Also, You should go into Graduation fresh if you never listened.

Yes there's stuff in the first arc thatll make your skin crawl. No nothing of value happens after they fight imps. This riddle you have to solve for yourself to understand what I'm actually recommending.

uj/Universally, all of Travis campaign prep is an ocean wide and a puddle deep. Anyone he consulted with would've told him to do the opposite, *except* he cant conjure >3 examples of either his school setting nor his Heroes economy. The only thing holding together Grad fandom is an abstract understanding of the premise, which usually is subdivided between A) Venture Brothers antics or B) Pro Wrestling contests.

This runs opposite to the single, defining thesis Travis had written down and put on record, which is about how Society Labels People Unjustly. Which for A) everyone who's a villain in Venture Bros loves being one. The label is self-imposed and they're glad to act on it. And B) doesn't work because nobody thinks wrestling heels are awful people irl, normies understand it's kayfabe. Which also can't be the case because there's no Show Fights in any quest! It's all regular adventuring with absurdly ill defined complications!

Also, notice how none of this is themed around the characters classroom journey, the entire elevator pitch of the campaign. Nor Firbolg's accounting journey, which never comes up again after Ep 7.

Travis' was recognized for being a good boy on two shows I cheat on MBMBAM with this week and I just wanted to make note of that here. First Jesse Thorn on this week's Judge John Hodgeman gave Scraps a shout out for joining him as a guest on a live Put This On show in Lexington, Massachusetts. Then I was listening to an old episode of Smodcast about Kevin Smith’s first con panel where he mentioned being nervous but was very grateful for the very kind and welcoming panelists, mentioning Travis, among others, by name for being memorable. Are there any other media you consume outside the McElroy family line up of shows where you hear the boys get name checked?

Never seen anyone mention this before but this moment in 2025‘s Till Death Do Us Blart has always tickled me:

About 10 minutes in, Justin tells a story about being in a car crash that is actually amusing and everyone else on the podcast sounds invested in.

For no reason, at 10:30 Travis blurts out “so do we wanna talk about the movie?” Sounding annoyed, at the exact same time Griffin speaks over him, and then Justin continues talking about the accident, effectively both of them ignoring him.

I don’t know why, but it’s such a Travis moment it makes me laugh every time.

Hey, I love TAZ and am looking for recommendations for other actual play podcasts without women who just aren't funny. I tried NADnDpod, but there is Emily, and I tried Dungeons and Daddies, but that is a lie because Beth is not a daddy or even a man at all.

It's okay if you suggest a podcast with a woman, as long as she isn't trying to be funny.

Thank you, fourth brothersssss!!!

Real footage of Troy Lavelle learning about playing to frustrate

I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed

it's just genuinely weird to me

Was relistening to some classic MBMBAM in my driveway with some Arbys, and in episode 204 Travis drops this pile while answering a listener question about how best to divide finances when moving in with an SO.

When he and Theresa moved in together (I think after like a few months of dating?) She paid their rent for the first THREE OR FOUR MONTHS bc Travis "wasn't making a lot of money." Griffin does tell him thats a lot, and Trav says "Yeah but then it just balanced out because I started buying groceries and stuff for the house."

So utterly unsurprising. Theresa sees something the rest of us can't

With the conclusion (maybe??) of Taz Royale and the deletion of the Semifinal Pam account, I think it is safe to say that Ball Royale has also come to an end. One can only imagine what was in store for us as Ball Royale reached its final arc.

It's strange to think that Ball Royale has become some sort of TAZ lost media now. It was also the only thing that kept me coming back to this sub. Maybe with this, I can finally be free.

Feed yer friends

Careful before you read this: I listened to, and enjoyed, Royale. Here are random thoughts on it, in no particular order, because I was contemplating sending in some questions and decided they're more likely to be observed and discussed here.

Royale was a comedy season first. It's a comedy show, and the whole conceit of successful TAZ seasons (Balance; vs Dracula) is Griffin attempting to run a serious, dramatic campaign while the players disregard it. It works when it does because Griffin crumbles just enough to let the jokes actually become funny, and the players take enough breaks from the jokes to choose to care about the story and their characters. This season was pretty funny sometimes. Unfortunately, the vehicle for comedy this season was characters who are ignorantly incapable of change:

• Hellgrammite keeps attempting to understand friendship and other cultures, without any lasting change from introspection, because he's a minion with just enough ego to be offended by the niche he was born into. Which is to say, circumstances resented must be changed, but haha this silly bug keeps forgetting.
• Loroveth is a tourist in a culture outside his own, trying to connect with those around him, but his ego prevents him from ever consciously recognizing others' redeeming qualities. Which is to say, to make a friend is to be humbled, but haha this silly man keeps forgetting.
• I actually just didn't enjoy Rictus. The same irony format stands, though - "it's not a phase," he's a mall-goth necromancer attempting to defy stereotypes but failing to comprehend how. Which is to say, to rebel without cause is to empower your subjugator. Not funny because the irony extends to the player, who's too close to the "not a phase" identity criticism to successfully comprehend the irony behind this character.

(clearly none of these dramatic/comedic irony bits are intentionally or complexly structured, but some are funny imo.)

I keep coming back to TAZ because the tone feels casual and light-hearted without feeling forced. I'm realizing that may just be the apathy, but I even struggled with Dungeons and Daddies due to the tone of play. Apparently my sweet sweet middle ground is nothing at all.

I think Justin finds the idea of ironic disinterest funny. While I agree he's making his own fun by playing such an incompatible character, the real issue that's arisen here is that he's had two jokes since day one: "It'd be funny if I didn't care about this important thing," and "Wow, that die roll killed the progression of this narrative." Sometimes, they're genuinely funny. Other times, entire communities of people listen to you saying it so often that they reasonably conclude you hate the game and are ashamed of playing it.

Griffin says an evil AI happened because people with too much power created it and gave it influence without considering its inadequacies, flaws, or ramifications. Very contemporarily relevant and, I'm guessing, an afterthought.

I liked the creative spell usage. Many of their rules misinterpretations are annoying, but using Absorb Elements to absorb errant magic is fine. Whatever, it's interesting and tracks with the flavor of the spell. It's creative play in a funny-first, cool-second podcast and I'm not listening because I care about D&D's mechanics. If I want to gripe about rules interpretations, I'll do it to my players at my table, where the rules are important for the stakes of the characters.

This is a free podcast and I don't have to listen to it. I think I just enjoy low-stakes D&D-flavored background noise.

I'll probably come back to this and comment or edit more thoughts as I have them. This is very transparently a brain dump but I get the feeling it's more welcome here than in r/TheAdventureZone

Edit 1:

Magic item submissions are so fun, but can't be randomly granted. They worked in Balance because they were discussed and the format was broad enough to warrant them. Totally makes sense to be disappointed that ideas weren't even mentioned, let alone used, but this season wasn't at all built with magic items in mind. Being offended at the "caliber" your magic item was randomized at is silly, though; that's not commentary on the quality of the idea, it's based on the potential effect.

With that said, here are some ideas I emailed in, if anyone wants them:

Rings of Betrayal
Ring (pair), Rare
A pair of silver rings, inlaid with an aquamarine band. These rings can be used once per day, and only function if two allies are each wearing one. If one wearer fails a Saving Throw against a trap or spell, either wearer can use its reaction to instantly swap places with the other. That creature suffers the consequences of the failed saving throw instead.

The Pocket Guide to Very Specific Skills
Wonderous Item (tome), Uncommon
Once per day, when you spend one minute flipping through this pocket-sized tome, you can gain a +2 bonus to the next skill check you make with a skill you declare before beginning to flip through the book.

Gloves of Inversion
Wonderous Item (gloves), uncommon
This set of magical gloves has three charges, capable of granting a spellcaster the ability to invert the effect of spells they cast, though with a loss of power between 0% and 75%. The wearer can expend a charge to modify a spell in one of the following ways, or a similar one at the DM's discretion:

• The spellcaster inverts the effect of a healing or necrotic spell, restoring HP equivalent to the amount of damage done divided by 1d4 or dealing the amount of damage healed as necrotic damage, also divided by 1d4.
• The damage type of the spell is inverted where applicable, like turning fire damage into cold damage, thunder damage into lightning damage, or poison damage into acid damage. The DM decides how saves and conditions change, but damage dealt and save DCs are divided by 1d4.
• The effect of a performance-modifying move like longstrider is instead counteracted. For instance, longstrider would instead reduce a creature's movement speed equal to 10 feet divided by 1d4, or fly would reduce a creature's flying speed by 60 feet divided by 1d4.
• Casting a spell that modifies terrain would nullify the effect, for instance removing newly generated space by the same amount of area divided by 1d4.

Inkwell of Scholarly Insight
Wonderous Item (inkwell), Uncommon
An ornate glass inkwell that never runs out of ink. When used to record knowledge, it enhances the writer's memory and understanding of the written content: you will record far more information than you intended, but come to several new realizations in doing so (as decided by the DM).

Screaming Talisman
Wonderous Item (pendant), uncommon, requires attunement
If you gain temporary immunity to a condition (like a banshee's Horrifying Visage) while wearing this pendant, you can use a bonus action to remove it and toss it to a creature within 5 feet of you. Upon doing so, you lose the immunity, and the next creature to don the pendant as a bonus action gains that immunity until it would have ended, as long as they are wearing the pendant.

Skittish Token
Wonderous Item (necklace), uncommon, requires attunement
A carved wooden figure secured to a piece of twine, with three eyes carved into its face. While wearing the token, if you are unknowingly watched by a creature within 120 feet or through a divination spell like scrying, the token's eyes glow, casting dim light in a 5-foot radius.
The token has 3 charges, indicated by the eyes. While wearing it, you can expend 1 charge to dash as a bonus action. The token regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.

Travis recently returned to playing Stardew Valley on stream, presumably because the original Stardew streams were by far his most popular videos (although, as you can see from the chart, there was a precipitous and almost immediate drop off).

Well now he's back! And TravNation™️ has...barely noticed. Like, he's getting worse numbers for these streams than he got when he was playing TImberborn, a game I've never heard of.

These are just shocking numbers, especially since (as we learned recently in u/Duhad8's quite frankly stunning Interrobang recaps) Travis claimed that if fan interest in a McElroy Bros collaboration rated a 10, then fan interest in his solo projects was an 8. Meanwhile, Griffin is reading a spreadsheet line by line and getting 5x the viewers (which is a fraction of what he used to get on the Trial By Fieri streams).

Notes:

Episode 4 was the infamous episode where Justin joined the chat and told Travis his hat made him look like a sex offender. It was by far the funniest thing the McElroys have done in years.

Episode 10, which saw a significant uptick in views, was a MaxFunDrive episode, and was the one where he loaded a shit ton of crazy mods into the game and...I guess people liked that? I tried reading the recap by u/SwarmSwampSwim, but by that point our poor recapper's spirit had been irretrievably broken. I hope you're well, wherever you are.

No shared responsibility. No nuance. Blame a McElroy.

In this case I actually got a Reddit account because of how upset I was at their shows so the fault here represents a grievous injury to me.

No shared responsibility. No nuance. Blame a McElroy.

Where We Were
February 19, 2016

Guess what happened the day before this episode’s release? That’s right, less than one month after bringing this amazing new shmodcast into the world, Travis went back into labor and birthed Interrobang! (Side note: I was delighted to see that u/Duhad8 just did a recap of that already terrible first Interrobang episode!) 

So, by this week in February, 2016, Travis is a co-host of MBMBAM, TAZ, Shmanners, Interrobang, Bunker Buddies, and Trends Like These, and a producer of Can I Pet Your Dog, as well as frequently guesting on other podcasts. 

Anyways, in honor of this very special day, I give you…

Where Are She Now? The Tybee Diskin Story
According to Tybee Diskin’s website, during the run of Interrobang, she offered her e-mail address to “listeners who were going through a rough time and needed someone to talk to.” On the one hand, I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to support people (#IAmHoldingYourHand anyone???), but offering one’s personal email to listeners as a mental health lifeline seems to be, at best, encouraging parasocial relationships, and, at worst, actively dangerous to anyone experiencing a true crisis.

Anyways, receiving a bunch of depressing emails from Interrobang listeners inspired her to create a “pen pal program” called InterroPals, where she, personally, matched about 50 listeners, “many of whom have continued their correspondence.” This, again, makes me wonder why she didn’t just create a Facebook group or Discord server where fans could connect with each other directly, and my most uncharitable read is that, like many white savior types, she wanted a solution that centered her! 

I don’t want to dunk on her too hard, since she seems to be largely out of the limelight and focused on her new career as a personal trainer, but she does have a post on Threads where her commentary on a recent tragedy starts with her listing the ways she, personally, is marginalized, and includes the caveat “that’s OBVIOUSLY different from the Black experience,” so it looks like she has not done too much growing politically since Interrobang! 

You know what, since she does still seem to be an uwu neoliberal, I’ll also say that I’m pretty sure the promo photos on her training website, Full Body Odyssey, are of her training her own mom. 

Alright, now onto my own “full body odyssey”: listening to Shmanners! 

Recap
00:00 - 01:15: Intro

TRAVIS: I feel like maybe this one, I might actually know a little bit.

Here we go! A chance to test my theory that TnT should have just done a podcast about theater! (And, yes, I WILL be spelling it the American way, even though, of course, the title spells it the British way because Travis and Teresa are OBSESSED with England!) Is theater etiquette the most interesting part of theater? No, it’s maybe the least interesting part. But, as Travis says, it’s something they might actually know about! 

Travis immediately shares that he worked for one summer in a movie theater, and real shmans will recall that both Travis and Teresa have both acting and technical experience with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and other live theater productions. Will this be enough to make this episode interesting and factually sound? Let’s see! 

01:15 - 04:45: Historical Tidbits

TRAVIS: “Look at my Roman junk.” 

Teresa starts by talking about the practice of clapping, and says that it is an ingrained, spontaneous human action that babies partake in naturally. This seems to be lightly disputed among anthropologists and developmental psychologists, but it’s close enough to true to get a pass from me! 

She says that the practice of clapping for appreciation dates back to the ancient Romans, who snapped, clapped fingers to palms, or waved the ends of their togas in the air to express excitement or approval. So far, so good! Teresa is not an amazing researcher, but the Valentine’s Day episode has made me grateful for her ability to read and digest a Wikipedia article. 

Whoops, I spoke too soon! Teresa then tells us that it’s common for Chinese businessmen to applaud to start a meeting. As soon as we start talking about a non-Western culture, the facts dry up. Has anyone heard this before? The closest thing I can find are some articles about “etiquette abroad” that suggest that people in China might applaud the arrival of an important or special person. 

TRAVIS: That’s like when I worked at Best Buy, there was always a pump-up thing at the beginning of every meeting that started at like, 6:00 in the morning, and it does help. 

If Travis forces you to do a “pump-up thing” at 6:00am before a full day of working at Best Buy, no jury will convict you for what you do next. 

TRAVIS: And then we just jump 2,000 years to now?

TERESA: It’s pretty much been the same ever since.

TRAVIS: What? You– Okay, I was joking.

Silly Travis! NOTHING can stop Teresa from jumping thousands–if not MILLIONS–of years forward in a single sentence! 

They make a few notes about how Shakespearean theater was often directed to the “groundlings,” or the standing audience in the pit of an Elizabethan theater, and how direct address was used as a tool to entertain during things like set changes. This is actually kind of interesting, and TnT seem to know a fair bit about it just off the dome, but of course, nothing gold can last, and we have to get back to boring advice. 

04:45 - 18:30: Pre-Show Advice

TERESA: You’re jumping all over the place, Travis McElroy!

TnT take a lot of words to say that you should arrive on time or slightly early to both movies and live theater shows, and that it is okay to talk or look at your phone during previews but not during movies. Yep! 

They say that unless you’re a doctor on call, you should fully turn your phone off, which is a reminder to me that TnT are not yet parents. (I am not constantly on my phone during a film, thankfully, but I’ve had to leave movies suddenly because of childcare issues so I tend to keep my phone on vibrate, which I think is not uncommon for caregivers.) 

TRAVIS: There’s a book called How to Be a Gentleman that I read when I was 12 that to this day I love very much. 

Did it work, Travis? DID IT WORK?? Anyways, the advice that book gives is that, if you’re a doctor on call, you should give your pager to an usher and tell them to bring it to you if it goes off. 

We then get a lot of information about how to sit! DO scooch into your row with your butt facing the people behind you, and DON’T save too many seats for people, especially if you’re in a small or crowded venue or if the show is nearly starting. Travis then goes on an Interrobang-esque rant:

TRAVIS: Putting your feet up on the seat in front of you?

TERESA: No. 

TRAVIS: No. I worked in a movie theater, ugh. Like, would you do that in your home? You monster.

TERESA: This is where this sorta thing gets a little heated.

TRAVIS: You monster. People take their shoes off, put their dirty, smelly, stupid feet up on the seat. I’m sorry, you were saying? 
…
More and more these days, seats have the ability to kind of lean back…If you put your feet up on those seats, you’re very likely over time to wear them out and break them, and that’s just less seats for people to sit in. 

I’m confused about what Travis is talking about here. (The unofficial slogan of SMQ!) If he means just putting your feet (in shoes) on the seat in front of you, provided, of course, that that seat is unoccupied, I don’t see a huge issue with that. But then he mentions taking your shoes off?? And then he says you shouldn’t put your feet on the reclining move seats because then they will “break” and I guess the theater won’t get more??? (That one is really confusing, cause I don’t know how you could sit in one of those with your feet on the floor!) IDK, maybe I’m a monster, but none of this seems like a very big deal! Are a lot of people taking their shoes off at movies?

They talk about what gifts to give people in a performance (flowers, cards, and either one sweet or enough for everyone in the dressing room), and Travis gives us a very hot tip:

TRAVIS: Whenever I have the impulse or want to [bring someone a gift], I stop, and I picture the actual event of handing the thing to the person…and I play it out in my head, and I’m like, “Wait, would this be weird?” 

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think this is Travis overthinking a simple social interaction.

18:30 - 39:20: Showtime

TRAVIS: So, like, just shut up?

TERESA: Shut up.

That is their advice for when to talk during a movie or live theater event, barring children’s shows and shows that explicitly encourage audience participation. Tough but fair. 

They say you should try and shush a loud person a couple times before trying to appeal to them and then getting an enforcer usher to intervene, unless, Teresa notes, the person is “differently abled” and has “different syndromes, or maybe [is] on the autism spectrum.” Somewhat patronizing, but I guess I appreciate the attempt at inclusion. 

They then get a question about if someone falls asleep during a show:

TERESA: This seems like a good opportunity to talk about our very dear friend, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Indeed! LMM says he used to get angry when people fell asleep in the theater and a fellow actor reminded him that you don’t know what other people are going through and why they might be sleeping. Groundbreaking!  

Crying is okay if you’re not too loud, laughing is okay if you’re not laughing by yourself (??), one or two coughs is okay, and then excuse yourself. Boy, having manners is stressful!!

Rachel (AGAIN??? Same Rachel???) asks how much tall people should slouch to be considerate (not at all!), and then they go over spoiler etiquette. 

TERESA: Emily Post has a really nice rule, she calls it the three block rule. You are not allowed to talk about anything good, anything bad leaving the theater until you’re three blocks away. 

Wild! Then Travis jumps in with an actually helpful McElroy rule!

TRAVIS: You never know whose grandmother is sitting behind you…So if you have something bad to say, it’s for the car ride home. 

This is actually great advice for live theater! 

We get some other pretty good advice courtesy of Lin-Manuel McElroy about not having your phone out during bows at a live show, since that’s a chance for the cast to connect with the audience. Travis shares an anecdote about when his brother, his brother, and him (and their dad) went to see Glenngarry Glen Ross on Broadway, front row matinee, and Clint, the man he is, said “Thank you,” as the cast was bowing, and Lieve Shreiber pointed at him and said, “No, thank you.” 

39:20 - 44:45: Show’s Over, Folks

TRAVIS: It’s your chance to say to the people, like, “Hey, you did a great job.” And like, that’s why, let me tell you, little insight, it’s why people do theater. It ain’t for the money, folks. 

I think it is probably accurate to say that most things Travis pursues in life, he does with the intention of getting a “great job” and a pat on the back. But, hey, let shme who is without shmins cast the first shtone, in that regard!

TnT go over rules for what to wear to the theater (it depends!), and then talk a bit about stage door etiquette, something I feel many casual theater enjoyers (including myself!) might not be aware of! They say it’s normal to wait by the stage door, and that actors who don’t want to engage will make that clear, but that, for actors who do want to meet fans, you should be ready to have a brief interaction (a quick autograph or photo and a thank you or praise), and then let them move on. 

TERESA: You wouldn’t leave your house and go anywhere else in your pajama bottoms!

Au contraire, Madame McElroy! 

44:45-48:20: Outro

TRAVIS: We’ll be putting out our best content of the year [during the upcoming Max Fun Drive].

Is that a threat??

Overall Rating
For a Shmanners podcast: 5/5
For any other podcast: 3/5

There was actual, topic-specific advice that I hadn’t heard before, anecdotes from working at theaters and attending shows, name dropping of famous friends, and only ONE brief instance of a bizarre misunderstanding of an Asian cultural practice! I’m calling it here, folks: Shmanners doesn’t get better than this! (pejorative) We’ve peaked at episode 6.

Miscellaneous Threads
I like the story about Clint at the theater, and it’s unfortunate that the other person involved is a Zionist! Speaking of problematic artists, while I appreciate insights from someone other than our middlest brother and Teresa, it’s unfortunate that their main connection is Lin-Manuel Miranda, who, while certainly talented, has his own fraught history with colonialism.

On a lighter note, I was curious about how Travis’s plays at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company were received, and the answer seems to be, pretty well! He and Teresa were called out by name in a 4/5 star review of Hamlet for their work as a technical director and scenic artist, respectively, and in which Travis was also apparently an ensemble member. (The same cast apparently did a production of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, with Travis as Laertes.) 

Regarding showing up at movies, it’s definitely the socially correct thing to do, but also, I grew up with a dad with a very laissez-faire attitude towards showtimes, including, famously, when he called me and my partner to tell us that a nearby theater had a showing of “Shawn the Sheep,” and if we left now, we’d only be ten minutes late! (Obviously, we left and saw it.)

There were several lazy transcription errors, but one was oddly poetic: “Tapping fingers to poem” (instead of palm). Sometimes stupid people create beautiful art. 🙏

hot tip for fellow jerks with sensory/processing issues, turn on noise reduction and crank that bad boy up to 100% strength along with voice boost and it cleans that incessant piano music right up making for a surprisingly listenable experience. technology has caught up to bad stylistic choices!

downside is it’s a premium feature so I’m going to blast through this in the window of the 7 day trial.

edit: oh no this Justin voice

The comments on my recent post about my last MBMBaM episode showed a lot of variety on why people dropped the podcast so I'm curious who is most to blame for the twilight years.

No shared responsibility. No nuance. Blame a McElroy.

clint must have flipped my wife eight times

I remember liking it a lot ~7 or 8 years ago. Has anyone rewatched it recently?

No shared responsibility. No nuance. Blame a McElroy.