Love Letters: Jet Lag: The Game
- 5 days ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Welcome to my inaugural post in a tag dedicated to things I love: Love Letters.
In my writing of late, you'll frequently see me prefacing my astute observations (and late-to-the-party hot takes) with a reference to something about my age. And that's because I, too, cannot believe I'm a person who has crossed the half-century mark. None of us can when we get here. You won't believe it, either, but if you're lucky, it will happen to you, too.
As a 51-year-old mother to two fully grown humans, I am relatively certain that "Jet Lag: The Game" was not created with my demographic in mind. Maybe it's part of the charm for me — one can only muster so much enthusiasm for yet another Hot Menopause Take (spoiler alert: menopause is, in fact, hot, and not in the good way, but in the sweaty-panic way). I was looking for something utterly different. Jet Lag is definitely that. I don't think the hosts of this show have mentioned menopause even a single time. It's refreshing.
Alright, now that we've made it paragraph 3, let's actually talk about What Is a Jet Lag. Well, it's an internet show. I would just say YouTube show, but in fact, I found it on Nebula, the YouTube for thoughtful nerds. I made my way there when Mike Downie (Downie Live and Downie Express) told me to go try Nebula because I refuse to pay for YouTube so Alphabet can charge me for an ad-free experience but still serve me videos with ads baked right into the content. Yes, we're all products on the internet, but you get sick of it too sometimes, right? No ads at all on Nebula, the proceeds are fairer to the creators, and I can watch plenty of "traveltainment" there. It's a good choice for me.
Anyway, so I wandered over to Nebula to watch Mike without ads or in-video plugs and then, I quickly ran out of Downie content (there is more of it on YouTube, though, and you should go find it because it's so good). Nebula was pretty persistent in ensuring me I'd love Jet Lag: The Game if I was this obsessed with the specific kind of friendly Golden Retriever energy I get from Downie, and I finally gave in.
(This is the season I saw first)
And then, as I'm apt to do, I immediately became an obsessive, deeply loyal fan to this game show/travel show/comedic thing, and here are the reasons why:
The "Boys"
Here's where I feel slightly weird. They call themselves the "boys" sometimes, this trio of creators (Wendover's Sam Denby (creator/narrator of Half As Interesting, which rocks) and comedy writers/editors/creators Ben Doyle and Adam Chase, who are both fabulous, hilarious humans), but it feels weirdly parental to me (AS A FIFTY YEAR OLD WOMAN, see I told you) to refer to them as "boys". But they are in their 20s, they have a Gen Z energy I honestly really love, and this is all part of the charm for me. This generation has grown up in an era where the internet has been fully intact from the time they were born. I find that fascinating (and a little apocalyptic at times). So there's the vaguely existential bit focused on examining the way this generation is experiencing the world and comparing it to what life was like in my 20s, etc.
But. It's way more than that. Lots of 20-somethings are making content on the internet that is objectively terrible. I mean, come on. Again, I know it's not for ME specifically, but I don't want to get ready with you. I don't want to watch you embark on cruel pranks or see you act like a dick in a random Walmart for no redeeming reason. I don't really care what you think about a bizarre recipe someone invented to get internet clicks. I did like one time, to be fair. But enough already, internet. How many bits and gigathings do we have available for this, anyway? Anybody else want to shake their fist at this cloud?
Sam, Ben, and Adam have so much fun, but they don't have fun at the expense of other people — and the Gen Z people I know in real life don't either.
The love this generation has for one another, the way they support each other, it gives me hope about our collective future. These creators embody that energy, despite being super competitive. If one of them makes a great move (I'll eventually get to the actual game here, I swear), the others give them props even if they are now losing badly. It's just good vibes. I need some of those at this point in 2026, for reasons.
Anyway. So, the "boys" are really smart and really funny, and these are my favorite traits in people of any age. I love the banter. I love the sarcasm and the smart assery and the genuine curiosity they have about the far-flung places they visit (and the people they meet there). While these are not travel vlogs (like the aforementioned Downie often creates), I love seeing these places through the eyes of these kids. There, I said it. To me, they are kind of still kids, and I mean that in the best, non-condescending way.
I'm relieved these kids are out doing stuff like this, despite whatthefuckever is happening in this world right now. They are proof that life keeps moving — and that we always have choices to make about what we're going to do in the meantime. It will move on without us or we can choose to participate in deliberate ways.
The Actual Game(s)
Jet Lag: The Game is, well, a game. It's actually several games. I will spare you the minutiae (primarily because I'm sure I'd get various details wrong and then a shadowy internet mafia figure from the Jet Lag subreddit will surely emerge to break my legs outside the Kroger one day soon), but it's safe to say that there are a few main approaches they've taken over the past 17 seasons:
Tag
Here, the game starts in a central spot between three endpoint goals and a player takes off toward their goal with the other two in pursuit after a delay. The runner, who is tracked by the chasers, needs to complete challenges to earn a bank to finance their continued run. When they are caught (tagged), the next runner takes off, etc. Sometimes there are additional guests and more of a team-based play emerges.
Hide and Seek
Similar to tag, one player hides, the others have to find them, but without tracking on the hider. Seekers use a specialized card deck to pose questions (at a cost paid for with challenges) to narrow potential hiding spots. Once the hider is found, one of the seekers takes a turn, and so it goes. The winner at the end of a set time is the one who remains hidden the longest.
Races
Team-based play where everyone is trying to get to the same place, from the same place and confronts various challenges and resource scarcity problems along the way.
Risk-ish Scenarios
These are more complicated scenarios that I honestly only partially bother trying to fully understand, but which fulfil the needs of the more serious viewer who likes to watch this show equipped with spreadsheets and deep research. Sometimes it's chasing each other through a metro system claiming territory while gathering coins and blocking one another in various ways. Sometimes it's literally flying around the U.S. or Australia or driving all of New Zealand, but whatever it is, it's complicated and fun and even when I'm confused, I constantly flip between who I want to win, and ultimately, I forget who wins, which comes in handy when I watch these in the background while working. It’s always a surprise to me, somehow.
These are just high-level overviews, and yes, pedantic Jet Lag fan, I'm aware there is more to it than these descriptions and that this list is not exhaustive. I'm just trying to pique interest here. Also, I've found that fans often have very strong preferences for one type of gameplay above the others — for the more strategy-oriented fans, tag and hide and seek are sometimes viewed as too basic. I personally think the more open-ended feeling play leads to more interesting strategies and makes for "better TV," if you will, versus the more complex games like the latest season in Taiwan.
But I love it all, honestly. I trust them to make a great show and then edit it really well. None of that is easy, and they just really know their stuff, especially at this point, going into Season 18.
There Are Trains
And, I love trains. I also don't find too many other middle-age women who are into trains, so I don't find much train content online that feels like it's made with me in mind, and again, that's totally fine. When I do find train content that I like, though (and I'm a very picky bitch about it), I really like it.
On Jet Lag, I get my train fix (in most seasons) in a totally different way. Because it's not actually about the trains, though they factor into most seasons in important ways (damn you, Deutsche Bahn), but it's almost better, somehow. Ben and Adam are in the snack zone deadpanning an observation about a sausage roll and I'm focused on the background. What kind of ads are there? What language is being spoken on the overhead? Did the doors open weird? How are the seats set up? I want to see in there! But I don't necessarily want all the boring details fed to me, either. Look, it's hard to explain. Is it train voyeurism? Is there something wrong with me? It's fine.
There's a Jet Lag Community
This is good news for me for two reasons. One: it means I can tap into (very, very) lengthy discussions about very specific moments of gameplay, and that's usually fun. And two: I can enjoy fanning out with other people (who aren't ALL 22-year-old men). It's nice to find something online that's thriving and that feels truly alive. I tend to find things way after they've been canceled, or just before they get canceled, and it's neat that you can do that in this media age, but it's more fun when the thing isn't actually dead yet, too.
Also, sometimes Ben posts on the subreddit (less commonly, Sam and Adam do, too). I just find that cool — Sam's been internet famous for a long time now, having started Wendover when he was 18, but it's interesting to see Ben and Adam emerging as people who are recognized in public and how they are dealing with that. So far, they all seem pretty normal, though surely it all feels pretty weird at times. It's interesting to see them engage with fans, partly because they seem truly invested in not only creating good content (and it really is done so well — the editing is top-notch and deserves awards), but in the actual gameplay. I like to see people making things they actually care about versus content marketing. It feels very old school internet (and I was here for Geocities, so trust me).
Also, the Jet Lag community creates excellent content in its own right. For example, this Reddit poster whose wife compiled a list of her favorite Ben quotes. Come on, if you aren't a fan of the guy who says things, as he’s about to claim Rome, like "We are unphased. Because we are about to have the papacy under our control, and then we will have God smite them," are you really alive? There's also stuff like this super sweet supercut of all the times (up to that point) that Adam had called Ben "buddy" on the Tube that is totally worth your time versus whatever else you were doing before you started reading this long post about an internet game show:
There's a Podcast
It's called The Layover, and it doesn't have ads. Not only do they discuss every single episode (with the guests who appear, like Downie on season 17 and Tom Scott on season 13 and a host of other creators I didn't know about until I found Jet Lag), but they have these "off season" episodes that I find truly delightful. They might play a game that is definitely not Family Feud (but there also might be a lot of Steve Harvey references) or give life advice to viewers, but for someone who enjoys this show partly because of the interactions between the main players, it's really great.
Hint: While the podcast is technically a Nebula exclusive (and I am a subscriber), you can also have your podcast app load it up via the RSS feed (shout out to Toby/Tibee’s for this tip).
Jet Lag: The Game Is Life-Affirming
(Who wouldn't have a good time at the airport in Zurich?)
Yes, I could calm down, but I'm not going to calm down. I stand by it. As you may or may not know, my job is wonderful — and sometimes, it's really, really challenging. And, it’s been a very difficult century so far in general. I frequently need proof that this world is going to keep on spinning. Content like this (and Downie's, which I will also post about at great length in the coming days) is part of that proof. Here are some reminders that help me feel less mired in gloom when I watch Jet Lag:
The world is big (and small). I like to watch travel content not just because I love to travel, but because I think it's good for my humanity even when I’m not traveling to remember that we aren't alone out here. The language, culture, food, entertainment, and so on may vary, but most people are just trying to do right by the people they care about, no matter where they live. Community is important everywhere. The world is big, but it’s also so small.
People are just people. It's good to remember that despite the overwhelming crush of information and gloom we’re dealing with every single day, people are just keeping on, in every corner of the globe. There are groceries to buy, parks to visit, trains to ride, people to meet, dogs to walk, art to create, music to play, children to raise, work to attend to... and none of it really depends on what's going on politically (even when there's a constantly present dark cloud, honestly).
Life is “choose your own adventure.” Jet Lag scenarios are basically real life bottle episodes (isn't all travel?) — the episodes are structured, unrealistic slices of life. And that's exactly my point.
We have choices to make every day. We can wake up and ask ourselves what we could do today to make life a little more joyful or interesting — how we might make our world a little more bearable, hopeful, loving... I really love that these people are making their own fun (and by extension, how they are sharing it with all of us). That feels very Gen Z to me, and I wish more people my age (and older) would take the time to dig beyond the stereotypes (which might be wise as we rapidly age and need these people to help us in various ways someday, but I digress).
Trains. Adding new trains to my bucket list is life affirming because I can't die until I've checked off all the things on this list, from my understanding.
Anyway. I have the hat, I hope you'll watch Jet Lag: The Game (on Nebula), and I can't wait to see what these three do next. Oh, and if you get Nebula, Abolish Everything is worth your time if you like smart-absurd vibes. Ben and Adam kill it on this show, too.
Now for the real question: Who’s going to play the middle-age version of the at-home Jet Lag card game with me? I’ll bring the snacks (and they will be good because I've been contributing to Midwestern potlucks for many decades now, but also my outfit will 100% be Ben Doyle-inspired — someone warn my children).
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