Yahoo! Answers[1] was a question-and-answers website owned by Yahoo! where users would ask questions and answers those submitted by others, first launched on June 28, 2005.
Yahoo! announced on April 5, 2021 that Yahoo! Answers would be put into read-only mode on April 20, and then shut down entirely on May 4, 2021. It has since been replaced with a segment called Wizard of the Cloud.
Use on MBMBaM[]
Yahoo! Answers was a frequent source of questions on My Brother, My Brother and Me, in part because when the McElroys started the show, they didn't yet have an audience big enough to source questions from.[2] The "Yahoos" that Griffin selected for the show usually lent themselves well to comedy because they were offbeat questions asked by people who were often deeply confused (or trolls). Most episodes of MBMBaM in the Yahoo! era ended with a "Final Yahoo!" that was ostensibly going to be answered in the next episode (but almost never was).[3]
Originally, Griffin found all of the Yahoos himself. In Episode 8, he read two Yahoos that were sent in by listeners, and by Episode 22, almost all of the Yahoos were sent in by listeners, whom Griffin dubbed "Yahoo Warriors." Several Yahoo Warriors have received titles or taglines for their service, most notably "Level 9000 'Yadrew' Druid" Drew Davenport, who has had over 200 Yahoos read on the show.[4]
Yahoo! Answers has also been a source of comedy for other popular media, much to the brothers' (exaggerated) chagrin. They complained in Episode 179 that @midnight with Chris Hardwick was "chomping their flavor." Similarly, they mention in Episode 282 and Episode 299 that The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon featured questions from the service.
Shutdown[]
In response to the announcement that Yahoo! Answers was to be shutdown, the McElroys finally recorded Episode 420, which they had originally postponed because they couldn't think of anything funny enough to do with it. In it, Griffin suggested that they revisit and finally answer the Final Yahoos from the previous episodes. Ultimately, the McElroys began reading and reacting to other advice online in a new segment called Wizard of the Cloud.
Alternatives[]
- Episode 21 featured several questions from WikiAnswers (now Answers.com).
- Episode 44 and Episode 47 feature articles from eHow.
- Episode 440 featured a question from reddit.
- Episode 557 featured two questions from StackExchange.
- Wizard of the Cloud
Trivia[]
- There are a few episodes in which Griffin reused Yahoos that appeared in previous episodes. (Episode 321 and Episode 322; Episode 312 and Episode 348; Episode 359 and Episode 360; Episode 504 and Episode 508; Episode 258 and Episode 536)
- The Final Yahoos in Episode 180 and Episode 501 are not the same Yahoo! Answers submission, but core premise of the questions are the same.
- In Episode 366, they discovered Yahoo! Answers user "Todd", who has answered so many questions that the brothers dubbed him "the God-King of Yahoo! Answers."
- Griffin made up Yahoo!s during MaxFunDrive 2018, and returned to this possibility to end the show following the demise of Yahoo! Answers, beginning with Episode 560 and continuing through Episode 597.
References & Links[]
- ↑ Yahoo! Answers on Wikipedia
- ↑ McElroy, Justin. “'How Do You Get Spaghetti Stains Out of Underwear?': An Ode to Yahoo Answers.” Esquire, Esquire, 8 Apr. 2021, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a36053000/yahoo-answers-shutting-down-mbmbam-my-brother-my-brother-and-me-tribute-justin-mcelroy/.
- ↑ List of All Final Questions
- ↑ That Ladder