05x02 - Karaoke Night

[bunniefuu]

[upbeat music]

- So when we had early
conversations about "Karaoke Night,"

we really struggled with capturing

what this episode would look like.

All we knew was that it
would involve musical improv

in some way.

Sam's original title for this

was called "Eighties,
Nineties, and Today,"

and we were talking about maybe making it

into like a mock radio station

where Sam was at the head of it

and you would throw to the contestants

to deliver not only songs
but a weather report,

a traffic report, you know,

a breaking news alert of some kind.

- I really liked the idea
of the DJ Game Changer,

having Sam say like,
"Next, we have a caller

asking for a romantic ballad about cheese"

or whatever, you know.

- I had pitched like
making a music festival,

I think, like Samchella or something.

And we landed

on just doing a more simple,
straightforward karaoke night.

- Often we end up going the simplest route

just so that the talent of the
contestants can show through.

- I ended up feeling stubborn
about the karaoke angle,

'cause I felt like it was
richest from a game standpoint.

- Who doesn't love a karaoke
night with their friends?

- Paul and I looked at each other

and realized that we could
put like a hundred prompts

in a binder instead of
me choose songs for them.

And I think that actually
really made the episode

- The most classic motif of a karaoke bar

is that big binder of songs.

And we just thought it would be so fun

to have that binder be a part of it.

But we needed to fill up that binder.

- What can we do that,

first of all, it's a last minute change

so it can't be expensive, it
can't be something that we buy.

We just have to figure out something

that pretty much we can do right away.

We were talking about the karaoke binder

that I was just gonna get
an extra large white binder

and throw it on the ground a couple times.

Sam was like made a dead serious face

and looked at me through
the Zoom and said,

"That's the funniest
thing you've ever said."

And I was like, [laughing] "Really? Okay."

- I wanted them to sound authentic

but also have some sort of
element that could be funny.

And I wanted the song
titles to sound like ones

that those artists would actually sing.

Here are some songs that were not chosen

that I was proud of,

Backstreet Boys, "You Have
the Right to Remain Sexy,"

Black Eyed Peas, "Za Za Za, We're Zobbin'"

in parentheses,

Destiny's Child, "Stop, Drop, and Roll,"

- Coldplay's "Pi," which
was Paul's suggestion.

One of my absolute favorites

were NSYNC's, "I'll Rate You An 8."

That was another one of my favorites.

- I thought for sure that
Zach would pick this,

because I thought maybe he
liked "Panic! At the Disco"

if he's an emo kind of guy.

"Quiet Down If You Know
What's Good For You,

The Others Will Be Here Soon."

I don't know if that would've
even fit on the screen

'cause it was so long,
but that gave me a laugh.

I wrote 150 songs titles, [chuckling]

but you know what?

The ones that they picked,
they were incredible.

♪ Nothing feels so better ♪

♪ Than erasing all the
things you did today ♪

- "To-Do List,"

I'm convinced that if we could give it

like a broad radio release

that it would rise to
the top 10, at least 8.

[laughing] It's so good.

♪ Check it off, check
it off, check it off ♪

♪ check it off, check it off,
check it off, check it off ♪

- Sam had to do a little research

into what their musical inclinations were.

Zach has a indie emo style,

like, musical improv group

that he performs with, so he
knows a lot about that genre.

Ross really is into like
more classic dad rock

and things like that.

And then I'm so happy that we
got Rashawn in the episode,

because her musical leanings
overlap a lot with my own.

So I was happy to be able to write songs

to cater to her interests,

because they were also ones

that I myself would want to hear.

- Whenever you're casting
an episode like this,

and this is when casting
is most important,

is is you really wanna find people

who are set up for success.

♪ I could use a bite, use a bite. ♪

[imitates biting]

[all laughing]
[all applauding]

- I don't think I've ever been
quite as happily surprised

by a "Game Changer" performance
in the history of the show.

I mean, she brought
the f*cking house down.

Anytime I get an email
from Sam in my inbox,

I know it's gonna be
something very interesting

and challenging and ultimately fun.

- TJ has been doing sound mixing for us

for years now.

- We've been doing everything

from all of the "Dimension 20" campaigns,

"Um, Actually," "Game
Changer," "Make Some Noise,"

"Dirty Laundry."

- But TJ is himself a brilliant
musician and composer.

- [TJ] We were gonna be
adding additional music

to the improvised performance.

- And then I heard what he
did, and I was so floored.

- This one was fun,

because it was like trying

to kind of distill characteristic
sounds and instruments

from various styles.

Listening to some sound
examples that he sent me

of the the bands that he
wanted to kind of sound like

and then picking out
certain elements from it

and trying to redo it.

- We're paying homage to all
of these different artists.

How are we gonna capture all
of those different styles?

- It was always fun to kind
of like whip out the guitar

for a couple of 'em

and then also getting to go
back through the early aughts

of pop music and NSYNC and everything.

It sent me down a real
fun YouTube rabbit hole

and just realizing how
like amazing that music was

and still is.

So I got on a NSYNC,
Britney Spears pop thread

for a little while while
I was doing that one.

♪ Oh, girl ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

- Something that I try to do
in mini games, if possible,

is to give my players
a little bit of a break

from the same type of thinking.

They've just been improvising
so brilliantly in these songs.

I wanted to give their brains
like a little bit of a rest.

It felt like a quiz or
a buzzer-style mini game

was the way to go.

The Spice Girls won was
obviously our favorite.

There's usually like one
logo every time we do this

that we really try to push,

and I think there's at least
one we didn't use, maybe two.

We could dance if we want to.

[buzzer buzzes]

Zach?

- We could leave our friends behind.

- That is a point for Zach.

They're very much a quickly
figure out the game game,

and so they feel a little
truer to the original premise

of Game Changer, which is like,

you don't know what the game is,

I'm not gonna explain
it to you. It's 3507.

- Holy sh*t.

[Aaron laughing]

"Pain in the a*s" by Blink-182.

I think folks are gonna
be mad at me for this.

There were nine songs in round one,

six in round two, and six in round three,

which means we cut three per round.

You know, when it comes to improv,

oftentimes you need to overshoot

in order to get like really
high-quality performances.

What that means on Game Changer is

that we end up doing a bit of
point masking after the fact.

And what you see on those
podiums isn't in fact real.

A lot of unused songs,

I think almost definitely
we'll take one or two of them

and put them in the cut for time episode

at the end of the season.