The latest season of The Adventure Zone has divided fans to the point where a vocal portion of them believe the show has jumped the shark, and that the brothers have led them on a meandering, confusing journey filled with “performative allyship.” The "no bummer" ethos has bled into their other podcasts as well, and while that doesn't mean that the brothers avoid all criticism of the show, the positivity policy has now worn on some of their fans, in particular The Adventure Zone fans. Early on in the oeuvre of My Brother, My Brother and Me, the family introduced the concept of "no bummers," not wanting to answer questions that are depressing. The particular way that the brothers have presented themselves have created a devoted, passionate, but occasionally overzealous fandom. The Adventure Zone is, at this point, much more than a family D&D game.įor the McElroy family, hanging out with their brothers is now a part of their full time job. While The Adventure Zone is just one of many tabletop roleplaying podcasts, its popularity helped usher in shows like Dungeons and Daddies or Critical Role, and The Adventure Zone still rests at number 6 on the iTunes fiction podcast charts. While they weren't the first tabletop roleplaying podcast, their relative popularity within the space brought a new and different audience to the podcast. The first campaign, now dubbed Balance, premiered in 2014, and was a surprise hit for the brothers. The second most popular McElroy family podcast after My Brother, My Brother and Me is The Adventure Zone, which features the three brothers and their father Clint playing tabletop games, like Dungeons and Dragons. The size of their fanbase has exploded in part because of their intersection with another rising trend in podcasting: tabletop role playing games. The influence of the McElroys is not limited to the success of their business model of selling the idea of being a fly on the wall to their family's gags. Think of them as something halfway between the Kardashians and Hank and John Green, happily playing out their family dynamic for an audience of nerdy, perennially online fans. They also sell tickets for live shows, have a best-selling book, and not just one, but two television shows based on their existing properties. They've since expanded into more podcasts-each brother has a podcast with their spouses, and at least one spouse has started a podcast of her own.
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