Blake, what'd you get up to this weekend? Did you watch your E A G L E S Eagles Fly?
I watched my J E T S Jets Jets Jets fly. No, yeah, I watched it was uh yeah, it was great.
It was great.
It's always a bummer when you see the other team. Just everyone was getting hurt at the end, including so those play they had a Have you seen those helmets that they wear, they're called the guardian helmets where big old helmets, Yeah, with like the padding on size exactly, but then they also will put like a sleeve over it that looks like the actual helmet, like like with the same art or whatever. Like you know how beautiful
the art on helmets helmet art. Yeah, I remember when Da Vinci designed the first helmet and put it on top of a roof. But yeah, he got a concussion, which was like scary. It's just like such a violent sport where it's like even this guy who wears I'm sure his teammates make fun of him for wearing this big goofy helmet even though it's safer, you know, and he still like gets a concussion.
Well, but it's just not mandatory, you know, click, but they're still like, let's let these guys who are in a horrifyingly toxic situation before. They're like, yeah, I got my bell rung pretty good, but I'm still gonna You know, the thing that makes me cool and good and makes my teammates respect me is that I still do my dangerous job with no regards to my own safety.
Let's let them decide. Let's see what they think about this helmet.
People also talk about how dangerous euphemisms are, you know, where it's like, oh, I got my bell wrung. It's like your brain is bleeding. You have a brain bleed, and it's going to affect everyone that you love in three years, three years after you retire.
It's a metaphor in.
That situation, is like the ringer in the bell is your brain, and the side of the bell is the skull is your skull. That's right concussion, that's a.
It's liberty bell style because it's your skull's probably cracked at the point.
The jokes this is what the corner you've backed me into head injury joke? Yeah, this is on you all.
All I can picture is the statue of David with a football helmet on.
Now.
Yeah, I feel like with with like the big the big old floppy one, big old puffy one.
But dick yet they fix his dick yet? Did they did break? Wait are you? Or did did David's dick actually fall off?
I thought they were going to make it bigger.
Yeah they didn't do that yet.
Yeah, update it for our modern era when you know, please, when people have everyone has seen porn and they're just like this is this is conspicuous at this point, guys, we've got you got to do something. Did you really hear that? Or that's just something that trying to get started for a while.
This is a joke I wrote in the twelfth century, and I finally saw an opportunity to tell it in a medium that I didn't even know those going to exist.
Is there any sculpture, any classic work of art where the person just has like a noticeably big dick, like I feel.
The fertility sculptures typically have a real wang on them.
I just feel I feel like it would be so distracting, Like they they started things out small and that's now the only thing that my brain will accept. And if there's like just an ancient Roman sculpture like white marble and just like a big weird dick.
I got kicked out of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library because his statue had a huge cut and I screamed at the top of my lungs. Yeah, which was a bummer.
Yeah, biggest dick on sculpture does not result in in the responses that I was hoping for. Yeah, what is the biggest penis sculpture ever built? But I feel like that's just going to be a penis? But you know what I mean, has it?
Yeah? Who has? Who?
What's the ancient sculpture with the largest junk? These are the important questions that we need to be asking at this time.
Since you've brought it up.
I wonder if beauty standards you know obviously, how that's changed over like, you know, hundreds thousands of years were like yeah, because if I was, ah, I don't even like saying what I'm about to say.
So let's just move past it. Let's not laugh about this.
If I was a dictator, or I was a like ruler or an emperor, you have control over your statues. They're built while you're alive. You would put a big dick on them, but they didn't do it, so it's not like an oversight. I would imagine it just didn't matter back then. That's why we are.
Kind of seeing what And I do appreciate the dictator, the restraint you showed by only kind of acknowledging the dictator pun, but you.
Got to get in front of these things.
I do feel like we're kind of seeing what a modern like what modern sculptures of Donald Trump would look like, if you know, because people have made those photoshops where he's just like a jacked action hero. Yeah, so I'm sure those guys have huge dungs, and of course that's probably what we're going to see one hundred years from now, is all sculptures replaced by jacked Donald Trump's with huge dongs.
All right, So.
Brian has everybody, Yeah, Brian has shared some male fertility sculptures and they are these seem to be more ancient than like the ancient Greek sculptures, Like those are the only ones I know. They're like, they're real old and they have big dicks. So I feel like the small dick thing is more of a like fake that Western culture went through because everyone was like, what you you think that's small what you know.
Like David, he's got those yeeks. You go around the back of the sculpture.
This is I mean, this is the thing that I'm constantly pointing out.
You are that.
Yeah, like we If you want to know what has happened to our bodies, just go to the louver and look at the butts on every sculpture.
Are just.
They're caked up. They really they're toned. They got nice big, big butts, nice high butts, and uh yeah. They would look at us and be like, well, what what happened to our species?
Was there?
I would even take the art off the wall and see if there's a reverse of the paintings, to see if there's a back.
Yeah, and that's why you're not allowed on the loop.
No, it sucks because I used to love going there. And then you know, curiosity did kill the cat and by that, I mean it killed my ability to go to the Lord, to go to the Yeah, yeah or whatever whatever it is, that grub fucking grub of a museum wherever.
The lore, Hello the Internet, and welcome to season three, seventy one, episode one of the week Trend edition. Uh my name is Jack O'Brien and I'm thrilled to be joined by our special guest co host, mister Blake Wacker.
It is Blake Wax. Are you doing an AKA not for this? Right? I don't do aks for this? No, I don't. I won't. I won't either.
I just negotiated to my contract to my rider. I don't have to.
But you're totally totally welcome to.
No, I won't. I'm going to save it. We have a very special guest later today.
Yeah, we do, all right, Blake, thank you for stepping in. As Miles continues to be out dealing with the horrors of the wildfires. If people didn't catch our Friday Trending episode, Miles of his family lost their home in the wildfires. Uh, there's a gofund me that we will link off to in the show notes on this episode in the description. So, but the you know, I've been chatting with him on and off over the weekend, and he's just overwhelmed by
the outpouring of support. And you know, people who can give or people just you know, uh send sending through their love and helping however they can. So yeah, as zak Kang has really stepped up. It's been really cool.
To see and we appreciate y'all. We are gonna talk about the wildfires in a little bit, but before we get to it, we like to start things off extra stupid and let you get to know us a little bit it better by telling you a couple of the things that we think are overrated and that we think are underrated.
Blake, I kind of sprung this on you.
You didn't know that you're going to have to do an overrated and an underrated. So I can kick us off and then I can't. I can just go through the overrated and the underrated, and then you can. You can you can chime in.
Well, I'm going to say that there.
It will be completely indiscernible whether or not I had a whole weekend to prepare for this, or whether or not I just threw it together compared to like my normal underrated overrated, so no one will notice.
Maybe maybe we'll discover this is the move you're you're still getting overrated. Underrated is just on the spot, all right, my overrated Obviously a lot of important things going on right now in the news around the world, but I did have to call out the decision to show Mark Wahlberg's bald head in the trailer for his new movie Flight Risk.
Did you see this trailer? Like?
It was played a number of times during football yesterday and just over the weekend.
I did see it.
I was watching My My, My Heart and Soul, the Philadelphia Eagles of yesterday and ye Ga, yes Eagles. And I couldn't tell what it was at first because the sound. I wasn't really paying attention. And yeah, I thought, like, first of all, I didn't identify Mark Wahlberg right away. I didn't know it was a promo for a movie. I thought maybe it was some funny bit that was going on.
It seems like an SNL sketch or a like joke commercial type things. It's so unnerving, it's crazy, So for people who.
Haven't seen it.
Starts out, he's a pilot flying a prisoner Tofra Grace, no big deal to New York to testify in a case, testify against a mob boss.
And he's the pilot. It's him.
It's the law enforcement executive you know next to him, the you know, big big time law enforcement person, a free it's like the DA or something.
But it's not just like some cop.
And then over Grace in the back and they're in this tiny little prop plane because they don't they don't give a shit about this guy getting there at all. And as he greets them in the extended two minute trailer, which I had to go watch the first half of, I didn't even make it all the way through because such is my dedication.
To this show. I want to spoil it.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, he greets them. He has a Southern accent and what appears to be a full head of hair under his backwards baseball cap. You know, it's like a strap back or what are those things called snap strap, it's a snapout, so like it's got that little window where you can like see the hair, and he's got it. Nothing out of the ordinary here. This is just a Mark Wahlberg movie where he has cool head of hair and is trying to speak with a Southern accent.
In a way that is I don't recommend Mark Wahlberg try and speak with a Southern accent going forward. It's bad. The word is it bad?
I think bad is really the definition that's been given. It sounds like you pulled any Australian person off the street and we're like, try and talk like Forrest Gump. Here it was like yeah, with absolutely no preparation, spun him around five times and then made him try.
He did say, I do declare over and over and over again.
But yeah, he's his character is going for good news. This character does not appear to actually have a Southern accent, appears to be like a mob enforcer from from the northeast, but.
Does have hair. She does have hair. You wore his hair.
And then they started noticing some things about Mark Wahlberg, the pilot. Blood spatter on his clothing, the the idea of the pilot he had just killed to take the job is on the ground. He didn't bother cleaning that up, and they're like, uh oh uh, you know, a fight breaks out and his hat comes off accidentally, and just bald as the day is long up top, just male pattern baldness like Jeff van Gundy bald up.
Top and baldness.
Like pattern baldness exactly.
And it's not played as a joke, I don't think where it's not supposed to be.
It doesn't doesn't interact with the.
Tone of the trailer in such a way where it becomes a comedy. At that point, it's just like he's he's menacing. Mark Wahlberg is a bad guy. I have to asso this is a very thin movie. The fact that they felt like they needed to give away this aspect of the movie, like it during the trailer that mark the big twist that Mark Wahlberg is. I don't know what's more surprising, Mark Wahlberg playing a bad guy or Mark Wahlberg being bald.
But this is his big oscar bait thing. I think where it's, you know, to play different roles because he's often like the action star, and that's not what this is. He's not an action star. He's not like a bad guy, this edgy, you know guy. He's bald, so he's not any of the things I just mentioned. He's made a career switch to bald, and I think that is going to bring him to the next level.
You think this is you think he's going to get nominated for an Academy Award. I mean it is Whale.
So she Brendan Fraser. He was Georgia of the Jungle. We all know that, and then obviously he did the Whale. This is Mark Wahlberg's the Whale. But he's but he's bald.
Yeah, Brian the editor points out, he hasn't been a bad guy really since Fear. I mean he wasn't he was kind of bad ish No the Departed. I think he turns out to be like the last and only good one.
Yeah, yeah, he was just dumb. He wasn't bad. It was stupid, right.
It is being directed by Mel Gibson, and the Academy does love to reward him for his directorial efforts. But yeah, I don't know if he if this was his movie that he was counting on to like propel him into the Academy. I don't think I don't think that was the right decision. It seems to be more of a you know, at best like the top top top that this movie could deliver on as probably cliffhanger, which I this movie doesn't appear to be any cliffhanger. But it's
just it's so funny looking. It's it really looks like an snl skit Like it's amazing that they were just like, yeah, and then his characters hair is going to be connected to his hat. The disguise is his hair is connected to his hat.
I think they stole this because this was an old slapstick vehicle where a guy would be wearing a two pay and it would be a string attached to the two pay and then like a gust of wind would come and then they'd yank the string, the two.
Pay would fly off to reveal Yeah, yeah, and he's chasing it around the stage exactly. Plane.
That's why they needed a bigger plane so he could chase after his hair more efficiently.
Then the second act of the movie is him chasing his hair around the plane and it just keeps like taking a nose dive. He yeah, I mean, it's just he is a person who is unrelentingly committed to two things. One like blurring the line between his super heroic movie characters and his reality. You know, like, yes, if he had been there on nine to eleven, I would have gone different.
Et cetera.
And in this case he is himself a plane hijacker, which is pretty wild. And then also just an unrelenting devotion to hotness, to his own hotness, wait, waiting up at two in the morning to lift and work out. So I don't know, it's a it's a brave new look for one of our bravest.
One of our men.
Yea, our best and brightest and bravest.
Bravest performers. He's still hot.
We don't want to say that he's I know we've been making fun of but he's still obviously an eight point nine at the lowest hair gun. Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, he plummeted points all the way to an eight point nine. He demands the like at every shot where he doesn't have his hair on, like he has to like have his abs out in some way, like, oh my god, his shirt came off too, as his
head came off. I guess those were connected. Anyways, I was about to say, I hope this is like I was about to say, O, yeah, it is like big dick, because we were talking about like statue dicks in the opening. But then if that gets cut out, then I just said that, and then there would be no reaction. We'd move on to like why the fuck did he just say that?
I should have said keep statue dick stuff. That's whenever also in your contract. Yeah, that's our promise to you. Thank you. Any anything has that brought up, anything that you think is overrated, Blake, it has.
Actually, it reminds me a lot of the salt that's used to salt streets when it's cold out or when it's about to freeze. It doesn't remind me of that at all. I just looked outside for an overrated and that's what I came up with. And yeah, but I do believe that, Yeah, fuck that stuff. There has to be a, may I say, a better way of salting the street because it's also really bad for dogs' feet too, where that's a tip also where we just got, like
our dog, these booties that are crazy. And also if if you put boots on a dog, they walk around like a horrific marionette, like someone who's like marionetting who's also in an earthquake, Like is what the dog looks like. And it's adorable, it's the cutest thing. But we put them on his feet, not necessarily because of the cold snow or ice, but because of like this chemical, this blue shit, and it messes it just messes up your car.
I don't know.
I feel like there has to be something that isn't as chemic, can't be good for the environment either.
Yeah, when you work.
On that, CEES, they work on some better salt. Yeah, CBS, c CES not CVS they just had their consumer tech conference, the big big conference with uh yeah, I thought twenty guy but they yeah, we'll probably talk about it on tomorrow's episode. But it was just the stuff that they come through with, like this is an opportunity to be like we saw a common problem that everybody has, and instead it's always just as.
I've drone that looks like a little boy that can to steal more money from the middle class. It's like, wait, why are you making that?
Yeah, but anyways, we work on salt that doesn't destroy our pups little toesies because yeah, I remember one of our dogs back when we lived in New York got one of those it's a big chonky salt, you know, it's like big old chunks that then like kind of turns into mush when it meets the snow. But got one of those salts in his paw and it was unpleasant. And yeah, then we put the little footy things on and hated that almost as much. He was like, what is it?
Just be in pain? Just let me be in pain, because this sucks wearing these boots.
Yeah, but yeah, c yes, I want World's fair vibes. Yeah.
Brand that editor pointed out, like that's what we're looking for, not this where it's like refrigerator with AI. The big takeaway this year was like the Rumbas, but like now they have arms so they can like take socks out of the way and move them.
They can tie your shoelaces together as a prank, and so when you stand over your fall down, Yeah exactly, it's punk.
Yeah yeah, now rumbos but now they do pranks. It's like, okay, yeah, we want to see rich guys electricute elephants again for no reason. That's no, that's not true. We want better road ice. Okay, better road ice, all right, my underrated blank since you so rudely asked, So six year.
Old kid lies? Is my underrated?
Like, my six year old is at a time and a lot of his friends seem to be at this time too, where they're just discovering their ability to lie, and some of them are really like exploring the studio space with it really you know, pretty good. Yeah, So my six year old is it's kind of like living
with Bill Clinton. Like I ask if he's brushed his teeth and he assures me he has, and then when I figure out he absolutely has not, he argues that he was telling the truth because he interpreted my question to be had he ever brushed his teeth at all in his entire life? And he had the night before?
Did you brush your teeth tonight? Is that how I have to now?
I do.
Now That's where I'm at, because otherwise we'll get into a debate about the definition of like have.
I guess have you brushed your teeth? It's very broad. Yeah, but yeah, I don't know.
Like he some of his friends like the lies he brings home. Like one of them claims to be a world class hacker. I've talked before about one of them who claims he's never touched the color pink in his life. Like that's not just like doesn't like he's never touched it.
He stood up at dinner at a nice restaurant and slammed his fist on the table and said, I've never touched the color pink exactly.
There's also one that claims to not only just have never seen a unicorn, but never thought of one also, which I've never I've never even thought about it.
I have no fun time for those horn horses. I have other things to do. Why would I think about unicorns. It's like you sound like someone who thinks a lot about unicorns. Not only have you thought about it once, it's probably your prevailing thought at all times is about unicorns.
Right exactly. It's such a weird overreach.
I've never thought even as we're talking about this right now and I'm saying the world word unicorn, I've actually never thought of a unicorn before.
Never that.
It also doesn't have a mom and has was never a baby according to him, So just legendary shit coming out of the first right now.
Yeah, that kid kind of rules. It's awesome.
Mom never had a mom, was never a baby, like you losers. So I don't know what any of you are talking about.
That kid has two moms and also a small most age and is still a baby.
It's still is.
Wearing diapers, and it's likecond a passifire, as he says, is there anything you thinks underrated?
Blake?
So I have liked the unicorn kid. I've never thought about Eddie Redmain before in my life, and I've never thought about him. And then my wife was out of town this weekend, so what I did is I went crazy and watched all of the Jackal the Day of the jackal On Peacock in like however many hours it was is like just how I spent my every waking minute of my day watching it. And you know it's not a genius tell it's no flight risk. But he does have a good head of hair in that movie.
But I never I think I wasn't too familiar with Eddie Redmaan as an actor. I don't know what he's like as a human being, but I only saw him in those like Harry Potter knockoff movies where his name's like like Slinky Scalamander or something, and I'm like, this guy's a loser, and then he was cool and The Fantastic Beasts, Thank You Another and just unicorns in that movie. The most Fantastic of Beasts is a unicorn. But yeah, he was really good in it, Like I found him
like very There's just something about him. I don't know if it's his face or like, yeah, I don't know. He was very captivating it so like underrated.
Are you encountering acting for the first time.
There's something I don't know, like his like his face, he like pretends it's almost like he's a different person as he's his.
Name's Charles, but I know his name's Eddie, so I don't know if he's lying.
Doing this thing with his face where I don't know.
He had a sniper rifle. But I'm like, I thought he was an actor and here he is as a sniper. So whatever talent that is, I'm not familiar with it, but it's it's unbelievable and he should find work doing it.
He started as newt s commander. That's a Fantastic Beast. Beast filmstic Fantastic Feasts is my favorite streaming show that a Chef's Table spin off. He does seem to be that quality of actor that's like, wait, you're doing a TV thing like you kind of like I remember this
with the first season of Fargo and Billy Bob Thornton. Yeah, just being like this is incredible, Like to have an a level of actor that's like that, Yeah, I feel like there's a handful of those where it's just like when they're in a streaming series, it just like elevates everything.
I haven't seen The Jackal One, but I kind of got that sense just from the trailer that it was going to be like, oh shit, I actually like wish that was a movie, like it was a trailer for a streaming series that I was like, I just wish this was a movie so I could watch it, because I'm not gonna I'm not gonna waste eight hours on this ship.
Well you know, maybe if you like get the flu
or something, you can you can watch it. But yeah, yeah, and it's more it's like eleven hours of But it's one of those things we're having a guy of that acting quality in a series where normally the feeling after you see a movie is like, oh, okay, well I guess I won't see that guy again, you know, like that guy that I enjoyed watching for an hour, forty minutes, two hours, and it's like, oh wait, I get to see this guy again and again and again and again,
and I do it nine more times. But yeah, it's I don't know if this if the show's good necessarily, I'm sure there's problematic elements of it, but he's great in it.
So I love that assassin, like, you know, story, give it me, put it right in my veins.
Assassins. I love like eight guys in a room like that that like a Tarantino, eight cowboys in a in a barn or whatever.
Like that movie. Yes, yes, that I like Poland eight Cowboys in a Barn. Yeah. One.
There's one woman in this whole movie, in this seventeen hour movie, there's one woman and.
The horrifying things that are done to her. Jesus my god. Yeah.
By the way, Eddie Redmain, if you had given me here, maybe I can do this with you.
If you haven't looked at up? What age would you guess Eddie Redmain is now? Yeah? Of course now, Blake, yes, now when when? Who are you talking about? And Eddie Redmain? You're talking about? Okay, guy, who's good Eddie Redmain? Yeah, I would say he's.
Redd Edward Yeah, thirty eight, Yeah, yeah, I.
Would have gone like twelve thirteen. For some reason, he's perpetually been a child in my brain. He's forty three years old. Whoa, which I he's been around for a while. Like that makes sense to the logical part of my brain, But the elderly part of my brain.
Is like, whoa red Man, the red Main boy with Red Maid. Yeah, it's the Freckles. Freckles infamously aged, incredibly well white.
Male, always always all right, let's take a quick break we'll come back, We'll talk about some.
News, and we're back. Let's get sat Let's get Sack. SA said, all right, the wildfires are as of this recording.
You know, it's Monday morning.
We had a couple days with fairly good conditions where they were able to get some of them under control, but they're still burning. I wouldn't say under control, more under control. There's still like the level of containment is pretty small as of this recording, and they are expecting the wins to kick back up on Monday night into Tuesday and Wednesday. So really, you know, an ongoing situation that has already impacted a lot of people in horrible ways.
I'd say one of the big stories that's emerging is the insurance companies are probably going to be no longer solvent after this. The government is going to have to bail them out or just like directly pay people for their homes or the ability to rebuild or not, as we saw in the first Trump administration when you tried to cut funding to California during wildfires. And yeah, people are just saying the whole like they're just you know, if the homes become unensurable, then the whole real.
Estate market tanks.
It's just like a bleaku outlook for people who think economic factors are the only thing that's real. Fortunately, there are a lot of people who are just regardless of that shit, going out and working their ass off around the clock. Again, want a shout out Zeigang for coming through for Miles and just the outpouring of support and donations for his family, But I'll let him speak to
his experience when he's back. But yeah, just elsewhere, the food and donation centers seem to be you know, just tons of staff, and which is a good thing because just so much stuff is churning in from people who are trying to help. Like the real test obviously will be whether we can like keep this level of community
action up after it's no longer front page news. But for now, I feel like the story of the fire that I've seen is just people stepping up for one another as a lot of the you know, systems that are supposed to step up end up kind of failing.
And the main system we're seeing fail is the market, Like uh uh, well, yeah, there's all sorts of shit happening with landlords, and well we'll we'll get into it, but just generally LA has like the lowest ever soil moisture right now because of you know, we let the market cook for a good hundred years and the result is we no longer can survive in parts of the planet and people are I don't know, yeah, the reporting on well and then like what's going to happen to
the market and the insurance just seems like, well, this is the end of that. It would seem like, well, we'll see, uh what happens. But it feels like that is no longer. You can't even like really have that conversation anymore that like, well, how's the market going to respond to the shit?
Like well it's so gross, Yeah, it's it's all and it's all bad. Where like it's one of those things where each you know, piece of paper you turn over, there's just more bad.
News on it.
Yeah, there is something too where like even if the government does help the just if you remember, like during COVID, the disbursement of funds is kind of prehistoric where they send paper checks out, so yeah, or like those weird prepaid cards and these people are trying to be paid for something that happened where they don't have an address anymore, so even if they do fucking and that sounds like a simple thing where it's like, wait, why wouldn't they just you know, even ach it to like a bank
account or whatever, like yeah, these are all like that's even fucked.
So I saw, Yeah, I saw an interview with Gavin Newso somewhere like the the idea that we have to be careful about giving out funds to the wrong people started coming up where it's like we gotta be we gotta worry about fraud here people, and it's like just fucking find a way to get the money to people, and if like people commit fraud, you can get investigate that later. Yeah, you get there, ask later.
It's crazy And I've noticed too, Like obviously you said it perfectly, but when I search my name on the zekeeist reddits and discords, which I do fifteen times a day, I did stumble upon how generous everybody was. I'm joking, it's it is really really cool. Of it's the like and you know, I don't I don't have a stake in this podcast, so I'm not kissing to be honest, I truly I've used the phrase waste of time. Uh,
exclusively describe it. But the or the I should say, like the listeners, the Zeit gang are It's amazing to see a group. If I were you, I would be like, oh, this is who I want to be fans of the thing that I'm doing. And I think that's you know, I know in stand up you see a lot of comedians behave in a horrendous way and then they go and do shows and they do shitty like you know, like punching down material, and then they look at at their audience and they see the stupidest fucking people in
the entire world coming to your their shows. This is the opposite of that where it's like, oh, if you're doing good work and you're doing you're trying to progress you know. I mean, you're not trying to progress humanity. I know, even though you call me every single day and you go, Blake, I just progressed humanity.
But like, if how do we continue to progress humanity?
Yeah, if you're on the right side of things and you put out great stuff all the time, like, that's who you want to be consuming it. So it is cool in a tangible way to see that these are the people who are who are listening to the.
Show, and the people who stopped listening along the way because they're not someone stops talking, have let us have let us know, so we're yeah, you know, but.
Yeah, the people who stopped listening and donating, you know.
The landlords illegally jacking up rent prices. Again, it's like early days. The reporting is not like super buttoned up at this point, and like a lot of the stuff is coming through the local news, which, as I mentioned, like watching the local news, I saw a reporter just like start being like I think that fire was like started by a person just randomly with like no basis whatsoever, thought it wasn't yeah, yeah, just coming up with a villain like a Hollywood movie plot that he could graft
on top of the horrible, senseless tragedy that's happening. But you know, a lot of people are talking about landlords that are illegally jacking up rent prices by as much as fifty percent, despite stern warnings from Attorney General Rob Bonta. And things are so bad that even one of the stars of Selling Sunset is complaining about this issue, and he was recently implicated in a one hundred thousand dollars
illegal kickback scheme. So imagine how shitty you have to be to lose the moral high ground to that guy.
Well, the kickbacks, that's different, it's a different vertical of the jacking up rent.
But he was just pointing out that, like he's seeing crazy amount of bad shit happening in the real estate markets. And even Kim Kardashian came out, and this is another story that we'll be kind of digging into more deeply
in the coming days. But Kim Kardashian, speaking of reality stars coming out and suddenly making good points, spoke out against the fact that these fires are being fought in large part by slave labor thanks to California's prison labor laws, which allow inmates to make between thirteen cents and fifty two cents hourly while risking their lives fighting fires. Their maximum day rate is between five to eighty and ten twenty four, which is yeah. And this is like a
thing that was up. It was on about initiative we could like stop this from happening, and people were like, I don't know, let's let's see where this slavery thing takes us.
And it wasn't one of those ballot initiatives that had like a confusing wording where it's like vote yes if you do do not do agree with it.
It was just like do you want the slavery? Have I ever? Yeah? When? When do I want it? Yeah?
The but yeah, I mean what one of the people, a former incarcerated firefighter, pointed out the conditions in California prisons are so terrible that fighting wildfires is a rational choice, Like it's maybe the safer choice for people to get out of, you know, the prison. So yeah, this is stuff that we've covered before with regards to the thirteenth Amendment, but it's, uh, we're seeing it play out in real time with real prison inmates who are being paid literal
slave wages of fighting these fires for us. So we'll continue to cover that. I do just want to My loser of the weekend has to be Marjorie Taylor Green, who just.
For the eightieth weekend in a row.
Taylor Green, she she made a like I feel like this has to be when you go to like conspiracy theorist school and maybe there isn't one, and that's the problem, but you got so many conspiracy theories going and like you can't bring up one like, So she brought up her conspiracy theory that the global elites were able to start hurricanes at will this weekend and was like, why don't they do the thing that I claim they can do?
So it's just that has to be like Alex Jones has to have called her and Bill lake Mark.
So if in her mind she it's like, wait, so if I birthday cake candles blow on them, they go out. So why doesn't the elite use more wind to blow out the fire?
Yes, that is a question that my six year old wanted to know. This is easily. WHOA, But like, wind usually blows the fires out. And I was like, I wish you had a smarter dad to be able to explain that to you.
Well, and then says, I don't have a father.
That's a big part of my origin store WHOA, I don't have a dead.
I don't have a dead. Yeah, you play pretend you don't know me. Uh but yeah.
So last year she was claiming that the government had created the horrible hurricane season with cloud seating technology, which is a technology where you put silver. I had dine in the cloud, I believe to get it to start raining and basically, it is a thing that.
Can have that they can do. You shoot these you.
Know, rockets full of the substance into the atmosphere, they explode out. It does cause it to start raining. If there are existing clouds with a lot of moisture in them, it can like help it help push it over the edge and create a small amount of rain for a
brief period of time. And she has taken that and been like, they have a machine that controls the weather essentially, which great work conspiracy wise, but you gotta just not bring that up when we're having a conspiracy, a massive national tragedy that could be solved by that technique.
You have to pretend you never said that. You don't bring it up.
But she came out and was like, why aren't you making it rain like I claim you can? And everyone's like, well, let's you're the one who fucking made that up. What are you talking about?
So we have to go back and talk about this.
We already said you're an idiot for that thing, right, and now we have to You make us so tired, Yeah, Marjorie, you make us so fucking.
Tired, exhausted. But anyways, this is one of the many times. God, I wish she was right.
Unfortunately it turns out she's thinks she's wrong on this one. I don't think you can just create a hurricane out of thin air.
So let's take a quick break and we'll come back. We'll talk about a couple stupid things that happen in pop culture. We'll be right back, and we're back, and big story that you might have missed over the weekend dunkin Donuts. Like, as if things didn't seem apocalyptic enough already, people at four percent out of dunkin Donuts locations went
to their donkeys and found them without donuts. And also if you went to one and it was without donuts, and you went to another one and it was without donuts, two different, totally different explanations, it would see. One said due to supplying chain issues and inclement weather. Another said, due to a donut manufacturing error. We currently do not have your favorite donuts at this time. We apologize. Please
enjoy our munchkins in the meantime. So it's real. It's strange that it's based specifically on the donut shape, like it munchkins they can make.
But yeah, well there's just holes. Yeah, there's just the holes. So like, what's happening to the surrounding Yeah, exactly.
I think that the inclement weather was perhaps rain washed away the outer.
Crust of the left middle parkho. Yeah, but it's stores in Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island, Nebraska, and areas near Albuquerque, New Mexico. We're just completely without donuts on Thursday and Friday. And yeah, it just it feels like. One manager in Omaha said that she had been ordered not to provide any information by Duncan HQ don with the company's name Christ Duncan h Christ. What's going on here, which sounds pretty suspicious.
What's your Duncan Donuts order? If I can, if we can edit the sad if that's too personal.
It's way too, way too personal. I don't go to Duncan Donuts. I haven't been to Duncan Donuts a long time. Like I it's a very situational special thing for me. And in those cases, it's usually some manner of breakfast sandwich on a donut. Just tell them to put the bacon, egg and cheese on a donut of some sort of glazed donut. Now, you know, a bagel sandwich is usually what I go with and then a big iced coffee, usually one that's sweet as hell. You know, it's the long usually like I'll.
Usually go sweet as hell. I can I get that sweet as hell.
Bro I usually go pretty standard like black coffee and all coffee products. But for some reason, Dunkin Donuts I can give myself permission to. It's like this should should be like eating a piece of birthday cake.
This coffee.
Yeah, because it's I also only go on like anniversaries, like special occasions as well. But on an anniversary, yeah, when when my number gets called, I spend it all on Dunkin Donuts. No, it's I'm sim I'll get coffee from there, like at the airport if like the other lines are too long, you know, yeah, when you know, if or if the other people are striking, go to whichever coffee shop it's not being where their union isn't
being suppressed. I remember in La when they brought the first Dunkin Donuts up, like I feel like because La is such a transplant city that obviously it has its own identity, but a lot of people, you know, get
nostalgic first stuff like from wherever they're from. And I remember the first dunkin Donuts in LA was placed in Santa Monica, and the pilgrimages that were made to that place, it was as if it was like, you know, the most rare sneaker or whatever, Like the lines outside was wild, and it's like, guys, this is shit, Like we all know this is shit, but we miss that shit from whatever coast you're from.
But got gotta go there and get your hand manufactured donuts because apparently manufacturing errors are what's causing this shortage.
But yeah, I don't know.
I don't begrudge anybody there, you know, creature comfort like Blake does. Blake clearly begrudges you that, but not me over here, man of the people.
I'm an artisan. But yeah, I don't know. I feel like this this one goes all the way to the top. I don't know. It's a it's a sigh off of some sort for sure. Tread on Marjorie Taylor Green's territory because she's not good at it. I'm gonna go ahead and say this is a.
Sign she's dumb and sucks at it. It's like you could there are people who are dumb and like unfortunately excellent at it. But it's she's getting sloppy. Yeah, she's getting sloppy.
Well, A spokesperson for Duncan's parent company, which is Inspire.
Brand Smith and Wesson. Yeah, is their very company.
My my, Inspire Brands does make Smith and Wesson and Duncan donuts. That's not true, don't sue us. I was just satire. Satire, satire. But that's so wild that it's like called Inspire brands. Like Spot that's like the name of I don't know, some like healthcare provider yeah, I don't.
Know, or like like a children's learning company. Yeah, it should be called Inspire brands, Like look at this puzzle that helps kids learn or whatever.
So everybody just uses all the words that test well with in group tests and folks group testing until everything is meaningless. Uh yeah, Inspire brands, which brings you dunk it didn't They used to be yum. I thought they were young at one point.
I could be yum. I believe you, Pizzabel and KFC, I'm not sure.
I feel like an idiot. You sound like one and you sound like one. Two.
Anyways, we're going to keep that this is a story. I keep saying this is the story we'll be will continue to follow closely because somebody's got to.
Pay for that. For this, someone's got to pay for this.
Four percent of Dunking US stores impacted by the issue. Think about all those people who couldn't get the Krolla the Boston cream. It's my impression of people in Omaha gos that's where you were saying there's only one type of cream and that's Boston cream. That was yeah, and that's what I believe that in this house, all right. And finally, in the world of the box office, a movie dropped that what we talked about when we first heard of it. A movie called Better Man tells the
story of British pop star Robbie Williams. He is represented as a CGI monkey in the film. It got really solid reviews like it was getting I think as good or not, if not better reviews than the Bob Dylan biopic. And it's yes again about Robbie Williams, who was like one of the boy band Idol who then became a you know, solo artist of note in the UK and in the US that he had like a hit or two. They dropped this movie. It was treated like it was
going to be a blockbuster. They made it for one hundred and ten million dollars because CGI monkeys aren't cheap. If you watch it, it looks expensive. Then it was acquired by Paramount for twenty five million dollars.
That's not good to distribute it.
And this weekend it made one million dollars in the US and it struggled to get there. It's that's bad. That's the most it's going to me in a in a given week is one million dollars, and.
It keeps going up, so like there's the premiere weekend and then that's the lowest, and then it keeps going up. I had no idea who the fuck this was, like Robbie Williams, And then I'm like, oh, this is probably one of those things where it's I would recognize them if I saw them, but like I didn't know them by name, And then I read Rebullliams's entire Wikipedia page and I still don't know who this is. So like, I think that is a tough sell. And internationally it didn't do well either.
No, even at the in the UK, which is like where he is very famous. It made four point seven million dollars. To date, it has made four point seven total. To date, A lot of people have been on social media making the same point that you just made, Blake, didn't really make sense to make this movie a biopic of a person who nobody knows who it is or
is familiar with like their work. Like I guess that's true of many biopics of like people who did inspirational things, and it's like, you didn't know, but this person actually shaped the way that everything is done today. But this is just a pop star who the point of the movie is like, look how famous this person got despite looking like a monkey.
I guess is a lot like a monkey.
Yeah, but people were like this this is a particularly good one. Nick is Sad on Twitter tweeted the mad Men scene between Peggy and Don where Peggy's saying no one in America knows who Robbie Williams is and Don is saying, that's what the monkey is for, because.
It's that that's what the money is for. Scenes monkey is for.
That was the point of the Monkey was like, well, people will go see a movie where a monkey becomes a singer for some reason that doesn't totally scan at least in the trailer. Maybe if his you know, had had fallen off midway through, and it was revealed that this monkey head mail pattern baldness, we would have would have gotten butts in the seats.
We got more asses in the seats. That's right. I did not like the way you just said that.
But sometimes I speak to exhale all the air out of my body and it's They taught me that at broadcasting school, kind.
Of the death rattle line delivery method footnotes. But anyways, I don't know.
It's a it's a sad day for people who were hoping to see more unorthodox biopics where like monkeys played the main characters.
Maybe it's good. I've heard it's good, but I have Yeah.
That's what the reviews say, so it'll be a forgotten class. You know, Citizen Kane was not well loved when it first came out, so think about it.
It was originally a walrus and they had to.
They actually used CG to make it look like it. Zors and Wells.
Yeah, Blake, pleasure having you on the show. Appreciate you stepping in. Where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff?
Find me at Blake Wexler all social media stand up, They coming up March thirteenth, Fort Collins at the Comedy Fort in Fort Collins, Colorado. I don't that was just added. I don't know if those tickets are up, but just say the date in your calendar. It will not sell out.
And then.
And then, I don't know that this is a weird thing to even like bring. I'm supposed to be in La March fifteenth at the Ice House, but obviously there's way more important things going on. And then in April I'm going to be in Minneapolis. But I'll post about all these things and they'll be up on black lexlur dot com.
Yeah.
Also, superroducer Victor just pointed out that one of the lines from one of the reviews is there's nothing glamorous about a monkey doing cocaine, And yeah, I did. Actually saw somebody talk about the scene in which Robbie Williams monkey does cocaine, and they like say it as like a compliment. Inside the Wild Robbie Williams biopic, it's sad
seeing the monkey do cocaine. The unexpectedly brilliant better Man dives into the right would so apparently like the weirdness of seeing a monkey do cocaine is like part of it. They're like, yeah, that's yeah exactly man.
Because of course, if you give a monkey cocaine, they're gonna love.
Yeah, you know, And has anyone ever done that? I hope not, but.
I honestly I think probably because I was watching that remember Chimp Crazy, that HBO thing, HBO documentary about the lady who just owned a and also just how chimps go wrong in general.
If you try to very close to starting to watch that this weekend, is it? Is it worth it? Yeah? Yeah, yes it is. So it's by the.
Person who made Tiger King, and it's just another like banger of a yeah, weird animal people.
It's insane.
Yeah, it's I mean, it doesn't necessarily it doesn't make you feel good watching it, but it is definitely interesting. But they feed this and this is why people shouldn't own chimpanzees. Is this lady would give them like McDonald's, like that was the food that they would have, So would give them like fries. Not to equate McDonald's with cocaine. But you know, it's that good, I guess is what I tried to say.
I would actually be like a really good advertising player. For McDonald's, the cocaine of things that are legal.
The cocaine of in quotes food. Yeah.
Also, I have to again backcheck myself. Two fact checks in a fucking single episode. That's qu not come from a review. It came from the director explaining why he made the decision.
To use a monkey.
Yeah, all right, those are the things that are trending on this Monday morning. We're going to be back tomorrow with a whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other, be kind to yourselves, get the vaccine, get your flu shots, don't do nothing about white supremacy, and we will talk to you out tomorrow.
But