Chapo Trap House - 704 - Time for Some Game Theory feat. Bomani Jones (2/6/23)

Episode Date: February 7, 2023

We’re joined by Bomani Jones, host of Game Theory on HBO, to discuss pro-sports and labor, including NFL player health in the wake of Damar Hamlin’s recent hospitalization, and NBA player bargaining power. We also briefly touch on the rapid rise of sports gambling and of course, who we’ve got for this Sunday’s Big Game. Then, the boys are all together in LA this week and catch up on the Chinese Balloon, Kamala Harris, the Grammys, our favorite unfinished TV commercial storylines, the Book of Job, and more. Follow Bomani at @Bomani_Jones and watch Game Theory with Bomani Jones Friday's at 11pm on HBO and HBO Max.

But Mani, I'm Will. It's great to meet you. Great to have you on the show. And for me personally, this is a treat as a long time around the horn fan. This is like, you know, a dream come true for me. I've joked on the show before, but when I was unemployed, like around the horn, if I could make it to 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, I was like, the hounds of despair could be quieted for a second because I'm listening to Woody Page yell at Bob Bryant. No, unemployment. You just need something to look forward to. That is that is that is the key to when you don't have a job. The existential crisis will begin tomorrow morning, but you know, the day is over for the time being. Well, the other thing about unemployment

is that it makes you realize the only thing you do in your day that doesn't cost money is go to work. Everything else costs money. Just a little bit more blood leaving your body every time you leave the door. But anyway, just to begin, I'm joined now by the host of Game Theory on HBO, Balmani Jones. Balmani, thanks for hanging out with us. No, man, no problem. So we wanted to have you on to, you know, it's Super Bowl week and we wanted to have you on to discuss labor issues and professional sports. And it occurs to me that sports is about as high a profile platform for employer and employee relations and collective bargaining,

that we have in this country. But it's one that's often goes unremarked upon or scoffed at because of the size of the salaries and the celebrity of the athletes in question. But Balmani, this year, these labor issues and sports have been forced into a very vivid focus as a result of Damar Hamlin's near death experience. So just to begin, how would you assess both the NFL and the sports media's handling of the way this showed a particularly harsh light on contractual issues in sports and the NFL in particular? Well, I think the thing to remember about sports media is especially now that the newspaper industry has been has been decimated and an underrated factor, which is online operations

just don't see the profit in long form stuff. So they're giving you much, you know, more bite sized things and labor issues are not bite sized, right? And so you wind up with the people who most prominently cover these issues. They didn't get into it to talk about labor issues. It's not really why they're here. And so what they're good at is talking to people and finding out what the discussion is. Are they necessarily that good and getting into the weeds or what all this stuff is? In most cases, probably not. And I don't blame them for it because that's not what the jobs are that they got into that they started for. And so what then happens as a result is when something comes up that has to do with collective

bargaining, you really don't talk about it until it's a rubber meets the rose situation of you might miss games. At which point the discussion is about missing the games and the numbers that get thrown out are really, really, really big, right? We start talking about billions of dollars and it's like, we offered the players X billions of dollars. But you know, then you do division and you're like, Hey, so what is this billion? You know, I was, what's that billion mean per player? What's that billion mean over stretch of time, whatever it is. But I don't think that the sports media typically views those things properly or at least I don't think does the best job of conveying those things to the

people. They're also conveying those things to people who have been primed for decades to be anti labor, right? And so they look at these guys are really, really rich. Why aren't they satisfied with being really, really rich? But in the NFL in particular, most of those guys aren't rich, right? Like I have been fortunate enough to make a lot of money doing what I do. And one thing that happens when you make a lot of money, you learn how much money you don't make because all it does is really put you into rooms with people where you realize, whoa, they've got way more money. Like when I lived in Miami, I lived on Collins at 50th street, right? In what they called millionaire row at the time. And I used to

look out the window across the intercostal waterway and there was this dude that had this gorgeous house and this spectacular looking boat, right? Just an amazing looking boat. And I just imagine that every day he looked outside and you know what he saw? He saw the dude next door who was just shitting all over his boat. Like, like that dude bow next door was a complete one has a helicopter pad on it. Yeah. Yeah. It was just a completely different world of boat than what he was talking about. Like there's levels to this money thing, but the level that the average football player is in, especially for the first four years of his career, if he's not a first or second round pick, those dudes don't really have that

much money and they're trading their bodies in order to get what is ultimately not that much money. It sounds like you're like, yo, you make $500 something thousand dollars a year. But most people, you know, to make $500,000 a year, spend a lot of time along the way making money. And after that $500,000 a year, we'll spend more time making more money. These dudes are coming in paying percentages to agents, marketing people, whoever happens to be, then the guys that have to train you to keep you into shape and then all this stuff. And then to get on the back end of a career where you might not have health insurance. Like, yeah, only lasts like how long of the average career in the NFL? I mean, the toll

takes on your body. And then in the NFL in particular, there's the issue of no guaranteed money in the contracts. So if you get injured, like the Mets are still paying Bobby Bonilla, like a million dollars a year based on the contract he signed in the 80s or something like that. But in the NFL, it all could go away tomorrow if you get hurt. Yeah. No, it's a, it's a trick bag. And then for them, organized labor in the NFL is trickier than I'd say any of the other sports because you basically have four classifications of players. You have superstar quarterbacks and they're the ones that make the gazillions of dollars. You have starting level quarterbacks and they get paid on a certain level. Then

you have star players. And those guys tend to make a lot of money and you hear about their contracts. And then you got basically everybody else. Like they changed the collective bargaining agreement in 2011 in such a way that greatly incentivize keeping rookies because it raised the veterans minimums up. And so they were then just going to get through, get rookies for cheaper that might be reasonably similar caliber players. And so it became much more of a haves and have not sort of league. And that's what we're seeing more and more of in the NFL. But what that also meant is that short career, it gets shorter because there's just a greater incentive now to get the younger player that you can pay

less money. And so like with Hamlin, it came up and it was worse for people because Hamlin never plays another game. He has invested in any sort of way and he's not a dude that got like a $10 million sign of bonus coming out of school. Like that would probably be it for him making money as a football player. And could you explain that a little bit more? It was one of the things in the coverage of this that I was like sort of astonished to find out because as a second year player, he was not fully vested and the NFL made an exception in this case because otherwise he potentially could have had no health coverage for like nearly dying.

Yes. Yes. That is correct. You've got, I forget what the number of years is that you have to play. It might be three, but it's not terribly different than retirement systems elsewhere where you have to put in for a certain amount of time before it is that you can get the coverage on the back end. Like when the ACA was a thing, you know, trying to get it pushed through, it was former football players who were really all on board with it because their whole lives are, I mean, they're living, breathing, preexisting conditions. And so if you don't wind up getting that money, you know, and getting that vesting, how you're supposed to take care of yourself after the fact, I really don't have any idea of that. And people,

the person in general really just hears about those big numbers and doesn't give it any more thought, but the deal is not nearly as good as advertised, especially in the NFL. You know, like sports in the NFL in particular is like, you know, many ways like as close to like a national religion as America has, you know, football. And I'm sure the NFL, they'd be happy if that shield was just the new American flag. But, you know, I mean, but in a lot of ways it reflects a lot of like the darker things about what, you know, the American character, like the, you know, the violence, the hierarchy. But like in the DeMar Hamlin thing, I mean, I felt like that whole week where it was an open question about

like whether this guy would wake up, it felt like, can we even watch football anymore? But then as soon as he was okay and thank God for that, it was sort of seamlessly integrated into this very like fielded story. Yeah, it was amazing. Wasn't it? Like, I'll just never forget, he woke up and said, did we win? And everybody else was like, Oh, okay. You can go back to what it is that we were going to enjoy it without guilt. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I mean, I don't know. My acceptance game is kind of strong, right? And more remits or whatever it is. My acceptance game is fairly impactful. And I mean, this is a brutal grotesque game. That's part of what makes it fascinating.

Right? Like, I think that people want to ignore that part of it, that a level of the intrigue of this is that it is wildly unsafe, right? Like this is not nearly as interesting to watch if people are making the sacrifices that they are and how much you have to really want this to do it, given how dangerous it is. That's a big part of this. And so when something happens that really puts it into focus, nobody wants to feel like a bad person. And so everybody goes through the, Oh man, I don't know if I can keep watching this or whatever it is. And then they just get that one flicker that says it's okay. And then they realize, Oh yeah, I've been doing this the whole way, right? We all have things that

we are willing to turn down what we would turn some levels of our own morality in order to consume or we're willing to ignore some of those, you know, snippy biting things that we hear in the back of our heads. Football is the one for more people than anything else. I would probably say, like you hear the way people talk about football is the way they talk about alcohol, right? They're like, you know, it's great every once in a while, you know, once a week or whatever, but I'm never going to drink again after I had that horrible night. Yeah, I bet you won't. I bet you won't.

Yeah, but like I saw Steve Young on that week where DeMar Hamlin was in the hospital and he said that, yeah, like it's, it's the risk in the, it's the risk in football that makes it exciting. And because of that risk, like in the men who play it, they're certainly aware of that risk, probably now more so than ever about like what the long term effects of this are. But as an adult, you sure, you know, young man, you should be able to like, you know, decide for yourself whether you're willing to take on that risk for the reward it might, it might give you. But like because of the nature of how violent it is, like, doesn't that bring into like, you know, stark cut, like the stark need for like protections

for players in terms of health care and money. I would think so. You can risk yourself for that, for like to earn all this money for a football owner or team or franchise. Well, then like, you know, the risk you're taking should be rewarded and commensurate amount. Yeah. And the thing we have to remember, my buddy, Dominic Fosper and I talk about this as much as we can say the guys know the risk when they get into it. This decision is really made when these dudes are like 12 or 13 years old.

You know, like the decision that this is what I want to do is made well before anybody can truly absorb and grasp the consequences. And by the time you're fully invested in this and you've gone through an educational process that really ain't been that concerned with educating you and you spent these years in college where the primary concern for your course selection is making sure that you can, you know, make it to practice and everything else. What other decision are you going to make? Right? Yeah, I mean, yeah, you're right. That's a really good point because like nobody who

becomes a professional athlete just picks up the sport they play at like 18 or 20 and it's just like, oh, I'm going to give a go at this whole lives. Yeah, that's probably not going to happen. It's probably not going to be it. And so the dream and everything else has been molded so early that the, they know the risk argument. I was talking to Fosper about this and I was like, I'm more in line with that as more information has become available about these things. And then I realized, nope, I was just saying the thing I needed to say to myself, like that's, that's, that's really what that came back to was now I was probably just saying the thing that I need to say for myself. And I

do think for most of these dudes, not all, but it means not even say most. A lot of them, they get to the other side and the pain and everything else they deal with. They still do it all over again. If it came down to it, but there are quite a few, no way they make that trade again. If they knew what they knew going into it on the front end, like I think about the fact that graduate school was harder than anybody could ever tell me. I can't imagine what playing football is. And another thing you brought up on your show is like a, like a small thing, but something that's always annoyed me whenever I watch like team, like championship level team games

is that when they give the trophy to the winner, the person who hoists it is the owner of the team. And I'm just wondering like about this in the context of the ways in which like fans of sports in America are sort of like conditioned or willing to identify more with the owners and managers of teams than the athletes who, who they root for. Yeah. I mean, this really jumps out of the NFL. They call all the owners mister in mizes. They call them all mister, whatever it is. Not just people who work for them, the people who cover them. Like there's a level of respect that's conferred upon somebody for owning a sports team that like, I don't think you get if you run the Metropolitan Museum of

Modern Art. Like, I don't, like it is amazing how we have made these people into like the sort of dignitaries that they have become. And then that trophy celebration when we did that on game theory and we saw that, yeah, it is wild. They get to have the trophy before anybody else does. And I guess, Hey man, if I put billions of dollars into it, I would probably ask for a couple of perks too. But there is a new fascination that I think it goes not really, I don't think that the average person relates to the owner that much, but I do think that there's a heavy contention of sports fans who now relate to the general manager.

Like I don't know how much fantasy football, you know, it's like your team, you have your own team and that you're making the trades and decisions and yeah, cause that's something you can be right. And it is fun. Like to do it on the PlayStation where you run the team and you make all the trades, whatever. I get that, but I do not watch sports for the people I can relate to. I watch sports for the people I could never beat, right? I'm not a demigod. I want to see achievement on a level that I couldn't dream of. Yeah. Like, like how self-absorbed do you have to be to require that the most interesting thing about sports be the thing that's like you? The whole point is that these people

are not like you. Yeah. I mean, I'd like to be like Mike, but you know, that's never going to happen. Right. Like, like I remember all the times I spent in my driveway, like pretending to be athletes, right? Pretending to be Michael Jordan, pretending to be whoever the person was, trying to make those shots, right? Like doing the call in my head of the clock going down and everything else, right? Like it was the ultimate, like as I look back on it, I'd almost forgotten how much of that that I had done, right? Because I'm like old and jaded now, but I got to think about all of that. I just can't imagine going from that and then

looking at these general managers and being like, yeah, these guys, that's what I, that's what I know. No, no, no. Yeah. When I grew up, I want to be, I want to be like Dan Snyder on a Weedys box. I don't understand people who become accounting majors as freshmen. It's like, Dan, you gave up already? But money. Another segment you did recently on game theory that I want to ask you about is you did a really good segment that was like talking about LeBron and this like idea of player empowerment that like he is sort of pitching or being ascribed to him. And

you use it as an example, a really interesting example of the difference between having cultural power and having like actual political ownership power. Could you talk a little bit about that segment? Yeah. So when LeBron went to Miami in 2010, the idea was that he had demonstrated his power by making this move and it ushered in this era of player empowerment. But in reality, and these are some of the ideas that we weren't able to get into the essay, all they really did was make a bunch of white people mad. And I do guess that as a black person, the ability to make white people mad while also making tens of millions of dollars did feel

kind of new. But that's really all he did was kind of offend people's sensibilities of the idea that you stay in the hometown or whatever it was. But in order for him to make that move, he had to take less money. And by the way, went to a team that does not give players power, right? He wasn't running the organization. He wasn't doing any of those things. He then left and went to Cleveland where he definitely did have more of a role in running the organization. But stop and think about that. What we're calling power is the ability to do somebody else's job for them. Like I would like going to a restaurant and being like, you know what? I'll just make it myself. Like that doesn't feel that doesn't

feel like the customer is always right when such a thing happens. And so we hear so much about the idea of LeBron's player of power, LeBron's player and power and player empowerment. But in the end, it's a league that has a salary cap. It's a league that has maximum salaries that prevents how much a guy like LeBron James can ultimately make. And even in the direction of cultural player empowerment where LeBron uses voices in some very strong ways, we learned the limits of his power when Tamir Rice got shot by the cops in his own city. And one year later, he said he still hadn't had time to research it. So he would not be commenting because he realized all he could do in that situation in his own city was make it worse.

And so what I think happens with the idea of player empowerment or why it became such an intoxicating idea to people is we want to feel like there, we want to feel like we're not getting exploited by all this capitalism. And if even LeBron James is a relatively powerless sort in his own world, what in the world does that say about us? Because by the way, not only are we kind of powerless, we're kind of content to just sit here and take it as long as you pay us enough money. So we want to feel like LeBron is like, nah, he's stuck into them with these moves. Yeah, he only takes one year contracts to put their feet to the fire. Stop and think about this for a second. In order to ensure that your bosses

do their jobs competently, you have to do things that give you less security and make you less money. What power is there in that? And so I just look at a dude like him, and he's made a lot of money off the court and he's making power moves in that way. But ultimately, the modern athlete has more money than he has power. And I think that people misunderstand to think that power and money are perfect substitutes when they're not. Well, I mean, like we said, people hear the salaries that athletes get made, and they're like, oh, well, why do you need a labor union? But the point you made in that segment is that LeBron James may be the most underpaid professional athlete in sports history, considering

the value that he creates for a franchise versus what his salary is. But you said that's okay for him because he makes so much money through advertising and endorsements and things like that. But think about what we're saying there. It's cool, LeBron. You can just go and get a second job. It just so happens that the second jobs pay a lot of money. But that's how we are now conditioned as labor to think is that we look at somebody like LeBron, and I understand the difficulty in finding any notion of solidarity in somebody who makes as much money as LeBron James. But we look at LeBron, and then we're like, oh, but it's cool. You can get that money elsewhere. Hold up. Why can't I get that money from you? Like

what's going on right now with college athletics and the name, image and light and this stuff is very, very interesting because the NCAA just pulled the greatest con ever, which is they've been kicking their feet and fighting and refusing to pay players forever. And then finally looked up and said, you know what, fine, we'll let other people do it. How about that? And they still don't have to pay. Like just because these guys could get somebody else to come off the money doesn't mean that they're not underpaid. And that's the same thing that happens in basketball and these other sports is just because they can find other ways to get money or just because they make a lot of money doesn't mean they're not

getting sold short as it is. Now, part of why they get sold short is they're really bad at organizing because everybody's interests are so disparate, but underpay nonetheless. Well, and speaking of, you know, solidarity and organizing, the example you used of the averted NBA labor strike that took place during the bubble season that we're like, you know, and you were very critical of the Braun for essentially just calling up his friend Obama and then who just was just sort of like, yeah, you don't strike, but like in not striking, you'll have more power to use your platform to bring attention to these issues. And like they all, they just totally swallowed it.

Yeah. Now, I think for those guys, Obama is an idea. And so it would make perfect sense. We got to figure out what to do. If you were just thinking of people to get advice from and you have Barack Obama in your phone, yeah, logically, it stands the reason, yo, why don't you call 44? Okay, cool. You call 44. But if you're not thinking about Obama in some of these other terms, you got like, yo, man, he is definitely going to tell you to take your ass back to work. Like that's, that's, that's who he is. That's what he's about. But I also would say in fairness to Obama about that, I imagine that Obama might hit him back with. So what do you want?

That's the one thing about an impromptu strike. We didn't really have that much time to put together a list of the things we want. Like to give you an example of what was going on in the bubble. A lot of people had jokes. I was probably one of them. I just can't remember. But when they had all the little slogans on the back of the jerseys, right? Equality, justice, all those things. NBA people will be quick to tell you, people in the league, they did not shoot down any slogan that was put before them. Those were the things that the players came up with themselves, right? There was nothing revolutionary, anything close to it in any of those statements. They limited themselves. Like they were aware themselves

of what was going too far. So when it was like, so what do you want before you have this strike? I know they got on the phone with the people in Wisconsin to try to change some law, which I thought was, I thought that was a fairly, like, strong move to make if you, you know, that the bus could pull that off. Like that would be a thing. But what exactly was it that they were ready to do or ready to ask for in that moment other than like nicer accommodations in this hotel? They've been stuck in for weeks. But money, it's not, it's not like directly related to labor issues and sports, but it certainly is directly related to capitalism and sports. And you did a segment on crypto

in which you like very, very early on, Gabley called out what a scam this all was. But the thing I want to ask you about and like the most startling and seemingly like just, it happened like overnight, it seems like a sea change in sports or watching sports on TV is the fact that every commercial, if you watch a game now, every other commercial is for a gambling website that isn't treating you to bet money on the game you're watching. And this used to be like the most verboten thing in sports that you could like mix coverage of a sport with, you know, just like making book as a bookie. I mean, I, I don't really know how to frame the question, but like, I mean, just what do you make of the like

the sudden mass proliferation of online gambling and like being advertised during sports games? Well, I think there are a couple levels. One is a bit more idyllic. Bob Costas was making this point when I was working on the show with him that none of us got into this to gamble. Right? Like people who really enjoy sports, that's not why we got into it. And we're making, it's becoming a very transactional relationship in a way that I guess is I get older and perhaps more sentimental that I look at and kind of frown upon just a little bit. But I think as it relates to the capitalism, the biggest thing for me is this is the function of like the growth economy, right? Like the thing about these companies and as they go

and their valuations are all predicated on some idea of growth, making money is not enough. You have to make more money than you did last year. And eventually any business like this is going to read some steady state where there's just not that much more money that you're able to make. But this was always the one that was sitting there, right? Like this is like the Godfather and the mafia trying to decide if they were going to start selling dope. Like the money's right there. Are you really going to walk away from it? Once the laws made it possible. And so they've gone all in on this and they say that their numbers are telling them that people want this content. What I think happens with it, particularly

with television is you need a reason for people to turn on the TV and knowing that if you're trying to figure out the line on these games and the crawl is going to have them all go and somebody might sit here for four or five minutes to see all of these things. Well, that made people turn on their TVs and then we're giving them all the over under on the various prop bets and everything else. I know a lot of people gamble on sports. I really, really do. What I'm trying to understand is, are you really just taking gambling advice from any damn body? Because we'll put anybody on television and say they're the gambling person and people will take their advice. And all they got to do is act like they gamble a lot.

That's it. Everybody's guessing. We are all guessing, but gambling is the one form of entertainment in this society that gives you the chance to get your money back, right? Yeah. It's like the, the Simpsons joke when they're making fun of Jimmy the Greek and he goes, folks, when you're right 51% of the time, you're wrong. The other 49% is like, you should have told me that for you. And that's what it is. But hey, man, the house stays open on 52. Yeah. You know, like, like that's, that's, I mean, it's, I am not a gambler. It's never really been my bag. I do enjoy hearing people's stories of their bad beats. Like I find those to be very, very entertaining, but I don't think in terms of building long

term interest in sports, I don't think that all this emphasis on gambling is good. Like if I'm a kid and I'm trying to get into sports, that's not helping. What gets you into sports is in, in their having trouble with this, by the way, the youngsters, I don't know if it's just because they don't go outside no more or nothing like that. But the youngsters aren't really jumping on the sports like they had in previous generations. And I don't think leaning toward gambling content is going to get them there. Well, at the end of the day, gambling is just kind of math. You know, like it is just a number. Right. But it's math, but it's math where your decision is based on something set by

people who are not just better at math than you, but have a clear profit motive. The only, the only man I will take gambling advice from is Sam Ace Rothstein. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm there. I'd be there. I'd be there on that one. You got to have the inside knowledge. Well, but Monty, I know you got a tight schedule and I really thank you for your time. But if I could, I'd just like to get you out, get you out with a few quick, like actual like sports questions, like actual sports talk radio questions. I'm going to put my Tony reality hat on and fire a couple around the horn style questions at you. So first one, big news in the NBA, Kyrie to the maps. So just picking up another ballhandler

to take pressure off Luca makes sense for Dallas, or is he going to red pill the team so hard on the JFK assassination that they stopped caring about the playoffs? The answer is yes. And oh, my goodness, I had not thought about Kyrie's field trip to Dealey Plaza that definitely is going to take place now that he is in Dallas. Wow. Had not considered that. Now I do think that helping Luca is going like that part is going to be good, right? The problem is, I don't know who the mavericks are going to guard. And at some point, this is going to go bad. That's the thing. The only thing I will say about that, though, is Kyrie was on his best behavior once he realized that his dream of a max contract really wouldn't go happen until he was on his best behavior.

So it is possible that he gets down there and winds up on his best behavior and the mavericks just lie to him all year and are like, sure, we can talk about a max contract after the season. Sure, we can talk about it after the season. Anybody give him no damn max contract? Not for max years. I'm just thinking, you know, his trip to Dealey Plaza, you know, triangulation of fire, sort of triangle offense, you know, do the math, stay woke. Have you been to Dealey Plaza? Oh, I very I definitely have. We did a show in Dallas last year and we did the we did a whole JFK tour with a listener to the show who's a big, you know, Kennedy historian. Did you see the weirdos laying in the street where the X's are for the shots? What? I wasn't I didn't lay in the street.

When the traffic subsided, I did. I did go out there and stand on the X and just give a big thumbs up. That was okay. These people were laid out like they just got shot in the back of the head. Dealey Plaza is cool, though. I recommend it. It's a it's a good tourist experience. Okay. Next question. And this is personal for me. Will the New York Knicks make a significant run in the playoffs or will they be attending mandatory JD in the straight shot concerts in the postseason? I hope they make a run in the playoffs because man, that year that was a 2021 where they were doing a little something to play off. This city was so happy. Like I've come to develop an affection for Knicks fans because y'all really love that team. I went to see the Knicks

and the Hornets this year. It's the first time I've been to Madison Square Garden for a basketball game and I just could not believe the level of investment from that crowd in a regular season basketball game. You guys really care a lot and that might get you to the second round. Okay. Good enough. And then finally, of course, the big game coming up on Sunday. So Bamani, will the Philadelphia Eagles eat shit losing against Miracle Mahomes and the Chiefs or will the Eagles fans eat shit when they win another Super Bowl? Man, let me tell you, I feel like the Eagles team-wise should win this game. I'm just not in the business of picking against the greatest football player. I may be a greatest quarterback I've ever seen. Football is hard to go, but quarterback

I ain't ever seen anything like this. I just don't feel right betting against that guy. I just can't. Miracle Mahomes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, Bamani, I want to thank you so much for your time. The show is Game Theory on HBO. Appreciate it, but thanks for being here. All right. No problem. Okay. Welcome back. Thanks again to Bamani Jones, but it's time for Chappell. It's Monday, February, whatever. It's some day in February. It's a Monday in February. Hope you're having a good one. Meet Bamani Felix here back in the same room for the first time in a while. That feels good. Oh yeah. Chopping it up around the Zoom. Chopping it up. Got some dogs here. Yep. Got some pecking puppers. Some of the finest

small style dogs you're going to meet. Small style dogs. They're small style. I love that. They're little dudes. Well, I guess to get things off, to talk about the week that was, Matt, I think you put this nicely. In the week that was, we saw America yearning to return to a simpler, a simpler, more innocent time, a time of balloons. We were all like a French child just sort of transfixed by the beauty of the white Chinese balloon. It was a chance for us all to just pretend that we were in, yes, a Fantasia, a simpler time, the balloon boy time. Yes. When we all held our breath thinking that a small boy was in a balloon, we used to think that it was a balloon boy. But now authorities are considering that the balloon is Pinoy. If Pinoy described

China instead of the Philippines, because we used to think that the balloon was a child. But now we're saying the balloon is from China. Because balloon boy represents the promise of social media because it happened in 2009. Right when the social media sites are starting to come into their fluorescence, right around the economic crash. It's going to define like the next generation of media technology and nothing bad had happened yet. You know, we had not seen what putting everybody on the same three websites was going to do to their brains. We could imagine they could, oh yeah, there'll be a funny balloon story that we can just riff on and not, oh, people are going to create death cults out of the newspaper, newspaper clippings. Yeah, no, like 30 year olds hadn't

gotten like a 13 year old to kill themselves yet. Yep. Or like if it did, it happened like on a forum that no one heard about like, no, like it didn't make the news. No streamers had to we purely apologize for masturbating to other streamers. AI porn while their silent wives cried behind them. That was, I cannot believe that is probably the worst like Silda Spitzer role anyone's ever had to be in. Like, how do you, how do you fucking like even broach that if you're the streamer? Are you like, Hey, so you know how you can cry on command? Well, you're not going to need to. It's going to be all natural, you know, to get on camera. You know, I mean, I'm just going to, I'm going to date myself, you know, it's, it's, it's old man, manicure, back

got it. But you know, back in my day, if we wanted to imagine our favorite streamer having sex with us, we had to just, they see it in our head. Yeah. Just close your eyes. Just close your eyes. It's like James Cameron. I've got a, I've got a fucking and sucking streaming service in my brain. That's better than any of the shit on the internet. God, he like stepped in it in many ways. One, one big thing, obviously, primarily watching AI porn of people, you know, that's the main thing here. Secondarily, porn on your work computer, especially ill thought out if you are a streamer. Third, the thing where you like sort of half admit it, you know what I mean, where you're like, where he, he, he went like, um, oh, um, I was looking at it, but because I was

looking at other porn and it was a pop up. And then the guy who owned the site was like, no, he like has a membership. We don't advertise. Like you can't, you can't like go halfway there, you know, because if it's just a pop up, like why is your wife crying? You know, like why is she in the fucking video? Uh, like very, um, I think it's, it's one of those stories where everyone who, um, was not familiar with the streamer before, uh, as I was wishes they could go back to that wishes that they did not see that story. And that, and why, and, and what are they, what are the, how do they escape the balloon? Yeah. They care. They look, uh, let's all riff on this balloon. This is nice harmless balloon. Well, is it harmless? Well, see that's the thing. Is it harmless? This

is the difference because we try, we grasp for it, but it's all ruined. It's all too late. So of course the balloon has to be another culture war front. People have to turn it into a thread of the yellow peril coming. Yeah. Pictures of us coming to map the American coastline. No one's done before. It's mapped America. Uh, you know, Matt, you and I are shitty balloons. Like, what were they doing with that? I have no idea. What are you like, everything they could get with that balloon that could probably do with like Google maps. Honestly, if it was just there, Michael Hudson, Chinese agent, the best explanation is that it was just to fuck with us. And if so, kudos because otherwise I don't understand. Like what would be really funny is if we just did this

and then we watched them all just shit their pants because they're a nation of jug hooting, fucking morons. Well, I mean, like along, along those lines, I mean that like we part of the balloon week was, you know, just went to sing. I wouldn't say a new, but just like like a fairly solid demonstration of, um, jug hooting rubbery, uh, by people in elected office, like, and people who, the thing is like, they're all in on this. Like they're doing it like, like J.D. Vance, as people put it out, went to fucking like Yale. He was in the Marines. He knows that you cannot, like when you fire a bullet, it just doesn't go on forever until it collides with something. You can't shoot something out of the sky that's in 60,000 feet in the air. But here's the thing,

when it comes to jug hootery, the people that they're, and I saw a lot of liberals being like, this is what they think of their voters. Like this, like the contempt that they have for the people who vote for them, like they're just, they're just telling it to them. And like, here's the thing, sure they are, and the people they're selling it to are eating it up. But the thing is the people they're selling it to are aware of the contempt that they have for them. They're aware of it and they don't mind it. In fact, they like it because if a politician were, assuming that they were like, you know, uh, I don't know, a decent informed citizens, they'd be like, they know who they are. They know they'd be bullshitting them. That's like, you know,

the politician is authentic is because he's treating you like contempt and if he's just good. If you think that I am a repository of a homespun American wisdom, you're either bullshitting me in which case, fuck you and you're condescending, or you're a fucking moron. You think I know what I'm talking about. You fucking idiot. Pull the other one. Yeah. And that's why the Republicans will, will win that the, the Rube bait award because there is that edge of contempt to it and the self self-awareness. Whereas like Republican Democrats do it, you know, like the can't take cloth kneeling. Yeah. People are putting a thing at the can take cloth and kneeling. The condescension just drips off of it. Like it's opposed to contempt that that's a bracing

and, and, and, and a vinegary that, that keeps the blood flowing contempt is just a condescension is just this soporific and it just makes you in turn resent them. So, so first of all, we, they did pop the balloon and I was just thinking like top gun Maverick, John Hamm, he's like, Maverick, you've put me in a very tough decision. You've proved that the F 35 can shoot down a weather balloon. But now the question is, do I have to make you the man to do it? And like, yeah, that's the, that's the best sweet investment we've gotten out of the F 35 program is popping the balloon. It wasn't F 22. 22. Okay. But that's still the case. I do not think, what is the, what is an F F F 22? I don't know enough of F 22 has been used in combat

in any way. I mean, like, probably like, I mean, if by a combat, you mean like, you know, like, yeah, like with no air defenses, like bombing, like a lafa factory in to Crete. Well, like, guys are firing small arms at it. Hopelessly. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it has been used. I mean, since the drones kind of took over though, that's got to be the most action at F 22 has gotten. Yeah. Probably cost like $10 million to get it in air. Just to pop this motherfucking balloon. Yeah. 1.35 million dollars per missile. Yeah. Money well spent. Because we got to show that balloon to his boss. It's us. We're boss. We're the boss. Well, the big thing that like, you know, like fact checking lives are hanging on to is that I don't know. Like this apparently

has happened like three times under Trump. Yeah. Well, yeah. Where was their outrage? Yeah. But I mean, I don't know, like either, you know, Trump sent Ray Donovan to deal with it. Or like, I don't know, the military was like, we're not going to leak this because we don't want to make him look bad because he's fighting the balloon. I don't like it doesn't matter. No one's moved by that. You know, it's like, oh, well, like, if you say that to like a conservative guy, like the least ridiculous thing he'll say that day will be like, oh, well, they sent more balloons at Trump because he took a harder line. Oh, the old one balloon Joe, they don't even, they barely even need to send one every two years because he just does everything they want anyway.

I saw someone say that they only shut it down after Biden got permission from China to shoot their balloon. Yeah, it's it's it's whimsical, though. It's just it's it's whimsy. Yeah, it's a fun time for everybody. Yeah, I don't know. The balloon thing just it's to me it feels like CRT where it's like, this is the balloon thing getting play outside of like conservative Twitter. Like our our our lunch pal guy is talking about the balloon. Maybe I don't know. I saw it posted on academics's page. Okay. And he was like, Joe Biden sent his shooters to take down the balloon. He's hard or not. Popping a balloon. There is a guy saw I clicked on the comments just because every time that

academics post about Brandon, I'm like interested to see what his commenters say. And like, after you scroll past the first 30, just as people who call academics fat, no matter what you post, like, it's awful. Like, it'll be like a tragic death announcement. And they'll be like, Oh, academics wishes his condolences at McDonald's. It's like give it a rest, guys. But after I scroll past those, I saw a guy like just like, you know, one of those guys who's just like 80 percent hat. Yeah, like a middle-aged white guy, like just, you know, unprompted talking about election fraud and academics's comments. That's Trump's strongest soldier. He's really going to where people are at. He's going to academics's comments to like sell people on the steel in 2023.

He's not, he's not deserting to fucking run the sanctum onus. That's for sure. Yeah. So speaking of something slightly less whimsical, Matt, you and I last night, you, me and our friend Paul, we saw a movie. We saw Knock at the Cowman. It sucks. Do not go. Spoiler alert. Don't see it. But so we went to a bar after and we were at the bar and the Grammys were going on. We were watching the Grammys on TV. And what do we saw? So we saw the Grammys. And Matt just kept grabbing me, leaning in, eyes ablaze and just said, they're dabbing on us. They're dabbing on us. Folks, the Satanism. It's out of control. The Satanism in this country has gotten there. They're getting bolder every day. There's summoning rituals. Their magics are getting stronger and we're just

letting it happen. We're watching Sam Smith's fat ass waddle out there. It is fucking thigh high boots with this little top hat with the horns on it. Summoning buffamette and we're just clapping like seals. If Sam Smith like successfully catapults you into hell, that's the end of practical monotheism. Like then Yahweh just ain't what he used to be. That's true. Sam Smith does it. Yeah. The chunky child of some stockbroker just says, I'm so much to be a pop star. And it's like, your wish is our command, Sam. Here, put on your little, this little red hat and scare the normies. A red, red devil hat. The devil, devil hat. And like, you know, right before you started recording today, I saw, my favorite of these was a Ben Shapiro complaining

about all that shit. And it's like, dude, you don't even believe in Satan. Like how is Satan worship a concern for you? You know, you're like, yeah, you and I both know that Satan's made up, you for religious reasons and me for other. Yes, but he represents the worship of the self. And that's, that's his whole point. When, which I say, aren't you a capitalist, Ben? Shut the fuck up. That is literally what capitalism is, is the instantiation of self-worship. That's it. Satan is, you know, in the, in the old testament, he was famously in Job. Yeah. In the, yeah. Yeah. But he, it's not like, he's not God's team. Satan isn't like not like culturally important to Jews. Like Jews aren't like afraid of being

tricked by the devil. Yeah. You know, he's kind of a ball buster. Yeah. So he was like, he's the, the serpent in the Garden of Eden. And then he shows up in the book of Job is like, you know, like a draftkings.com. Prop bet. Can we drive this guy insane? How many boils will it take before this guy fucking renounces God? I think that Job at the end of the day, though, it has a good moral, which is like, if your wife dies, like, don't get sad, don't get down on yourself, just get a new one. Yeah, just move on. And man, this time, this time younger, so you can replace your kids that died. That's a good message. I've been saying that to a lot of people. And if your kid dies, just get some cows. Yeah. You had a cattle. Well, it's like as good

as having a kid. It's implied in the post credit scene that like the wife is younger and he can replace his kids. What's the post credit scene? Well, it's the post credit scene of Job where first of all, Nick Fury shows up and he's talking to God and he's like, so looks like Job's in a May, December romance. And God's like, yeah, I sent him a 19 year old. And Nick Fury is like, my sensor shows that she's pregnant already. And God's like, you're telling me I'm all knowing. And then Satan is in hell with the despicable me guys, both the minions and the scarf guy. Oh, yeah. He's like, he's like, yeah, he's like, lost another loan to die took. Grew is a Duke of Hell, the Musenex booger guy. Also the toenail gremlin. Oh, yeah.

He's a president of hell. The Maya Rudolph Eminem. She's a new rising VP in hell. Is Maya Rudolph going to be an Eminem or she's going to be a spokeswoman for Eminems now that they tune into the Super Bowl to find out. Okay. Yeah. Anything that gets announced in January is setting up a Super Bowl at always. I can't wait for like this to lead in to an Eminem shows that are going to be on Paramount or Disney Plus. Like how there was the Geico caveman show. If the Geico caveman show came out today, people would be like, actually, this is, there's a subtle dignity to this show. Actually, it's a parody of TV. You know, like, you think these, you think these neolithic carnivores guys, it would be,

you know, like, but it's really, even though they're 30,000 years old, it's really about the times we live in now. I like how the caveman show, like both the show and the commercials, the subtext was that like cavemen were supposed to represent like black people. Yeah, it was problematic. They hadn't thought that man, you could really just get anything out there in 1999. No, it was, it was like 2008 or something like that. It was that late. Yes. Yes. Oh my God. Damn. Yeah. I think they only got one episode and then people were like, they just literally like slo-mo jumped in front of the camera that got them from shooting. Like, no, 2007. Yeah. Damn. That late. Yeah. That's how fast things move, folks. That's how, you know,

2007. What's this? Right before social media emerges as a thing to prevent something like the caveman show from coming out. That is true. Like, yeah, we don't, we did not, we don't get to see like really shitty ideas played out far enough. Yeah. There are certainly like bad movies and everything, but like, I don't know. I would have liked to have seen the Game of Thrones guys do their slavery show. I've, dude, I was, I was like, that's terrible. Can't wait to watch. Yeah. I can't wait to see what students should be doing. Suffocated in its grip. We don't get to see people like play out their worst impulses because of the fucking social media panopticon stuffing it out in its cradle. It's a damn shame. Now we got to some fucking fat ass

capering about it with his, with a tail. Yeah. But you can get, you can get a deep fake of the Geico caveman fucking flow from progression. That actually, that would be deeply illegal because those are two different companies. Either one of them is copyright infringement. The fucking Swati will show up if you try that. They flashbang me and I'm blind in one eye because I did, I continued the Aaron E. Sharon storyline without buying the rights first. I don't care. I don't care about like the car insurance. I just, I wanted to see that where that story ended. Yeah. It was one of my favorite American Mungas. Aaron E. Sharon is an American Munga. We, we, we enjoy the art of anime in America.

The Aaron E. Sharon, Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, they all, they're all kind of like our version of lone wolf and cub. Basically, what the fuck happened? There's no Aaron E. Sharon's, but they didn't replace her with anybody. E. Sharon's. There's, is that company even still around? What's going on? No. E. Sharon's was, I mean, probably, probably that was like Dan Blazerian's dad. It was just like embezzling $700 million. They probably never insured anybody, but they made an amazing storyline. Like when she fought the robots that represented bad insurance rates, I was gripped. So it's kind of okay, you know, what they, what they did. Okay. I don't, I don't know. Did they get like acquired by someone?

They got acquired by all state. Okay. So there we go. There we go. I don't like, I don't like the Jake from State Farm stuff ever since they made it woke. Okay. I don't see, they get you with this stuff because it is stupid to care, but it is also stupid to make Jake from State Farm black. That's not, I'm sorry. It's like, okay, Jake from State Farm. We all loved him, right? Well, yeah, but he needs to be more inclusive. Like just the note that the, the, the, the, the insurance, the insurance man had for that. That's, that's dumb. It's what it is. It's pandering and insulting. It's not that it's bad, that it's racial diversity. It's like, this is the most obvious ham-handed shit on earth. You don't remember

the original. I don't remember the original Jake from State Farm. It's a, a guy's on the phone like, Oh yeah, that sounds great. And then his wife rolls in, giving him the rolling pin, grabs the cat, the thing. And she's like, who's on the phone? He's like, Jake from State Farm. And she grabs the phone. She's Jake from State Farm. Who's this? What are you wearing? And they cut to some white schlub in a, in a cubicle going khakis. And that's the joke. And then they're like, Hey, people love Jake from State Farm, but now he's going to be a cool young black guy. Right. And they did this whole, it was really weird. They made a 120 minute long movie that was rated NC 17, where the white husband actually gets fucked by Jake from State Farm, where it's

actually sort of, it's like a, based on, uh, who's that army hammer, Timothy Chalamet movie. Call me by your name. Yeah, it was sort of like a call me by your name type thing. And the point was that it's not ridiculous that he would be fucking getting fucked and fucking, fucking the peach also with Jake from State Farm. And then actually the wipes, the wife's actually a bitch. And then at the end, they kill her. And then in the post credit scene, Nick Fury is like, I've seen this work. It was Aaron E. Shearance. And it turns out Aaron E. Shearance used her wrist reader. If you remember that from the commercial story lines to make the husband gay. But then she says to the robot from Wanda vision and she says, love is so good that it can make

a lie true. And that was voted the best line of 2021. Okay. Here's where I want to see it. I hear, here's what I want to see. I would like to see any kind of crossover, um, deep fake or otherwise of the lava monster from the United States Marines recruitment. That was great. That was the old days. So that was when like, they thought that the way to get people to join the military was like, you know, challenge them to, you know, reach their potential. And now they realize how about we just say, Hey, you might make a friend. Yeah. I, you know, you're right. I saw like, I recently saw like a bunch of like army recruitment ads. They were just about like people hanging out. Like they're like shooting pool and getting beer together.

I'm like friendship. No lava monsters. That's scary. I think every person who joined Marines because the lava monster ad, all of those guys probably like got disfigured by IEDs in the worst ways. Yeah, absolutely. Those were every time that like Bush would meet veterans who were like scarred and there'd be a guy who has like one 10th of his left eye left. Yeah. Just like, uh, just like a melted candle man. Yeah. He's just so, he got so fucked up. He looks like an unwashed potato. And it's like, it's like, see, look, I don't feel like this is fine. Yeah. I don't know. This isn't on my conscience at all. Um, all those guys were lava monster. They were lava monsters. Yeah. But they, but yeah, so they're all gone now. Now it's just,

look, I, I just wanted to have hang out with some people that look fun. Please don't send me despite the lava monster. Yeah. Let's see. What else have this week? What else is going on? What happened with the, with the debt ceiling? Is that still happening? I literally, they were talking about how it was a big deal. And then they just kind of stopped talking about it. I don't know. I mean, like, again, like I've tuned it out, but I think it's basically like, they're like, oh, like, let's, they're like, okay, we're opening negotiations over the debt ceiling, but like the Republicans don't even want to, like, they're not asking for anything. They just want to like, yeah, make a, they just want to make a stand. But like, or they don't want to like, some people

messed away and some people just walked, or rather like a contrary Rick Scott, like they don't want to go on their record saying that like, yeah, raising debts is horrible. Yeah. Or, or like that, like we want to cut Social Security and Medicare, or I don't know, what's the name? Matt Gates was saying that like, he wants to like, like, you know, for moving forward on the debt ceiling, like he wants to add work requirements to Medicaid. Yeah. I do love that one. Faith populace is coming soon. It's like, if you want some chemotherapy, better be ready to sweep up the streets or just have like, show evidence of submitting like 10 job applications a day to get insulin. Yeah. Yeah. If you're a nine-year-old who

has ALS, you're going in the Marines. Get ready for the lava monster. A nine-year-old with ALS though, would be pretty good to pilot in Ava. Just shoot them in there, the plug. Oh, okay. Pretend I'm like a live comedian, like I'm Jeff T. Drake for this. Maybe, maybe Matt Gates was a Venmo-ing 15 year olds because he thought they could pilot his Ava. Oh, and then, wait a minute, let me get the, the Kamala Harris article up there. I mean, like, I know we do the last week, but there's basically like, I just want to read this last week, but there was, there's just one line in a Kamala Harris article because there's one now every week because every, the Democrats are all panicking because they are stuck with Joe Biden.

And, uh, he cannot be removed from the top of the ticket. Even though very clear, nobody wants him to be the nominee, including voters. They're all saying, Oh, too old. You guys voted for him because you said he was the most electable. I love this fucking stupid democratic primary voters. It's like, uh, we need, we need the oldest man ever because he's actually the most electable. Yeah. And that's not even like, not even like two entire years later. Oh shit. He's really old. And, but like they should have real, obviously they should realize that like they needed him at that point. They needed him. He was the only guy who had any institutional buy-in from, uh, democratic voters as opposed to anybody in the party. So they needed him to rally behind,

but that meant that the VP spot was incredibly important and they just gave it to Kamala based on, I mean, it does just look like, Oh, we have this graph of these, uh, of all the, uh, all the segments that we need to appeal to. Look, she appeals to the most segments. She's got the women and the, and the blacks and the Asians. That's more than anyone else has. And then they are just like, they did it like a fucking actual world chart. And then it's like, with no consideration that she ate shit in the actual nominating process. Nobody liked her and she has no juice whatsoever. And so now they're stuck with Biden at the top, the prospect of even if he wins, she's going to probably be the president by the end of his second term because he's going to be

82 years old or something. Yeah. And not like a, you know, spry 82. No. You're not like a William Shatner 82. Um, he, uh, yeah. So I, I saw an interesting point by someone, uh, yesterday, which is that, um, remember all that talk, uh, during build back Brandon where people are like neoliberalism is dead. And someone brought this up that like it's not that like the DLC faction Clintonism was succeeded by this new, like, uh, young Turks movement within the Democratic party. It's more that like they just got outlasted by old people that came before them, which is what Biden represents. And I think the Kamala thing is like it's half like old head cannyness where it's like, I, I just have to pick a VP who's way shittier than me electorally.

But also I do think that people in Biden world probably legitimately thought like, Oh, Kamala Harris is a concession to the left. Yeah. That is a lot. I think they legitimately thought that. Um, and now she's nothing for anyone. No one likes her. No constituency, zero. So, so last week we saw the article and every week now they're just, they're just, and what it is, it's a bunch of people saying just, it's amazing at every level. It is just Americans regardless of power they, they putatively hold in any system, just crying out for somebody else to do something because no matter where you are in the system, there's just no conception that you personally couldn't do anything. So it's just all you can do is just hope somebody else does it.

So you've got all these Democrats, top level Democrats who could be, you know, I don't know, doing something to try to get her out of there, like actually moving towards that instead, they're all just bitch into these reporters trying to hope that like just by collecting these stories, something will spontaneously happen. And so there's another fucking article today about this, but there's one paragraph in it that's just like kick in the dick. Damn. But the painful reality for Ms. Harris is that in private conversations, these fucking people, private conversations over the last few months, dozens of Democrats in the White House on Capitol Hill and around the nation, including some who helped put her on the party's 2020 ticket,

which again, what did you expect to happen? You fucking dumbasses. Yeah. Did you watch a minute? Did you see a second of her performing, cackling like a maniac said that she had not risen to the challenge of proving herself as a future leader of the party, much less the country. Here's the best part. Even some Democrats, whom her own advisors referred reporters to for supportive quotes confided privately that they had lost hope at her. They call her her team and to like her shop. And they're like, no, no, talk, talk to us. Mungo's squajarian. And then they call up Mungo and Mungo's like, no, she's cooked. Yeah. She's fucking cooked. I loved it. Like our two main, the two political parties have

both been hit with the thick of it curse. Yeah. Like it's like they're both trying to lose to each other at the same time. Yeah. What do you want power for yourself? Yeah. How does power serve any of these people other than being a huge headache and a thing that's in the, that is an obstacle to them getting what they actually want, which is just personal advancement. But now they're stuck with Kamala. It's amazing. Like an entire party that is, is demobilized its ability to act like one. I actually, I actually do think Brandon wins reelection. When he dies in 2026, though, the two years where she's president are going to be so. Oh God. So funny. Oh my God. Imagine like, and you know, so much it is going to happen under her

just because that's how things happen. Like we'll have a, like a space tragedy. Yeah. We'll have like a challenger type incident and Kamala will like laugh during her speech. She'll be like, well, I guess my kids aren't going to space camp. I think, I think all of the families here today certainly have the right stuff. But who would you even replace her with? If you could get your shit together to like get her off the ticket, who would you even replace? Right? Like, oh, oh, this would be so much better if Eric Swalwell were here. Oh, get me Rupin Gallego. I mean, it's like all these, I guess some of these guys would be like kind of better, but it's not like this party is just like teaming with talent. No,

there aren't a lot of five star prospects. I got a name for you. Young talented on the come up. Richie Torres. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So it's the battle of the young guys. It's between him and Stanny Hoyer. Oh, all right. I guess like, uh, before we get out here, I've got, I've got, uh, I got the money's pick on the big game coming up this weekend. Who you guys got? He's, he's picking, he's picking my homes in the chiefs. Uh, I'll just take the Eagles, uh, because Philadelphia, the Reddit city will not be denied. Yeah, it is the Reddit era. I'm going with who I always root for the refs. I'll be rooting. We get to even have the game. I'll be rooting for the commercials. Because that's what I actually watched the Super Bowl

for. I watched it for the movie trailers, you know, but like now like, like it's just, it's movie trailers don't, it's not, it's not a big event. Well, half the time it is a trailer for a trailer. They're like, go on YouTube to watch the trailer. What the fuck, man? Don't put me on a fucking treasure hunt here to show me the stupid trailer. Yeah. No, that's another thing like you can't even, you can't even watch the Super Bowl for the commercials anymore because now we don't even get memes from a Super Bowl commercials. So what's the point? The only meat last year though was probably the best year for Super Bowl ads in a long time, just because you had the crypto ones, but presumably they're not going to be there this year.

No. Well, I mean, look, Binance is still around. Hold on. What's this on my phone? Ceasing all withdrawals of US dollars. That's fine. Ooh. All right. It's fine. It's all fine. Don't worry about it. I guess I'll be rooting for Robert Mueller and the rule of law. I guess I'm picking the Eagles to win. Yeah. Why not? Yeah. More fun. I mean, I want to see them. I want to see them eat. I want to see people just eat horse manure. I mean, that is the thing. You have more like, if the Philadelphia wins, there's a higher likelihood that there will be generalized mayhem in the city of Philadelphia, which is its own form of entertainment. We were talking about this the other day that like Americans riot when their sports teams

win a championship and not when they lose a championship because it's like, you know, it's like, it's like this difference in France and America. Yeah. You know, it's like, if your team wins a championship and you like loot a downtown area, you're sort of given a license to in a way, depending on the city, depending on the city, it's sort of like Saturn, Elliot, you know, the king is the popper and vice versa. And you're allowed to, you know, damage property, jump on cars, you know, eat horses. But yeah, because like we feel we have permission in some way. Yeah. Whereas, you know, like I said, it's just the the European sporting sporting mindset is like, well, they'll riot regardless of any outcome. But it's like they

will riot out of anger. Yeah, no, because it has too much, it has too much subversive content. And we, and we are just conditioned away from that. Can't do it. Not around sports anyway. All right. Well, let's wrap it up for there. Thanks again to Bumani Jones. But before we go, I'm going to kick it over to Chris, who has a couple of show related announcements for you guys. So till next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. Hey, just one quick announcement before we get out of here. We are taking another round of listener calls this time themed around Valentine's Day. So dating relationships, etc. But also think of this as a dear prudy type thing. So any kind of interpersonal relationship questions navigating weird family or co-worker or friend or roommate

situations, that sort of thing. We've done this before. You know how it goes. Email a voice recording of 30 seconds or less to calls at chapotraphouse.com. And we might answer your question. And just like let's keep it entertaining. So sorry if your question bums me out or is longer than 30 seconds, I will instantly delete it. So that's a Valentine's advice questions as a voice recordings to calls at chapotraphouse.com. All right, that's it. Talk to you soon.