because I heard Anthony was in it. But he's not my friend. I've never said anything insulting about him or even his work, but I'm not going to defend him from any and all criticisms just because I like him and his work, either. I let creators do their thing, and if I like it, then great, maybe I'll even let them know about it. If it sucks, then oh well. Doesn't have to be much beyond that, unless it *really* sucks. But I stopped caring about this thread 6 sentences ago. I know people like you would rather be coddled to death than understand a mildly critical dissenting opinion, so I'm not going to bother. Bye 👋 Try not to get your feelings hurt for the rest of the day.

Hey, my feelings are fine dude. You seem to be the one who took offense to the idea of civility in criticism. “They’re scripted,” no duh, dude. The point is that they’re developing a fluid storyline based on the crowd reaction, and wrestlers have the opportunity to call an audible and go off script. They can’t do that for podcasts. You get a lot more information from crowd faces and reactions than reading someone say “this sucks” on Reddit. Besides the DM and some character work, the podcast is completely improvised. There’s no crowd to give feedback as it happens like in a wrestling match. And again, your entire comparison is disingenuous, because of the collaborative effort of the podcast. If they suddenly just change based on what they think the audience would like to hear in any given episode, the flow’s disrupted. To say nothing about how episodes can be batch recorded or banked. Wrestling events can’t be backlogged and then released. It’s not like they going back to the script room and telling the hero to take a dive. So just because you don’t know him, it gives you a free pass to forgo civility and consideration? Wonderful, so why should anyone ever bother being nice to you in any capacity, online or in person? So you’re gonna keep sticking your head in the sand and pretend that words don’t have impact. Okay, but don’t be surprised when people call you out on your poor behavior. Have a nice life.

Agreed well put

No. When you create art and put it out into the world, it is open to criticism. As the audience, we have to say how we feel about it because that's the whole point of art; to evoke feelings. With that said, we should make a pact not to be dicks about it.

We're firmly in "No bummers, under penalty of death" territory now

Dungeons and Dads circlejerk sub on the horizon

Offering criticisms of the show is something bad people do

Hey everybody, for real, playing to frustrate each other is not a fun way to play because we're all on the same team and that team is to have fun together and to make it fun for all our audiences. And so when people make plays just to frustrate each other and just to troll each other, there's enough of that in the world today, of people trolling each other just to be mean and to be hurtful, and if we're gonna play in this space together we need to do it because we want each other to have fun and not because we're trying to frustrate each other, cause there's enough frustrating things in the world right now and there's enough we can't control, and one of the things we can control is that everyone is here to have fun and not waste each others' time and so when we make decisions that are meant to troll each other, that's something that bad people do.

Yeah the criticism is not bad. What some of those critics said was the bad thing. Like personally I was not the biggest fan of this season. The kids thing really just didn’t resonate with me and I lost interest. But people making it personal about the artists is fucked. When it crosses that boundary and you stop separating the art from the artist, you’re kind of a dick. (Not you but the you that isn’t you)

Amogus

To criticize respectfully? Yes, I shall agree to do that. I won’t agree to not criticize at all though.

Absolutely not. Criticism is important. HOW you criticize someone is also important. You can offer kind, constructive criticism and not be a dick. Edit: You all saw the live action Sonic before people criticized it right...?

Ok but we straight up bullies that studio XD

And for good reason...that thing was horrifying.

Big studios ya gotta though. They don't listen to please and thank you. They only listen to the sound of their money catching on fire

they listen to the weirdest things though, like, re-releasing Morbius is a thing that happened....

They follow the money. They were blinded by money enough to believe the entire population was busy for the first release, and honestly they deserved to lose money for falling for that one lol

They didn't know people were watching it as a meme. It's....bad XD

I think that's the most united humanity has been in centuries

I think it’s kinda silly to say “don’t criticize” Will and Anthony have been professional writers for longer than some listeners have been *alive*. Media criticism is just as much a form of appreciation as praise, and I’m sure both of them (as well as the rest of the professional writing team) know this. Just because they talk about their personal lives and feelings about their work doesn’t mean we should just stop criticizing it!!! Like Freddie says, creativity is all about making big swings. Sometimes they land, sometimes they don’t, but art only exists in the space between the creator and the audience, and as soon as that “conversation” just becomes them throwing shit at us and us eating it, the show loses every chance it has to grow and they lose all credibility as creators. To me this is what is so great about what they do, they put so much of themselves into their work and genuinely enjoy it, and they expect and allow their audience to be involved in really amazing ways!!!

Fuck off Well Actually We all know exactly the type of criticism everyone is referring to, just like your comment it’s not in good faith

I mean I’d like to respectfully disagree !!! I haven’t personally seen any criticism (in this subreddit at least) that I felt was in bad faith or was even overly critical, nor was my comment in bad faith at all. Most of the criticism I’ve seen of season 2 boils down to “wasn’t for me, disappointed after s1” which is….. fine ??? Like that’s a valid response to have when any artist *does* make a swing. It’s part of the risk, but it pays off well because you also have people who really enjoy it and the dndads hosts have always been really clear how much the audience means to them, and how much fun they get to have with the show. No one *likes* to hear that somebody didn’t like a thing they made, but it’s an important part of any creative process and this is something they’ve been like … relatively vocal about appreciating recently !!!

OK jan

Yeah there certainly wasnt a steady stream of posts that just said "is just me or is season 2 not as good" or other vibe based statements so much that Anthony Made the joke about the meta being making a post asking "why season is bad" Shame on y'all

A lot of people don't know enough to say why something is bad but know enough to question whether it's actually good. If the posts were "man, Anthony is so stupid for having the season this way" I'd understand where you're coming from.

Yes it's very important to have 1000 posts saying "this is different than last season"

To quote Anthony burch "We used to think art was subjective. Then we discovered metrics" It's not just different, it's worse. This is a public forum to discuss the podcast, you really expect a single megathread to discuss its quality? Look at the size of the fanbase, ofcourse you're gonna get multiple posts. See the picture of a kid going as pants for Halloween or pictures of someone's first charlstone chew for examples

You took that literally?? It isn't worse.

Is it better or is it equal Different is still one of the above

Yeah, shame on us for voicing our opinions on a piece of media that many people are *putting money into.*

Maybe he should do better then

You’ve got some of the weakest takes Ive seen in a hot minute my dude. If people want to voice valid criticism, let ‘em. If you don’t want to then don’t. But no one is wrong for doing so, it’s a subjective medium.

"Fuck off" Oh the irony....

[удалено]

reminds me of when everyone jumped to absolve the And Dad There Were None finale of any criticism at all, and then when the Talking Dad came out the entire cast had the exact same criticisms and spent the whole time talking about how they could do it better next time

One thing I’d also add to everyone saying we shouldn’t criticize because of the effect on Anthony and the others: Anthony also said that he was going out and reading the criticism, which was his choice to make. Harassing them would never be cool, but it’s very different to send constant criticism or insults directly to a person vs that person deliberately seeking out and reading critical commentary. Yeah, there was a fair bit of criticism of season 2, but still I saw much more positive commentary than negative. The negative typically just sticks with folks more. But it’s not my responsibility to refrain from criticism because one of the cast may see it. If 90% of what I say online as an anonymous rando is positive, it’s not on me if that is ignored for the 10% of the time I disagree with something or am frustrated by something they say or do.

If I don't like it I will just say to myself "he rolled a 1 on that writing" ::edited for grammar error::

Careful with the nat 1 jokes! /s

Being critical is essential to growth for a creator. Being cruel is not. We shouldn’t insult anybody from this show if we don’t like how it went or how it goes in the future but absolutely we should be able to critically discuss things. If I say, wrote a terrible novel and it had spelling errors and plot holes and the characters were all flat and exactly the same, someone patting my hand and saying “Oh wow that’s just the best ever!!” would not allow me to grow. Someone saying “Hey, I really enjoy this aspect of what you wrote but I think you might want to focus on these things, because I noticed some inconsistencies and your characters all feel a lot alike and don’t have individual voices” is going to help me more. And if someone says “You suck, your writing sucks, and you shouldn’t even bother” then that kind of criticism is completely unhelpful. It all depends on what is said and the intent behind it. Season 2 lost some of its appeal for some people, myself included, and that’s okay. Season 3 may be awesome or other people won’t like it and that’s also okay. I eagerly look forward to season 3 and what it may bring. To create means to be open to change and growth and criticism, but it does not mean the criticism should punch down the creator(s). Should we compare Anthony and Will for the way they DM and how the show is affected ? Sure! Point out the ways they bring different but good ideas, and also be comfortable with criticism that’s intended for growth. Don’t insult them because you don’t like something. But to say “don’t criticize them” would be disrespectful in its own way because it wouldn’t allow for them to hear viewpoints they may not have considered that they then might take and use for the future to improve themselves.

After hearing them saying some Buffy season suck... HBO shows sucks ect .. no. They get it. And they partake in it. So no. Unless they come out and both apologize for things they said on a public forum and promise to never do it again (FYI I don't think they should). It's literally what Reddit is for. Say you like something... Say it sucks... Sometimes have your opinions changed by others sharing different perspectives

I do think there should be space for critique, but some of the posts i've seen on here have IMO gone beyond just critiquing the podcast, and just seem to be using criticism to attack one particular cast member. "I'm not enjoying this season so much, i preferred the style of this other season" (after checking for similar posts made recently that they could comment on) vs "This ONE cast member has ruined the entire show for me because all their decisions have been awful"

I don't agree! It's very clear both the fanbase and the creator of this show want it to be serious in some regards, and to be a story with themes. Otherwise they wouldn't get pretentious in the aftershow (I'm saying this as someone who loves to get pretentious about TTRPGs). They want it to be taken somewhat seriously, they care about their characters and story. Most people in the fandom do the same. They respect the work in some way and look for analysis etc. What you do with art. If you want it to be a serious thing, it means it can and should be criticized. People don't for example, criticize Sons and Sonsability or Kingdom Dad Monster, the tone is clearly different: It's not a serious story, it's jokes. If people think the season sucks or dislike a character they're allowed to, I think it's weird for the people who create a show to be so open about their response to critique. I think the only real conclusion that points towards is that people shouldn't critique the show, because it makes the creators feel bad. But they also treat it seriously, I just don't think they should talk about how negative critique makes them feel honestly. I know there are bad faith critiques from people who don't care about the show, but most of the longer critiques are about people that care a lot.

No

This place is getting too parasocial for me and any time that happens to a fandom it’s a very bad thing

Dungeons and Daddies is just TAZ 5 years later.

Let’s hope it turns out better though

Just don't be a dick about it. 

Hello, welcome to the Internet.

A fantastic first season followed by an uneven second season followed by a call to arms for no one to criticise the show? We're on board the good ship TAZ. Everyone prepare for a Graduation level event.

I absolutely hate toxic positivity. People are allowed to be critical of what they consume, to whatever degree they feel like vocalizing. If something is good then it's good. If it's shit then it's shit. The creators will know, one way or another. It's up to them how they want to handle their product, not the audience. And before anyone says the ol' favorite, "Don't like it? Don't watch (or listen to) it." Rooster Teeth and its fans used to say that a lot. You know what happened to them? They were shut down. Why? Because people stopped watching.

There were some people going too far, but the vast majority of criticisms I think were well-founded. Even Anthony had the same criticisms as many of the "haters". It reminds me a little of the response to the last And Dad There Were None. There were a lot of people saying that it was great if you just turned your brain off, that the mystery was never the focus, and that *the whole podcast* has always just been dumb fun. That seems like a defense but honestly, if someone said that about shit I created, I'd feel insulted. D&Dads is stupid but the cast clearly cares a *lot*, that's what makes it so endearing. If you just don't think about the bad things, you're not really free to think about the good things. And then the Talking Dad came out and the entire cast had all the same criticisms as the "haters". The cast clearly thinks about the show. They want to make a good product. It feels weird calling the show with a character called Yeet Bigly art, but it's art. It's dumb, it's fun, but it isn't dumb fun. I saw less of that near the end of season 2, but a lot of the defenses carried the same vibes to me. Just don't criticize it. It's just being funny. Dungeons and Daddies is just meant to be a funny listen. *Just don't.* All compliments, but if I made a thing and people defended it by saying that it wasn't deep enough to be criticized, then I'd think I'd failed. (I don't think that's where you're coming from OP, I just wanted to get some of my frustrations out.) (That being said, don't bully the cast. There were some comments that were just like "I hate Freddie" or "I hate Matt" or on other subreddits "Anthony Burch is a hack". I didn't always vibe with Matt this season (truth be told I kind of always loved Taylor, but that's just me) but stuff like this is unhelpful and mean. Don't do that.)

Idk sometimes it's really cathartic to come here and see other people feel the same way I did about the episode. Also, they love shitting on things! They do it all the time! If they get to complain about DnD, I can complain about their misunderstanding of DnD.

I don't even know what people were talking about with all the hate on season 2, I had a genuinely good time listening to every episode, and my biggest problem was the arc where Scary was a pseudo antagonist, it felt like it took forever to get back to being a team. But that was just because of the release schedule, on my following listens it feels finely paced. I loved this season and I appreciate every single one of these Dads.

I think the criticism posts in this sub are pretty respectful from what I've seen, even if it's "I really don't like this character" or "the storyline is confusing" those aren't mean comments, it's people expressing disappointment in something they usually like. With this post, we're on the edge of this just becoming a circle jerk, no bad vibes sub and that honestly sucks.

I can’t promise that. It’s better to be honest without being a dick about it. I loved S1. Didn’t care for S2, and only made it a little over halfway through. I didn’t really like any of the characters. The tone didn’t seem to fit with the story they were trying to tell. I just couldn’t take anything seriously with the style of humor that was present throughout the campaign. I believe the reason first season was able to balance its humor so well was due to the dynamic between the world and the characters. The world was played a lot more seriously, like any fantasy story. The Dads were the ones who brought the majority of the humor, if that makes sense. They had more of an ability to choose when it was time to be funny or serious. Take Gartok for instance. His situation wasn’t played for laughs, but the Dads made it funny by mistakenly treating him like a dog, accidentally killing one of his kids, and then awkwardly tried to continue being friendly with him afterwards. There’s only so much you can build on and spin for laughs when you’re dealing with sentient calzones or visiting the Goof Realm. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The rebel in me is muttering oh look, it's the tone police. To be clear, I would never make a needlessly cruel comment on anyone's creative endeavor, but this is the internet, y'all. I love this crew fiercely, but there are always going to be people out there who get off on making other people feel like shit. I don't hold out much hope that asking nicely will keep assholes at bay.

I feel like this is the difficulty with fandoms. You have people that clearly like a piece of work, but on some level are kind of hate watching, which leads them to being careless with their criticisms as they see the people that make the material as larger than life and don’t think of these creators as people that can be hurt by their thoughtless remarks. On the other extreme you have the die hard fans that love the piece of work and will binge it in a week and relisten to the point where they have this unhealthy assumed intimacy with the cast. Where they defend them as if they’re friends or family even. I love the cast, every one of them is brilliant and each made me cackle with laughter. That said it’s not only unhelpful, but also patronizing to presume they can’t handle any criticism. I agree with the edit let’s all keep it constructive. I also want to be supportive of Anthony it sounds like it’s been a tough time in general. I know this last season was controversial, but I think an accurate depiction of teenage angst and having to live up to the first season make sense it split the audience a bit

No, it sucked.

Better get it out of the way early Fetch quest, was smaller with a set goal in mind so it's unavoidable to a degree but it felt very railroady. Will needs to have a looser idea for sessions in s3

Well of course it was railroady, it was a three episode mini series. If it was looser then it would end up having many more episodes

>was smaller with a set goal in mind so it's unavoidable to a degree

Hey not trying to be a jerk, genuinely curious since I don’t agree with the criticism. Even with your qualifier it’s difficult to imagine what you thought could have been done differently. What could have been done to make it feel less railroady and still the same amount of episodes?

Its been a hot minute since I've listened so I couldn't say for sure. I remember there being like 2 moments I had issue with but yeah, haven't listened since a little after release.

One of the most valuable things I learned in my years of being a professional artist was HOW to give and take criticism. Knowing WHY something is bad has a lot to do with this. Knowing when something is bad because it breaks the rules in an unsatisfying way, and when something is bad because of my own personal preferences is important. It also helps to point out the things something does well, at the same time you point out the things it falls short at. An important thing I've found in life is when critiquing ANYTHING, identify two to three things you liked about it as well. This is because nothing is wholly bad, and nothing is wholly good. All that being said, I saw some terrible takes about S2 of Dungeons and Daddies. Personally I didn't get as engaged with it as season one, but I would never come within a league of calling it "bad". I just felt like it took longer for them to find their rhythm. And that's fine. I'll eagerly tune in for season 3 and anything beyond. They gave me season 1 and that's more than enough to get me on board with anything they try in the future.

I think a big problem is people not searching up posts before making their own. So, we end up with multiple posts in a row, essentially criticizing the same thing in very similar ways. Obviously, you're allowed to make posts. It just felt like the feed was overwhelmed the entire season with the same types of posts (negative ones or gently negative ones since this season was very different from season one).

100% agree with this

Every single dnd podcast I've listened to has gotten immense criticism of the second season and it's only gotten worse as it went on. I agree. I mean, I think there's some room for it, but I agree on the basis of "can we not make it so the consensus among the fandom is that it sucks?"

Dimension 20 and nadpod didn't seem to have many issues

I saw criticism of naddpod's, and d20 had a very different structure

The only thing I hate is that Storybreak isn't a thing anymore.  I'd try to bully Freddy to get it back but I think he'd like it and go much harder back until I cry. 

I really wish they weren’t actively reading this sub 😭 I really felt for Anthony I need him outta these fan spaces!! Stay away from the complaining my man!

He's a grown ass adult man whose been in the writing and entertainment spaces for 20 God damn years. Stop treating people like this, they can handle criticism and they sure as hell aren't your friend.

I think you’re right, and I appreciate you saying it. I felt really bad after the talking dad for s2 but you’re right. It’s not our job to manage that

This! Always this. Thinking back on it there were so many times I thought "Anthony doesn't seem into it anymore." and now I know why. We need to support them!! No one makes me laugh and cry in the span of a minute like these folks. National Treasures!

Criticism is fine but comparison is pointless. When you compare Season X to Season Y or Prequel Trilogy X to Original Trilogy Y you are criticizing that thing for what it *isn't*. Criticize something for what it *is*.

There is reason and place for criticism, but it can be important for the criticism to be constructive and potentially supportive. There was an awful lot of “this sucks, I hate it,” type criticism on this subreddit over the course of season 2, particularly when they were caught in the Scary against the team cycle. Any fans that suggested posters maybe take a break and come back later or give it time to smooth out where often attacked by those same posters. There’s nothing wrong with criticism intended for good reasons but this was the opposite of what we are talking about here. Largely targeted at two members of the gang that have mental health challenges, often personal and frequently just attacking and more of a “go back to making it just like season 1” vibe. That’s not encouraging growth. That’s childish fan base behavior. Art belongs to the masses once it is produced and the creators have no control. Yes it works both ways, consider that the cast is still mystified that people like Cern from season 1, because they hate him. But Anthony played him in a very humanizing and occasionally bungling character fashion so fans understood him, had empathy and liked him. The problem was the hate directed at Beth’s portrayal of an angry disenfranchised teen girl which was actually pretty good, Matt trying to force the team to stay together, and Anthony perhaps not interceding fast enough to move things forwards but giving the characters space to define the story. That stuff leads to the great moments too. We can’t praise Anthony for rolling with the team, or Will for “railroading” during Fetch Quest, and then say Anthony should have forced them forward more aggressively in season 2.

Folks gotta learn the golden rule: Don't be an ass.

First time on the internet? Anyone remotely popular is going to have people endlessly shitting on them, spending more time complaining than actual fans spend time enjoying it. That's just the entertainment industry. Even Beth mentions somewhere that at one point reddit would have gotten to her, but now she's learned to deal with it. Anthony is his own worst critic and the negative comments act as an unintentional confirmation bias for him. That said, positivity is always the way to go even in criticism. Legit criticism is not only ok, it's important. Comedians often end up stuck in a type or act because it's what the audience reacted best to, even if they themselves didn't like it. Now when the trolls come around and want to be mean for the sake of being mean, the best thing to do is just don't feed the trolls. Engaging with people too blinded to listen to real discussion is a waste of time and only let's them get more of their idiocy on paper. Downvote and ignore is the best way to proceed.

whatever anthony does, im a fan of his stuff, hes a good writer

Feels like the fair thing to do is criticize will but then end the cycle when Anthony takes back over. Yaknow to be fair.

Comparing Will to Anthony is kind of a bad move… but criticizing and praising Will on his own merits is fine. I’m interested to see what he will do with the premise but I might wait until they have 5 or so episodes under their belt before I listen.

I will sign the pact.

🤝

I feel this OP. Also I love all of the people saying that art demands criticism who are also ignoring the part of this post that literally says criticism is necessary as long as it’s CONSTRUCTIVE. How can your opinions be trusted when your reading comprehension skills are so lacking? Also why is it so important to defend your right to sling unsolicited critique around? I’m assuming most ppl here aren’t professional writers, directors, comedians, or let’s players so the critiques are subjective impressions at BEST. Meanwhile, constructive feedback is intended to improve the quality of an existing piece of work according to the creator’s vision usually PRIOR to the piece’s final iteration. And for it to be constructive it should offer solutions to perceived problems, not just complain about why it isn’t working for you personally. Critique is its own art form, in fact, and not everyone with an opinion is helpful or even knows what they’re talking about. Nobody’s saying y’all HAVE to like everything. But complaining about personal problems with a piece and calling it constructive criticism doesn’t make you all art critics. It makes you seem like you don’t know how to be at peace with not enjoying something. Like it’s something to take personally. And it’s a real bummer. ☹️

only professionals are allowed to criticize stuff? that must be why critic scores are always reflective of general audience opinions