Weekly Zeitgeist 266 (Best of 3/13/23-3/17/23)

have you back. What a what a combo we have? Hey, Blair the books? Yeah, I know, what a surprise. Miss Chris Crofton. Uh, this is exciting. This is I mean, this is We'll see, we'll see how this goes. This is a concoction. Yeah, hell of a hell of a Friday, ak Monday Monday. Yes, a lot of Friday energy coming to you on this month. Brilliant case of the Mondays today, if that's right? Yeah, the Monday scaris. People say that, don't they get? Yeah, Sunday scary, Sunday scary? What's Monday?

Then the Monday? Just a case of the Mondays. Oh, yeah, I got a case of they just don't even come up with a word. Yeah, and mordant mondays manic mondays. That that seemed off to me. My Mondays are never manic. There other Mausoleum Monday, Yeah, Mausoleum Monday is pretty good. So yeah, Blair is like I saw Blair, I met well. I don't know Blair well. I just know her from Daily's, like guys, but I met her through Johnny Pembertons and um and well at least he told me about her

comedy and stuff. Anyway, I just am a big fan and I'm a big fan of us. Any comedy that fucking Blair does about food is all. I mean, I just wish she did whole specials about just food, and that's all about French fries, shoe string fries. Her out Blair's outrage about shoe string fries is one of my favorite fucking things. I don't think you want to humiliate me.

I mean, that's my favorite. And this is the job of the co host is that you talk about the favorite jokes that the guest has done and then do an impression of them. Is that right? That's usually I'm so flattered. I that you even remember that joke from a long time ago, because I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning, So look gratitude. I don't really like shoe shing fries. Um. My thing about them, honestly is that you have to get a whole It's humiliating.

And because you have to get a whole handful just to get the equivalent of one regular fry, it's like a horse eating. Hey, it's like you, it's it's hell, it's horror horrible. Hell. Yeah. I like it also just because it's like, how often are you hanging around roller rinks or something? You know what I mean? Like, when is this coming up? Surprised dining restaurant? I got it wrong, Blair only eats at the finest steakhouses. You're talking about pump I do love us. I do love a stickhouse. Yeah,

you're talking about amused boches. I'm so sick of amused. What is something from your search history? Okay, there's there's too much in my search history, and I actually maintain it. I don't like being surveiled, but I do like my YouTube recommendation fee to be accurate. So okay, this is the penultiment which I find myself and a recent search term how to get between the terminals at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. This came out of a recent traumatic

incident where I was I barely escaped from Florida. Every time I go to that state, it's very difficult to leave, and then my mere presence there is actually in violation of a lot of the new laws of that Ron De Santis and crew have passed. So I'm a crime in Florida and so a fugitive and I try to get out and they just try to drag me back in. And in this case, I was trapped in another state with a wonky governor Dallas because American Airlines decided they're

just not in the flying business anymore. Yeah, they're in the shuffle you around to different broken planes business for seventeen straight hours. Yep. Yeah, the options have become limited on the flying space. By the way, I just I hoping that your search has you said how to I thought you were going to say citizen, Just like, what does that mean? I was like, this is very late to be googling. It's never okay, it's never too late

to learn and grow, all right, So don't shame knowledge seeking. Yes, that's a good point, or the full searches how to citizen legal in Florida, question mark need to know banging on door? What were you doing? And just like personal business in Florida or I have no personal business in Florida. This was a financial obligation. I was there actually making my PBS show America Outdoors. We're on our second season and we were filming in Florida along the Swannee River.

It was a really beautiful time if you don't count the food options on the side of the road to the fact that Dollar General has monopoly on all retail space. But the people, the nature, the connection to nature and Florida is underrated. It's it's really beautiful, it really it really. I was humbled by my time there, honestly. And I was in North Florida where I have not spent really much time in my life. So it was a voyage of discovery. Yeah, and I was ready to come home,

you know. And Fort Worth didn't want to let you. American Airlines at Dallas Fort Worth. We cannot just blame the worst airport in the country. We must also assign responsibility to the worst airline. It's their hub though, right, They're like, we want you to come here, we want to see, we want you to see what we've done with the place. It was, it was, it was. It was exacerbated by the fact that I've had I have experiencing some hip panes and hip injury, and so the

size of the airport truly becomes like a health hazard. Sure, and you know, it's everything's bigger in Texas. Like it's not just words people say, it's like design principles for worse living. And these these folks were just determined to put me through my paces. My pace was off. So the whole enterprise was physically an emotionally quite quite painful. I did there were moments of light, you know, some people helped me out. I had fellow passengers helping carry stuff.

I had dudes with the cards helping me try to move through that airport at times, so all all was not lost and uh and we started. Uh. I guess it would call a hate group, like we hate American airlines together, and so that was It just feels like like the one hate group I could support. I definitely don't tend to support hate groups, but this one just feels really justified by based on evidence, and I'm all about evidence space choices. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I hope

they're not a sponsor of your show. They are, but it's okay they I mean, they usually give us a pretty wed like an airship should. Yeah, but yeah, I feel like everything in Texas is just contingent, like designed, contingent on the idea that you have access to a pickup truck. At all times. I thought I was getting from gate to gate, They're like, well, you're gonna wanna

hopping or pick up? What do you mean? You know you don't travel with a pickup It would I actually my life would have been easier if I had a pickup truck and like mini guns, right yeah, always, and that feels like the Texas way. Yeah. There was a moment where I was like, maybe I'm just supposed to live here. Maybe I should get a truck and like three guns and just sorry, California, We're done. Yeah, well

this is where I live now. That's always a good feeling when you're traveling and your your brain just says, maybe this is just where we live now. That was because I was like, dude, it was a fifty two minute layover became seventeen hours. Yes, like we got the free hotel thing happened. Yeah, And but at every turn, every turn, something went wrong, something like the hotel I went to. I thought I was smart. I made a reservation using some credit card points because I was like,

everybody's gonna be going to the free hotel. I've got points. I'm gonna say at the hotel right at the airport, because no one thinks of that. And I get there and I'm so excited, and I have my reservations on the font. I ben prepared for the backlash, for the resistance, for the squashing of myself. It's like, here's my reservation code. We're good. And she's like, that's for tomorrow night, and I was like, no, no, it's for today, March eleventh.

Yet today, because of the beauty of time and the amount of it that American Airlines wasted, today had become Saturday. So I gets to my hotel. We were like two fifteen in the morning. I have to get up at six to try to make the next light out. We get on the plane. It's the third plane we've been on, and the crew was like, we got you. We don't

know what happened with those jokers last night? We got you and we're like, okay, great, yeah, we like high five, like we think the war is over, you know, like everybody's people are kissing in the aisle like it's great. You know, babies are being conceived, and the captain has to come on the microphone and he's like, folks, I can't believe I have to say this, but something wrong with the plane. So we're gonna need everybody to get off. Ye, go to terminal five miles from here and try again.

We will get you home. And at this point, babies are you know, screaming profanities. Yeah, yeah, so yeah. Google helped a little this helping me understand that airport because the last time I was there, I saw a barber shop in it, like in the terminal, and I was like, no, that's a business for regular life, but if you live there, you do need a haircut. That makes sense, Yeah, thrown

depots in there, right. I do remember seeing the hotel being like, what, like, I guess I could see, but but that is a bad sign that the hotel should not be that close. If you shouldn't be like yeah, Gate thirty seven a Gate thirty seven b highest regency gigs. Yeah no, no, these are not the same choices. It's been bad enough for long enough that they built a barbecurity. They know, like the whole hotel is approved. Yes, yeah, no, nail clippers in the entire hotel. What is something you

think is overrated? I was It's so interesting because I was looking at these and I was like, Man, this is gonna be difficult for me because I actually have a list of things that are annoying me. Let them know. It's like the first thing on my list, and I think overrated. The first thing on my list definitely is

the term latinext. I'm so tired of hearing it, and I just did a talk on it also at Redline where I kind of had to like shares information where I'm like, I really don't understand why we're kind of persisting in this space, and I don't think a lot of people really are having that discussion. The majority of people in the community don't really use it. So I finally like, it's absolutely annoying to me that it's still here.

It's sticking around, and it's everywhere I can't escape it. Right, is the word that you prefer is Latino like for broad or what what? What is the preferred word for you? For me, I prefer to just be called Puerto Rican in Cuban. Sure, it's much more descriptive, right, so that you understand what my cultural nuance is, right, myle you? Yes?

And so the term Latino in general to me or Hispanic or all of these other kind of terms that jumble us all in together, just continue this process of us being all seen as the same, right, continuing that monolitht So for me, it's kind of like Latin X. It's like, you know, you've heard it, right, you can shine a turd, but it's still a turd, right, You're trying to modernize a term that's already like super offensive

and messed up. So like, I really don't understand the need for the hegemonic like nature of it, right for it to now have an English ending, like have the woke version of the hegemonic insulting term. Yeah, we're good here, okay, I put Yeah, well that's good. Yeah, I think informative. Yeah, it's good to hear about that, because I've heard a

little bit about it in general. Yeah, that it's sort of been imposed from outside or brought in by people who didn't ask for new words or additional words that aren't is helpful, right, And there was already like a

gender inclusive word in Spanish, so latine already existing. So it's interesting to see the X kind of get thrown in where you're like, dude, we don't we don't use an X ever, Like it's there, but don't talk about it, like how did you put it at the end of the word, Like this is so confusing, And it just seems like English now is really starting to meld in and we've kind of moved from a new level of Spanglish to just the bastard treat of these languages together.

Yeah wow, what what is something you think is underrated? Something I think it's underrated? Is this is going to be controversial? Checking your luggage when you're flying. I usually carry on. I checked, had a bunch of bags, so I checked them all. And I don't know what I've been avoiding this whole time, Like it it went fine. It was nice to not have to I had a connection, so it was nice to not have to schlept bags

from here to there. This whole time, I've been crapping on people who aren't able to get their stuff into a carry on. I think I'm I think I'm check bags for life. Now. It's it's really hit or miss. It's when what when it doesn't go well, that's like they lose the bag, the bag takes an hour to arrive, as it did on my last flight that I took where we checked the bag. It's it's a bummer. It's real.

It's really tough to just be like kind of waiting there with everybody that you were just on the plane with and never wanted to see again. One yeah, right, right right. You're like, I'm standing next to this this guy who is a way too open with his feet. Well, take my shoes off again. Yeah, let me learn more about you, bro. What kind of bag do you store your socks in? Because I think you just have the

one pair. But also, like i gotta say, I'm with bridget on this, some team bridget On on the checking bags when it works out, because I'm I'm a sucker and I love that moment. For me, it always feels like the climax moment of a rom com. You know, when I see my bag again and I'm like, oh, we've been you know, we've been hundreds of miles away and here you are coming towards me, and I know it's you. I knew from the first, you know what I mean? Like, you know, I'm like hugging the bag

and uh yeah, yeah, I don't know anthropomorphizing. Maybe I don't think my bag cares about me the way I care about Oh, don't be so hard on yourself. Don't say that, Ben. Do you guys tie a little ribbon? Do you have? What's your How do you know it at first sight? Because bags are I do feel like bags have evolved, like the way that nature keeps evolving

into crabs, like animals keep evolving into crabs. I feel like all bags have evolved into the same, like black, gray, hard bodied, rectangular suitcase that looks like it could have been made by, you know, one of the three Internet bags. Do you guys have a little little piece of spirit, a little piece of jazz on there? I do. I have very distinctive stickers, So I usually travel with two bags. One is like very distinctive, no one whatever mistake it

for theirs. It's like bright orange, definitely mine. The other is the classic black away bag, which I think I did get for free from for like making a podcast. Add like everybody has we all had everybody who had a podcast got that bag. We all had podcasts. So everybody has that bag now. And it's a good bag. It's durable. I've had it for years. I'm like, like, truly, it is like the day you start a podcast that

shows up at your house with your microphone. But so I have to have all kinds of distinctive stickers on it, right, because there are so many of those bags. And I also to that question, I like to have, like I have no stickers on a car because I feel like that's uh presumptuous. Somehow people are already driving. They don't want to have to learn more about me. I'll just

use my turn signals and be quiet. But but like, like with the bag, especially because they're relatively ubiquitous and I'm partially colored blind, I have a bunch of like just travel stickers, the ones they do from when you check a bag, and I just haven't haven't cleaned it. So I'm always thinking, oh, yeah, there's the one, the beat up, shitty one. I knew you from the first welcome back, but you know, but I think it is smart when people have you know, sometimes people make a statement.

Everybody makes a statement right at different times. And I kind of love seeing weird bags in the baggage claim. You know, I'm like, oh, this guy either is super into snowboarding or maybe it's a cello right. One thing I do know is he has very specific views on you know, to bet back in the nineties. Sure from is like free to bet thing. I think that's cool. I think that's cool. And if you check a bag, like to your point, Bridget, you can, especially if you

have a connecting flight. It's like the logistics, it's just sort of magical. I can never do that. I could never figure out how to follow every you know, watch every falling sparrow from like one airplane to the next. But it's oppressive, Yeah, Ben, to your point about that

you don't put stickers on your cars. Do you ever see one of those cars that just has way too many stickers on it where it's like you are trying to tell out way too many things, even if there are things that I like or agree with at a certain point, it's like it makes you're advertising too much to the world, even if it's things that I'm aligned

with us too much. Yeah, yeah, it's too much. And they're always like usually include get off my ass, and it's like, will you clearly want me somewhere close to you so that I can read the dissertation that you've put together. Those stickers, the bumper stickers are like, so, I don't know. They do not have a fact industry wide fact checker, I will say, because there are quotes attributed to Einstein that I'm pretty sure are like van Halen lyrics or something. You know, what, what do you

guys think about vanity plates? Oh? I used to have one. What you're saying? It said love This is so cheesy. It said love to teach, because I was a teacher at the time and I really did love to teach. I think, yeah, that's a good one. That's a good I like the ones where you know, I'm never going to condone being high in traffic. So for the purposes of this story, I was writing Shotgun and I got to the point where I thought regular license plates were

vanity plates that I just smart enough to understand. Yeah, I was like, h four, no, no, no, keep following that guy. I got to write this down. Follow that man.

Decode also there was a study that I don't know if it's been replicated widely, but it's an interesting thought, is that there was a study that the people who are most likely to engage in road rage incidents were It had nothing to do with like, you know, so some of the things that you might have liked went whether they were in a pickup truck or like a different kind of truck, which would have been my first guess.

It was actually people who had bumper stickers were like that was the only statistically significant differentiator between like how likely they were to get into a road rage incident, and like, I think the theory was that if you have bumper stickers, you view your car as like an extension of your personhood more than anything else, and so like you view it as a personal insult if you're cut off, as opposed to just a thing that happens

to everyone. You know. Wow, this is like one of the reasons why I don't drive is because I feel like I would be a road rage person. Like I drive a little bit, but I really don't drive a lot. Uh when I'm behind the wheel, Like if somebody is trying to murder, like kind of box me out to merge I will kill us both, like I don't care, like we will die in this car. Yeah, I get. I believe that. I believe the bumper sticker to road

rage correlation. Yeah, like you probably feel much more like this is my this car is my property and an extension of me, and I will protect it, which I hate to say. It's like an instinct that I get. And I wonder if they I've never had a bumper sticker, but I do wonder if when you have a bumper sticker, you start assuming people are driving a certain way around you based on You're defensive. You're like, oh, you don't

like Einstein, you don't believe that I ran a half marathon. Well, like, I'm gonna take this to the y. You're you're you're like laying on your horn and to yourself. You're just muttering, Well, this guy doesn't fucking coexist. That's right. You know, I tell you one thing. I uh, I see it, and this is just further cementing my no bumper stickers on my car situation. You know, it's it's great, You're right, though,

it's it's a lot. I think people always want to sort of tell a story, right because we are the stories we tell ourselves. But to you guys, point how many should there be a limit? Should somebody like right right to our local representatives and say, hey, I know there's a lot of stuff going on, but like three bumper stickers, Max, you know, like let's bring people together. I don't know, I don't know. I believe there should be a limit on bumper stickers. And also signs in

your yard. Like again, even even if it signs of things that I agree with, it's like we get it plenty three. You don't need you, you don't need to, like, let's keep it reasonable, return exact. And some people like try to build commit Like there there's houses that are like we do this this week and we're gonna like

I don't know. It's it reminds me of like those like mini library things that I think are cool, but I think a lot of people are like this is how we build community, and it's like, well, you're not really interacting with anyone. Feels like yeah, yeah, I don't know. I'm glad those exist. I just don't know that they're

the answer. This just a Jack o'bride library hater. I told you that was an offline thought, I'm still workshopping, so I mean, Jack, it's not like you ever see like crowds of people hanging around a free little library, you know, talking about the buck. We have one like right next like in between our neighbor's house and our house, and it's yeah, you don't. You don't see people like hang out there, but you see people like walk up by themselves. It gets a lot more traffic than I

would have expected. It's pretty, it's definitely useful. It's just yeah, people don't hang together at the at the free yard library. As a free yard library we got. I do want to give a quick shout out nothing Durella is here in Atlanta and activists artist friend of mine named Aileen Loyd has created on the heels of the book banning stuff that's happening around the country, has created a what what she's calling a little contentious free library, which is

all banned books like that. Yeah, yeah, she's way cooler than me, but but yeah, it's like, you know, it's it's a real problem if you're preventing people from being able to encounter knowledge, you know, at a at a formative age than that. I don't know, yeah, different might different in the future. That might be the like we'll all have to have little libraries where we give out books that are banned else where because yeah, their schools

aren't doing it in some states. So all right, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and get into the Taco Bell metaverse wedding and we're back and am I like when you think of a Dutch city or like the Netherlands or Amsterdam or you know, like do you pick what? What? What do you picture? How do you what do you see in your mind's eye? I went there once, so I know, but I just see like rivers and bikes and people walking in those

um waffles with powdered sugar on them. But I do think it's a majestic place of beauty where it's like sort of feels like it's from a children's story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, picture like fucking people in exercise clothing, like hot people and extra size closing clothing, like walking by canals and talking about like you know how much healthcare they have? Yeah,

just going to the doctor. B Yeah, Like I think I'm going to go to the dentist today because my two is not really aching, but it's starting to like I can feel something coming on. Yeah, do you think he would I should go Hans, And Hans is like, yeah, I think it should go. It's free. Just drop in at the dentists. Maybe maybe go for a two fer

and get a get a health check up. Yeah. And then also like Windmills, I guess, you know, with like some guy who's like wise inside it or some lady who's wise with like a hump and they was like, don't forget to use moisturize rhodion or whatever that stuff you were saying was rhodesia or whatever rodeola. So yeah, I feel like that is in my brain. And like

I assumed that was always the way it was. And apparently during the like fifties, sixties, seventies, they bought into the American style like city building, and they like bought in heart. They like filled up the like some of the their canals with cement and replaced the canals with like highways, and there's just like these pictures where it's just like four lanes of traffic in the middle of these cities that we now associate with like Mike riding

and wait, so they change that. They like they they removed the cement from the canals. Yeah yeah, what a what and what happened? What what made them come to some radical decision to change everything? So like among things like you know, it just being a nightmare to live in a city that is just jam packed, Like you walk out your front door in a car whizz by,

like yeah yeah yeah like America. Yeah yeah, So people like children were getting hit by cars all the time, like and you know, the air was like disgusting, but it was like a I guess it was nineteen seventy one, the daughter of In nineteen seventy one, three thousand people were killed by cars. Five hundred of people killed that year where children, And that probably happened today in America, right yeah, I mean they like so today we have three times the number of automobile deaths that they do

and like per capita and the reason for that. So one of the children that was killed was the daughter of a journalist, and he wrote a front page article that with the headlines stopped murdering our children, and that just like that. It wasn't like everyone was like, yes, you're right, we should stop murdering children. Like it was a long process, but like and there were other factors, like it was there was like gas prices started shooting up because it was the seventies. So I can't imagine

a reality like that where gas costs too much. They were paying like seven dollars right now, right, Yeah, it's

fucking crazy. Yeah, you know what you is here in Tennessee like three fifty Yeah, which is still like too much, Yeah it is, but like yeah, that's how they keep it low, and then they can they jack it up for liberals because liberals can be like, oh, well, you know it's because of this and that and maybe because of supply chains and you know, like but you know, Republicans are like they have to keep it artificially low and like red states because otherwise the Red states will

go crazy because they just do like God tells us the gas prices. Yeah, who's the you know, like it's just funny if the gas prices were seven dollars here, because everyone here is a conservative, they would they would they're storm the capital again. Yeah, just every day, just keep storm. Jesus names the gas prices. Who is interfering with the with Jesus? Yeah, with gas Jesus. Yeah, it

really is. It seems to be that simple. The like companies were just like we need to we we like money, and like the pandemic slowed down how much money was coming in, so I wanted to open back up. We are going to charge more money for everything. Like that really seems to be the more distance we get from it, like all the all the gas companies are having just

like record breaking profits. But like the reason I like the story is so interesting is because, like it just I assume, I think we like tend to get focused on like the way things are and assume they've always been that way. And like there's this one drawing of like what Amsterdam was supposed to look like, and it

looks exactly like a city in Texas. Like it's just you know being choked by like all these lanes of like highways and stuff like it, or like the b QE like in you know, like parts of New York that are just like all these highway interchanges and shit. But they like we're able to back away from that

because like that that article led to a movement. People started like protesting and just like laying down in the streets, and like you know, after gas prices shot up, it became fashionable for like the Prime Minister like urged people to use less energy change their lifestyles. He announced a series of car free Sundays, which is my favorite idea, Like can we just try a car free Sunday like

fucking once in America? And I feel like people would see that their lives are like livable and it's cool too for your kids to just be able to like run wherever they want and not be worried about getting like run over. Literally that would never happen. That would never happen because like you're taking away are right to drive? Are? Ah? Yeah? Like what do you think we're closer to the car free Sunday or the actual purge happening in the I

feel like closer to the purge. Away we could have a car free Sunday is when the aliens finally come down and if they say you have to have a car free Sunday. But yeah, they introduced really moderate, like incremental changes, Like guys, just just hear us out. We're not saying you have to for just saying car free Sundays one day every couple of months, car free Sundays, and you can only use your phone one hour a day except for for phone calls. Yeah, I'm taking those

would be some badass aliens. The city's also began like passing policies to discourage driving. They like made parking in city center super expensive. They removed some parking spots entirely. They reduced speed limits, so like there are things that can be done that have worked in the past, Like

they turned some areas into car free zones. Like all these things that like seem completely impossible, Like we think of the United States, I possible in this country, reekly because this country thinks that cars are like an extension of their fucking like Blair just said, like freedom. You know, it's like toxic men. I mean I think about toxic masculinity constantly now because of what's happening in Tennessee with the drag show ban and and the fuck the abortion band,

I mean the state. I mean, I just move back here because I could afford it better, you know. But it's like it's a nightmare, and it's all these fucking men, these alcoholic men who are running things. I mean, like we keep electing alcoholics. We're fucked. Everybody in Tennessee is an obvious drunk. Every person that every member of the legislature. I mean, that's the culture here. They all fucking drink their heads off. You know what drinking makes you do,

It makes you fucking crazy. I used to be an alcoholic. I know you're a nut. You make laws about crazy shits because you think you're I don't know, like a human meteor. Like alcohol makes you grandiose. That's the last thing you want in a leader. I mean, you know,

but I was thinking about cars. You know that that is what Men feel more powerful in a car than they feel it's the only place now because they're like, at least I can't get canceled in my car like no one less, you know, I can ride around with my fucking dick out and fucking four wheel drive and all this bullshit. And it's just it's just men are so have been told there are only two ways to be mad, or or or madder. I don't even know, you know, like there's two ways a man can be

calm or mad. The only time I'm calm is in my truck. And if you try to take away my fucking truck, then I'm gonna go fucking crazy because that's my only other setting. Yeah, well, I think I think I always say this on this show. But like conservatives, like their whole thing in their head is that they are against big government. But then now there's all this like insane control coming over in all people's lives. But if they if you had the car thing, it wouldn't

even be about what the issue is about. It would be about taking away that something they can't do. There's no self awareness. But I guess our government with the two were always it's just about winning at this point. It's never actually about what's best for anyone. It's about beating the other party. And aside from that, I also think that there should be when the aliens come down,

that they should ban the politicians from having Twitter. I'm still fucking annoyed at these politicians on Twitter acting like every tweet is the goddamn wrestling promo. Like I missed the old days when they were just fake smiling in public, like freaking Richard Nixon and doing bad shit in private. Like I don't want to see them openly just being nuts every day. It's like terrifying to the really scary. Yeah yeah, it's like the joker. They're all like the joker,

you know, like everyone tries to outjoke or the other one. Well, how about if we outlaw you know, I don't know, I don't know what they you know everything, you know, they just want to outlaw everything, just to out out outlaw their other joker. You know what it's like, you

think you're the joker. Watch this? Yeah. Richard Nixon, by the way, when last time there was inflation, he just came on and was like, companies, if companies try to raise prices for the next month, they'll be like under arrest, like something that today would be seen as like the most socialist thing that's ever been done. Yeah, everything, everything is socialist if it doesn't mean YEA unrelated a little bit. But that star series on Watergate with the Julia Roberts

was absolutely incredible? Was it really? Yeah? Well I enjoyed the hell out of it. Was so good. It was really about Martha La La La La La. But what I forgot her two other names? Lad? Is that no Martha? Um? I forget the name? Is Julia Roberts play Richard Nixon? No? So bad? I want that kind of casting. I would be so interested in biopics or biopics, which is it? I mean, I can never no, Julia Robbers played Martha Martha the whistle Bower, Martha the whistle bro I want

Samuel Jackson. Yes, I want to see Samuel Jackson as Amelia Earhart. That's kind of shit I'm talking about. Yeah, I want to see that. I'm tired of them casting who will look like the person. It's so fucking stupid and juvenile, like, oh, we have to get an actor that looks like that's so dumb. I mean, that's Martha ever think of in the War Old Yeah, like casting in a in a meeting, being like he doesn't look enough, like I thought we were here for art. But guys,

everybody laughs and jumps out the window. But one thing quickly about aliens, to Blair's point, is like I wish they would come down and bosses around two and I'm starting to lose faith in the aliens. I just want to mention that because they've been buzzing around here for what fifty years or whatever, just I don't believe they're aliens anymore, because if they were aliens, they wouldn't give a fuck. They would show up and get in our faces.

They're not like, oh, they're just investigating. That's horseshit. Why would they ever waste they don't give up? What are they afraid of us for? Why wouldn't they just come down and start patting us on the head. I just I don't. I'm I'm a big believer in everything. I can believe in anything. I believe in bigfoot, I believe

in ghosts. I believe in every goddamn thing. But aliens fucking do it already, Like come down here and shoot us with a ray gun, or fucking tell us to have no cars on Sunday, or just get it over with. Stop just buzzing around the sky and drive diving underwater and stuff. Come on, stop diving underwater and I'm not kidding. People are like, and what the fuck are they doing underwater? Or tell him to come up here and kick Mitch McConnell's fucking ass. He fell down to him. Fuck that.

I hope he falls down a million times. Yeah. So Talk a Bell held a contest where the winner, yes, the winner got to have their wedding in a digital Taco bell in the metaverse, that was what you won. That feels like a punishment to me. But the ceremony happened at the end of last March, but people who attended just I don't know, broke their media embargo. I don't I don't know, and it's just truly, I don't know that this story made me feel as empty as any story we've covered it in a long time. But

I did have to talk about it. So the bride and grooms avatars faced each other across a sacred fire. It was so the wedding was a traditional Indian ceremony other than the fact that it was in a taco bell In the metaverse, it was hosted by Calpen. The bride and grooms avatars faced each other across a sacred fire made of taco bells signature fire sauce. See, okay, okay, all right, you're on board. No, I look, I get it. Wait a second, I feel like yeah, I'm like, oh okay,

now I'm back in. I didn't know it was Signature fire sauce. But I gotta be honest, this um is gross and I wish everybody like marriage is tough, you know what I mean, Like, I wish everybody the best of success finding your person. You know, it's like even better than that Roten column moment with your bag at baggage claim, right, it's like that forever, and that's really noble and cool, and that is, for most people, the height of romantic. Look, so you're saying this is even

more than seeing your bag. Yeah yeah, yeah, ok yeah, okay, okay, we're we're very statement but okay, Bridget and I are being paid by big checked bag, I guess. But okay, there's like again, you know, a good friend of mine, actually my best friend, uh is, he's getting married pretty soon, and he was telling me all all like how stressful it is and how messed up in crazy planning this

thing gets. And so he and his partner they have decided to elope, which I think is cool, you know, cut past the nonsense and then make it their own. So maybe for this couple it's their dreaming thing. Maybe they were like, hey, we met it a taco bell or like you know metaverse. Yeah yeah, Gordita front wraps are really the glue of our partnership. My problem here is not the taco bell, theming I will say that, the okay, but the official taco bell, theming, the fact

that it is. I don't know, I just feel bad for like, if you want to diminish the amount of stress associated with an event, adding a corporate sponsor who has notes on everything, like, it just seems like not the not the way to go. I mean, I think like the idea idealized version that like they pitched when Taco Bell, you know, signed onto this idea and contest is probably that it's like, yeah, they just start expressing their love and they're two couple weirdos who just love

Taco Bell. But in practice, for anyone who has been involved with sponsored content and trying to get any amount of art through past past corporate sponsors who have notes, I just like, I don't know, it seems seems difficult.

I also like the fact that they keep saying that they want a contest to become the first people married at a Taco Bell in the metaverse, as though this is going to be an ongoing thing that we'll be looking back on them as the fucking George Washington's of this thing that we all then went on to do as a people. Yeah, I mean, people do have like

really strong feelings about Taco Bell. Like I have no trouble believing that this couple maybe met in a Taco Bell and Taco Bell was a big part of their relationship. I didn't have taco bell for the first time until like five years ago, so I am not in that particular group. But yeah, we weren't allowed to eat it when I was growing up like a weird a weird role. My mom had no taco bell, no mountain Dew, but

all the other stuff was five. Yeah, all fine. I don't know why she just like had a thing well for mountain dew. She said it was because this is this is her words, not mine. It was quote for white trash. We weren't allowed to drink. Yeah, I think taco bell might have been in the mix as well.

My family didn't encourage it. I will say that I never went out to dinner with my family to Taco Bell necessarily, but you know I got it like after you know, a game or something like if I you know, we we just it was the thing that was open that we could like scarf down in the fifteen minutes we had and yeah, it's such perfect point, just like so delicious. I don't know, they lit up something in my brain that I have been unable to increase from there. And the same is true of mountain dew. When I

lived in Kentucky. I became addicted to mountain dew and have never been able to fully like I don't I don't go freak because of or like drink mountain dew frequently because for self care reasons, because like, if I have a twelfth pack of mountain dew at my house, I'm not going to be able to not drink at all. But what if you could do it in the metaverse? Brow now we're talking be thank you. No, that's mountain

dew was originally slaying for moonshine. That's the etymology of it. Yeah, I haven't tried it, but I do agree with your mom bridges. Oh my god, gone too something, but that like, wow, you've never tried I've never tried it. I've tried the red kind, but I've never had regular mountain dew. Regular, you get the you get the overall. Yeah, wait, Ben, have you did you say you've never tried it? M I've never tried mountain dew. I probably this is like

asking someone if they've always been vegan. There was probably something in the drinks. But anytime there was a mountain do situation available, there was some other soda or something to drink. So I would end up I would end up going with that. And also growing up, some of my relatives I didn't care for. We're into mountain dew. There was super into mountain dew. And I would look at them and I would be like, a better you

than me? My friends? You know, so like okay, but Taco Bell though, the appeal, the late night appeal back in the day. You know, you got like twelve eighteen bucks. You're high in a car following another car because you think it's a vanity license flight. They go into a Taco Bell. Yeah, and then you're like, I'm living like I am the fucking emperor of bad decisions. You know what? Two case ideas grow into euros yo, you know yeah, oh man, cheesy gordita crunch I just discussed like Miles,

I think turned me onto it. Like I loved Taco Bell and I wasn't even getting the best stuff growing up. What's the good order? I mean, cheesy gordo casady I've always had and then I like to get a grilled stuffed chicken burrito with That's the healthy part of my order. Grilled stuff chicken burrito extra grill, like put it on the grill. For a little extra time if we don't mind, but something you can ask for that, yeah, well done.

Yeah for your brito, well done. But then I'll freelance and then of course with the biggest Baja blast that they will allow me to carry out. You're in deep water, my friends, Like, like, I had no idea this was a thing. So wait though, I get like once a year at this point. But and I don't tell my kids or my word. Yeah, it's just like a dark trip to under the star of night. I turn my headlights off, dark night of the soul. Oh, I got bridgie.

He's got like a fake mustache on. So wait though, wait though, a wedding in the metaverse, you gotta tell us these uh, these folks getting married. They were in person, right,

This wasn't like a remote like together. They kissed, They kissed each other's faces like real people in love and all that stuff, which is all like that almost makes it because then you're like, oh, so they are really like married now, like this was really their wedding, because like the picture that you see of it is like two people deeply in love kissing one another, and then they're like weird avatars and a purple, like on a

purple throne, like kissing each other above. But so the vows were written by chat GPT, so like the story seems like it's being written by chat gpt because just like all the stupidest buzzwords coming together here, the vows were written by chat GPT. It was within a video game, so it was even really the metaverse. But like, I don't know how to feel about that, Like I'm not

I'm no metaverse snob. So if they want to do it in de CenTra Land the video game, it just seems like it was a poorly orchestrated publicity stunt by Taco Bell, which has to hurt a little bit when like the big viral marketing campaign that is sponsoring your wedding, like doesn't even put it in the real metaverse. But I don't, I don't give a shit. But if they pay for the wedding though, I mean, at that point,

it's just like yeah, absolutely, like that's that's great. However, but like also the wedding in the metaverse, so like not really did they I guess it's like I'm sort of it's sort of breaking my brain. Did they pay for a ceremony? I RL or only within the metaverse? Also does a Taco Bell within the metaverse have employees, Like I have a lot of questions. Yeah, yeah, I

think they have employees. One thing that we do know for sure is that and this is my favorite point because it's like you suspect, okay, the corporate brand is gonna have some notes and ideas that they're gonna want to implemented. The one place we got to see this is that, in addition to having cal Penn host their wedding, they also had a twitch streamer like he who was narrating the whole thing to the point that the guests

of the wedding couldn't hear what was happening. He a play by play, yes, like a play by play, but not even like he was just a twitch streamer. They were like, here, do your thing, like had no relation to the couple. So he's just like over the top, keeps singing. No one so this is no one could hear what was going on because the twitch streamer Taco Bell Hired kept singing about Taco Bell throughout the ceremony.

Legion except the O in legion is a que for probably Q and on reasons, but I have no idea spoke through every minute of the ceremony. He shouted out his followers and made up little songs proclaiming his love for Taco Bell as he showed off his avatar's various outfits during the wedding. Wow, he sounds like a rowdy wedding guess that you have to throw out of your wedding because they've had one too many. But like during the ceremony, it's like, how at the ceremony? How can

I make this wedding about me? He said? You know which that happens that ever heard worst stories? I you know what, I don't want to I've never met these folks. Wish them the best again, Yeah at the top them, it's just we live in Hell, all of us. And yeah, this is amazing, and Hell is a combination Taco Bell the metaverse wedding chapel. Yeah, oh my gosh, what other things you're going to happen in the metaverse? What other is Taco Bell gonna have a funeral contest next? Like?

Are they gonna have a kincinera? Like, what's what's going on? Who would? Who would think this is a good idea? I want to meet the couple that steps up and has their divorce in the metaverse, Yeah, like if you're to be about that life, Yeah, like they didn't look at the by laws in the entirety of their wedding, including like the consummation. Everything has to happen in the metaverse. Oh my god, what if they kill Bell present narrating all of the whole thing? Wait wait, wait though, wait

less less less question? What if what if there is something I think you're onto someone with the fine print? What if there is something where they cannot get divorced? And less Taco Bell signs off right like, we don't love this for our Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it was in the contract. I'd be surprised if they upheld it if like, I'm sure they put it in the contract, being like, because now this is going to

be America's sweethearts. Everyone's going to be paying attention to the the first couple to get married in a meta first Taco Bell. And then now that it has happened, and everyone's just like, oh my god, we live in hell. They're probably like, never mind, you guys do your thing. But yeah, I'm sure the contract gives gives them rights to the first two offspring from the children, you know, or front from the wet from the marriage. All right, so let's take a quick break and then we'll talk

about more insane news. And we're back, and so is comedy in Texas. Joe Rodan turned an old Alamo drafthouse into Austin's newest comedy club, Mecca, dubbed the Comedy Mothership, which is a bumber because of like ties In. I don't know, it's such a it's such a bumber that he is like both he's like into psychedelics and aliens, but also like really shitty right wing political takes. Yeah,

but so he's like Comedy Mothership. Tickets to the opening week where forty dollars sold out and have been going online for five hundred dollars plus a two drank minimum. There's this one comics. Oh you know Roseanne bar truly

like she was one of the opening opening weeks. Terrible comics. Yeah, but there's a profile of the this comedy location and it opens with a woman is standing outside the theater holding an unvaxed sperm sign up and that's what they're like, So you know you're in the right place, Joe Rogan's new comedy club Mecca. In addition to Joe Rogan, the lineup feature comics like Roseanne bar who praised the club for daring to have a green room where comedians are

openly drunken high. Has she been in a green what the funny? That's kind of nice talking about I've been elsewhere every green ro not every green room, but I've I've been in I've been in green rooms where people are smoking and there's always beers and ship or drinks and things like that. This isn't new, at least in my experience. Yeah, it's not exactly cutting edge, but um, you know, I'm not surprised that she thinks that that is cutting edge. Yeah, okay, yes, very very true, very true.

The crowd was reportedly mostly dudes with beards and baseball caps, and the jokes on the opening nights were like gay slurs and jokes about trans people, of course, and they so they banned phone usage, so like you have to seal them in the pouches. That's a good thing though. That's that they do a lot of clubs. Most clubs do that now, which is I mean all the clubs I performed that. To do that, it's a much better experience. It's a much better experience. It's not even like the

whole thing like recording someone. I get that's one thing, but really it's just about audience distraction. That's that's that's the principal thing of it. The people like people will be on their phones while you're absolutely there. Yeah, absolutely, And it's like the it's the worst thing that you can possibly encounter is someone on their phone. The first show I ever did after the pandemic, I mean granted

this is after the pandemic, but well not after. It was like the first show I did when they were starting to do shows again. It was an outdoor show. There was just two ladies in the front row and they were both on their phone, Like, you know, this is insane, Like you you can't you left your house to do the thing you're doing, your mean doing your house for the last eight months, right yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I also can't really blame him because it's like people

forgot how to behave you know. Yeah, we're all broken at yeah point. Yeah, but the phone back thing, I think that's just that's just general. When you can get away with it, what people do. It's just expensive. Yeah, it's expensive. It's probably like not the audience his first choice. But I think in this case they're like, well, he also disagreed with mask Man dates, so we'll let him take our phones to you know, but yeah, I don't know. He He's also like, this is like I can say

whatever I want without getting canceled. Here. I feel like he's not been he's been like opposite, the opposite of canceled. Like he's just built most yeah, massive media empire by just saying yeah, punching down. And then he's like, finally I have a place where I can speak freely. But yeah, so this is the thing. He has a place where he can speak freely outside of the place where he

can speak freely, which is his own show, his own podcast. Sure, yeah, no, it's it's you know, of course, the funny thing about, oh, here's a place where I can speak freely and not be canceled, and you know, you can't record it and anything like that, which I agree it's a good policy, just because you know, as comedians, you know, I always want your shit to be recorded and then live on the internet. If you don't want it on the internet,

if you're working material blah blah blah blah blah. But um, but there is a there is a part of me that's just like, well, if you believe what you're saying, what you're worried about it getting out for if you think it's a you know, like that means you know you're saying some shit. That means you know you're saying some shit. If I know I'm about to say some shit that could get me in trouble, yeah, I'm gonna tell you lock your phones up too. Yeah, go ahead,

lock them up real quick. We're about to talk, and we're gonna keep it in here because this might get me in trouble. But if it's some shit I believe, and I'm like, yeah, man, fuck you, I believe this shit. Say that ship with my whole chest. Say it with my whole chest, like the Immemorium is perfect, thank you, and I should stay in charge of it, all right. The Mandalorian is back for season three, facing a lot of pressure on the home front from my kids really

want to watch this ship. They're like six and five, they don't get to watch you. It's like a little oh, they're not quite old enough. You think, yeah, they're just not not old enough. I think based on arbitrary ship that I've like heard read somewhere on a on a forum somewhere. But the so the this is good news for fans who need who like two shows in which Pedro Pascal escorts a highly important youth through dangerous train. It's kind of why, like, what is the same thing

that gets a typecast? I mean it really is a typecast though, because it's like that thing where you know, we like what you did here, We're just gonna have you do it some more because it's working. Yeah, we'll have you do it until you die. You're gonna be doing this thing because you're just he's got the voice. Yeah, he's good. He's daddy and also like daddy, like kind of the two types of daddy that he's multi faceted daddy. Yeah,

he's Daddy's daddy. Daddy's right. He also does the same thing and the Last of Us show, where he's you know how the Mandalorian's sort of an imperfect hero, like he makes mistakes but he always ends up winning. Yeah. Same with the Last of Us guy. Yeah yeah, Yeah. It's like it's typecast down to the details of the character. There you go. But fortunately the last of us. Way, what if we could see his face, It's it's beautiful, right, like, that's we should we should just keep his face visible.

So Gina Kara Kara No no, no, no, no no no no, famously shaped camp by Disney after putting a bunch of right wing bullshit on social media, including posts comparing being a conservative to being Jewish and Nazi Germany, and so her character Kara Dune will not be joining Grief Cargo din jar In Grogo mof Gideon So so super producer Justin was telling me to not point anything out about it, or he was saying, I did not say that the oldest observation in in the book, which is you can

make you can make fun of the goofy names because they are goofy. I'm just it's it's it's just not it's not very creative joke, is all I was trying to say. I'm just saying they're great names. They're very like they I don't know, I'm curious what the like writer's room, like, how much of the writer's room is devoted to naming because Grief like, they're just like, yeah, they're so specific, they're always like just perfect. What wasn't move move bop? What? What? What was the names again?

Moved by something you said, move something, Grief, Cargad, Cargad, din jar In. They're just they roll off the tongue like a like a delicious menu item. Moth Gideon. I think you were talking about moth Gideon. Moth Gideon with chicken please and I'll have a how's that grief cardoon? Is it pretty good? It's great? Do you want egg with that? We can do a fried egg on top. And then Carra Dune is like more in the Luke Skywalker like family, where it's just like, well, this is

a normal name with like some some cool shit. We have a twenty ounce Carra Dune. It's uh well marbled and it's um from our farms in New Zealand. Yeah, carratdoon kind it's sort of between a poor house and a ribby. It's just a steak. Yeah, that's all it is. Kidsa city style. I mean, like it would be fun listen to off your stein of Groku. There you go, of course you can, of course you can. I do think like there are people who like come up with

these names. Obviously, Yeah, there are. That's not a groundbreaking thing to say, but I think it's twofold. I think there are they they really think of the names, because it sounds like you can just be like, what's ther name? How about blank tar? You like, all right, cool blan tar. But then there's like, then there's somebody in that same room who's like, but what does that mean? What is it derived from? What it like? Who takes it way

too seriously? Because you know, they believe in the Lord of the world and everything like that, and so I believe they definitely have people who truly think, what would the parents name this kid based on the place they are, the region they are, the type of names because yeah, absolutely like blank tarb is not good. Sorry to say, yeah it would. It wouldn't work like that. Alternatives were it was gonna be named like bucket skunked or like Scorpian face Yeah, yeah, which and guardians Galaxy is a

great name. Scorpion face. Yeah. Creaky Jack Jack Oh, I like that. That's actually kind of like that. I'm just into that nickname. M creaky Jack. Oh, creaky Jack. Anyways, they didn't really come up They didn't like fully write her off. The Mandalorian asked Carl Weathers what happened to Don and he responds that she was recruited by special forces for a new job somewhere off screen, and old soap opera trick always leave the door open, Always leave

the door open open. I did like her character, though, I gotta say that's the problem. Yeah, there's a good character on the Showers. Yeah she's like a badass, right, like just yeah, yeah, she was probably bring her back. You know, look, I'm a fan. I'm a fan of wrestling, and there's an old adage and wrestling never say never, right, And I you know, like the thing is this show, I don't know when the show is gonna end. Uh. If it has an unlimited amount of seasons, they can do.

But if it has enough seasons, we have a short term memory. Unfortunately, as a generation and society, I guess they didn't bringing her back and be like, you know that was t You can come back and have an episode and then there would be a big controversy. You know. It's like one of those things where I don't agree with anything she said. But during that time a lot of people were losing their losing their mind and if she had, if she had walked back what she said,

She's like, guys, I was going crazy. I was drinking a lot alone at home. I don't know why, I says, I'm so stupid. That would be I think there would be universal like Okay, yeah, um, we're always liked going nuts. Yeah, you know, but she seems to be doubling down. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's what hurts because it's like, I mean, also, what a dump thing that doubled down on? What a just a truly not very interesting and stupid, Like that's

what does she even say? She said something about like mask mandates being similar to how the Jews were treated in Nazi Germany. Yeah, something like that. Just the classic non comparable thing that she knows it's not. It's just

you just don't do that. Yeah. Yeah. She has been busy starring in movies made by The Daily Wire, including twenty twenty two's Terror on the Prairie, which made officially eight hundred and four dollars and it's one day theatrical run, making up one of the biggest box office failures of the year, also the title with the most RS in it of all time. Term Yes they were going for

breaking the record for ours. This is why we don't believe y'all conservatives like, yeah, if you really like you know what, get her out of liberal Hollywood and less watch we're gonna watch him. You gotta do better than eight hundred and forty dollars if you did. If you did, numbers would be like, oh, they really believe they shit, all right, but eight hundred and forty dollars. That's how you know you bullshit. And you watch them same movies we do, and you like the same movies we do.

You like the same actors and actress as we do. You don't give a shit about all the liberal Hollywood stuff outside of just talking points on Facebook. We'll tell you what the problem was. Jackies lasted by its target audience for being too woke because two woke no ways, Oh my god, cram your woke action heroes down our throat bench man. That's that's just that's that's sad though. That's one of those things where you're just I feel bad for everybody and find out yeah, god, oh that's

so pathetic, so pathetic, Oh man, fucking Christ. Of course, of course, the circumspect about the kind of you know some of those quotes here in the not too distant future, but Jesus two woke. That is just man. Wow, Where's where's Arnold Schwarzenegger as the action star in Stay or No? Who do they like? Kevin Sorbo? Yeah? Yeah, Chris Pine is probably pretty popular or not. Chris Pine, Chris Spine, Chris Prets, Chris Pratt probably across the board, but Chris Pratt.

Chris Pratt still like Chris Pritte is like a religious motherfucker. Yeah, but he still is very active in like what they would consider liberal Hollywood. He yeah, you know, I'm saying He's just say I feel like he hasn't offended either side, Like he's probably okay. In their book, it's called too Dumb to Fail to fail this one telling me they're gonna be seeing Mario. They're gonna be seeing Mario this

month or whenever it comes out with the Republicans. That's right, hey, Republicans by Nintendo Entertainments comes to Yeah, Mario is big in the Republican That would be hilarious. It's just huge. They love him. The Italian Americans have flocked to see Mario and are outraged this depiction of Italian Americans. Why does he have to be a plumber, Why does have to be so big? This is unfair. The way that our big complaint is that his ass is that they

did not give him enough ass. Mario, he hadn't asked me. He used as a weapon. It's a weapon weaponized as flipped and on his ass so hard it would cause an earthquake, and they just d asked him. He's been food time. Food can be very high in calories. What what oils in there? There? You got a lot of oils that go right to them hips and ass. That's right, damn 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 you Monday. By m