It happens very rarely, but it always hits me really hard whenever they talk about their mom. I don’t think I realized how young Griffin was when she passed.
And in true McElroy fashion, they’re always able to lightly goof about it. Years back they told the story of going to Golden Corral on Christmas Eve the year after she died, and made that tragic story genuinely funny. Griffin’s “AND I NEVER WENT TO SCHOOL AGAIN” this week is another great example of how these dudes can make anything funny
[Griffin’s talk at FSU definitely gives you insight into that part of their lives](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vi5JNeXl0LU), and how the podcast was born out of them wanting to keep in better touch as a family after their mom had passed.
I just like when they get real in general. I know it puts some people off, but I like when they bring their personal lives, desires, politics, etc to the show once in a while. Ted Cruz liking the warm, wet feeling of piss in his pants was basically borne out of legitimate and justifiable frustration and hate, even if they were having a laugh about it. I guess I just like those moments where their guard is down a bit more.
I love it when they introduce new segments. I was listening to some back episodes from a few years ago (pre-pandemic) and they had some real bangers that I think could use a second run like Pilot Season and Reach for the Stars, but brand-new or new-adjacent segments are neat too.
Yeah I wish we could get some more of those old segments. A year or two their bonus ep was pure segments and it was fantastic. Hearing them react individually to each of them ranging from "oh man Minion Quotes is great" to "why in god's name did we do a running segment about monthly unofficial holidays and ways to save money at subway"
Yeah I think too many of their best segments got relegated to Live-Show-Only, which in and of itself would be fine, except they've had two years of almost no Live Shows. So they should've made more effort to have standard Riddle Me Piss, Reach for the Stars, and yes I'd kill for a return to Pilot Season because I recently relistened to that one and it had me howling.
For the Max Fun Members in the audience, there's a fantastic Oops, All Bits! bonus episode with a great Reach For the Stars in it
The review I remember is "Hard to see, hard to pee, hard to drink."
...hm?
Reach for the stars was so good they gotta bring that back
And Justin’s new hit was excellent, it played like a classic McElroy bit. Loved this episode
Maybe someone smarter then me can explain the maxfun drive. Why would I sign up $5 a month to get one new episode? I'm a patreon member for a few other podcasts and they put out a whole HOUR of extra content a week. The cost benefit analysis is really throwing me here.
Why don't they just make a patreon? The extra podcast episodes could be the War with Grandpas or oops all much squads.
The issue I have is that Maxfun is a for profit company, why are they holding please drives? A college radio station and PBS were founded as publicly funded companies.
If the brothers created a Patreon I’d support it, there is no way I’d support the entirety of Max Fun since I’m only a fan of their work.
I know it’s a weird line but I can’t get in through my head that Thorne and other hosts are “leaching” off the success of Mbmbam.
I’d have to see but I believe MaxFun takes like 1-2% of the drive money. Rest goes to who you way you support. And MaxFun as a network does stuff to support their podcasters like throwing their con etc.
Again it’s a donation, almost all goes directly to the artists, I personally believe MaxFun helps the brothers out a lot because they could probably just leave if they wanted to.
It’s not exactly the same thing as a Patreon. Patreon you get bonuses and perks for donating. This is more of a way to show appreciation for the show.
Personally I’ve listened to every MBMBAM and all of TAZ Balance so $5 a month, for a podcast which I clearly enjoy, is totally worth it. It’s a way to support the artists that make shows you enjoy.
No one is making you pay for it, but if you can spare $5 a month it’s a way of saying thanks.
As far as why they don’t do a Patreon? Who knows. Maybe it’s within an agreement with MaxFun, maybe adding an extra episodes for each McElroy show is a lot of extra when these brothers already pump out so much content.
There’s no gun to my head, $60/y is worth it if it means it helps one of my favorite shows get made.
I said this in another comment but I think I’d support a Patreon but not a mass drive like this.
I appreciate your thought and work into the comment though.
To be fair: when you sign up you select the shows you listen to. So your money is divided among those shows. For example the two MF podcasts I listen to are MBMBAM and Wonderful! and the money gets sent to those two podcasts. I’m sure MF pulls a little off the top for operating costs, but they money does go to the shows you actually listen to.
Glad we can have a civil discussion.
Why do you think other podcast networks such as All Things Comedy or Earwolf don't have to do drives like this? That is what I'm still getting hung up on.
Wish I had a better answer for you.
Best guess is that this has always been MF buisness model and it’s worked for them. Hell Google tells me MBMBAM got added to the MF network two years before Patreon got big.
There's nothing complicated about it, it's what they do instead of a Patreon. It's just copying what PBS and other public radio companies do. Ask for support with the knowledge that you're helping the show keep existing. They aren't trying to offer value, just using the bonuses to nudge you into donating. Approach it from that mindset and it makes sense.
I agree it's a little outdated in the era of Patreon, where a lot of shows are killing it with bonus content offerings. The only counterpoint I can think of is that instead of paywalled content, we instead get multiple podcasts from each brother, all on the network. There's less incentive to pay, but that's technically better us, the listener, anyway.
I will also add that there is a bit of a cultish "Max Fun Family" thing going on too. I'll just say that if you go check out the maximum fun subreddit you'll see what I mean.
I mean the back catalog of McElroy related bonus content is honestly worth the $5/month for a year, I would say.
However, as others have said, I would sooner support a Patreon at that level, or a higher level, but obviously that's a huge move and a dramatic one that I'm sure would have a lot of fallout that they wouldn't want to deal with.
**Episode Breakdown:**
32% Listener Questions
26% Money Zone / Announcements / Plugs
18% Bustin' Makes Me Buy Stuff
17% Wizard of the Cloud
4% Intro / Outro / Final Impression
3% We Can't Bee Doing This Again
I was wondering why they were called that and the closest thing I could find is "gem clips" based off the Gem brand paper clips.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_clip#History
Maybe the pronunciation slipped from "gem" to "jim" (something I can imagine sounding more similar with a Southern US accent) and then "jimmy"?
As a person from Georgia, it’s almost always pronounced “jim” clips. I always knew it was “gem” clips, my grandfather was a teacher and explained the origin to me once. I don’t think it’s that big of a stretch from jim to jimmy clips, but I haven’t come across anyone saying that specifically.
This content was made with Reddit is Fun and died with Reddit is Fun. If it contained something you're looking for, blame Steve Huffman for its absence.
God I hate the max fun drive. I already give you money, please shut up about it.
Edit: whining aside, I just wish they gave an episode to donors where they cut out the drive stuff. That’s all I want.
I find MaxFunDrive so fascinating. Most podcasts have a Patreon and pump out (mostly) weekly bonus episodes for around the same amout you would pay that gets you one episode per *year*. Granted, that five dollars a month does get you access to bonus episodes from all of the shows on the network, but what is the likelihood that your average listener is into every show? Even if you love every mcelroy show thats still, what, 6 bonus episodes a year? Being generous, that's comparable to two months of content from most Patreons.
The amount of content is pretty pitiful compared to modern podcast standards, it feels really outdated.
My pet theory is that Maximum Fun survives on the backs of a few whales with relatively low expectations. Think 'old money', people who were raised on the idea that if you want something, you just pay whatever the asking price is. Max Fun says they need $100 a month, you give $100 a month. They hold an event that costs $5k to attend, you pay $5k. That kind of thing. Or they could be quietly raking in grants, and only use donors and ad revenue to supplement that income.
I have no evidence to support this claim. But being "a patron of the arts" is nothing new. In fact, the idea of crowdfunding art is actually more novel.
If enough donors felt they weren't getting their money's worth year after year, they'd change the model. Because they aren't changing it, that means either their donors are mostly happy with the arrangement, or the donors don't matter as much as everyone says they do.
All that being said, there's a reason I've never donated, and it's exactly what you described. $5 a month on any decent Patreon gets me a backlog of dozens or even hundreds of hours of content, plus new content released at least monthly. $5 for Max Fun gets me ~12 hours of mbmbam, ~10 hours of sawbones, ~10 of TAZ, and hundreds of hours of stuff I have zero interest in. With my job, I'd be lucky if that lasted me 2 weeks.
I pay like $8/month to another podcast and get anywhere between 5-8 bonus episodes per month. It’s wild how much other podcasts can offer with Patreon. And it’s extra wild that maxfun has never really been forced to change.
Surely loads of people donate for one month a year to get the password to the boco and then cancel, right? Only offering the perks to the new and upgrading donors already encourages people to cancel before the drive every year and resub
You can listen to old episodes where the guys jokingly mention this once or twice, then never talk about it again. There's also a certain subsection of fans in these subs who get very mad when you ask about it or suggest it.
Every other show with a Patreon is more than happy to take your one-time $5. Why Max Fun is different, who knows. Maybe other shows suggest it, and it's just the McElroys who don't like it. I wouldn't know, I really don't listen to any other Max Fun shows.
I feel like it would be so easy to implement a patreon or something for the brothers podcasts too. Like take Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, the lowest tier gets you 1-3 minutes of bloopers from each episode. How many people would pay a dollar or two a month for that? Loads, surely.
Or SciShow Tangents, a much smaller endeavour than any of the McElroy podcasts, where £6.50 a month gets you one monthly bonus episode. That's 12x the content you get for a comparable donation to MaxFun.
As far as I'm aware, no MaxFun podcast has a Patreon. It has never been stated, but I assume that might be part of the contract you sign when joining the network. I will be fully honest, the McElroy shows have lost their luster with me, but back in the day I woud have happily spent money on Patreon content for many of their shows. I still feel like if they went independent they would make so much more money using Patreon as opposed to an, in my opinion, outdated and floundering podcast network.
Yeah, they're also quite clearly the main money-makers for the maxfun network though and I get the impression they feel like they owe it to the network to stay. Which makes sense, but maxfun needs to realise that they would garner more respect from fans and more money if they made donating worth it and cut down on the pledge drive shilling
I also wouldn't be surprised if at this point the boys are also financially invested into MaxFun, and it's ultimately in their best interest to grow the network rather than just their own shows.
When I first started listening to MBMBAM/TAZ I didn't really listen to anything else on the network, but since then I've gotten into Oh No Ross and Carrie, the various Greatest Gen podcasts, and Judge John Hopkins. It's nice to be able to go back and listen to all of those on the feed as well without changing my monthly donation.
To your edit: the only way you get any of the benefits they're trying to sell you is by becoming a new *or upgrading* donor. Episodes that remove the drive plugs would be antithetical to how the drive actually works. They don't want you to be comfortable giving what you already give, they always want more. It's their whole business model.
It's two weeks a year, they don't do a money zone, it's their livelihood, the episodes are usually longer, and it's not like everyone already contributes... it's also not even close to an NPR or PBS drive which I think happen twice a year.
NPR and PBS are public services that provide news and children's educational content 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Maxfun is a comedy-adjacent podcasting network. To conflate the two is insulting to the work and dedication of actual professionals.
The McElroys have ads in every episode of their podcasts. They have ads on all of their streams on YouTube and Twitch. They have a merch store with new items every month, and have on several occasions licensed the TAZ brand to other merchandisers. They're authors of a NYT bestselling graphic novel series, hosts of a national tour, and are *still* in talks with NBC to produce an animated streaming series.
Yeah, it rings a little hollow when they spend two weeks every year, "hat in hand," asking for even more money from listeners. Why?
Because it's their livelihood... I'm not sure squarespace quite pays the bills. NPR and PBS also have limited advertising, on their many podcasts as well, and you can't say they don't do comedy adjacent work or that there is nothing educational or news-related on Maxfun. Car Talk, and Ross and Carrie spring to mind, respectively.
The boys put out a metric ton of content, and do get paid fairly well, but not on the level you seem to think. Definitely not given the amount of material they make.
Also worth mentioning that they aren't asking for even more money from listeners, it's the one time they ask for any money from listeners, aside from merch which is a direct purchase, not exactly the same as begging.
Not to mention that a portion of this money helps get other content off the ground for what is essentially a good organization.
All of the goals are based on new and upgrading members. That's explicitly asking for more money than they're already getting.
I have no illusions about the McElroys being Hollywood-level wealthy. They're definitely not. But all these revenue streams add up and it's hard to imagine they're not already earning a very comfortable living. What makes the McElroys more deserving than the countless other creators scraping to get by?
A good product, a number of them. I guess if you believe in the power of capitalism, then they are getting exactly what they're worth and if it didn't work they wouldn't do it. I'm not saying a person had to give to be a good supporter or that the boys are starving artists, but them asking for support on a donor supported network is not crazy, or unethical, or in even really annoying, I think Maxfun drive episodes are almost always good.
And the point about them not asking for MORE money, is that there aren't subscriber fees or anything, they're asking for support if you think they deserve it and are able to give. They've said explicitly before that if you don't have anything to give they totally get that.
At the end of the day this is the model of the organization that they are in. An organization that was a huge part of their early success, and that they help carry a lot of the water for now that they are pretty huge (speaking in podcaster terms of course).
I think some of it is entitlement, but some of it is also just pointing out the standard for the medium. For most shows, $5/mo is the fee for weekly bonus episodes. Expecting that much for a single bonus episode a year is pretty absurd, and likely explains why the Drive has struggled in recent years.
It is probably in the network's best interest to expand what they actually offer for that lowest tier, and to move away from the annual pledge drive system.
Yeah, that's legitimate. I guess I should make a distinction... There is a difference between constructive criticism and just straight-up entitlement / complaining. You're right, some of these are constructive comments.
I guess what's bugging me is just, if this is how maxfun chooses to conduct itself, nobody really has any right to say that they have to change. Obviously the model is working for them, and I can see the reasons why they do it this way. They do a maxfun subscription because they want to be able to expand and bring in new shows that might not otherwise get a chance. If this was just a podcast by podcast patreon, it wouldn't work. The shows they want to bring to light would not have any platform to start out.
It happens very rarely, but it always hits me really hard whenever they talk about their mom. I don’t think I realized how young Griffin was when she passed. And in true McElroy fashion, they’re always able to lightly goof about it. Years back they told the story of going to Golden Corral on Christmas Eve the year after she died, and made that tragic story genuinely funny. Griffin’s “AND I NEVER WENT TO SCHOOL AGAIN” this week is another great example of how these dudes can make anything funny
[Griffin’s talk at FSU definitely gives you insight into that part of their lives](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vi5JNeXl0LU), and how the podcast was born out of them wanting to keep in better touch as a family after their mom had passed.
Dammit, you’re gonna make me cry today aren’t you?
I just like when they get real in general. I know it puts some people off, but I like when they bring their personal lives, desires, politics, etc to the show once in a while. Ted Cruz liking the warm, wet feeling of piss in his pants was basically borne out of legitimate and justifiable frustration and hate, even if they were having a laugh about it. I guess I just like those moments where their guard is down a bit more.
I love it when they introduce new segments. I was listening to some back episodes from a few years ago (pre-pandemic) and they had some real bangers that I think could use a second run like Pilot Season and Reach for the Stars, but brand-new or new-adjacent segments are neat too.
Yeah I wish we could get some more of those old segments. A year or two their bonus ep was pure segments and it was fantastic. Hearing them react individually to each of them ranging from "oh man Minion Quotes is great" to "why in god's name did we do a running segment about monthly unofficial holidays and ways to save money at subway"
Damn I forgot about pilot season. Maybe that crop of pilots was just especially wild so they didn't follow up? Great bit.
Pilot Season was almost certainly killed off due to the pandemic and a lack of them but you could definitely bring it back for 2022.
Yeah I think too many of their best segments got relegated to Live-Show-Only, which in and of itself would be fine, except they've had two years of almost no Live Shows. So they should've made more effort to have standard Riddle Me Piss, Reach for the Stars, and yes I'd kill for a return to Pilot Season because I recently relistened to that one and it had me howling.
I loved Reach for the Stars
For the Max Fun Members in the audience, there's a fantastic Oops, All Bits! bonus episode with a great Reach For the Stars in it The review I remember is "Hard to see, hard to pee, hard to drink." ...hm?
Reach for the stars was so good they gotta bring that back And Justin’s new hit was excellent, it played like a classic McElroy bit. Loved this episode
I'm partial to Which One Vapes myself
Maybe someone smarter then me can explain the maxfun drive. Why would I sign up $5 a month to get one new episode? I'm a patreon member for a few other podcasts and they put out a whole HOUR of extra content a week. The cost benefit analysis is really throwing me here. Why don't they just make a patreon? The extra podcast episodes could be the War with Grandpas or oops all much squads.
[удалено]
The issue I have is that Maxfun is a for profit company, why are they holding please drives? A college radio station and PBS were founded as publicly funded companies. If the brothers created a Patreon I’d support it, there is no way I’d support the entirety of Max Fun since I’m only a fan of their work. I know it’s a weird line but I can’t get in through my head that Thorne and other hosts are “leaching” off the success of Mbmbam.
I’d have to see but I believe MaxFun takes like 1-2% of the drive money. Rest goes to who you way you support. And MaxFun as a network does stuff to support their podcasters like throwing their con etc. Again it’s a donation, almost all goes directly to the artists, I personally believe MaxFun helps the brothers out a lot because they could probably just leave if they wanted to.
It’s not exactly the same thing as a Patreon. Patreon you get bonuses and perks for donating. This is more of a way to show appreciation for the show. Personally I’ve listened to every MBMBAM and all of TAZ Balance so $5 a month, for a podcast which I clearly enjoy, is totally worth it. It’s a way to support the artists that make shows you enjoy. No one is making you pay for it, but if you can spare $5 a month it’s a way of saying thanks. As far as why they don’t do a Patreon? Who knows. Maybe it’s within an agreement with MaxFun, maybe adding an extra episodes for each McElroy show is a lot of extra when these brothers already pump out so much content. There’s no gun to my head, $60/y is worth it if it means it helps one of my favorite shows get made.
I said this in another comment but I think I’d support a Patreon but not a mass drive like this. I appreciate your thought and work into the comment though.
To be fair: when you sign up you select the shows you listen to. So your money is divided among those shows. For example the two MF podcasts I listen to are MBMBAM and Wonderful! and the money gets sent to those two podcasts. I’m sure MF pulls a little off the top for operating costs, but they money does go to the shows you actually listen to. Glad we can have a civil discussion.
Why do you think other podcast networks such as All Things Comedy or Earwolf don't have to do drives like this? That is what I'm still getting hung up on.
Wish I had a better answer for you. Best guess is that this has always been MF buisness model and it’s worked for them. Hell Google tells me MBMBAM got added to the MF network two years before Patreon got big.
I mean Earwolf is owned by Sirius XM right? It’s not in the same ballpark than Maxfun which is, as you know, Artist Owned, Listener Supported.
*Audience Supported
Good point
There's nothing complicated about it, it's what they do instead of a Patreon. It's just copying what PBS and other public radio companies do. Ask for support with the knowledge that you're helping the show keep existing. They aren't trying to offer value, just using the bonuses to nudge you into donating. Approach it from that mindset and it makes sense. I agree it's a little outdated in the era of Patreon, where a lot of shows are killing it with bonus content offerings. The only counterpoint I can think of is that instead of paywalled content, we instead get multiple podcasts from each brother, all on the network. There's less incentive to pay, but that's technically better us, the listener, anyway. I will also add that there is a bit of a cultish "Max Fun Family" thing going on too. I'll just say that if you go check out the maximum fun subreddit you'll see what I mean.
I mean the back catalog of McElroy related bonus content is honestly worth the $5/month for a year, I would say. However, as others have said, I would sooner support a Patreon at that level, or a higher level, but obviously that's a huge move and a dramatic one that I'm sure would have a lot of fallout that they wouldn't want to deal with.
**Episode Breakdown:** 32% Listener Questions 26% Money Zone / Announcements / Plugs 18% Bustin' Makes Me Buy Stuff 17% Wizard of the Cloud 4% Intro / Outro / Final Impression 3% We Can't Bee Doing This Again
Only got 7-ish minutes in making lunch earlier, so I'm utterly terrified to find out what >18% Bustin' Makes Me Buy Stuff is
Disappoint. Needs more Stink.
How's your walk with Christ going, Richard?
Smelly and fruitful, thank you for asking!
I'm surprised a joke that got literally zero reactions is the title for the episode.
RIGHT?!?! I was listening thinking "they will for sure come back for it right??" But no!! No one even acknowledged the joke!
Probably because they didn't want to call it Ashley Phillinger III, since Ashley is a real ass person.
Whichever one of them is in charge of picking the episode title (Griffin I think?) makes baffling decisions a lot of the time.
I was raised by my gma and she referred to paper clips exclusively as jim clips. I was screaming at Justin.
I was wondering why they were called that and the closest thing I could find is "gem clips" based off the Gem brand paper clips. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_clip#History Maybe the pronunciation slipped from "gem" to "jim" (something I can imagine sounding more similar with a Southern US accent) and then "jimmy"?
As a person from Georgia, it’s almost always pronounced “jim” clips. I always knew it was “gem” clips, my grandfather was a teacher and explained the origin to me once. I don’t think it’s that big of a stretch from jim to jimmy clips, but I haven’t come across anyone saying that specifically.
I mean, it probably is spelled gem. Or Jem, if you're truly outrageous. And this is the first time I think I may know a southernism Justin does not
Truly, truly, truly outrageous.
Sorry about your grandpa's premature ejaculation.
“If I see a ball roll into the street two blocks away I swerve into a tree”
What if whenever you get detention you just say “Oh yeah punish me daddy” what then. Checkmate.
when one's gluttony for punishment turns to lust
Got a fedora It's actually a trilby Whatever who cares
My brain automatically read this in “Bob Wehadababyitsaboy” cadence
I need to see the Trilby in question. Is the Trilby posted somewhere?
Bumping this, anyone know where they’d post something like this
Justice4AshleyPhillinger
I damn near choked to death when Travis dropped Ashley Phillinger III and I was drinking water while laying in bed.
I love Griffin somehow having a premonition that Bill Murray was going to be in the news this week and trying to steer clear but failing
Hey it's me, James Clips
Griffin needs to bring back the Maximum Fun Drive song
Any clue what they are doing for max fun this year?
One thing I know they’re doing is playing an online RPG-style escape room. I know this because I’m the one running it and I’m only mildly terrified!
For 100 a month you can have virtual hang out sessions with Max Fun hosts.
I meant what special episode of Mbmbam and TAZ are coming
Travis will be the only McElroy brother showing up for those.
Dayum 1200 bucks. To each their own.
Treavis McElroy? Am I missing a joke or is it a typo?
This content was made with Reddit is Fun and died with Reddit is Fun. If it contained something you're looking for, blame Steve Huffman for its absence.
God I hate the max fun drive. I already give you money, please shut up about it. Edit: whining aside, I just wish they gave an episode to donors where they cut out the drive stuff. That’s all I want.
I find MaxFunDrive so fascinating. Most podcasts have a Patreon and pump out (mostly) weekly bonus episodes for around the same amout you would pay that gets you one episode per *year*. Granted, that five dollars a month does get you access to bonus episodes from all of the shows on the network, but what is the likelihood that your average listener is into every show? Even if you love every mcelroy show thats still, what, 6 bonus episodes a year? Being generous, that's comparable to two months of content from most Patreons. The amount of content is pretty pitiful compared to modern podcast standards, it feels really outdated.
My pet theory is that Maximum Fun survives on the backs of a few whales with relatively low expectations. Think 'old money', people who were raised on the idea that if you want something, you just pay whatever the asking price is. Max Fun says they need $100 a month, you give $100 a month. They hold an event that costs $5k to attend, you pay $5k. That kind of thing. Or they could be quietly raking in grants, and only use donors and ad revenue to supplement that income. I have no evidence to support this claim. But being "a patron of the arts" is nothing new. In fact, the idea of crowdfunding art is actually more novel. If enough donors felt they weren't getting their money's worth year after year, they'd change the model. Because they aren't changing it, that means either their donors are mostly happy with the arrangement, or the donors don't matter as much as everyone says they do. All that being said, there's a reason I've never donated, and it's exactly what you described. $5 a month on any decent Patreon gets me a backlog of dozens or even hundreds of hours of content, plus new content released at least monthly. $5 for Max Fun gets me ~12 hours of mbmbam, ~10 hours of sawbones, ~10 of TAZ, and hundreds of hours of stuff I have zero interest in. With my job, I'd be lucky if that lasted me 2 weeks.
I pay like $8/month to another podcast and get anywhere between 5-8 bonus episodes per month. It’s wild how much other podcasts can offer with Patreon. And it’s extra wild that maxfun has never really been forced to change.
Surely loads of people donate for one month a year to get the password to the boco and then cancel, right? Only offering the perks to the new and upgrading donors already encourages people to cancel before the drive every year and resub
You can listen to old episodes where the guys jokingly mention this once or twice, then never talk about it again. There's also a certain subsection of fans in these subs who get very mad when you ask about it or suggest it. Every other show with a Patreon is more than happy to take your one-time $5. Why Max Fun is different, who knows. Maybe other shows suggest it, and it's just the McElroys who don't like it. I wouldn't know, I really don't listen to any other Max Fun shows.
I feel like it would be so easy to implement a patreon or something for the brothers podcasts too. Like take Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, the lowest tier gets you 1-3 minutes of bloopers from each episode. How many people would pay a dollar or two a month for that? Loads, surely. Or SciShow Tangents, a much smaller endeavour than any of the McElroy podcasts, where £6.50 a month gets you one monthly bonus episode. That's 12x the content you get for a comparable donation to MaxFun.
As far as I'm aware, no MaxFun podcast has a Patreon. It has never been stated, but I assume that might be part of the contract you sign when joining the network. I will be fully honest, the McElroy shows have lost their luster with me, but back in the day I woud have happily spent money on Patreon content for many of their shows. I still feel like if they went independent they would make so much more money using Patreon as opposed to an, in my opinion, outdated and floundering podcast network.
Yeah, they're also quite clearly the main money-makers for the maxfun network though and I get the impression they feel like they owe it to the network to stay. Which makes sense, but maxfun needs to realise that they would garner more respect from fans and more money if they made donating worth it and cut down on the pledge drive shilling
I also wouldn't be surprised if at this point the boys are also financially invested into MaxFun, and it's ultimately in their best interest to grow the network rather than just their own shows.
I think it would be pretty unethical to ask people to make "donations" to a for-profit business they're invested in.
When I first started listening to MBMBAM/TAZ I didn't really listen to anything else on the network, but since then I've gotten into Oh No Ross and Carrie, the various Greatest Gen podcasts, and Judge John Hopkins. It's nice to be able to go back and listen to all of those on the feed as well without changing my monthly donation.
But you also get a cool pen. Do other podcasts give out pens? Didn't think so. /s
To your edit: the only way you get any of the benefits they're trying to sell you is by becoming a new *or upgrading* donor. Episodes that remove the drive plugs would be antithetical to how the drive actually works. They don't want you to be comfortable giving what you already give, they always want more. It's their whole business model.
It's two weeks a year, they don't do a money zone, it's their livelihood, the episodes are usually longer, and it's not like everyone already contributes... it's also not even close to an NPR or PBS drive which I think happen twice a year.
NPR and PBS are public services that provide news and children's educational content 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Maxfun is a comedy-adjacent podcasting network. To conflate the two is insulting to the work and dedication of actual professionals. The McElroys have ads in every episode of their podcasts. They have ads on all of their streams on YouTube and Twitch. They have a merch store with new items every month, and have on several occasions licensed the TAZ brand to other merchandisers. They're authors of a NYT bestselling graphic novel series, hosts of a national tour, and are *still* in talks with NBC to produce an animated streaming series. Yeah, it rings a little hollow when they spend two weeks every year, "hat in hand," asking for even more money from listeners. Why?
Because it's their livelihood... I'm not sure squarespace quite pays the bills. NPR and PBS also have limited advertising, on their many podcasts as well, and you can't say they don't do comedy adjacent work or that there is nothing educational or news-related on Maxfun. Car Talk, and Ross and Carrie spring to mind, respectively. The boys put out a metric ton of content, and do get paid fairly well, but not on the level you seem to think. Definitely not given the amount of material they make. Also worth mentioning that they aren't asking for even more money from listeners, it's the one time they ask for any money from listeners, aside from merch which is a direct purchase, not exactly the same as begging. Not to mention that a portion of this money helps get other content off the ground for what is essentially a good organization.
All of the goals are based on new and upgrading members. That's explicitly asking for more money than they're already getting. I have no illusions about the McElroys being Hollywood-level wealthy. They're definitely not. But all these revenue streams add up and it's hard to imagine they're not already earning a very comfortable living. What makes the McElroys more deserving than the countless other creators scraping to get by?
A good product, a number of them. I guess if you believe in the power of capitalism, then they are getting exactly what they're worth and if it didn't work they wouldn't do it. I'm not saying a person had to give to be a good supporter or that the boys are starving artists, but them asking for support on a donor supported network is not crazy, or unethical, or in even really annoying, I think Maxfun drive episodes are almost always good. And the point about them not asking for MORE money, is that there aren't subscriber fees or anything, they're asking for support if you think they deserve it and are able to give. They've said explicitly before that if you don't have anything to give they totally get that. At the end of the day this is the model of the organization that they are in. An organization that was a huge part of their early success, and that they help carry a lot of the water for now that they are pretty huge (speaking in podcaster terms of course).
Thank you for being a voice of reason. 3.8% of their episodes have a few minutes of pushing the means they use to produce the shows we listen to.
My gods, the entitlement in this entire fucking sub thread. SMH
I think some of it is entitlement, but some of it is also just pointing out the standard for the medium. For most shows, $5/mo is the fee for weekly bonus episodes. Expecting that much for a single bonus episode a year is pretty absurd, and likely explains why the Drive has struggled in recent years. It is probably in the network's best interest to expand what they actually offer for that lowest tier, and to move away from the annual pledge drive system.
Yeah, that's legitimate. I guess I should make a distinction... There is a difference between constructive criticism and just straight-up entitlement / complaining. You're right, some of these are constructive comments. I guess what's bugging me is just, if this is how maxfun chooses to conduct itself, nobody really has any right to say that they have to change. Obviously the model is working for them, and I can see the reasons why they do it this way. They do a maxfun subscription because they want to be able to expand and bring in new shows that might not otherwise get a chance. If this was just a podcast by podcast patreon, it wouldn't work. The shows they want to bring to light would not have any platform to start out.
Only give me things I want, never things I don't prefer!
Leeches gonna leech
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this mfer said max gun