To Tell The Truth - General Discussion

[iMonrey]

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I personally believe all parlor/stage hypnotists are frauds. The long one on one stuff to get you to stop addictions etc are more about therapy. 

I hate to think this show is using phony-baloney professions just for entertainment value, because the professions are really the driving force and main point of interest behind the show. But that whole hypnosis thing with Mama Doris just reeked of staged fakeness.

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WTF to the baby daddy. I thought there was no way it could be number 1. Thought it was three because he was the only one that said everything still went through a clinic. 

Ugh, IKR? I really don't want to believe the donor gets it on with these women in department store bathrooms. What kind of weirdos contact this guy?

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I hate to think this show is using phony-baloney professions just for entertainment value, because the professions are really the driving force and main point of interest behind the show. But that whole hypnosis thing with Mama Doris just reeked of staged fakeness.

I have no opinion at this point as to whether or not Doris was hypnotized, but, FWIW, the "professional hypnotist," Pattie Freeman, is supposed to be a Board Certified Hypnotherapist.

[jhlipton]

On 7/15/2019 at 10:03 PM, lynxfx said:

 I personally believe all parlor/stage hypnotists are frauds.

On 7/16/2019 at 10:31 AM, iMonrey said:

 But that whole hypnosis thing with Mama Doris just reeked of staged fakeness.

On 7/15/2019 at 10:43 AM, iMonrey said:

I wasn't buying that whole bit with Mama being "hypnotized" to say Bingo every time Anthony said Truth. It seemed scripted to me. I don't think hypnosis really works that way, either.

I don't know about this time, but I watched my wife get hypnotized on a stage show and it is definitely not fake.  Mama Doris (who I love) knew she was saying "Bingo!" but didn't know why -- it made sense for her try to want to make it seem normal.

[theatremouse]

I was very frustrated watching the hypnotist episode. I briefly knew someone who was a board certified hypnotherapist also, which means I know certain terms and phrases. Maybe no one on the panel had such knowledge, but it felt like none of them asked questions which would actually help them rule out imposters (unless the imposters also happened to know the lingo). I wondered immediately if it were in the editing - that they want some level of ambiguity for the audience so if anyone asks a question that's too good it gets cut.

I get that part of the point is comedy in the interactions but I feel like either the panel is too many folks who are not seriously trying to figure it out or the producers don't want us to actually be able to play along beyond confirming/denying a gut feeling. This bugs me nearly every episode but especially during the hypnotist one.

[ams1001]

On 7/22/2019 at 5:39 AM, jhlipton said:

I don't know about this time, but I watched my wife get hypnotized on a stage show and it is definitely not fake.  Mama Doris (who I love) knew she was saying "Bingo!" but didn't know why -- it made sense for her try to want to make it seem normal.

We had hypnotist shows a couple times in college and one of my friends volunteered both times. Sure seemed real.

[jhlipton]

On 7/24/2019 at 1:05 PM, theatremouse said:

Maybe no one on the panel had such knowledge, but it felt like none of them asked questions which would actually help them rule out imposters

This is far too common.  Every once in a while, one of the celebrities will ask a good question, but far too often, they seem too uninformed to do so.  

Just for example, I would have asked the "Road-Kill Cookoff Champ" "what's the deal with armadillos?" (answer: they're not used as rod-kill since they can pass on Hansen's Disease).  [As it was, I was able to toss the guy who said people could eat snake in its skin.  Um, no.]  Or the fencing guy "What's a 'Heidleberg scar'?" (It's a saber cut on the cheek that became a badge of honor among German men around the time of WW1.

[Irlandesa]

On 7/10/2019 at 6:19 PM, Enigma X said:

I don’t care for Anthony Anderson or his mama, but this show is actually my favorite of the reboots.

Same here.  The celebs and interesting jobs/stories make it worth it for me even if I don't like the host or Doris.

On 7/16/2019 at 12:31 PM, iMonrey said:

I hate to think this show is using phony-baloney professions just for entertainment value, because the professions are really the driving force and main point of interest behind the show.

Even "phony-baloney" professions have an art and craft to them to make people want to watch them do what they do.  The hypnotist thing did seem a bit easy.

6 hours ago, jhlipton said:

This is far too common.  Every once in a while, one of the celebrities will ask a good question, but far too often, they seem too uninformed to do so. 

I remember Josh Malina's interrogation of the White House pastry chef and it was beautiful.  Not only did he ask White House questions but he asked what mille feuilles stood for.

[iMonrey]

Yeah a lot of times the panel goes for a laugh rather than actually trying to suss out the liars. But I'm sure the show wants that. There's a reason they put a lot of comics on the show.

[foxfreakinmulder]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yeah a lot of times the panel goes for a laugh rather than actually trying to suss out the liars. But I'm sure the show wants that. There's a reason they put a lot of comics on the show.

I agree. It does bug me though because sometimes the questions are just really dumb.

I'm getting tired of Anthony Anderson always making a statement at the start of the show about how it hosted by a black man. His mama doesn't bother me, I like her.

I remember watching the original show (yes, I'm old) and I liked that the guest stars went in order to ask questions. On this show it bounces around and some of the guest stars don't even ask a question during the segment. I wish it was more structured. But I still like it.

[Enigma X]

I am not bothered by the celebrities not asking a “subject matter expert” question. I get not knowing what to ask a person when you know nothing about what it takes to do what they do, but I think ask/answering segments are too short. I mean get rid of a set of guests and make the question part longer.

[iMonrey]

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I remember watching the original show (yes, I'm old

I remember the original as well. The change I dislike the most is that the impostors were actually awarded $$ for every celebrity panelist who incorrectly chose them. Now it's the panelists who rack up points for correct guesses. That seems dumb. I think the impostors who fool the panelists into choosing them should get the rewards.

[jhlipton]

11 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I remember the original as well. The change I dislike the most is that the impostors were actually awarded $$ for every celebrity panelist who incorrectly chose them. Now it's the panelists who rack up points for correct guesses. That seems dumb. I think the impostors who fool the panelists into choosing them should get the rewards.

Are we sure that the experts and imposters don't get any money?  I think for each vote an imposter gets, both the expert and that imposter should get some reward.

[iMonrey]

If they get money they've never said so. I think they all probably get the same standard appearance fee regardless of how many incorrect guesses they manage to get.

[iMonrey]

Yikes, the  "Doris" statue is downright scary. But I thought they were going to hand it out to the winner. Or is that going to be the grand finale prize at the end of the season or something? 

That Rubik's Cube kid was amazing. And I should have recognized Anne Lockhart. She used to be on Battlestar Galactica (the original 70s version, not the HBO remake).

[ams1001]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yikes, the  "Doris" statue is downright scary. But I thought they were going to hand it out to the winner. Or is that going to be the grand finale prize at the end of the season or something? 

I think he said it was if someone got all of the truth-tellers correct. (Not sure if anyone did.) That thing was even scarier than the chocolate Doris sculpture from a few weeks back.

They didn't have the second set of tennis imposters introduce themselves. I was a little annoyed by that...I like hearing who the other people are. I thought it was cute how the one guy said they weren't the Williams sisters' hitting partners but the other guy hit on him (should have said "and now we're partners").

I'll admit to cheating sometimes and googling while they ask their questions. Mostly I do it when I recognize the story (like the scientist saved by a whale a few weeks ago, which I had seen a video of when it first hit the internets) because I'm impatient to see if I'm remembering correctly. I googled who wrote "Like A Virgin" and found the names but there was no picture of the lyricist on wikipedia...but it did list his birth date and the other guy was too young. I've wondered what they would do if someone knew one of the celebrities..now I know.

[theatremouse]

I knew the hitting partners right away. Clearly no one on the panel watches tennis, or else they'd recognize them by sight since they're regularly in the player box and thus the TV cameras cut to them all the time during matches. (Plus the TV folks made a big deal of it for a while that the sisters' current hitting partners were brothers - so even if their faces weren't familiar, stating that they're brothers confirms who they are.)

[jhlipton]

23 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yikes, the  "Doris" statue is downright scary. But I thought they were going to hand it out to the winner. Or is that going to be the grand finale prize at the end of the season or something? 

17 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I think he said it was if someone got all of the truth-tellers correct. (Not sure if anyone did.)

Yes, it was for getting all 5 right, and none of them did (I think the best was 3 of 5).

17 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I thought it was cute how the one guy said they weren't the Williams sisters' hitting partners but the other guy hit on him (should have said "and now we're partners").

He did say something like "and now we're engaged!"  Not introducing the first pair of impostors was weird!

[theatremouse]

I'm pretty sure he said either "now we're dating" or "now we're together". I had actually thought earlier (besides knowing they weren't the right answer) that they were a couple, so I was not surprised, but the way he put it was sort of awkward. It would've been funnier if he said it as ams1001 suggested. In the moment it felt like maybe production had given him the lines for how to introduce themselves and he fumbled it.

[ams1001]

4 hours ago, theatremouse said:

I'm pretty sure he said either "now we're dating" or "now we're together". I had actually thought earlier (besides knowing they weren't the right answer) that they were a couple, so I was not surprised, but the way he put it was sort of awkward. It would've been funnier if he said it as ams1001 suggested. In the moment it felt like maybe production had given him the lines for how to introduce themselves and he fumbled it.

I think he said "now we're a couple" but he seemed sort of nervous saying it so maybe he was supposed to say "partner" and messed up? I can't imagine the show would let that obvious play on words go.

[theatremouse]

Yeah either he was fed a line and didn't quite deliver it...or...like...the person hit on him in the green room and they've known each other literally less than a day while saying this? And he was maybe regretting saying it? I couldn't tell which.

[Whimsy]

I recognized the “husband caller”. The video was (somewhat) viral like a year ago. I also recognized the chocolatier from an earlier episode. 

Its always weird ti me to me when the panelists completely ignore one person/couple/whatever. How can you make a truly informed choice without hearing from all of them?

[jhlipton]

15 hours ago, Whimsy said:

How can you make a truly informed choice without hearing from all of them?

This assumes that they're interested in making an "informed choice".  In the Kitty Carlisle days (and, thanks, Weird Al, for that reminder!), they really did try to ask good questions, but in this version, the celebrities are more interested in goofing around.

[FormerMod-a1]

Yeah, some panelists spend all their questions on jokes or adlibs or banter and don't try at all.  Like not even once.  I find it annoying.  

[Whimsy]

36 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

This assumes that they're interested in making an "informed choice".  In the Kitty Carlisle days (and, thanks, Weird Al, for that reminder!), they really did try to ask good questions, but in this version, the celebrities are more interested in goofing around.

31 minutes ago, aquarian1 said:

Yeah, some panelists spend all their questions on jokes or adlibs or banter and don't try at all.  Like not even once.  I find it annoying.  

If I were a panelist, I would really take it seriously lol.  Just to prove my deductive skills.  But, most of those celebrities don't really care at all. 

[jhlipton]

2 hours ago, Whimsy said:

If I were a panelist, I would really take it seriously lol.  Just to prove my deductive skills.  But, most of those celebrities don't really care at all. 

There's no reason for them to do so.  At worst, they have to wear a "Dummy Crown" for a minute.  It was better when Anderson put up the false Twitter -- that gave at least some stakes.

[dvr devotee]

So did I hallucinate the keyboard on stage during the Like A Virgin/celebrity voice coach segment? And continue the hallucination with Anthony saying the coach was going to train Doris to sing like Reese Witherspoon during the commercial break? And kept on hallucinating when I then saw Doris getting up and walking toward the coach? I assumed he would train with her for longer than a few minutes, it would be impossible to do it right then and there onstage, but when they came back from the break, it...wasn't mentioned at all and the keyboard was gone, so then I figured they'd just do it at the end. But then the show ended and...nothing. If it was all meant as a joke then okay, but then why was the keyboard ever out on the stage? Or did the celebrity voice coach meet his match in Mama Doris?

[ams1001]

Ugh, ASMR whispering does nothing but annoy me.

Still trying to figure out what coffee has to do with ASMR...

[iMonrey]

I hate when the guests get up to demonstrate some unique skill like pizza throwing or bubble blowing and the show keeps cutting away to the celebrity panel reacting to it. I don't care! I want to see the skill, I don't need to see Mayim Bialik's mouth hanging open. 

I have also had it up to here with Mama Doris. She has now taken it upon herself to run across the stage and fling herself at every guest after the reveal. Not everyone wants a hug from you, Mama Doris. She has bought into her own hype. The show has grossly overestimated her popularity IMO.

[jhlipton]

15 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Ugh, ASMR whispering does nothing but annoy me.

I've found the videos of painter Bob Ross (with his "happy trees") far more relaxing than any of the ASMR whispering.

[iMonrey]

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I've found the videos of painter Bob Ross (with his "happy trees") far more relaxing than any of the ASMR whispering.

Good example. I get ASMR - in fact the sound of the brush being stroked back and forth across the canvas used to give me the tingles. But none of the sound effects I've seen or heard on these videos does it for me.

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Good example. I get ASMR - in fact the sound of the brush being stroked back and forth across the canvas used to give me the tingles. But none of the sound effects I've seen or heard on these videos does it for me.

In addition to the brush strokes, I find Ross' voice just soooooooo soothing!

[ams1001]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I hate when the guests get up to demonstrate some unique skill like pizza throwing or bubble blowing and the show keeps cutting away to the celebrity panel reacting to it. I don't care! I want to see the skill, I don't need to see Mayim Bialik's mouth hanging open. 

It's like watching the America's Got Talent auditions. I don't need to see Julianne Hough looking dumbfounded at some kid singing every two seconds.

5 hours ago, jhlipton said:

I've found the videos of painter Bob Ross (with his "happy trees") far more relaxing than any of the ASMR whispering.

I used to watch Bob after school. I like the White Noise app. I usually go for rain and wave sounds. I hear enough of people making noise all day at work.

[foxfreakinmulder]

4 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I like the White Noise app. I usually go for rain and wave sounds. I hear enough of people making noise all day at work.

I agree the world is noisy. I use a box fan for my white noise and run it on high at night 12 months out of the year. I love that Bob Ross bobble head with racoon.

I thought this panel of guest was a good one even though the only person I knew was Mayim, she asked some good questions. That's probably why she won the golden Doris, lol.

[iMonrey]

She didn't win the Golden Doris, she erred on at least one guess. Lucky for her I guess - the Golden Doris is the stuff nightmares are made of.

[theatremouse]

They all got the  MMA one wrong.

Two seconds in though, I knew I'd love watching Mayim do this. She was really playing the game, asking real questions, not just going for the obvious joke. I also loved how she didn't call out the Australian not-pizza guy who didn't know what gluten was. LOVED how she just said "thank you that was very helpful". 

I'm torn on Nicole Byer. I enjoy her in general, and I know the schtick she was doing is consistent with her comedy, and there have been other female comedians on the show before who do basically the same thing... but I'm really not loving the "essentially sexually harass the contestants" style of questions some of the comedians do. It's squickly and also not funny because we've all seen this 1000 times before. Seriously show, stop with the "are you single?" unless it's a sincere question that might have to do with the thing they're guessing about.

[ams1001]

18 hours ago, foxfreakinmulder said:

I agree the world is noisy. I use a box fan for my white noise and run it on high at night 12 months out of the year. I love that Bob Ross bobble head with racoon.

Usually I listen to classical music CDs to go to sleep, but sometimes I just want to listen to the rain. (There's a series of alliterative titles geared to specific activities; I have Bach at Bedtime and Beethoven for Booklovers, and when I bought my mattress I got a "free gift" of a CD that incorporates "Delta Wave Pulses" with classical music that supposedly helps you sleep more deeply. I dunno know about that but the music is nice, and is what I've been listening to the past week or so.)

There are several Bob Pop figures. There's also and owl and a fox, and just Bob with his paint palette and paintbrush. He also comes in keychain form, which I might look for.

[Violet Penner]

In general, I agree that we don’t need so many reaction shots of the judges, but I confess that Mayim’s reactions made me smile. She seemed so genuinely into it and having fun, it was infectious. And while some jokes are fine and keep the show light, I also generally prefer the “really playing the game” questions. 

I also had to smile when the fighter guy came out with his basket of crocheted goodies, including headbands. 

[foxfreakinmulder]

4 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Usually I listen to classical music CDs to go to sleep, but sometimes I just want to listen to the rain. (There's a series of alliterative titles geared to specific activities; I have Bach at Bedtime and Beethoven for Booklovers, and when I bought my mattress I got a "free gift" of a CD that incorporates "Delta Wave Pulses" with classical music that supposedly helps you sleep more deeply.

I like listening to classical music to relax or take a short nap. I have a ROKU and it has a Relax Channel that has music with nature sounds I like to listen to that, but I need the loud fan at night to sleep because I have Tinnitus and it helps drown it out. I'm definitely going to check out Bach at Bedtime though :-) 

[ams1001]

33 minutes ago, foxfreakinmulder said:

I like listening to classical music to relax or take a short nap. I have a ROKU and it has a Relax Channel that has music with nature sounds I like to listen to that, but I need the loud fan at night to sleep because I have Tinnitus and it helps drown it out. I'm definitely going to check out Bach at Bedtime though 🙂 

I have tinnitus, too. I need some kind of noise but music is usually enough. (Though I played the radio at night when I was a little kid, too, so it's not just that. I think it's more that I'm just used to it.) 

[jhlipton]

21 hours ago, iMonrey said:

She didn't win the Golden Doris, she erred on at least one guess.

Mayim got 49 out of 60, and got the last one, so she missed 2 (top score is 60). She missed "Row across the Atlantic" and the MMA fighter, both of which I got. 

18 hours ago, theatremouse said:

I'm really not loving the "essentially sexually harass the contestants" style of questions some of the comedians do.

It's particularly bad in that all the Black women seem to do this, which perpetuates a vile stereotype.

[iMonrey]

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In general, I agree that we don’t need so many reaction shots of the judges, but I confess that Mayim’s reactions made me smile. She seemed so genuinely into it and having fun, it was infectious.

The problem is we don't get to see the expert do their stuff. If the show feels like the audience would be entertained by the panel's reactions they should do letterbox-type insets or split-screens so they don't cut away from whatever the pro is doing. 

[jhlipton]

On 8/19/2019 at 8:52 AM, iMonrey said:

I hate when the guests get up to demonstrate some unique skill like pizza throwing or bubble blowing and the show keeps cutting away to the celebrity panel reacting to it.

I think American Idol was the first to do this, and I agree, it stinks.  It's not as bad if it's an audio talent, like singing, but for anything visual, they should do the picture-in-picture method suggested by @iMonrey.

[foxfreakinmulder]

On ‎8‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 7:51 AM, jhlipton said:

It's particularly bad in that all the Black women seem to do this, which perpetuates a vile stereotype.

I agree. And it would cause an outrage if a male guest did that to the female contestants. Outrage!!

[ams1001]

I think I would purposely try to get at least one wrong just so I wouldn't have to go home with The Doris.

The middle dreadlock guy kinda moves like he's carrying 50 pounds of hair...

Edited August 26, 2019 by ams1001

[dmeets]

Jalen seems to have been on the show often enough to implement my strategy — just pick the contestant Mama Doris picks, since I think she’s still cheating even after being called out last year (Anthony revealed that she asks someone on the crew who the contestants are, then googles to see who they are/what they look like). The only time she seems to be wrong is when the background is too generic to google, like the one a week or two ago about the ninja with a second skill (which was not revealed until during questioning, and each contestant answered differently - it was impossible to look up in advance and lo and behold, Doris was wrong).

Edited August 26, 2019 by dmeets

[iMonrey]

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Jalen seems to have been on the show often enough to implement my strategy — just pick the contestant Mama Doris picks, since I think she’s still cheating even after being called out last year (Anthony revealed that she asks someone on the crew who the contestants are, then googles to see who they are/what they look like).

Very interesting. I have long suspected someone was feeding her the answers, or that she was otherwise cheating somehow. 

The longest dreadlocks in the world is just crazy, unless the whole point is to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Even then I don't think it would be worth the obvious hassle. 

[sd dude]

Honestly, I suppose for 24.95 it would be kind of cool to have an actual deed to an acre of lunar surface, but I'm still not clear where the authority comes from for this guy to lay sole claim to real estate sales for the all the heavenly bodies in the solar system other then earth.  Did the UN just humor this fellow as a mascot/village idiot, or is there some kind of interplanetary law giving this whole thing legitimacy?  Since all the nation members of the UN are on earth, how can they make decisions for the other planets?  No other planets or any subdivisions of them belong to the UN.  So, I'm presuming the whole thing is just a meaningless novelty, but if that's the case I can print my own deed from my own computer for 2 1/2 cents rather than pay $25 for the same worthless piece of paper.  If this guy actually has millions of clients like was claimed and is a multimillionaire as a result of selling unenforceable land deeds, he's not the idiot - everyone else is.  Furthermore, does anyone own the Andromeda Galaxy yet?  I may get on the horn to the UN.  "For sale - one galaxy, like new (only 10 billion years old), offered in whole or in part at only $1 per star."  If Andromeda is similar in size to the Milky Way, which is estimated to have on the order of 100 billion stars, I should be able to put the kids through college.

[foxfreakinmulder]

9 hours ago, iMonrey said:

The longest dreadlocks in the world is just crazy, unless the whole point is to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Even then I don't think it would be worth the obvious hassle. 

I agree. Why would anyone want hair that long? Plus, all the dreadlocks I've seen look nasty, like big turds. It reminds of women that let their fingernails grow so long they start curling, and how the hell do they wipe their ass with those nails? Gross!

At least this panel of guest asked some good questions.

People are really stupid if they're paying for land on a planet that's not Earth. Wow!

[ams1001]

8 minutes ago, foxfreakinmulder said:

I agree. Why would anyone want hair that long? Plus, all the dreadlocks I've seen look nasty, like big turds. It reminds of women that let their fingernails grow so long they start curling, and how the hell do they wipe their ass with those nails? Gross!

At least this panel of guest asked some good questions.

I had hip-length hair (no dreads) from about my senior year in high school until just before my junior year of college and now I can't imagine how I put up with it (it's currently a little past my shoulders and that's long enough; when it gets past my shoulder blades I start getting aggravated).

Joshua Malina is usually pretty good. Funny but still takes the game seriously. And wears fun socks.

[jhlipton]

On 8/26/2019 at 9:41 AM, iMonrey said:

The longest dreadlocks in the world is just crazy, unless the whole point is to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Even then I don't think it would be worth the obvious hassle. 

For many, it's a religious thing -- in Rasta, I think there's an injunction not to cut the hair (sort of like the Amish and their beards).

On 8/26/2019 at 7:42 PM, ams1001 said:

Joshua Malina is usually pretty good. Funny but still takes the game seriously. And wears fun socks.

At least for the first few rounds, Wanda Sykes was asking really good questions (which helped my guesses).  I think I was 4 out of 5 this week.