Curmudgeon's Corner: So, what's the deal with Critical Role?

[Morrus]

It was an "alternative ingredient" week. They were challenged to make a dessert using dairy-free ice cream. One of the contestants decided to use the flavors of peanut butter and (grape) jelly. To which Paul's reaction is basically... "Peanut butter and jelly? Is that a flavor combination that's going to go well together?"

To be clear to Brits - Peanut butter and jelly is a staple kid's lunch, and can gnerally be considered a "comfort food" for many Americans.

And jelly is jam in your language, right? It sounds pretty horrid to me. But yes, I have heard that Americans eat that.

 

[Celebrim]

Why were you annoyed?

Well, supposing some American chef blithely said that the Brits didn't know how to cook fish and chips, and that it took an American chef to do fish and chips right. Or suppose some American said all British beers were crap, and that only Americans made decent beer.

You'd probably think that person didn't know what he was talking about. And you'd probably be right, but what's particularly annoying to me as an American is I've known enough Europeans to know that when most of them here stupidity coming out of the lips of some European like that, they are just nodding along thinking they learned something.

 

[Morrus]

I've often wondered with Ramsay whether he's just one of those actors playing a role

Obviously. And it's made him very rich. And everybody who works with him knows it in advance.

 

[Morrus]

Well, supposing some American chef blithely said that the Brits didn't know how to cook fish and chips, and that it took an American chef to do fish and chips right. Or suppose some American said all British beers were crap, and that only Americans made decent beer.

You'd probably think that person didn't know what he was talking about. And you'd probably be right, but what's particularly annoying to me as an American is I've known enough Europeans to know that when most of them here stupidity coming out of the lips of some European like that, they are just nodding along thinking they learned something.

You probably need to just calm down.

 

[Charlaquin]

And jelly is jam in your language, right? It sounds pretty horrid to me. But yes, I have heard that Americans eat that.

Close, but as I understand, the fruit in jam is pulped or crushed. American jelly is made from fruit juice rather than pulped fruit, giving it a much smoother consistency.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Charlaquin]

He probably just needs to smother everything in HP Sauce.

It's, you know, a brown sauce.

Is it a... meat sauce, by any chance?

 

[Umbran]

My dad is an architectural engineer who volunteered his time to work on a number of the 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' shows.

Okay, that's kind of cool.

One thing that he called out as fake was the drama that writers would put into every show.

Yeah. My wife has an acquaintance who was on a reality show - if they don't order you to fake drama, they give you a selected edit that makes you look like a horrible human being.

That practice... may have hit a limit. Recently, in Australia, a reality show gave one of its contestants a really horrible edit, making her out to be the villain. The result was her being harassed so badly on social media that she ended up with an anxiety disorder. She took the show to court, and the ruling came down that the "contestants" were effectively employees of the show... which puts a duty of care upon the producers, such that they are liable when the company actively works to do things that negatively impact the employee's life.

We now wait to see someone try to apply the same to an American show, and see what impact that has on the Reality TV business.

I've often wondered with Ramsay whether he's just one of those actors playing a role that doesn't realize how destructive even pretending to act like that really is.

That's certainly possible - I chose the phrase "seems to be" for that reason.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Gradine]

Hilariously, Gordon Ramsey is a total sweetheart on any of his shows for British TV. He's very pleasant and helpful, which in US TV you only ever get to see on MasterChef Junior and the occasional humanizing moment on Kitchen Nightmares, like that time he was dealing with a chef who had been verbally abused his entire childhood by his father and they worked together to find a method of encouragement that actually worked for him.

Angry jerk Gordon is very definitely a part that he plays because it helps drive US ratings. Not that that makes any of it okay