VGX 2013: Did Joel McHale make the show better?

Yeah he did. @themanwithnoplan nailed it on the head. Joel has been trying to get Geoff Keighley to unwind all night and he's such an uptight wanker it made for delightful streaming.

Joel was a small point of light in a rather large shitfest.

I didn't want any of it but Twitter has been nothing but a gigantic stream of hate aimed at this guy from all comers, I've yet to see anything positive, so I'm surprised to see this.

It depends on what you think the show is supposed to be. If you want a serious award show that celebrates the games industry, him mocking everything ruins that. If you want a show that is terrible and mocks itself for being terrible then he certainly provides that.

This is the only one I've watched so maybe it was way worse last year but I thought it was reasonably entertaining, and he was one of the best parts (the other best parts were loiter squad and mega64)

Most of Joel's jokes fell flat but I still think he helped make it more interesting than it would have been with just Geoff.

I think he was paired poorly with Geoff who just wanted to showcase games. Joel just wanted to make dumb jokes.

When he went off-script, yes.

Joel got better toward the end of the show, but it was a rough start.

Bring back Joel and The Game every year.

Please?

Hell no. He actively made it worse. Geoff should have hosted the show himself or they should have gotten someone who actually...you know, likes video games. Do those exist?

The show was fucking terrible, and Joel brought the appropriate amount of acknowledgement of that fact. I laughed the first time he pointed out Geoff's layers. Maybe not the tenth time, but who am I to judge?

Better, but Geoff should of just hosted it.

Complete garbage. Worst VGA/X I've seen.

Joel might have been ok if not for the painful and cruel digs against gaming and gamers every minute. He was down right an utter asshole. I've heard nicer conversations on Xbox Live.

He made it awful in the beginning, and then made it slightly more bearable at the end.

Is this a joke? he ruined the entire show.

Picture the show if just Geoff was hosting. There were developers there, there could have been discussions that weren't interrupted every 5 seconds by a snide remark or dismissive comment about gaming.

I get people liking him ironically or whatever but come on people, he made the show nearly unbearable.

Joel seemed like the only who knew the show was a shit show from the start.

I think it would have been terrible either way, but Joel made it into the horror show it was, and for the first time I actually watched the VGA's all the way through. So a win for them I guess.

It was about a 70/30 split on me wanting to die when he spoke and thinking he was pretty funny.

Why have no one booked Elijah Woods for these things yet? He is a huge gamer and he is extremely nice. Why not him?

He seemed bored most of the time. Granted, the show deserved that kind of response, but him acknowledging that didn't make it better.

First VGA I watched from start to finish. Just couldn't turn away from this train wreck of a show.

Liking games does not preclude them being good at presenting about them. In fact he seemed to like games (he was interested in Dying Light and No Man's Sky)

Also lots of people also shit talked Aisha Tyler and she likes games too.

Without him this show would have been incredibly dry. Yes, it wasn't always funny, but at least it wasn't just a three-hour wank fest about how awesome games are. I mean, it was almost that, but at least it was willing to poke fun at itself a bit? Major trade-up from Snoop Dogg announcing the Best RPGs of the year and Jessica Alba mumbling something about playing Mario before announcing a Dark Souls trailer. This was more honest, and McHale fit that awkward, internetty thing quite well.

Nah, dude just seemed rude....and very drunk. He brought down what was otherwise a decent show.

For the show they were putting on, Joel kept the entire thing from falling apart at the seams. I do think Keighly should have been the sole host, but that would really only have worked if they had designed it in an entirely different, more traditional award show fashion(which they really should have done, because holy shit this thing was a disaster)

@berserker976 said:

I don't like Joel ironically. I love Joel because he's a witty bastard. You either get Nice Joel or Douche Joel. Both are good Joels, but one is certainly funnier than the other.

Geoff had a shit-show on his hands and he got Douche Joel as a result. I could not be more pleased.

When he read the scripted jokes, it was kind of a bummer. But him and Geoff bantering was pretty ok at times.

Something something diaper joke something something I'm a gamer something something.

Good lord.

@animasta: People shit talked Aisha Tyler? I thought the general consensus was that she's really good on the Ubisoft press conferences. I certainly think so.

Not sure, but I'm fairly certain he didn't make it worse.

Edit: Naah, after reading half the posts in this thread, I've changed my mind. He was pretty bad. I didn't really care that much though, 'cause I wasn't expecting much. I was expecting negative-much, and that's pretty much what we got.

Nope. The show fucking sucked, and he made it worse.

I'm definitely not one of the people who shit talked Aisha Tyler. She would have been better choice.

What I mean by someone who actually likes games is someone who isn't going to make the same "gamers are such shut-in nerds" every 3 minutes. I want these to be like an actual celebration of games. Imagine if half of the Oscars was dedicated to telling the audience what a bunch of gross weirdos they are, that's what these are every year. Geoff seems to be trying really hard but this did not work one bit.

He ruined the show. His smartass remarks all the time and constantly interrupting was so bad. This show, minus the shitty music at the end, is a perfect format if next time they just get Geoff and some industry people who are good on camera and stop trying to get celebrities to poorly pretend they know video games. Anyone into games can tell they are faking it a mile away and it just makes it painful.

Joel is everything that shitty award show deserves. he didn't care, he didn't seem to like it for the most part but he did seem to enjoy joking with Tim Schaffer and No mans Sky. Some of his running jokes were shit (adult diaper), some were good (not giving a fuck about twitter comments and regarding the abuse he was going to get from the internet) and a few were in poor taste (re: gender). Over all though, fitting for what the show was.

really good? most people thought she was decent at best. Plenty of people shit talked her first press conference, enough that she posted a confrontational facebook post about how she does, in fact, like games.

It was a mixed bag for me. When he interrupted developers talking about their games it didn't go down so great and at times he was noticeably unhappy to be there. But when off script or pointing out some of the more ridiculous facets of the show it was pretty funny.

Also a lot of people seem to be forgetting that overall, the show is not a respectful celebration of the year in games, its a show on spike that was fraught with ads within the telecast, cutting to whatever ridiculousness was happening outside and guest appearance by fucking pewdiepie. Given that, how much did Joel really have to work with?

I'm so fucking sick of the cynicism that plagues this industry. It was refreshing to see somebody trying to laugh for a change. The problem was that each time he tried to make fun, Geoff shot it down like the show would end if people enjoyed themselves. Hey, asshat, it's an "awards" show. It's not about your fucking scoop. Let these people enjoy themselves. All the whining on Twitter coming from industry people is driving me insane. Why do you people do this? You get no fucking enjoyment out of it.

It was pretty terrible all around. The few highlights there were, were easily outdone by the general shittiness of it all. The show felt so rushed and unrehearsed. Unprofessional Friday's is put together better. Joel seemed to come more into his own once the GoT game was announced but it was just super awkward before then and most of the jokes sucked and just fell flat. It also felt like Geoff was babysitting Joel, constantly explaining games like the Witcher 3 and Titanfall. I do think that Joel gave the show the level of care it deserved which is just fucking the lowest. I like Joel on Community and the Soup but his style of humour really didn't work here and he clearly isn't that into gaming culture. If they want a celebrity to host along side Geoff, then get Elijah Wood. Tim and Geoff both claimed that was super into games.

I liked how he always asked the devs when the game was coming out and how only one of them answered him. Once he decided he didn't give a shit he was the only thing that was exciting to watch because everything else about the VGXs was a chore.

The fact that he went in totally not giving a shit makes it that much better, mostly because I - like him - do not care at all about VGX.

He was the host I could relate with more. Also, video games suck.

Without him the show would've been a fart in the wind. I don't understand how anyone even conceptualized that show. I'm just guessing he got presented with a "video game award show" job and then when he showed up he realized what a shit-show it was gonna be. Did he make it better ? not really, but there wasn't really much to ruin there either.

No. He made an already terrible show worse, and unwatchable for me. He came across as obnoxiously arrogant, rude, and extremely disinterested.

@milkman: I think he likes games (he seemed really into No Mans Sky) but was clearly aware that this show is always ripped apart by gamers. Seriously, when was the last time these awards got a large, popular reception? Never. they're always shit. We know it, they know it, he knows it.

I did not get to see the awards, and perhaps I am too old for the kind of presentation it was allowed. I don't know, it seems to me video games ought to take itself a bit more seriously these days and less of the antics and such. There was some very good material for Nominees, but even the name Spike TV tells me the approach may be narrow.. Still, I am not talking about Danica Patrick serious, just something celebratory about some pretty good, intelligent and sophisticated efforts made.

Bad jokes are one thing, but Joel just seemed disinterested for most of the show. There were times when I though a kinda lame joke could've been salvaged if he acted the least bit invested in the show.

I'm copy and pasting what I said in the other thread:

For everyone that hates Joel Mchale:

He plays a Snarky Asshole when he hosts The Soup. If you don't want your host to be a Snarky Asshole, don't hire the Snarky Asshole that hosts The Soup.

That is all.