TiSB’s 10 Most Popular Episodes
In honor of last week’s 100th episode, I thought I’d put together a quick list of our 10 most popular episodes along with some whims on why they work so well. I recognize the irony of me writing a list article after I lampooned them, but I hope that veteran listeners and newbies alike find this particular list sincere and entertaining. Some of these (especially punishment) haunt me to this day… It should also be noted that we didn’t start proper stat tracking until a few months into production, so some episodes (like the infamous Diablo edition) are big unknowns. That said, everything below is based on what we know for sure.
#1: Episode 33: Sherlock Edition!
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2012/12/this-is-serious-business-sherlock-edition/
Date Published: December 13, 2012
Number of Downloads: 283
This was back when we were young, and kept a single, guaranteed theme for each week’s episode. Christin is our resident Sherlockian and we were more than happy to oblidge her by doing an episode. I had only seen bits and pieces of the show beforehand and it was lovely to go through all of it in sequence. Thanks to some potent tumblr connections and a rampant internet fanbase, this remains our most popular episode of all time.
#2 Episode 59: She Blinded me with Science
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2013/06/this-is-serious-business-59-she-blinded-me-with-science/
Date Published: June 27, 2013
Number of Downloads: 244
This episode was a blast and a half. We were joined by special guest Alex, who runs the YouTube channel Bite Sci-zed, and talked about the role of data in our lives. After that we spent some time on the science of dreaming. I’ve always enjoyed it when we get to show the more academic side of TiSB, and to this day I’m super stoked that this episode is so high on this list.
#3 Episode 46: Punishment
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2013/03/this-is-serious-business-punishment-edition/
Date Published: March 23, 2013
Number of Downloads: 212
Really? The one where I open reading Fifty Shades of F*&@ing Grey is the THIRD most popular episode?! Thanks, guys, seriously. I’m really touched. Also, the dramatic re-enactment of one of the worst movies ever, Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever, is fantastically entertaining. Also, Goldschlager is tasty. Now let us never speak of this again… Thanks a lot, Revengeancers.
#4 Episode 37: 2013 Edition!
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2013/01/this-is-serious-business-2013-edition/
Date Published: January 10, 2013
Number of Downloads: 184
This was our first official “New Year’s” episode, and man, there was a lot to talk about heading into 2013. We hyped up Man of Steel (before later tearing it down), Heart of the Swarm, Iron Man 3, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and more. It was a great way to ring in the new year.
#5 Episode 54: Trekin’ Out!
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2013/05/this-is-serious-business-54-trekin-out/
Date Published: May 23, 2013
Number of Downloads: 153
Star Trek: Into Darkness is such a massive conundrum of a movie. How could something be so terrible and awesome at the same time? We investigated this phenomenon thoroughly on one of our prototypical movie episodes. Plus we coined the term KHANtext, which was rad.
#6 Episode 60: Rebooting Robots
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2013/07/this-is-serious-business-60-rebooting-robots/
Date Published: July 5, 2013
Number of Downloads: 136
This episode rode the bump from Episode 59’s success. It’s a mishmash of smaller news items, but a fun one. Plus, it’s not ever day the G1 panel gets to yammer about a trailer featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger AND Sylvester Stallone.
#7 Episode 88: Hearthstoned
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2014/02/tisb-088-hearthstoned/
Date Published: February 6, 2014
Number of Downloads: 126
I loved this episode. It had everything, including a guest panelist (Chris) and video games AND sports. What more could you want? We lampoon the relatively dismal superbowl ads, then discuss Blizzard’s free-to-play game Hearthstone. Chris got us some great advertising via Baumi on youtube, and viola, a highly successful ep.
#8 Episode 42: Batman – Death of a Family Edition!
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2013/02/this-is-serious-business-batman-death-of-the-family-edition/
Date Published: February 21, 2013
Number of Downloads: 118
This is yet another G1 classic, and probably our strongest comic episode to date. Jon was really intent on doing a solid episode regarding Greg Cappulo and Scott Synder’s Joker arc in the Batman comics, and it was a real treat to read and discuss. That said, I still wish the ending of the arc had been handled differently…
#9 Episode 89: Improvisode
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2014/02/tisb-89-improvisode/
Date Published: February 13, 2014
Number of Downloads: 112
“F&*% it! We’ll do it live!” has been uttered on many an episode of TiSB. Here, however, we actually followed through. Every premeditated subject we could think of fell through, so Jon, Marcus, and I just went with the flow to see where it took us. The result was surprisingly fun, though I must admit this episode benefited greatly from the popularity of Hearthstoned the previous week.
#10 Episode 83: Hobbits and Cumberdragons
URL: http://www.tisbcast.com/2013/12/this-is-serious-business-83-hobbits-cumberdragons/
Date Published: December 19, 2013
Number of Downloads: 104
Rob and Christin dynamically duo the Desolation of Smaug in a more casual, conversational format that really works. It’s a great listen and, of course, anything with Benedict Cumberbatch in it always seems to pull solid numbers. Hmmm…