158. Bad Food Restaurants

AlexWe shouldn't say anything. This is not the show, right?

MerlinNo, no. His fart, well, I'm spoiling. You guys always say it's not the show and then you use it.

AlexNo, we cut out the farts. I don't know who to believe. I don't think we can use it because Cameron is frantically turning the knobs. When Cameron makes a face like I make, that's never good.

MaxThere's a piece of equipment back there that I've been told never to touch and Cameron is touching it.

AlexYeah, I am actually quite concerned.

MaxThat can't be good because I know that under normal circumstances that equipment should not need to be touched.

MerlinScott Glenn. I fucked up. Scott Glenn. He's also the father. He's also in Daredevil.

MaxYeah, I sent it. Oh, my God. Cameron, what are you doing? You know what? Cameron, no. I'm pulling the cord. I'm sorry, guys. I can't work like this.

Alexthis is do by friday a weekly challenge podcast with merlin mann alex cox and max temkin this week's challenge say grob gob glob grod hello hello hello what's up

Maxit's the bando fan club the bando mandos the bando mandos merlin are you watching the um impeachment hearings yes i mean hang on i'm gonna mute

Alexa second i gotta turn this off hang on okay oh like right now yeah i think i can hear it

Maxright now no no you i turned it down you can't hear it no no it's off can you explain I have to say I've almost completely filtered this out I don't know I'm too busy

MerlinSo you're going to ask your bad faith questions while you play with cards Is that what we're doing here? No, no, what do you want to talk about? I'm sorry No, go ahead Don't be cranky with me I came and did your show, you're the mad one You do that

MaxYou're mad, ask me a question

MerlinYou son of a bitch, ask me a fucking question Ask me anything How's a lizard? Ask me about the impeachment hearings, I'll answer with good faith

MaxWell, OK, the last big story that I heard was that there's there's the whistleblower that came forward and there was the Rand Paul was going to say the whistleblower. There were and there was a lot of drama. And then someone falsely got named as the whistleblower on Twitter. Donald Donald Trump Jr. was trying to out him. Yeah.

MerlinBut it wasn't the right guy, right? I think not. Well, there I mean, they have they have the the folks who are elected have decided to defend Trump don't really have anything of substance to say. I mean basically they're saying he did it but it's okay because he's you know the president he's allowed to do that my analogy for that is often that yeah it's legal to own a fax machine but it's not legal to hit someone with it until they're dead or to send you know a request for extortion with the fax machine while you're hitting them until they're dead

right no that was that was a while back so the two things they're focusing on

Maxvery heavily because it's really all meaning like

Merlinfour days ago I don't know I don't know. That thread is just a, it's a, as they used to say on Archer, classic misdirection. What they've got is we have to know who the whistleblower is and they've got process. That's really all they've got.

MaxIsn't that a very, isn't that a very like 2019 feeling though of like this thing happened like last Friday and now it's like, it's already like, I, who can recall back then what someone that was said on Twitter today, they were like, do you guys remember a week ago when Apple launched its like major streaming platform and it already feels like a distant relic of a forgotten past.

MerlinDid you see? Well, okay. Well, did you see yesterday? Now, let me tell you something funny. I have been, not by particular design, but I've been looking at Twitter less just because it makes me happier. But apparently I missed this whole MacBook Pro thing until this morning, which is very rare. I'm very online usually. And until I had two podcasts pop up in Overcast that are about the new MacBook Pro, I had no idea. Isn't that odd?

MaxMarco got one, it seems like, a press one. Yeah, yeah. He's very, very excited about it. Now who's got the functional high ground?

MerlinMerkel's got those demo units. Yesterday, the news came out that a woman who's fairly high up in the Trump administration heavily faked her resume and also faked herself being on the cover of Time magazine. And as usual with people who fake themselves being on the cover of Time magazine, did a really bad job of it. And it's like, you know, that's the kind of thing where when I was a kid, when I was, say, a teen, that's the kind of thing you talked about for two months.

Speaker ARight?

MerlinI mean, like, you go back to something like, you know, even not as big as Iran-Contra. You go back to something like the Keating Five or whatever. You go back to any of those things, and it's like all anybody talked about. Of course, the classic lib example is the tan suit, you know, or holding the coffee while Obama saluted. That kind of thing led the news, even in mainstream channels, for weeks and weeks and weeks. So, yeah, I take your point, man.

MaxIt's fucking ridiculous. I mean, how mad can Trump really get if you fake yourself on the cover of Time magazine? Oh, he didn't do that. What are you talking about? And if he did, he had the right. You guys have seen that he has the fake Civil War memorial for the fake Civil War battle at his golf course. Oh, God.

AlexWait, is that still up?

MerlinOh, yes.

AlexOh.

MerlinDo you know what I'm talking about?

AlexI have no sense of time.

MerlinWe need people. We need people like David Farenthold. We need people like, obviously, like Will Sommer, like Ben Collins, like Ashley Feinberg. The kind of people who will, like, track down. Or, like, God bless. Oh, God, shit. What's the guy? What's the guy? The Canadian guy? Daniel Dale. Like, poor Daniel Dale. Can you imagine your beat being? It's not just the Kessler guy sitting around signing Pinocchios. Like, fucking Daniel Dale is in the trenches at every speech. It's showing this is the hundred and fifth time that he has misquoted the number of jobs. And you're like, oh, God, what? It's like, oh, God, it's like pushing TSA up a hill.

No, thank you. But thank God there are people like them and like Ashley Feinberg that will try our day like David Ferenhol with the he heavily covers things like Trump's properties and businesses and grift. And but they've tracked down somebody tracked down the fucking Time magazine that's hanging. He crowdsourced. Hey, can anybody help me find this Time magazine that's supposedly framed in one of his golf clubs? And they found it. And then they're like, no, here's, okay, so it looks like shit. That's not how a Time magazine cover looks. And here's the cover from that actual week.

Speaker AI feel like I'm losing my goddamn mind.

MaxYeah, it had like, well, it had like The Edge from U2 on it or something, right? And he photoshopped himself onto it.

MerlinI think it might have been the lady from Titanic. I'm not sure. I don't know.

MaxTwo titans of our time, I mean, really.

MerlinNo, it also has a mug that says, you know, world's greatest boss that he didn't actually earn. So anyway. Yeah, four Pinocchios.

MaxGive him Pinocchios. You're not the world's greatest grandfather.

I don't know, man. Can you still get yourself into that headspace? Do you remember early on in the Trump— Well, I remember I got this very strongly when he was— I got this bigly when he was running. Very strongly, yes. Very, very bigly when he was running for president where I'd go, holy shit, Donald Trump, the like fucking red faced like baboon from TV is running for president. And I'd go, that is so weird. I mean, it is so weird to see. It's like, I don't know what you'd call it, but like that like code switch of like this absolute fucking doofus.

And now he's like being seriously covered by the media. And then I could get it in the first year of his presidency. I could sort of, especially right when I woke up in the morning and I'd look at the news and I'd go, what the fuck? The guy from The Apprentice is the goddamn president. I can't really get it. I can't really get there anymore now. I'm just like, I just, I just like the whole country's broken and it's, it's our fault.

MerlinI know. I, I, yeah, it's, it's the, for my version of that was so many mornings where I would have a very similar experience. Of course, I'm looking at my fucking phone first thing in the morning. I pee and then I grab the phone. Let's be honest. I look at the phone while I'm peeing. And then and I'm like, holy shit, especially during there were times in the run up to the Mueller stuff and really in the Manafort and Flynn days when he was saying and he would say the most ridiculous things in the stupidest way. And so going back and listening to this wonderful Lawfare series on the Mueller Report that I highly recommend to people and hearing and hearing them read the tweets like, you know, for years and also for years, people have like corrected.

They try to make it sound they read over his misspellings. They read it, which it shouldn't matter. I shouldn't care. But I do. I do. And like and here, you know, oh, he's given given his service a very strongly man. And it's like, holy shit. yeah no it's it's hard hard to get as worked up but i had the similar thing and then my lady and i would just be like every morning it was still difficult to believe it was happening like every single morning we're like can you believe can you believe this i still i'm broken enough inside that

Maxthis all still seems so horrible to me it uh i'm past that i think where i am right now uh emotionally with it is it used to be i used to wake up and be like man fuck this like this is crazy like fuck that guy and now i'm just like fuck me like yeah like shame on me shame on me honestly honestly really really you do better max i mean no it's like fuck all of us right yeah well um like we all did this we all played our part fuck this particular guy yeah the

Merlinwonderful david roth i don't know if he's found a new home at new republic after deadspin but his latest thing that just went up is covering a photo of god who all is in this picture oh my god okay so it's giuliani trump bloomberg clinton joe tory from the yankees and billy crystal and the title is the vainglorious eternals go golfing and it's it's such you guys are with me on the whole david david roth thing right oh yeah he's great just describe just the way that he writes and that's what we have here giuliani far left looks as ever as if he has somehow been

spilled into his clothes. He's turned such that he is grimacing towards a camera that no one else is facing. Trump is halfway into or out of a grin and sagging to leeward like a butter sculpture left out in the sun. A head shorter and directly to Trump's left, Bloomberg is trim, mirthless, and more deeply tan than any public official has a right to be. Bill Clinton had not at this point embarked on his vegan glow-up and so looks jocular and fluffy in shorts and a pastel golf shirt with implausibly girthsome sleeves.

Anyway.

AlexHis hair looks like Dorothy's from the Golden Girls. For a long time,

MaxI also used to think a lot about where will I go when it's not safe to be in America anymore. I think I've said this on the show before, but I was talking to some of my colleagues who had worked on the Obama campaign after Trump got elected. Some of them were even more freaked out than me. Some of them were really freaked out.

MerlinI remember you talking about this, people feeling like, I think I could be a target soon.

MaxCorrect, yeah. And I said to one guy, who I really respect, I mean, like a very, very smart guy, Obama alum, who I really look up to, and not a panicky, hand-wringing guy, like a very cool, analytical guy with a lot of experience in politics. And I said, well, really, what do you think the chance is of that they're going to like round people up or target them or, you know, do legal investigations or whatever? And he was like 50-50. And I was like, oh, I was like, what the fuck?

That really scared me because I had been more sober. It turns out I was right. I mean, they're not really competent enough to do that. But I was thinking like, oh, where will I go when it's not safe to be in America? Have you guys had that thought train at all? Oh, yeah. And one of my big ones was Bolivia.

MerlinOh, sure, Bolivia. They got mountains and cool hats. Cool hats.

MaxYeah, because I was like, these are pretty relatively politically stable, boring countries. I was looking at Central and South American countries. I like Costa Rica's cool, no standing military.

But man, that's just out the window. That's no good now.

MerlinAnd so the thing, as long as we're getting sad about this, Did you see, have you heard the coverage of what the kids are calling Groypers? Have you seen this?

MaxYeah.

AlexWhat's that?

MaxYeah. Merlin, what I've heard is like, there's like a, I read this one thing that there's a big civil war happening in the Trump supporters.

MerlinYeah. There's an article in Slate yesterday about this. Yeah. So basically, so you know Don Jr. Do you guys know what Groyper is?

AlexNo, I do not know what Groyper is.

MerlinI learned what Groyper is. Tell the people what Groyper is. if Pepe was too mainstream for you you go Groeper

Maxso you know Pepe the frog right? I do the one that became like the alt-right symbol

Merlinthe racist frog

Maxso they created a new one that's sort of a mashup of those sad 4chan faces with the Pepe meme and it's a new frog, it's a fat frog called a Groeper and he's kind of black pilled he's more of like the school shooter you know he's not the sort of like jolly troublemaker that Pepe was to them he's more of the like black pill like you know start a civil war like definitely white supremacist

Alexokay I can't find the Nazi frog like a grouper

Maxit's G-R-O-Y-P

Merlinhe's more of like a Baron Harkonnen kind of like okay spill the tea he just kind of leans back with his fingers making finger tense going he's less aggressively in your face. So Don Jr. has a new book out called Triggered about the libs.

Speaker AI wonder if it's so much.

MerlinYeah, and him and Kimberly Aluminum Foil have been going on tour for it. And they were at someplace over the weekend, and he was getting harassed from the audience. They were saying, Q&A, Q&A, Q&A, America first. And so he practically got chased off the stage by right-wing protesters, the Gruper people. I mention this because something that everybody's, anybody with any fucking sense is thinking about is Trumpism is bigger than Trump. And whatever this next thing is,

is going to be bigger than Trumpism.

Speaker AAnd it's going to be very,

Merlinwhat's the Alex Gibney film? Hypernormalization. Hypernormal, it's going to be, we're getting, it's going to get very hypernormalization up in this shit. Because Trump, you're right, Trump is incompetent. And his people are incompetent. And enough of them have a little bit of soul or shame to stop his worst impulses. But, like, what happens next? What happens when they get their, like, competent and maybe slightly less objectionable? You know, somebody who knows how to speak encoded language, you know?

Somebody who can say stuff like Trump where he, like, first he was against DACA. And then he was going to protect the Dreamers because he has a very strongly large heart and all that. And he can say two different things out of two different sides of his mouth. What happens when a competent person gets that job?

MaxWell, it's the first thing is like that. Whatever this this ugly white white nationalist movement is, it's I think there's a lot of slices of that that make up the pie that that the awful diarrhea pie there. You've got you've got one on the one. It's just like a like a one of those like real wet underdone pies. It just sort of all spills out.

MerlinOh, absolutely. I mean, like the crust is fine, but it is literally full of diarrhea. It's a store-bought crust.

MaxYour biggest slice is just going to be sort of regular sort of conservative Americans who just sort of hate liberals. And they just want to see the Obama era and liberals sort of like embarrassed and upset. And Trump became this great vehicle because he's like the anti-Obama, right? And I don't even know that they particularly, in fact, I do know that they don't particularly like Trump's policies.

It's just like the easy. They like the show.

MerlinThey like the show. It is so much more like pro wrestling than anybody wants to admit. Totally.

MaxYeah. So there's like the pro wrestling contingent. Then I think you have the alt-right slice of the pie or the white nationalist slice of the pie. And these are like the true, you know, the real Nazis, the Gripers, the real, that is the really upsetting element. I think it's a difficult thing to talk about because if you go, well, it's not – I don't think they represent mainstream conservatism or even most of Trump's voters. I think it's a small slice of that pie. But also it's also wrong to be like, well, they don't exist.

I mean they plainly they do exist. But it's a small – it's a slice. but and then you have other groups that's more of like a I think that is even more of a marriage of convenience like evangelical Christians and things like that where it's just like well they just wanted that supreme court seat and they thought that Trump had the best shot what's interesting is like for a lot of those groups specifically like the alt-right people like Trump is like so against what they what they want like he's like so not the guy for them right he's

this rich, bumbling aristocrat. The man's like, he's an idiot. He's not this sort of Western alpha male that they want.

MerlinYou know what I mean? He's not the populist figure that Steve Bannon sold him as. He will stand there in front of people in West Virginia and say, they're going to take your guns. I'm giving you back your coal jobs. The blacks love me. He'll just stand up there and say that. And because it is the pro wrestling and they like the greatest hits, they're just there to hear satisfaction.

MaxBut then he also gets distracted And he's like, one time Graydon Carter didn't invite me to his lame party. He's awful. The very bad, failing Vanity Fair. I didn't get into the party. And it's like, what? This is the guy? This is their big, this is their like, you know, their like Ubermensch.

Merlinit's an open secret that the feature on Twitter called bookmarks is for me used exclusively for drill tweets it's why I'm able to deploy so many good drill tweets because every time I sometimes you'll find a drill tweet and you'll just be like oh yeah I'm going to need that this will go in my quiver I have two exactly two out of the dozens and dozens and dozens of drill tweets that I have in bookmarks are exactly two tweets by people who are not drilled one of them is Nathan Fielder it's a picture of him smiling and saying out on the town having the time of my life with a bunch of friends.

They're all just out of frame laughing too. The other one that I have bookmarked is Donald J. Trump from March 2nd, 2014. Sissy Graydon Carter of Failing Vanity Fair Magazine and owner of Bad Food Restaurants has a problem. His VF Oscar party is no longer quote unquote hot.

Sissy Graydon Carter. Yes, mein Fuhrer. Bad Food Restaurants. Yes, lead us to victory. This strong, commanding alpha male. So strongly. Very strongly. Perfect call.

MaxNo, anyway, I just think it does make sense that for that slice of the pie, the true Gripers, the real heads, I think that they are going to, it does fit perfectly with me that they're going to, Trump was always this sort of like, so I interpret what they like about Trump is that, Number one, he was sort of willing to appease them with his sort of the Stephen Miller kind of stuff. They're like, you know, real anti-immigrant, you know, like anti-trans, like all these like really willing to be a bully to these groups.

They liked that for sure. But also Trump was just so ridiculous. Like in a way, it's the most destructive thing you could do to the American system to vote for Trump. Right. Because you're like, I'd rather burn this whole thing down.

MerlinThey're griefers. I mean, they're some combination of trolls and griefers. Yeah. They're just happy to watch the world burn.

MaxYep. And they got what they wanted, but it also makes, like, it does make perfect sense to me that now they're turning against Trump. And also these sort of, how would I put it? They're like, the people who, there's this, like, other false whole thing of this movement, which are, like, the Ben Shapiros of the movement, who they're on the, you know, these sort of, like, conservative intellectual, quote unquote intellectual conservative commentators. And the Gripers are also protesting their talks now and going after them. And it does make sense because like these people like it's completely hollow like they have no real followers like nobody actually believes what they say.

It's like and this happened to a previous generation of conservative people of leaders and intellectuals where remember in the Bush era where all the neoconservatives were like what the people really want is a low national debt. Like they're concerned about the GDP to debt ratio. Right. And how fucking pants those people get when Jeb Bush didn't get the nomination because they're like, you know, they were exposed as having no power in the Republic. Like the Republic, all their alleged principles that they stood for meant nothing when Trump become the nominee and they were exposed to having no power.

And I think probably the this new generation of the, you know, whatever the Ben Shapiro's and the who's all those assholes, the that author.

AlexBrett Stevens. Yeah, the Brett Stevens,

Maxthe Jordan Petersons. They're the next group that's just going to get absolutely pantsed when the next thing comes along that leaves them behind, right?

MerlinOr the guy who complains about his food. John not Probciak, but the other guy. The guy who looks like a thumb wears the sweaters on MSNBC. The guy who likes to complain about his food delivery online. People like that. I mean, it's going to be thirsty days. Did you see the... God, I can't find it. God damn it. a week or two ago or five years ago um that you know you know jacob wall and jack what's his name like to do they do their little announcements outside his house and they talk about you know whatever that uh what i don't know ruth bader ginsburg has been you know fisting with paulie

shore or whatever and they do they do these insane announcements and their latest one so they're they're outside whoever's house that is i guess it's you know jack buttfuck or whatever his name is. And they have a little podium out there. And Jacob Wall is out there talking. Milo Hippopotamus is sitting there looking. He's a gay fella, but he's having fun with it. And he's having like a frosty drink. He's sitting, I think, maybe under a parasol. It's like something out of a dream. And then someone in the back, someone in the audience watching this is doing

a Vic Berger style air horn while they're talking. So Jacob Wall's up there, you know, Talking about whatever he's saying, you know, Hillary Clinton likes to felch with a carrot top or whatever. And you hear, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk. And it really was like a Vic Berger video come to life. And they keep doing it. Talk about getting pantsed. Who can get pantsed more than poor Jacob Wall? The poor guy. He's so fundamentally bad at his dirty tricks. It's just, you love to see it.

You absolutely love to know about it. I feel better already.

MaxI have a couple of quick topics, some follow-up nonsense for you guys. Someone sent me a Dubai. So I had mentioned that I really enjoy watching some British television. and like I really like well Veronica and I like Bake Off and then there's another one called The Final Bite or something like that which is the like do you know what I'm talking about? It's like the Bake Off talk show

AlexIt's their after show

MerlinOh no I don't know that but I love the genre of like gentle English reality show I really like Richard

MaxLove Your Garden is wonderful I really like the Richard Aiwade travel show called Travelman, which I think is just a...

MerlinThe guy from the TV show?

MaxYes, you've got... Merlin, it's really hard to find. I got it from a thumb drive from a friend who smuggled it out of the UK. Oh, I'll find it. Don't worry about that. It's on my Plex, and it's called Travelman, and I just could not give a higher endorsement to the show. So he goes to cities, mostly in Europe, for 48 hours and is uncomfortable in a variety of situations, and it's very funny. It's very well written.

MerlinSo somebody sent you something.

MaxOh, right. So somebody sent me, Dubai Friday listeners sent me a box. And when I opened it up, it had like a Roku and Ethernet cables and all these like and some other boxes in it. And it's like and I to be honest, it came with a long note that I haven't fully I haven't fully ingested it yet. But basically the premise is this is a rig where I can I can plug it in and it's hard set to a VPN into his like house or something. Oh, my God. Where I can connect to his virtual DVR to get British TV shows.

No.

MaxOr it's something like that. It VPNs into some system or something, and I can get British TV shows. Now, let me ask you this. I really want these TV shows, and it's a very nice thing that someone did.

MerlinThat's a honeypot, my friend. But would you plug that into your house? I don't know, man. I don't know. It's pretty tempting.

AlexI do a lot of weird shit, and I wouldn't even do that.

MerlinYou do, Alex.

AlexYou do. I do so much weird shit. No.

MerlinI believe, based on a lot of your recent spicy talk, that there are a lot of things that you would plug into your thumb drive. A lot of spicy talk. I don't know, man. Can you take some kind of like a skiff or a clean room where you could test it out? Do it at a friend's house. Do it at a friend's house. I could make Alex plug it into their laptop, but that's...

AlexDon't put it on this network.

MaxThat's a good idea. Well, it's better here than my house. Thanks. Yeah, absolutely. He's going to live there, Alex. Maybe I'll connect it to like a Starbucks.

AlexYeah, actually.

MerlinDr. Manhattan appears on a table.

Speaker AHis balls just flop into the left.

MerlinJust a huge hog in the pumpkin spice. It's a square dance move, I think.

MaxAll right, let me... I feel better. So we watched the... All right, so you think pretty sketchy. I don't know.

MerlinWere you able to identify who the person is and see if they seem like a weirdo?

MaxI'm going to be honest. It came weeks ago, and I opened the box, and I got a little overwhelmed by it because I was like, this is simultaneously very generous and cool that someone set this up. And I don't actually think they're trying to hack me. But also, it does have a bunch of instructions and stuff. And it was one of those things of like, I brought it home and I put it on my desk. And I'm like, I'm going to get to this tonight. And now it's like a month and a half or two months later. And I'm just like, maybe tonight.

MerlinI realize this is not how you guys think. This is how I think. But as I think I've mentioned before, a long time back, even before I had a kid, I started thinking about when I would make decisions in my life. I would think about, how will I feel about having to explain this on a form in an emergency room?

AlexTalk about retelling stories. My God. Okay.

MerlinGo on. And the reason I say that, okay, Alex, can I finish? Are you done?

AlexI'm sorry.

MerlinI'm sorry. The reason I say that here is I think you need to ask yourself if I have to file some kind of a report with the authorities, how will you feel about filling out that part of the form? You're going to have to say, could I please have more room to fill this in?

Speaker AYeah.

MerlinAnd then you're going to have to explain this. Somebody, like, I'm pretty good at this stuff, but, you know, somebody sent me stuff that might have stolen English TV on it. And then I plugged it in, and then Dr. Manhattan put his hog in my pumpkin spice.

MaxAll right, topic number, my next follow-up topic.

MerlinAlso, also, also, don't say anything except thank you.

MaxOh, shit, dog. We're...

MerlinNope.

MaxOkay, I'm not...

MerlinMoving on. I can get you the Ayuraday.

MaxMerlin, there's obviously...

MerlinI just sent my friends the picture of the back of a truck.

MaxMerlin, obviously there's one question that I want to ask and I'm not going to, but could you just give me the answer to that in our text channel so I don't have to say it on the podcast. You know what I'm going to ask. Oh, what does it do? What does it do? No.

Veronica and I watched The Watchmen, episode one. And I have so many questions for you guys. So I truly went into this. Like, literally the only reason I even know that The Watchmen exists is from when you and John endorsed it on the program. So I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I didn't even know it was out.

AlexThe comic?

MaxWell, you know about Dr. Manhattan's hog. No, no. Wait, wait, wait. Hang on, hang on.

AlexOh, the television show. I've read the comic book.

MaxI didn't even know that there was a new Watchmen. I don't know. I literally did. What I'm trying to say is the Damon Wendeloff Watchmen TV show, I literally didn't know anything about. So I guess I went into it assuming it would be like the graphic novel that I've read, right? Yeah, sure. It was not that. And it's something else. I mean, it's cool.

MerlinIt's visually unbelievable. And it's got, if you enjoyed any part of the Leftovers episode you saw, you're a fan of lost you get that whole sense of like well i certainly don't understand a lot of this

Maxi would yes like i mean i really like i i really liked it i'm gonna keep watching it but like i was just i mean there were so many things in that episode where i was just like what the fuck like what's raining squids and they don't seem to mind yeah well they get the squeegee out right it's like that's that great that's that great thing of like um uh genre fiction is people is uh people having ordinary reactions to extraordinary events.

MerlinThat sounds like magic realism too.

MaxYeah, and literary fiction is people having extraordinary reactions to ordinary events. But when it started raining squid, and then she just got the squeegee and wiped the car, I was like, this is my shit right here. That's so weird. So I'm not really supposed to... It ended, and Veronica and I both, we both looked at each other and we're like, what the fuck did we just watch? And I'm not supposed to get it, right?

MerlinAnd you're a student of the comic, so that's a funny reaction to have. But, you know, again, I think you have to take Damon Lindelof with a very, like a golf ball-sized grain of salt because he generally has a reason for doing what he's doing. He likes perplexing you. And when he has the opportunity, you will generally find out what's happening. But you just go along for the ride. Now, even you as someone who's read those 12 wonderful issues of the comic, it's funny, confusing. I did, too.

And at first, after the first episode or two, I was like, oh, you know, it helps to have read the comics. But you don't have to. And now I retract that. This must be incredibly baffling. And if you're in a room with someone who has read the comics, can you imagine how insufferable all the pausing you have to do? To go, well, you know, they treated this differently in the movie, actually.

MaxWhat was the – I should probably just Google this instead of asking you guys. Have you seen it, Alex?

AlexI have not seen this yet. No, no, no.

MaxI think you're going to like it just from a filmmaking perspective. That's the first level I liked it on, is the filmmaking is just exquisite. It's really well composed. Every shot is very, very cinematic. It's the kind of filmmaking that you used to not be able to see on television. It's crazy that this is on TV.

AlexWell, now I'm all in on Lindelof, but do you have to have read the comic, like the post-comics?

MaxI don't know what the miniseries or whatever they did. I've read The Watchmen, although it's been a while. I read it in college.

MerlinThe 12-issue run from the 80s.

MaxYeah, so I read the Alan Moore Watchmen.

MerlinYeah, but I'm just saying, as against supplemental material after that, there was a run of many, many titles a few years ago DC put out of called After Watchmen. I didn't. I never. No, no, I just want to clarify for Alex. She doesn't have to read all the things. She could buy one big book and read all of it.

AlexI read it. I'm not a fake one.

MerlinSo I read the one. Well, then what's your question? What is your question? I'm sorry, I misunderstood.

AlexMy question was, you answered it. You don't need to read the weird, like, the, yeah, yeah, yeah.

MaxI read the Alan Moore Watchman and Veronica hasn't. And we both, although in general she reads much more comics than me, but that's just the one that I've read. And she was, and I would say we were approximately equally confused, but about different, like, in some ways, like, reading the comics was even more confusing to me. Because there were things where I was like, well, I was like, it was playing, my expectations were working against me. like what was the opening scene that's a real thing okay

Merlinnow i need to have go on i need to watch well i mean as previously stipulated i i'm cautious about spoiling it but there's something that happened well it's literally the opening minute of the show yeah yeah it's called it's called um it was in 1921 in tulsa a true event um what are they called the wall street riot or the wall street massacre that was a real thing the white supremacists led by the KKK murdered lots of black people in this very probably one of the most

affluent neighborhoods in the United States at the time

Alexfor African Americans. When you started that sentence I was like oh no Black Monday but then it got much more sad than that. It's very

Merlinvery sad. It's very very intense and when you're ready for the supplemental material so there's an official HBO podcast hosted by Craig Mazin from Chernobyl and he interviews Damon Lindelof about the show three episodes at a time and he talks about his decision to include that that he did not want it to be exploitative but he's been you know I can just say he's been reading um not your male boy but um Ta-Nehisi Coates's stuff over the last few years and the stuff about reparations and all that stuff and

was very affected by that and basically when HBO came to him and said you know do you want to take crack at Watchmen, first of all, he was like, no fucking way. But then I came back and he was like, hmm. That's pretty smart. If I could hang this on this, you know, Ta-Nehisi Coates approach to, like, what I would want to do with this, that would be very interesting to me. And so he's worked with some people. And, you know, he's like any white guy, you know, when I learned about stuff like this. You know, I become the expert on it and I want to talk about it. And he's, I don't know. I mean, I'm not a black guy, so I can't say. But he seems pretty woke about what he's trying to accomplish and trying to avoid doing things

that are strictly there to provoke emotions or to be, what's the word I'm looking for? He's trying not to abuse the source material. But yeah, that really happened. And then they do the fade, the dissolve to current day. And so they're following the chronology of the Watchmen comics take place in 1985 and came out in 86. And then years pass. and so basically they are in that Watchmen universe,

that version of Earth is now for us two. Does that make sense?

AlexOh, shit.

MerlinThe same amount of time has passed. They don't have the internet, but they do have pagers.

AlexOh, shit. Oh, my God.

MerlinIt is truly like an alternate splinter universe in some ways. And so in the same way that Nixon was president in the comics, now Robert Redford has been president for 20-some years. and then the reparations that are paid out are called red for nations oh it's your shit alex

Maxdon't worry about that no i know it takes place so so the show is 2019 that's right i did not get that okay how did you how do you know that i don't send a lot of podcasts okay um no no i mean the

Merlinsame amount of time i think the notion is the same amount of time has passed you know it's it's weird like, so, you know, I bought my wife a copy of Watchmen probably 10 years ago. Let's just say, for Syracuse purposes, the spine is very much intact.

And I bought two more copies for people in my house, not the lizard or the cat. And those arrive tomorrow because I think it's time. Because Damien Lindahl talks about how his dad slipped this to him. It's got some challenging stuff, but, you know, I think she's up to it. but how his dad was like trying to be cool dad in the late 80s and like slipped him like here you go kid first two issues of watchman and he like just you know was very it was he he looks at that as the beginning of his interest in telling stories that i did not know you were allowed i did not know

you were allowed to do this like i like comics but i didn't know you i didn't know comics like this were allowed to exist and that's what he claims and i think he's a pretty straight up guy That's what he claims provoked his whole interest in storytelling is comics in general and Watchmen in particular.

AlexThat really tracks.

MerlinWell, yeah. It's confusing, Max. You're not alone. You're not alone.

MaxI'm four episodes in. No, I enjoyed it. I'm not. I don't mind being not fully getting media. In fact, I like when there's something left to think about at the end of it. And I'm not going to keep watching. I'm not complaining about it. I just I was surprised that I was like, you know, like I almost think like comic book superhero media, comic book media, like Marvel movies and stuff like that. My biggest beef that I've talked about a hundred times on the podcast is that it leaves you with nothing left to think about afterwards. There's literally nothing to talk about. So it answers... It's so much...

MerlinHow does one say it? I'm not trying to get all Martin Scorchese here.

Speaker ABut so much of the success of that stuff

Merlinover the last few years increasingly became about... First of all, it's nostalgia a little bit. You start with nostalgia. and then the nostalgia builds into its own sort of, you know, I guess that's not entirely true because it's not like Iron Man was that popular, but we know, hey, we like comic books, and hey, Robert Downey Jr. is really good in this. That kicks things off. Oh my God, they did a Captain America movie too. This is incredible, and so on and so forth, but they increasingly become, you know, especially with the per se Avengers movies,

I'm not a huge, I mean, I like them, but I'm not, some of the movies, I like the least or go back to the least are the actual canonical Avengers movies because there's so much going on. It's like watching a Disneyland parade where you just go like, oh, okay, I guess that's Buzz Lightyear and he's gone. Okay, what are we doing here? But it's a celebration, a parade of IP that if you're into it is fantastic. But on the one hand, it starts with nostalgia, but then it kind of comes back to nostalgia because you're like, oh, I have nostalgia

for the first Iron Man movie and like don't touch my stuff like don't change this don't make it weird don't make it about girls like don't do all the things and like i think with watchmen he's i mean if you enjoyed those comics and this is this is the thing i said with syracuse i don't then i'll shut up but the part that's a little frustrating is all of the the pre-backlash about watchmen not just with that one more but with lots of people of like oh yeah you're not allowed to do this this is god's own text well here's the thing. If you actually like what the themes of Watchmen,

the comic were that were done so well for that time, he's done a pretty stellar job of taking those exact same fucking themes, but updating it and doing completely new stuff with it. So I, forgive me. I try to say this fewer than three times a year, but if you don't, if you don't like Watchmen, the TV show on principle, you probably don't like the comics that actually came out as much as you think you do. Do you follow?

AlexYeah, I like that. I like that so much.

MerlinWell, think about it, Max. I mean, it really is about an uncertain world where we have come to, at one point, we were depending on vigilantes to take care of things for us. And those vigilantes necessarily mostly wore masks and had secret identities. Well, what happens when we get to a point where the police have to be the ones that wear the masks? Right? And the Keen Act, the guy with the Keen Act, his grandson is doing something similar and yet very different because Keen's grandson is now a lawmaker and he's the one who said it's okay for police to wear masks, that they have to to be protected.

Anyway, boy, I've said too much. It's really good. It's really good.

AlexNo, I mean. Yeah.

MaxThere's an overwhelming amount of media to watch. I watched the, oh, did you guys get Disney Plus? Hell yeah. I feel like obviously we're all getting Disney Plus. Fucking A. Wow, is it good. They got me by the balls there. I got the yearly, and the first thing I watched was the Imagineering documentary series.

AlexIs that exclusive to...

MaxYeah, it's a Disney Plus exclusive.

AlexOh, it's a new one.

MaxAnd it's a documentary series about the Imagineers. I think... So there's a one-hour episode, but it's labeled number one, so I assume they're going to be adding more over time. Cool.

MerlinI'll add it to the list.

MaxIf you're a Disney theme park nerd in any capacity or you're interested in it, it was fucking cool. It was great. I liked it. It has the worst politics. It very clearly tells the story of how Walt triumphed over the trade unions to break labor's back to build his parks.

MerlinAnd he formed hundreds of shell companies to successfully get land away from farm owners into Florida.

MaxGreat job. Great job, Walt. You're killing it. This episode only covers Disneyland, but just all the footage of them building Jungle Cruise and stuff was, I mean, it was just unbelievable.

AlexI'm trying to see how long I can hold out before getting it, and I think it's going to be like a half hour after.

MerlinYeah, why? On principle?

AlexNo, because I know myself well enough to know that I am so impulsive that I'm just going to end up watching so many things that I don't want to say are a waste of my time, but there are so many things that are just personally more important.

MaxThere's a lot of other stuff to do. Well, there's the Werner Herzog. Did you guys see I posted this? Oh, my God. What a badass. Werner Herzog, King, he was interviewed in Variety, and it was one of those press junket interviews about the Mandalorian. where like, do you know these press junket things where like if you're in a show, like-

MerlinYou go out and you say the same positive thing over and over.

MaxYeah, and it's all like a, it's all like a, it's like very like calculated, like even the reporters.

MerlinIt's totally productized and packaged to be something where you can have these two or three talking points about what a thrill it was to get to do this. And then they change the background. Now it's, you know, Entertainment Weekly, right? That kind of thing. Or it's just like people come, usually you're set up in a room and different people come in and you get interviewed for a little while. You say your talking points, you get some photos, right? I mean, it's very productized.

MaxYeah, even the reporters use the press release language for The Mandalorian. They're sort of briefed on you have to talk about it this way. And it was a very funny Vanity Fair article where the reporter was like, what was it like working with Jon Favreau on this because he's made so many hit films recently? And Werner Herzog goes, I'm not aware of any films he's made. And they're like, really? And he's like, no. and then later they were like are you going to, oh wait, let me read it because it's so funny

Merlindidn't he say he hadn't seen Star Wars or something like that?

MaxHe got into that he hasn't seen any of the Star Wars films and he only watches a few films a year but then he goes he goes so even the way they said I love how they even asked this question will you watch The Mandalorian when it blasts off? right like clearly they were briefed to don't say when it launches but used when it when it blasts off so go will you watch the mandalorian when it blasts off and herzok goes well i can only watch it on disney plus i'd have to sign up for it so far i've only signed up for one

streaming platform and that's criterion they have hundreds of films and every one of them is great

Alexoh my god I love it there's a little diversion the reporter's just trying like this feels like the one time he goes off script where he's like he did the Lion King this year he's like oh I'm a fan of the animated one that came out like 30 years ago

Maxyeah he's like I like the music

Alexyeah do you watch any television it up. I watch WrestleMania. It's just so weird.

MaxBut anyway, Alex, maybe you could go full Werner Herzog and you just get the Criterion collection. You're like, oh, I'm not going to watch all this wonderful...

AlexI'll just be one of those people who watches Rashomon over and over and over again. You know what Veronica and I fucking watched

Maxlast night was Robin Hood. Oh, hi. One of the great

AlexDisney movies. I love that movie. Oh, I loved it as a kid. Yes, yes, yes.

MerlinThe 73? It's not considered a good movie, but I loved it as a kid.

MaxWe had a long, we actually had an interesting, it's a very, very slow movie as compared to like, you know, Disney movies today. Try watching Mary Poppins again. Holy shit. Oh, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

MerlinDisney movies are so slow.

MaxLet's go fly a fucking kite. It was interesting. We had a whole conversation of that. Are we, yeah, like, what is it? Did we find, I guess what we were talking about is like, did Disney, like, over time, have we just figured out how to press people's dopamine buttons more effectively so that movies are sort of correctly paced now? Or is it just that this is the taste of the day and everyone likes everything fast now and then later maybe it'll go back to being slow?

AlexI think the easy answer to that question is yes. The style of the time is just fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. And Disney...

MerlinAlso, Ed, just the technology. Think about the technology of being able to say, well, let's try cutting that a different way. You know what I mean? You could so aggressively take out everything that becomes all killer, no filler. There are movies, you go back and watch a movie like Third Man. I would not call the Third Man a slow-paced movie. It's very propulsive in its way, but it's nothing compared to what you would watch today with a Christopher Nolan film, something similar of like, you know what I mean?

It's so much more propulsive. But also Robin Hood is famous for being from that era where Disney was first starting to cheap out, and they started reusing a lot of animation from other movies to like lightly like, and so, you know, I like it a lot and I love the music. I listened to the music tons when I was a kid but, yeah, I still have warm feelings. Mary Poppins, holy shit. I tried to show that to my kid a few years ago when she was real little and I was like, oh yeah, this is a great movie. I was like, oh my God, when is anything going to happen in this movie? It just goes on and on.

I'm on the page of Warner Herzog quotes on WikiQuote and I will put that in notes because he's very quotable.

AlexI believe the common

Speaker Adenominator

Merlinof the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder. That's from Grizzly Man, which is a real pick-me-up of a movie.

AlexI still can't believe they released that movie. Oh my God, it's so painful. Nobody else would have the balls to do that.

MerlinHe saw the footage, but he's not going to show it to us. Oh my God. Oh, what a cuckold.

AlexOh, fuck you.

MerlinSpeaking of which.

AlexYes.

MerlinActually, we don't have time. It's 46 minutes in. I want to know what's going on with you and sex, Alex. You've gotten very, very spicy with your sex talk. No, is it by design? No. Well, I have lots of examples in front of me. On this show?

AlexWhere did this happen? Wait, what are you talking about?

MerlinWell, it's gotten real well. You wanted to know which iOS devices people would want to have intercourse with. Today you let us know about scissoring.

AlexNo, I did fuck, marry, kill for iOS devices.

MerlinYou know what fucking is, Alex? Do you have a book or something you could look at? And then you got something this morning about scissoring, which I think is a sex thing with vaginas and then and then what was your other one this morning you had more sex talk this morning in our super secret private text channel oh yeah yeah well I did put a dildo in there but yeah no it seems like are you in the midst of some kind of a movement

Alexare you asking if I'm like a bruminator

MerlinI think it's one thing to be sex positive and it's another thing to have a filthy whore mouth You just do the things you say.

AlexWell, who's moving to Utah to fuck all the...

MerlinCan I scissor if I want to? I could scissor if I wanted to, right?

AlexNo, no, no, no, no. That would be like getting confetti clogging up the scissors. Like, I mean... What the what? I mean, you could. There's some crucial things that would have to be... Yeah, there's some crucial things that you'd have to remove.

Speaker AOh.

AlexBlitter isn't a good analogy. I guess like a twist tie? I don't know.

MerlinOh, my goodness. Okay. I don't know if I'm up for that.

AlexYeah, no.

MerlinAll right, cut that out. Cut that out. Cut that all out. That was terrible. Cut it out. Anyway, congratulations on your scissoring coolness. Wow. Oh, what about you, Max? Do you like intercourse? Do you like talking about it?

AlexOh, my God. Kill me.

MaxWhat was the challenge this week? It was from a friend of the show, John Siracusa Dig dog By the way, very good after show With John last week We got a lot of nice feedback about that And it was very funny

MerlinI almost feel like we should liberate that one

MaxNo, I'm open to it. But if people do want to hear it for sure, you can go to giveusyourfuckingmoney.com. You give Dubai Friday $5 a month on the Dubai Friday Patreon. And you get access to our exclusive after show where we torment John Syracuse.

MerlinOh, he torments us. My God.

MaxYeah, he did torment. Yeah.

MerlinHe was really. Talk about spicy. Woo. That boy was on his game last week. Yeah.

AlexI texted Quinn like, you know what? if you'd gone to me even just five years ago and said, I was on a podcast with Merlin Mann and John Syracuse, and I couldn't wait for it to end. I don't, I wouldn't have believed you, but wow.

MerlinWhat made you want it to end?

AlexI could ask. Oh no. Just because I was up for a very, very long time. I'm trying to communicate that it is a very long, very good after show and very on brand with frenemy of the show,

Speaker AJohn Syracusa.

AlexIt was delightful.

MerlinHe's a frenemy of the people.

AlexThat's true. It was really fun to do. All right. Dig Dug, I guess it was John Syracusa's challenge. Would you like to explain it, Merlin?

MerlinEasily. One of the weird, oh, God damn it, I'll try. He lets me know, obviously, often lets me know what I'm doing wrong. And he asked me to communicate with other people what they're doing wrong, the things that I could or could not fix for them and whether I did that right or whether I presented it right to them in the way that I explained it or didn't explain it according to how he would prefer that I would explain it because there's literally no pleasing him. And one of the things he does is sometimes, rarely, but he'll tell me a challenge that he thinks we should do. And this week, the challenge comes from something

he texted me about a long time ago. For whatever reason, he wanted the challenge to be that we, see, now I'm going to say it wrong and he's going to text me. That we learn to say the name of a certain deity on the TV show Adventure Time.

Speaker AMm-hmm.

AlexMm-hmm.

MerlinAnd that's really the challenge.

AlexI still can't figure out why this would be a challenge, except because he knows I can't do it.

MerlinMaybe he can't finish without hearing you say it. And he wants it for a ringtone.

AlexHe wants to hear me mess up and hear both of you make fun of me for it, which is a valid reason to want to do a challenge, but I can't imagine another reason why.

MerlinI figured, I mean, like, I figured, well, the reason I allow this is that it's a silly challenge and it's an easy challenge, which is a good challenge. Easy in the sense of not too time-consuming, but I thought it also might give us a chance to talk about Adventure Time just a little bit, was the thought.

AlexYeah. I still have not seen the ending.

MaxGlob, glob, glob, glob. Glob, glob, glob, glob, glob, glob.

Alexgrab gob glob grod yep let's say it really fast do it one more time yeah see did you miss that grab gob glob grod and grab grab gob and then you're done it's really easy um as in as in oh my glob yes that blew my mind the first time we met that character uh because in adventure time There are, it's implied that there aren't any deities except for Grob.

MaxNo, it's Glob. There's like the time owl.

AlexNo, in the very, very beginning, they just keep saying, oh, my Glob. And then you slowly.

MerlinYeah, especially Lumpy Space Princess.

AlexUh-huh, uh-huh. Oh, my Glob. And you think, oh, it's just this silly, you know, in Adventure Time's way, a silly little play on words. But no, no, no. it's an incredibly integral character one of the many deities in adventure time um we do we

Merlinforgive my saying do we need to give a 15 second explanation about what adventure time is is that

Alexsilly that's probably silly right uh adventure time is a children's tv show that didn't really answer my question so i guess we do need to i think we need to explain that adventure time is a children's tv show about oh my god you've already ruined you're already wrong

Merlinokay adventure time is an animated show about a human boy and a dog and it takes place we eventually will learn it takes place in a post-apocalyptic earth place where a big chunk of the earth we learn is missing but mainly it starts out being this very uh amiable strange dnd influenced tv show about a boy and a dog and and it really goes a lot of places from there

Alexuh and they're brothers they're brothers i feel like that is an important point they're literally brothers. In the first episode, you learn that they are brothers. That feels like it sets the tone a lot for... Well, it sets the tone a lot for me, because right off the bat... Oh, adoptive brothers, yes. Well, but they don't say that. You're just like, okay, the human child is with the guy from Futurama who voices the dog. He's a dog brother. Yeah, I don't...

That didn't stick with you at the beginning like there are just so many like a lot of science fiction and fantasy alternate universes there are just a bunch of little things that are a little bit off and at first it's like okay this is a children's show so it's just like silly and i okay i am not saying it

Merlinis a children's i mean do you think do you think it's literally four children made for children no

Alexno no i am saying when i first the first couple episodes in my opinion not awesome and uh not counting the pilot that was initially made but then scrapped and not aired you think that you're

Speaker Awatching do you want your booties yes please we say that all the time in our house

Maxi love it so much oh my god did i did i tell you i remember listening to back to work when you got when you first got like deeply into Adventure Time. And you guys went on a huge Adventure Time tear for a long time.

MerlinWell, at first, and at first, in the prehistory, I was very confounded. Right. That Dan was obsessed with this show about the dog buns guy. And I was like, what is this?

AlexBecause you think it's a children's show. This was before I didn't get you a... You think it's a children's show. No, I don't think it's a children's show. You keep saying that. Why do you keep saying that? When you start the show, much like Steven Universe, you're like, oh, this is a cute kid show. All right, I'll allow it.

Oh, I see.

AlexRight, and then it's like, oh, this is much more.

MerlinBut there's a show on the show, there's a mint that is probably also an eternal demon. There's a lot going on.

AlexSatan's pretty teary. Satan's pretty terrible.

Speaker ABecause I am royal and you are servile. I will decide what is early and what is late, Mr. Peppermint.

AlexI'm so happy for the 20 other people.

Speaker AI'm just so happy for you to eat. Me too.

MerlinSo that is one of my favorite episodes. Too young. Okay, but here's another thing about this. Okay, so it's a children's rule. How rarely do you encounter a children's rule where there is a really, really big cosmology told in a very pointillistic way. You don't get info dumps so much on this show. You know what I mean? And you really do have to watch. Like, oh my God, that face in the pink stuff

appears to be, oh my God, that's Prince's bubble gum a thousand years ago. What in the hell? What's going on? Clambulance. Right? The way, like, just even, okay, so let's just, my absolute favorite storyline on the show, because I'm a dad, is a storyline with Ice King and Marceline. Oh, God. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. Their storyline is so good, but it's told, shut up, daddy. Anyway, it's told in these,

you get a little bit of, you get a little old, like 12-minute episode here, a 12-minute episode there. You get this little bit over there. Maybe it's not told in order, but you have to fit all that together. Who are these people? How old are they? Why is it a mushroom war? Did the mushrooms fight each other? like what's going on? Why is he trying to find soup for her? Why is he singing the theme from Cheers? What is happening? Right? And that's the thing is that you miss an episode of the show and you might miss a big piece of the cosmology that was in like one tiny little piece.

AlexMuch like another show called Steven Universe. Steven Universe. You seem not... That seems very ambitious.

MerlinI'm a fan of it, Ron.

AlexYou're not a fan of it.

MerlinI am a fan of it. I've seen so many episodes.

AlexI would love to.

MerlinWell, you haven't seen, you haven't watched it.

AlexOh, boy.

MerlinNo. Okay, so listen. There's a bunch of diamonds and there are friends, but they're mean. We've done the bit. That's all right. And there's one, there's a guy with a sunburn

Maxwho owns a car wash. All right. Listen, no one, like I was into Adventure Time before any of us. Like I saw the short on the Cartoon Network anthology show that Pendleton Ward did. Like I've been following Pendleton Ward for a long time.

MerlinWhat kind of award do you win for that?

MaxNo, I'm just saying, I love Adventure Time. I think it was amazing. But Merlin, almost all the storylines that you're talking about that you like and the things that became the parts of Adventure Time that you loved, that was the Rebecca Sugar stuff, man. And then she left and made her own show and it's worth it.

MerlinDo you understand that I've seen literally dozens of episodes of Steven Universe? You are aware of that.

MaxBut you need to watch. You just said. It's like The Wire, Merlin. It's like saying, yeah, I watched a couple of episodes of The Wire, but it was out of order and it didn't it seems very ambitious like yeah the wire didn't make a lot of sense i didn't understand everything that was going on how all the characters had to do with each other and you know okay cool well you didn't really watch it though can quinn quinn can you put

Alexin can you put in the like where merlin just said if you miss one episode of the show you might not

Merlinknow what's going on that's the thing is it like there's you miss an episode of the show and you might miss a big piece of the cosmology that was in like one tiny little piece it's crazy it's just

Maxit's it's absolutely bonkers to me that you watch that you love adventure time and it's become such a part of your um your vocabulary and you have all these things and like you you haven't given like an earnest try to steven universe which is i i like i like both i love both of them but steven

Merlinuniverses. I haven't given oh my god. I can't even tell this is a bit anymore. Oh my god. It's unbelievable. And it's just so we're being clear here. It is you that is chastising me about watching a TV show wrong? Is that correct? I just want to write that down here. Because Quinn, could you go back and add a doodly doodly doodly doodly where you go back and you play hundreds of episodes of this show where Max does this numerous times?

MaxYell at you about Steven Universe? And then ask

Merlinwhy everyone likes this thing? do you have a doodly do you have a doodly you want to drop in wait where I ask you to watch Steven Universe anyway what you know Filmic Pro I feel like should have released the new version by now that will support the Gimlet did I say Gimlet I meant Gimlet anyway it's a really good show and but to your point I feel like there's I have not seen every single episode of Adventure time but like i i missed the importance of this character and this character was in like was there

Alexlike one big episode with this character uh i don't remember because glob came about after rebecca sugar left to make the other show that i really like and that's when i feel like it not that it got bad but just some of the lore got less it it became more on the nose it became more conventional it became a little more conventional i remember this like her descending and it's like oh okay we see god now like i i don't know who does um who does uh be in puppy cat oh oh uh natasha

Maxallegri is that her name okay all right that makes sense but uh it's yeah natasha

Merlinshe's uh nat natzilla on twitter okay um because like i feel like i mean obviously i know the glob references that goes i think of you know oh my glob as being like primarily a lumpy space princess thing but like i don't remember that much lore about the glob stuff but um it's a really good show and you know what and when ryan north was doing the comics the comics are also extremely

Alexgood yeah oh and danielle ryan north the comics uh the the graphic graphic novels uh but in my graphic novels i mean they were just standalone ones lumberjanes yeah well did she do

MerlinPrince, she also did Prince.

AlexOh, yes, yes, yes. She did the game one. The Marceline. Oh, gosh, what was it called? I don't know. It was the Marceline one. It was so good. All of the, like, there's a great, I think, I'm sure you've heard it, Merlin, Conversation Parade. Yeah. Probably, yeah, where.

MerlinOh, God, I love that show so much. Oh, my God, I miss it. I miss it so much. It was so good. It's like up there with election profit makers where, like, it is of a time. but like yeah so it's uh it's uh god i get his name wrong every time open mike eagle yes yes open mike and and john moe and they would talk about adventure time and they'd interview people from the show and they always had like theories and stuff and they would come in with like a topic and it was it was conversation parade i'll put it in notes i assume it's still around so good i think anyway you were saying was so was uh was her head on there noelle stevenson

AlexOh, yeah, she wrote a bunch of, I can't find what she wrote. I know that she wrote and or drew stuff, as did, oh, God, I feel so bad. I'm forgetting all these. Danielle, what's her name, who did two girls in a slingshot. Oh, my God, I'm the worst. I'm a bad friend and a bad comics reader. but like they plucked so many people from web comics uh to do the the comics and the uh like

storyboards and stuff it was wild even though it's wild to think that if adventure time hadn't become so big there are so many people like oh wow i don't want to be you know what starting over I don't want to be that person The whole episode or just this statement?

MaxLet's go back to the part where we were adjusting the microphones

AlexSo you're a bad friend? No, I think that's the end I think that's the end

MerlinOh, wow

AlexOkay, that was a conventional No, no, no Okay, fine No, it's not the end All right

MerlinSpice bomb until his butt falls off

Thank you.

158. Bad Food Restaurants

Show notes

Transcript

158. Bad Food Restaurants

Show notes

Transcript

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