I love how katie isn't being messed with and somehow almost gets chicken wrong both times

I love how Brennan's face shifts when he sees that first bird.

The emotional journey of overconfidence to panic to boiling acceptance all played out on Brennan's face is priceless

brennan repeating "stay calm" to himself had me screaming with laughter

What I wouldn't give, to see the universe where Brennan knew those birds and foiled Sam.

This is now the meanest thing that Sam has done to Brennan. Love it.

Carolin saying 'I know that one!' for the rosate Spoonbill was SUCH a good knife to Brennans side 😁

I love how Brennan just randomly started pacing. You could tell it was genuinely getting to him

the best part had to be brennan between his outraged "i'm sorry, just penguin? just penguin?!" and his frustrated "that's a chicken again" before immediately walking away from the podium to try and calm himself

I'm an educator and I think I will use this video as a training example for testing inequality, grading inequality and teacher prejudice

The condescending "SORRY Brennan" is just the icing on the cake

I mean technically the Siamese Fireback is a Pheasant 😂

There is no person more enjoyable to watch be twisted in the wind than Brennan Lee Mulligan. Except perhaps Amy Vorphal, but Amy just self-destructs on her own, there is no need to even set out to ruin Amy. Amy just spontaneously combusts in fits of laughter. Both are incredible viewing experiences. And yes this is my way of saying I have watched this clip over a hundred times since upload.

i love how the only thing stopping brennan from monologuing is the fact that his bpm can’t get too high 😭 once he figures out how to keep his bpm steady amidst a speech, it’s over for all of us

The entire video, you can _feel_ Brennan preparing his Icarus monologue.

I think Carolyn deserves some extra credit here - I feel personally certain that Brennan's breaking point was when she said "Oh, I know this one!" about the Roseate Spoonbill, and then proudly looked at him when he got it wrong

This moment is SO funny, and it’s LAYERED! All those clips out there of Brennan talking bird facts. But he is on record saying he wants to dispell this myth people have of him as a “Bird Guy.” He’s not obsessed with them, but insofar as Brennan just knows a lot of stuff about a LOT of stuff, sure, it’s above average. There’s footage of him talking with Lou Wilson about it, while inevitably spouting off facts about crows, and Lou roasts him like, “I dunno man, that’s a lot of crow facts for someone who’s NOT a bird guy.” Just hilarious, how Brennan can NOT seem to shake the meme, despite specifically going in to do so. So when THIS happened, I absolutely lost it. It’s funny that Brennan can’t control his heart rate over the fear of a game rigged against him… but it’s EXTRA funny knowing that deep down, he knew this was the opportunity he had wished for… but it meant he’d have to lose a competition! Oh sweet monkey’s paw irony 😂

when Brennan said “that’s a chicken again” i laughed so hard my soul momentarily left my body

this is incredibly brutal. tailored to this man's psyche. it reduced brennan to a puppet dancing on sam's string.

First it was making a game brennan cant win Then it was a game that brennan *might* win I love you sam reich

This, this is a specific hell Sam has crafted

this mini game was less "name that bird" and more "bullying Brennan in a very specific way"

Brennan going down swinging for data is the most Brennan part of this bit

For those that don't know, the contestants are hooked up to heart rate monitors and the goal of the game is to not have your heart rate increase by more than 20 points above resting.

You know he went home after this and started diligently memorizing birds

i love the “river of sweat” comment - i guess his bodyyyyyy was betraying him constantly

Mike Trapp is taking notes on how to fck with Brennan and Izzy is gonna have to deal with Brennan going on a huge bird learning montage.

As a fellow bird nerd, this was the cruelest thing I've ever seen. Hoped Brennan looked into Prairie sage-grouse after this because they are pretty cool

I love how Brennan not only has the agony of being arbitrarily set up for failure- a miniature rerun of the "Brennan Cannot Win" episode- but also he has to deal with: A) Katie being incredibly anxious and having to stop and think about *chicken* -not once, but *twice* B) Carolyn actually knowing the answer for one of Brennan's question, at least to the point of knowing the genus of the bird (Spoonbill AKA the _Platalea_ genus), narrowing it down to just 6 species. On one side, Katie is almost tripping over the lowest hurdles possible, and on the other, Carolyn is pole vaulting over Brennan's impossible hurdle while he himself still fails at it.

I watched this clip without having any context of the rest of the episode and the revelation at the end that Brennan's HEART RATE was being MEASURED was like, some genuine supervillain shit, that is devious

As soon as that first bird came up, I said "oh, no, they truly found the perfect way to get to Brennan..." hats off to 'em!

Brennan just walking away after the second chicken is priceless

I fucking cried laughing when I saw this for the first time, from his face completely dropping at the first bird to him struggling harder and harder to keep the top of his head from spontaneously combusting as the game progressed

I would like to know if it was a specific bird or just immediate stress for Brennan 😂

Oh if only Sam had asked Carolyn to take a guess at the spoonbill so she could steal the point from Brennan. I think it would've broken him some more 🤣

My favorite thing about this clip is that Brennan is correct on the first bird. The Siamese Fireback is a type of pheasant.

"Just PENGUIN!?" followed by Kate pretty much messing up a chicken question but getting it right anyway was perfect

For a true understanding of just how funny this is, Katie laughed. Okay? Katie stoically watched Sam *gargle piss*. And she laughed at that.

This is straight up payback for No Laugh News when Sam misspoke and said that "Birds were technically dinosaurs" and Brennan ripped him a new one LOL

i love how this game has turned into a kind of existential torture for brennan

I love how Game Changer has just become ways for Sam to fuck with Brennan

I knew what was going to happen as soon as this segment started

I hope this happens again but Brennan shows up actually prepared for it

There’s a specific transition of emotions on Brennan’s face when he sees his first bird, and I’ve seen it before! On the UK show Taskmasters, there’s a contestant who repeatedly opens each new episode by presenting an embarrassing photo of the host. Well, one of the episodes the opening task is to take an interesting picture of yourself with a fez, so the host is already expecting the troll contestant to submit a badly photoshopped version of the embarrassing host photo with a fez edited in, and he turns to the screen with roughly the same smug confident look that Brennan has… the picture is of the host’s mother naked in he bath wearing the fez. Smug confidence evaporating into horror. That’s the transition they both have.

On rewatch, Brennan's tiny little sob at 0:54 might just be my favorite part of the video

I'm honestly shocked that Brennan claimed that last bird wasn't real. It came up and I immediately knew I'd seen that bird before. Did I know what it was called? Hell no. But I did know that it was, in fact, a real bird.

Katie is so funny, the part where she did the “there’s an egg on your head!” bit had me cracking up.

I feel like this segment is proof that there's a lot of ideas that are basically "ways we can fuck with Brennan Lee Mulligan" left on the cutting room floor of this show. By far one of the cruelest segments of the show, but also one of the funniest

When Brennan says “That’s a chicken again” the sound of his soul shattering into a thousand sweaty pieces is actually audible with the right headphones

Brennan getting a consistent paycheck means that he also gets consistently fucked over during game changer. The world requires balance, after all.

Brennan saying “calm down” to himself out loud is a level of anger management I wish I had

I knew that I was a bigger nerd than I thought when I identified all of Brennan's birds, and then was surprised he couldn't

Ignoring the rest of the video, Greater Sage-Grouse is the coolest name/look combo I've seen in a bird.

The siamese fireback is in fact, a pheasant

Sam's "Hm?" broke me! 😂

I was trying the challenge and I was absolutely baffled on the Greater Sage Grouse. Which implies there is a Greatest Sage Grouse and a Sage Grouse. Of course the Grouse I know has red hair, a simp for Zelda and when push comes to shove can be a nice himbo.

I love how he doesn't even argue them getting the points after and just wants to know.... WHEN.

Brennan at 0:35 is the face i imagine icarus made when he noticed that first lil drip of wax

I legit knew the last one was a grouse. Just didn't know it was the "greater sage" variety.

This was such a great ep. This part plus Katie given off massive "lil sister" vibes just got me.

INteresting that Carolyn gets 5 points for just saying "penguin" without specifics, and yet Brennan didn't get points for "phesant" when a Siamese Fireback is, indeed, a subspecies of pheasant. (I know the rules are explained at the end, but I had to GET IN THE COMMENTS! lol)

Brennon is 100% aware of what is going on (You can see his face shift at his first bird it's why he says pheasant, he sees it's a "Harder" question but his answer is based on what the other two had, it's when Sam reveals he answer that Brennon realizes the game), but he just can't help to jump into the challenge.

the animosity and rage radiating off of brennan towards sam would've killed an average person standing next to him

Whats even funnier is that earlier in the episode Brennan straight up achieves Nirvana and perfect inner understanding, only to have it wrenched away because he doesnt know the birds. Its the most Brennan thing I can think of.

I saw the thumbnail and thought “I wonder what name they are going to give a roseate spoonbill.”

To be fair to Brennan, the siamese fireback is a pheasant, just a specific apecies of pheasant. I recognized that much as well, but not the exact name. Same with spoonbill and grouse. I wasn't as specific as roseate spoonbill and greater sage grouse, but close enough. So when Carolyn got points for just penguin and not specifying emperor penguin, Brennan was right to be annoyed.

I saw the bird picture in the thumbnail and thought, “ooh! A roseate spoonbill!” which makes me feel a little smug, but I didn’t know either of the other Brennan-baiting birds!

Seeing Brennan lose his smug grin the instant he sees his bird is wonderful.

Joke's on Sam! A Siamese Fireback is a type of Pheasant, so Brennan got that right ! (especially since 'penguin' was correct)

this is such a specifically tailored hell. for brennan.

I love how Sam can barely announce the minigame beacuse he is so giddy knowing what torture lies ahead for Brennan

The best episodes of Game Changer are when Sam screws with Brennan specifically.

I saw someone say that if Sam’s personal heaven was having the three noise makers doing their shtick all day then this is the opposite: Brennan’s personal hell!

Am I the only one that saw the greater sage-grouse and immediately craved to achieve its aesthetic? What a pretty fuckin bird!!!

And now he brings up “roseate spoonbill” every chance he gets in other challenges 😂

As we all know, rule #1 of this show is "Brennan cannot win".

I may have had a stroke watching this. This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. I couldn't breathe.

something about the phrase "this is not a real bird" that implies that he is looking at it or holding it and refusing to acknowledge that it is real -- just sends me every time

"Penguin? Just penguin?!" I love this moment,when brenan getting flustered that more specific naming isn't required. Followed immediately by, its a chicken again.

I would've also loved to see the inverse of this joke where Brennan got nothing but chickens, but didn't get points because he didn't name the specific breed of chicken (e.g. Cobb-Vantress)

Brennan's kobayashi maru

I wish I could see the alternate universe where Brennan DID know those birds that would be brilliant.

Incredibly proud that I knew every bird that Brennan got

I NEED THE ANSWER: WHEN DID IT BREAK

I knew two out of three of Brennan's birds. Not sure whether that's better or worse than someone who can recognize all of the Pokemon...

“Not a real bird” would totally have been my guess too.

The second the first bird came up and his face fell I felt so bad for him. He was obviously so excited to talk bird facts and then Sam just crushed his spirit. So mean! Also I did know it was a Roseate Spoonbill although I would have called it a Rosetta Spoonbill. When I was a kid I lived in Florida and we learned about those in school cause they were semi-common down there and as a child I loved them because they were pink

can you imagine the look on sams face if brennen knew all of them?

I said “just penguin??” right before Brennan, that might have been the moment to tick the heart rate up lol

I love with Brennan’s first bird he actually isn’t wrong it is actually a pheasant.

I've never even heard of a fireback, but I knew the spoonbill and the sage grouse. What was their plan going to be if he actually knew them?

Best moment of the episode, no lie.

The best part is, knowing this show simply saying "that's a bird" would probably count.

fun fact: Brennan's first bird was indeed a pheasant

Instantly legendary

I would like everyone to know the Siamese Fireback is in fact a pheasant

Imagine if Brennan knew these birds. I'd love to see this version of this mini game where Sam just doesn't know what to do

I think it would’ve been incredibly funny if Brennan actually got every bird right somehow, down to the scientific name.

full The Brennan Parable mode

Oh, this was hard to watch. Especially that last one. If you don’t know, the Greater Sage-Grouse has probably one of the best-or at least one of the funniest-mating… dances? Activities? Anyway, the male bird (shown on the screen) goes up to the rather less decorated female and inflates two yellowish-green sacs on its chest, making a sort of “phwoomp” noise. It does this over and over. Please, look it up. You will not be disappointed. And yes, it looks like bird tits.