YouTube comedian and ACC sports fan Scooter Magruder released his latest “Things Fans Say” installment by taking on the entire ACC with topical quips that you’d expect to hear from South Beach to South Bend. Magruder’s work has drawn well-deserved praise in the past, and while the acting yet again is top notch, for us, the writing left much to be desired. The short video certainly contributes some moments of brilliance, but as a whole, Magruder failed to capture the essence of the league as a whole.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38OmYqQ0Psc]
Magruder opens the video strong with by far his top two characters, the Florida State and the Miami fan. The depth of each character is impressive. In just a few seconds, the viewer fully understands what drives each of these two men with flawless expressions of paranoia, anger, jealousy, and misplaced bravado. Unfortunately, Magruder then falls into the same trap that’s plagued filmmakers for years in their attempts to portray ACC fans outside of the state of Florida as basketball-crazed caricatures, and he struggles to recapture the magic of the opening seconds as a result of this misstep.
Mixing in fringe characters to bridge the gap, like the Virginia Tech fan still griping about Danny Coale’s obvious touchdown and Boston College’s lament, “If Troy Flutie could play more like Doug Flutie, that would be great”, threatens to recapture the honesty of the storytelling, but the juxtaposition of the NC State fan and Wake Forest fan reliving past glory against Florida State falls short of expectations as there’s no mention of what really drives fans of the Wolfpack and Deacs … unabashed anger at every shred of positive attention paid to Duke and UNC.
The film comes together at the end with a second visit to the broken Miami fan talking to himself in the mirror which saves the commentary from being a complete train wreck, but as a whole, Magruder’s first effort to include subjects beyond the Seminole and Hurricane faithful sails wide right.
