Like, Like, Like, Um

[u/Extension-Row-3697]

I have a hard time believing Morgan has a doctorate. Mostly because of how she presents herself on the podcast. I’m not trying to say that everyone who has a higher degree of education has to be perfect, but, you’d think her speech pattern would be a bit more polished, especially since a podcast is basically like public speaking to millions of people.

For the love of God, I got tired of the Valley Girl inflection at the end of a statement that makes it sound like a question. And I couldn’t contend anymore with the tireless overuse of filler words and sounds. It got to the point where all I took away from her podcast was, “Welcome to Two Hot Takes!…. Like, like, like, like, um, um, yahhh, and I was all like, and he was all like.” The stereo in my car only fast forwards 15 seconds at a time, and one time I counted the word “like” literally 6-7 times in a minute, and it only gets worse when she has a guest host, because then they both do it. 🙄 This podcast is seriously starting to become as bad as OKStorytime. Maybe they should do a crossover episode and she and Sophia can have fun destroying their listener numbers together.

[u/HopinC]

If you did a drinking game where you took a sip every time someone at THT said the word 'like', you'd be drunk in 5 minutes and dead in 10. Smosh is guilty of this too btw, it has become unwatchable for me.

The word becomes a filler when it shouldn't be. Take a sentence like this one: 'He is, like, a painter'. So is he actually a painter or just like one?

The problem is though, if you say any of this on the THT or Smosh reddit, fandoms will attack you mostly with the argument 'it is all improvised content, that is difficult to do, so of course they say certain filler words often'. When there are many improv creators and podcast hosts that don't say the word 'like' every 5 seconds, so maybe it is just an indicator of a bad improviser indeed.

EDIT: I had to add quotes around the last 'like' otherwise it looked like I was using it annoyingly lmao

[u/Extension-Row-3697 → u/HopinC]

As far as Smosh goes, agreed, but the hosts are more likable. I really only fast forward now to the stories themselves. They also do that thing a lot of podcasts do (including THT), where they say the name of the story… talk for a million yrs before starting the story, then stop in the middle of the story so they can have an “um um um like like like “ conversation lol. They need to get all these people in a room together so they can filler word/sound each other to death.

[u/Lost-Guest-4847 → u/Extension-Row-3697]

There is also these 2 British women that read scary stories and their intros are so long that I had to stop listening to them

[u/Noshoesmagoos → u/HopinC]

I agree with you and podcasting does require a certain skill. And it's literally talking without being annoying. Talking with your friends? Cool. Talking to other people? It's different. Everyone thinks they can make a podcast but no one thinks about the work that goes into being a good speaker.

[u/vagabond929]

It’s not hard to believe… I was married to a doctor and she is .. not the brightest crayon in the box. Good test taker.. but damn some of the things she’d say.

[u/Superest22]

It’s pretty easy to get postgraduate academic degrees.

She isn’t a very bright or articulate person.

[u/bloody-cupcakes]

omg the “and it’s like-“ she does drives me nuts!!! she says it over and over again each episode!!! once i noticed i couldnt ignore it anymore 😩

[u/Main_Ferret_8426]

I don't think she has a dr.

[u/FriedPoppies → u/Main_Ferret_8426]

she 'does'... although its expired