The McElroy Miracle
Obsession Time. Let's go.
Flash back to about a year ago: I'm in my apartment procrastinating on some school paper when a flurry of psychopathic laughter wafts through my door. I warily venture downstairs to find my roommate collapsed in hysterics. Right away, I have to know, "What in God's name are you laughing at?"
"The McElroy Brothers!" she cackles.
This means nothing to me.
She's listening to a podcast: My Brother, My Brother, and Me. She plays me some of the recording, and it's kind of funny, but mostly I just hear a cacophony of nasally voices that I can't distinguish giving bad advice to strangers about bizarre social interactions. It's weird; when I first heard the McElroys, it sounded like a conversation between three nerds who never leave the house and spend all day playing video games and being assholes. Not my cup of tea. And later, I learn, they kind of are those nerds, except that they're mainly being assholes to each other--and in the best possible way.
It took a long time for me to actually jump on the McElroy bandwagon, and it required a thrice-weekly three-hour commute to a Hollywood internship in which I found myself growing sick of my music tastes (as many have done before me.) I needed something to make the time less agonizing, and my roommate came to the rescue. "You should check out The Adventure Zone! It's by the same guys who do the My Brother, My Brother, and Me podcast, but in this one, they play Dungeons and Dragons with their dad and there's this whole overarching story to it that I bet you'd enjoy."
That sounded a little more up my alley, so I gave it a go. At first, it took me forever to learn their voices--they sound pretty similar--and I was also doing my best to understand the rules of DnD, which I had about as much familiarity with as I do quantum physics. It was pretty funny, because these boys understood DnD just as little as I did, and that led to some pretty wild interactions in the first few episodes. But by the end--and I still don't know how these chucklefucks did it--I was sitting in my bed, in the dark, six hours deep into the season 1 finale, and feeling so many emotions that crying just wasn't enough. So I started smacking the wall.
...
Okay, I lied. I do know how they did it: it's because they care. I mean they truly, genuinely care about their work, their characters, and--most importantly--their audience. There's a lot of issues I have with the way social media affects our society, but I have to admit that, in this case, it's helped these artists become better creators and better people. You wouldn't think that a story written by four straight, white boys from West Virginia would be one of the most inclusive and PC fictions in modern culture--and it kind of wasn't at the beginning--but because these boys were dedicated to listening to their audience and giving them what they want, they made a masterpiece we can all enjoy. Because of their direct connection to their adoring public, the McElroys managed to role-play one of the greatest stories I've ever heard, featuring powerful female characters, wonderful LGBTQ+ relationships, and inspiring themes of family, duty, and living life to the fullest.
The brilliance of The Adventure Zone made me revisit My Brother, My Brother, and Me, and I found out that this advice show was just as entertaining as TAZ, and that the advice, as their intro emphatically states, "should NEVER be followed." Their voices--which, at first, I thought were grating (and I couldn't imagine why they felt a podcast would be the best way to present themselves)--have become a source of comfort when I'm feeling anxious and I need to be distracted. Their ribbing is good-natured, their pop-culture knowledge is well-rounded, and their jokes--while occasionally hit-or-miss--don't come at the expense of anyone who can't take it.
I wanted to apologize to all of the friends and family members to whom I've nerded-out about these good, good boys.
And then I wanted to take it back because I'm not sorry, these boys are amazing, and all of you should give them a chance to let them brighten up your day. They are infectious, and I'm sure some of the already-McElroy-fans who read this will recognize how their way of speaking has snuck it's way into my writing. I can't help it. Hopefully, you'll find "it's familiar...but not too familiar...but not too not familiar."