Been a fan since the Fesh Pince video, this one was really good. I'd assumed the show was just cancelled, so finding out they pivoted to Foodfight 2 was really something
So, I often check comment sections when I click on a creator I don't know - because it will often tell you if the RUclipsr is a crazy right-winger... This is the first time a comment section has given me the confidence to hit subscribe when the video had barely even really started.
Some sitcoms are infamous fro their mindscrewing ending _(St Elsewhere_ being in the imagination of an autistic kid, _Newhart_ was just a dream of a character Bob Newhart played in another sitcom, etc.) But I don't think any other show has done it in such a meanspirited way as _Two and a Half Men_
i watched TAHM (never got to the Ashton era) some years ago. the last year i rewatched it on amazon prime and i enjoyed some of the season 9-12 scenes, but it wasnt the same feeling. watching the ending was too confusing to be real
I mean, he also did it to himself. I personally don't take it as him actually hating the guy but being being mad that the show he made is inherently tied to Charlie Sheen. On the other hand, that's like a DM being mad one of the players has a character go off rail. If you want perfect, play by yourself. Can't do it? Then learn to accept and move on
Oh my god, what if that was intentional? I remember seeing the final episode when it came out, and by this point I knew how Sheen had been a 9/11 conspiracy theorist for some time, but, god, what if? What if the final joke in 2 & a half men was a 9/11 joke to mock Charlie Sheen. Could it be?
"Wouldn't it be funny if we just did a parody of that drug fueled breakdown you had four years ago and then dropped on a piano on your character" yeah can't see why Charlie Sheen wouldn't wanna do that. I'm sure he deserved to be fired but the him refusing the ending seems pretty justified.
There is one scandal fully omitted by this video: Charlie Sheen admitted to have unprotected sex with women, while being a HIV carrier. That should cancel him. Not him being drug addict - addiction is a disease.
@@samuelbutton7185 yea i agree i don't think it was a genuine offer to come back they just wanted to make fun of him Charlie is many things but he's not Stupid he could clearly see this was just a bit and obviously said no
That early 2010s TV "tech guy" trope was such an odd entity. Genius programmer who's also very business savvy, and also hot and a ladies man, and made their money by selling out to Microsoft or Google. I don't think that guy ever existed outside of television.
The problem was that everyone knew Steve Jobs but no one knew Steve Wozniak. Jobs was a relatively smart guy but he was a much better marketer and presenter than an engineer. Wozniak made all Steve's ideas actually work. But everyone thought it was all Jobs, that Jobs was a wunderkind once in a generation mind; All smoke. Jobs was actually kind of a nightmare to work with, but he could sell the product. And history repeats because the same thing happened with John Romero and John Carmack, the charismatic asshole with ideas and his engineer buddy that actually made them work. But more people know Romero than Carmack, although Daikatana came back to bite Romero in the ass.
The problem was that everyone knew Steve Jobs but no one knew Steve Wozniak. Jobs was a relatively smart guy but he was a much better marketer and presenter than an engineer. Wozniak made all Steve's ideas actually work. But everyone thought it was all Jobs, that Jobs was a wunderkind once in a generation mind; All smoke. Jobs was actually kind of a nightmare to work with, but he could sell the product. And history repeats because the same thing happened with John Romero and John Carmack, the charismatic asshole with ideas and his engineer buddy that actually made them work. But more people know Romero than Carmack, although Daikatana came back to bite Romero in the ass.
@@mdstevens0612 What exactly are you saying with your comment? Steve Wozniak is pretty close to what people expect tech people to be like back then. It's weird that TV had this alternative version that was on pretty much no ones mind
Charlie Sheen isn't a great person but the idea that he asked Chuck Lorre for a nice, heartfelt ending to the show and was told they wanted to mock his drug addiction and kill him off is just... wow.
@ebonyobrien5895 so you think you can just make fun of the sufferings a person goes through just because they did or tried something bad? Let’s say I get drugged by someone, become addicted, can't get any and have the abstinence symptoms and go crazy and get violent towards someone, will you then laugh at me? If so, you're a bad person too.
@@GippyHappy it's an extreme example but you make it sound like because murder is normally evil that if you murder a nazi it's still evil when i'm sure we'd all agree that less of those is a universal good thing
honestly i actually love that honesty i dont' even think it was scripted i think he just was like ah F*** it the last 4 years have sucked and it's finally about to end
2 and half men made enough money to pay a singular actor 25 million dollars a year . Even at its lowest point it drew in 10 million viewers. It only ended because everyone involved was sick of it and it was obvious the money wasn't making it worth it
I find it funny how (as the video itself says) the show went from being "a sitcom with three main characters" to basically being the Charlie Sheen show without Sheen himself.
This was akin to a creepypasta. When Ashton Kutcher stared down the camera i genuinely felt a chill go down my spine. This is genuinely so f*cking strange.. like a fever dream.
It genuinely manages to be so out of place and bizarre that it becomes uncanny; like they trick your brain into going “what the hell that’s wrong” and being unsettled just by breaking down the shows own rules it’s honestly crazy like I can’t think of anything even remotely comparable in any other show
@@redundant6972it’s not fear, it’s a weird feeling because it’s not a show known for breaking the 4th wall, not only that but it’s also making you thing they’re making a joke when in reality they’re directly telling the audience they gave up on trying to save the show
I feel like the second piano is also saying something. That Lorre *knows* the grudge is terrible for him to hold onto and he just can't drop it. That it killed him just as much as it killed Carlie Sheen.
@@juiceboxboy9961 nah, it’s very clear he does understand how to write and how to set up and pay off moments, he just fumbled it more often than not. Honestly id say he’s better as a more serious writer than as a comedy writer, mostly because it seemed to me that the better parts of those shows were when they decided to take things somewhat seriously for at least a bit. I hate Big Bang theory with a passion but I have to give some credit to that at least
Damn, Charlie Sheen really is the real life Bojack Horseman, isn't he? A rushed and not well thought out ending to a sit-com he's beloved in, drinking binges and coke benders, when we get to see the "real him" in his own home it's as bad as it can get.. No wonder there are so many comparisons to him and Sheen.
Horseman actually being a good person at heart negates any number of other superficial similarities that are easily applicable to a cadre of other dumpster fire celebrities, but okay
@@Dr170 the only difference between them is that we are more close with Bojack, we know why he acts like that and how his childhood was like, with sheen we don't get that. imagine that you were in the world of Bojack Horseman and didn't know him personally. if you heard the things that he has done you would hate him. Its through perspective.
They purely wanted Anger Management to hit 100 episodes so it could be syndicated. I guess they didn’t have faith in it running for enough seasons to hit 100 naturally.
That final vanity card is baffling. "Charlie Sheen wanted to do a heartfelt ending that could lead to a new beggining for the series, but I wanted to spend the whole episode making fun of his breakdown then throw a piano at him". If I wanted to make myself look like the bigger person in this conflict, I would NOT admit something like that.
I don't think he wanted to seem like the bigger person honestly, I think he was well aware of how petty and spiteful the episode would be and didn't care lol
@@matti.8465 Remember Charlie's irresponsibility lead to many people's lives being derailed. Lorre was understandably pissed that his work and creativity was derailed by an emotionally unstable man that was paid millions all because he felt slighted
@@Megaawesomeguy Not to mention if i recall charlie was extremely abusive to people on set if I recall. Everyone hated working with him from what Ive heard.
I honestly gotta wonder if Chuck Lorre ever realized that maybe the reason he didn't want to play in the finale was because it was an entire episode dedicated to ruthlessly and cruely mocking him. I don't care if the person in question is Charlie Sheen, I think no one would accept a script that's literally just dedicated to insulting one of the actors playing the characters.
The worst part of Two And a Half Men is how catchy the intro was. My dad liked it so I heard it from the living room. Over a decade later I still have the “men men men men, manly men men men-“ stuck in my head like a parasite
It should be noted that Lorre seemed to understand the lose-lose aspect of this mess: the second piano falls on him as he says "winning". Given all the mayhem and bitterness on all sides, it wasn't surprising to my father and to me that the show ended this way. My father enjoyed the show, was critical of it during the last seasons, and still enjoyed it. And part of that, I feel, goes to an unsung hero in this essay/autopsy: Jon Cryer, who is not simply "the guy who played Alan", but the actor who stayed on board from start to finish, and, like all the best actors, gave 100% to his character and the silly scripts. I wish you had mentioned his situation in all of this, as he was basically left to carry what was left of the series on his shoulders, all the way from maintaining some kind of tone to shepherding Kutcher through his initiation. I can't help but feel that, though the stars of this autopsy are, without a doubt, Lorre and Sheen, it's Cryer who truly deserves the glory. I can also venture to say that, though Sheen was the name and the draw for the audience, I remember many, many, of the actual stories centering around Alan.
Yeah, I always thought Cryer was more influential in this story than people gave him credit for. It's telling that, for all the bad blood that was going on in this show, Charlie Sheen still wanted Cryer to be in his new proposed sitcom. He seemed to recognize that Cryer was just as important in the show's success as he was.
The fucking comment , I don’t get why Charlie was payed so high 😂, like I’m from 🇳🇬 Nigeria so I’m like a casual fan and didn’t know about the personal behind the scenes and interview wars between sheen and the director , but I always thought Alan was the one recieving the most money cause he was the best actor on there , 😂, it’s so easy to play a successful Charlie now and then but comeon to play Alan who never won any😅thing man was numebr one to me
It's so fascinating to me that this show I watched as a teenager and then lost interest in because of how bad it became in the second half, ended in a fourth-wall breaking lost episode creepypasta style episode that kills the previous main character and creator of the show, and nobody talked about how crazy this was at the time. What the hell?!
Nobody watched the show after Charlie left. Ashton Kutcher sucked and Charlie Sheen's very public meltdown soured a lot of people on the older episodes. If no one's watching the show there's no one to talk about it.
@tetryst Depends on which circle you were in when it happened. In 2011 I was in 8th grade and everyone from 7th-9th grade was joking around about winning, tiger blood and banging 7 gram rocks, singing the schmoyoho remix in the hallways etc. It was a popular meme for like 2 months straight, and in a small EU country. So no, I didn't see anyone who was tired of it, unless it was a person who always had contrarian opinions, so it was normal for them to be tired of that kind of stuff.
Something about the _Two and a Half Men_ finale that I can't shake it off me is the feeling that Chuck Lorre always planned for the show to end with an scene similar to the one of Alan, Walden and Bertha sitting on the balcony. Remember how Robert Kirkman once said "I have an idea of how _The Walking Dead_ will end but its just something I prepared for the inevitable moment in which the series isn't selling anymore"? I think Chuck Lorre had a similar "In case of cancelation break the glass" finale, but firing Charlie Sheen derailed the whole plan. Like a minute before they drop a piano over Charlie, Alan and Walden talk about how it doesn't matter than none of the women on their lives care if they live or die because they have eachother, its easy to imagine Charlie and Alan reaching to that conclusion if they where allowed to have character developtment... instead, the series ends by demolishing the Fourth Wall with an sledgehammer
I honestly gotta wonder how the show would've ended if Sheen never went on his public meltdown and got fired. Though it probably would've been way less interesting than the finale we got. Mediocrity is sometimes worse than being outrageously bad, because at least extremely bad media can still be talked about.
@Mario_Angel_Medina There's something poetic about the fact that the How I Met Your Mother finale sucked specifically because they were set on doing it according to their original plan, whereas if the 2 & 1/2 men ending went in a way close to what you described it might have at least been decent
RUclips kept recommending this to me and I put it off because I have never cared to watch a full episode of Two and a Half Men, but I finally caved... and now I don't think I've ever been more morbidly fascinated by a show's production and demise. Enthralled throughout. Extremely good work here.
I also can’t stand the show. I’ve tried to watch it but The dad and the son are so annoying and really kill any desire I have to try and watch any episode. I know nothing about the show beyond what happened to it.
I didn't know Chuck Lorre created both this show and Big Bang Theory. I get why Charlie hated him, he's responsible for hogging the prime time airways with two shockingly successful atrocities simultaneously
Ending your 12 season sitcom by declaring that it was garage at the whole time is the most mid-2010s thing I’ve ever heard. The 2010s truly were the best time to be alive (for meta jokes that killed the audience’s investment in the story).
What are other examples? This type of self-destruction is fascinating, and the only example I can think of is a Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark performance where the Green Goblin sings “I’m a 65 million dollar circus tragedy (actually, more like 75)” which could be a reference to the musical’s budget and reputation.
@@amusingmoose9924 One that I can think of is Chowder, with a perfectly fine ending that actually ends with a fourth wall break of Chowder screaming "NO! I REJECT THIS ENDING!" The Lego Movie 2 doesn't get enough hate for being a movie that constantly references that it is a sequel, and that it is a musical, which is even more insulting since it barely even commits to being a musical. Plus, it's got a weird message about the main character from the first movie being a toxic person unless he lets girls play with him, which is just confusing in-context.
@@Helio5k it felt like a bridge had been permanently burnt. Sheen implied that he wanted to kill Lorre after the two and a half men finale, but I guess they worked things out. Good on them I guess.
There was an anonymous quote from an agent during the writers’ strike that i keep thinking about; something like “nobody wants to write two and a half men, everyone wants to write barry. But a lot of people watched two and a half men, and nobody watched barry.” I think there’s a kernel of truth to this, but also that there isn’t some secret way to make two and a half men type sitcoms again that people are refusing, the era is just over. The 2011-2016 era of pop culture was so surreal.
To be quite honest, Lorre did pretty much design the show as a Charlie Sheen vehicle. So when the main reason for your show's existence is out of the picture, it's bound to make you think about it over and over. Especially when there's also so much bad blood between you.
This is going to be a strange take away, but the description of the finale (and the last season) reminds me of a potential “lost episode” creepypasta, only so much more fascinating. It has the template of a show not doing what’s expected of it, but instead the horror coming from characters having hyper-realistic eyes/blood or killing themselves/others, there’s the unsettling feeling that the world is breaking. The storytelling you’d expect from a finale is gone and replaced by very contemporary yet personal jabs at itself and Charlie Sheen. Characters are looking to the camera and addressing the audience when that’s never happened before. The vibes of the notes Lorre left at the end of the episodes changes in a similar way. The bizarre CGI could be seen as a replacement for something suddenly being hyper realistic. Of course, there’s the still from 37:42 that would probably be the moneyshot associated with this creepypasta, just edit it to be spookier. Oh and great video!
@@msjkramey In terms of the world breaking? That’s an interesting comparison, though TMC’s world/storytelling breaking is more like a cancer attacking the show from within (which is the slasher), while for TaaHM, it’s more like a murder-suicide where it lashes out at Charlie and itself (best exemplified at the very end when both Charlie and Chuck Lorre get squashed with pianos).
I've been thinking for years that a horror story about a comedy becoming self-aware could be great. Like, nothing you do matters. Any big changes will just be undone next episode. How many jokes have ben something disgusting in disguise? (ex: iCarly and all the feet stuff) You don't want to be funny anymore, but if you're not funny the show ends. What happens when the show ends? Are you free or do you end too? Why is everyone laughing?
It's not nonsense, I can totally see that. I definitely felt creeped out watching it. It's bizarre and surreal, and it just feels... *_wrong._* Charlie spends the entire finale unseen, like a cryptid, who crawled his way out of Rose's Buffalo Bill-esque dungeon and is slowly making his way to the house to enact revenge on the other characters so everyone's scared of this faceless Bogeyman about to come get them. It sounds like an urban legend. Then it just turns into a fever dream. There's a cartoon character interacting with the cast? *_What?_* Suddenly, oh no! The Bogeyman Charlie is here! What's going to happen, are the people in the house about to get attacked? It's oddly eerie feeling, but then suddenly....piano gag. And before you can process what just happened, bam, Chuck Lorre. And another piano. It doesn't seem real, it's like something foul and supernatural that was conjured into existence, like the tape from Ringu.
- detailed backstory about a piece of pop culture - Exploring a topic barely anyone's covered or even referenced since it happened - 2010s nostalgia - Quality commentary oh yeah this one's a banger
Not even close George is pathetic but Alan is a whole other level of pathetic and pushover he is the most bitch character I've ever seen in fiction and it's worse than Meg from family guy or Jerry from Rick and morty
@@zerothefool2437 I feel like George has this deeply internalized sense that others perceive him negatively, so he's often self-effacing, but when he does that he tends to focus solely on superficial things that he can't really control, like the fact that he's a short, stocky, bald man. Underneath that, he seems to actually have a very inflated opinion of his own intelligence and ability to fool people. It's like he has poor self-image, but high self-esteem, if that even makes sense to say. He's such a great character, I would watch a 2+ hour video essay about the psychology of George Costanza.
I remember suggesting via email that they should get a black guy to play charlie and nobody reacts to it. Its just charlie, same persona ect I still think that would have been a better solution
Well at least that was he's plan, but in reality TBBT kinda saved hes skin because that episode was really not well received by most people, lucky hin he had another card to play with.
@@youknowwho257 I mean he did get extremely lucky because TBBT is utter garbage. It uses psychological tricks to make idiots think it is funny. Seriously, try watching the show without a laugh track, the entire show is just sociopathic narcissists saying mean things to each other or being creepy stalkers and incels. The whole show is a hate letter to nerd culture, or basically what the average idiot thinks nerds are like. It gets good enough ratings to justify buying more seasons and more spinoffs, but none of the shows are any good. Chuck lost his mind to liberlism and most people are ignoring any shows he has a part in and leaving after they figure it out if they missed it.
@@alexistaylor969 big bang theory suffer the same as two and a half men, the series went too fat away from the central premise, and even then i dare to say big bang theory had one of the most satisfactory endings on all sitcoms, isnt specially, fun, epic, heartwatming, but is well done, and thats a huge accomplishment on this era of bad endings
I can honestly understand the way Lorre went about the ending. The culture and humor change from 2003 to 2015 was HUGE, he probably changed a lot as a person while the show remained stagnant. If I woke up the creator of 2½ Men today, I'd throw it in the trash too.
He was a 50 year old man when it started, as I approach my 30's I know we always have the capacity for change, but my god imagine being 50 and making two and a half men. Actually maybe that's the primary age for someone making that kind of show.
And that's why the later seasons were crap, the humor and culture started to change for the worst and they began putting unfunny modern stuff in it, as well as lesbians, gays, etc and it went to shit.
@@Finozzi96 imagine being homophobic while liking the cheesiest boring copycat sitcoms. anyone who whines about wokeness is a snowflake idiot, you get mad over gays on tv instead of real issues
The absolute gall to make fun of Charlie Sheen for not wanting to do a scene where he references a breakdown he had years ago that he regrets and wants to move on from
@@thegamedudeguy The difference is that Sheen did it when the event was way more recent, and making a joke about something you did in a self deprecating way is way different from someone else doing it to mock you.
@@naplockblubba5369 Did Charlie write the Anger Management episode? Because I'm pretty sure someone else wrote that for him to do on that show too. He was obviously fine with it, til he decided he wasn't. Must be that bi-winning he was talking about?
@@jamesoblivion The Anger Management thing was around a year or so after it happened. But it was around 4 or 5 years ago at the point of the 2 and a half men finale, it's not hypocritical or "bi-winning" that he could have changed his opinions on the event in such a large span of time. Not to mention that the Anger Management joke was a lot shorter and was much less mocking and spiteful towards his person than the 2 and a half men one in all likelihood would have been.
I actually think that by him taking the role and acting on the last episode, he'd show how what he said was wrong, and that he recognizes how much of a bad influence he was. Taking the role that satirizes everything that he went through (that was already extremely satirized on the internet) would show that he moved on
Well, yeah. You remember the guy that causes nearly 1000 people to lose their jobs. Since when did being a dick to everyone become something to celebrate? Or getting lifelong STD's you pass to your co-workers by not telling them?
@@sirborges It was still inappropiate. He punished the viewers with that more than he did Charlie Sheen. When Sheen saw this he probably just grinned and shook his head, but the people that still watched the show and were hoping for at least a proper conclusion were left in shock and disbelief and are disappointed to this day. If Lorre was that mad at Sheen, he just should've destroyed him in an interview. Ruining his own show for everybody just because of a personal grudge, was just stupid and egomaniac.
My favourite Charlie Sheen fact is that after he went quiet and stopped doing interviews he did one with an Aussie journalist but they only got half an interview and the guy disappeared for a week and a half. He then reappeared with that half interview and a 5 minute long explanation slash ramblr that they were meditating and no drugs were seen, at all, totally, none. Charlie was fully and definitely sober.
@@NightcoreJones I have no idea what why of that meant but dude get a life. Don't follow people to other platforms to harass them it's a shitty thing to do
People talked a lot about how Game of Thrones disappeared from the public consciesness after season 8. But I think I've never even thought about Two and a half men in the years since it's conclusion and haven't heard of it from anyone as well.
I'm a Gen Z and I watched Two and a Half Men years after it ended, it was played alot on Warner TV along The Big Bang Theory (my favorite sitcom) and Friends. But I'd agree the Ashton Kutcher seasons were unneded.
@@CG-eh6oeSame happens with the Star Wars sequel trilogy, fans still talking about how it ruined the franchise, as a fan myself, I think most of the fandom is damaging themselves, others do like those last movies don't exist.
I tend to stay away from video essays besides a few creators i know because too often it is just slop that stretches points worth 5 minutes of discussion into an hour long repeatathon. You've had a great story to tell, and you told it very well.
I thought you wrote “bizarre sense of euphoria you get after voting” and I was like ‘oh yeah’ until I reread it. and ive never felt euphoria after voting in my life, more like the urge to vomit. i need to stop taking anonymous comments to heart
“The phrase ‘9/11’ comes up on his Wikipedia page way too much for [Charlie Sheen to be considered a good person]” I like how this almost implies that Charlie Sheen had a hand in the September 11th attacks
I think what made the show so watchable is the fact families would watch it together. Even though it was like the antithesis of what a family friendly comedy would be, a lot of the show was structured around Jake not knowing what was going on and that made it funny for families with young teens to watch because they had just gone through those awkward conversations and realizations and for the first time you could finally acknowledge them as a family and laugh about it.
The Simpsons as well. There were a lot of moral guardians who wanted to prohibit kids from watching it because Bart was a bad role model (among other dumb reasons)
So charlie sheen has a highly successful career, goes to rehab, goes on alex jones to say anti semetic remarks, has insane interviews and has multiple publicists quit. Charlie Sheen is the OG Kanye West
I have to appreciate the lengths someone has to go to make themselves look petty in comparison to a serial drug abuser who was going through a mental breakdown.
these "people" pour conrete down wrlls to deny them from being used. not surprising. did you know lorre is a fake name? hes chuck levine. like mark cuban. or so many others.
I can't believe you've only posted seven videos and they're all this good. Just did a binge of all your vids so far, everything is just the perfect amount of funny and informative and about stuff I would never have found without your channel. Super good work, can't wait to see what else you put out
Finding out Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men were made by the same guy was like the modern version of finding out Darth Vader was Luke's father for me
Truth be told I was put in a mental hospital in high school and one of the forms of entertainment was a TV which for some reason was stuck on this cable channel that only played classic sitcoms. So whenever we watched TV it was Two and a Half Men, Family Matters, and the George Lopez show. During my stay one of the other patients hurled a box of crayons at the TV after it cycled through 5 episodes of Two and a Half Men.
@@BestPunkyEver he has two Purple Hearts and a bronze star with a V device. It explains why he is so anti war. I have similar feelings after seeing warfare myself.
It's amazing how little fluff or hyperbole you put in this. This was so good and you made it look so easy (i bet it was wild and strange). Thank you for watching that show so no one else had to and telling this story how no one else could (really good and fun).
I enjoyed the show back in the day for one simple reason. It's the classic funny man/straight man setup but the twist is both charlie and alan can be either. Either Charlie or Alan can be the butt of the joke, often times both at the same time because Jake is there too. It's not that complicated but it doesnt need to be. A sitcom's purpose is to set up comedic situations for the cast to be put in. A rich, bitter womaniser who wants to be left alone is forced to live with his divorced neurotic brother, dimwitted nephew and sassy maid, all while dealing with the fallout of his many failed relationships and crazy one night stands. The amount of jokes you can write with that setup is nearly limitless. But it's not the Charlie show. The show is about the two and a half men. Any of them can be what an episode revolves around, with all three of them bouncing jokes off each other. This isn't like other sitcoms where one guy is the "funny one", or the "grumpy one" or the "normal one". Charlie can be just as silly as the cast then miserable about living with them, then happy he has somewhat of a family to be around. Ashton Kutcher didn't work because he's just Alan, but rich. It's like Lorre wanted to make Big Bang Theory but with only two guys and none of the uniqueness of BBI's characters. Charlie and Alan couldnt be more opposites of each other. That conflict stimulates story telling. Also their mother is hilarious
Charlie Sheen: We can end it with me apologizing to my brother and reuniting amicably, then maybe we can start a new show, start over, and do this right. Chuck: haha drug addict Porky Pig monster and then murder
@@WobblesandBeanIf I had one of the most successful series of all time and a guy I was making rich derailed the gravy train by ranting about tiger blood I'm not being the bigger man.
@ShadowRulah Cuck Lorre is a terrible writer anyway. Nobody of any substance watches his shows. They're generally misogynistic trash where every character is a terrible person.
@@ShadowRulah Lol "derailed"? The show went on for years after that. And even if didn't, the piano thing was still petty cringe and childish. Plus, Sheen didn't leave the show, Chuck Lorre fired him because he was butthurt.
Big bang theory isn’t that bad, aside from being indirectly responsible for the problem with apu affecting animation casting. Frankly I think the show should be known as a love it or hate it show.
@@changvasejarik62This is what his reputation online is, outside the Internet most people I know loves the show, except for my Great Uncle who said it was for gays, because of Jim Parsons.
fantastic video. I remember when all of this was happening but this is the first time I think ive ever had a clear picture of the whole thing and how bizarre it was. theres nothing i find more fascinating than when a realitively innoccuous show just completely tears itself apart at the end
@@LowercaseJai yeah, I'm not a fan of TBBT (I used to be) because the geek misogyny just got to be too much for me, but that ending episode is actually really great.
Fantastic video. To be completely fair, if I was forced to constantly re-write a generic sitcom for years because the main actor started going crazy, I'd probably want to vent my frustrations, too. It's definitley not a "good" ending, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fascinated by it. Spending the last episode of your show pissing all over the main star of the cast, and then proceeding to kill him at the end takes an insane amount of guts. I don't think Chuck Lorre is putting himself on a pedestal in the last scene by saying "winning," though; I think Chuck Lorre knew for a fact that he was about as "winning" as Charlie Sheen said he was during that ABC interview, so he ended off the show by making fun of both himself and Charlie Sheen (hence both characters dying in the most stupid way possible via falling piano). He knew that spending an entire episode making fun of the biggest cast member was incredibly low-brow, but at this point he really just did not care lol. That's my interpretation though
Also, I think Chuck Lorre wanted to prove to the haters watching that he managed to keep it running for another 4 seasons which is pretty impressive considering how many shows only last a season or 2 when a lead is gone
The finale was so bad, that even fans couldn't find the energy required to say what you just did. The ending was not needed, and it killed the show for rewatching, because the issues have no weight today. No 47 minutes video required, just a chat between the friends you had that also liked the show was enough.
The weirdest thing about Charlie Sheen's moment of madness was that, right as it was still pretty fresh in everyone's mind, Fiat-Chrysler randomly picking him to advertise the Fiat 500 Abarth in the US and Canada.
This episode was on the TV in the hospice the day I realized I was never going to see my grandmother again. I’ll admit, the surrealism of the situation did help to lighten the mood a bit.
I think there is a difference between a gradually built resentment to your audience from a producer, and a show made out of spite, and cheap shock "subversion" (playing into every single predictable modern writing trend). I feel bad for the actors. A lot of them are really good. Edit: the actors in velma, not 2 and a half men.
I don't know, compared to other finales in which the writers are so far up their own ass to convince everyone that it was always meant to end like that and you just didn't get it, Lorre was brutally honest about the entire show and its audience in what essentially amounted to a broadcasted shitpost. 10/10
he does say in the video on how its bad and does liking low brow humor really that bad? like mcdonalds is not some fine cuisine restaurant but its pretty fun to eat, whats wrong with that?
Yeah i am glad i grew up 80s n 90s and beginning of wed/pcs. Guves me baseline of how things worked and where. I understand hardware and software. How many kids have any idea how a pc works? We where building them as kids b4 the 1st modem
The old af A-Team dedicated sites I followed started disappearing until they were gone by mid 2010's... This is just an example of niche interests and people interacting in specific places instead of a social media/Insta. Msging type thing
I really didnt know those chuck lorre ending cards were different every time, "if charlie sheen outlives me, im gonna be pissed" is probably the funniest thing two and a half men brought to the table
My dad & I loved to watch _Big Bang Theory_ back about a decade ago, before we both grew tired of the show in it's later seasons (but we did however watch the finale back in 2019, we just wanted to see how it ended tbh). I remember, shortly after we got our first DVR, I would sometimes pause the credits and read what the vanity cards had to say. I still admit that it's a neat concept.
I have seen this video appear in my recommended ever since it came out, and every single time I said "Heh I i remember that show", and proceeded to go on about my business. But tonight I decided I'd finally watch this video, and holy hell "The Worst Sitcom Ending of All Time" is legitimately the most right on the money title. Like I had no clue about so much of the stuff going on with all of this, and the way you pieced together everything to make it just such a perfectly delivered autopsy is just phenomenal. Easy subscription out of me, and hell now Im gonna find out how kitchen nightmares manipulates me, cause why not. Can't understate it enough, phenomenal video man!
so the biggest lesson to learn here is that if america had a universal single-payer healthcare system, two and a half men could have been prevented from airing.
@@White_Reclusebeginning of the video, the reason two and a half men got written was cause a friend of chuck lorre who was down on his luck and at a low point in his career was about to lose health insurance, as a result Lorre stepped in to help, writing the titular two and a half men. Without American health insurance two and a half men never exists
I've worked in tech for almost 10 years and I have to ask, what sort of weird side of tech do you find people like that on? All (and I mean ALL) of the tech guys I've met so far are very much toned down versions of Walden, or any of the TBBT main cast. People who take last-minute showers because they've been so focused and invested on a project they've been working on for days or weeks, until they suddenly realize they need to appear in a function. Guys who would rather eat nothing but plain rice for a week just to get 'that' piece of 'media' memorabilia on their shelf. People who rather not strike up a conversation, but after a few beers become a delight to hang out with. People from all levels of the industry, from the entry-level helpdesk to software engineers to sysadmins and maintenance engineers: Without a fault: Nerdy, awkward in their own way, but kind and honest sometimes even to a fault. Nothing like Patrick Bateman IMHO.
@@DJSeba From your response I believe that you worked in tech for 10 years. OBVIOUSLY we cant encompass EVERY human being, working in tech or otherwise under the term ALL or EVERY. Fine, lets get pedantic about it. LOTS of guys and girls I worked in tech acted in some kind of weird/quirky/awkward or strange ways. I MYSELF am weird, awkward and strange sometimes. There is lots of roles and people I have worked with, its not just Devs, or Designers but QA, Product and Project Managers, and yes even the annoying consultants. The Patrick Bateman comment I believe is accurate because a lot of people where caught in the rat race, but liking it. LIKING the jockeying for status, or pointless meeting or bragging about who went where, and who eat or drank what. Its the "keeping up with the Joneses" tech edition. NO I am not calling every tech person a serial killer, but the obsessed, status driven and often oblivious to the real world person. I probably have some of that in me too. The most "normal" company i worked for was a "Large Bank", and it was still IT related. Most people where older and just waiting the days out to pay the bills and go home to their families. The larger "famous" companies have that problem of attracting the "Bateman" types IN MY OPINION. Does that mean everyone is like that? No, but a significant amount of people created a correlation that I was using to laugh at a comedic point. TL;DR dont take it too seriously, it was a joke.
@@DJSebaI've worked in tech for over 10 years and I absolutely hate big bang theory. I'm also low in agreeableness. I shower every day and I eat a lot of pizza and burgers. I go shooting/hunting with my coworkers. Maybe leave whatever coastie state you're in and realize there's people in tech of all stripes.
41:39 - The Nintendo 3DS comes out in the West - The Tohōku earthquake - Game of Thrones premieres on HBO - The Harry Potter film saga concludes - CM Punk does the “Pipebomb promo” - Dubstep takes over the world - Skyrim - The Hunger Games comes out in theaters - Imagine Dragons break into the mainstream - The PSVITA is released - Avengers - Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy ends - JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is adapted into a TV anime from its first arc - The Wii U gets released - Hurricane Sandy - The Shield and The Wyatt Family debut as stables in wrestling - The Hobbit trilogy begins - The Mayan Apocalypse fails to occur on Dec 21 12 - Daft Punk release Get Lucky - Breaking Bad concludes - Attack On Titan anime premieres - The Xbox One and PS4 come out - Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak is broken - Legendary’s MonsterVerse debuts with Godzilla 2014 - Germany thrashes Brazil 7-1 - The Hobbit trilogy ends
Oh man, I just sold my Nintendo 3DS a few months ago cause I wasn't playing on it anymore, between 2012 and 2014, I still remember thinking the world was going to end, when TDKR was on theaters, Dupstep (remember Skrillex?), Wii U, Germany trashing Brazil 7-1 I saw it live. All of this happened when I was 8-10 years old.
I have to imagine that Chuck Lorre resents Charlie for basically being on top of the world and essentially throwing it all away while he struggled as much as he did in his career early on, it kinda makes sense
Idk man, with the amount of basically irredemable garbage Lorre put into the world, and the petty grudge he held against a guy with clear mental health issues for 4 years, I have a really hard time feeling respect for the guy. Like yea, Charlie Sheen is a mess, but damn if Lorre isn't the worse person out of the two, and that's saying something.
I remember hearing about Two and a Half Men ending at the time, but I honestly never even knew *how* it ended until now. The last time any of my friends talked about it, it was that Ashton Kutcher was replacing Charlie Sheen, and then everyone lost interest and moved on. Which makes sense.
the old internet was extremely fragmented, you didn't have everything on 4 websites. most subjects had their own silos of forums, message boards, and sites. better times tbh fam.
I kinda think 'Alan becomes Charlie' could actually have been a pretty good way to handle the exit, at least for a season while the show is finding its feet again. Have him regress into acting out like Charlie as a grief reaction, forcing his teenage son to become the responsible one, and have a new 'uptight divorced guy' lodger replace the Alan role (it's a shame they didn't make the divorced techbro a loser, because that could have made a pretty funny sitcom character back before Elon made it too obvious a reference). That gives you two routes into jokes: either play them exactly the same as you would have with the original characters, or get comedy out of them trying to play a role they're not suited to; Alan trying to be a nihilistic playboy, a teenager trying to parent his own father, an out-of-touch rich stranger trying to fit into a family dynamic.
I loved Alan and Walden's early dynamic of "walden being rich and succesful, but really needing a role model or mentor because he was too childish or irresponsible (either because he always was, or broke hard due to the divorce). With Alan ironically becoming that mentor figure he needed despite being broke, and considered a loser by everyone. this ironically letting alan improve himself (at least enough to go back to his early season's responsible self that GENUINELY tries, but is just that he has bad luck)". And while their relationship being explicitedly being friends only, everyone thinking they are gay, and sometimes naturally acting like a married couple, and even their current female love interests noticing it. the ultimate punchline being when walden decides to adopt a kid and NOW they really need to pretend to be a gay couple. kinda sad they ended it quickly to double down on alan being a broke smoocher while trying to make walden even more like charlie (or well a more responsible likeable version of his role). sure sometimes they kinda slip back to their original intended roles with alan ironically being walden's closest friend despite everything saying otherwise but it wasn't the same. i like your idea. it would have given jake SOMETHING to do rather than doubling down on making him a pothead idiot teenager that was just there.
the show could have been saved if Judith divorced Dr. Herb Melneck and Herb would live together with Alan and Jake. There is 1 or 2 episodes where Alan and Herb understand eachother very well and have some good bro time
Everybody liked the show while it was airing (prior to Ashton Kutcher). The moment it finished, the public consciousness shifted to "Yeah the show was always trash". This phenomenon has become so common in recent years, it needs a name.
Everyone loved Nickelback at one point too until some comedian made a joke about how bad they were and it went viral to the point where no one wanted to admit they used to listen to Nickelback despite them being one of the most listened to bands in history
Culture has never been monolithic. It was always fragmented, until the dawn of the internet, precisely because there was no universal source of information. There have always been large numbers of people involved in counter-culture, like bootlegged, banned VHS tapes, or underground music albums. If anything, culture has become more eclectic since the internet.
Except people exchanged information with each others for thousands of years before the internet was invented. You kids genuinely believe the internet created the universe and it's kinda crazy.
My only memory of Two and a Half Men was when I was about middle-high school aged, and my family took a trip to California. We did the whole Universal studios and Warner Brothers Studio Lot tours, where they take you where the shows are filmed and all the sound stages and stuff. Well, as our golf cart tour was taking a break, we saw the kid from Two and a Half men outside the door to a big sound stage riding his Rip-Stick(Stix?) in the parking area (rip-stix were huge back then) and we said what’s up to him. He said something like “oh nothing just hanging out,” and looked kinda sad. And I’ll never forget that moment.
@@jamesthornton3539 yeah he had to have been acting still cause he was taking a break during shooting I guess. It showed me that actors are just regular people most the time. Before that there was always this mystique and I thought they had it all. Dude just looked sad.
Been a fan since the Fesh Pince video, this one was really good.
I'd assumed the show was just cancelled, so finding out they pivoted to Foodfight 2 was really something
oh my god! thank you so much!
Oh shit, Harriton Splimby jumpscare.
So, I often check comment sections when I click on a creator I don't know - because it will often tell you if the RUclipsr is a crazy right-winger...
This is the first time a comment section has given me the confidence to hit subscribe when the video had barely even really started.
The only way of topping this comment is if chuck lorry comments "well you made a video about me so I won"
@@Shamino1 You say that like half the media analysis on this website isn't far right grifters.
Ending your long running popular sitcom with a fourth wall break and pissing on the actor who made the show popular is indeed a way to end a sitcom
Some sitcoms are infamous fro their mindscrewing ending _(St Elsewhere_ being in the imagination of an autistic kid, _Newhart_ was just a dream of a character Bob Newhart played in another sitcom, etc.) But I don't think any other show has done it in such a meanspirited way as _Two and a Half Men_
Tbf he's also the eeason the show was cancelled. I'd be mad too
A great way, imo.
@@Mario_Angel_Medina Heck, even Dinosaurs, which ended with EVERYONE DYING, was trying to make a point.
My grandma loved this show for some reason
Holy shit, that finale actually looked deeply disturbing. Like lost episode, creepypasta vibes but genuinely unsettling
IKR
"I turned around and Charlie Sheen threatened to kill me!! Then Chuck Lorre bled from the eyes and dropped a piano on my dog?!"
it indeed does, but i'm pretty sure people would prefer this to be lost episode, not actual one.
i watched TAHM (never got to the Ashton era) some years ago. the last year i rewatched it on amazon prime and i enjoyed some of the season 9-12 scenes, but it wasnt the same feeling. watching the ending was too confusing to be real
@@imjoniYeah my Great Uncle likes the show, but he despises Ashton Kutcher, never brought himself to watch any of his episodes.
If I were still in High School, I'd greatly consider "If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really mad" as a senior quote.
You might have just given me an idea.
@@lenko2605about a decade late on the charlie sheen meme I don’t think it would hit like you think
@@ovichggatI don’t know man, that just kind of adds levels to it that make it kind of funnier
@@ovichggat I don't have any better ideas at the moment lol
you guys got to do senior quotes?
"About 9 to 10 years ago" *Shows 2015 on screen*
Don't do this to me, man
@RaguPastaSauce Did you know Finding Nemo came out 22 years ago?
@@RaguPastaSauce You too, huh?
Wait what, Pokemon go came out 8 years ago?
Yes @@BlueRespectableOctopus
You know, people born in 2006 are adults now.
Chuck Lorre dedicating the finale of a 12 season show on his grudge for Charlie Sheen only to kill him off again is Reverse Flash levels of petty.
“It was me, Charlie”
@@YouMustsaListenI EXPIRED YOUR MILK!!!
He was a shoe in for hater of the year.
Out-pettying the man who erased a child from existence out of spite for a guy deserves some kind of award
I mean, he also did it to himself. I personally don't take it as him actually hating the guy but being being mad that the show he made is inherently tied to Charlie Sheen. On the other hand, that's like a DM being mad one of the players has a character go off rail. If you want perfect, play by yourself. Can't do it? Then learn to accept and move on
A second piano has hit the set of two and a half men
Oh my god, what if that was intentional? I remember seeing the final episode when it came out, and by this point I knew how Sheen had been a 9/11 conspiracy theorist for some time, but, god, what if? What if the final joke in 2 & a half men was a 9/11 joke to mock Charlie Sheen. Could it be?
Just perfect
Hey, I don't know if someone told you, but they were hit by planes, not pianos. Easy mix up.@@Chocolatebutterjelly
Brother I am dead
Damn bro, that's just perfect. Fantastic work.
They don't make haters like Chuck Lorre anymore
(Kendrick Lamar comes close)
Real😂@@mr.froglegs
J
Jews
@@tictactoehuhn6 Spiteful people 👃🏼
"Wouldn't it be funny if we just did a parody of that drug fueled breakdown you had four years ago and then dropped on a piano on your character"
yeah can't see why Charlie Sheen wouldn't wanna do that. I'm sure he deserved to be fired but the him refusing the ending seems pretty justified.
There is one scandal fully omitted by this video: Charlie Sheen admitted to have unprotected sex with women, while being a HIV carrier. That should cancel him. Not him being drug addict - addiction is a disease.
I get the feeling they weren't expecting him to take it
@@samuelbutton7185 yea i agree i don't think it was a genuine offer to come back they just wanted to make fun of him
Charlie is many things but he's not Stupid he could clearly see this was just a bit and obviously said no
You said the viewers didn't deserve this. But counterpoint: they were watching Two and A Half Men.
That's low man.
Hahahahaha
My grandma would be upset to know you said that
I was a child to young teen during its whole run don't judge me lmfao I don't like it now as an adult.
A child toyoung teen for 12 years?@@fuzzybuzzy3159
That early 2010s TV "tech guy" trope was such an odd entity. Genius programmer who's also very business savvy, and also hot and a ladies man, and made their money by selling out to Microsoft or Google. I don't think that guy ever existed outside of television.
Not to mention the portrayal of them being mad scientists who have crazy sci fi technology just because they ran a tech startup.
@@boxylemons7961They'll blow the panties off the audience by exiting Vim
The problem was that everyone knew Steve Jobs but no one knew Steve Wozniak. Jobs was a relatively smart guy but he was a much better marketer and presenter than an engineer. Wozniak made all Steve's ideas actually work. But everyone thought it was all Jobs, that Jobs was a wunderkind once in a generation mind; All smoke. Jobs was actually kind of a nightmare to work with, but he could sell the product. And history repeats because the same thing happened with John Romero and John Carmack, the charismatic asshole with ideas and his engineer buddy that actually made them work. But more people know Romero than Carmack, although Daikatana came back to bite Romero in the ass.
The problem was that everyone knew Steve Jobs but no one knew Steve Wozniak. Jobs was a relatively smart guy but he was a much better marketer and presenter than an engineer. Wozniak made all Steve's ideas actually work. But everyone thought it was all Jobs, that Jobs was a wunderkind once in a generation mind; All smoke. Jobs was actually kind of a nightmare to work with, but he could sell the product. And history repeats because the same thing happened with John Romero and John Carmack, the charismatic asshole with ideas and his engineer buddy that actually made them work. But more people know Romero than Carmack, although Daikatana came back to bite Romero in the ass.
@@mdstevens0612 What exactly are you saying with your comment? Steve Wozniak is pretty close to what people expect tech people to be like back then. It's weird that TV had this alternative version that was on pretty much no ones mind
when ashton kutcher looked into the camera i was genuinely shaken
When the intrusive thoughts win
You just got Punk’d
fallout new vegas whiplashing me 270 degrees around to some member of ceasers legion yelling at me
@@spiller-hy7uk"The Caesar has marked you for death! And the legion obeys! Prepare yourself for battle!"
@@Krakkokayne fuck you todd for almost making me die via cool ranch dorito inhalation may 5th 2024
Charlie Sheen isn't a great person but the idea that he asked Chuck Lorre for a nice, heartfelt ending to the show and was told they wanted to mock his drug addiction and kill him off is just... wow.
Good riddance after he tried to murder his wife. Why should he be allowed back on television?
@@ebonyobrien5895 because evil does not become good even when directed at someone detestable.
@ebonyobrien5895 so you think you can just make fun of the sufferings a person goes through just because they did or tried something bad?
Let’s say I get drugged by someone, become addicted, can't get any and have the abstinence symptoms and go crazy and get violent towards someone, will you then laugh at me? If so, you're a bad person too.
@@GippyHappy it's an extreme example but you make it sound like because murder is normally evil that if you murder a nazi it's still evil when i'm sure we'd all agree that less of those is a universal good thing
@@dankerbell No, I wouldn't agree with that at all.
Ashton Kutcher just flat out saying he can't wait for the show to be over is the most relatable thing ever.
honestly i actually love that honesty
i dont' even think it was scripted i think he just was like ah F*** it the last 4 years have sucked and it's finally about to end
The fact that they tried SO hard to keep the show going after Sheen left is ASTONISHING.
2 and half men made enough money to pay a singular actor 25 million dollars a year . Even at its lowest point it drew in 10 million viewers.
It only ended because everyone involved was sick of it and it was obvious the money wasn't making it worth it
*Ashton-ishing
*Ashton-ISheen
I find it funny how (as the video itself says) the show went from being "a sitcom with three main characters" to basically being the Charlie Sheen show without Sheen himself.
The fact it went on for so long is Ashton-ishing
35:33 So intersting that the creator of Big Bang Theory of all things dismissed pop culture reference jokes as cheap and easy
I was literally thinking 'This guy must hate Big Bang Theory' but he made it????
In a different universe Sheldon was the one that had the winning meltdown
Basinger
@@MilkyWayGrump Botswana
@@MilkyWayGrump Venezuela
I don’t like Charlie Sheen but man did he cook with “the only thing I’m addicted to right now is winning,” while in rehab 😭😂
This was akin to a creepypasta. When Ashton Kutcher stared down the camera i genuinely felt a chill go down my spine. This is genuinely so f*cking strange.. like a fever dream.
It genuinely manages to be so out of place and bizarre that it becomes uncanny; like they trick your brain into going “what the hell that’s wrong” and being unsettled just by breaking down the shows own rules it’s honestly crazy like I can’t think of anything even remotely comparable in any other show
That’s why it’s good
Where can you watch this scene
@@Finamajig
lol
@@redundant6972it’s not fear, it’s a weird feeling because it’s not a show known for breaking the 4th wall, not only that but it’s also making you thing they’re making a joke when in reality they’re directly telling the audience they gave up on trying to save the show
I feel like the second piano is also saying something. That Lorre *knows* the grudge is terrible for him to hold onto and he just can't drop it. That it killed him just as much as it killed Carlie Sheen.
That’s giving too much credit to the guy responsible for Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory
@@juiceboxboy9961 nah, it’s very clear he does understand how to write and how to set up and pay off moments, he just fumbled it more often than not. Honestly id say he’s better as a more serious writer than as a comedy writer, mostly because it seemed to me that the better parts of those shows were when they decided to take things somewhat seriously for at least a bit. I hate Big Bang theory with a passion but I have to give some credit to that at least
@@juiceboxboy9961i don’t know, he also wrote young sheldon and it’s genuinely really good so i think he knows what he’s doing
Given how they end up burying the hatchet and working together again, I'd say that's a good read on the situation
@@juiceboxboy9961that was an epic ending. Give Lorre praise for it
Damn, Charlie Sheen really is the real life Bojack Horseman, isn't he?
A rushed and not well thought out ending to a sit-com he's beloved in, drinking binges and coke benders, when we get to see the "real him" in his own home it's as bad as it can get.. No wonder there are so many comparisons to him and Sheen.
It's probably what the creator based him on it boJack horseman firsted "aired" in 2015
Horseman actually being a good person at heart negates any number of other superficial similarities that are easily applicable to a cadre of other dumpster fire celebrities, but okay
@@Dr170 the only difference between them is that we are more close with Bojack, we know why he acts like that and how his childhood was like, with sheen we don't get that.
imagine that you were in the world of Bojack Horseman and didn't know him personally. if you heard the things that he has done you would hate him. Its through perspective.
O@@notabestfriend432
You simply don't understand it as you lack Tiger Blood™
90 episodes per season?! How is that the most normal thing in the story so far?
“Sheen hosted the gathering of the juggalos”
Oh. Ok, please go on.
They purely wanted Anger Management to hit 100 episodes so it could be syndicated. I guess they didn’t have faith in it running for enough seasons to hit 100 naturally.
That final vanity card is baffling. "Charlie Sheen wanted to do a heartfelt ending that could lead to a new beggining for the series, but I wanted to spend the whole episode making fun of his breakdown then throw a piano at him".
If I wanted to make myself look like the bigger person in this conflict, I would NOT admit something like that.
I don't think he wanted to seem like the bigger person honestly, I think he was well aware of how petty and spiteful the episode would be and didn't care lol
@@tokisugar Fair. Still crazy that he made himself out to be less reasonable than CHARLIE SHEEN of all people
@@matti.8465 Remember Charlie's irresponsibility lead to many people's lives being derailed. Lorre was understandably pissed that his work and creativity was derailed by an emotionally unstable man that was paid millions all because he felt slighted
@@Megaawesomeguy Not to mention if i recall charlie was extremely abusive to people on set if I recall. Everyone hated working with him from what Ive heard.
I honestly gotta wonder if Chuck Lorre ever realized that maybe the reason he didn't want to play in the finale was because it was an entire episode dedicated to ruthlessly and cruely mocking him. I don't care if the person in question is Charlie Sheen, I think no one would accept a script that's literally just dedicated to insulting one of the actors playing the characters.
The worst part of Two And a Half Men is how catchy the intro was. My dad liked it so I heard it from the living room. Over a decade later I still have the “men men men men, manly men men men-“ stuck in my head like a parasite
*starts to whistle the intro them*
Def one of the worst earworms ever made.
god me too
Very fitting considering that why Charlie in the show was wealthy.
its the only thing the show added to my sphere of american culture
It should be noted that Lorre seemed to understand the lose-lose aspect of this mess: the second piano falls on him as he says "winning". Given all the mayhem and bitterness on all sides, it wasn't surprising to my father and to me that the show ended this way. My father enjoyed the show, was critical of it during the last seasons, and still enjoyed it.
And part of that, I feel, goes to an unsung hero in this essay/autopsy: Jon Cryer, who is not simply "the guy who played Alan", but the actor who stayed on board from start to finish, and, like all the best actors, gave 100% to his character and the silly scripts. I wish you had mentioned his situation in all of this, as he was basically left to carry what was left of the series on his shoulders, all the way from maintaining some kind of tone to shepherding Kutcher through his initiation. I can't help but feel that, though the stars of this autopsy are, without a doubt, Lorre and Sheen, it's Cryer who truly deserves the glory. I can also venture to say that, though Sheen was the name and the draw for the audience, I remember many, many, of the actual stories centering around Alan.
Yeah, I always thought Cryer was more influential in this story than people gave him credit for. It's telling that, for all the bad blood that was going on in this show, Charlie Sheen still wanted Cryer to be in his new proposed sitcom. He seemed to recognize that Cryer was just as important in the show's success as he was.
@@libRteedude That's really nice to know, that Sheen seems to have appreciated his costar.
Jon Cryer wrote this comment.
@@madprophet6891 Jon Cryer is much taller than I am, and presumably much less nearsighted....
The fucking comment , I don’t get why Charlie was payed so high 😂, like I’m from 🇳🇬 Nigeria so I’m like a casual fan and didn’t know about the personal behind the scenes and interview wars between sheen and the director , but I always thought Alan was the one recieving the most money cause he was the best actor on there , 😂, it’s so easy to play a successful Charlie now and then but comeon to play Alan who never won any😅thing man was numebr one to me
It's so fascinating to me that this show I watched as a teenager and then lost interest in because of how bad it became in the second half, ended in a fourth-wall breaking lost episode creepypasta style episode that kills the previous main character and creator of the show, and nobody talked about how crazy this was at the time. What the hell?!
Nobody watched the show after Charlie left. Ashton Kutcher sucked and Charlie Sheen's very public meltdown soured a lot of people on the older episodes. If no one's watching the show there's no one to talk about it.
This whole Charlie Sheen thing feels strangely modern, like it should've happened ten years later than it actually did, even Alex Jones is involved
Kanye
@tetryst Depends on which circle you were in when it happened. In 2011 I was in 8th grade and everyone from 7th-9th grade was joking around about winning, tiger blood and banging 7 gram rocks, singing the schmoyoho remix in the hallways etc.
It was a popular meme for like 2 months straight, and in a small EU country. So no, I didn't see anyone who was tired of it, unless it was a person who always had contrarian opinions, so it was normal for them to be tired of that kind of stuff.
@@Elrohof I remember the little iPod game called pocket god and thats where I first found out about the Charlie sheen references lol
alex jones was relevant back then too if you were an internet nerd, it's just that no one was stupid enough to take him seriously yet
Charlie Sheen time traveler confirmened
Something about the _Two and a Half Men_ finale that I can't shake it off me is the feeling that Chuck Lorre always planned for the show to end with an scene similar to the one of Alan, Walden and Bertha sitting on the balcony. Remember how Robert Kirkman once said "I have an idea of how _The Walking Dead_ will end but its just something I prepared for the inevitable moment in which the series isn't selling anymore"? I think Chuck Lorre had a similar "In case of cancelation break the glass" finale, but firing Charlie Sheen derailed the whole plan. Like a minute before they drop a piano over Charlie, Alan and Walden talk about how it doesn't matter than none of the women on their lives care if they live or die because they have eachother, its easy to imagine Charlie and Alan reaching to that conclusion if they where allowed to have character developtment... instead, the series ends by demolishing the Fourth Wall with an sledgehammer
I honestly gotta wonder how the show would've ended if Sheen never went on his public meltdown and got fired. Though it probably would've been way less interesting than the finale we got. Mediocrity is sometimes worse than being outrageously bad, because at least extremely bad media can still be talked about.
@Mario_Angel_Medina There's something poetic about the fact that the How I Met Your Mother finale sucked specifically because they were set on doing it according to their original plan, whereas if the 2 & 1/2 men ending went in a way close to what you described it might have at least been decent
RUclips kept recommending this to me and I put it off because I have never cared to watch a full episode of Two and a Half Men, but I finally caved... and now I don't think I've ever been more morbidly fascinated by a show's production and demise. Enthralled throughout. Extremely good work here.
A mí igual
conformist.
RUclips keeps recommending this to me but then the song from that Jon Bois video starts playing and I go and watch that instead
I also can’t stand the show. I’ve tried to watch it but The dad and the son are so annoying and really kill any desire I have to try and watch any episode. I know nothing about the show beyond what happened to it.
I didn't know Chuck Lorre created both this show and Big Bang Theory. I get why Charlie hated him, he's responsible for hogging the prime time airways with two shockingly successful atrocities simultaneously
Ending your 12 season sitcom by declaring that it was garage at the whole time is the most mid-2010s thing I’ve ever heard. The 2010s truly were the best time to be alive (for meta jokes that killed the audience’s investment in the story).
What are other examples? This type of self-destruction is fascinating, and the only example I can think of is a Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark performance where the Green Goblin sings “I’m a 65 million dollar circus tragedy (actually, more like 75)” which could be a reference to the musical’s budget and reputation.
@@amusingmoose9924 One that I can think of is Chowder, with a perfectly fine ending that actually ends with a fourth wall break of Chowder screaming "NO! I REJECT THIS ENDING!"
The Lego Movie 2 doesn't get enough hate for being a movie that constantly references that it is a sequel, and that it is a musical, which is even more insulting since it barely even commits to being a musical. Plus, it's got a weird message about the main character from the first movie being a toxic person unless he lets girls play with him, which is just confusing in-context.
hey garages are great!
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917Muppets 2 has those same features as Lego 2 and is a good movie
Don't worry, they are still doing it.
The fact that Lorre and Sheen ever worked together again after this is very weird.
What's weird about two people who both regret how they acted towards the other, reconciling and then wanting to work together again?
@@Helio5kIt’s weird because you rarely hear about that kind of maturity.
@@rustyshackleford2950especially coming from Charlie Sheen, and the guy who's show Charlie Sheen ruined by being Charlie Sheen
@@Helio5kprobably for the reasons the video said. How it took that long, for a show that nobody cared about.
@@Helio5k it felt like a bridge had been permanently burnt. Sheen implied that he wanted to kill Lorre after the two and a half men finale, but I guess they worked things out. Good on them I guess.
There was an anonymous quote from an agent during the writers’ strike that i keep thinking about; something like “nobody wants to write two and a half men, everyone wants to write barry. But a lot of people watched two and a half men, and nobody watched barry.” I think there’s a kernel of truth to this, but also that there isn’t some secret way to make two and a half men type sitcoms again that people are refusing, the era is just over. The 2011-2016 era of pop culture was so surreal.
Barry?
@@msjkramey Its an HBO Show headed by Bill Hader
@@j.b.aw.6968thanks. Was it good?
@@msjkramey liked it a lot but it is an acquired taste
@@j.b.aw.6968it’s great.
"Stay away from the crack unless you can manage it socially" is one of the best quotes i ever heard.
"If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really pissed."
This is so simple but hilarious
dang charlie really lived in that directors head rent free for like 4 years
Charlie would live in my head rent free too lmao
Can't say I blame them. He was a...unique individual.
To be quite honest, Lorre did pretty much design the show as a Charlie Sheen vehicle. So when the main reason for your show's existence is out of the picture, it's bound to make you think about it over and over. Especially when there's also so much bad blood between you.
This is the inevitable end result of anyone spending years writing hacky shlock for a person who bullies you on a constant basis
@@hydra4370 i think only Alan Harper would live rent free in your head tbh
This is going to be a strange take away, but the description of the finale (and the last season) reminds me of a potential “lost episode” creepypasta, only so much more fascinating. It has the template of a show not doing what’s expected of it, but instead the horror coming from characters having hyper-realistic eyes/blood or killing themselves/others, there’s the unsettling feeling that the world is breaking. The storytelling you’d expect from a finale is gone and replaced by very contemporary yet personal jabs at itself and Charlie Sheen. Characters are looking to the camera and addressing the audience when that’s never happened before. The vibes of the notes Lorre left at the end of the episodes changes in a similar way. The bizarre CGI could be seen as a replacement for something suddenly being hyper realistic. Of course, there’s the still from 37:42 that would probably be the moneyshot associated with this creepypasta, just edit it to be spookier.
Oh and great video!
Like how Adult Swim dropped "Too Many Cooks" with no warning?
@@msjkramey In terms of the world breaking? That’s an interesting comparison, though TMC’s world/storytelling breaking is more like a cancer attacking the show from within (which is the slasher), while for TaaHM, it’s more like a murder-suicide where it lashes out at Charlie and itself (best exemplified at the very end when both Charlie and Chuck Lorre get squashed with pianos).
@@KrissyBluesHigh five! Coincidentally, this finale was written around the time creepypasta was huge.
I've been thinking for years that a horror story about a comedy becoming self-aware could be great.
Like, nothing you do matters. Any big changes will just be undone next episode. How many jokes have ben something disgusting in disguise? (ex: iCarly and all the feet stuff) You don't want to be funny anymore, but if you're not funny the show ends. What happens when the show ends? Are you free or do you end too?
Why is everyone laughing?
It's not nonsense, I can totally see that. I definitely felt creeped out watching it. It's bizarre and surreal, and it just feels... *_wrong._*
Charlie spends the entire finale unseen, like a cryptid, who crawled his way out of Rose's Buffalo Bill-esque dungeon and is slowly making his way to the house to enact revenge on the other characters so everyone's scared of this faceless Bogeyman about to come get them. It sounds like an urban legend.
Then it just turns into a fever dream. There's a cartoon character interacting with the cast? *_What?_* Suddenly, oh no! The Bogeyman Charlie is here! What's going to happen, are the people in the house about to get attacked? It's oddly eerie feeling, but then suddenly....piano gag. And before you can process what just happened, bam, Chuck Lorre. And another piano.
It doesn't seem real, it's like something foul and supernatural that was conjured into existence, like the tape from Ringu.
2:01 "It's a pretty good Vietnam war film, it's directed by the guy who made JFK"
Bro did Oliver Stone dirty...
Watching this while glancing sidelong at my shelved bowling shirts. Will their time come again?
Ew
This comment made me audibly laugh, thank you
Don't lost hope, hang in there, at the very least in 10 years you can wear them to nostaliga themed costume parties
O
I promise they will.
- detailed backstory about a piece of pop culture
- Exploring a topic barely anyone's covered or even referenced since it happened
- 2010s nostalgia
- Quality commentary
oh yeah this one's a banger
calling george costanza similar to allan isn't exactly incorrect but it feels wrong to me on a spiritual level
Not even close George is pathetic but Alan is a whole other level of pathetic and pushover he is the most bitch character I've ever seen in fiction and it's worse than Meg from family guy or Jerry from Rick and morty
Same
George Costanza is really confident for a guy with extremely low self esteem
Allan feels like the inspiration for Jerry Smith. But that’s probably just because they’re based off of similar sitcom archetypes.
@@zerothefool2437 I feel like George has this deeply internalized sense that others perceive him negatively, so he's often self-effacing, but when he does that he tends to focus solely on superficial things that he can't really control, like the fact that he's a short, stocky, bald man. Underneath that, he seems to actually have a very inflated opinion of his own intelligence and ability to fool people. It's like he has poor self-image, but high self-esteem, if that even makes sense to say. He's such a great character, I would watch a 2+ hour video essay about the psychology of George Costanza.
I remember suggesting via email that they should get a black guy to play charlie and nobody reacts to it. Its just charlie, same persona ect
I still think that would have been a better solution
I would actually find that funny and I don't even like this show
like that one episode of the office
@@Spider.0777 i havent seen the office past mid season 1. my flight wasnt long enough and i didnt find it yet online
Still has a nerdy white brother
@@richardtickler8555its on amazon prime video and hbo
Chuck Lorre actually ended the show by depicting Charlie Sheen as the soyjak and himself as the chad, what a guy
Based
based
Well at least that was he's plan, but in reality TBBT kinda saved hes skin because that episode was really not well received by most people, lucky hin he had another card to play with.
@@youknowwho257 I mean he did get extremely lucky because TBBT is utter garbage.
It uses psychological tricks to make idiots think it is funny.
Seriously, try watching the show without a laugh track, the entire show is just sociopathic narcissists saying mean things to each other or being creepy stalkers and incels.
The whole show is a hate letter to nerd culture, or basically what the average idiot thinks nerds are like.
It gets good enough ratings to justify buying more seasons and more spinoffs, but none of the shows are any good.
Chuck lost his mind to liberlism and most people are ignoring any shows he has a part in and leaving after they figure it out if they missed it.
@@alexistaylor969 big bang theory suffer the same as two and a half men, the series went too fat away from the central premise, and even then i dare to say big bang theory had one of the most satisfactory endings on all sitcoms, isnt specially, fun, epic, heartwatming, but is well done, and thats a huge accomplishment on this era of bad endings
That ending is the most petty thing in a show/movie I've ever seen. Makes pro wrestling promoters look sensible.
And that’s saying something. 😅
Haven't you people seen that another piano falls on Lorre as well? He was obviously making fun of himself too.
Hey! Thats... Yeah actually that really is saying something
Vince is literally like jesua he came back after his limo exploded just like jesus
Guy was a crackhead making 27 mllion a year. It's frankly amazing he's alive at all.
Those are rookie numbers for the average 70s and 80s rock star.
With HIV I believe...
@@kevintanza6968they weren't making 27 mil a year
And also lots and lots and lots of sex...
Maybe he really does have tiger blood.
I can honestly understand the way Lorre went about the ending. The culture and humor change from 2003 to 2015 was HUGE, he probably changed a lot as a person while the show remained stagnant. If I woke up the creator of 2½ Men today, I'd throw it in the trash too.
He was a 50 year old man when it started, as I approach my 30's I know we always have the capacity for change, but my god imagine being 50 and making two and a half men. Actually maybe that's the primary age for someone making that kind of show.
@@Spaced92 yes you’re so noble
And that's why the later seasons were crap, the humor and culture started to change for the worst and they began putting unfunny modern stuff in it, as well as lesbians, gays, etc and it went to shit.
@@Finozzi96 imagine being homophobic while liking the cheesiest boring copycat sitcoms. anyone who whines about wokeness is a snowflake idiot, you get mad over gays on tv instead of real issues
If you woke up to a show which makes you millions you would throw it away?
Sure kiddo,whatever you say
Chuck Lorre and Charlie Sheen getting back together to make a new series together is probably the funniest thing to come out if this.
The absolute gall to make fun of Charlie Sheen for not wanting to do a scene where he references a breakdown he had years ago that he regrets and wants to move on from
but if you watch the video that's exactly what he did in another show.
@@thegamedudeguy The difference is that Sheen did it when the event was way more recent, and making a joke about something you did in a self deprecating way is way different from someone else doing it to mock you.
@@naplockblubba5369 Did Charlie write the Anger Management episode? Because I'm pretty sure someone else wrote that for him to do on that show too. He was obviously fine with it, til he decided he wasn't. Must be that bi-winning he was talking about?
@@jamesoblivion The Anger Management thing was around a year or so after it happened. But it was around 4 or 5 years ago at the point of the 2 and a half men finale, it's not hypocritical or "bi-winning" that he could have changed his opinions on the event in such a large span of time. Not to mention that the Anger Management joke was a lot shorter and was much less mocking and spiteful towards his person than the 2 and a half men one in all likelihood would have been.
I actually think that by him taking the role and acting on the last episode, he'd show how what he said was wrong, and that he recognizes how much of a bad influence he was. Taking the role that satirizes everything that he went through (that was already extremely satirized on the internet) would show that he moved on
In my mind, the fact Charlie Sheen managed to live rent-free in Lorre's head for that long counts as winning.
no doubt
Bi-winning
living rent free in Lorre's head like Alan lived in his house
Well, yeah. You remember the guy that causes nearly 1000 people to lose their jobs. Since when did being a dick to everyone become something to celebrate? Or getting lifelong STD's you pass to your co-workers by not telling them?
@@sirborges It was still inappropiate. He punished the viewers with that more than he did Charlie Sheen. When Sheen saw this he probably just grinned and shook his head, but the people that still watched the show and were hoping for at least a proper conclusion were left in shock and disbelief and are disappointed to this day.
If Lorre was that mad at Sheen, he just should've destroyed him in an interview. Ruining his own show for everybody just because of a personal grudge, was just stupid and egomaniac.
My favourite Charlie Sheen fact is that after he went quiet and stopped doing interviews he did one with an Aussie journalist but they only got half an interview and the guy disappeared for a week and a half. He then reappeared with that half interview and a 5 minute long explanation slash ramblr that they were meditating and no drugs were seen, at all, totally, none. Charlie was fully and definitely sober.
That Bookie reveal at the end had me scrambling for more information, what a wild way for the story to end.
@@NightcoreJones who are you. don't call this number again
@NightcoreJones 🙄
Nah, Twilight Princess is actually awesome.
@NightcoreJones Bro I just KNOW you ain't dissing Twilight Princess like that.
@@NightcoreJones I have no idea what why of that meant but dude get a life.
Don't follow people to other platforms to harass them it's a shitty thing to do
Honestly this video might be a better ad than anything HBO did for that show
i still remember "tigers blood" and "winning" what a time to be alive
Then we found out what Tiger Blood was and we all tried to forget.
@@TheSolidSnakeOil what is it
@@RobotnikPlngas duhh? Winning???
@@RobotnikPlngasSheen has HIV
People talked a lot about how Game of Thrones disappeared from the public consciesness after season 8.
But I think I've never even thought about Two and a half men in the years since it's conclusion and haven't heard of it from anyone as well.
GoT has the advantage of beeing bad on levels unimaginable before, so it keeps beeing discussed as a mistake.
honestly, I hadn't thought about it in so long I don't remember. I think, before I saw the title of this video, I kind of forgot the show existed
thats what happens with sitcoms, very few are memorable to be rememberd after ending, a lot of them if not everyone get outdated very soon
I'm a Gen Z and I watched Two and a Half Men years after it ended, it was played alot on Warner TV along The Big Bang Theory (my favorite sitcom) and Friends. But I'd agree the Ashton Kutcher seasons were unneded.
@@CG-eh6oeSame happens with the Star Wars sequel trilogy, fans still talking about how it ruined the franchise, as a fan myself, I think most of the fandom is damaging themselves, others do like those last movies don't exist.
I tend to stay away from video essays besides a few creators i know because too often it is just slop that stretches points worth 5 minutes of discussion into an hour long repeatathon.
You've had a great story to tell, and you told it very well.
"Bizarre sense of euphoria you get after vomiting" is one of those phrases that'll rattle around my brain for decades
I love vomiting yogurt, the only thing that goes back and forth is nice and tasteful.
@@Yanoor sounds very caligula's roman
even a bulimic couldn’t have said it better.
Post vomit clarity is one thing we can all relate with
I thought you wrote “bizarre sense of euphoria you get after voting” and I was like ‘oh yeah’ until I reread it. and ive never felt euphoria after voting in my life, more like the urge to vomit. i need to stop taking anonymous comments to heart
My mom still says "Duh, Winning" whenever it can be applicable. Charlie sheen's psychotic break was felt by EVERYONE.
And "Tiger's Blood" is an actual flavor for energy drink mixes now
“The phrase ‘9/11’ comes up on his Wikipedia page way too much for [Charlie Sheen to be considered a good person]”
I like how this almost implies that Charlie Sheen had a hand in the September 11th attacks
Jet fuel can't melt steel beams, but Charlie Sheen can.
@@Calvin_Coolage It’s that tiger blood
He got Aids. He's good
That would explain how he knew so much about it
@@Calvin_Coolage his std ridden piss
I think what made the show so watchable is the fact families would watch it together. Even though it was like the antithesis of what a family friendly comedy would be, a lot of the show was structured around Jake not knowing what was going on and that made it funny for families with young teens to watch because they had just gone through those awkward conversations and realizations and for the first time you could finally acknowledge them as a family and laugh about it.
yeah i'd watch it with my family when I was way too young, all those jokes went right over my head LOL
The Simpsons as well. There were a lot of moral guardians who wanted to prohibit kids from watching it because Bart was a bad role model (among other dumb reasons)
Using the end title cards as a way to tweet about Charlie sheen is hilarious
So charlie sheen has a highly successful career, goes to rehab, goes on alex jones to say anti semetic remarks, has insane interviews and has multiple publicists quit. Charlie Sheen is the OG Kanye West
My god
At least Kanye West made something good like Graduation, Charlie Sheen was just in Two and a Half men.
@@Fernybunhe was also in platoon and hot shots
Where was the lie again?
Pretty good comparison
Kanye has been off the rails since forever, though. George Bush doesn't care about black people!
If I had a nickel for how many men, I would have 5 nickels, or 2 and a half dimes
goddamnit
Good joke Dad
I don't get it?
Nice try, A.I., but you can't fool me!
@@tadghkelly3747There were 5 main characters
this video actually convinced me that 2 and a half men has the best sitcom ending of all time
I have to appreciate the lengths someone has to go to make themselves look petty in comparison to a serial drug abuser who was going through a mental breakdown.
these "people" pour conrete down wrlls to deny them from being used. not surprising. did you know lorre is a fake name? hes chuck levine. like mark cuban. or so many others.
at least he dropped a piano on himself too
they always wore the worst clothes the entire show
Even the suits are horrible looking. How do you mess up suits? The fuc...
@@RobotnikPlngas real men who act like the characters actually dress like that though so it never bothered me
boy do i love vertical stripes
@@lachlank.8270 how about-get this-ill-fitting button-up shirts
That was also the case for the wardrobe in TBBT, each one of them were dressed horribly.
Idgaf what anyone says, Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer had amazing chemistry and portrayed one of the best brother/buddy dynamics in comedy.
They ain't gay bro wtf don't say that
@@ColonelMetusHur so edgy
@@ColonelMetus I wonder about Charlie sometimes..
Just cause they have chemistry doesn't mean they're gay lmao.
@tonyj2319 yeah it do
I can't believe you've only posted seven videos and they're all this good. Just did a binge of all your vids so far, everything is just the perfect amount of funny and informative and about stuff I would never have found without your channel. Super good work, can't wait to see what else you put out
Finding out Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men were made by the same guy was like the modern version of finding out Darth Vader was Luke's father for me
Disturbing but makes perfect sense?
Everyone knew but you?
Chuck Lorre is the adult version of Dan schnieder
how come
@@sharkapuppethe sexually assaulted actors too?
Truth be told I was put in a mental hospital in high school and one of the forms of entertainment was a TV which for some reason was stuck on this cable channel that only played classic sitcoms. So whenever we watched TV it was Two and a Half Men, Family Matters, and the George Lopez show. During my stay one of the other patients hurled a box of crayons at the TV after it cycled through 5 episodes of Two and a Half Men.
Out of the three shows which was your favorite?
Putting that TV in a mental hospital is a cruel joke, pouring one out for y'all
Actual one flew over the cuckoo's nest type shit
This has to be a joke, if I ended up in such a place that would make me have mental issues
Side note, Oliver Stone is the only Vietnam veteran to make a movie about Vietnam. He was an infantryman.
I did not know that!
@@BestPunkyEver he has two Purple Hearts and a bronze star with a V device. It explains why he is so anti war. I have similar feelings after seeing warfare myself.
No wonder his war films are so damn amazing there's another movie he made called
born on the fourth of July
It's amazing
It's amazing how little fluff or hyperbole you put in this. This was so good and you made it look so easy (i bet it was wild and strange). Thank you for watching that show so no one else had to and telling this story how no one else could (really good and fun).
I enjoyed the show back in the day for one simple reason. It's the classic funny man/straight man setup but the twist is both charlie and alan can be either. Either Charlie or Alan can be the butt of the joke, often times both at the same time because Jake is there too. It's not that complicated but it doesnt need to be.
A sitcom's purpose is to set up comedic situations for the cast to be put in. A rich, bitter womaniser who wants to be left alone is forced to live with his divorced neurotic brother, dimwitted nephew and sassy maid, all while dealing with the fallout of his many failed relationships and crazy one night stands. The amount of jokes you can write with that setup is nearly limitless.
But it's not the Charlie show. The show is about the two and a half men. Any of them can be what an episode revolves around, with all three of them bouncing jokes off each other. This isn't like other sitcoms where one guy is the "funny one", or the "grumpy one" or the "normal one". Charlie can be just as silly as the cast then miserable about living with them, then happy he has somewhat of a family to be around.
Ashton Kutcher didn't work because he's just Alan, but rich. It's like Lorre wanted to make Big Bang Theory but with only two guys and none of the uniqueness of BBI's characters. Charlie and Alan couldnt be more opposites of each other. That conflict stimulates story telling.
Also their mother is hilarious
Furthermore, Charlie and Alan are brothers. They are stuck together, they like it or not.
Charlie Sheen: We can end it with me apologizing to my brother and reuniting amicably, then maybe we can start a new show, start over, and do this right.
Chuck: haha drug addict Porky Pig monster and then murder
He literally dropped a piano on Sheen's head. I can't think of anything more childish, petty, and cringe than that.
@@WobblesandBeanIf I had one of the most successful series of all time and a guy I was making rich derailed the gravy train by ranting about tiger blood I'm not being the bigger man.
@@ShadowRulah4 more seasons is hardly derailed
@ShadowRulah Cuck Lorre is a terrible writer anyway. Nobody of any substance watches his shows. They're generally misogynistic trash where every character is a terrible person.
@@ShadowRulah Lol "derailed"? The show went on for years after that. And even if didn't, the piano thing was still petty cringe and childish. Plus, Sheen didn't leave the show, Chuck Lorre fired him because he was butthurt.
The Alex Jones reveal made my jaw hit the floor like a cartoon character lmao
Lorre created Two and a half men AND The Big Bang theory !?
Shouldn't he be on trial for human rights violations for that?
You should write for them same quality
Big bang theory isn’t that bad, aside from being indirectly responsible for the problem with apu affecting animation casting.
Frankly I think the show should be known as a love it or hate it show.
@@changvasejarik62This is what his reputation online is, outside the Internet most people I know loves the show, except for my Great Uncle who said it was for gays, because of Jim Parsons.
@@changvasejarik62 The mysoginy in TBBT is pretty bad once you notice it
@@ngotemna8875 No it's not.
fantastic video. I remember when all of this was happening but this is the first time I think ive ever had a clear picture of the whole thing and how bizarre it was. theres nothing i find more fascinating than when a realitively innoccuous show just completely tears itself apart at the end
one of the craziest details i didn't even mention in this is that lorre's other major hit, the big bang theory, has a universally beloved ending lmfao
@@LowercaseJai yeah, I'm not a fan of TBBT (I used to be) because the geek misogyny just got to be too much for me, but that ending episode is actually really great.
Hey Geno you rock
Fantastic video. To be completely fair, if I was forced to constantly re-write a generic sitcom for years because the main actor started going crazy, I'd probably want to vent my frustrations, too. It's definitley not a "good" ending, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fascinated by it. Spending the last episode of your show pissing all over the main star of the cast, and then proceeding to kill him at the end takes an insane amount of guts. I don't think Chuck Lorre is putting himself on a pedestal in the last scene by saying "winning," though; I think Chuck Lorre knew for a fact that he was about as "winning" as Charlie Sheen said he was during that ABC interview, so he ended off the show by making fun of both himself and Charlie Sheen (hence both characters dying in the most stupid way possible via falling piano). He knew that spending an entire episode making fun of the biggest cast member was incredibly low-brow, but at this point he really just did not care lol. That's my interpretation though
2½ Men tierlist when?
@@arguablyharry6029 Right after the second coming of Christ
Also, I think Chuck Lorre wanted to prove to the haters watching that he managed to keep it running for another 4 seasons which is pretty impressive considering how many shows only last a season or 2 when a lead is gone
The finale was so bad, that even fans couldn't find the energy required to say what you just did. The ending was not needed, and it killed the show for rewatching, because the issues have no weight today. No 47 minutes video required, just a chat between the friends you had that also liked the show was enough.
The weirdest thing about Charlie Sheen's moment of madness was that, right as it was still pretty fresh in everyone's mind, Fiat-Chrysler randomly picking him to advertise the Fiat 500 Abarth in the US and Canada.
This episode was on the TV in the hospice the day I realized I was never going to see my grandmother again.
I’ll admit, the surrealism of the situation did help to lighten the mood a bit.
"I've never seen a show hate its audience this much"
Alright, this show vs Velma.
The difference is 2 and a half men actually had an audience.
@@WobblesandBean Honestly you're right
@@WobblesandBeanFacts, Velma is just prime "Didn't Earn It" ESG Money Laundering.
@@WobblesandBeancomprised of more than just hate viewers at least...
I think there is a difference between a gradually built resentment to your audience from a producer, and a show made out of spite, and cheap shock "subversion" (playing into every single predictable modern writing trend).
I feel bad for the actors. A lot of them are really good.
Edit: the actors in velma, not 2 and a half men.
Charlie Sheen being buddies with Alex Jones is both really surprising and not surprising at all.
I don't know, compared to other finales in which the writers are so far up their own ass to convince everyone that it was always meant to end like that and you just didn't get it, Lorre was brutally honest about the entire show and its audience in what essentially amounted to a broadcasted shitpost.
10/10
he does say in the video on how its bad and does liking low brow humor really that bad? like mcdonalds is not some fine cuisine restaurant but its pretty fun to eat, whats wrong with that?
20:51 you must be younger. Because dude there was SO MANY NICHE websites. Now, just everything is on either Reddit or Discord.
this
Yep
Dude prob never heard of web forum sites.
Yeah i am glad i grew up 80s n 90s and beginning of wed/pcs. Guves me baseline of how things worked and where. I understand hardware and software. How many kids have any idea how a pc works? We where building them as kids b4 the 1st modem
90's and early 2000's internet was the peak of the internet, before a single corporation basically owned everything.
The old af A-Team dedicated sites I followed started disappearing until they were gone by mid 2010's... This is just an example of niche interests and people interacting in specific places instead of a social media/Insta. Msging type thing
I really didnt know those chuck lorre ending cards were different every time, "if charlie sheen outlives me, im gonna be pissed" is probably the funniest thing two and a half men brought to the table
My dad & I loved to watch _Big Bang Theory_ back about a decade ago, before we both grew tired of the show in it's later seasons (but we did however watch the finale back in 2019, we just wanted to see how it ended tbh). I remember, shortly after we got our first DVR, I would sometimes pause the credits and read what the vanity cards had to say. I still admit that it's a neat concept.
@@andrewhaywood1262same, and in retrospect his ending cards were often funnier than the shows themselves 😂
I have seen this video appear in my recommended ever since it came out, and every single time I said "Heh I i remember that show", and proceeded to go on about my business. But tonight I decided I'd finally watch this video, and holy hell "The Worst Sitcom Ending of All Time" is legitimately the most right on the money title. Like I had no clue about so much of the stuff going on with all of this, and the way you pieced together everything to make it just such a perfectly delivered autopsy is just phenomenal. Easy subscription out of me, and hell now Im gonna find out how kitchen nightmares manipulates me, cause why not. Can't understate it enough, phenomenal video man!
so the biggest lesson to learn here is that if america had a universal single-payer healthcare system, two and a half men could have been prevented from airing.
Where did that come from?
@@White_Reclusebeginning of the video, the reason two and a half men got written was cause a friend of chuck lorre who was down on his luck and at a low point in his career was about to lose health insurance, as a result Lorre stepped in to help, writing the titular two and a half men. Without American health insurance two and a half men never exists
Hell it wouldn’t have been created at all.
@onyourleft5648 I think that says more about unions than it does healthcare.
So would Breaking Bad
"every tech guy I know lives like Patrick Bateman"
As person who worked in tech for over 10 years, this statement cannot be more accurate.
I've worked in tech for almost 10 years and I have to ask, what sort of weird side of tech do you find people like that on? All (and I mean ALL) of the tech guys I've met so far are very much toned down versions of Walden, or any of the TBBT main cast. People who take last-minute showers because they've been so focused and invested on a project they've been working on for days or weeks, until they suddenly realize they need to appear in a function. Guys who would rather eat nothing but plain rice for a week just to get 'that' piece of 'media' memorabilia on their shelf. People who rather not strike up a conversation, but after a few beers become a delight to hang out with. People from all levels of the industry, from the entry-level helpdesk to software engineers to sysadmins and maintenance engineers: Without a fault: Nerdy, awkward in their own way, but kind and honest sometimes even to a fault. Nothing like Patrick Bateman IMHO.
@@DJSeba From your response I believe that you worked in tech for 10 years.
OBVIOUSLY we cant encompass EVERY human being, working in tech or otherwise under the term ALL or EVERY.
Fine, lets get pedantic about it.
LOTS of guys and girls I worked in tech acted in some kind of weird/quirky/awkward or strange ways. I MYSELF am weird, awkward and strange sometimes.
There is lots of roles and people I have worked with, its not just Devs, or Designers but QA, Product and Project Managers, and yes even the annoying consultants.
The Patrick Bateman comment I believe is accurate because a lot of people where caught in the rat race, but liking it. LIKING the jockeying for status, or pointless meeting or bragging about who went where, and who eat or drank what. Its the "keeping up with the Joneses" tech edition. NO I am not calling every tech person a serial killer, but the obsessed, status driven and often oblivious to the real world person. I probably have some of that in me too.
The most "normal" company i worked for was a "Large Bank", and it was still IT related. Most people where older and just waiting the days out to pay the bills and go home to their families.
The larger "famous" companies have that problem of attracting the "Bateman" types IN MY OPINION. Does that mean everyone is like that? No, but a significant amount of people created a correlation that I was using to laugh at a comedic point.
TL;DR dont take it too seriously, it was a joke.
@@DJSebaI've worked in tech for over 10 years and I absolutely hate big bang theory. I'm also low in agreeableness. I shower every day and I eat a lot of pizza and burgers. I go shooting/hunting with my coworkers. Maybe leave whatever coastie state you're in and realize there's people in tech of all stripes.
I don’t work in tech but I’ve dated people in tech and yeah it’s accurate
…they weren’t as hot as Patrick tho…
@@TheSoulHarvester What the fuck is a "tech guy"? Do you work in this industry? I don't think you do.
41:39
- The Nintendo 3DS comes out in the West
- The Tohōku earthquake
- Game of Thrones premieres on HBO
- The Harry Potter film saga concludes
- CM Punk does the “Pipebomb promo”
- Dubstep takes over the world
- Skyrim
- The Hunger Games comes out in theaters
- Imagine Dragons break into the mainstream
- The PSVITA is released
- Avengers
- Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy ends
- JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is adapted into a TV anime from its first arc
- The Wii U gets released
- Hurricane Sandy
- The Shield and The Wyatt Family debut as stables in wrestling
- The Hobbit trilogy begins
- The Mayan Apocalypse fails to occur on Dec 21 12
- Daft Punk release Get Lucky
- Breaking Bad concludes
- Attack On Titan anime premieres
- The Xbox One and PS4 come out
- Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak is broken
- Legendary’s MonsterVerse debuts with Godzilla 2014
- Germany thrashes Brazil 7-1
- The Hobbit trilogy ends
This list is so much better.
It seems like this all happened a few years ago. When did we get so old
Oh man, I just sold my Nintendo 3DS a few months ago cause I wasn't playing on it anymore, between 2012 and 2014, I still remember thinking the world was going to end, when TDKR was on theaters, Dupstep (remember Skrillex?), Wii U, Germany trashing Brazil 7-1 I saw it live.
All of this happened when I was 8-10 years old.
@@SykroidWelcome to the 2020s, baby.
You forgot Minecraft 1.0's release.
In the end, Chuck was half a man, and Charlie was twice the man Chuck was, and Jon was still there,
So in the end it truly was Two and a half men
Chuck Lorre was a hater and wasn't ashamed to admit it, respect.
I have to imagine that Chuck Lorre resents Charlie for basically being on top of the world and essentially throwing it all away while he struggled as much as he did in his career early on, it kinda makes sense
Idk man, with the amount of basically irredemable garbage Lorre put into the world, and the petty grudge he held against a guy with clear mental health issues for 4 years, I have a really hard time feeling respect for the guy. Like yea, Charlie Sheen is a mess, but damn if Lorre isn't the worse person out of the two, and that's saying something.
@@CaptainSweatpants90He's the worse out of two and a half men
It's not really a satisfying ending, but it's a work of art and genuinely creepy and funny at the same time.
I remember hearing about Two and a Half Men ending at the time, but I honestly never even knew *how* it ended until now. The last time any of my friends talked about it, it was that Ashton Kutcher was replacing Charlie Sheen, and then everyone lost interest and moved on. Which makes sense.
I always found Kutcher to be creepy. His support for predators has confirmed that my suspicions were correct.
the old internet was extremely fragmented, you didn't have everything on 4 websites.
most subjects had their own silos of forums, message boards, and sites.
better times tbh fam.
What 4 websites are you referring too? I’m going to assume that two out of the four are RUclips and Wikipedia.
Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, Twitter
No cap fam
I miss forums. :(
@@ZachX888 get to 4chan then. Enjoy the rabbithole
I kinda think 'Alan becomes Charlie' could actually have been a pretty good way to handle the exit, at least for a season while the show is finding its feet again. Have him regress into acting out like Charlie as a grief reaction, forcing his teenage son to become the responsible one, and have a new 'uptight divorced guy' lodger replace the Alan role (it's a shame they didn't make the divorced techbro a loser, because that could have made a pretty funny sitcom character back before Elon made it too obvious a reference).
That gives you two routes into jokes: either play them exactly the same as you would have with the original characters, or get comedy out of them trying to play a role they're not suited to; Alan trying to be a nihilistic playboy, a teenager trying to parent his own father, an out-of-touch rich stranger trying to fit into a family dynamic.
I loved Alan and Walden's early dynamic of "walden being rich and succesful, but really needing a role model or mentor because he was too childish or irresponsible (either because he always was, or broke hard due to the divorce). With Alan ironically becoming that mentor figure he needed despite being broke, and considered a loser by everyone. this ironically letting alan improve himself (at least enough to go back to his early season's responsible self that GENUINELY tries, but is just that he has bad luck)". And while their relationship being explicitedly being friends only, everyone thinking they are gay, and sometimes naturally acting like a married couple, and even their current female love interests noticing it. the ultimate punchline being when walden decides to adopt a kid and NOW they really need to pretend to be a gay couple.
kinda sad they ended it quickly to double down on alan being a broke smoocher while trying to make walden even more like charlie (or well a more responsible likeable version of his role). sure sometimes they kinda slip back to their original intended roles with alan ironically being walden's closest friend despite everything saying otherwise but it wasn't the same.
i like your idea. it would have given jake SOMETHING to do rather than doubling down on making him a pothead idiot teenager that was just there.
the show could have been saved if Judith divorced Dr. Herb Melneck and Herb would live together with Alan and Jake. There is 1 or 2 episodes where Alan and Herb understand eachother very well and have some good bro time
Everybody liked the show while it was airing (prior to Ashton Kutcher). The moment it finished, the public consciousness shifted to "Yeah the show was always trash".
This phenomenon has become so common in recent years, it needs a name.
The hindsight hater?
Is called the "is not Anime so it sucks" I really hate intelectuals and Hard work.
Reminds me of that time Bill Burr said everybody rollerbladed and then one guy said it was gay and everybody acted like they never did it. 😂
Its called sheep mentality
Everyone loved Nickelback at one point too until some comedian made a joke about how bad they were and it went viral to the point where no one wanted to admit they used to listen to Nickelback despite them being one of the most listened to bands in history
Culture has never been monolithic. It was always fragmented, until the dawn of the internet, precisely because there was no universal source of information. There have always been large numbers of people involved in counter-culture, like bootlegged, banned VHS tapes, or underground music albums. If anything, culture has become more eclectic since the internet.
Except people exchanged information with each others for thousands of years before the internet was invented.
You kids genuinely believe the internet created the universe and it's kinda crazy.
My only memory of Two and a Half Men was when I was about middle-high school aged, and my family took a trip to California. We did the whole Universal studios and Warner Brothers Studio Lot tours, where they take you where the shows are filmed and all the sound stages and stuff. Well, as our golf cart tour was taking a break, we saw the kid from Two and a Half men outside the door to a big sound stage riding his Rip-Stick(Stix?) in the parking area (rip-stix were huge back then) and we said what’s up to him. He said something like “oh nothing just hanging out,” and looked kinda sad. And I’ll never forget that moment.
If I remember correctly he asked to quit the show during the Kutcher years so he could go to college and experience more normal life events
I met him at some function years ago. He looked sad, spoke to no one and moped all evening. It sounded like he was paranoid.
Damn. Poor kid 😅
Was this before he quit the show?
@@jamesthornton3539 yeah he had to have been acting still cause he was taking a break during shooting I guess. It showed me that actors are just regular people most the time. Before that there was always this mystique and I thought they had it all. Dude just looked sad.
It's kinda sad to be known as the guy who both created the worst sitcom finale and The Big Bang Theory.
"You're without a doubt the worst show creator I've heard of"
"Ah but you have heard of me"
Its still wild to me that somehow Young Sheldon is pretty good
I’m sure he cries into his pile of money every night
@@IxEDUXi00 I refuse to believe that.
@@AnAverageGoblin Its not incredible or anything, but its pretty solid and has a good ending. Its so weird.
"about 9 to 10 years ago"
*shows 2015 on screen*
dude that was last year wdym
The ending for Two and a Half Men is not a closure for the audience, but it's closure for Chuck Lorre himself.