Oppo Confession #49578

"TheHondaBro" (wwaveform) 12/06/2014 at 12:08 • Filed to: oppo confession

4

31

Here's my Oppo confession. (Oppofession?)

I don't find Regular Car Reviews to be very interesting anymore.

I mean, episodes like the Dodge Avenger and the Neon SRT4 were great, and the reason why I stuck around and continued to watch them, but then I watched the FJ Cruiser episode and it just didn't seem interesting. Suddenly none of his reviews were interesting for me, even the most twisted, WTF ones.

I guess it's the same phenomenon where a certain thing that's incredibly fun and exciting at first gets very boring because there's nothing else in it, like Surgeon Simulator. It's fun at first, but once you've played it for a while, it loses what made it so great in the first place. That's how I feel with Regular Car Reviews at the moment.

Please no one take this personally, especially Mr. Regular if he's out there in Oppoland. It's just my honest opinion.

Have a Plymouth Prowler.

GhostZ > TheHondaBro 12/06/2014 at 12:11

6

It's getting flat. I think it's partly because of the popularization pushing it closer to normal review status, albeit slowly and slightly.

scoob > TheHondaBro 12/06/2014 at 12:12

0

My confession: I've never understood anything about whatever he talks about. I'm not ragging on him, but I just don't have a clue. All the references he talks about, car parts I never knew existed, and even all t3h big vocabz werdsz.

It just sounds like he's droning on forever. Again, I'm not hating on him. The videos are funny, but I don't understand the "review" aspect. Maybe I can not into English.

jkm7680 > TheHondaBro 12/06/2014 at 12:19

0

They're honestly getting less funny, they need to incorporate more humor, and less hypothetical jibber jabber.

The early ones, such as the Echo, Avenger, Rav 4, S60R were extremely funny, and I still watch them from time to time. But I haven't really laughed hard since the Ram review.

jkm7680 > GhostZ 12/06/2014 at 12:21

1

That's almost exactly how I feel.

Compare this.

To this.

jkm7680 > jkm7680 12/06/2014 at 12:22

1

Fuck you Kinja. Just might add that in just in case.

Scorpio GTX1 > TheHondaBro 12/06/2014 at 12:27

1

Yeah, I thought the FJ review and 2nd S2000 review both sucked. He spends way too much time now talking cheap shots at the type of person who would drive Car X. And they aren't even stereotypes that exist, he just makes them up. I think he's trying too hard now to legitimately review and critique these cars, rather than just having fun with it like before.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > TheHondaBro 12/06/2014 at 12:28

0

Honestly I was never a fan to begin with. Watched a couple and never bothered again.

wbizarre - OEM fetishist > TheHondaBro 12/06/2014 at 12:29

0

Fair opinion. It's interesting how a show that's been in existence for just over a year can already have "the early days" from which it's come down., but to an extent it's true. I thought it was more interesting when they talked about the context of a time when the car was made, and the internal politics of the company that made it. The "characters" also added something, a different perspective to talk about the car. The creepiness and vulgarity wasn't inserted at random, but was part of the character - like the beige-Accord-driving middle-management cross-dresser.

However a lot of times lately, he's just been stretching facts and metaphors. A shitty Starion is like Chicago? The Wrangler now has a V6 instead of an inline to make it smoother and more docile? Just 2 examples off the top of my head. Then it just makes me question everything they're saying.

I like the show still, and the FJ review is a good attempt at analyzing a car for its cultural and psychological impact. It would have been a great one if they thought out their argument a little more.

Decay buys too many beaters > TheHondaBro 12/06/2014 at 12:35

0

I agree, definitely on a downhill slope toward the same format as every other internet video reviewer.

GhostZ > jkm7680 12/06/2014 at 12:35

1

I really think it peaked with the Miata review, and ever since then, he's just been making videos that are deconstructions his previous videos, like a review of a regular car review review. The S2000 review is probably the most obvious example of this, as is the C7 or Aston Martin review.

area man > TheHondaBro 12/06/2014 at 12:46

0

Here's a confession - I've never watched a single one ¯\_()_/¯

SlickMcRick > jkm7680 12/06/2014 at 12:55

0

I think for 4Runner one was the last good one. That was two months ago.

Regular Car Reviews > TheHondaBro 12/07/2014 at 09:23

0

Gosh. What can I do to bring you back? What would you like to see?

Regular Car Reviews > GhostZ 12/07/2014 at 09:24

2

I will try harder GhostZ.

Regular Car Reviews > GhostZ 12/07/2014 at 09:26

3

In a few months, I will have more free time to make episodes like old ones.

Regular Car Reviews > jkm7680 12/07/2014 at 09:27

1

When you say "Humor," what do you mean? The Echo, Avender, Rav4, and S60R were full of LOLRANDOM

Regular Car Reviews > wbizarre - OEM fetishist 12/07/2014 at 09:29

0

IT is interesting to show how Jaded the internet can become in such a short time.

Regular Car Reviews > scoob 12/07/2014 at 09:30

2

Both Roman and I have Masters degrees in English Literature.

Regular Car Reviews > Decay buys too many beaters 12/07/2014 at 09:31

0

How do I stop this?

Regular Car Reviews > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 12/07/2014 at 09:31

0

That's fair.

Regular Car Reviews > area man 12/07/2014 at 09:31

0

ok.

jkm7680 > Regular Car Reviews 12/07/2014 at 09:36

0

That's the best part! A good balance of reviewing the car, and edgy randomness, Whoever knew that bass/clitoris are the same thing! I've learned so much!

The saws were pretty funny though, I may seem over critical but I still love the show and watch it every Monday morning.

I'll always support you guys, but I do have to say I miss the older reviews.

Decay buys too many beaters > Regular Car Reviews 12/07/2014 at 13:13

1

In short, I'd say more poop humor/cut-scenes/weird comments. I still crack up constantly watching the older reviews but that happens less often on newer ones.

GhostZ > Regular Car Reviews 12/07/2014 at 13:24

6

Well this is fucking awesome. I'm going to take a second to explain what I mean in more detail:

What makes Regular car reviews, in my opinion, a phenomenon of art (an experience that is judged by results more than just it's intended purpose, as in, the actual facts and circumstances of a serious review) is its ability to explain without serving the intended goals of a car review. They can be reviews of ideas, reviews of people, reviews of experiences, but they are never reviews of cars .

If Chris Harris is to cars what the movie Gravity is to Space, then Regular Car Reviews is the 15 minute graphics sequence near the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. What's being explained is stark and simple ("This is what other people's perceptions of this car is") but because the canvas this idea is being painted on (the viewer) is so varied and amorphous, often uninformed, finding common denominators that convey those simple ideas is almost impossible. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke found a way to demonstrate the use of fiction as a learning tool to better (and evolve) the human race, by using fiction as a learning tool to better (and evolve) the human race in that sequence. Kubrick could have just had David Bowman sitting down doing homework assigned to him by extradimensional beings until he got a high enough grade to travel to another planet, but then the audience would not understand what was being expressed.

In that way, Regular Car Reviews has this amazing power to make the inaccessible ("Bad Dragon") not just accessible, but approachable. It's not dadaism, as much as it may seem like it, because, beneath the rebellious "anti-art" divergence from a normal car review like you'd see from Motortrend, is the VERY utilitarian purpose to convey a specific idea that is VERY observable, but because it's observed by the masses from so many difference backgrounds, is never pinned down until art finds a way to freeze it and present it. That's what the reviews are.

The Miata review is probably the best because it is extremely subtle about it. The vast majority of the video remains a simple review, but before and after that, it slips on that razor edge between the knowledge and the experience of knowing that knowledge, which is the much less understood thing. I t's the best (It's the best!) because it's able to take anyone who understands what a car review is supposed to be, and get them to understand that experience of the knowledge without obfuscating it. You can grab any regular Joe off the street and even if he hasn't seen any RCR videos, hasn't driven a Miata, doesn't care about cars, he will understand why people hold this car in high regard. He gets why he once thought a certain way about the car, and now thinks differently (for better or worse). A car review often times doesn't do that, it just tries to explain (often hamfistedly) how a car is like to drive. It doesn't try to explain how a person is like when they are in proximity to this machine, and how it changes us. That's what RCR's greatest strength is, the freedom it has to express that.

The Miata review is good because it's a standing metaphor for the metaphor that is being talked about in the video. Like the Miata, the Miata review is unassailable and approachable. Once he's done watching it, Regular Joe will always look at car reviews a little differently, because he's now seen both the review of the vehicle, and the review of the person who owns them, and the review of the people who don't, and the review of the way all of those things change when they come into proximity.

On the other hand, the Honda Accord video is explicitly one and not the other, and that makes it my second favorite. There is no obvious attempt to review this car. If you read a transcript of it with the model and year blacked out, you'd have no idea what the subject was. But it still conveys complex ideas. It still has a specific purpose, a subliminal fictional idea that people understand when they see it. It is purely about how isolated experiences change each other when they cross paths, these experiences being both what it's like to own the car and what it's like to look at someone who owns the car, and what it's like to look at someone looking at someone to own the car.

The reviews that accomplish this most precisely are the ones with the clearest and most obvious existing ideas to deconstruct, Ford Mustang, Lincoln Town Car, MX-5, Honda Accord, etc. etc. etc. In some way, it's because you just simply have more material, and you're more familiar with the vehicles because of it (even if you haven't seen them). But I think it's also because the hammer can strike harder when the nail is larger, there are more people who share cultural ideas about these cars, therefore the method you convey these ideas can be stronger and push more boundaries because they have previous experience.

These are my thoughts. For one, I think that you've stumbled onto a beautiful representation of utility and art in coexistence, and for two, I think that RCR is untouchable in that respect and in terms of how we think about cars, lightyears ahead of /Drive or Jalopnik as a complex teaching tool.

Just don't let the weight of growth slow you down into more traditional expression. If your reviews stop trying to explain the ephemeral and teach (even if what they are teaching is absurd), and start working to treat the viewers to their whims, you will lose the greatest benefit, the strongest weapon, you have for creating something wholly and totally unique.

I guess what I'm saying is, seek views by reducing RCR to a perfect art, hone it and shape it like a film director with a higher calling, instead of standardizing it to join the fatter, slower, but respected crowd that serves their own needs.

GhostZ > Regular Car Reviews 12/07/2014 at 13:43

2

And for context, I am a huge fan. There probably isn't a video you will put out in the next 10 years that I won't want to watch. I'm only critical because I really want to see it taken to some incredible potential much in the same way a person might look at a 240Z's engine bay and criticize the engine just because all they actually see are LS2 mounting points and space for an intercooler and twin turbos.

Regular Car Reviews > GhostZ 12/07/2014 at 17:51

2

Thanks! you made me feel a whole lot better! I will reach back to earlier reviews and forget trying to be even-handed. "Business Man" will return from the Honda Accord video and "The Morning DJ" will return from the Lincoln Town Car review.

Otto-the-Croatian-'Whoops my Volvo is a sedan' > TheHondaBro 12/07/2014 at 18:25

0

I love them still.
I like how subjective they are, when I'm viewing them I sometimes think

'Maybe he's wrong, maybe he was tired that day, or the roads were busy, or that particular car is broken, so that's why he got the experience which he is talking about.'

Regular Other reviews just give you the undeniable facts, and just a bit of the reviewer's impression. RCR gives you a look at a man's feelings and thoughts while driving it. And I think that magic of RCR is still there, even though he may be talking about more of the specs and factual stuff than before.

But I agree with some comments that he should just have more fun and be more spontaneous while doing it. And anyway, it'll get better for you because I think he's quite stunned by Ghostz's reply.

Here's another Plymouth mooning you.

STANDARD6SPEED > Regular Car Reviews 12/07/2014 at 18:30

0

I MISS THE MORNING DJ

jkm7680 > Regular Car Reviews 12/07/2014 at 18:45

0

I probably sounded like a dick with my first comment. Sorry for that, I've been watching the show since the Gs500 review, and have forced it on other people against their will.

I've embraced all the poop jokes, and all the awesome music and whatnot on some of the early vids. (You got unlimited me likey points for Hammer, Steppnwolf, Toasters and Cypress Hill.)

What I'm thinking is that it's all about the proper dosages. For instance taking 10 Viagras in 10 minutes usually isn't good for you. But taking 10 Viagras over a duration of about 10 days? Why not?

Half the funny randomness from the earlier videos, and then half the facts about the cars from the more recent videos is in my opinion the best balance. I'd also love to see those personalities come back also. Take the Echo review, You and The Roman incorporated facts about the car with humorous randomness, while not straying too far from the car itself.

PushToStart > Regular Car Reviews 12/07/2014 at 18:56

0

I read what GhostZ said, and I'd say he hit it right on the head. I've watched all your videos and generally enjoy most of them, but admittedly they aren't the same as they used to be. When I first started watching your reviews, I was literally laughing my ass off (WHAT DO THESE PILLS DO?!?) and now, it's not really the same. They're still funny/humorous up to a point, but not to the degree that those older ones were.

Just go back and watch some of the old ones and remember what you did/why you made them like that (like the way you'd make jokes or draw similarities between 2 radically different things using ridiculous analogies [the Avenger video is a good place to find what I'm talking about]). I regret that I can't give you a more solid, clear, or concrete answer as to exactly what I/we want other than just "like the old ones" but I feel like you're capable of recognizing that past style and bringing it back.

70% reliable > Regular Car Reviews 12/08/2014 at 04:38

0

This is probably my favourite aspect of RCR, your ability to utilize your copious knowledge of the English language, and contrast it with crude and childish humor. All the rest is just a bonus to me.