Funny / Critical Role

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

• Campaign 1: Vox Machina (2015-2017)
• Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein (2018-2021)
• Campaign 3: Bell's Hells (2021 onwards)

Others

• One Shots
• Exandria Unlimited
• The Legend of Vox Machina

Vox Machina Origins

Volume 1

• Vex and Vax meet Keyleth for the first time.
  Vax: I'm dying. I'm dying and I'm hallucinating a squirrel who can turn into people.
• The second comic, which features Grog and Scanlan traveling together with their pre-Vox Machina group, has a minor running gag of the paladin/cleric pair that they travel with never getting introduced. Even when the opportunity comes up to do so, Scanlan deliberately does not say their names.
• Also in the second comic, Scanlan asks Grog what someone like him is afraid of. Grog says spiders. Scanlan agrees.
• In the third issue, Tiberius and Keyleth are tracking the scent of the poisoned water, all the while the two are conversing like normal... despite Keyleth having transformed into a dog and is speaking in woofs and barks. At first it seems like Tiberius Speaks Fluent Animal, but then...
  Tiberius: This conversation would be somewhat less absurd if I could understand you.
  Keyleth: Woof.
  Tiberius: Oh, really? I hadn't considered that.
• In issue 4, Vax tries to get Scanlan on task.
  Scanlan: Or what, you’ll stab me again?
  Vax: (stabs him)
• After several issues of Vex being frosty to Keyleth, what changes her mind? Trinket likes Keyleth immediately, which prompts Vex to outright declare they can be friends. Cue Keyleth daydreaming about chibi versions of the two riding around on Trinket.

Volume 2

• In issue 1, Keyleth has some difficulty understanding what Scanlan means by the fine "company" in the tavern.
  Vex: I'm not explaining this to her.
• The next morning in issue 1, Vex, Vax, and Scanlan are very hungover. On the other hand, Keyleth and Tiberius are not, and won't stop talking. Vex has to be stopped from shooting them with an arrow by Vax.
• In issue 4, a fight with basilisks renders Vex'ahlia petrified. Vax tells Grog that they need a basilisk's blood to reverse it. Grog proceeds to tear one open with his bare hands, then cheerfully announces, "I found the blood!"
  • Later, after finding the pool of a nymph they're looking for, the twins take a few minutes to work up a plan of attack. While they do, Grog happens to see the nymph bathing, walks over and politely introduces himself. By the time the twins' attention turns back to Grog, he's being led through a fey portal by the nymph, only to pop out again moments later with a very affectionate nymph having already given Grog what they were searching for.
    Vax: Grog! Are you alright?!
    Vex: What did she do to you?!
    Grog: That is a very personal question. Also, I kinda don't really remember it.

Other Shows

Talks Machina

• Overall, the repeat appearances of Arsequeef.
• In the follow up to Campaign 1, Episode 84, "Loose Ends", Brian mentions that the conversation about Scanlan's two deaths within 24 hours reminds him of a Twitch chat commenter in the previous week's episode of Talks, who didn't appear to know anything about the show or Critical Role and was watching it for the first time, and then five minutes later asked "Is this about Scientology?".
• In the follow-up to "Onward to Vesrah", Campaign 1 artist Kit Buss explains that the cast had sent her e-mails with varying character descriptions; Liam's was highly detailed, down to hair texture and height, and Laura's was the single line "Make me look hot".
• Campaign 1 Wrap-Up
  • At the end, all of the cast members are invited to reminisce on some of their favorite memories from the campaign, such as the cannonball contest or Grog dropping on Kevdak from the necklace. Laura decides that she'll never forget the first time she was able to speak with Trinket. Sam's quiet, sincere response turns this sweet moment into utter hilarity.
    Laura: Talking to Trinket. For the first time.
    Sam: Trying to kill Trinket. For the first time.
    • More Black Comedy from Sam, earlier in the wrap-up when Keyleth talks about the time she killed a child pre-stream, Sam adds: "You never forget your first."
  • A fan asks if there were any women that Grog met that he had genuine feelings for past a sexual level.
    Travis: Nope.
  • Between the sets of questions about each arc, Brian reads some stats about the campaign, one of which is "DM facepalms: 264." Matt's response is, of course, to facepalm.
• 2019 Campaign 2 Retrospective
  • Before the show, various cast members stick notes onto a whiteboard labeled: "20 Nein-teen Resolutions". These include Dani promising not to use Brian W. Foster's name as a swear word, an in-character note from Nott saying "Beau should smile more", and an in-character note from Beau posted over it saying "Nott should FUCK OFF!"
  • When asked if Jester is missing her mother for romantic advice:
    Laura: It's weird I can look to Matt and go 'mom'...
    Brian: And then what's cool is Travis can look at Matt and roll over and light a cigarette, too.
  • Liam makes an offhand joke about "Travis piratefucking live in front of people" (aka Fjord flirting with Avantika at the live show) that Travis' Apple Watch, for some reason, records and texts to Postmates.
  • When Brian says Cole56290017 wants to ask a question:
    Liam: (interrupting) And I'm Javert!
  • Upon being asked which character has changed the most over the first year of the campaign, everyone admits that they immediately went to variations of Taliesin changing characters/Molly changing from living to dead.
  • Sam being warned that if he pulls the same character swapping stunt that he did in the last campaign again, the rest of the group will promptly kill him.
  • Nott’s perspective on the leadership hierarchy of the Mighty Nein.
    Sam: Caleb’s the leader, and this guy (Fjord) keeps talking all the time!
• In Episode 54, Brian asks Taliesin if he sees himself as being between Percy and Mollymauk in terms of personality. Taliesin, however, takes it a different way. Even better is his slightly distracted reply of "that's hot" before hurriedly correcting himself and bursting out laughing.
• During Episode 68's follow-up, which also included Search for Bob questions, Liam reveals that part of why he had Lieve'tel hook up with Bertrand is so he could say he "D&D boned" Travis' D&D character before Laura did.
• The follow up for Episode 17 of Campaign 2, "Harvest Close," had a question from "Pull Out King" at 50:57 mark that caught Brian laughing so much he had tears coming from his eyes. It had everyone laughing as well (even the camera crew got in on the action by pulling the camera away from and pushing it toward Ashley repeatedly), and after some time discussing it caused Marisha to collapse on the couch bemoaning "WHY!? Oh, God, WHY!?"
• The follow up for Episode 61 of Campaign 2, "Agreements," are filled with funny.
  • One off color joke about Caleb's dead parents makes Brian go Oh, Crap! when he realizes LIAM is still in the building. (Liam later visits the set where he cuddles Henry, the dog.)
  • When Marisha mentions "That's what every bad guy does, right?" after Brian goes "I love it when a plan comes together," Travis teases her mercilessly, and Brian and Dani join in. The awkwardness of the situation causes Marisha to blush and cover her face. Dani dubs her "Marisha RED!"
  • After Brian wants to take a break from having Travis on Talks (he's been on two shows in a row), Dani rebuts, "But I really like looking at his face." Travis thanks her, then bemoans, "I wish my wife would say that more!" Then proceed to drain his tankard in one swig. After Dani suggests getting more ale for Travis, then Brian, Travis and Marisha try to coax an imaginary Ronin Willingham to come to Travis.
• When Ronin Actually DOES appear on Talks Machina with Travis and Laura, it can be equally Funny (when Travis holds/plays with Ronin) and Heartwarming (when Ronin's Cuteness Proximity kicks in).
  • Episode C2E30 had Laura and Travis bring Ronin on for the start, and the Cuteness Proximity Ronin radiates from being adorable warms even Brian who suggests they skip asking questions and just show Ronin for the entire hour.
  • Likewise, the Halloween 2018 episode that dealt with "Critical Role and the Club of Misfits" (Laura's one-shot as DM) had Ronin for the opening as well. Brian, who's wearing neon glasses he was gifted at MCMLondon, gets a tummy-tickle on the giggling baby. Laura then jokes that this appearance is "One more credit for his IMDb page", which is a real page that someone started after his first appearance on Talks Machina.
• The Talks episode for C2E74 has special guest Mica Burton, whose character the episode had debuted. Mica had NEVER seen Talks Machina before and is the first guest to ever say, out loud, "Why am I here?"
  • Speaking of Mica, she was well-received enough on Talks Machina that many made joking remarks about her becoming Brian's co-host, or flat-out taking his job as host. On the next episode, a Running Gag is made out of her sparking a rivalry with Brian and gunning for his job.
  • Somewhat Hilarious in Hindsight (or Harsher) as Brian would eventually leave Critical Role, ending his tenure as host of Talks Machina, and Mica has picked up the torch, hosting the watch party Q&A's for The Legend of Vox Machina
• On the Talks Machina discussion for Through the Trees, Laura reveals that Jester left home with 1000-2000 gold, but blew most of it before the first episode. One of the things she spends an insane amount of gold on? Custom-made dresses, for herself and a horse. So she and her horse could have matching outfits.
• The reveal that Travis genuinely did not realize that getting back on the ocean might expose him to Ukotoa again.
• On the Talks Machina discussion for New Homes and Old Friends, we finally got Liam's version of the Disintegrate anecdote: it turns out that he forgot about Vokodo's ability to reflect the attacks until Matt rolled the dice for it. The story of his mental journey of inward panic while he was crossing all the Five Stages of Grief in less than 90 seconds must be seen to be believed, and Brian and Ashley's comments and expressions during the tale only make it better.
• Talks Machina Live from San Diego Comic-Con 2017: A fan wants to ask the cast a question. Liam dashes offstage (at an incredible speed that makes one wonder whether he had the Boots of Haste equipped) as soon as he sees the fan's Raven Queen costume.

All Work No Play

• From the Legacy series, Sam and Liam set up a Hunger Games-like scenario on the Warner Bros. studio lot for Jennifer Hale, having her go up against her fellow voice actors. While the duo has the initial intent of "kill or be killed" for Jen, she decides to use diplomacy on her voice actor friends, until the duo narrate that Laura Bailey decides to go crazy and attack her... only for Jen to Vulcan nerve pinch her.
  • Adding to this, Jen brings up that if she wanted a safe-haven on the lot, she could just climb up the watertower and hide out in there. If only she knew what is in the tower.
• The "Rage Room" episode, where Stephanie Sheh has joined Liam and Sam, and we see inside the room Brian Foster has decorated it so his picture is all over the place, and Sam, Liam and Stephanie wreck the items inside it.
  Liam: You and your fucking puns!
• The "Goat Yoga" episode had T.J. Storm and Travis join Liam and Sam, and the physical comedy from it was hilarious, especially the positions they were in. The episode must be seen to be believed.
• The "Fire Twirling" episode, has Marisha with the boys as they learn Fire Twirling, and the fire must be smothered—"like a baby."
  Sam: This episode brought to you by Pampers.
  Marisha: Hashtag (breaks up) "Smother the Baby."
• The Ghost Hunting episode. The contrast between Laura Bailey and the actual ghost hunter (who believe in ghosts) versus Sam and Liam's (who absolutely don't) approach to the whole thing.
• The Magic episode sees Sam, Liam and Ashly Burch learn how to get someone to pick a card you want so you can make it appear on your arm in ash. Naturally, Sam immediately abuses this power to draw a dick on his arm in ash... And then he remembers he has a meeting later and frantically tries to scrub it off.
  • They then learn how to toss a deck while leaving you with the cards you want. Sam does not prove to be adept at this.
  Sam: It helps when you're with... (he tosses the deck, scattering it all over the table) two aces.
  Ashly: What's the three then, my dear?
  • Sam claims to have seen Mariah Carey's vagina, which he describes as amazing.
• The Extreme Spa Marathon episode, which mostly consists of Sam making horrified faces as Liam thoroughly enjoys being stuck full of pins and getting his back very bruised up. Yes, really.
  • Early in the episode, there’s also what can only be described as an editing-gasm, which includes a wrecking ball labeled ‘Sam’s Penis’ knocking over a bunch of pictures of Liam while bowling noises play in the background.

Handbooker Helper

• Taliesin narrates the Tiefling quick-build episode, which contains this gem when he discusses classes.
  Taliesin: Of course, this is D&D, you can build anything you like. Blood Hunter, for example. [cue black-and-white filter and sad violin music]
• Marisha acting out all the condition affects in the Conditions video.
• The Gnome episode has Sam calling on himself to sing the theme song at the beginning and end. It also has Sam admitting he's never watched an episode of the show and wondering if he has to point to various promos at the end. Then he decides to have fun with the editors, who promptly strike back.
  Sam: I can just point to things...
  Editor: (via caption) Watch the show, Sam
  Sam:...and [bleep] you guys...
  Editor: (via caption) Or be at the editor's mercy
  Sam:...because look at this!
  Editor: *puts in a picture of Sam's face superimposed over a donkey's face*
  Sam: Ooo, and then this!
  Editor: (via caption) SAM RIEGEL SMELLS LIKE BUTTS.
• Taliesin explains the Intelligence-based skills with a door with writing on it: For Arcana, it's mystical runes. For History, it's elvish writing. For Religion, it's "Y'all hear about that Pelor guy?".

MAME Drop

• The initial promo where the MAME cabinet from "All Work No Play" is discovered by Taliesin and Marisha.
  • It all started from an #EverythingIsContent episode that was the Backdoor Pilot for the show. Liam and Taliesin are just enjoying playing video games and sating their inner children.
• The LaserDisc Classics episode.
  • It starts with Taliesin and Liam playing iconic games of the genre, like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Then they try Us vs Them, a 1984 videogame featuring fully acted cutscenes with real actors, flashy colors and loud sounds that cause Liam and Taliesin to be greatly confused by what was happening... enough for Travis to show up and remain to play with them for most of the episode!
    Liam (trying to explain the game to Travis): This is the latest Call of Duty. It's just a minigame search.
    Taliesin: It's called Call of Duty: Duty Calls.
  • It gets even better. The game after Us vs Them is Cliff Hanger... a 1983 game that uses scenes from The Castle of Cagliostro and The Mystery of Mamo as cutscenes, and changes Lupin's name to Cliff because it is not a Licensed Game.
    • Travis and Liam learn soon why "Cliff Hanger" is the name of the game: because Lupin/Cliff's death scene is him getting hanged, as it was the only Lupin's death scene animated at the time.
  • Then Sam and Marisha join them too. Travis and Marisha start talking about getting a gumball machine to dispense peanut M&Ms. Taliesin apologizes for what is happening.
  • Sam being Sam, he puts himself in front of one of the cameras, smiling like a maniac. Taliesin claims that he will break their already frail fourth wall if he is not careful.
  • Taliesin and Liam show Sam and Marisha the games created by Don Bluth. Sam is so entranced by the animation that he is unable to play properly.
• The entirety of the episode where Erica Lindbeck guests.
  Taliesin: I just collect Ericas that are a lot.
  • Her Perverse Sexual Lust for the cast of Darkstalkers.
  • The episode focuses on anime games... except Taliesin adds in a Barbie game at the end, because Erica was the voice of Barbie for a time. And than she breaks into her Barbie voice, which is surprisingly terrifying.
• "Versus":
  • The episode starts with Taliesin and Marisha being "startled" because they didn't notice the viewer. Matt, however, did. He then proceeded to look straight down the barrel of the camera and tells the viewer to sit down. Critter reactions in the comments range from confusion (because they were already sitting or lying down), immediate acquiescence, and this gem of a top-voted comment:
    Game Hobbie: Yes, sir. I will sit in a perfect, totally not suspicious, chair in the center of an alchemist’s ransacked basement.
  • Taliesin pre-emptively apologizes for murdering Matt and Marisha, because the game was his jam. He proceeds to get trashed by Matt.

Narrative Telephone (Round 1)

• As everyone in LA remained stuck at home due to COVID, the cast decided to amuse themselves and everyone else by playing a game of "Narrative Telephone," where a story first told by Matt would then be retold by the rest of the cast-with each of them having watched the video of the previous person telling it exactly once. Thus was recorded everyone's account of Pumat's Stroll, which went off the rails immediately with Ashley, the first person after Matt, losing half the details of the story of Pumat's encounter with a hungry wolf, who spent several iterations of the story sporting a beak. It mostly got stranger from there. The only thing that stayed consistent besides the appearance of both Pumat and a wolf was the presence of mushrooms involving a "lupine flavor," which at one point possibly turned Pumat into a werewolf.
  • Worth noting at this point is that the premise is illustrated with pics of all the cast as they appear in the Campaign 2 second-wave title cards, photoshopped onto different backgrounds to emphasize how they're all far apart at the time. Laura is in front of a wall of pastries and lollipops and so on; Ashley is in a forensics lab; Travis is in front of an incredibly Texan barn; Liam is in front of a burning house.
    • The end of the graphic shows everyone talking together with their names in the bottom left corner of their backgrounds, much like a Zoom call. Travis’s name is given as ‘Mr. Laura Bailey’.
  • Laura: "I forgot I was supposed to tell a story, and I literally was just like 'Here's the facts.'"
  • Ashley forgets all the dialogue. Multiple retellings later Sam inserts brand new dialogue.
• Episode 2 takes a slightly different approach as Laura starts the chain this time, delivering what turns out to be a ridiculously elaborate story, all in character as Jester. What follows is all of the guys doing their best Jester voice, although Sam sounds more Romani than Russian, Taliesin sounds like Christoph Waltz and Ashley sounds like the New York mafia trying to negotiate with the Italian mafia.
  • Sam's impression of the Traveler is also hysterical, as Sam opted to give him a Latin Lover accent.
  • Liam: "She's trying to do War and Peace in two minutes."
  • Matt brings up how his trying to work out Liam's incorrect compass directions out of Nicodranas caused him to "bleed out of one nostril."
  • Also worth noting is that Liam went directly after Laura, and aside from a few details (such as the aforementioned compass directions and the name of the hippogriff), reproduced the story with startling accuracy, including the song, which is both awesome and hilariously unexpected.
  • Oh, and that song? Sam subsequently forgot about it, which the others declare to be the most un-Sam Riegel thing he’s ever done.
  • The original story had a heart-shaped boulder that quickly became a hut-shaped boulder, and then a hut shaped like a boulder.
  • Liam describes Taliesin's attempt as his favorite scene from Midsommar.
    • It's a Running Gag at this point that the game has an almost supernatural ability to render the orator unable to function like a human being.
  • When deciding how to choose who goes next, Sam suggests playing Rock, Paper, Scissors over Zoom with everyone else shooting it down and Laura asking how you can play that game with more than two people. Come episode 104...
• After episode 2 ended with Sam designated as the next up to bat, and Ashley told him to do Nott's voice to give her reference, episode 3 has Sam tell his whole tale as Scanlan... because he forgot, despite Producer Max explicitly telling him to do it as Nott.
  • Liam: "What an amazing story that I've never heard before."
  • Sam's story revolves around a magical pince-nez ^note  For visual reference, think Poirot's glasses. We soon discover that no other cast member knows what they are.
    Ashley: Oh, you say that like we all should know what it is!
  • Matt gives the love interest in the story three different names. Travis, the next in the chain, remembers none of them.
    • Speaking of Matt's go, you can really see him begin to panic more and more the more details he realises he can't remember.
  • Liam has a Scanlan body pillow. Really. And it's Scanlan so it's a normal-sized pillow.
  • After the guys gave Sam grief for killing Laura's song the last time, Sam adds a song to the story... which eventually mutates into a rock opera.
  • In the previous episode, Sam was harshly criticised by everyone, especially Laura, for getting details about Laura's story wrong and straight up adding things because he forgot. Here, the story suffers a drastic change when one of the reciters decides to add an ending out of whole-cloth that completely changes what the story is about. The person who caused this extreme change to the tale? Laura!
  • Sam posits that since Laura and Travis seem to have recorded their stories in a different room every time, some dedicated fan will be able to eventually create a 3D map of their house.
  • At the end of the episode, the five cast members who haven’t started the story (Travis, Liam, Taliesin, Ashley, and Marisha) all roll a d20 to determine who’ll go next, and Liam gets a Natural 20. He then threatens the others with his most powerful weapon - Gratuitous German. Laura begs him not to, with Travis declaring that they’re going to offend an entire country.
  • Liam spends much of the recap wondering who killed the song, stating that if there was a song, that he blacked out. Meanwhile during his actual go, Liam sang twice.
• Episode 4 is a classical German Fairy Tale told by Liam as Caleb. Despite the scary nature of the story, we still get a few good laughs.
  • Liam decides to shoot his video in an entirely dark room while holding a flashlight to illuminate his face, which is as corny as it is appropriate.
  • As promised, the Gratuitous German has our guys screwed over immediately, as Liam starts out with a least a dozen German words, of which Taliesin only repeats two: the German word waldhexe (forest witch), which is misheard into "vortex", and then lost forever, and "drei". And thanks to Ashley, most of the guys start thinking the German for three is "tri" - until Travis decides to reverse-engineer it and arrive at the correct "drei". Which is immediately lost when Matt does it.
    • Speaking of Matt, he went all-in with the horror theme, in a dark room with red light and even Guy Liner - while Taliesin is the one who did it normally. Next after Matt is Sam, whose attempt at Guy Liner is just haphazard due to him having all of 2 minutes to prepare.
    Sam: I made use of the only two resources at my disposal; corks and fire.
    • Eventually the word Vortex is reimagined into the name of a hip happenin' club. There's even fanart now.
  • Ashley: "What an amazing story that I've never heard before".
  • The German accents on display do not disappoint, with Marisha's accent alternating between Italian, Jester, Vampire, and Marisha but with a husky tone.
    • Ashley on the other hand, manged to mangle Caleb's accent so badly she ended up doing a fantastic Jester, as noted by Laura in the immediate follow-up, but also by Travis and Matt. Notably, her actual Jester accent is a Brooklyn one.
    Matt: You found your better Jester accent in a non-Jester story!
  • Marisha has such a hard time remembering details from the story that she describes it as Ashley-ing it.
  • Travis follows Laura, and comments that he forgot details because his wife was too pretty.
  • Similarly to when he got a nose-bleed from the awful directions in Jesters story, Matt's knowledge of where the story is set brought back details that were lost.
    • Marisha notices Matt's makeup from the video.
    Marisha: Oh, is that my really expensive palette?
    Matt: I love you.
  • At the start of the review, Laura is inspired by the horror theme to pull her hair into Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl style, and later Sam gets the idea to troll the entire Zoom by setting up a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl puppet behind him, courtesy of his wife Quyen. Travis is the one freaking out the most over it.
    • After the puppet disappears, Laura point out that you can see Q’s red-socked feet sliding backwards out of the room while she army crawls out on her belly.
  • Ashley rolls the highest at the end of the episode, and is designated as next up to bat. As it turns out, she had already prepared a story, which Brian called ‘too mean’, but Liam’s German has inspired her to get her revenge for the previous four episodes of poor memorization.
  • Episode 7 ended up making this episode Hilarious in Hindsight. Taliesin unleashed an alliterative nightmare upon the crew not because of the episode that rendered him a neurotic mess, not because of the episode where he sang a love ballad so embarrassing that he blanked it from his mind, but because Liam made him do some funny accents. He promised that his story would have been brutal at the end of this episode, and Liam could not wait to hear it.
• Episode 5 apparently has Ashley taking cues from Sam and Liam, crafting a simpler but still Grimm-worthy fable with an Outer Limits ending:
  • Much like Liam’s dramatic lighting last time, Ashley’s video seems bathed in a hazy, angelic glow. This was entirely accidental, as something was on the camera lens, but Ashley left it.
    • While everyone else thinks that Ashley's video looks almost angelic, Ashley considers it to look like something out of a 70's porn.
  • Due to Ashley doing the whole thing as Pike and even doing up her hair in "fun buns", some of the guys do their hair into fun buns as tribute. Naturally this is limited to those with long enough hair, which includes Marisha, Laura and Matt. Really.
    • Liam, Sam, and Taliesin, meanwhile, improvise with increasingly ridiculous alternatives. Liam uses steampunk goggles that he put on his head, Sam holds two stress balls next to his temples, and Tal just puts on his headphones. And Travis, of course, is just wearing his snapback cap. On the last snap, because his head is so big.
  • A comment from Marisha when her voice starts to slip causes several subsequent retellers to begin their story by specifying that they are Pike Trickfoot, not Jester. Then it gets dropped, then Taliesin brings it back.
  • Sam’s take on a Pike voice ends up sounding more like a stereotypical valley girl. Well, an insane stereotypical valley girl. He recorded his version late at night after he'd put his kids to bed, and it shows.
  Taliesin: I've had this nightmare.
  • Ashley included an ending where Pike states that she forgot the recipe, and will tell you more next time. She did this to deliberately invoke retellers adding things to the ending because it feels like the previous person forgot. This ends up, however, causing every subsequent teller to just blame the previous person for forgetting something. Specifically, Marisha blames Travis, Matt follows suit, Laura blames Matt, Liam concludes Matt and Laura had a miscommunication, Sam thinks Matt and Marisha had a fight, and Taliesin says it was all probably Sam’s fault, as he’s been an agent of chaos since episode one.
    • Just fact that Travis "What is an attention span?" Willingham managed to do such a good job retelling the story that it threw Marisha off.
  • At end of the show and tell, Ronin wakes up and Travis has to leave to give him "Dad pats" and put him back to sleep, leaving Laura to roll for him at the end of the episode. Matt makes this comment:
    Matt: That’s how Travis puts me to sleep at the studio, he just kinda pats my tummy, and then I’m out.
  • Marisha wins the roll-off, and the right to start the next story, which she decides will be from Beau. After floating several ideas to be the next episode’s "fun buns", including undercuts and crop tops (which Laura categorically refuses), they finally land on all holding large sticks.
• After tales of fanciful encounters and fables with dark endings, episode 6 is a fairly mundane story from Marisha, about Beau wreaking havoc at a rival family winery. Also nobody is holding large sticks.
  • Right off the bat, Beau's Sir Swears-a-Lot reputation affects all the retellings (Liam in particular holds the record), despite the original version having none.
  • Travis’s retelling was filmed in the closet, probably to avoid Ronin making noise. There is an instance of hilarious timing where Laura comments "Hey, that's in our closet" and is immediately followed by Recorded Travis saying "Yep."
  • Sam: "This is a game about blame and today it's [Marisha's] turn"
  • Amusingly, the end of the story turned from the rival winery merely rescinding their flyers to the rival winery agreeing to stay out of the Lionettes' boundaries like it was a mob deal, long before the tale got to Ashley.
    • By the time the story reaches Travis, the story has effectively morphed into Beau finding a flyer & turning up at frat party, with boundaries being mentioned.
  • Early on in Show-in-Tell, Sam’s son wanders into the room and draws his dad’s attention away from the Zoom call.
  • After Sam's pretty close and accurate version of Marisha's story, Travis comments that second-in-line is where people do the best. Ashley, clearly remembering her immediately-off-the-rails story from the very first episode, pipes up "That's untrue."
  • After watching Travis' video, Travis states that it was the first time in the series that he truly didn't lose anything since Liam gave him, to quote Sam, "Seven words, of which one of them was fuck."
    • To give you a clue as to how garbled the story became by the time it got to Travis:
  "You know, you did what you did because you did what you had to do and you did it because you had to do what you did. BOUNDARIES!"
  • An amusing headcanon is that each retelling is still Beau, but she is getting progressively more drunk for each subsequent retelling.
  • Upon Taliesin winning the draw for the next episode, he’s asked which character he will be using & Marisha notes that he’s got three characters to choose from, unlike most of the group. At this point, Laura notes that there are also the characters from the Darrington Brigade & upon this realization, Travis begins smirking evilly - keep in mind that Travis’ Darrington Brigade character has a voice comparable to Stitch.
  • Taliesin reveals that closing his eyes while recounting the story is him retreating into his mind palace to try and find the information. The episode ends with everybody going into their mind palaces, except for Liam, who stares at the camera with an exasperated look and shakes his head.
  • There's a 22 minutes animation featuring all tellings, featuring cameos and references of both Campaign 1 and 2.
• Taliesin's story, while not the scariest or most complicated, shows that the alliterative additions alter the actors associated accounts to an almighty accord.
  • Taliesin decides to introduce his story during show and tell with the following words:
  Taliesin: Sometimes I wake up having dreamt of a terrible thing. And normally I just file that away for thing I will never do because I wanna maintain friendships. And then, Liam did something to me.
  • So, yes, this entire story was an elaborate revenge plot that almost failed, because Laura moved into the second spot and pushed Liam into the third, but Laura’s retelling was so comedically bad that it successfully flustered Liam anyway. His on-camera breakdown has to be seen to be believed, as almost every single detail is lost in hilarious fashion.
  Sam: I followed it - I found it quite refreshing, because there was no content.
  • When Matt, who went last, hears Taliesin's initial story for the first time has this to say to Taliesin:
  Matt: Clearly you are a Clever Contriver of Consonants, but I want you to Conjure a Cock and get fuCked!
  • Laura, who was so incensed when Sam messed up her story that he felt the need to make up for it in HIS story, ends up delivering quite possibly the single worst second-go in the series history so far.
  Laura, after a long beat: ...Come?!
  • Laura seems to struggle with dialogue in any of these:
  Laura: Clarabelle, the cleverest of the three, she thought "I will try to figure out something better than what my siblings have done" and she called out, "are you there voice?" and the voice said "yep." and she's like "okay".
  • Ashley's recounting is done in the most yeehaw southern accent she can manage, resulting in pronunciations that really must be heard to be believed.
  Yeehaw-Ashley: "And it was a Ken-KOO!"
  • Her complete breakdown only contributes to this.
  Yeehaw-Ashley: "This Ken-KOO is just dead! That's why it's a corpse!"
  • Ashley apologises to Matt for the complete mess she passed on to him. He spends a good ten seconds of his intro just giggling in disbelief.
  Matt: That was magnificent. It was beautiful and confusing in all the ways I hoped it would be at this point in the story. It's taken me this long to go after Ashley and I've realized it's my favourite spot. I say that with absolute love; you're my favourite person to follow.
  • Travis' recounting is so phoned in that the others are convinced that he was either about to get on a conference call, or was in the middle of a conference call when he was asked to do his story.
  • After watching Taliesin's story for the second time, the group admits that it was a fairly good story and that he clearly put a lot of thought into it. Sam, on the other hand...
  Sam: You really are a C-word.
  The cast die laughing
  • Marisha's iteration starts out with Cad saying was there, but in character she says "Wait, maybe I wasn't there? Maybe this was a story I heard from my siblings" and goes with that version. Many people in the comments also admitted that it was perfectly in character for Caduceus to tell a complicated story using amazing alliteration but to have no idea if he was actually in the story or not.
  • There are steel drums in the Background Music, a Call-Back to how "steel drums" full of booze made their way into Beau's story.
• Travis doesn't really have a story, more that he decides that Grog is a fitness YouTuber with a surprising knowledge of muscle groups, when he's not being interrupted by one Macaroni Samsonite.
  • You know how every other story had a fair amount of thought put it onto them, written and rewritten to maximize confusion while still making sense as a story? Yeah, Travis just turned on the camera and started talking.
  • Despite having, quite literally, no story there is still a serious amount of degradation between each and every retelling.
  • Ashley was quite worried that she was the one who dropped one of the few moments of story in the video and was so happy that she wasn't that she forgot that she failed at the first hurdle by calling him Grog Stonejaw after sitting next to the guy for years. And it somehow gets worse!
    • Ashley had a coaster in front of her with Grog Strongjaw's name on it. The fact she messed this up is Beyond the Impossible
  • Macaroni Samsonite, whose most well defined trait is his accent, is voiced by Sam like he's ready to play The Artful Dodger in Oliver!
    • The Macaroni Samsonite impressions range from two different brands of Gollum (Matt's Jigglypuff Gollum and Liam's Stitch-Gollum), to Taliesen's Elmo-doing-a-Mickey-Mouse-Impression on top of his Grog (but as Cookie Monster), to Sam's "Sam, but in falsetto". Ashley's can only be described as "the voice you give to a sock puppet".
  • Sam describes Taliesin's retelling as a microcosm of the whole show, including getting accents wrong, forgetting details you really shouldn't like the ending, and blaming someone else when you screw up.
  • Laura is straight up reduced to a laughing fit at the end of hers due to thinking that she has forgotten everything at the end, which involves her leaving frame multiple times in a panic.
  • It is fitting that the last telling of the last story is the one where the teller finally forgets the end and has to give up. The fact that it was Laura telling a story her husband originated is the icing on the cake.
    • Taliesin was particularly impressed. He carefully crafted his constantly consonant conveying tale in hopes this would happen, but Travis did it with something he partially winged.
  • During the final showing of Travis' original story, attention is once more brought to the five seconds between when Travis starts recording and when he starts speaking, during which he stares at the camera with a panicking grin on his face.
  Liam: There's the writing process...
  • After all is said and done, Matt reiterates his promise: he went easy on them before. He will not make that mistake again.
  • We are treated to a special epilogue. It turns out that Taliesin somehow accidentally recorded his portion in slow motion, leading to some Googling of how to fix it. It is amazing to watch, and the cast's reactions are hilarious.

Narrative Telephone (Round 2)

• To underline that this is the second round the background of the cast pictures during the show premise changed, but Travis is still credited as "Mr. Laura Bailey".
  • Sam meanwhile, is pictured in front of a yacht, being menaced by an "IRS Audit" sign.
• It's Matt's turn again as Narrative Telephone starts anew, with a tale that combines literally everything that tripped everyone up in Round 1, featuring half a guest Brian W. Foster.
  • Even apart from what it does to everyone, the story itself is a masterpiece of comedy, featuring four characters telling various stories-with varying levels of truthfulness-about Vox Machina. One of them is Kaylie Shorthalt, who simply sings a song that's mostly just slut-shaming her father.
    • Not only did Kaylie's song fail to survive a single retelling, she quickly became just "an Irish woman."
    • Even better, Liam initially mistook Kaylie's accent for Scottish, but somehow Laura brought it back to Irish and it survived until the final retelling!
  • To give an idea of how much the story degraded and changed by the time it hit Taliesin^note  Who went last :
    Taliesin: I was not told that there would be prop comedy.
  • We may have set a record for the fastest time for not giving a shit with Liam, who went second, lasting all of seven seconds before he just jettisons everything he heard Matt say from his brain.
    • In the Show and Tell, Liam claims that this is because his memory has deteriorated from prolonged quarantine. He would apologize for that, but quarantine has also removed any sense of shame.
    • It turns into a Heartwarming moment when, for the first time in the history of Narrative Telephone, Laura apologizes to Liam for blaming him during her retelling. Even the other narrators recognize that Matt's story was bound to turn whoever would have ended up in the second position into a wreck, and Liam just happened to be that person.
  • Laura, who went immediately after Liam, ends up telling a better version of Matt's story that she didn't hear than Liam did.
    Liam: I was terrified by Matt's intricacy and Laura was just disgusted with my failure.
  • The character who presents the story had a name when Matt told the story. But it was such a complicated name through such a thick accent that subsequent tellers just call her Archivist NPC.
  • Laura, spur of the moment, decides to wear glasses at the end of her telling. By the time Brian gets round to the story this mutates into wearing them at the start of the story too, which means that come Brian's turn at Show and Tell we get hear Ashley confirm that she and Brian wore the same sunglasses for the bit.
  • Brian, who is known to critters as almost more of a wild card than Sam, ends up giving an almost Lynchian performance that ends up adding a moral that had literally nothing to do with the story, yet still lasted longer than the Archivist's actual name.
    • In the re-watch, Matt revealed that, since most of the previous stories either had a moral to begin with or gained one, Matt deliberately didn't give his story a moral because he knew someone would end up adding one. He is proud of Brian for this.
    • Then Travis botchers the moral by turning it into a grim reminder of human mortality. Brian is genuinely upset.
    • Brian's telling is such a mess that Travis ends up looking and sounding barely cognizant.
      Liam: Travis, Brian sucked all of the acting out of you.
  • Brian decides to have the Archivist thank every person at the end of each interview. It stuck until the final retelling.
    • As a result, the Archivist looks like a late radio DJ interviewing his listeners during Travis' retelling, Ashley makes him interview random people he met on the street, and Marisha and Taliesin turn him into the announcer of a Talk Show called "Tal'dorei Today".
  • Taliesin knows that he is the last storyteller. He decides to ignore the sunglasses or eventual substitutes, he gives the host a new name out of nowhere and he makes up new anecdotes for the interviewed people to tell as there was little to nothing left of the original story. He does an amazing job.
    • He does, however, bring back Scanlan being a whore, which was only in Matt's version until then:
    Taliesen as "Irish Accented Peasant": "There was some sort of calamity with the small one and a couple women from the brothel across the way. It was, I don't know exactly what the problem was, but everything eventually worked itself out."
  • The essential thread of the story is Matt creating four characters with varying beefs with Vox Machina, everyone else making the four characters enjoy their interactions with Vox Machina, and Taliesen realising 'hmm, sounds fake' and turning Vox Machina into the villains of a current affair tabloid TV show.
• Episode 2 is a first for several reasons - Brian W Foster starts the chain, the story has zero established characters, and there's a bit of Writing Around Trademarks with a not-Menagerie Coast that he named the Menage-a-Trois Coast. Oh, and a content advisory featuring none other than Henry Crabgrass. Yes, the whole thing is really about 80% Double Entendre seemingly catered to the next in line, Laura Bailey.
  • The name of the father, Ignacio, gets lost early on, turning it into Ignatius, but the real kicker is how many times the guys second-guess it and nearly get it right again, only to flip back to the wrong one.
    • Sam actually got Ignacio's name right and never tried to correct it, but his performance was so out of there that no one noticed. And then Travis changes the name into Ignatius again.
  • The original story was about two brothers disputing their ships' heraldry and tagline. There is no need to guess what the dispute became about once that detail was lost.
  • Like the first season's pince-nez glasses, almost no one of the cast knows what a "glizzy" is, affecting some of the retellings. Liam states it is a beverage at the beginning of his story to turn it back into solid food later on, confusing Matt that does exactly the same. After Matt there is Ashley, who knows what a glizzy is and corrected it by calling it with its more commonly known name, eliminating every confusion for the last three storytellers.
    • Hearing the word for the first time in his life causes Sam to repeatedly ask what a glizzy is during the show and tell segment of the show, with Taliesin sharing his curiosity and Liam claiming that he doesn't want to know the answer. Brian challenges them to try and guess what it is before the final retelling, but Laura gives the answer away halfway through, when Matt asks the question.
  • Marisha's retelling was overall good, until she messed up the sister's name, changing it from Susanette to Fiona. Her confusion for trying and failing to remember her name survives for several retellings.
  • Liam wore his Critical Role purple shirt for his retelling, and it blended so well with the purple backrest of his chair that he appears to be wearing a shirt with a ridiculously high collar. His appearance and the mood of the story made him look like a theater actor who decided to give the performance of his life even if the show is bound to be a disaster.
  • Matt loses the tagline dispute, turning the story of the two brothers' boats into a generic Sibling Rivalry that their sister exploits to Troll them. In general, he sacrificed the story's details for the sake of being descriptive.
    Matt: No, that was the one! That was the one that did it in! He starts feeling it churn and all sorts of other adjectives about the insides of the stomach.
  • Sam recorded his version of the story very late at night and it shows. The two brothers are two full-blown fratbros living their best life and bragging about their boats until their father decided to put on a contest to make them stop. As the contest part and the sister's scam reveal now make absolutely no sense to the plot, Sam points everything on the enactment and the result must be seen to be believed.
    Liam: My favorite part about that story is that two sweet little children are sleeping 17 feet behind.
  • Travis (the final storyteller) somehow changes the ending by revealing that one of the two brothers was murdered and replaced by their long lost sister, who was wearing his still bloody face like a mask. It is given no elaboration about how it happened.
    Travis: Yeah. Nailed it.
    • He also happens to create the first crossover between stories by making one of the brothers claim out of the blue that he saw Beau Lionette drink at the Tossmans. ^note  There is no connection between the stories, except that they both end up with someone violently throwing up.
  • Ironically, one part of the story that's remained staunchly intact till the end is the moral of the story, courtesy of Brian. Doubles as an Awesome moment.
    • Matt and Marisha's dog, Omar, is barking throughout the review section which keeps distracting everyone from the stories.
      Ashley: Who is he yelling at?
      Marisha: I don't know, ghosts?
  • Funny and Heartwarming: As soon as Omar appears onscreen, the cast loses all signs of composure and devolves into baby-talking the puppy. Matt even pretends to bite the dog after Omar was called a loaf! ^note Corgis have a memetic resemblance to loaves of bread.
• Episode 3 starts normally, with a pre-credit sequence of the cast trying to perform the story. It ends with Taliesin looking straight into the camera.
  Taliesin: I deserve this.
  • It turns out that Laura did a Mighty Nein-themed version of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. Santa Claus comes to Caleb's Tower and gives them food and presents. Beau is untrusting, so Fjord flips the table. This causes an irate Santa to ask them if nobody had ever been nice to them before and sarcastically wish them a Happy Winter's Crest before bringing up his dukes and asking them "How do you want to do this?" Laura makes sure to keep the rhyme scheme, which throws everybody off.
    • "How do you want to do this?" was left out in the very first retelling.
  • This episode has another first as Brian sits it out and they rope in Mica Burton (Reani), and show-and-tell is briefly derailed when one-time Emmy winner Sam Riegel is compelled to point out that Mica is in front of a mantelpiece covered in Emmys - due in part to Mica's dad, Levar Burton. We're not kidding.
    • Sam, who comes after Mica, visibly struggles to remember the story to the point that he looks embarrassed by his own performance. The cast congratulates Mica for finally breaking Sam. Sam blames the Emmys.
    • Sam also uses a fake beard he happened to have in his office during his retelling. The other narrators try to keep up: Marisha uses an armadillo plushie, Liam uses a Hellboy action figure and Matt grabs a pad containing paper strips... with things looking like little dicks drawn on it. Which is appropriate considering who is the original author of the poem.
  • Ultimately the original tale ends up seeping into the details of this story, from the setting changing from Caleb's tower to the Xhorhouse (just because of the word 'house') to a brand new creature created from whole cloth, the displacer mouse.
  • Quickly, Frumpkin and Veth are omitted from the story, although Nott ends up being tacked in at the end only to be told she was the only one Santa hadn't brought gifts for. Jester gets omitted by Mica but is brought back by Marisha. Cadeuceus is omitted in the next telling by Sam, the line about him drinking dead people tea becoming Fjord making a poison. Finally, Nott is left out by a very confused Matt.
    • All retellings after Ashley's however do keep the fact that Beau was added in to the first half; Jester hadn't actually mentioned what Beau was doing prior to Santa appearing.
  • One comment points out there was an extremely easy rhyme to follow Yasha's dreaming of giving Beau kisses, which was to simply say Beau was "punching some bitches". Instead Beau gets a little sister, then multiple sisters. A confunded Marisha changes this to "no misses"
  • By the end of Matt's retelling, it was not Jester telling it, but it was her mother (based on the voice Matt was using) and half of the M9 were no longer in the story.
  • Travis describes the course of the game as "I love how Mica totalled the car, towed it to the auto body shop, Sam was like "let me take care of this," poured gasoline over the car, set it on fire, and then Marisha was like, "yeah, this drives!"
  • Sam's summary of the steady degradation of what was initially a sweet, earnest-but-funny poem in perfect meter.
  Sam: But isn't this what the holidays are really about? It starts out wholesome and pure and perfect, and then by the end it's just nine drunk people making a mess, ruining everything and blaming each other!
  Mica: Aww, Sam...that's so sweet! You're right, this IS what the holidays are all about!
• Episode 4 starts with Mica Burton telling a story in character as Reani. When it begins it is just like one of the many fairytales already told during the show... then Mica starts to speak Elvish as the elven princess her story is about. And then it is revealed that the story has three different endings, as they change depending on who you ask. As no one in the cast (except Matt) speaks Elvish, the language doesn't survive a single round, and it quickly degenerates from an attempt to make it sound like a foreign language into random sound effects.
  • Travis went full Simlish, Liam added a Dutch accent to it, and Taliesin just turned it into a Swedish Chef impression.
  • Mica wore a flower crown and golden glitters to impersonate her character. Travis did not, so no one else did. Everyone is upset about the lost props, in particular Liam and Laura.
    • Travis had otherwise stuck to the story really closely considering he was the second one up, but then ends up losing the name of the elven king Malendor forever. His idea of what the king's name was? Mando.
  • During the Show and Tell segment it is shown the last second of Mica's video. She shuts down the camera shouting "Two!" because she finally managed to keep her story within the two minutes time limit she was given after several attempts.
  • Thanks to an off-hand comment by Liam, the male main character William Tanner goes from being a sailor to be "an actor of ALF's fame". When Matt gets the confirmation that William Tanner was indeed the name of the father in Alf, everyone is impressed that Liam was able to remember it.
    • Mica is instead surprised that someone connected the name to Alf (that used to scare her when she was a child) but no one got the real reference behind it: it was inspired by Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean, who was played by Orlando Bloom, who played the elf Legolas in The Lord of the Rings. The kicker is that Taliesin misreads it into "Turner" just once, after which it's laid in the dirt when Marisha misreads it into "Teller". Yes, William Teller.
    • Speaking of names, the Alf reference is similarly lost after Sam misreads it into "Alpha", after which Ashley can't remember the name of the show, but she is absolutely certain it wasn't "Alf".
  • Marisha's confusion about the end of the story causes the three endings to become that either the princess opened her own tavern, either she poisoned the king, either she became a mermaid, a centaur, or a mer-centaur.
  • Defining Matt's retelling of the part of the Elvish Love Confession and the king's reaction to it as "Chewing the Scenery" would not do it justice. At all.
    Matt (as the king): How dare you tell me of this sort of love affair and in our own secret national tongue?!
  • Matt mangles the king's name to "King Mahna Mahna."
  • Sam mistakes the princess's name as Enfamil, and Ashley immediately notices that it's actually a baby formula.
    • Up until this moment, letters were just dropping randomly from the princess's name. It started out as Eranathriel, Travis made it Eranathiel (dropping only the second "r" sound), Liam and subsequently Taliesen ran with "Enathinel" (dropping the other "R" and the first "A"), and Matt and Marisha go with "Enethanel" which makes it sound like they read the same name as Liam and Taliesen but pronounced it differently. Then Sam calls her Enfamil.
  • Laura is the last one of the chain and she sounds like Jester making a Reani's impression. She also comments that Caleb could not hear the story because he was "busy reading his stupid books". Liam is offended for Caleb. And she also wonders if the story had a moral before wrapping it up.
  • During Show & Tell, when Mica explains where the language came from, Marisha says "We are about to offend so many elves!"
  • When the cast has to roll the dice to determine who will be the next narrator, Ashley gets away from the conference call to take her dice. It takes them one minute to notice that Ashley is not there anymore, and they notice just because she was not telling them her dice roll result.
  • As the episode is being wrapped up, Travis belches and it smells so bad that Laura looks like she is about to puke.
    Travis: It smells like Fritos Corn Chips!
    Sam: Did you have Fritos?
    Travis: No!
    Taliesin: How long have they been sitting in there waiting to attack?
• Episode 5 has Liam tell a story as Buddy the Ogre from the Darrington Brigade one-shot. It is a glorious, rambling, incoherent mess on par with Travis' Round 1 episode.
  • The decay of the "story" is so bad that Matt (the final narrator) during The Teaser claims that either that was the shortest story ever told on Narrative Telephone, or it was completely lost before he could hear it. During the Show and Tell segment it is revealed that the original story was actually three minutes long (the normal time limit is two minutes, but that was allowed because most of it were long pauses and Buddy picking his nose), while the final retellings lasted one minute or less.
  • Upon the rewatch, while watching Liam's original version, the cast was struck by how adorable Buddy is.
    • Liam explicitly requested Ashley or Marisha to go after him because he knew they would have had problems with Buddy's voice. Marisha corrects him - she would have had problems with Buddy being too cute for her to concentrate and remember whatever he was saying.
  • Ashley is the first to go after Liam, resulting in the story (or lack thereof) being utterly Ashleyed from the start. During Show & Tell, multiple references are made to Sling Blade and Ashley acting like a rambling drunk and/or old person, leading to this comment:
    Taliesin: Old Lady Johnson has gotten into the vermouth...
  • Sam forgot for a moment that Buddy was an Ogre and he introduced him as "Buddy the Elf" before correcting himself.
  • Laura thought that Special Guest Dani Carr was the first one to go which caused a lot of confusion for her, thinking that Dani was being extremely conceptual with her telling of the story.
  • Liam wore a pair of coke-bottle glasses to impersonate Buddy. The rest of the cast puts on glasses and sunglasses they had at their disposal to keep up... until Travis just mimics to put on the glasses as he had no props nearby. Again.
  • The name of one of the ducks was Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo IV. The narrators kept up well as they know the character the duck was named after... this until Dani the lore keeper dropped the name.
    • Ashley added a duck named Sharon to the group until Taliesin lost her. Everyone is upset for the loss of a duck that was not even in the original story.
  • This happened during the rewatch of Liam's story:
    Liam (as Buddy): I don't want to get in trouble with Lionel... or with Macaroni.
    Travis (as Macaroni): That's right, bitch!
    (The cast laughs for the perfect timing)
• Episode 6 has lore-keeper Dani Carr telling an adorable tale from the POV of Frumpkin while he reports in to his superiors in the Feywild during one of his many deaths.
  • The Show and Tell portion of the episode is immediately derailed by a discussion about middle names that lasts quite a while. Travis being Travis refuses to tell his. According to The Other Wiki, it's Hampton.
  • Liam describes the story being "A cat walks into a bar..." by the time it gets to him.
  • Laura admits she spent so much effort trying to remember the acronym that she didn't listen to the rest of the Travis's story. The result is a total crash and burn, involving Travis asking if she's going to start crying and not hitting the button to stop recording on the first try.
    • Laura, very characteristically, is also the one who forgets to mention Sprinkle on the list of deaths Frumpkin has endured.
• Episode 7 has Travis tell a story from the perspective of Chutney (from "The Night Before Critmas"). He wound up in Exandria after the events of the one-shot, specifically in Nicodranas. He ends up in a toy store, and gets an idea: he will enchant one of the toys so that it will grant vulnerability to fire damage, return to the North Pole, slip the cursed toy into Santa's sack, and HAVE HIS REVENGE! However, a halfling woman steals the toy (a toy crossbow) and slips away. Chutney follows her and sees that she gives the toy to her young son. Chutney decides not to steal the toy back. He's not a monster, and besides, it won't hurt the boy... provided he doesn't end up in any fires.
  • And to make it funnier, none of them caught onto the implications the first time they listened. They only figured it out after the second watch-through.
    • And who loses the most telling line regarding that implication? Sam.
    • If one pays close attention to the initial viewing, Taliesin appears to pick up on the implication but would seem to forget about it in the midst of everyone’s applause for Travis’ effort.
    • Hilariously, Marisha gets to be called off when she changes the runes engraved on the toy crossbow from giving fire weakness to its owner to making the toy explode to kill the person who touches it, making it a clear threat to the boy who is going to receive the toy.
      Aabria: Did Chutney almost kill a kid?!
      Matt: Yup.
  • The decay of the story is summed up by the preview of the episode: while Taliesin, Aabria, Liam and Matt exhibit their best impression of The Joker's Evil Laugh, Laura smiles, drinks a cocktail and winks. And the best part is, Travis did not laugh in the original story.
  • Initially, Chutney hears the name "Ruby of the Sea", goes to investigate, sees it's nobody he knows, but comes up with the plan along the way. By the time it gets to Liam, this has mutated into Chutney deciding the sexy, statuesque Tiefling woman is just an elaborate disguise for Santa Claus and ends the story still believing this. One can imagine the Mighty Nein having to defend Jester's mom from future assassination attempts by the bitter old elf.
  • Liam initially skips the detail about the toy being stolen from Chutney, and instead remembers the story as Chutney following the Ruby of the Sea before realizing his mistake and doubling back to correct himself. The subsequent tellings would feature Chutney being confused because he’d drank too many mai tais, before that detail gets warped into Chutney losing the toy whilst drinking a mai tai.
  • Ashley is very excited when the next episode is announced as the season finale. After Aabria says that her excitement crawled through the Zoom call like the girl from The Ring, Travis demands a different analogy.
• Episode 8 has Aabria Iyengar start the chain, with a story that ignores canon characters and names in general, done completely in first-person with Aabria as a ringleader planning a heist. It's a grim but consistent narrative that could only be ruined by a Spanner in the Works - by which we mean that Matt's version is interrupted by Omar barking again. What follows is a new recurring detail formed from whole cloth:
  Matt: He's a dog now. Wild shape, it's a weird thing.
  • While everyone else got a hoodie like Aabria did, Matt just put a blanket over himself, which combined with his loopy rendition of Aabria's accent make him look more like Jack Sparrow in a Paper-Thin Disguise.
  • Just the fact that Aabria was going for a London Gangster vibe, which had degenerated by Sam's turn into a Russian gang, but less match-fixing and more squatting in tracksuits.
  • Ashley...just Ashley in general. From a loopy introduction to forgetting the plan halfway through, she truly Ashleys the hell out of Aabria's story, and it is glorious.
  • Sam as a Communist with a hatred of undercarriages, whose desire to destroy said undercarriages eventually eclipses the actual crime plan. He also completely disregards Aabria's secrecy and proudly declares that he and all his associates are members of the Clasp.
  • Show And Tell leads up to a long-awaited Lampshade Hanging of the guys' tendency to go off on several other directions:
    Liam: We're not even ten minutes into this, and I've heard 3 conversations that I'm not going near with a ten foot pole.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: At the start of Show And Tell, Ashley gleefully exclaims how much she'd love to work for Aabria's unnamed character. Come Exandria Unlimited, we learn that Aabria was doing a preview of Poska here, who the party (including Ashley) quickly and emphatically decides not to work for!

Narrative Telephone (Round 3)

• Robbie starts the chain off and in character as Dorian, tells a story that is improbably 2 minutes long, somehow doesn't feature Robbie being a Motor Mouth, yet is packed with a great amount of detail, accents, location changes, names, proper nouns, alliterations, and many different voices. Liam, next in line, forgets the entire middle of the story.
  • Liam's retelling is so bad that for the first time in this game, he's visibly, deeply ashamed and hides his face the second Robbie starts talking during the Show and Tell^note It should be noted that this isn't necessarily his worst attempt in terms of forgetting details (that would go to Round 2's first episode).
  • Aabria epically flails through her attempt, forgetting many details along the way. And then there's "Flinttip Chislenips". To her dismay and horror, "Chislenips" unfortunately stayed throughout everyone's attempts.
    • As everyone is asking after Robbie's part where "other body parts" come in, Aabria can be seen on her camera clearly coming to the realization that it was probably her.
  • To revive the story from becoming a complete disaster, Anjali decides to put on Fy'ra Rai's accent for some reason. She eventually drops it when she's trying to remember any of the details.
  • Ashley, as usual telling the story as if she's telling her mom about something that happened at school that day during lunch, on her turn gives the story an ending (which Aabria had omitted), during which "Flinttip Chislenips" is asked how his nips are so chiseled. In return, Ashley forgets that Flinttip is a goblin.
    Ashley: Guns out, nips out.
  • Coming out of that hot mess, Matt doubles down on the sadness of Flinttip so hard, fully devoting himself to giving zero fucks about how the story comes out.
  • Aimee, officially christened by Liam as the Sam Riegel of this group, rephrased the entire story as an open mic night story about her friend Flinttip Chislenips. As if going full circle, it's heavily implied to be Opal, due to her coming from a small town and knowing how to play guitar as well as the hat that may be hiding a certain circlet...
  • During Show and Tell, Robbie eventually has the grim realisation that the guys had lopped out enough of his tale to turn it into "a sad story about an alcoholic". And that's before what counts as a Wham Line for this game - that Flintip Bearscat was Robbie's second playtest character from the pre-stream sessions, meaning that the other guys should have remembered it already!
    Robbie: I've never felt so impressed and disappointed with a group of people all at once.
  • Liam curses Robbie for being an "alliterative asshole" during Show and Tell, clearly reminded of Caduceus's tale in Round 1.
  • During Show & Tell, everyone gloms onto a line that Robbie delivered with an impressively sexy voice, and all of them start repeating it with their best sexy voices... until it comes to Matt. Matt does the line in the voice of Pumat Sol.
• The second round starts with Aimee interpreting an indebted Italian-American Socialite thief named Deni$e (money sign instead of the S) who spent 2000 gold to buy a one-way box to tell the boyfriend who abandoned her after stealing the furs they were meant to sell to a criminal "to fuck off forever" and give her back the money he owes to the criminal and the extra to pay her travel expenses and "the good years she spent on him". The identity of the ex-boyfriend in question? It's Dariax.

  "And he's pointing at me with that gross club finger of his, and you know how I got a thing with stubby things."

  • Apparently Dariax's idea of a disguise is to shave off his mustache.
  • Aimee also admits during the Show and Tell segment she was drunk when she wrote the story.
    Aimee: I was texted Aabria from the plane, I was like (drunken voice) How much does the box cost?
    Aabria: It's weird, she sent me the text and I heard it that way, which was wild.
  • Matt misunderstands the "money sign instead of the S" part and tries to elaborate a last name for Deni$e. It goes exactly as one would expect.
  • Just like Robbie before her, Aimee used the second playtest character from the pre-stream sessions and changed her story a little, turning her into one of Dariax's ex-girlfriends. Everyone mourns how Exandria Unlimited could have turned out if Deni$e was part of the group.
    • The reason why Aimee made Deni$e Dariax's ex? Because Dariax noticed that the dollar sign should not exist in Exandria when she introduced herself and she found it endearing.
  • During her story Aimee drinks several times as Deni$e recaps the events that brought her to Emon. The drink disappears almost immediately, but in exchange everyone puts on their lipsticks before they start talking even if Aimee never did that, picking it up from the beginning of Anjali's version.
  • Show and Tell gets off to a fantastic start when Aimee reveals that she's Zooming from Savannah, Georgia, bachelorette and drunken party capitol of the US (heavily implying that Write Who You Know is again in effect).
    Robbie: It becomes a tough sell when you finish it with "vomit everywhere"...
    Aimee: They bleach the streets here. That should tell you all you need to know.
    Matt: I'm not gonna lie, I'm coming round to the whole trip to Savannah thing just out of morbid curiosity.
    • Before the first video even starts, everyone is treated to a hilariously unflattering closeup of Aimee, thanks to Aimee breaking tradition by being the first to shoot Narrative Telephone with a selfie stick.
  • The slow destruction of the story is glorious. Deni$e goes from being a genuinely threatening criminal who wants her money back or else to be a Sassy Valley Girl who is leaving Dariax because he pays more attention to his friends than her and uses Retail Therapy to cope with the breakup. And then she cuts her brother's hair so that he doesn't share his hairstyle with her ex.
    Ashley: We went from Scorsese to Jersey Shore.
  • Robbie asks who was the "fuck multiplier" of the story, leading to this exchange at the end of his turn.
    Robbie (in character as Deni$e): We're done. Fuck you. Fuck off. Fuck you. Fuck off. It's over! *flying kiss*
    Aabria: Hey Robbie, did you ever think that maybe you were the fuck multiplier?
    • Before that Robbie accused Liam to be the "fuck multiplier" because he repeated the sign off and its "fuck you" thrice. Liam accepts the accusation and apologizes for it because he is from New Jersey.

Travis Willingham's Yee-Haw Game Ranch

• The opening interruptions by the critter puppets are a rich source of laughs thanks to the utterly savage insults they direct at Brian Foster coupled with Travis being completely confused about what's going on. Highlights include this gem from the New Super Mario Bros U episode.
  Brian: But if Travis is the Chosen One what does that make me?
  T. N. Tina: A liability!
• The May 16, 2019 episode, where instead of Travis and Brian being Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Laura and Ashley take it over and it becomes more Thelma & Louise.
• Travis finds the fire extinguisher at the beginning of Overcooked and plays with it, wondering what it's for (he chases Brian with it). Later...
  Travis: EVERYTHING'S ON FIRE!!
  • Travis tries to use the boost to get to the other side of the separated truck (that's not how it works).
  Travis: Boost Mobile!...The boost is a lie.
• If you're a fan of Black Comedy, Travis' and Brian's absolutely horrified reactions to T.N.Tina having her head ripped off and thrown at them, complete with blood pouring from her neck, remarkably realistic viscera and her body still twitching. They clearly did not expect the special effects to go so far. This right after they ask if they're actually supposed to be afraid of a puppet cat in a spooky cloak.
  Travis: WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED? What do you guys do in between these episodes, what is the matter with you?!
  • Last episode, Travis mentioned being on the fence about the critter puppets' ever expanding lore, saying he was fine with staying at the ranch. After seeing that, he's eager to escape to the next universe.
• According to his former friend and possible lover Alfred Dingbat, the reason Bast'alar adds so many titles to his name is that his real one is Mittens Mcfluffyfloof.
• Travis and Laura's joint game. Turns out there is one person even more revered than the Chosen One, and that's the Realm Walker, Grand Titan Above, and Mother of all Critters Laura Bailey.
• Drakar Noir fails twice in a row to pronounce the word "raise", and then claims that that's just the way it's pronounced in Fantasy Ranch. Cut to 13 episodes later, when Brian and Travis are joined by two knights from Fantasy Ranch, who pronounce it the exact same way.
• Thanks to COVID-19, Brian and Ashley do a special "Off the Ranch" episode of Yee-Haw Game Ranch. They receive a call from Bast'alar, who insults Brian a few times before launching into a series of threats. He goes on so long that Brian and Ashley pretend that the call is breaking up in order to end it.
  • Also, it is strongly implied that Bast'alar actually misses the Chosen One and the Liability. That, and even he is bored by the quarantine (though he caught up on Tiger King, that was good). Or hell, the simple fact that even Bast'alar, the Blighted Priest of Netherearth (among many other titles) is obeying quarantine.
  • They are called again by Dynamite Dan, T.N.Tina's twin brother (literally the same type of puppet with a black mustache added). Not only is the character also played by Brittany Walloch-Key, but the puppet takes a shine to Ashley and an instant dislike to Brian, dropping both new lore and new slams.
• "Off The Ranch": Yoshi's Crafted World gives us Giddy-up Gary, a new critter who is definitely not a sock puppet attached to Travis Willingham. Brian and Ashley figure it out halfway through and get him to break the charade by insulting the Dallas Cowboys.

Other

• Plenty of the advertisements for merchandise are absolute gut busters.
  • The promo for Vex/Percy-style wedding rings:
    • The fact that the entire promo is one big parody of the old DeBeers diamond commercials that aired in the 1990s, only with more guns, archery, and crying over dead bodies.
    • While the shadows of Vex and Percy are dancing, Travis walks in. The shadows act surprised, and Travis flees the studio in fear of the shadows, who then pretend to chase him out of the room. This is funnier when you remember that Travis is the CEO of Critical Role Productions.
      Travis: This studio is HAUNTED! (*while crying*) Marisha! Marisha! BURN IT ALL DOWN!
    • A Critter's top-voted YouTube comment just takes the cake.
      Matt: Oh, hey, you're back early.
      Marisha: Studio's haunted.
      Matt: What?
      Marisha: (loads gun) Studio's haunted.
  • The Cobalt Soul Journal ad has Marisha reading a letter addressed to a ‘Dearest Husband’ containing quite a bit of innuendo. At first, you might think it’s something Marisha wrote to Matt, only for the letter to end with her reading. “Gimme dat butt. Liam O’Brien”. Cut to Marisha awkwardly hiding the journal under the cushions of the Talks Machina couch.
    • Liam realizes Marisha read his journal by sniffing the cover.
  • The advertisement for Yee-Haw Game Ranch...defies words. See it for yourself.
• At Sakura Con 2017 (45:18 in this video) Matt is asked about the Wil Wheaton dice curse. He goes into an extended rant about its sheer impossibility.
  Matt: There is no explanation! That is — that is some... like, I don't know what ancient relic his family uncovered two generations ago and has led this blood curse, from generation to generation to this day, but that man breaks math and physics. I don't understand it. Like I heard about that, I heard about that in advance. I was like, "Ah, man, it would be kind of funny if he rolled really poorly." No. No. Like I had an existential crisis after he guested, both times. I will not touch him physically, I don't want to go anywhere near the possibility of, of capturing what dark entity has cursed his numeric existence.
• Matt, Marisha, Taliesin and Brian did a panel at MomoCon in 2017 called "Beyond Critical Role", which apparently was recorded while they were all particularly jetlagged and punch-drunk. The result is one of the funniest con panels anyone has ever done, with highlights including Brian arriving late because nobody told him he was supposed to be there, and Taliesin has a glorious rant about playing a molested child for an after-school special. There's also the first appearance of the Baywatch story, which is why Taliesin stopped on-camera acting just before he reached his teens.
  • At one point, Marisha turns to Matt and jokes "we're Twitch stars." Matt knocks back some water with a sobbing expression on his face.
    Matt: IT'S JUST WATER! WHY IS IT JUST WATER?!
    Taliesin: Because that's all you've earned.
  • Matt describes a video game mocap job he turned down:
    Matt: It was just. Extremely racist, extremely offensive...
    Brian: Yeah, but I told you I was gonna do revisions!
  • Taliesin says he could see Brian's remark coming and compares it to the wave at the Shamu show at SeaWorld.
    Taliesin: Why did I pick the first row?
  • Taliesin reveals that when he was a kid he got his dad on a Scientology mailing list just to be a jerk.
  • The panel host asks the audience to keep their questions appropriate, and Marisha mistakenly thinks she was talking to them.
    Brian: By the end of the weekend, she will be.
• The entire cast, prompted by a Verbal Tic of Ashley Johnson, have taken to saying, "okay-okay-okay" to themselves when needing to decide an action on the spot, usually during combat. This was taken even further when Ashley made it a scripted line of dialogue for the Critical Role DLC of Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire.
• Matt and Marisha did a special livestream to celebrate the release of The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. It was just the two of them, plus their pet bird Dagon, streaming from their house. To make it extra special, they decided to do it by an actual fire in their fireplace. They don't use the fireplace much because they live in Los Angeles. They even mentioned how much they've wanted to have actual fires for their fireside chats at the studio, but regulations forbid it. But this is their home, they can do what they want, and nothing will go wrong. Sure enough, their disused chimney flue caused the house to fill with smoke, setting off the smoke alarm several times. They didn't want to put the fire out, because that would actually cause more smoke. Also, Matt was barefoot during the segment, and accidentally showed his bare feet a couple of times, a violation of Twitch's TOS. The smoke eventually got too much to bear, the smoke alarm went off again, and Travis gave them a short call... in his capacity as CEO. The stream was shut down while the fire was put out. When the stream resumed, both Matt and Marisha had soot streaked over their faces and clothes, along with Marisha's hair slightly messed up, and Matt had put slippers on. So yeah, they won't be doing that again any time soon.
  • And of course, the entire fandom (including Liam O'Brien) made plenty of "Caleb's parents" jokes concerning the entire affair.
    Liam: Widogast approved.
  • When the recording of the stream was uploaded to Youtube, the part where Travis calls Marisha and has the stream shutdown temporarily is replaced with a We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties title card. The card features a cartoony drawing of Marisha and Matt desperately trying to put out the fire while Dagon flies towards the screen in panic. To top it off soothing classical music plays in the background.
• They break new ground by parodying, of all things, the Chilledcow "Lo-Fi Hiphop Beats to Study To" stream. Replacing the anime girl with Jester is just the beginning, as the lovingly elaborate array of easter eggs is simultaneously hilarious and awesome.
• The karaoke version of Your Turn to Roll must be seen to be believed. Enjoy, and try singing through your laughter.
• The members of Critical Role went to Kickstarter to fund The Legend of Vox Machina, an animated short, giving it a goal of $750,000 and a time limit of 45 days. The funding was met in less than 45 minutes, and the stretch goal of a million dollars was hit in under an hour. Within twelve hours of the Kickstarter opening, the critters had raised more than three million dollars, completing all of the stretch goals in less than half a day. This even got Critical Role the world record for the most-funded film project ever in the site's history at the time. The result? A planned FAQ stream started with Matt, Travis, and Marisha sitting in Stunned Silence, just staring at the camera. This lasts until Travis finally lets out some Tension-Cutting Laughter, causing them all to break down laughing, barely able to process what's just happened. While Marisha and Travis eventually regain their composure, Matt looks like he's about to steadily lose it throughout the whole video, especially when they hit $3.5 million pledged during the stream.
  Matt: (gripping the edge of the coffee table while rocking back and forth) What is going onnnnn...
  • Sam joins them midway through, fresh from the airport because his flight got delayed. He starts speeching to the camera about how they are trying to reach 750.000 dollars, then asks Travis if the bit of him not knowing how much they've actually raised is over yet.
  • When asked details about the Vox Machina vs Mighty Nein oneshot, they admit they hadn't gotten that far yet, and thought they'd have more time to figure out how to make that work.
  • While discussing the animation, Sam mentions to Matt that historical events that the characters never got to see could be depicted now too, like the Divergence. Matt immediately starts screaming.
    Travis: Why would you do that? We just got him back to a normal operating place.
    Matt: (wide-eyed) I can see forever...
  • One stretch goal idea suggested by the chat is to resurrect Vax. Travis proposes that in the show, Vax starts with a "one-up coin" that he then immediately loses by dropping it into a crevasse.
  • The chat's suggestions do get a little ambitious at times.
    Travis: "Critical Role-Land?" Just fucking take it easy, okay?
  • This was not the first time that the actors have been surprised by the critters. Early on in their run, they had a limited-run print of a hundred T-shirts, which Marisha announced before getting into the game proper. The shirts were sold out before Marisha was done reading the ad. Cue the cast being completely floored that the shirts sold out that quickly.
    Marisha: We were gauging interest, I'M SORRY!
• This promo for the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn's College of Tragedy subclass for the bard. Highlights include Liam Chewing the Scenery to no end, Travis struggling not to laugh behind his sword, Ashley flopping her sword around, and much, much more.
• The Critical Role TikTok account occasionally posts videos of Matt preparing the battle maps for big encounters. The fans were quick to dub him "Maps Mercer" and refer to this as his "enrichment time".
  • The dramatic reading of "The Devil's In-fearne-o", as written by Dani Carr. The entire back half is 90% censored, leaving only the cast's reactions, whooping and cheering like they're at a baseball game.
• The 7th anniversary of Critical Role prompted the release of a blooper reel. It is, of course, hilarious.
  • The video opens with a blooper from one of Taliesin's ad reads. He walks in dressed to the nines, the camera in black-and-white, and very seriously declares that someone put his script in the wrong place.
  • There are line flubs from everyone, the funniest being Sam having to interrupt his scene because apparently doing a surfer-dude voice makes him drool too much, and Laura trying to cover up the embarrassment of flubbing her line by singing about how she sucks giant balls.
  • We finally get a glimpse at what the cast shouts at Matt before the start of every show. It's as juvenile as one would expect.
    Liam: Titty sprinkles!
    Ashley: Balls and kabobs!
    • For the record: Matt himself is not immune to this either.
      Matt: (as Pumat Sol) You lookin' at my Pum-ass?
  • During the recording for the Legend of Vox Machina Kickstarter announcement skit, Travis and Laura tell Sam to come lay down in the same direction as everyone else, as he's laid down with his head at the foot-end of the mattress.
    Liam: How is he gonna eat my ass though?
  • Laura crouches down to fix something, immediately followed by a loud fabric tearing sound. She then frantically insists to a hysterically laughing Taliesin that it's the knee of her jeans that ripped, not the ass.
  • A different skit has Liam and Marisha calmly sit at a table with a plastic tea-set, when Taliesin runs in to throw a soccer ball at it... and misses completely. From a foot away.
    Taliesin: I'VE BEEN DRINKIN'!
  • Laura runs up behind Travis and pushes his head out of the way... which causes his neck to crack so loudly it's audible on camera, immediately startling everyone in the room, including Travis himself.
• The full cast participated in a WIRED interview.
  • The first question is "Who does Laura Bailey voice in Naruto?" Laura snarks that that's a great question, before realizing she doesn't actually remember. Liam admits that, although he and Sam have both written and directed for that show, they don't know either.
  • Laura reveals that she and Travis met when they were background extras on a random internet show, and had to sit at a table and pretend to talk to eachother for 12 hours straight.
    Travis: It was love at first "watermelon, watermelon, watermelon".
    Taliesin: I can see him being charming if he never had to actually say anything.
  • "Why is Travis Willingham CEO?"
    Travis: Actually that's a question for the group, why- why am I in that position?
    Laura: Because you're so smart!
    Marisha: Yeah, you're our fearless leader.
    Sam: Someone said we need to open a bank account, and Travis was like "I'll go do it..."
  • Matt starts giving DM tips after a question asks what makes him good. Travis starts loudly snoring midway through, and the others conclude that the first step to being a good DM is to have amazing hair.
    Matt: "How does Matt Mercer deal with these people?"
  • One of the questions is "How does Matt Mercer come up with names?" Sam suggests he takes a body part and just changes one letter ("Enis Mangina"), and Matt tells the audience to say the name a few times out loud first before saying them to your players.
  • The first two of Marisha's questions are about Matt. She immediately jokes that she's failing the Bechdel test pretty hard.
  • Matt proposed to Marisha by setting up an elaborate escape room with the rest of the cast as cultists, and Travis as a tentacle monster. According to Liam, "no-one died, but it was close" — apparently someone had neglected to switch out a very real knife for a fake, blunt knife, which was not discovered until someone off-set started yelling "WRONG KNIFE" mid-game.
  • When asked who he voices, Sam tells everyone that they may have watched him play Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... TWENTY years ago! Immediate cringing from the rest of the cast as they all collectively seem to realize how old they are.
  • Sam is wearing an embarrassing photo on his shirt again, this time of a young Taliesin, and happily shows it off while explaining where he gets them. Taliesin seems resigned to his fate.
  • Sam's last question is "Why did Sam Riegel leave Critical Role?"
    Sam: Guys, I have an announcement to make...
    • Matt later gets nearly the exact same question. Sam immediately jokes that they both got roles on Abbot Elementary.
  • "How to pronounce Taliesin Jaffe... Oh shit, I just blew the answer."
  • One of Taliesin's questions is "What happened to Taliesin Jaffe?", which sends him into an existential crisis immediately.
    Travis: How long do you have?! How much tape we got?!
    Liam: That's an evergreen question.
    Taliesin: I've asked my parents several times what happened. Uh... Yeah, god. Boarding school, bad clothing decisions, very iffy hair dye, I mean, a lot of things.
  • Laura, Liam, Matt and Marisha all have matching tattoos, which they got as a group. They did not realize until after they'd left that it looks exactly like the Gmail logo.
  • Marisha needs at least two cocktails in her before she feels confident enough to sing at karaoke nights, though according to Matt, she does a mean rendition of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".
    Marisha: (stilted) Coming for you, Freddy Mercury...
  • While showing off her tattoos, Marisha reveals she has the death saving throw dots tattooed on her wrist.
    Marisha: Meaningful and practical!
  • "Sam Riegel ASMR" is met with an immediate "No" from Laura.
  • Taliesin confirms that yes, "Taliesin" is his real name. The rest of the cast immediately disagrees.
    Liam: I've tried to summon you using Taliesin, and it didn't work.
    Taliesin: I guess if I gave you the real one I'd lose my power, so...
  • The story of how Taliesin got into the goth subculture: he wore black to school when Jim Henson died, and then just never stopped.
  • Sometimes the questions are a little hard to interpret.
    Sam: "Taliesin Jaffe... hair."
    Taliesin: ...I do have hair.
    • The question immediately afterwards is "Liam O'Brien eyebrows".
      Taliesin: You dye your eyebrows?!
• Matt gave a speech at PAX Unplugged 2023 about his personal journey, but with a twist: he'd left a few slides blank and asked the other cast members to send images to Marisha, who would add them to the presentation without him seeing them first. As he explains this, the slide behind him reads "I am a fool to trust them, yet trust them I must."
  • Of course, the first image (courtesy of Travis), is of two tortoises fucking. Matt tries to incorporate it into his speech about his origins by saying that even little tortoises come from somewhere, then remarks that one of the tortoises seems far more into it than the other.
  • The second image (from Laura) is a screenshot of Luke and Leia kissing while Han and Chewie watch. Matt's speech about community leads him to compare himself to Han, since he was also on the outside watching other people go at it without a way to get in.
  • The third image (from Marisha) is of someone in a very disturbing Sonic the Hedgehog costume devouring a hot dog with... far too much enthusiasm.
  • The fourth image (from Taliesin) is of a bouncy castle with a slide that ends in a 15 foot drop directly onto an asphalt road. This one causes Matt to break briefly.
    Matt: Sometimes life takes you on a fun journey... with an abrupt stop. And you have to learn to pivot, twist, and land softly. Or at least have a friend nearby to hear your cries and take you to the hospital.
  • The fifth image (from Ashley) is also from Star Wars, this one an unfortunate screenshot of Kylo Ren looking like he's drooling all over himself.
  • The sixth image (from Liam), is a photo of the mummy whose voice scientists were able to reconstruct, which is an inside joke from Campaign 2. Matt noticeably struggles to fit that one into his speech, before eventually giving up.
  • The final image, in true Sam Riegel fashion, is an embarrassing photo of Matt in anime cosplay. Matt visibly dies inside for a few seconds before saying "In conclusion: I'm a huge nerd" and ending his talk. Ironically, Matt showed a different picture of himself wearing that exact cosplay earlier in the presentation.
    • Sam told the Twitch audience in the live chat that he'd originally submitted a different image, but Marisha rejected it because it was too graphic. Naturally, everyone immediately wanted to know what the image was.
      SamRiegel: Just google "guy with a d—k grafted to his arm"
      gr4v3dgr: Let's not
  • Matt also tells a story of a high school GM friend of his who was convinced that Rifts was the best TTRPG ever made because it was compatible with everything, and not broken in the slightest. Matt and the other players promptly scoured the books, found a weapon that fired a 2-mile wide beam that did so much damage there wasn't even a numerical value attached, and wiped out half the Norse pantheon before the GM gave up.
• Because half the cast got sick at the same time, Travis, Taliesin, Sam, and Robbie decided to do a livestream where they created their characters in Baldurs Gate 3. Naturally, it was chaos.
  • Everyone is in comfy clothes, but special mention goes to Sam and Taliesin's outfits: Sam is wearing a pink beanie and a dressing gown that appears to have nothing underneath it, and comes dangerously close to flashing his underwear on stream a few times. Meanwhile, Taliesin is dressed in a onesie with rainbows and unicorns on it, over a pink shirt that reads "110% GOTH".
  • Because Twitch doesn't allow nudity, editing a character's genitals was going to be a bit of a problem. Whenever they reached the "Genitals" option, a crew member would run up behind them, count down, then shout "CLEAR FOR GENITALS", at which point the camera would cut back to a fullscreen version of the cast to obscure the gameplay footage. As soon as the camera cuts away, the entire cast suddenly transforms into giggly 12 year-olds, especially once they realize there are jiggle physics.
    • As this is happening, a small cartoon paintbrush changes the label in the corner from "Sick Day" to "Dick Day". It gets repeatedly wiped off and repainted where appropriate.
    • Sam decided that the audience shouldn't miss out on seeing Chetney's penis, and took a photo to post to his Twitter.
    • Things don't improve once it's Ashton's turn: Taliesin tells the others not to say what kind of genitals Ashton has because he wants to "preserve the mystery", and Robbie gets very close to the screen to see which of the various penis options are circumsized.
    • Sam says that if Ashton had a penis they wouldn't be circumsized, because they're an "uncut gem".
  • Baldur's Gate doesn't have Genasi as a racial option, meaning Taliesin struggles a lot to make a character that resembles Ashton. After about ten minutes, Sam reads out a chat message that says "Can Taliesin please make Mollymauk instead?"
    Taliesin: We've talked about this, chat!
  • Sam tells a story about the campaign he runs for his kids and their friends as campers at the Wildmount Wildlings Summer Camp. The kids needed to retrieve an item from an off limits building and use it to save the camp, but they refuse to do it because it's against the rules.
    Sam: So I've got a bunch of fuckin' narc kids who won't break the rules.
    • He also mentions that when he told them this, the kids asked him why they couldn't just get a counselor to grab it for them.
  • The "Chetney is Orym's dad" theory comes up and chat chimes in with their own suggestions for Chetney's possible children: Scanlan, Pike, Fjord, and Predathos. Travis' contribution? Chetney is his own father.
• In general, Laura Bailey's panicky, flustered reactions when things go sideways can often be entertaining, particularly whenever she has a G-rated Cluster F-Bomb. She often goes into Large Ham territory.
• At the 2024 Emerald City Comicon, the panel was immediately derailed when Liam spotted a sunglasses and bootie wearing service dog (Sydney the Service Aussie) in the front row. This led to Ashley going into the audience to pet Sydney, and moderator Mica Burton inviting Sydney up on stage. Cue a few minutes of the cast gushing over the dog, climaxing in the dog lifting up a sword, to the absolute delight of all present.
  • Later that day, the cast got a photo with Sydney.