Kubbooms.
If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of the old Republic, a sol fastion of fairness. He treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich pill poppers in the penthouse.
Wow.
The Clearinghouse of Hot takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
In the air eywhere the Fifth Hour with me, Ben Mahler and Danny g Radio. And welcome to December, the first day of the final month of the year, and we are back at it again, slaving away over the red hot microphone with the on air light above us on an NFL Sunday've already been four games played in
the NFL. But this is your unofficial early early pregame show without Terry Bradshaw, without a lot of just canned laughter and all that and my rams play out or not a big game they play the Saints Raiders obviously played back on on Friday. The biggest game by far today, not even close, is the Eagles and Ravens game. Right there's nothing really even close to that on the card today. That's I know Sunday Night uses the biggest game forty nine ers in Bills, But the Eagles Ravens game, that's
where it's at. That is the game day.
The weather, the elements should be fun to watch for Sunday Night football because they're expecting sleet and snow and thirty mile per hour wins.
Yes, snow globe game. It's supposed to be a snow glow in Buffalo, which is always kind of kind of cool. I guess Brock Purdy, if I read correctly, this week, he's gonna play who knows if he's gonna finish the game. So there's some debate about that, his health and all that, but there should be some snow there. And as far as the other try to look around here. There's a slight chance of snow for the Washington Tennessee game and the DMV it's gonna be maybe in the second half,
some snow for that game today. Slight chance of snow in Baltimore for the Eagles and Ravens. But yeah, the big one if you want to see a snow game Buffalo and San Francisco, that's the big snow game today on the NFL car so we have the mail bag. But before we get to the mail bag, I teased this yesterday the word of the.
Week, the word of the week, So.
We're in the week, this weekend, this first day of December is gremlin. Kremlin. Now, you know in the movie Gremlin's Danny. We're around the same age, and that was a big movie in our youth, right, Gremlins, And of course that's.
What I always think about when we're annihilating wings at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Yeah, I was. When I have to do the show from the home studio and things get attacked, I think of the Gremlins. So a gremlin, believe it or not, a mythical creature in the upper air who causes damage to airplanes. And the term not that old. The term it first appeared in the Royal Air Force. It's the UK Air Force. It was Royal Air Force slang during
the interwar years of the nineteen twenties. Now there are claims that gremlin was in use during the First World War, and while the people that study the history of words say that's plausible, there is no evidence it, meaning it wasn't written down somewhere earlier. Now, the origin of the term is actually unknown, But what is known is that gremlin as first recorded, originally had a much different meaning. That is, a a low ranking commissioned or non commissioned
Air Force officer. So you were called a gremlin if you were a low ranking you know, a person in the military, the Air Force in the UK, one who performed the routine duties that were beneath the dignity of the brass. So you were a low level hoi poloid type person. And they say it was first used in a poem. The first time I was written down. There was a poem that appeared in April of nineteen twenty nine in an issue of the journal Aeroplane, and that
was the first use of the term gremlin. So originally gremlin meant some low level person in the Royal Air Force, and for us now it means a little creature, a little weird creature thing. So all right, let's get to the mail bag. What do you say you ready for the mailbag? Let's go, hio.
Al it's.
Mail bag, all right. First one up is alf from the Great Beyond. These are actual letters. If you want to send a message in you can send it right now. Won't get on today's mail bag because this is a podcast, but you can send it in anyway and we might use it for next week. Make sure we put your name in there if you want credit, name and city so we can give you a little love. So the mail bag, these are questions sending Ben Mahlor show is the uh, well, that's the Facebook page. We don't really
use Facebook for this anymore. It's real fifth hour at gmail dot com. That's all laters, no numbers. Real spell it out r E A L and then f I F T H h o U R at gmail dot com. Music provided as we said by ohio Al first one up Alf from the Great Beyond. He says, gentlemen, I'll try not to be Debbie Downer this week. But Masshole Mickey had asked me weeks ago whether or not I thought that you'd be doing a mail bag this week, and he told me he had a great question for you,
which you teased last week when you read his question. Also, Ben, I thought you were the king of the tees. But masshole Mickey has outdone you, because now I have to wait until I passed through the pearly gates to ask him what his question was. Oh Man Yeah. So now for my mediocre question, do your wives really get into Christmas? I mean, like multiple trees and Christmas village pieces and decorations everywhere, like the ones that my wife puts all over the Alpha State. Before we get to that, I
did want to address Masshole Mickey major depression. Obviously, we're very, very sad. We did the mail bag last week. I did not find out that Masshole Mickey had died until we found out. I found out on Sunday during I think it was Sunday during the day what I believe. I'm trying to think of the timeline. But at the time we did the mailbag, we did not know that he had had died. He died on his way to work.
And my condolences to his family, obviously as his wife and his kids there and his friends many and I want to thank his friends. A lot of times Danny and people pass away we don't know, and his buddies who were also out delivering newspapers or whatever the stores. They all listened to the show. They're fans of the show, and they knew him from the show, and they listened to the show and they wanted me to know that he had passed away on his way to work and just terrible.
Super sad. We you and I were texting about it to start the week, and not only was he a big part of this Fifth Hour podcast, but he signed up on Twitter just so he could communicate with us on Twitter.
Yeah. I know he loved the show. And I met him when I was back in Boston. We were taking some stuff for the TV show and I said, like, last minute, I a couple hours noticed. I was like, Hey, I'm gonna be outside Bova's Bakery on the North End. Anybody wants to meet me, come down. I give nobody really heads up, and mass Ole Mickey's such a big fan that he drove. He lives out near Worcester, and he drove all the way in to see me and hang out for like, you know, twenty thirty minutes or
whatever it was. And I talked to blind Scott a little bit this week, and blind Scott had gotten there a little bit earlier and was catching up with mass Ole Mickey, and blind Scott was really emotional about it too. We were talking about you know, he had told me how big a deal the show was for him and how he loved it and it was such a big part of his routine, mass O Mickey, and it was just just sat all the way around, especially and he almost died during the summer. He told me the story
about he had had major medical problems. He had a big operation and a lot of health problems, and you know, he got over that and he went right back to work because he had to provide food, you know, money for the family and whatnot, and so he quickly went back to work. And yeah, I don't know what happened. I know, I don't know all the details. I just know he was in an accident eno if he had a heart attack or there was the weather was bad, which I heard the weather was bad as he was
driving work. I don't know about all that, but just just a sad deal. I mean, he was around our age, Danny, a little bit younger than us. And then that's it. Lights out. But rest in peace, mass While Mickey will We'll miss you, and a lot of people were touched. I mean, it's I heard from a lot of folks. It's one of those things. They'd heard his name a lot because he used a lot of it on Twitter.
He only called in a few times, but a lot of email questions for this podcast, and also he would send us messages on Twitter all the time.
So but he really was a nice dude, and he had a great sense of humor obviously, good taste and radio. Yes, and I'm going to name the podcast today in tribute to him, Masshole, Mickey mailbag no good.
Yeah, I mean he was. He was great man. I loved hearing about his life. And he had worked as a chef, he had some health problems, you know that's obviously couldn't do that anymore, and spent a little time in California, had in San Diego, and it was good to get to know him a little bit. And I'm really happy I got to meet him. I obviously did not think that would be the you know, the end of it. I thought I'd see him every year, going back.
Hopefully the TV show gets picked up and we go back and hang out and catch up, you know, a year after year and all that. But you never know. That's the craziness of life, right, You don't know when that's it. And this is the second time that's happened where I met a listener at an event and within a couple months they died. There was a guy Rick in Boston. This goes back probably fifteen sixteen years. I was with Mikey Adams. We were bar hopping around Boston.
Mikey Adams is a big nighttime guy wi and he knew that guy was like the mayor of Boston, knew every bartender complete you know, he loved drinking. So we would bounce from bar to bar around Boston. And Rick, this guy, one of our callers, showed up and it was really cool. And again, you know, died in a car accident and I remember Rick, and that kind of triggered that memory of Rick from Masshole.
Mickey.
As far as the question, alf, I yeah, I mean my wife is obsessed with Christmas. I'm Jewish, so I you know, I'm not. We celebrate the spirit of Christmas at the house, but not the not really religious stuff. But I mean, yeah, there's lights, there's the tree, and this already yesterday, Danny. On Saturday, we went out and got the tree. Uh, and my wife's like, she's reading these stories online. She's like, well, you know, you don't want to get it too soon because you know you'll
dry out and it's a fire hazard. And then like two days later, let's go get the tree, you know, so it's like, well, no, that's proba too soon. But yeah, there's lights everywhere, all kinds of decorations. It's pretty pretty crazy. What about you, Danny, your wife all over the Christmas.
For me, my mom didn't like the origins of Christmas and thought it had pagan roots and didn't want to follow the crowd to be like a sheep. Okay, she didn't do Christmas. She didn't say anything bad about it to anybody, but she just didn't celebrate, which was fine. So growing up I wasn't accustomed to it. As an adult, it's been like whatever because I don't have any tradition
with it. But my Wifey loves it because she has great memories of doing it with her kids and traditions and so Black Friday, as I was preparing to watch The Raiders, she was preparing the Christmas tree and decorations. She took everything out of the balcony closet with very serious OCD put everything in the exact same spot it was last Christmas, with some improvements from Amazon. So yeah,
she's really really into it. And she's one of those ladies where she wants to take pictures where the whole family has matching pajamas.
Oh boy, those are the things when your kids are old. They're like, holy fuck.
I'm always going to be one of those kids. Because she took a picture like that last year and I was the only one not in the matching pajamas.
You're like, I'm a Raider fan. I cannot do it.
Yeah, not even for family.
Yeah, I hear you, all right. Next up Jose from Van Eyes Beautiful Van Eyes, right, sin He says, Yeah, guys, bet I like the videos you post on Instagram about the TV show. I gotta know, though, Have you and Tom gotten stopped by security while you wander around Universal Studios? No, not really, there was one. It was one time. Tom's still embarrassed we did that. There was a security guard that they're always driving by these little golf carts Universal Students.
Now we have actual passes. Like it's very weird, Hojse we're there. We feel like interlopers, like we don't really belong there. We feel like we should be on one of the trams that goes by every thirty minutes. But we're allowed. I mean, we have a pass, we got cleared by security. We are working, we do the TV show from there, So it's very bizarre. It does feel like you don't belong there. And we keep going further and further back in Universal Studios, and the tram goes by,
and this is again this week. We were filming the video and the tram went by and.
We yeah, I saw that, And because you were panning your camera around a little bit, I recognized exactly where you guys were standing from the tram tour when they take you by and they show you different buildings that writers work in across from the studio.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So we were walking that's like the main street on the back lot. You walk down that street and there's like a little dining kitchen area, there's a writer's room, there's studios all across there.
That's gotta feel cool.
Oh, it feels awesome. It feels just amazing. It's it's all. It's so great to do it. But yeah, one time we got stopped again, I don't want to say stop by security, but a guy came by and asked us if we needed to direct. He thought we were lost or something like that. You know, he didn't know who we were, and you.
Know, Louis that's got to be because of the dumb look on Looney's face.
Looney, of course was hurt by that because Looney wants everyone to know who Looney is. I of course want no one to know who I am. But we're complete opposites in that in that regard. But it's been been great fun and I appreciate it. It does remind me of the early days of Fox Sports Radio. I have so many great memories. When Fox Sports Radio launched, we had studios at the Fox Lot in West La on Pico
and this is amazing. We would go out, and I've told stories before, my buddy and we would run around the Fox Lot. I'd just go there sometimes and hang out and then they didn't care. It was very laid back. There was hardly any security. Just go through the guard gate going there and we would f around on the New York set, the backdrop of New York. And then nine to eleven happened and that was it. You know, they I couldn't get anyone in after nine to eleven,
But before that it was cool. But this is a lot of fun. So but yeah, security is not. They really don't bother us. They just one time and Loony's got all offended by that. Reggie from Detroit wright say, He says, Ben and Danny, I know you guys don't do sporty on the podcast. I know your thoughts. Ben, I heard your monologue. How does Danny feel about Blake Snell going to his Dodgers?
Oh, I'm glad this is a question this week.
Yeah, so, I don't know if you have the same beef. I I don't like Blake Snell. I don't. I was very clear about that. He's a good ballplayer, but I don't like him. I don't think you have his much hatred as I have for But where are you at on that? Dan?
No, he doesn't bother me specifically, But what bothers me and I still have a bad taste in my mouth is the uh. It was Thanksgiving Day, actually Thanksgiving morning. Covino and Rich were filling in for Dan Patrick, and one of their big topics that morning was the Dodgers are the new evil Empire. I had a Yankees fan and a Mets fan ganging up on me saying it wasn't fair what the Dodgers are doing with contracts.
Oh stop so stupid.
You know, normally I get along really really well with
Coveno and Rich. They're good friends now, but I wanted to punch both of them in the throat that morning because I felt like that argument from them was beneath them, especially being ironically a die hard Yankees fan and Mets fan, because all baseball teams for money and try for the big whale free agents, and the bottom line is these players want to be Dodgers and chose the Dodgers, and all the fans that are hating on the Dodgers right now, to me, it just screams jealousy.
The other thing is, you understand, like people are debating are they gonna get rid of deferred money. They're never gonna get rid of deferred money, because what's gonna happen, Danny, and I was talking to somebody who works in baseball, and they all kind of thought the same thing, Like the Dodgers for the next ten or twelve years are gonna be set, but after that they're screwed, like with all this deferred money with the Otani contract, so they better.
I mean, we're gonna be old, Danny. But by the time we're old, they're gonna blow. I mean, they're gonna have so much deferred money, it's highly unlikely. I think the team will probably be sold by then, and then whoever buys it is going to inherit all this debt that they're gonna have to pay out but not it's gonna.
Be like a huge radio company.
You ain't kid, oh man, what are you doing moment?
But Benny, what's funny is though, when the Dodgers fell on their faces two postseasons in a row, we didn't hear any of this.
Oh no, it was the Dodgers of failures.
All these same people had all these jokes about the choker, the choking Dodgers. So come on, man, So you're switching from that to now this.
Yeah, and Will Smith the Catcher is a homegrown play that's oh.
I I brought him up more than once, and they were making fun of me because I set his name more than one time. They're like, you keep going back to Will Smith, and I'm like, cause he's one of our core players.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So yeah, it just bugs me because I didn't think they would go down that road. They're usually above the petty sports cry baby stuff.
Well, you mark my words. When Juan Soto signs with either the Yankees or the Mets. It'll be a lot deferred money. I be shocked if it's not. And then you can say, well, what about what about soda? What about one soda you got? You know you signed soda a deferred.
Mondy I at this point, I am praying the Dodgers get Sodo, because now I want them to fucking sign everybody.
No no, no, no days off? All right, Mike and Fullerton writes, and he says, Hi, Ben and g I'm not exaggerating a bit when I say Friday's Talk with Brian Finley his hands down the greatest fifth Hour episode of all time. Did you know you were recording podcast in the moment or did it hit you afterwards? And when you say getting Finley on the show is your biggest get since Brian Billick, that's from I put your pants back on, Mike, put your pants back up? Bet
you that by you come on, daddy, Daddy. I told numb nuts, I said, listen, I felt bad the company laid them off, and so I said, well, I'll throw your bone. And plus I think it was Mike and Fullerton that ferg dog that paid twenty thousand dollars for that appearance, So that was a paid appearance. Nick and Wisconsin Right. Since its Ben and Danny. I've missed contributing the last couple of months, always listening, but just purchased
my first house. Congratulations, dig Mazle. Getting to the question with Thanksgiving just a couple of days removed? What is the worst small talk that happens at your Thanksgiving family get togethers? My very leftist grandparents loved talking politics. Oh, can't stand it? Later, skater got a murder, gotta go?
Yeah? Were they comparing their best Trump dance.
It's a tough one. You want to want to sit this one out if you're a leftist this year. But as far as me, I think we have similar things. Danny. It's the people that aren't sporty, people that try to talk sports that's always awkward.
Yeah, who's so? Who's going to in the super Bowl?
Yeah?
Because Ben, you're in sports radio. You're in sports talk radio, so am I. So we have the answers.
Yeah, we have all the answers. And a lot of my relatives aren't sports people. They don't have the sports gene. They don't really understand And I get it. You know, and I'm I genuinely don't like small talk as it is, and I know it's awkward. You're supposed to do it at the holidays, and just it's very uncomfortable.
How about this. Uh, some of my family members were talking about AI recently because Kim Kardashian posed with that Tesla robot. Okay, did you see the pictures of her? I did.
People were wondering if it was paid for, right, if it was.
Like yeah, well yeah, and she was like some of the pictures, she was sitting on the robot's lap.
I got turned on and it scared me.
She was holding its hand. She obviously did this because she wanted a lot of attention.
Wait.
Wait, you think of Kardashian would want to take wrong with you, daddy? Come on, that's outrageous. They don't want any attention.
Yeah, but I mean she wanted she wanted the kind of attention like, oh, is Kim going to be the first person to have babies with a robot?
You know, if there was a way, the Kardashians would be in on it, right yeah. Oh.
The first comment underneath our pictures, Ben said, finally you have a babysitter for Kanye's kids. Oh, because she's She was in the news recently bitching about how she's taking care of the kids all by herself. Anyhow, I mean, imagine what people think about AI. Like older people, they think it's the strangest shit because it's straight out of the I Robot movie. Yeah.
When I think AI, I think allan ivers and I think Sixers. I think of the Lakers, six Ers, NBA Finals and the tylu Remember when AI at the Game one? The Sixers got all the attention. They lost that series, but that was the only game they won.
I think.
Yes. I mean, you know, we grew up with the Jets ins.
We all thought we were gonna have Rosie the robot in our kitchen. Yeah, in a decade from now, will there be a Tesla robot in everybody's kitchen? Yeah?
Who knows. I saw somebody did an interview as wee. They were talking about like in twelve years, like people aren't gonna have to work and everything, no job wasn't it seems seems crazy. I guess we'll be here, hopefully, if we're lucky enough, we'll be here in twelve years and we'll.
See what happened in Flying Deloreans.
Y'all all set, But thank you Nick. Congratulations in your house man, that's an awesome thing. And hope you love it.
And careful who you get as your handyman.
Yeah, don't have a guy paint without towels down in the kitchen before a big party. David in Ottawa. That's in Canada, Danny, David rise and he says hey, he says Ben and Danny, is this fair foul? A Montreal mall has been criticized. They're using the Baby Shark song to deter homeless people to have them leave the mall, so they keep playing the Baby Shark songs like this has happened a lot. I don't think this is the only time, David, this has happened. But I think that's
fair game. They're trying to their business people, they're trying to get people to shop at the ball and I understand it's not the greatest thing in the world, but it's not. If the homeless people are there and they don't like the song, they'll leave. If they like the song and then they can stay. But I don't have a problem with it. Do you have a problem with it?
Danny?
I think that's fair no, and I heard that it was a close competition between that song and the original Ben Mallard songs. How dare you?
I just realized now that a lot of songs that you and him, Roberto Eddie, all the songs are now outdated. There's no I mean they there's no songs that are They're all to me, they're classics, but they.
Yeah, well, the militia they're busy mailing Lorena gifts instead of mailing in Now.
I know we don't get anything. It's all about Lorena. It's amazing, Danny. You put a nice sounding female on the radio and all of a sudden.
To any sounding female.
I know, I know, I know she sounds cute and she is cute.
But yeah, I mean, let's be on this. Jeanie from Medford had stalkers.
Yeah, it's wild man. You guys are horn dogs. Steve in Seattle writes in and says, I saw the story this week. I thought of the podcast. Scientists believe we will be able to go backwards in time within five years, Ben and Danny, would you be down to go backwards in time?
Wow, we were just talking about the future. This is back to the future.
Back a I think it's bullshit. I don't believe we'll be able to go backwards in time in five years because if you go backwards in time, right, isn't this the back to the future thing? You'll mess things up and you'll screw everything up and then there will be no future as you know it and all that.
So, yeah, you could erase yourself from the picture.
Now everyone would have the same plan, right, We'd find out who won the Super Bowl, go bet on the Chiefs, and then we'd all be rich and be great. But I don't I don't buy that. Although I do believe in the multiverse. I do believe there's different dimensions and every decision changes the future in one way or another.
Yeah, it's like that movie Sliding Doors.
There you go. I didn't see that movie, but I'll take your word for it. Take a bad job by you, Carl in New Hampshire. Right, since says Japan has launched a drinkable mayonnaise, are you and Danny down with? I don't mind mayonnaise, but I don't want to drink mayonnaise. Danny, you a big mayo guy.
It's taken me years to be okay with the idea of drinking yogurt mayonnaise.
No, thank you the yogurt guy. Kyrie and Okase I checked in. He gave him a little shout out the other day. He meant a lot. Thank you Kyrie for checking and he always listens to our podcast religiously. He's a big fan. I think Doc Mike was going through Oklahoma. I was like, hey, you got to go see Kyrie man. We got Kyrie and Okac, Marcus and san Antonio rights in. He says, Hey, Ben, instead of waiting for Roberto or Danny g to leave or get let go, can we
possibly have them on that episode at some point? How about Danny on every week? Marcus? He says, I get enough of Lorena on the show, so we're good there.
Oh what does he mean on your live show?
I don't I'm not sure what. I'm confused by this because he said he says, got me thinking about some of my favorite interviews on the Real Fifth Hour the last couple of years. And he then made this request and he mentioned you but you're on the podcast every week? Yeah, true, every week you are part of the podcast.
You're all Before I joined you on the podcast, I was a guest on the podcast.
That is true, you were you did pop up on the podcast.
Yeah, and I haven't so I haven't been a guest since then. That was like three and a half years ago.
Has it been there long? I can't believe how far I mean fastest all Wow. Yeah, Marcus, you didn't really recommend anyone, I mean other than Roberto and Nanny who are here. We had Eddie on. I just had Numbnuts Brian Finley on. If you want to recommend someone by name in radio or someone I've worked with part of the Fox Alumni Association, I'd be happy to put them on. But I'm a little confused anyway. Marcus loves the show, so thank you for that.
Thank you, Marcus. And I want the Whale. He's hard to get. We've only had him on one time.
Brian Billick, I'm not available, so you leave the message. Yeah, Billick back the great Brian Billick. Brian Billick, Brian Billick. We can only hope now. Last one is a pontoon Pops from Worcester, Mass. I didn't want to mention this night, this is some of this is not for consumption on the air, but he sent me a message Danny after the passing of mass Whole Mickey and I talked about this on this podcast. Masshole Mickey was planning a event.
He was going to put a Mallard meet and greet together in his area in Wooster.
Oh, that's right. I remember you mentioning that.
And he was gonna have me like throw out the first pitch at a Woo Socks game and it was gonna be all. I was really excited about it. And obviously he passed away, and so Pontoon Pops checked in. He lives in Worcester, and he he said that he would like to know and I guess I'm adding this, but honor mass whole Mickey. If I do end up going back, we do the TV show for season three,
have have an event at a wo Socks game. So he says he he knows who to contact and he knows some people back there he can make the do the legwork. So hopefully in honor we'll do it in honor Pontoon Pops, in honor of mass Whole Mickey, and we'll have to make sure we say his name and all I give him some love. But I I'm all that, I'm down with it, man, I'm there. I love. I have not been able to throw out the first pitch
in a while. It's been years, so I'm even I'm a better picture now, Danny, I am better now.
I'm sure you are.
I've got gyle.
You age with grace like the Necro Brothers. Yeah, you know, we got that nice bench for Genie in La. I feel like it would be awesome for mass whole Mickey to get some sort of little black at that baseball stadium.
That'd be great. Yeah. I don't know if they have a thing like that, but we should do something to honor Masshole Mickey. That would be a great tribute to him and something his kids and family can check out down the line. All right, have a wonderful rest your Sonday, enjoy the NFL. I'll be back in the Magic Radio Box tonight doing it live, all night long, doing it live,
hanging out with you. So eleven o'clock in the West, two am in the East on Monday morning and Danny, you guys filling in on Covino and this week or is a regular schedule.
Yeah, we're back to our usual afternoon drive time slot that is two to four pm on the West side and five to seven pm in Think of an upstate New York town, Ithaca.
That's loony.
Oh yeah, Ithaca.
Hey, it's loony.
Five to seven pm in beautiful Ithaca, New York.
All right, have a great rest of your day. Again, We'll catch you next time. Later.
Skater gotta murder, I gotta go.