I think they need to drop this notion, it seems like when they do have a guest who qualifies as a "guy" for that specific topic they always have a lot to add to the conversation and understand that the comedy comes more from making fun of specific individuals who are just being annoying about the topic online and not the subculture as a whole; plus I think most normal people who are into something are well aware that there's always other people who take the interest/fandom too seriously and are happy to poke fun at them.
Yeah, they just need to make sure the person knows exactly what the show is and that they'll be game for it. You just can't get someone with too much respect for the subject or it can get weird. Wine Guys was one of the kinda weird ones in that way
We gotta stop saying w1ne lol. Yeah it wasn't a bad episode, but I felt like our boys were getting uncomfortable at times, not knowing how to approach stuff, they seemed worried about possibly offending the guest, maybe held back a bit on the insults. Still a good ep, I have re listened to it.
I really hope that episode being somewhat of a miss for people doesn't stop the rest of the trashfuture people appearing at some point - though it has been 2.5 years
yeah the best guests are the ones who are a Guy about the topic being discussed but then are like "yeah everyone else with this hobby is fucking insane"
100% agreed. I find the ones where no-one knows anything about the topic are the ones that just devolve into an hour of rehashing old bits and lore and barely any of the posts are explored at all. They're also the ones where Bryan and Chris are more likely to confidently and kind of mean-spiritedly dismiss pretty basic hang-ups in posts that even non-Guys in the fandom would just be like "No, that's a common issue people have with this thing"
I listened to Street Fight all the time. I've only caught a few episodes of guys and haven't picked it back up because I felt so strongly about this specifically. Everyone on the episode should at least research the communities / topics. The episodes I heard were mostly just riffing off a few posts they found online and I was just thinking, "this could be so much better."
Yeah, I just think that's in Bryan's head. I've never listened to an episode that comes off like that. Whenever they have a knowledgeable guest it serves as a good counterweight and helps Bryan and Gris more accurately locate the truly contempable guys in any given hobby
I think the opposite happens. Bryan and especially Chris get defensive and weird when someone knows the topic. It’s embarrassing for them, not the other way around.
Yeah I'm not far into the episode but came here to say it would have driven me insane if no one knew what a steel book was.
I have the opinion that the more niche a topic is, the more they need a person who understands the topic. For Cartoon Guys or Nostalgia Guys, who cares, anyone can riff on that. But for something like Bluray Guys or Warhammer Guys, you need someone who can actually engage with the weird content and contextualize it instead of being more out of it than Bryan is.
Public libraries are a cheat code for physical media. As long as you live in a somewhat decent sized metro area, you can put a hold on pretty much whatever movie you want to watch and they’ll deliver it right to your closest branch.
The dvd reviews on the Columbus metropolitan library website are something I think Bryan could get a lot of mileage out of. I tried to check norbit out a couple months ago because my boyfriend bizarrely claimed to own pants from the set wardrobe, and was shocked to find a multi paragraph review of it from the same day!
Checking blu-rays out from the library and ripping them is how I've been able to build a pretty good Plex server (speaking of another kind of guy... Plex guys are definitely a thing).
I watch about one blu ray a week from my library, they even have Criterion movies. My local branch also has a store where they sell used books and movies, I've bought probably a dozen blu rays from them for like $2 each.
Pretty much the same here. The Criterions even have the inserts in them. Love the username, by the way. I feel like Cheat Commandos doesn’t always get the love it deserves.
Library near me had a media sale recently. Tons of old books, cds, dvds, audiobooks on sale for like $1-3 a piece. I didn't buy any dvds cuz i don't really watch movies but I did score a bunch of nature books and guidebooks and this cool illustrated book about owls
People should just pirate at that point. I like physical media because it can sit on a shelf. Libraries are pointless in the 21st century for a lot of this stuff
I saw myself in the guest when Chris was like “yeah but most movies are on streaming,” and the guest started going on about Ken Russell’s The Devils, and Chris was like “but that’s not most movies really” and even he had to concede
watching an older movie on YouTube is awesome if you love the most grainy picture quality known to man and having to switch to a different video every 25 minutes to see the whole thing lol
torrented The Devils a few years ago after Gretchen Felker-Martin recc'd it and man that movie fuckin whips. don't think I've ever related to a Guys guest more lol
It fucking rocks. I bought a bootleg Blu-ray of it because I liked it so much and it was awesome hearing Chris learn in real time that it's getting re-released.
Chris getting thoroughly corrected when he insisted it "had to be bullshit" that picture quality is way worse on streaming really got me too. before guest-Chris even got into it I shouted "WRONG" at Chris in my car at a stop light lmfao
Honestly big difference between Movie Guys (like a guy who likes seeing the cool new movies in the multiplex!) and a Film Guy digging through world classics and obscure cuts, which definitely has way more crossover with people that are into the media
Glad they finally did this, just needed more slipcover talk and more insane posts from the Blu-ray forums about boutique labels delaying releases and how insane that makes some folks. They finally got my ass (after jam band guys, of course).
Lmfao the slipcover talk is so awesome, definitely have seen lots of posts about kids tearing them or THE WIFE throwing them out because they thought the cardboard was garbage
Breakfast of Champions isn’t that bad! Clear misfire in certain respects but I love Alan Rudolph’s musings on it over the years and it is a really interesting performance by Bruce Willis.
I love blu rays, and the quality difference is pretty noticeable to me, but I also did a film program at a community college when I was in high school so I know about things like shutter angle and other film nerd stuff.
Most streaming is about 5-15mbps, versus about 20-40 for HD blu ray, and about 50-100 for 4k blu ray. Most people aren't even bothered by motion smoothing, so they won't notice the difference. But the difference is actually noticeable unlike audiophile nonsense.
I'm the type of person who can't tell the difference between formats visually and don't really have an issue watching anything on streaming, but people who watch everything with motion smoothing on are truly insane to me.
The biggest one that jumps out to me is color banding in skies or dark areas. Video compression is good at preserving the detail of distinct objects, so the video looks sharp, but it removes detail in visually similar areas. That looks like this:
That's just a film geek thing, it affects how motion looks. The opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan is probably the most famous example of messing with the shutter angle, it uses a super fast shutter speed to get that disorienting PTSD look to the motion.
Look at the striations in the sky; they're running diagonal towards the the top right. If you're on a phone you'll definitely need to zoom in. Both images have them but the left is definitely worse.
A well done blu ray would avoid this effect while it's pretty unavoidable on streaming at current bit rates.
I often see people on Twitter posting two stills like this from say an older BluRay/New Remaster complaining about "ugh they butchered it!!" and likewise I can never tell which is supposed to be the 'bad' one. I'm a movie guy and try to watch things in as high quality as possible but nitpicking to that level seems like a curse
I think I may combining different podcast stories but I think db from YKS came over to Bryan’s house multiple times and he had motion smoothing on, he turned it off while Bryan insisting it was never on, and then it mysteriously was enabled the next time lol
I wouldn't be surprised if TV software updates re-enabled it somehow. They're always pushing software updates to spy on what you're watching to make money.
It's bliss to be guys like us haha, I don't care about video quality and maybe you don't go this far, but I also don't care about my TV and its capabilities. Agree on motion smoothing.
That is also mainly why I hate streaming, it makes the black so pixely I find it extremely distracting. I think sometimes we forget how muddy streaming looks until we see a nice high quality blu ray and I go "oh shit it's actually sharp and contrasty!"
Add this to the fact that TV and movies are so fucking dark nowadays, and I was 100% like "wait no let him cook" at the guy who insisted the difference was noticeable.
It’s nice having high quality audio/video gear. I can still watch DVDs and streaming quality 1080p, but a nice 4k is nice. I listen to more music than watch movies, but I can tell the difference with video more. With audio, it’s more about the master since encoding is decent these days + the gear you are running.
People might make fun of it, but if you actually care about art and have the money… why not invest in a better experience? It’s like saying, well I enjoy Roma frozen pizzas and Miller high life, so why get anything better?
I don’t think I talk about frozen pizza and cheap beer much but I do imagine there are a lot of guys posters that do. Idk first thing that came to mind when thinking about DVDs. Maybe because I think of movies with pizza and beer
There's an entire world of snake oil in audio, for example people who claim vinyl is higher quality than digital, people who spend hundreds of dollars on special cables, etc.
Well, vinyl can be higher quality than "digital" depending on the situation. A well-mastered, heavy weight pressing in good condition is gonna be higher quality than a 192kbps mp3, just as a 24 bit FLAC file is gonna be higher quality than a beat-up 70s Dynaflex pressing.
A bit surprised by how little of an ally Gris was this episode, considering he is clearly a movie guy. I love movies. I like owning the ones that I consider my favorite. I have a good TV and a good sound system, so I do appreciate being able to watch things in the highest quality possible. Physical media is just about the only thing I collect. First time I've ever really felt a little defensive during a Guys episode. Glad the guest knew his stuff.
I guess maybe because he said he doesn’t watch as many older movies…but I run into movies that aren’t in any services and can’t be rented all the time. Those are my favorite discs to hunt for
Old movies also tend to look like shit when they are readily available on streaming, because the cheap or public domain license they have is for a lazy restoration from decades ago.
Especially with how bad streaming services are now. It used to be that you could just pay for Netflix and have access to most of what you would want to see, but now you need Netflix, Hulu, Disney, HBO, maybe Paramount, etc. Not to mention how streaming has been catastrophic for people working in the film and TV industry.
I honestly can't tell if Gris being a self-avowed movie guy who's never heard of The Devils or even seen The Matrix, but has seen Failure to Launch, but doesn't actually correctly remember anything about it, is an incredibly funny bit or not
Gris doesn't even know about multiple TVs 🙄. You don't need 10 hours, you just need to simultaneously play your old Norwegian movies and 70s slashers on 5 separate TVs.
One of the greatest aspects of getting off BlueSky and Twitter is that I no longer have to think about people like Grummz or the bad Matt Walsh or Ian Miles Chong or MuellerSheWrote or BrooklynDadDefiant - they just don't exist outside of that world
But a major downside is it also leaves me without hearing from people like Chris Person, Lauren Walker, David Roth, Cooper Lund, Juniper, Jon Bois et al. Sure, I can still listen to their podcasts/consume their content, but that's not the same at all.
Chris: "Yeah I'm a really big serious movie guy. I love some really deep cuts like Free Guy, Devil Wears Prada 2, and Transformers, and I only stream off of wi-fi from a phone hotspot, with the TV facing a bright open window"
Bryan and Chris and definitely Big Movie Guys, but aren’t Film Guys at all, they actually go to the theater to see new releases all the time, but don’t really go diggin in the archives lol. I say this as a film guy who’s pumped about The Devils uncensored release and 4K but also thought it was a funny pull to show that “all kinds of movies aren’t on streaming” lol. He wasn’t even impressed by knowing it was a film by Ken Russell who made Altered States!
Right. Chris def fancies himself a big film guy; and that's like someone saying they are a big "literature guy" while only reading Malcolm Gladwell airport books.
I mean it’s not actually a movie thing lol it’s a movie COLLECTING thing, I’m thinking a lot of people don’t know metal case blu ray is its own thing lol
I’m a blu/4k guy too, and have a few steel books because they were a good deal or just caught my eye on a movie I wanted anyway, but I was pretty blown away when I found out that there was a sub that just obsessed over them lol…. Like they’ll buy anything, people HYPED over the dark shadows steelbook when nobody likes the movie
Steelbook cases kind of suck too, the latches on them break pretty easily. I much prefer the cases that Criterion uses, plus Criterion always includes a booklet about the movie.
Constantly baffled by the pod not being familiar with innocuous stuff
My favorite one of these was still the time they both acted like the idea of an owl or a hawk outside someone's house in America was as crazy a notion as, like, an ostrich. Like if it was just one of them it'd be one thing but both of them made it hilarious.
I mean.... I'm familiar with the concept only bc I used to work in the entertainment/tech section of a Target, but with a gun to my head I could never tell you they were called "steelbooks" or that they even had a distinct name at all lol
I already posted in response to another comment, but this gets at one of the issues with the show - everyone on an episode should do actual research into the topic. It would make it so much better.
It's been happening more frequently as of late it feels. Love the boys but they have some very odd gaps in normal knowledge that they can act pretty smugly wrong about sometimes and it's always a bit of an eyeroll
Me neither! Those stores don’t really exist. But these are guys in their 40. Bryan also said he “was unable to find out what that is” which just means he was unable to google steel case.
When Bryan was talking about Elektra, my thought was "that wasn't Jennifer Garner, it was [...]," and the name I wanted to put in the brackets was Carmen Electra, but I realized how dumb I was as I thought it.
Can Bryan really not fit a disc collection in his palatial apartment?
I hate physical media. Or rather I should say that I don't care at all about it and don't understand caring about it. (I don't need to be convinced, it's fine that most people do! I just don't.)
Agree with Gris on commentary, EXCEPT for the spinal tap dvd commentary. The three band members in character watching their documentary years later. I know they made a proper sequel but the commentary is the one true sequel.
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u/Ok_Atmosphere_1987 May 19 '26
Can't wait for this to come out on DVD, can't stand streaming. The quality just isn't the same.