Saturday Zeit Fever 3/13: Oscars, Silicon Valley Bank, Buffalo Wild Wings

the flubs. We'll talk tomorrow about the in memorium section, leaving leaving out some big names. The big viral moment didn't even happen during the ceremony, happing on the red carpet. I did catch it live. It did cause me to turn to my wife and exchange a look of concern. What just happened? Why is this person behaving? Thus Lee and I am talking, of course about Hugh Grant, who was I think the technical term is an asshole on

the red carpet. So Ashley Graham was working the red carpet interviewed Hugh Grant and it was just one of those awkward you kind of get the sense that she was told two minutes before that that's who she was interviewing. These are chaotic events where you're just trying to grab anyone famous who's walking by. She chose Hugh Grant and to quote the old guy at the end of Indiana Jones at the last Crusade, she chose unwisely. It did not go well. So he described the event as a

vanity Fair. She thought he was referring to the Vanity Fair after party, which is totally a totally acceptable misunderstanding since that is there at the Oscars and that is the main after party and it's the thing that people are talking about. Oh yeah, for sure. But he took that as an opportunity. She was like, oh yeah, the Vanity Fair afterparty, Like great time, are you looking forward

to that type thing? And he took that as an opportunity to be like, uh, I'm dealing with a moron, and like she asked what he was wearing and he said my suit, which is like that is a question. You know you are going to be asked on the red carpet. So yeah, after that point, all bets are off.

You know. It's funny to give like funny answers, like I remember I think it was like bobcat Goldthwaite went with Robin Williams to an award show once and someone asking him who he was wearing, and he said sears like, yeah, that's funny. Fun my suit is a fine answer, but he was giving nothing, like I don't know my tailor's name.

It was. It wasn't quite Billy Bob Thornton on that Morning Zoo Talk interview where he's mad at the person interviewing the whole time for acknowledging that he's an actor, but it was bordering on the dark matter level energy that Billy Bob Thornton gave off. It was just like I have completely left my body and now you will be forced to interview the husk of Hugh Grant. So I would say, like, I agree with you. I think he was being a dick with the whole my suit thing.

But then I think like she tried and you know, to be fair, Like like I said, she was given nothing, so she had to quickly pivot to a new quest totally and she chose a bad player. Yeah yeah, which is also again something I totally identify with. I had what my first job out of school was being a Butler at the Soho House in New York City when it had just opened up and they didn't know what

they were doing. First I was poolboy. Then I worked my way up to Butler, which is basically a British way of saying Matri d um or not Matri d uh. What's the what's the person who works at the front desk and like helps you with your bags and bellhop occasional murderer um. And I had to make conversation with you, Grant, and he really yeah, yeah, one time I helped him to his room with his bags, and he has one

mode which is charmingly befuddled. And I'm glad that I was not on national television having to be like, yeah, so New York, huh, crazy weather. I had to actually holding an umbrella over his head. That a lot was made by his team of you know, protecting him from the paparazzi, which I think was more of a problem for him at that time. But he probably like tested you with some old literary reference you got, so he's like, Okay,

I'm gonna be nice to see you. I'll allow it. Um. But anyways, she then said like, oh, it must have been fun. To work on glass Onion, which you were on. Um. Hell she also she was like, oh I love glass Onion. It was so much fun. It must have been so much fun to make. Like right, but he'd seen it, you know, he wasn't in it hardly. He's barely in and so and that was what he told her. Well,

I'm barely in it, I mean about three seconds. And she was like all right, well and you can see the earwig in her ear being like stretch, stretch, stretch, and she's like anything else, also, what else? Like, I mean, yeah, he could have made a joke out of it. He could have been like, well, everyone else was having fun. I opened a door, you know, something like that. Yeah, you don't need to openly question whether she's seen the movie.

So anyways, and then he proceeded to, like, in the actual awards ceremony, compare his face to a scrotum, which is lovably self effacing. I just think, just stick with the self effacing even when you're not on stage. Maybe just I get it, Like the red carpet thing is not great. It's not my cultural like the thing that I am excited about. But it just felt like I don't know, that's another human being up there with you. Yeah, it's like she's just doing your job. Also, like, yeah,

I didn't think he was. I mean, he was just kind of a dick about it, like he didn't have to be. But on the other hand, like you agreed to be a prison there at the Oscars, you agreed to walk the red carpet, Like there are certain hoops you just kind of agree to jump through. If that's the gig. Yeah, one of them is making shitty, dumb

small talk, yes, and interviews. So absolutely the other moments that leapt out from the ninety fifth I believe Academy Award Lady Gaga had this like wildly emotional performance of the top Gun song and her preamble she said, I wrote the song with my friend blood pop in my basement. I thought she said blow pop. And I was reeling

from that point forward and didn't take much in. But people seemed to be very taken with her performance, and I don't know, not necessarily taken, but just like the seriousness, the gravity the preamble where she said, it's deeply personal to me. We need a lot of love to walk through this life, and we all need a hero sometimes there's heroes all around us and assuming places, but you might find that you can be your own hero, even if you feel broken inside. And then here's the song

from top Gun. But yeah, it's like she kept talking about how personal the song was, Like I saw top Gun. I just assumed this song was about Tom Cruise, like they came to you or like we need a new power ballot about Tom Cruise's dick from the twenty first century. Yeah, can you write something? That's what I assumed. But according to her, this was this was she made it into art.

You know, she came fully made up, like knew the assignment for the Red Carpet looked amazing and all sorts of Lady Gaga on the Red Carpet what you would expect, just you know, amazing makeup and dress. And one photographer was so blown away by her beauty that he fell over and she even tried to help him up, which was a nice little momentum. And then then it looked like he kind of like gropture. Did you see that?

Oh no, I did not, certainly, like I don't know if it was an accident or not, but she certainly like, yeah, the Red Carpet is an awkward place. Oh yeah, it turns out but yeah. And then she showed up on stage looking fully scrubbed of makeup, in a T shirt and ripped jeans, and then appeared later on in the ceremony I believe back in makeup, and her dress was kind of an amazing magic trick that she pulled off.

She was it was like a superhero, but instead of a superhero costume, she changed into like one of the Sonic Youth band members would wear. Right. Yeah, but knew the assignment had a very clear vision. I mean, she sounded great, obviously, as always. The songs were actually some of the most exciting. Usually, you know, the songs are like songs no one cares about and it's a chore to get through. But we had Lady Gaga and Rihanna and David Byrne. And it's not Rihanna. It's Rihanna, which

I had read. No, you said it correctly, and I assumed that people were saying it incorrectly last night. But the pronunciation on that was something that I think I believe I was getting wrong all along, and now I know that it's Rhianna. Brendan Fraser one best actor gave a extended metaphor whale based like nautical themed acceptance speech. But yeah, it just seemed overwhelmed by the moment, and

I appreciated the effort. So he opened it by saying that only whales can swim at the depth of his co star Hang Chow, and then ended the speech by thanking his children and his best first mate, his partner gene Ganne Moore Gene and then at the very end he set it's time for me to sham move out of here exactly. It was a strong commitment to the bit. And then Jimmy Kimmel, I don't know sure, this was my response to his overall performance. Yeah, l ron hubba hubba.

That worked for me. But I mean, yeah, I'm I'm not a huge Jimmy Kimmel fan, but what sorry, But I mean, I don't dislike him. He's just like I mean, I think that's why they picked him. He's a guy most people are like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, the Benstein's money guy. Okay, sure we know who that is. Um, I don't know. Yeah, Like, some things he did really annoyed me. Some things he did I thought were funny. He was mostly I guess his steady hand keeping things moving,

which is what they wanted. Yeah, knew the assignment. I would say also for him, it's a corporate gig, you know, like comedian to corporate gigs yea. And they're like, we want you to understand that you are telling jokes to a bunch of C suite Bank of America, get employees, and uh, just do do that and don't offend. And I feel I feel like he's the peak corporate gig comedian. It feels like, yeah, yeah, totally that. I think that's

a good comparison. I mean, I thought the awards themselves like we're pretty good but predictable, Like it seems like everything that happened was pretty much predicted by all the guild and right, yeah, it seems like kind of a straight sporward. Yeah, there weren't really any surprises. But that being said, like all the things, not all the things, but a lot of things. I wanted to win one. I feel like I have to shout out Sarah Pally for winning for screenplay as a Canadian and Torontonian, we

love her. There you um and and like I said on a last week's show, like everything everywhere, all at once. It was it was the movie of the year and definitely showed out at the Oscars, which was cool to see. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. And we're back. And apparently something happened with a bank or something on Friday and the government's gonna I don't know. I was too busy focusing on like

what everybody was gonna wear for the Oscars. But there, Yeah, So I skimmed this article for Hugh Grant's name and it didn't appear once. So between noon Eastern time on Friday up until six on Sunday, people were wondering if the government was going to bail out this bank, Silicon Valley Bank. That there was a run on the bank. It failed, it was taken over by the government, and people were wondering if the people whose money was uninsured being held by the bank, we're going to be made

whole by the government. The government ultimately did what they do and bailed out the people who lost their money. I'm not an economist, but this basically sounds like the plot of It's a Wonderful Life, Right, am I wrong? Bunch of well, I think the with corporations and corporations and banks, basically the villains getting paid back. The Biden administrations pushing back, saying that the bailout will not be paid for by taxpayers. But ultimately, I don't know how

does that work. I don't know. I'm paying for it with my own money. I'm serious, man, I'm serious. I'm using that money I made appearing in Carmen San Diego in nineteen ninety six. Did you hear in Carmen San Diego. Yeah, he had a cameo. He probably didn't get paid, and I don't think I'm sure PPS didn't pay that much, but yeah, I just wanted to drop that reference in because he was he was like they called them up for help looking for like one of those villains who

steals monuments. Wasn't that what always happened? Yeah? Again, I've steered this story about complicated economic problems into a discussion of who of, which is definitely much closer to what I'm qualified to talk about than complicated economic matters. But also, I'm just getting over COVID and all my family members have COVID and who aren't sleeping and I'm trying to look after them, So I'm extra dumb, Yeah, which brings you right to the perfect level to be on this

show with me. They complete idiot. All right. The billionaire bailout debate has begun. I think, don't bail out the people who have all the money already, um with the money given to you by taxpayers. But what do I know? What I can speak about is the ongoing contract diversity around boneless chicken wings. Buffalo Wild Wings is being sued for using the phrase boneless chicken wings, and it's an

ongoing controversy. I kind of didn't understand it, but you you helped clarify, and this, this Takeout article helped clarify that it's all about. That's what I'm qualified to really put it. Put things into perspective, and now I am

outraged about this issue. The argument is that a place that sells chicken wings, then selling a product called boneless chicken wings would lead you to believe that they are the chicken wings product with the bone removed, right, it is a different type of meat in the chicken wings. Then you would get in these chicken strips, and so basically people are like just call them saucy nugs, or you know, call them chicken wing, sauce strips, whatever the fuck,

but it is. I can see how it's misleading. I do greatly prefer chicken wing meat to boneless chicken wing aka chicken tender meat. If this goes to trial, with the journey go all the way to the top the Supreme Court, Yeah yes, but I feel like their defense could be the descriptor wild These aren't just regular wings, these are wild wings. It's like a wild card, you know,

like this could be anything. Yeah, right, no idea what you're gonna get when you when you sign on to the wild when you walk through that door, you're you're acknowledging that might be a fried pickle in there. We're wild card. Um. But yeah, So the plaintiff claims the name boneless wings leads customers believe that the product is simply the meat of a debone chicken wing rather than what they actually are, which is slices of chicken breast meat deep fried like wings. But I don't. He claims

that this is causing him caused him financial injury. So would this just be a series of like nine eighty five payouts from Buffalo Wild Wings to anybody who can prove that they've purchased boneless wings, which I mean, how far did he have to drive to get there? There's the gas, that's true point, and there's usually don't they usually throw an emotional distress. Well, it kind of seems

like because there's that guy the same. The article also mentions that guy in twenty twenty who went viral for talking about this in a city council meeting and how he was offered like was it a year's worth of chicken wings, right or something? He got some kind of dumb like, oh, let's give this viral guy something in a speech that seemed like it was specifically written to

go viral. Yeah, it was like it and it was I remember this this popping up on the end or because it was like right smack in the middle of COVID, like it was schools just kind of reopened. In twenty twenty, it was still like nothing. Everything had kind of ground to a halt, and this guy was like, I'm going to use this opportunity to go to this like mostly empty city council meeting and do this like pre written

bit chicken wings. Right. But it kind of seems like now this guy probably saw that and was like, well if I do something similar, maybe I'll get some some free chicken wings out of the Yeah. The plaintive also cites the fact that Papa John's calls it its version Chicken Poppers instead of boneless Chicken Wings. Dominoes calls its version Specialty Chicken. So it seems like there is some thought in the corporate because boneless wings is definitely a

better title. But it feels like people are like, they're they're gonna see our pants off if we call them boneless wings. It's misleading. So I mean, I'm just might be some this guy. I'm jealous of how much time this guy has that he's like, I know, doing all this like this. Otherwise this would just be like a thought like huh, these these are more like nuggets. And then you move on to anything else. Then you move on to what's Hugh Grant been up to? What is

Hugh Grant take? What is his position in all of this? Well, Jam, such a pleasure of having you as always. Where can people find you and follow you? You can find me on Twitter at Jam mcnapogan. All right, that is going to do it for us this afternoon. We are back tomorrow morning with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other, be kind to yourself, get the vaccine, don't do nothing about white supremacy, and we will talk to y'all tomorrow. Fight