# The Good Place \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545 "2016-09-21T23:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 48
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/942 "2018-12-12T19:01:18Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > I don’t recall: does anyone, at any point, ever say how many points are necessary to get into The Good Place? > Because from Neal’s comments it seemed obvious to me that there is obviously a fixed minimum that Doug Forster just won’t reach given how much longer he is likely to live. I don’t think they’ve ever given a specific number. Which brings me back to my previous theory: > [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I think the Good Place exists, but it’s getting harder and harder to get in. Sort of a point inflation. The ancient Egyptians needed maybe 100 points to get, now you need a billion trillion points to get in. I think Shawn noticed that basically every human is now just going straight to the Bad Place. After this episode, I think it’s the other way around. It’s not that the limit has gotten higher, it’s just that modern human actions aren’t worth enough anymore. We learned that every time something new happens, dating back to giving a rock to another caveman, they figure out what it’s worth. As time has gone on, everything new is compared to all the “good” actions that have come before, and has gotten lower point totals. And everything is locked into place, regardless of context or time period. That’s how Mindy got into the Medium place. Her idea was so novel that it got more points than any other action before. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/943 "2018-12-12T19:31:39Z")
When Jason was on the couch talking with Chiti I thought to myself that it seemed off. Like, the impression was just noticeably weaker than others D’Arcy had done this episode. Then we see that’s it’s not Jason. It’s Elenor. It was D’Arcy playing Janet playing Elenor playing Jason. I was completely blown away. Do you have any idea how fucking hard that is to pull off? I’m reminded of this clip [Mel Blanc did over a 1000 different Voices in over 5000 CARTOONS ! - UNIQUE GENIUS - YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BnmJALXh_sI) It’s Hank Azaria talking about Mel Blanc. The most amazing thing he saw was Mel playing Bugs Bunny playing Daffy Duck. And then Daffy playing Bugs. It’s just an almost impossible task for a voice actor to pull off well. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/944 "2018-12-12T19:34:34Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > When Jason was on the couch talking with Chiti I thought to myself that it seemed off. Like, the impression was just noticeably weaker than others D’Arcy had done this episode. > > Then we see that’s it’s not Jason. It’s Elenor. It was D’Arcy playing Janet playing Elenor playing Jason. I was completely blown away. Do you have any idea how fucking hard that is to pull off? > > I’m reminded of this clip [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BnmJALXh\_sI](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BnmJALXh_sI) > > It’s Hank Azaria talking about Mel Blanc. The most amazing thing he saw was Mel playing Bugs Bunny playing Daffy Duck. And then Daffy playing Bugs. It’s just an almost impossible task for a voice actor to pull off well. I wanna know, when they did the rehearsal with everyone playing themselves, did they have Kristen Bell or Manny Jacinto doing that part? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/945 "2018-12-12T20:24:18Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I don’t think they’ve ever given a specific number. Which brings me back to my previous theory: > > After this episode, I think it’s the other way around. It’s not that the limit has gotten higher, it’s just that modern human actions aren’t worth enough anymore. We learned that every time something new happens, dating back to giving a rock to another caveman, they figure out what it’s worth. As time has gone on, everything new is compared to all the “good” actions that have come before, and has gotten lower point totals. And everything is locked into place, regardless of context or time period. That’s how Mindy got into the Medium place. Her idea was so novel that it got more points than any other action before. No, the issue is that the accountants, hacked by the Bad Place, are giving huge negative numbers to things which are actually innocuous. Like having sex with a vegetable. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/946 "2018-12-12T21:07:18Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > When Jason was on the couch talking with Chiti I thought to myself that it seemed off. Like, the impression was just noticeably weaker than others D’Arcy had done this episode. > > Then we see that’s it’s not Jason. It’s Elenor. It was D’Arcy playing Janet playing Elenor playing Jason. I was completely blown away. Do you have any idea how fucking hard that is to pull off? [This post](https://news.avclub.com/the-good-place-s-latest-gambit-was-over-a-year-in-the-m-1830898165) from The AV Club goes into how the episode was done. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/947 "2018-12-12T21:54:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > No, the issue is that the accountants, hacked by the Bad Place, are giving huge negative numbers to things which are actually innocuous. Like having sex with a vegetable. I don’t think they’ve been hacked at all. Michael just assumes that they’ve been hacked. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/948 "2018-12-12T22:53:14Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I wanna know, when they did the rehearsal with everyone playing themselves, did they have Kristen Bell or Manny Jacinto doing that part? On the podcast\*, D’Arcy Carden talked about how they recorded the table read of the script with the cast playing themselves, and they also filmed a walk-thru with the full cast playing each part. She listened to the recording and studied the film for a week before shooting the episode. She recalled that how during the table read, William Harper (Chidi) was reading his long speech about David Hume and D’Arcy though “Wow, Will has a lot to memorize” and then remembered that it was actually going to be her pretending to be him. \*which I highly recommend; it’s hosted by Mark Evan Jackson (“I play Sean”) and each week he has excellent interviews with various members of the cast, writing staff and crew. It’s hilarious and interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/949 "2018-12-12T23:01:43Z")
> [@Mikemike2](#): > > The accountant wanting to commit suicide because he was assigned to weird sex acts was hilarious. A great episode. Michael: “Do you have a paper clip?” Sex Accountant: “What do you want it for?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2018, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/950 "2018-12-13T00:54:08Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I would assume a Janet blinked all the infrastructure into existence in an instant. But did a Janet make the decisions? Did a Janet choose ‘CRTs, not flat screens’? Or was a Janet directed by someone else to build infrastructure one way, and not another of the infinite possible ways? ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/951 "2018-12-14T13:46:17Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > No, the issue is that the accountants, hacked by the Bad Place, are giving huge negative numbers to things which are actually innocuous. Like having sex with a vegetable. Or living in France. Really, I just want to know what happened ca. 1497 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/952 "2018-12-16T01:36:21Z")
NBC [uploaded a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDITRqGLoKE) with some behind-the-scenes clips of D’Arcy Carden explaining how it was done. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/953 "2018-12-16T01:56:09Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > Really, I just want to know what happened ca. 1497 In fourteen hundred and ninety-seven, [Giovanni Borgia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Borgia,_2nd_Duke_of_Gandia) went to Heaven. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/954 "2019-01-07T13:43:59Z")
[E! had the best joke of the Golden Globes](https://slate.com/culture/2019/01/jameela-jamil-golden-globes-red-carpet-kamilah-al-jamil-good-place-chyron.html)– and it’s based on _The Good Place_. Funny on so many levels. If you don’t want to click on the link: Jameela Jamil was identified on the red carpet as Kamilah al-Jamal. BTW, Jameela also tweeted that she wore jeans under her dress because it was so cold. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/955 "2019-01-07T14:02:04Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > [E! had the best joke of the Golden Globes](https://slate.com/culture/2019/01/jameela-jamil-golden-globes-red-carpet-kamilah-al-jamil-good-place-chyron.html)– and it’s based on _The Good Place_. Funny on so many levels. > BTW, Jameela also tweeted that she wore jeans under her dress because it was so cold. Oh Tahani…I think your sister would be more outraged that you were identified as her, ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/956 "2019-01-08T16:43:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Eleanor was definitely “Bad”, and so was Jason. But Chidi and Tahani? Flawed, yes, but not “bad”. It made sense in the context they showed it, though. Because motivation and impact were factors, Tahani (whose motives were always impure) and Chidi (whose impact was always minimal because he couldn’t commit to anything) came out as fairly neutral. And neutral wasn’t good enough. It was always implied that the Good Place had a pretty high bar, since most of the fake inhabitants were suggested to be, essentially, paragons. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/957 "2019-01-08T18:06:11Z")
Then why not send Chidi to the Neutral Place? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/958 "2019-01-08T18:42:19Z")
Because Mike Schur has not thought nearly as much about the world he’s building as people on the internet do. Since this thread has been bumped, here’s what [Janet does in her void.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0z-Lf7EkfU) ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/959 "2019-01-08T20:02:00Z")
omg I thought it said five minutes. “Sure I can check that out for five minutes”, I said to myself. But . . . shudder! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/960 "2019-01-08T20:09:13Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Because Mike Schur has not thought nearly as much about the world he’s building as people on the internet do. That’s quite often true. Look, for instance, at how people have analyzed Quidditch and found that the scoring makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545/961 "2019-01-08T20:25:00Z")
I fast forwarded – I found two times she boops out (around 1:15:10 and 4:19:20) Must have been an interesting shoot “D’Arcy – just stand there for a few hours” (probbaly not one take…) Brian [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545.md?page=47) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-good-place-edited-title/766545.md?page=49)