NBC's New Year's Eve Game Night

[Tara Ariano]

Celebrities play party games in a year-end special hosted by Andy Cohen from 30 Rock in New York City. The players are John Stamos, Bob Saget, Bob Harper, Chris Parnell, Whitney Cummings, JB Smoove, Rob Riggle and Sasheer Zamata. The house band is Panic! At the Disco.

[Primetimer]

Everyone sure has time to joke around about sexual assault, though! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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[Ames]

This was really awful to watch.

I agree with everything you said above, and also have to call out Bob Harper for describing the upcoming season of The Biggest Loser as featuring "lots of really overweight people crying" and then fake sobbed "I want pizza, I want brownies". What an asshole.

[Misanthrope]

Wait, by the trans joke, you mean the line about the zucchini?

I read that to mean Whitney sent him a photo of her pleasuring herself with a zucchini.

[Tara Ariano]

Wait, by the trans joke, you mean the line about the zucchini?

I read that to mean Whitney sent him a photo of her pleasuring herself with a zucchini.

 

But then Andy Cohen reacts with horror that he accidentally sent a photo to Stamos, which I assumed we were supposed to think was Cohen's penis.

[Machiabelly]

Yes, but he didn't think she had a penis, he thought his penis was a zuchini. I mean, it is an awful joke either way, but I also didn't take it as a trans joke. I took it as a clueless Stamos joke

[Muffyn]

I think the real problem is calling it a joke. It's just a fail.

[yeswedo]

This made me appreciate the regular version so much! I know there wasn't any money on the line for a civilian but the flagrant rules violations were frustrating to watch. Especially the final game where time was clearly up several seconds before they guessed David Letterman.

 

If anyone missed watching live or recording, it's available from the NBC site.

[Actionmage]

I think I'm glad I missed this.

 

I second the suggestion of Sasheer Zamata being asked to the regular version. If she was trying to go by the rules, then bless her and I can just see her ready to smack the hell out of the lighted buzzer stands. And? wearing appropriate, cool shoes.

[Kromm]

This was really awful to watch.

I agree with everything you said above, and also have to call out Bob Harper for describing the upcoming season of The Biggest Loser as featuring "lots of really overweight people crying" and then fake sobbed "I want pizza, I want brownies". What an asshole.

Harper's always been an asshole--the show worked overtime to hide it. 

 

In theory I suppose he was just trying to "be funny", but man that misses by a mile. Here's a hint Bob: the people who can pull of that kind of joke are usually only the ones who are overweight. Vintage Roseanne. Louie Anderson. John Pinette. Gabriel Iglesias. Ralphie May. Maybe even someone like current Roseanne, since there's a way to joke about the past that kind of works. But not you, Bob. You aren't Don Rickles (maybe the only non-fat/ex-fat person who could get away with it).

[Irlandesa]

Harper's always been an asshole--the show worked overtime to hide it. 

Ugh yes! I remember a time when he went on social media and bitched that a restaurant wouldn't give him a reservation, that they were rude...etc.  The local restaurant, which I love and is run by a respected chef, actually spoke to the press about it.  They were booked the night he wanted, they did have bar seating options and he didn't call but had some reps called who pulled a "Don't you know who he is" kind of thing. They seemed kind of flabbergasted.  But I do love that they did not stay silent and I've hated his ass ever since. 

 

I've only seen a few episodes of the show but isn't the goal to inspire people to lose weight but not to mock them as he was doing? 

 

I know there wasn't any money on the line for a civilian but the flagrant rules violations were frustrating to watch. Especially the final game where time was clearly up several seconds before they guessed David Letterman.

Yes!  I mean a lot of this was a confusing hot mess and not fun to watch but the rules violations were making me tear my hair out.  And I hated how they did some of the games.  Like the dancing game where both people were up there.  IIRC, they don't do that in the regular game, do they?  Because it was basically JB Smoove hitting all the dances and doing them well and Sasheer (opposite team) guessing based off of what he was doing. 

 

I will say, in addition to Sasheer, the final game before the Name Game was a highlight.  I was impressed by the charade urgency and drive that team displayed to make up all the ground they were behind. 

[Kromm]

Ugh yes! I remember a time when he went on social media and bitched that a restaurant wouldn't give him a reservation, that they were rude...etc.  The local restaurant, which I love and is run by a respected chef, actually spoke to the press about it.  They were booked the night he wanted, they did have bar seating options and he didn't call but had some reps called who pulled a "Don't you know who he is" kind of thing. They seemed kind of flabbergasted.  But I do love that they did not stay silent and I've hated his ass ever since. 

 

I've only seen a few episodes of the show but isn't the goal to inspire people to lose weight but not to mock them as he was doing? 

Right. In an exploitative kind of way.

 

I think the public perception was always that Jillian Michaels was the mean one and Bob "the nice one", but scuttlebutt was always that Jillian (who even if she doesn't look it now was a fat kid) was actually somewhat sincere and on the level (except for a yucky foray into questionable dietary supplements) whereas Bob was a big ol' phony.

[elzin]

I've seen every episode of HGN in its entirety... except for this one. I had to turn it off and I rarely leave stuff unfinished. It wasn't just boring, it was offensively bad. Not just in the "that was in bad taste" way, but aggressively bad.  Like it offended me how bad it was, not just the off-color jokes. I can laugh about most things provided they're funny and that key milestone was not met... It wasn't even glimpsed far off in the distance.

 

It was an uphill battle to begin with. I find Jane to be uneven as a host but compared to Andy? Speaking of Andy, he is not nearly as compelling as he thinks he is. And I'm getting really tired of seeing him and his creations everywhere. Is his 15 minutes up?

 

Plus I can't stand the players, or at least the ones I had heard of. And by players, I mean the people who were supposed to be playing, not standing around mugging waiting for Andy to shout suggestions too. Andy, you're supposed to herd them, not be one of them.

 

Maybe it would have been a godawful train wreck with Jane Lynch and a decent celebrity panel because when it's live you can't edit out buffoonery, but I suspect we'll never know because this was so bad they'll never try it again.

[Muffyn]

Plus I can't stand the players, or at least the ones I had heard of. And by players, I mean the people who were supposed to be playing, not standing around mugging waiting for Andy to shout suggestions too. Andy, you're supposed to herd them, not be one of them.

That is my biggest problem with Andy.  He is trying so hard to be one of the cool kids.  He comes off as desperate for attention and approval.  He should not be in front of the camera.  He brings nothing of value to every show he does.