Anyone watching Strip Search over at Penny Arcade?

So the guys over at Penny Arcade have been doing this reality tv/webisode thing where it's all web cartoonists competing, and it's actually kinda cool. I've never really gotten into reality tv before because it's all pointless and everyone's a shithead, but here they actually got likeable people and are doing some semi-interesting things with them. I guess I'm just curious if any duders are watching it, if so what opinions ye have etc.

Also, today's episode is the 3rd elimination and all I can say is: hot dang. That honestly kinda freaked me out. I was kind of expecting a tie because there's a preview clip in the first episode showing tavis and lexxy both in the house at night (aka post Thunderdome), but I guess they bit the bullet.

Anyway, yeah, if you haven't seen it I suggest checking it out, episodes are only like 20 min.

I don't know jack shit about Penny Arcade, but I tried watching that thing and lost interest after about an hours worth of show that resulting in absolutely nothing. Holy hell that show is slow paced and a whole lot of nothing happens over a long period of time. The concept is cool, but it's just not a smart mix of "typical reality show" and "interesting competition about a neat thing".

I'd say it's about on-par with the quality and exploitation level of The Tester or whatever that shitty Machinima thing was for BF3.

The best part is definitely Mike and Jerry heckling the two artists while they try to finish their comic strips. It has a nice Statler and Waldorf vibe. All the jokes about the amount of time (and this week's fortune cookie) are hilarious.

I never enjoyed the Penny Arcade comic so not really. I watched a few episodes of some other sort of reality series where they walked around and talked how difficult it was to make the comic each week - which seemed laughable considering the quality of the comic. Apparently drawing those three simple frames each week is kinda tough.

@markwahlberg: It's interesting that when it came down to it, they kind of said "Which of these is a better example of cartooning?", and ultimately went with Tavis as the winner. It almost felt like they were saying Lexxy should be off somewhere doing something more like The Perry Bible Fellowship, given how impressed Mike was with the art she came up with (different poses, complex character designs created with little to no reference materials, etc.). It's weird that they didn't express that when they talked to her later in the car.

Also, man, Mike really does not like Abby's art. I mean, I thought Mike was kind of hostile to Lexxy going into this, but oh jeez, Abby really has an uphill battle when the time comes for her to make a comic.

Judgemental much huh? Those earlier videos aren't supposed to be saying how hard their job is, more how ridiculous it is and just the process of how they make a stupid comic every week because a lot of aspiring creators and fans are curious. Like their work or not those 2 and Khoo (their friend/wrangler) have done more good for the nerd/gamer community than any other force in the industry. Maybe I'm reading too much into your comment though.

Anyway yeah that was a good episode, I've been enjoying the series, I think they do a pretty good job of mocking the reality TV format, while using it to support and showcase some aspiring artists. I really need to look up the whole tangent thing that pisses off Mike so much, I don't get it. but then I can't draw for shit.

I like Penny Arcade, and I love hyperbole, so I'll just say that I despise Strip Search and everything it stands for.

@branthog: It's a lot more relaxed than actual TV (at least until they get to the eliminations) , which I kinda like but I could see how that would be off-putting.

@bisonhero: Exactly. I think they gave their explanation when they said 'this is not the strip we're looking for'. Tavis' was much more in line with their style, both in sense of humor and artistically. Lexxy's was more... old-fashioned? Not sure of the right word, although I thought it was waay more impressive, especially considering the time constraints. There was a lot going on in that episode though, you could almost see Mike feeling bad about giving Lexxy so much shit earlier once he saw what she'd been able to make.

And yeah, I'm just waiting for the shit to finally hit the fan with Abby. It would've been just a funny set-up before with how they'd been making fun of her work every time, but now that they actually wanted to get her off the show, I dunno...

Yeah man. Holy cow, I can't get over how good it is. After this episode, shit got real! When I first started, I was kinda bored with the first 2 or so episodes... but once we got to elimination, it got good fast. To me, what is fascinating is slowly watching everyone involved realize exactly what they signed up for. I can't wait for alliances to start....

And is it just me, or are Mike and Jerry 10X funnier live then in their comic?

I am going to. I am watching PA The Series right now actually. All the talk of Strip Search at PAX East has gotten me interested so I will be watching it.

So I watched the whole season so far and I love it. Way better than any other reality show on TV. The 3rd elimination was intense. Mike and Jerry had a real tough choice to make. Usually it is clear choice who I think has a worse comic but that time I really liked both. Too bad someone who sucked couldn't have been sent home instead.

I am and it's actually really good. The interview episode was boring as hell and kind of pointless, but the eliminations and the competitions that involves drawing are great. I'm way more invested in it than I thought I would be.

@geekdown: I really liked that one where they had to describe a picture and have their partner draw it. That one group just hit it out of the park and were so good at it.

I FUCKING KNEW IT.

So my first theory about how they wouldn't send anyone home from the 3rd Round, but when that didn't happen I figured it was just a bit they had cut out, turned out to be correct after all (sorta)! THE TRUTH IS REVEALED. SHENANIGANS.

Also, I feel like Mac's attitude towards the show is exactly what I would've aimed for if I were on it. Dude is so fucking chill about everything.

Stopped giving a shit about anything Penny Arcade a few years back.

So, no. I'm not.

I've been avoiding it because of its origins. The fact that it was one of the lowest stretch goals on their kickstarter didn't sit well with me when everyone in their community has been bugging them to bring back their podcasts for years, and those clearly would have been less expensive. I feel like if you're going to ask your community for money to support your website instead of advertisers, you should be doing it to fund the things they want, rather than your own passion projects. Plus I don't like reality tv, and haven't cared about web comics since 8-bit Theater ended.

People seem to be mistaking this thread for a poll asking "Do you like Penny Arcade? Yes/No", which it is not.

I could understand if you'd at least watched an episode of Strip Search just to confirm you don't like it, but chiming in to say "Penny Arcade, fuck those guys" seems like it is wasting your time and everyone else's time. You don't see people jumping into the VGCW discussion thread just to say they don't like wrestling/the WWE games.

@hunter5024 said:

I agree so much, the only thing I cared about in that Kickstarter was Podcasts. Strip Search is awful, and for some reason was super cheap, and Podcasts were HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.

Half. A Million. Dollars. And another fifty thousand, if I remember.

This is making me realise how disappointed I've been by a lot of the Penny Arcade direction recently ):.

I've seen a couple of the elimination episodes, they're pretty good. The rest of the show looks like the usual reality tv competition format and I don't really have any interest in that.

The podcast itself didn't cost half a million dollars. That's only the goal that was required to meet for them to bring them back. Podcasts take time out of their schedules like anything else, too, so it's something that they would be doing on top of everything else (Penny Arcade, Strip Search, PAX, etc.) Also, the question was about Strip Search specifically, not, as BisonHero noted, Do you like Penny Arcade: Y/N?

Personally, I'm enjoying Strip Search, though I'm not sure what to think about the conclusion of the latest elimination episode. Part of me understands, and part of me thinks it's total bullshit.

I didn't even know this was the result of a Kickstarter (I'm not exactly an avid follower of the site, to be honest). Huh. how much did that actually make? Because if the podcast was $500,000, I would think that would be more as a 'yeah, it's not gonna happen' joke than anything else. Podcasts are hard enough to do when you want to, but if its something where the participants aren't even interested in it then it would just be a train wreck.

I can see that, but honestly I think it just makes for good TV. Not to say it was planned, or anything, but changing it up a little bit is kind of what the show needed. The eliminations are the only real drama of the show, so not only does this break the routine before it got old, it also puts greater pressure on further eliminations because it means there are essentially no guarantees.

I wonder if this is why people like wrestling so much....

What's laughable is your complete misrepresentation of the series. That isn't what the their show is about, at all. One of the main reasons people wanted them to make the show is because they used to release podcasts of them coming up with the comic strip every week and they were really funny. You may think that a fifteen minute show about created the three panel comic is a bit silly, but to the people who enjoy their personalities, it's pretty great.

@meowshi: I'm talking about something really old from many years ago, not anything current. I'm not misrepresenting anything apart from giving my own very personal opinion about it. Obviously people that are fans of Gabe and Tycho will enjoy any content they put out. I'm not a fan so I didn't enjoy it and as a graphic artist found it kinda baffling. Of course I suppose it could have all just been a huge joke and since I wasn't a regular of their podcasts and website it flew way over my head and it doesn't really take them that much effort to make that simple comic - in which case I guess my bad.

Because the podcasts were just recordings of them trying to come up with a strip, they're essentially doing the podcasts already and just not recording or uploading them. So interest doesn't really apply, and the time would only be a matter of editing and uploading. I think the reason it was so high on their kickstarter is because they knew the community really wanted them back so they thought it would be good encouragement for them to reach the other stretch goals.

Thanks for the recommendation, I never would've thought to watch something like this. So far I'm on episode 6 and it's been pretty fun! Some of the artists just get on my nerves though and I definitely have a few personal favorites already based on art style alone. I think that Katie and Lexxy are definitely the most talented, I love their art and I hope that they stay in for awhile. I'm not a fan of Abby or Ty's art style or personality however and I hope that they get eliminated soon(again, only on episode 6).

Overall great show, even though I haven't even been to the penny arcade site since 2010 I believe, Mike and Jerry are entertaining to watch though, so I might get more involved in their work again.

I'm not so sure. Strip Search was filmed over a span of two weeks with some pre production and a 3 editor team working on post production. Not to say that it's not costly, but that most of the work takes place over a short time span. Podcasts on the other hand would require weekly work in perpetuity. The cost to serve Strip Search is low since it's on YouTube, while the cost of serving a podcast can be rather large. The Bombcast costs close to $10000 a week to host.

@mosespippy said:

Yeah, podcasts are a money black hole that no amount of Audible.com advertisements will ever make profitable (unless podcasts eventually become radio, and are ads like 70% of the time).

I guarantee that any podcast hunter5024 listens to is only possible due to significant donations from the listeners, or is from a company that sees the podcast as another way to expose their brand to people so that people then check out the part of the company that actually makes money (for example, any game developer podcasts exist to get more people to know about how cool their games are, not just because it would be a fun thing to do, though I'm sure the devs have as much fun with it as possible). Or the podcast's audience is small enough that the creator(s) can just pay for it out of pocket.

For someone like Penny Arcade, who have something like over 3 million readers, they would have a lot of podcast subscribers, and that bandwidth costs a lot more than the bandwidth it costs for someone to look at a Penny Arcade .jpeg three times a week.

@bisonhero said:

I wasn't trying to say their podcast is cheap, but it's still definitely less expensive than producing the show. The grand prize for Strip Search is putting the winners up in their office for a year if I remember the news post correctly. Office space is one of the biggest money sinks a company has and they're giving it away for free. There is no way the bandwidth cost would be higher than paying for 3 employees, film equipment, 2 weeks of their time, and a years worth of office space.

Regardless the cost wasn't even the point I was making, I just think if you're asking your fans for money you should put their wishes before your own, and they didn't.

Show's been a bit slower recently, but man these eliminations are so much fun. I totally called Abby winning that too, just going by what I've read of their respective comics, she's better at punchier one-off's while Erika focuses mostly on longer form or diary type stuff - which is fine, just not well suited towards the elims. Gonna get interesting moving forward, I'm a little afraid the show's gonna get a bit weird/awkward when it's just like 3 people sitting in the house being like 'welp'.

And for all you naysayers:

@markwahlberg said:

Gonna get interesting moving forward, I'm a little afraid the show's gonna get a bit weird/awkward when it's just like 3 people sitting in the house being like 'welp'.

And for all you naysayers:

Since the contestants aren't terrible petty assholes, this might be the only reality show ever where I'm actually bummed that they are focusing almost exclusively on the challenges and eliminations. We basically get zero shots of them hanging around the house for more than about 15 seconds, except for that one random time Amy had a heart-to-heart with Tavis. And I think one episode opened with the girls talking about doing yoga in the morning. But yeah, I'm bummed that the show actually doesn't have any Big-Brother-style "just watch them hang out for a bit" segments, because they're all pretty cool people.

Graham and Kathleen are being killed right now with the workload they have. Its crazy to think you want more.

I am saying this coming into Strip search through the Loading Ready Run crew who are Bionic Trousers Media who also do checkpoint on PATV.

So I am listening to their podcasts which has slid from their usal comeday skit vids to talking about strip search productiton as its the hot topic.

They have 65 days of footage in the can that Graham and Kathlee alone have to go through and edit. Yeah they filmed for 2 to 3 weeks. 4 cameras all the time and what ever is going on. My god they have to go through it aaaaaaaaaaaaaalllll.

They are editing each episode up to the last few hours befor uploading to PA and few hours later its up on PA and Youtube.

Also they have to cut out alot. The recent ep had to cut out what the eliminated persons plans were if they had won which was a very nice thing. However they pushed the 27 min mark as is, Graham has to cut somthing...which Abby replied on Twitter she would cut his butts....and he replied "no ma butts"...what I am not in deep!

They are a small outfit and this is their first production job which is a new direction for them as they were a comedy troup just makeing vids for fun then it became a job and now they are getting into Production which is a cool place to go and I am going to be following them.

They arnt pro's hell Paul who had to do the 1 on 1 vids near the start had to hide behind the light so they could not see his face grimaceing or almost laughing at the shocking stuff people were saying.

Erika being one of the hardest to main composure over she is either saying somthing funny inapproiate or emotional.

Graham and Kathleen did a twitch stream Graham had to warn about major "feels" coming up after the elimination which had Kathleen even crying as she never saw that footage.

And Grahams on the other side asking these questions and trying to control himself.

Also Kathleen hated being the one destroying folks work, it was a case of Mike and Jerry saying she should do it and her saying no and them saying no to her no and then Graham looking at her and going "Well they are our boss."

As for the show I find it somber this nice slower paced no ones stirring up shit and fights being made to look like fights when their isnt any.

I got sucked into the reality Tv show hole 10 years ago with a season of Big brother and more recently Hells Kitchen and maaaaan do they edit the shit out of that at times to make stuff up not so bad during the show. However the next time or coming up they edit the shit to make stuff up. All the shouting and hatred.

It just feels nice to have a bunch of nice people with a production crew not trying to make up fights or cause tension. And to have judges who are fun to heckle the contestants in a none nasty way and then have a supportive moment whith them.

That moment were Mike and Gerry hope in the van was a spurr on the moment thing. First ep and they see the person sitting in the van talking they were about to hop in their own cars and decided to hop in the van instead.

Scared the crap out of Graham as he has just finished the interveiw and the doors swing open thaught they were getting mugged and in hope Mike and Gerry. Since then its carried on which is a nice thing.

Shut up....I am not in deep.

I just started watching last night and am already on episode 12. Just burning through it. It's been pretty fantastic thus far. Most of the people seem cool, which is a great change of pace from the normal reality show douchebaggery. There's definitely people I don't care for like Abbey (how she's still there as of episode 12 bewilders me), others but it's cool rooting for those guys. Amy is definitely the one I want to see win. I've seen people complaining about her and I don't really see it. She's playing the game, as she should, but she's not being a bitch or manipulative in any way. She's smart to do just enough to do well in challenges, but not outright win them so she can stay middle of the pack. Also that third elimination was nonsense. The person sent home should've been the winner. Also I must say the prizes they give away are pretty fucking awesome.

*watches Episode 19*

Fucking hell man. >_>

Yeah LRR is pretty great, been a fan since season 2 or 3, hard to remember now. They put out an amazing amount of content for what, like two and a half full time staff between them?

@zfubarz: Yeah ths week alone they have put out 8 diffrent bits of content. Strip search,LRR skit,checkpoint,Unskippable,Loading time,Friday Nights,Lrr cast,Tap Tap concede cast.

As Graham has said you dont get much money from doing the internet so you have to do alot of stuff to keep people fed pay rent and keep up payments on the Moonbase (their Hq offices)

They are four core people that I think its their full time deal with friends and family helping with the payment being fun and hanging out. Its Graham and Kathleen who are the editors, James and Paul are not. Other wise they all do the same jobs when needed.

LRR is just amazeing how they have done. With Desert bus under them and getting youtube vid viral...by stageing it. I have seen that clip on UK clipshows aswell. Garaham did a great job in nunchuck epic fail.

There is jus so muh to LRR I hope it keeps going.

@kishinfoulux: Yeah I wanted to say some stuff since you were talking about stuff thats all going to hit a brick wall on what you thought and expected. Abby just blew it out of the park an utter surprise,you saw Mikes rage when he had to select between Lexi and Tavis? Looking a Abbys cutout and going "this fucking person should be going! Their shit! Drive them down here!"

I am Big Erika Moen fan and it was a tough call.

You can catch Erika in her new and first time schedualed comic Oh joy Sex Toy. Named by Amy.

I like the show, I know it is hard work to make it even 20 minutes, but all the same I wish each episode were longer. Its my belief that Katie or Abby will win, I say that not because I think the other are worse, but rather because I think Katie and Abby appear to be able to produce in clutch situations.

What watching the show has proven to me is that for most people the art is easy, telling a story with art & words is hard for people. Most of the folks on the show are already mildly successful Internet comic artists, but most of them have trouble making a comic that follows from one panel to the next to tell an understandable story, joke or gag.

@akyho: Paul and Graham are the fulltime employees and have been since Unskippable started. As far as I know Kathleen is a journalist for Inside Networks (we saw her boss judge the interview challenge) but she might be on leave to do Strip Search editing. Everyone else gets paid by the video I think.

@mosespippy: She puts in her dues, however its a little hard to define with Kathleen as she does do other work yet she is the long term Girlfriend/Fiance/Partner to Graham and thus his income and fate is her income and fateish.

Its the safest to say Paul and Graham with Kathleen as Kathleen does work her butt off for the whole thing. James is there enough to be counted weather he is paid or not making up a core 4 podcasters that are able to comment on Anything they have done that week.

A 4 person team is just the minimum they need, 1 for camera 1 for boom and then 1 onscreen, the fourth is always needed for something.

Being how complicated it is makes me wonder how LRR and Bionic Trousers Media works when for so long its been friends and family helping out. I say this since they are moving into becoming producers as its a more sustainable position than "Random Comedy Troupe".

@akyho: I only didn't count James as a LRR employee because he works full time at his fathers company. James is mister reliable though. He'll show up to help out for anything whether he gets paid or not. I think LRR will always be a friends and family company. I can't imagine them ever making enough money that they would hire an outsider. They'd hire the friends and family that have been working with them first.

The fourth crew person usually holds the iPad teleprompter or records a behind the scenes video.

@mosespippy: True.

I'm not sure what the rest of you are talking about LoadReadyRun is compose of several full time people. Graham Stark, Paul Saunders, Kathleen De Vere, and James Turner (oops, forgot about Matt Wiggins) are the main people for sure. But, I find it hard to imagine Andrew Cownden, Brendan "Beej" Dery, Tally Heilke, Cameron Lauder, Jeremy Petter, Kate Stark, or Alex Steacy work for free all the time. These people makes about four or five weekly shows, I rather doubt they are doing that week in week out by the seat of their pants...at the very least they would NEED to be 'bionic slacks'...some sort of Bionic Trousers Media

@monkeyking1969: Matt and Jer left to go to graduate school. Matt and Andy don't even live in Victoria. Andy does work in theatre and sometimes he'll have an idea that doesn't work for the theatre so he'll turn it onto a skit. Kate owns a cake decorating business. Cameron, Beej, Tally, Alex and Ray all have day jobs. They only contribute in their spare time and get paid per video. Only Graham and Paul work fulltime on LRR as their only source of income. James and Kathleen get a part time salary and have day jobs.

I counted Kathleen and James as the half since yeah they are technically only part time employee's although Kathleen said recently that she's on a fairly permanent sabbatical from her job due to strip search, and isn't sure if she'll go back or not. the dozen + other recurring cast are all just friends and former crew members from before the licenced shows. I miss Bill/Morgan/Paul's Beard, ahh the good old days.

As for the Show I'm hoping for Maki or Katie, The art might not be the best, but they're pretty damn funny people, Maki's last strip really was brilliant.

Again...nobody works for free. They produce 4 six to eight minute long videos a week and own a holding company. To say nobody is making money or they all are doing it for shits-n-giggles seems facetious.

Today's episode is up and it's not particularly interesting. It's got nothing art based and is too similar to the previous episode. The elimination episode should be good though.

@monkeyking1969: I never said they work for free. I said they have 2 full time employees, 2 part time employees and everyone else gets paid a small amount for each video they work on. Everyone is getting paid now that they are a business but not everyone is making a living doing it.

I don't frequent PA much anymore so I only discovered the show a few weeks ago. I briefly saw a go-kart challenge and one with table tennis, and they all were terrible at both. Not criticizing the actual people because everyone is terrible at most things, but it wasn't entertaining to watch.

@wjb: yeah, I didn't mind it that much but those were probably the worst episodes so far - fun for the artists, I'm sure, but didn't exactly make for great television. And that fucking guitar in the go kart episode. ugh.

I'm okay with the Ping Pong stuff since that's such a huge thing at the Penny Arcade offices, but I could've done without Go Karting.

I honestly don't know who to root for at this point. My faves are all gone. I just don't want Tavis or Abbey to win, but I'm getting the feeling one of them will.