My initial thought was that maybe some people who were in those episodes might be threatening a lawsuit. I know they sign releases but that doesn't mean that they were ok with what happened to them. The timing is what's weird and it's easy to think that everything is connected. I would think that if he was being sued for sexual harrassment then he probably wouldn't be doing his comedy tour either. I would think he'd completely step away from the public sphere. The show has to be a huge time commitment and with the divorce, I imagine he wasn't willing to do it.

Until i see something official or verified, I'm not really going to believe these rumors. I'm also not going to say it's not possible either. We will see how this next season is. Covid really hurt this show so it will be interesting to see them get back to their old ways.

There is no way the other guys don't know the full story.


No


I love the Jokers so I'd like it to be something so simple as to Joe's stepping away to focus on his family but HBO Max pulling all those episodes definitely means something.

One episode is them trying to kiss people in a food court and Joe called the actor a hot chick or something similar.
Then his wife showed up and he kissed her instead.

There have been other episodes with him that have his wife as a mark or part of the bit li’e when he had to chop a hole in a roof. He had to choose either his wife’s photo or his kid.
He chopped his kids photo saying he could make another one with that, pointing to his wife.

There are still plenty of odd things like that still in rotation.

Something is odd about the entire thing.
These guys are as big as they ever will be right now, how do you step away from that.

Yes, I remember all those episodes.
If the pulled episodes are ones with his wife in them then it could make sense, but I dont think they are

Did anyone watch the new ep that aired after the ncaa tournament games?
it was awkward as heck and the challenges weren’t very fun or funny.

The punishment was funny as any they’ve done though.

Hopefully the regular shows will improve.

It definitely had an odd feeling. They changed out all the graphics and intro. The intro makes sense, Joe isn't a part of the show anymore so they had to take him off. But why switch up the graphics? They went with really bad neon light graphics that just don't fit the show's aesthetic. And it kind of changes the whole feel of the episodes.

As for the content, some of it was still pretty funny. I had been under the assumption that the guest actors were going to be playing the games as the 4th. But Eric Andre was just there for the punishment, which was kind of lame. But that punishment was a pretty funny one.

They also abandoned the Prince Herb gag even tho it's still the same season. That seemed out of character for them to do. I know Joe had a lot to do with the behind the scenes production. Maybe these are all ideas brought by whoever is doing Joe's behind the scenes jobs? I'll keep watching for sure, but def a step down from what the show had been for me.

They need Joe. Adding celebrities for the punishment is a good idea though.

They also did a brief "sketch" with Andre ("the show has always been fake") that didn't feel like the show, if you know what I mean.

Huge fan for years. But it feels neutered now and forced.

All the guys have side gigs now and with royalties, set for life.

Yeah I forgot to mention the sketch. That was the definition of cringe.

Gatto and his wife still appearing together in public and it looks like they don’t hate each other.

I'm going to miss the team competitions like supermarket toss, the powerpoint presentations, the group surveys, etc. My wife and I figured Joey Fatone would have been the natual replacement for Joe.

The first new ep aired last night.
That was rough.

Same energy as the special from earlier this year.
Same weird opening credits with the neon.

The celebrity guest was Jillian Bell and it was really bad.

Sal continues to look terrible.
in the early seasons he was always well dressed and tries to keep his hair cut and looking good.
Now his hair is long and his facial hair is scraggly and unkempt.
They also had him in that giant suit coat again.

The dynamic of the show is so different.
It feels small too if that makes any sense.

If this incarnation of the show was season one it might not have made it passed season one.

Hope it gets better.

Do we have any idea when the newer stuff will hit HBOmax?

Don't really have a way to watch until then.

I’d guess after the season ends.

I actually thought the episode was pretty funny. The puking bit was hilarious just because they knew it wasn't going to work. I couldn't help but think that the first bit would have been great if Joe had been in it. The punishment made me chuckle but it wasn't great.

I laughed quite a bit. So I'll keep watching. (Even tho I hate the lame skits and celebrity involvement).

But this is not the same show anymore. There's no structure and it just feels lower rent. I know Joe had a lot to do with the editing process and producing the episodes. So I wonder if the budget and staff have been cut back too. Because this seems kinda low budget now. What really struck me is they haven't mentioned why Joe isn't there. I get that it's due to whatever personal life stuff. But to just ignore that 25% of the cast is gone with no explanation for the audience is a strange way to move forward.

Speaking of strange, boy watching After Party the post show was strange. Because they would flash back to previous episodes when talking about stuff and they have edited Joe's voice out of old clips and did different camera angles so he isn't visible. Full on erased him from the show's history. It could just be royalties related. They don't want to have to pay him royalties for futures shows since he's not on the team anymore. But that's a stretch, and it's really off-putting.

I agree with all that except for the laughing. I barely chuckled.
But yeah I was going to say something about the production value and the look and feel.
It just feels small now like a small low budget cable show that no one has heard of. Much like season one.

It feels cheap now.

This show has pretty much kept TruTV relevant so to cheap out now is so odd.

On his podcast early this year Q said he will have more of his ideas on the show.

If that means more terrible bits like the vomit idea then it’s not heading in the right direction.

what was the official word on why Joe left? I've heard about a million theories...

All we know is what Gatto said on his Instagram.

I'm not sure I understand the looks cheap comments. It looks pretty consistent with the last few seasons. They even made a joke that Q's bit cost 250 grand which is probably not an exaggeration.

Maybe they included that line because even they know something about the current iteration feels cheaper.

The challenges in both this episode and the one they did after the NCAA finals without Joe have had real bad lighting. That's what I mean about looking like the budget was cut. The buildings they've used for the challenges so far just have a dark and dingy feel to them. Now there could be a few reasons why. If they cut the budget maybe they just have to use whatever buildings they can afford now. I get that this was filmed during the tail end of the pandemic so there won't be much outside content like the old days.

But even the punishment this week... it was on a dark sound stage. Did they have to cut some of the production team? Was the person who was in charge of the cinematography and lighting of the sets let go? Even when they did those warehouse punishments where Q & Sal were chained down and had the spiders & cats put on them, it was a dark sound stage but it was lit so well and so bright & vibrant on camera.

And when they did a few behind the scenes shots of the crew watching when Sal was bombing on the throw up deal, the amount of people back there was waayyyyyy less than when they would cut back there in the past. Those are the reasons why I am getting a budget has been cut feeling.

These episodes were still affected by covid so that might have something to do with it. They've said that they will be going back to doing things in the public. I really don't think they've cut the budget. This is their biggest show and it's in syndication so money shouldn't be an issue. Plus the guys got a pay raise.