okay this is a very long post and i apologise - i didn't mean to have this many thoughts on bit city but i do so i would really appreciate if you read through this whole thing and hear me out completely:
so, i think we can all agree that the smosh main channel right now isn't doing so well, this time last year, most of their videos on main had a good 1 million+ views, especially after food battle. but nowadays, most of the bit city sketches get from 400k - 900k on average views, 2024 youtube sucks is the only bit city sketch to get above 1 million views.
i think a big reason for this drop in numbers is for 2 reasons, 1. the fact that smosh put hold on all their other sketches that they were doing on the main channel for bit city, and took a whole 2 month break for it, for the end result being, well, average. and the 2nd reason being is that, well, bit city as a whole isn't the best show and while it has it's strong points, it's not a good enough show on it's own that will make your average viewer want to tune in and it's also just, not, that good. now im a big smosh fan and i only want the best for the channel, which is why im gonna try and break down the reasons why bit city isn't really working and how to fix it, hopefully if we spread this around a little bit in the smosh fandom here on tumblr, we'll be able to spread some news (ill post this on reddit as well).
okay now the breakdown. let's start with the concept of bit city, from what i've gathered, bit city is basically trying to be the 'snl'/late night with jimmy show of smosh, the all in all sketch show that has a bit of everything (like a variety show). now i don't watch snl much but from what i know of it, snl episodes have a typical format that they fall into, they start with a cold open, followed by a monologue, then 2-3 sketches, then commercial break which is where a lot of commericial parodies happen, then a musical performance, then weekend update, and sometimes an addtional performance by a musical guest, and then credits. and you can see smosh borrowing some of those segments for bit city, now this as an idea is great. i think that smosh could pull it off if they wanted to, they have a whole multiverse (literally) of characters to choose from for sketches, they have multiple cast members who are great at hosting and who are able to carry segments on their own, and they have a good enough budget to pull different parts of these segments off.
however, where smosh breaks away from the snl format is the fact that they have structured their show more like a late night show would, having a host and a guest, now this is where smosh starts to lose me a little bit. not because i hate the idea, but because, late night humour is very different from sketch comedy, late night tv's comedy typically relies on topicality (meaning the current things going on in today's society like politics, pop culture, etc.), interviews with guests and recurring segments (think mean tweets on jimmy kimmel), yes they do have sketches, but the format of the sketches is very different. that being said, i think waht smosh was going for in the end, which was a 'late night' esque show where the 'guests' are characters or impressions by the cast, is a geneuienly great idea.
where bit city starts to fail or let me down is the execution, now they cast chanse and angela as the hosts, which i do actually really like since i think they both have a lot of personality, they both are entertaining to watch, and they have a good dynamic which viewers can watch and be entertained by. so i think it was a good choice to have them be the hosts. where i think bit city starts to really lose me is, well, the bits, the sketches.
so far, there have been 6 episodes of bit city, and so far, the bits and characters that have stayed in my head and that i think are truly memorable include the one direction reunion, the "straight eye" cast, the kardashians bit and the ianthony bit (although i personally was let down by that it was very popular in the fandom so im including it), that is it. every other bit has been either average or forgettable, in fact, the only episode of bit city which i think lands on every level is the straight vs gay episode.
why? let's break it down.
bit city as a show follows a general structure, the show opens with a 'cold open' of sort where angela says something like 'XX PERSON DID WHAT?' and chanse replies with something along the lines of 'yeah bitch' or some one liner response, after that they have a bit of bantering between chanse and angela which goes on either too long or too short, before cutting to their first set of commercials, after that they return with their first sketch or bit which is typically an interview or a reunion with the 'guest' being either an impression or character by the cast, in the middle of the interview they cut to the commericals again before returning to the bit again, after the bit hits it's "climax" of sorts, then they cut to a third set of commercials, before returning for either an improvised segment with members of the cast as themselves playing games ie. straight vs gay trivia. or the 'hot goss' section where they have tommy read off a teleprompter some jokes about modern day pop culture before interviewing another guest (sometimes they cut to commercials here as well but not always), before having the show come to an end with chanse jumping over a car.
now, let's go bit by bit (pun not intended) on every part of this show and break it down bit by bit (okay this time intended).
the cold opens - imo this is one of the weaker parts of the show, i get what they're going for with it, but it just feels so dry and bland, i get that they can't do a full opening monologue and they need something to open the show in that way, but eveyr joke in the cold open section has since fallen flat for me, so really, my only advice here is get better writers or write better jokes.
the banter/improvised section - this is one of the better parts of the show which i do like (althooguh i do think that it does in some cases go on for way too long) but it's mainl because chanse and angela are such likable people that it works, recently they've started adding in some bits to this section like the rib cam and the erewhon taste testing, so i think if i have any real advice for this section of the show, it would be to a. shorten it and not make it drag on as long or b. if you're not gonna shorten it, then at least add more improvised or bits like the rib cam to this part of the show, this would be also be part of the show to bring back segments like smoffice or let's do this on a smaller scale (although ill add more about let's do this later) to have somehting entertaining for this part of the show
commercials - the commercials are one of the most disappointing part of the show to me not because they're bad, but because they could be so much more. like the concept of parody commercials in a sketch show is SOO good, for one, it can help point out flaws in advertising and commercial industry in general, but they can also just be the perfect ground space for character building ro for expanding the smosh universe, but every bit city commercial, the the humour jsut feels so, generic? and it falls so flat every time. and this falls into one of my main critiques of the show, which is, so much of the show feels like such average level humour, like this is smosh, the channel which literally thrives off of characters and over the top bits, so why aren't they utilising that? i can't think of 1 commercial which has stayed in my head or which i would call memorable in this show so far, besides maybe the straight vs gay 'straight boyfriend os' commercial (but even that cuold have been better imo). my real advice for the commercials in the show is a. cut it down, don't have 3-4 commercials in every bit city episode (especially if they're gonna be so average), but b. if you're gonna have this many, use them to expand the smosh universe. have commercials like idk, Mr. Pervert's coffee shop, now hiring, or Fred Dart's new single just launched, anything that will actually add value to the smosh universe and not just be some one off. but if they want to do one off commercials, they could also return to their 'apple product commercial' esque skecthes, like the apple vision pro sketch they did? yeah, do that and split it up into 4 parts instead of all at once, and you have 4 commercials for a bit city episode.
interviews - the interview segments have been okay so far. i liked the one direction reunion, i liked the kardashians one, i somehwat enjoyed the old smosh reunion (but im not that much of an og smosh fan so i didn't enjoy it as much as others) and i really liked the 'straight eye' cast one. i think my main critique for the interview sections of bit city is the same for the commercials in that, it could jsut be SO MUCH more. i for one would love for them to maybe do stuff like a 'smosh the sitcom reunion' with all the characters like kevin, krungle, young sebastian, chosen, etc. or a 'chosen special' where chosen gives us a deep dive into being a chosen, waht it takes to be a chosen, who is or isn't chosen, etc. these sketches in my opinion would be a. more funny than just random pop culture references, and b. interesting deep dive into the pre-existing characters of smosh. and that's not me saying that i think they need to completely erase the pop culture elements of the show, im jsut saying, lean into more of the smosh specific character work of the cast instead of focusing more on the pop culture elements, you can still have reunions like the hsm or the teletubbies reunions (which btw i think were top tier smosh sketches) but just don't make that the focus of the show. also i do think at one point having actual guest features for this section of the show could be interesintg, but seeing how things are going right now, i don't think that will be happening in the near future.
improvised 'games'/recurring segments of the show: so far, what i think they're trying to do in the second half of bit city episodes is try to have one of those 'recurring segment' bits like they have on late night tv with the smosh cast, basically where the cast and host s play improvised games, now this isn't a bad idea but imo it is kinda pointless. liek i don't hate it as a segment, but i think it takes up a lot of run time which could instead be used for stuff like, idk, actual sketches? but if they are trying to do bits like this, i think what would be better is to bring back the 'google search history/watch history' sketches they used to do for this part of the show, since it actually fits quite perfectly. also, my advice for this segment of the show to elevate it a bti more is to really lean into the audience participation part of the show, i think they're trying to do that with the 'crew stories' part but so far they're kinda falling flat/hit or miss, so i think what would be better is to do stuff like have audiecne shots liek they do in real late night tv, play games which involve the audience, or if you wanna involve the crew stories,maybe do it in the format of like in the live show for under the mistletoe (or maybe it was UTI i dont remember) where they have one crew memeber or audience memebr on stage interacting with the cast in characters (like in UTI they had lisa's exes) or just have the crew member tell a story from their life and show them in the audience. that would be better imo.
hot goss - now for every episode where they don't do an improvised game or recurring segment, they do hot goss, which i think you can tell is trying to act as like the 'weekend update' of this show btu more leaning into pop culture elements, which, im sorry, i love you tommy, but this segment is very hit or miss. i don't hate tommy as a host, i think he has a lot of personaltiy which makes him likable and entertaing to watch at times, but this segment is just, very glass half full for me. i liked the stephen king's son episode i think that was well done, but i think my real advice for this segment is the same for the rest of bit city which truly is lean more into the character element of smosh, do stuff like 'deep dive into krungle's dating life' or 'GERALD CAKES TELLS ALL' stuff like that. or if you really want a segment to be about pop culture, then i think a better way to do that would be to maybe bring back the teleprompter bits that they used to do in smosh pit weekly back in like 2016 or so, OR, just get better writers (also cut it down - we do not need like 10 mins+ of amanda being chappell roan and sabrina carpenter's agent - which btw is SUCH a good idea for a character, but as all bit city bits, it fell flat).
--> ,however, i think a better way to do this type of 'weekend update' type show is bring back a smosh pit weekly esque segment - smosh weekly or bit city weekly - and THAT'S where you bring in the topical element of bit city, it's a much better way to do it imo. and you can still keep hot goss if you want to for as i previously siad the character gossip deep dives or the pop culture characters, but alos have this weekly show drive the 'topical' parts of bit city.
chanse jumping over a car - really have no commenrs on this one, i like it as a bit, i think it'll get old really quickly, but for what it is, i like it
@lilac-hecox @smoshkidtv @guessitrunsinthegenes @wazurenaide
