One of the highlights of the 2021 Kickstarter campaign was getting to party hard with our beloved castmembers, and nothing exemplified that more than their Jackbox Showdowns, where the group sits down and plays Jackbox party games for our amusement. These really sat us down and let us jam with each individual castmember as they threw out improv comedy beats for the world to see in enclosed, group party settings. Obviously, these events needed to come back on the Gizmoplex, and of course they did. It was so demanded that they did it twice. Rather than doing separate entries for each game, I decided to group them up into a single entry. It's hard enough to summarize what is essentially a video game once, let alone twice. So, unceremoniously crammed into one entry it is!
The first event is titled "Crow vs. Servo," which pits Hampton Yaunt, Kelsey Ann Brady, and special guest Bill Corbett against Baron Vaughn, Conor McGiffin, and Tim "Technically was a Servo but only on tour" Ryder. This event was originally supposed to conclude the Tribute to Gamera vs. Guiron livestream but I believe it was postponed because they thought it it would run too long, choosing instead to stream it as it's own separate thing. This was probably a good call, because it winds up running near two hours long. That alone makes the event worth its own weight in gold because it's rowdy from start to finish. These bot performers are all ramunctious and full of zingers, and they are ready for these games to begin!
Four games are played in total. Like the YouTube streams, we always start with a round of Quiplash, which the boys at Jackbox actually put up a very special round of to offer these participants, as all the questions are monster themed! The obvious win of the night being the answer to what business actually thrives from a kaiju attack, which is, very astutely observed, Mystery Science Theater 3000. I did quite enjoy that someone wrote that the worst possible location to hear "Watch out for snakes" is "On a plane," bringing to mind a forgotten cult film of yesteryear. Tim probably gets the fail of the night when he overexplains "The Giant Walmart Invasion" for his monster movie title, which loses pretty decisively, causing Hampton to quip "Vote for Tim's tragedy NOW!"
Also, shoutout to the Thriplash round, which dubs King Ghidorah's heads as Moe, Larry, and Failure.
Probably my most endeared game is Tee K.O., where the crew design t-shirts with self-made images. It takes forever to set up, but once it gets rolling the laughs never stop. The only problem with the game is that recency bias usually gets the better of it, as the newer shirt usually wins. But the shirts are always a scream of randomness, with captions ranging from "MY SKIN HURTS" to "LIFE IS A HIGHWAY, GET OFF." They're all winners, in my book. And for a limited time, these designs were available for purchase with proceeds going to both the Gizmoplex and the World Wildlife Fund. This was also true of the custom shirts that all the participants are wearing themselves, and I personally bought one of those fun Crow vs. Servo tees and wore it to MST3Kon several years later!
Concluding the main game is Talking Points, where each participant improvises a Ted Talk about a subject picked out by another player. My favorite of the night goes to Tim, who does his little speech in a Southern Gentleman accent that he dubs Cornelius T. Racism. His delivery sends Kelsey into a mad fit of laughter that she barely survives. Of course, I was also having fun with Conor's speech about Mothra, which he insisted that she was "down to clown."
Results are tallied while the players play a game we haven't seen before called Champ'd Up, where the players make little drawing and make them Mortal Kombat each other. I really liked "Soup or Man," but alas, he died early on. But the winner is announced and the Servos murder the Crows, taking the win for the beloved gumball bot! Tim celebrates by paraphrasing a beloved Servo line: "We're the wind, baby." Kelsey steals his thunder by taking it a step further and just blurting out "I hate Tom's new voice," which is an intense deep cut that I think we all appreciate.
The second Jackbox event actually kicked off the holiday week on the Gizmoplex, which would lead into Tribute events for all of the holiday episodes and eventually into the series finale, The Christmas Dragon! The theme of the night: Hosts vs. Mads! Joel Hodgson, Jonah Ray, and Emily Marsh square off against Felicia Day, Patton Oswalt, and Mary Jo Pehl. Also, Rebecca Hanson is here, but while she participates, she doesn't seem to have a camp. M.C. Matt McGinnis points out that she has played both a bot and a Mad, so she could be either team. My counterargument is that this event is supposed to be Hosts vs. Mads and Rebecca was never a host, so she should be firmly on the Mads team.
This event is less of a noisy good time than the Crow vs. Servo one, but laughs are had. Like before, Quiplash opens yet again. I laughed the loudest during both of these events when the question is presented as to what moral is learned in a Hallmark holiday romance between a Christian man and a Jewish woman and the answers are "Mutual, Passive Spite" and "You Shouldn't Put A Dreidle There." My choice for new holiday classic title is obviously Santa Claus Conquers the Kardashians. Biggest raised eyebrow of the evening goes to Felicia's reason for Santa being unable to afford rent in Christmas That Almost Wasn't being "A prolapsed butthole."
Next we get a great round of Tee K.O., but nobody seems to understand how the points work for the whole thing, but they all accept the way it works because they get to profit off of other people's work. Just like businesses in real life. Biggest laugh of the night goes to "HAVE A CHRISTMAS, MARY" with a picture of what looks like a reindeer eating...something unspeakable, which has Matt laughing so hard that he leaves the screen for a bit. I personally like the "I DO WHAT I WANT" shirt, which looks like a bunny holding a bong (and Mary Jo concurs with me). Emily drew that picture, explaining that she was trying to draw the Coca-Cola polar bear and it just didn't look like it.
Talking Points is the weakest segment of the stream because everyone is rushing through it. Mary Jo doesn't seem to have much of an idea of how it works and she just kinda bluffs her way through her round. It's actually surprising how funny her speech winds up being even though she mostly ignores most of the images on screen and accidentally ends early. She scores pretty high, and I think we were all charmed by her attempt at a game that she doesn't normally play. On the other end of the spectrum, Jonah clearly does his with the most confidence and easily wins the round. Personally, I liked Joel's presentation where he pitches a movie about stews. I don't know why, I just thought the whole thing was pretty funny.
The winners of the night are the Hosts! Patton refuses to concede and asks his followers to storm the Gizmoplex, ending the night with the most political joke since "Epstein Didn't Kill Himself" (which happened earlier in the night, thanks to Jonah). And with that this showdown ends after an hour-and-a-half, likely because the Crow vs. Servo participants played an extra game. But I treasure these little nights of us, the cast, and some laughs. The Jackbox Showdowns gave us the feel of what it was like to be on set with these clowns and bounce jokes off of each other. They're so fun and do wonders to convice the audience that the show is clearly in the right hands.
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