Weekly Zeitgeist 265 (Best of 3/6/23-3/10/23)

a booking coup by superproducer. Anna Josmier is a comedian, actor, writer, recently named a comic you should and Will Know by Vulture, which is like a very threatening way to say someone is going to be famous, but I agree. His show with Kelly Bachman, Rape Victims or Horny two was number two on Pace magazine's twelve Best Comedy Albums of twenty twenty two. It is the brilliant to Dylan A. Oh my god, that is the nicest introduction. Thank you guys

so much for having me on the podcast. You will know his name, Thank you, thank you so much for having me. Jamie Loftus did the thing. Jack O'Brien, my woman, King, Anna Hosnia, You're a gene yes, Justin Smith, you are all of us. So there we go. I was really I was waiting for our audience to send that to us,

and I'm glad you brought it. Was it you who tweeted that it slept on how she says Hong Chow, no one was talking about Everyone was talking about Angela Bassett, but no one was talking about how she was, Like Hong Chow, Dolly was really slept on. I think, yeah, I wanted to bring that into the discourse. I it resonated. I'm thinking about it days later, same same. I feel like we just like covered that briefly, but it has

really resonated. It's like the adena adele desime John troubled to thing that just has sort of not gone away, like that performance, I feel like is just still with us. It's gonna get really, it's gonna be. It's we're enjoying it now and then we're and then we're gonna be upset that people because then everyone is going to learn about it, and then it's going to be bad for a while, but then it'll come back. It's like we're

at impressions comes in waves. Yeah, absolutely, I agree. I brought it it the other day and Crickets Jack O'Brien, nothing not from me. Yeah, I feel like I haven't fully absorbed, absorbed too, like all of the intricacies I will be. I'm one of the people who will be making references to it in eight years like people are over it. Yeah exactly, that's finally taken about doing the thing in. Yeah exactly. I mean it takes that long for it to marin. It's such a rich text. It's

a rich text, thank you. And so it is not my fault, Jamie, richness of the text. It's actually that I am treating it appropriately and taking my time getting into it. You know, Grect, I was being a huge bitch. Thank you. I'm glad you picked up what I was. I got. Well, I just got the message you sent me on Zoom. What is something from your search history? Oh my god, I'm gonna be painfully honest right now. Okay, there is one thing, and one thing only in my

search history all weekend. This is a shame for myself that I'm admitting this, but it is all vander Pump Rules related. How do we know about Do we know about this epic drama that has unfolded over the weekend by any chance in the Oh my god, I can I can give you the quickest rundown of all time. All Right, so that's what our shows about. Actually, let's let's just do that. Vander Pump Rules, Let's go. Vander Pump Rules is the greatest reality television show ever created.

I don't watch other reality shows. I have no basis for this whatsoever. I don't know if I've ever seen a real housewives. But this show is a bunch of monstrous single was started monstrous single people that live in West Hollywood working at a restaurant, acting like absolute dipshits because they all had no money and they would spend it all. But now they all have money and it's so much worse. But this is this is the rundown? Is this one guy, Tom Sandoval cheated on his girlfriend

of nine years with Raquel. I'm just gonna start. I'm just gonna throw the names out there with Raquel. These are all characters on the show, unless yes, Raquel has been making out with Tom Schwartz, Tom Sandoval's business partner and best friend who just got divorced from his wife Katie of twelve years. After Riquel called off her engagement to James, who used to date Kristen, who used to date Tom. It's great. Good they all dating each other.

It's like high school theater. Yeah, they're really given up. Like whatever we thought Tristan thompsonn drama was with Chloe Kardashian. I'm telling you this is this is ten trillion times worse. It's incredible. I'm in a chokehold. I can't stop. Okay, I love this. I love this. I also love that, you know, like vander Pump Rules is a great name. Like I've been to what's the bar and we hold

that is from somebody from that show, Sir sir. Yeah, there's there's so many now, yeah, they're so but that was the original one, right, that's the that's like the og I've been there. I just love the name. I've never watched it. I only watched The Challenge and The Bachelor, and then I had a reality show podcast where I had to pretend like I actually watched reality shows. So spoiler alert, I lie, uh but they paid me so.

But I just really just love that name. It has like the best name I think out of any of the Rules. It's kind of giving Odyle Rules a little Yeah, okay, so you say, and the drama is there it's so great. My question is, like, are they all sleeping with one another because they know that they're all characters on the show, and like they want, like the way that a royal family will intermarry within the family, because they want to consolidate power and like keep all the money for it,

keep all the power for themselves. Like, is there is something because that that web of social and sexual connections between the characters like is reminds me of like the Habsburg family tree, you know, like it's just so interwoven, and I wonder if there's some incentive there. I feel like that was a very generous comparison. Yeah, well if you know, yeah, I mean it didn't end up so well for the Habsburgs. But I'm sure they think they're

the royal family. I mean they are I would say, unfortunately the royal family a bravo right now, you know, so they I think there's something to that. These particular people in question. I don't know how samns words. They are absolute losers. So I just think people people in public probably won't sleep with them. I don't know why. I just assume blanket statement. You see this man's face, he looks like a generic Harry Styles want to be in the worst way, and because there's a good way

to look like a generic Harry Styles want to be. Yeah, I think that's a base model Harry Styles. That's good. But no, this guy looks like he wants to be a Hairy Styles so bad and he sees a flare pants and he just buys it like that's there's no questions asked. But it's I mean, my favorite part about the whole thing. And I listen. I know you guys don't know this drama, but I'm so excited to talk

about it. But this whole thing, the best part is that he dressed up as his mistress for Halloween in front of his current girlfriend and they all hung out together. How crazy is it? Drama? How crazy is that drama? That is just like you? Yeah? And then yeah, it's it's it's such a mess. I am, I'm under a spell. It's I open my phone, I try to look at other things and I literally can't. You can't. Yeah, you can't. I can't. You can't looked as you are. I I

really am. What is something then that you think is overrated? All right now? Not everyone's gonna agree and Jack you know that I typically you and Miles both know I typically don't like saying things are over rated. Everybody's got their own experiences. Big concerts, you know, I mean, Ticketmaster is a pain in the key star anyway, thank you, Sorry, I'm agreeing. I'm yeah. Oh, don't be silent. I'm raising

my voice. Don't be silent anymore. So, Uh, big concerts, you know, everybody was excited to get back to them after a shutdown in the US occurred. I don't want to one. I'm not gonna say which one, but I was like, okay, first off, fucking ticket Master. And then secondly, there are lines everywhere. Every every imaginable drink is way

more expensive than it should be. And then you get in and there's this massive press of people, and if you're in a paranoid position like I usually am, you're thinking, where are the exits? What if this goes wrong? These thousands, there are several hundreds of people are very excited, usually to hear maybe three four songs, and then uh, it's just a bad look, you know what I mean. Maybe maybe I'm getting old. I don't know, it's just what do you guys think are big concerts overrated. Plus your

peepers can't see the damn artists on stage. You know, It's that I don't know. I find concerts to be things that I don't look forward to and always like what they do to the like artists work like after I've seen them is usually worth it to me, Like I like it, I really like for whatever reason, like just seeing someone perform live makes me really appreciate their work a lot more and I love that creates some

value for me. But yeah, I mean I'm not. I'm also not, Like I haven't been to a big concert in many years, so I don't know if I've ever been what qualifies as a big concert, like in an amphitheater or something, you know, right, But as a person with crowd anxiety, I am extremely on your side, Ben, I don't like and you know, and it started. It

hasn't always been that way it started, you know. I used to be able to go to big music festivals outside and not have a problem, and then I kept going to them, and then I started feeling really crazy and being like I need to leave. You know, so many people, it's been so many people since COVID, it has not improved my cat is really upset that I'm not paying attention to her, so she just knocked something on my my laut shout out, shout out, Mila International

Women's Day Queen. Yes, yeah, no, I can't do that anymore. Um and And I always kind of thought sometimes they see video, you know, people go see Beyonce or whatever and got those like nosebleed seats, and you know, there's big screens that show you the artist. But I'm like, you might as well just be watching a video of the concert, right, Yeah, it's I mean, it's not for you.

I was back. The fun part, sorry, just the fun part of that is that you're watching the screen and then taking a video of the screen, so you're watching the screen through your screen, so there's like four levels of things happening, but you are in the same physical space. So yeah, yeah, And it reminds me of like one time I went to go see this rapper and I was trying to I had like a disposable like flash camera, and so I raised it up to try and take

a picture of the rapper on stage. And what I ended up with, because of the strength, you know, the limited strength of the flash, was a picture of a bunch of people raising their cell phones. You can't see what's going on on stage at all, but the only accurate picture of a concert ever taken. That's how they know you were really there. Yeah. Yeah, so like the thing that I will just say, there's a brief backstory here in Atlanta, Georgia, an up and coming musician named

Taylor Swift had a concert. And I don't know if you all have heard of this person, but I see big things for them in the future. And everyone in the everyone in the places I would go to walking around my usual sketchy reprobate cruise, they were all very excited and we're all like, oh, Ben, we're going to this Taylor Swift concert. And I would say, well, you're the You're like the fortieth person I know who is

going now, and you might want to hurry up. Yeah, I like, I think there's gonna be a line, dude, and U it just soured. Men. You know, no disrespect to the artist, because touring is one of the primary ways they make their money. Now that so many big studios or production companies have become poisonous fl my time, but when somebody does a residency in Las Vegas, I think that's the only way to truly see someone, because then the crowd is thin enough because everybody is kind

of they're doing the same show after day. They have it down by heart. You're getting to see a robotic version of them. I don't know. This is all to say, I really want to see Katy Perry in Las Vegas. I've just come to that conclusion in the last twenty four hours. Yeah, I'm going Carrot Top. But you know what, let's meet up for dinner. Okay, Amory, what's something you think is underrated? Well, this isn't going to do anything to disprove Ben's accusations that I am an old woman,

but they're both elderly things. But I'm gonna I'm sticking to my guns, and I'm gonna say flossing. Flossing is highly underrated. You don't know all the shit you're missing in your teeth until you start flossing, and then once you start, you'll never go back because you know exactly what's in there and what you got out. And everyone should be flossing. So I'm sticking to it. Spicy take thank you. I am now flossing daily for the first time in my life really yet to have my teeth

cleaning like chi follow up, like final exam. It's how I'm viewing it. So I'm like, I've never had a cavity in my life, and I'm like thinking that, like for some reason, this is going to be like the first time I had, Like so you get yeah, I

get a cavity from flossing somehow. Talked to a dentist who is saying that, like your mouth is constantly at war between like cavities and gum disease, Like those are the two things that can be going on in your mouth, but like it's kind of one or the other because they're like caused by like bacteria that are like at war with one another. And so if you're not a cavity person, you probably are dealing with gum disease and

or like vice versa. I would party in there at the very least, like cavities, gum disease or party like there's a part in your mouth. Yeah, there's a party in your mouth. Yeah the bread smell like sh Yeah. Then how about you? What's something you take is underrated? The hold my nip subreddit. I really like the whole poe.

I know I know what it sounds like, the hold my Nip subreddit, And this is of course something that we've discovered through making endless thread over the years and looking at a lot of stories on Reddit, and you know, you get into some weird subs, and I got into this suble a while ago. Now it's part of the constellation of cat related subreddits. And I don't know if you've heard of my hold my beer of course, you know, hold my shar name, Oh my man, that cold, my cosmo.

And so this is this is just footage of cats high on cat nip, and it's I find it to be very you know, just to bring me a little bit of light and joy when I'm feeling when i'm feeling gloomy. Good high animals, that's a yeah. Yeah. And I'm not pro high. I'm not pro getting your animals high necessarily, So I'm not sure. I don't know. Maybe maybe folks feel weird about katnip in general, but I will watch it on the internet and I will enjoy

it so amazing. We we just found out about shower Orange as a subreddit, so this is a yeah, had a whole yeah. Yeah, still haven't partaken, did you guys for for the purposes of research, partake in the show. Yeah, yeah, bended, I think you recorded some in the show, right, Wow, yeah I did. I still haven't tried it. I don't know what's wrong with me. It's amazing. It lives up to the hud. I mean, I've had a showers oil. Citrus oil in general in your zone is a good thing,

I think, but in the shower too. One of our listeners that, uh, actually pomelo shower Pomelos are the pomelo. I guess that's how you pronounce that. Anyways, it's a grape fruit. Rights, Yes, it's a grape fruit with a lot of like puffy padding around it. But yeah, it's like a sweeter grape fruit. They are wonderful. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. And we're back and yeah, so there were a couple of Florida stories. By the way, did everybody enjoy their shower oranges?

Are we are we all shower orange people? Yeah? West, I mean we're all sopping wet and on some Yeah. I unfortunately couldn't decide because I hadn't done enough research on how to peel the orange. And you know, there's so many opinions out there, whether you show just break it in half or you know, I just sort of I dove in like a starving monkey and would I would, I would recommend that approach. That was good advice. Yeah, amazing. I'm a part of the showering Orange community. Am coming

out as that Wow. Congratulations, brave Wow gave us the scoop in everything a comedian we should and will milk comes out as a shower Orange community. This will be just as powerful as that Ellen thing. Yeah, just as big. In Florida, just a couple stories from last week about Florida politicians trying to turn the state of Florida into a like dystopian right wing police state and like more

than they already have. I guess with the book bands, this seems like it's an overall strategy where Rond de Santis is like picking a fight with every everyone who's not a right wing like mega person, and then we'll use that to as like free publicity for his campaign, which has kind of been his That's what his entire career has been based on. So first, last week there was one that I think we can mostly dismiss as

just like a stunt. It was from a Republican state senator, a Senate bill that they're trying trying to use to render the Democratic Party non existent, dubbed the Ultimate Cancel Act, and they're they're like, this is where, oh, you want to cancel us, Well, we're canceling the Democratic Party. People there is like now, you know, right wing politicians really do have a way with just like the most like lobotomized turn of phrase that you could possibly come up with,

but it usually that it's sticky. It sticks in my head. That makes no sense, and it's like it's sticky, Well not my shoe. Well you were doing it wrong, jack, You shouldn't be getting sticky. I ripped it open after I got out of the shower, and a very good ambassador for our community right now, I'll say that much.

Some people have compared the bill to when the Nazis did away with all other political parties, but it seems like it's more of a like publicity stunt intended to expose the hypocrisy of cancel culture and the guy who's behind it, like, I mean, he's very powerful, like he used to be the head of the Republican Party in Florida, but he does just seem like kind of a carnival

barker who's looking for an audience. Like I don't I don't know again, I can't see this actually happening or if it does like actually affecting policy all that much. But it just that's that's what's hard about Florida these days, is like it's easy to be like Rhonda Santis is just like talking about Disney and not paying attention to

things that actually affect people's lives. But then he actually signs laws affecting taxation and is just like super powerful, and then like bands books in children's libraries and like the we see like video of people of empty elementary school libraries. You know. Yeah, I mean I've had friends whose books are no longer like allowed in Florida. It's like it's ridiculous, and I like that. Uh, it's it's fun to dunk on Rhonda Santis and we should and

we're right to do it. But I think, yeah, like one of the scariest things about him is that he's like not an idiot like he'd and I feel like he's like developing this and maybe this falls under this category because like the language of the ultimate Cancel Act, Like it sounds like like mustache twirling cartoon villain, like cancel the filings of a political party if the party's platform is previously advocated for or been in support of,

like involuntary servitude or slavery. Like it's just like word salad. But it seems like even with the Disney stuff and the horrible book, that he's really saying like it almost reminds me of times that like, you know, Donald Trump would do like the dumbest thing he could think of when he was about to pass some really scary legislation, so you would talk about the dumb thing and not pay attention to the thing that actually harms people. And it feels like DeSantis is like really getting a feel

for that pattern. Yeah, I know, because part of it, like it's obviously like righteous to dunk on him. And it also it reminds me of that remember that video going around a like well more lists, we'll see who cancels who like Jordan Peterson, Yeah, guy, yes, yes, yes, it reminds me of that video. It's so we'll see who cancel. He sounds he sounded so weird, he said, like he's about to like take off in a flintstone car exactly. Oh god, I know, but yeah, he wields

a lot of power. He's a very like he's like a he is a very powerful and scary figure that can do a lot of harm in in his state. Yeah. And so the other one that on its face seems kind of similarly just easy to dunk on and dismiss, but actually is probably very scary in reality. They're going after bloggers. They proposed a bill that would require bloggers to register with the state if they're going to write any stories about DeSantis or other Florida politicians, which is

pretty scary. Yeah, I mean it's and they like the way they're doing it. They're like they would be required to submit monthly reports, including disclosing their pay or else risk being fined by the government. Which is this a scheme to expose how underpaid bloggers are or like that they're not paid because I don't know what they think bloggers are being paid? Or what do do I not know what bloggers are? Is that? Well, I does the

person who wrote this know what bloggers are? That seems like a really really broad like Perez Hilton was a blogger, like who I've not read a blog in so many years? Is this a tumbler specific piece of let's just say it, like, who's funding all these tumblers that are making memes about me, Rhonda Santis? Like they just assume, I don't know, because they do have a big like contingent of their strategy is paying bloggers who just write like hagiographic like just

love letters to Ronda Santis. So like I'm wondering if they assume that because they have to they need like billionaire secret funders for all their media that like that's true of everyone criticizing them as well, and so that's

where they're coming from. But it really seems misguided. But at the same time, like it could very easily be the first step in like a very slippery slope right where it's like they're doing it in my space first, and they're like, oops, now we're gonna do it on another platform, Like they okay, so you guys don't do blogs anymore? We get it? Yeah, okay, okay, okay, reset,

Like that's it's just oh god, I do. I Mean, this is like a really scared I mean, it seems like they're just trying to what like suppress any potential criticism of De santists, and just like curb free speech, sick love that. Um well, yeah, I don't know. I mean, if this vocabulary choice blows up in their face, that would be kind of funny. But it just sounds like you could apply like isn't like technically Twitter is like

micro blogging? Am I like inventing that? I feel like that's what it was called when it came out question mark an expression of your opinion is a blog? Any tweet about RHN de Santis will need to be officially licensed by the Florida government. How do you fucking enforce something like that? I mean, I yeah, it's just I don't know. I guess I just hope that they're not smart enough to be able to even follow through with such a thing. But yeah, it does feel pretty suppressive.

Yeah yeah, And he's to unionize all my psychic friends in Florida. Right. The last time I talked to a psychic in Florida, he was like and it was like I think it was like he was like dissing me a little bit. Oh, I don't remember the last time I've said diss But he was like, thank you so much. He you know, he's like, well, as far as where you're going to end up, you are not welcome in Florida.

And I was like, oh my god, wait, that's actually kind of a compliment, right, I know, well it's like I I was, I mean it, but he was like he loved being in Florida. But he was like, clearly something's off. And then Florida is not for you, honey, Florida is not for me. And it's like, you know what, fine, I accept that was he saying you're not allowed in

Florida or you're not allowed to retire to Florida. Said he just sort of said me in Florid or at a that we it's not where you end up is a weird Yeah, yeah, I mean, and it's he I mean, he's he's fascinating. He says, guy Lewis Gates. He's got a YouTube channel. I watch it. He's doing all sorts of stuff. But yeah, I don't I don't know. He said, I have no place in Florida. Florida is not for me. And then he's like maybe she's a little more bicoastal. And I was like, yeah, yeah, there you go. Thank

you so much. Lewis. Yeah, thank you. Congratulations to you, James. All right, let's talk about the opposite of Marxism. The Wall Street Journal had this article that Americans are encountering more problems with companies, products and services than ever before, and a higher proportion of them are actively seeking quote revenge for their troubles, a new study has found, which is intense. So that what do they mean by revenge?

It's I think it's like writing nasty comments, like sending letters, you know, doing reaching out to the company, and yes, just any sort of follow up action that's taken. Yes, but they the revenge is definitely what drew my attention. But it's also I don't know, so it's up. So some revenge is getting back together. But they're called customers want revenge. Yes, seventy of the one thousand customers surveyed said they had experienced service problems in the last year,

which is up sixty six percent from twenty twenty. And you know, more and more of them are seeking this vengeance, you know, a kill bill style revenge saga against Southwest Airlines or you know training that is the picture that used was a you know, some Southwest Airlines consumer facing person at an airport looking like they were twelve hours away from all of their hair falling out from just

having to deal with just horrific toxicity. Well, shit, I wonder why, right exactly, I hope nobody, nobody is actually yelling at the people who are working because they're not in charge of the fuckery, you know what I mean, Like every time, every time you have a problem at the counter of someplace, yelling at that person is not going to get back to the person who is responsible, you know exactly that I don't know. I think it's

very convenient for corporations to do that exactly. You know, there's like my immediate thought is, of course, this has to do with all the supply line bullshit, where like I know, somebody who got their catalytic converter strolling off their car needs a new catalytic converter, and so they're having a problem, where all of the mechanics are like, we don't have any, and we don't know when we're gonna get any, so we don't know when we can fix your car, and so it's not a customer complaint

towards the mechanic. The mechanic has nothing to do with it, but there's definitely customer dissatisfaction. So you know, if you were to survey and be like, do you have problems being a consumer, we'd be like, yeah, but it doesn't have to do. It's not because the service is bad.

It's because the ship's not there, yes, and the I mean also I think the service is bad in a lot of these cases, like with the airlines or you know, even with car companies, Like the car companies used to like prior to the pandemic, we're like more cons it was like more of a buyer's market, and now it's more of a fuck you, this is what we have market like and they're understaffed, yes, because they're wildly fucking understaffed.

Everybody is so completely understaffed, like the Southwest Airlines thing is like all of the benefits of this current system fall to like the c suite and the people who are making decisions like at the higher levels and the companies who are the only thing they have to pay attention to in order to do their job and to feel like they're successful at the job. Is like how wall Street, Like Wall Street is the only incentive that

they have to care about. And then all of the customer facing employees and the customer the consumers themselves are just like fighting a war between each other and just like becoming more and more miserable, and like this isn't I think this is invisible, Like this is the sort of thing that we just kind of It's like this is water type thing. It's like the weather is getting slowly worse, but we are not noticing it because we're

just living in it day to day. But you know, all of these consumer indices are have gotten like way way worse since they started tragging them in like the nineteen seventies. They just get worse and worse and worse because everything has gotten less and less and less regulated. And the only thing that these companies have to pay any attention to is their stock prices, so they cut employees.

They you know, they just do these things that make it impossible for the people at the lowest levels who are dealing with the consumers and make the consumers experience worse. And of course none of this is mentioned in the

Wall Street Journal article. The only thing, the only way that it registers to them is they're like, you know, they every time an angry consumer contacts a company that company's losing money, and that's one way to view it, But of course I don't think that makes sense just because it's a wasting their time so you have to like spend resources on dealing with it and also probably is like bad marketing, so I guess. But if you deal with it, well, then the customer will come back,

and so then are you making money? But you have to pay money to deal with it. Well, like that's the damned thing about this market, like the if you're going to let the free market run your country, you have to acknowledge that this essentially means your country doesn't work like this this system tell me more jack, Yeah, Like well, like they're just they feel like that's wasted time and wasted money, like spent dealing with angry customers, and if we all just agree to treat customers like shit,

then like they don't really have another option. Well, this also kind of feels like one of those things where it's like you know that the fallacy that like the rate of left handedness went up after left handedness stopped being categorized as like a medical deficiency and started being categorized as just an alternate way of fucking writing yes, and so then the rate went up because people weren't being forced to write with their non dominant hand anymore.

And this feels like that where it's like, you know, now that we have the Internet and Yelp and every company has to have a website, in a Twitter and an Instagram, there are so many more ways for angry customers to tell you how angry they are. So it's I don't know if they're angrier or if they just have easier access to you to tell you that they're upset. Because it used to be when you were mad at an airline that you could basically go fuck yourself, but now you can tweet at them and they have to

pay attention. Right. But I mean they've been investing in like cute social media, like Southwest Airlines is like h mondays am I right, And then like so they have like somebody who they you know, pay a lot of money to like give their corporate brand a fucking like lovable personality, and at the same time, like satisfaction west Southwest Airlines couldn't be lower because that's like they don't fucking need to care about the consumer, because that is

how the system is set up. It's just allowing them to focus on creating shareholder value. Yeah, let's okay, this something I want to go back to here. So the American Customer Satisfaction Index, in my experience on a couple of a couple of different projects, innocuous names are sort of a flag and I want to figure like, is it crooked? That's my question? Is it like the American Consumer Satisfaction Index brought to you by Raytheon or whatever?

You know, like like is this? I mean, it's very easy, through any number of proxies and platforms to make something like that that appears to be a nonprofit. And again, the people working there, the people doing that research may actually not know the ultimate arbiters of it, you know, like what is also I don't trust the Wall Street

Journal I'm sorry, no, I don't either. But it's just funny to see how they I think they're taking a real like signal that they're getting that the consumer experience across all these different things is getting worse, and they're just treating it as like a symptom that like corporate CEOs need to pay attention to, like when crunching the numbers on their spreadsheets, as opposed to like a very real, like broad scale problem that is happening in the country

where like they just like don't have to give a shit about, like, you know, the consumers of their products or the people who work for them at the lower level, and they keep firing people because it's like fashionable to

do so. And so it's just this world that is being run by people who like have absolutely no connection and to what our lived experiences are like out in the world interacting with their products unless they to Sara's point, unless they see the tweet, unless they see one of those other platforms, or like it's probably not them who as TikTok. It might be one of their kids, and their kid is running up and telling the parent, oh,

there's something bad. You know, Like the president of Norfolk Southern lives here in Atlanta, and you know before the yeah, right before they heat hit, maybe one of that guy's kids came up and said, oh, my god, dad, that looks like people aren't super happy with everything. And he's like, well, tell me more about this social media you know, Monty Burn's hands and whatnot. I mean, it's I think it's a beautiful point that first off, there's some nomenclature too,

to unpack. Calling people customers or consumers is a little tricky because it makes them sound like they're not people. Yeah, right, so it does. Though even if with the problems that you've pointed out here, it does still feel like things are on the rise, but there's a dangerous disconnect and trying to attribute the reasons for that. Like you made the great point about understaffing, people aren't like, of course,

there's a longer line. I was. I was in Amsterdam a while back, and I like got to the airport early to get a plane out because I knew, you know, there were pending strikes. There were also very few people working at the airport. And when people are in a terrible situation, airports are often a terrible situation in general. They were not thinking of looking at the systemic causes.

There are people, you know, with a family, and they're trying to get their family to the fucking other airport where they've got the layover because nobody can afford a direct flight for places, you know, and and they want someone to blame. And so a lot of people on the front lines of any customer service thing, they're having to be the scapegoats for the people at the top, and I think it's just gross, you know, like I

don't know. And then those people are being forced to work like that understaffing leads to people who are you know, being forced to work with the threat of like not having healthcare or being able to feed their family. And then like the Wall Street Journal will publish an article being like, why are Americans so unhappy? Is it their phones?

Is it because they have the language to describe unhappiness now that they are going to therapy, And it's like, no, motherfucker, you have like a brutal Americans are discovering rage, right they know, like they have the language to address it now, and so they are therefore like aware of their unhappiness and they're like, what is happening here? Like how has it gotten worse than the seventies? And it's because therapy is therapy? No right jacket's mental health. It's been a

scam the whole time. All it does is make people unsatisfied and make women unsatisfied with home life. That but that is like a legitimate thesis that is getting spread around out there instead of no, the overall economic conditions are worse because you have just allowed Wall Street to run the entire country, and that is what happens. Like the market doesn't functional, doesn't functionally work, doesn't create a functioning society, It creates this. I'm telling you the problem

within houses. Just the doors are too small, says the Fox. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I think it's there's an older, excellent speech about that. But but this this idea is kind of nuts too, because we have to realize that there are there are plenty of like younger generations. If I were a parent right now, I would be a little concerned, which I know sounds very

Fox News, but I'm going somewhere good with it. If I was a parent right now, I would I would be concerned about a kid who one day probably will get a job at some point and has to deal with this like how understaffed can a place be? How how how long can align get? Who can who can afford these things? Like if you are working in at a whole center, right, in many cases your job is to get yelled at for like eight hours, not counting

your mandatory overtime. And is that like when your kid tells you about the dream job, when they're like oh, I want to be you know whatever the first werewolf faster not on the moon. And then you say, well, already had many werewolf faster knots on the moon. Yes, you're you're a Comcast fit. I think you should. You should be on the front lines of the Comcast phones or experience whatever they're calling truly, Yeah, yeah, I am

a parent. It's a nightmare. Uh yeah, they will all be one company and their most because I mean that's the thing is that like we read about, like there are these characters who like get turned into the main characters of the news, and they're all the CEOs. They're like the Elon Musks and like the you know, the people the Wall Street Journal like give names and faces too. But the vast majority of the country is the people who are on just like eating shit every day because

of the decisions made by those people. And then the only way that that shit eating registers is in like these vague fucking like surveys where they're like consumers indicate that they're like less satisfied and more likely to just quote go fucking berserk as a result of the bad you know, It's just like if thigs was so hard for the peasants. Why do they have so much time to raise so much rabble about this? Exactly? Rowse, damn

it whatever, leave it. And that's the truth, is that we don't have enough time to raise the rabble because

we are trying. We're being worked like end to end, and like that's the thing that I think we saw in twenty twenty when things like slowed down and everyone like looked around was like, fuck all of this, and then the economy open back up, and again people don't have enough time to raise rabble as they as they do in at least other countries around the around the globe anyways, true nightmare shit from the Wall Street Charnal. Let's take a quick break. We'll be back to talk

about sunny d with vodka. And we're back And Creed three made all the money fifty eight point seven million in North America, more than one hundred million globally, the biggest opening ever for the Creed Rocky franchise or a sports movie. Which that's crazy. That's surprising some big sports movies. That's surprising to me. Yeah, Ali, it made more than Ali. Yeah, well I guess also, yeah, adjustifore inflation, I guess but like us when Ali came out, take us we're six dollars.

But that is still surprising to me. I mean Rocky four was like, I mean, I guess it's different, like, but Rocky four like was the number one movie for like half of the year that it came out. But yeah, I guess they just didn't people. They only release like eight movies back then, so you just knew to catch it the next weekend. Yeah, and now movies only say theaters for six days or some shit, like it'll be

create to be on streaming next month, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but even it even beat D two Mighty Ducks Part two, so wow, doing something right, But yeah, I don't know. The other story that like kind of emerged was that Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson went to couples therapy in character for the movie. Tessa Thompson said, I think the moral of Create three is that all people should

go to therapy. That's pretty much the moral of Create three. Yeah, people should go to therapy as themselves, but going as someone else seems to work pretty well too. Yeah, that's very funny. I did see KRE three, so I'm not you know, I'm not gonna give I'm gonna try my best to not give any spoilers, so no spoilers. However, I'm gonna just give my opinion on the movie. So if you don't want to hear anything, I will just say that to you right now. I had never seen

any of the Creeds before this week. Oh, I just get that out there. And like, I know, I know, like the writers. I know the dude who wrote the first movie, not Ryan Coogler, but his writing partner Aaron Covington. Shout out Aaron, who also was a writer on Grand Crew, which is out now, so please go watch it. But also, like I just never got around to watching it. I don't know why. I don't know why. It was a

movie I've always wanted to see. But I decided to watch both Creeds this week before I went to go see Creed three because I really wanted to see Creed three because it looked the trailer looked dope. Jonathan Majors is having himself a year. He looks fantastic in it. I wanted to see the movie. I watched Creed one, Creed two. Fantastic, truly fantastic, fucking movies Creed two, I was highest ship when I'm watched it got me emotional. It was a movie. Is such a good movie. Create

three is a good movie. It's a good movie. It's a good movie. WHOA Okay, go watch it. Go watch it. I'm telling you in the grand scheme of movies, it is a good movie. It is worth the watch, It is worth the time to go and enjoy some time at the movie theaters left me left. Wasn't my favorite Creed? Wasn't my favorite Creed. I don't know if this is a spoiler or not. I don't think it is. But I thought it was too short. That's what I'll say.

I think the movie is too short. The movie is missing key elements that time would have given the movie that the other two movies had. And and I don't

know what that is. And I've noticed this recently, like a lot of movies are starting to like shorten their run not a lot, because there's still some three hour fucking movies, but the movies are starting to shorten their run time a little bit, and studios are starting to make a conscious effort to all right, maybe you don't need to be in a movie theater for two and a half hours, And I've always said this, if a movie is good, I don't give a fuck how long it is a movie. If a movie is good, we'll

be there. And I know not everybody's the same, but if the story is compelling, a great movie can make two and a half hours seemed like ninety minutes, right, Yeah, A bad movie can make two and a half hours feel like a whole fucking day. So like that, that's my take on that. I thought the movie was too short. I thought the movie was missing some things, but the movie is still good. Michael be Jordan's great. These niggas look amazing in this movie. John and the Major's is

just oh my god, on another planet right now. They really crushed it with marketing wise. They really they really knew their audience to some degree, because man, it was a lot of just wet bodies. So I'm like, well, well, well, well I've never seen a boxing movie before, but it was spicy just for thirty second Taylor trailers. But yeah, the pitch to studio executives was like, we all know Jonathan Majors exists, what if he was wet? Yeah, like

start exploding. Yeah, that guy's just like Scrooge mcducking his life, diving into money right now, he's got to have so much money Quantumnia this movie back to back. I mean, I want to see I want to see his bank account. Yeah. I also love Craft and yeah he's on the Netflix move the harder we fall, like he's just been and he's great. That's the good thing. I love. I love when an actor is having their moment. I love when

a black actors having their moment. And I love that when on top of their black ass moments, they're also fucking fantastic, so it's like they deserved this. They're not just having a moment because they're having a moment. They're having a moment because they are fantastic. And it's like Jonathan May just has it. He is on another planet right now as far as acting goes, and he's he's

doing a damn thing and I love it. He really I think he's gonna be like he's on his trajectory to be one of the best actors of our generation, hands down. He's Yeah, he's having his rehershala Ali moment from like two three years ago, right right, But even that felt like Mahershali was like a little, tried to tried to keep it like so there wasn't so much Mahershali that like we didn't we we weren't left wanting more. But Jonathan Major's is just like suddenly everywhere and everyone's like, yes,

feed me, please more. That's a good point that I don't know. You never hear people say a movie is too short, Like if a movie is a good hang, sometimes it feels too short, and the only complaint is like cranky film critics being like I have to pick up the kids, wrap it up. It's like, I don't know that represents most film fans, Like, yeah, if I'm enjoying myself, I'll hang you know, oh yeah, on it.

It beats going out to bars. Yeah, such a homebody nowadays, and I'm like it feels like I'm doing so much more than i am. When I go to a movie that's really long, I'm like, yes, I had a full night of fun. I didn't go out, I went, I came home at midnight, and I feel so accomplished at a three film. I love going to I love I'm a theater head. I love going to the movies. I love the experience as an amazing AMC A list for life, you know, for those of you who don't have AMC's

in your town. It's a movie subscription program but basically one month cost the price of one fucking ticket. And it's amazing. You could see like nine movies a month. So I'm in the theaters all the damn time. And when I say this movie was short, it wasn't just like, oh, wish that it was longer so I could have been

enjoying myself more. I just felt like there were key parts of the story something that they rushed through that, especially with me jesseeing both creats like this week, So it's very fresh in my mind how those stories let all their beats breathe in the way that it needed to. That that's my that's my complaint on Creed three. However, go watch that ship two Black leads Michael B. Jordan's directoral directorial debut as beautiful movie. Shot. Well, a good movie,

Felicia were shot. You know, give it up for our mom. Felicia shot. It's a good time, y'all. It's a good time. Yeah. Like they don't even fit the boxing, the fight in at the end. They're just like you get the first round and then they're like, YadA, YadA, YadA, you know who wins. Anyways, that means true kind of they focus more on the therapy aspect in that one wasn't really therapy happy. Like That's what My main takeaway from this review from Tessa Thompson is that it's a film, a

boxing film about therapy first fighting second. Okay, yeah, man, I was this this orm. I was sitting at a bar one time in twenty when I think the first Creed came out in twenty fifteen, right, I was sitting, um sometimes yeah somewhere. Yeah, I was sitting in a bar and I remember so specifically because the guy next to me, he was like, oh oh, I just like couldn't couldn't keep himself together. And the bartender is like, are you okay. He's like, Creed's ruining my life and

I'm sitting there so invested. And then he begins to tell the bartender that he used to date Tessa Thompson. I don't think any of this is true, but he says he used to date Tessa Thompson and that she left him for the movie Creed. He's like, I don't, I don't, that doesn't track. Your your name is you have a you know, a supreme shirt on your name is Nick. I don't think so. No, No, same bro. I would have just been like, same bro. Yeah, I think yeah, I think he needs to watch this movie

and maybe he'd Tessa Thompson's words. Also, I hope it is true. I hope, I hope you did day testa tomstand and she left him to go film Creed, Because what a ludicrous thing to be upset about, Like, yeah, yeah, good call by you. Yeah. I just if you if you go to a bar and you're just going, oh, and you make noises, I don't trust anything that's coming out of your mouth after that. I think it's all lies. Yeah,

m like what happened to you today? Everything? Okay? They got they got like big movies coming out every weekend this month, which is the first time I can remember that. Like Scream six is next week, Shazam to the week after john Wick four. We just need a five and we would have the whole thing. Yeah, you would have to dungeons and dragons on her amongst thieves. I don't among fee's rather March thirty first, which I don't know how that one's gonna do. But yeah, I'm very listen,

I'm very excited. Why is this dude called me? Oh sorry, I'm very excited for I got to get off my chest. Man, you know, if you can get me back in contact with Tessa. She left me to du create three two man and she never came back. She never came back. But now completely forget Oh, I love that. I'm loving you look for the past. From like basically two thousand and nine up until two twenty, the blockbuster lane has been filled almost exclusively with MCU And I'm not knocking

at at all. I had a fucking great time last decade watching the book that was the MCU, like Unfold on Tell on the movie screen. So this isn't me

complaining about that. But as someone who's an actor, who's an entertainer, who does movie like film and TV and have loved this medium since I was a child, I am loving the reemergence of the original summer blockbuster like when we were kids, when like Independence Day was a blockbuster, and like Men in Black basically Will Smith and then he or like even like Liar Liar being a blockbuster

movie kind of like or Jaws. Like I'm loving that life their own genre of Yeah, there's the Will Smith movie, there's Jim Carrey movie, there's a Bruce Willis movie. Those were their own genres. They were their own genres, and and I'm love it. I love that Top Gun was fucking like a big movie last year. Like I love that Create three is a big movie right now. Like I love that these non MCU movies are coming back to the theaters and saying we are putting asses and

seats again. And it's a pretty it's a pretty dope thing that I hope continues. So I'm excited before this this year of movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does feel like we've been like I've had this sense that, like some some movies over the past couple of years have done better than they would have otherwise because there was just nothing else like coming out for four weeks like that. I feel like everybody was scared of Avatars, so they just like didn't release that much after Avatar came out.

But it's it's not like Hollywood to leave money on the table. But I guess, I guess, you know, film productions are so you know, they take so long. You have to be green lighting these things so far in advance that I do feel like they've probably recognized that and started ramping up production, but we're just we're just now seeing it. I feel like there used to be a box office battle that you actually didn't know who was gonna win. Back in the day, you're like, oh, shoot,

these two movies. I mean a lot half the time it was two similar movies coming out, and you're like, well, why is this happening? Two movies about bugs? Do we need this many movies about bugs? But yeah, it was you never knew which one was gonna win, and it was really exciting to watch. And now you just go knowing, Okay, everyone's gonna see this movie. No one's gonna see this movie, and that sucks. I want more movies like that one, but no one's seeing Yeah. Yeah, I think they should

release two movies about planet destroying asteroids every weekend. Hell yeah, for in perpetuity. That's my Well, we're the two bug movies. A Bug's Life, I mean, oh oh, oh, okay, got it, aunt tu and ants and ants of course. But I just I just read something because I'm so invested in like those dual movies where they always have the same premise coming out within like a month of each other or something. Yeah, and that one was truly out of spite.

I just found out that Bug's Life and Ants. It was like a director from Disney went to make Ants and was like, well, they're making a movie about bugs, somebody get me a script, and then they made one. Right. Yeah, it's like also Win No Strengths Attached and Friends with Defense came out. This is Zach, same fucking movie. Yeah, they exist in my brain as the same movie, like they are the same movie. Yeah, you could spice them together. I feel like you could. Just a lot of no

strings in those films, neither one one. All right, that's gonna do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show If you like, the show means the world demiles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to him Monday. By