Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - It Was a Good Idea... | 2/20/26

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

 Artimis II a go for Launch in March…  Negative nelly poem on space program…AMC says no AI film…  SAG-AFTRA headed back to the table…Email: [e-mail]  $20 off annual plan right now ( limited time ) www.blazetv.com/jeffy New Tide Squares…  New Heinz KEGCHUP…  Creating Fake Employees…  Logan Paul sets records and makes serious ROI…  Who Died Today: Tom Noonan 74 / Eric Dane 53…  Eight skiers found dead under Tahoe avalanche…  Nancy Guthrie still missing /Savannah probably not coming back to The Today Show / Pina County sheriff's reality show should have a season two now?...  Peter Greene accidental self-inflicted gun shot wound…  Mase Middleton stole my idea…  Joke of The Day Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blaze Radio Network. And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. Yesterday, we found that NASA and contractor engineers pumped more than 750,000 gallons of super cold propellants into the agency's huge space launch system rocket without any signs of hydrogen leaks, finally, and a major step toward launching four astronauts on a flight around the moon. Now they claim they're a go for a launch in March. They have a window March 6th, I think through the 11th. There's windows on those days. And then if those don't open up, we have to wait until April. So let's hope for a non-cloudy day on March 6th.

Maybe we can get those four astronauts that we have all ready to go, launching into their ride around the moon and back home again. Fingers crossed. Welcome. Welcome to chewing the fat. Fat 5 Plus. So I was happy that we finally got Artemis 2 ready for the launch. But then I see the naysayers like delete your handler on X who says this isn't a rocket.

It's a monument to distraction. A towering prop built to remind the crowd that the simulation still knows how to gesture upward when everything below is collapsing. Oh, okay. They always roll out the same spectacle, a gleaming cylinder, a countdown bathed in blue light, a promise that humanity is on the verge of some great celestial pilgrimage as if pointing at the sky can erase what's happening on the ground. But if the fuel isn't for travel, it's for myth maintenance, a ritual refilling of the narrative tank to keep the dream of upward motion alive while the system quietly reroutes every real trajectory inward toward control, containment, and compliance. Wow, what a negative Nelly.

Notice how they phrase it, milestone, briefing, next steps, the language of progress with none of the substance, because the progress isn't the product. Aw is. The structure behind the rocket looks less like engineering and more like scaffolding for a story that can't stand on its own anymore. And the experts waiting to answer questions aren't there to illuminate. There they are to stabilize belief in a ritual that must be repeated, even when the magic has long burned out. This isn't a launch. It's maintenance on the illusion that we're still moving forward.

Holy cow, what a negative nelly. Wow. For those of you looking forward to seeing Igor Elvarov's short film Thanksgiving Day, it's an AI film. At AMC theaters, not going to happen. Okay. Now, the prize package, they put this film together and they said the winner of this contest would get a two-week run in theaters nationwide. Well, when the word of this began hitting social media, however, some of the, uh, AMC theaters were like, wait, what? Yeah. Well, come to find out it's not AMC, okay?

It's a company that puts commercials into AMC theaters, okay? It's a third-party company. And it's a 20-minute program that this third-party package takes care of for AMC theaters. They don't do it. They sub-lease it out, and they create the commercials, and they do the commercials, and they do the whole bit that you see prior to the movies. So once Hollywood Reporter reached out to AMC about the brewing controversy, the company said, well, this content is an initiative from Screen Vision Media, which manages pre-show advertising

for several movie theater chains in the United States and runs fewer than 30% of AMC's U.S. locations. AMC was not involved in the creation of the content for the initiative, and as in foreshadow. screen vision that AMC locations will not participate. Wow. So they are they don't want anything to do with the AI film. And it's interesting that it's the third party. So the third party said, yeah, we'll air your program and we'll just air in our time slot at theaters around the nation. And AMC was like, it's not in our theaters. Sorry about it. We we don't really want your AI content on our on our screens.

It's kind of weird. I mean, they had the film festival collection of AI shorts that aired at IMAX theaters, I don't know, back in August. But that was the first time that any nationwide exposure would be AI movies on the big screen. But not this time around. Good luck. God bless. At the speed that it's growing, and we are,

facing against AI probably won't be very long. I mean, they talked about how this filmmaker made the film using Gemini 3.1 and Nano Banana Pro. Love Nano Banana Pro. To make the short, it's a, you know, it's a masterclass, according to the reviewers, in original storytelling. And it's, it's animated. And I'm sure that they believe that this is the future of animated filmmaking. And the people who do the voice work and all the production work believe that it won't be. But it won't be long before we start seeing many films made with AI.

And will they all let us know? You know, when we see the ads, they say, you know, it made with AI. I feel like they're using it now without telling us. And just sooner or later, they'll say, well, we've been using it for the last two years and haven't told you. And you've been fine with it. So either we're going to have separate AI movie theaters or they're just going to to give in and say the AI movies are down that hallway. The movies made by humans are over there. And that's probably where we're headed. Because they want the people to come into their

theaters. AmC is certainly struggling. They haven't been the best of times at the movie theater. So it's going to be tough to be turned down films when more and more are made by AI. But again, good luck. God bless. And then what do we do when we start making the AI film with human voices, animated films I'm talking about, and even regular, regular films as well, when we start integrating AI along with human interaction in the film. So if we can do things with AI that can help us create and produce the film cheaper and still use humans for voice work and maybe some of the acting, other than voice acting, then, you know, And it's an all-encompassing film just made cheaper and a little bit differently.

And I don't see film houses saying no to that. But what do I know? And maybe it all change when the actors all agree on something. I mean, we have SAG After. I guess they're heading back to the table. It seems like it was just yesterday that they were on strike, but it was nearly three years ago, 118-day strike. And they're still recovering from them.

that actually. But some of the big issues on the table are the AI and Tilly tax. So the 2023 deal, AI protections are already looking like they were written in a different era. Yeah. The new pitch, if a studio uses a synthetic performer instead of a real actor, it pays a royalty into union pension and health funds, essentially making AI actors cost the same or more than real humans. The names come. You remember Tilly Norwood, the fully synthetic AI actress that freaked everyone out last fall. Yeah, that's still going on. So maybe once, you know, Sag Aftera and, you know, the Oscars start using AI and, you know, hello, welcome to our AI edition film award, maybe. Maybe that still happens and maybe, you know, it'll work out. I don't know if Sag Afterra is going to work out a new deal anyway.

I've got streaming residuals to think about, health and pensions to think about. More people are concerned about, you know, losing their jobs to AI. So I can understand the, you know, the fear. It's time to own yourself. I've got to do that too. I'm talking to you about it and I have to do that too. It's time to own yourself. You need to make sure and find a way that you are you and owned by you.

And it's just that simple. You can quote me on that, no problem. You need to make sure that, you know, you are you and that you are compensated for being you at all times. And if someone, if someone tries to be you, then you need to step in and say, ah, hey, you can't use me without paying me because I own me.

Yeah, just that easy. Be sure to follow me on my social media at Jeffrey JFR on X, Jeff Fisher Radio, on Facebook and Instagram. You can email the show anytime chewing the fat at the blaze.com. You can send your comments. I do see them all. I mean, I comment on them all, but I do see them.

You can send in your submissions for a joke of the day. I appreciate those. Some of you still need some work to do, but, you know, I appreciate you. Thank you. Chewing the fat at the blaze.com. You can order a cameo at any time at Jeffey JFR on the cameo app. That is not free, but it is worth every shiny nickel. at Jeffrey JFR on the Camio app.

You can also hear me and hear the Pat Gray Unleashed program Monday through Friday, of which I'm a part of. I do a Fat 5 there daily at some point during the 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. show, usually at 6.30 Central. And then, you know, I do this show, a Fat 5 Plus, just some added stories that, you know, I miss during the Pat Grand Leashed program. You can hear and watch that on Blaze TV and Blaze Radio if you'd like to be a subscriber to Blaze TV. You can go to blazTV.com slash Jeffie. BlazTV.com slash Jeffie. That'll get you $20 off on annual subscription right now. BlazTV.com slash Jeffie.

You can also hear a show I do every Saturday, Saturday morning live. It's live on Saturday. That's why we call it Saturday morning live. I do that show with Brad Stags. You can hear the show and watch the show on my ex-account at Jeffie J-Fr. I think Brad puts it up on a few other platforms as well, including his ex-account, which is at real Brad Stags. And you can see it there, but really, most importantly,

you can see it at, you know, Jeffie J-FR. You can also hear Brad every day on the Daily Mojo. Just go to Dailymojo.com. You know, hear him there. You know, if you want to, it's fine. No problem. I see where Tide is coming out with some new soap, which I don't know. It might work.

Might be okay. I mean, look, they believe that it's the future, all right? It's a nationwide rollout of waterless detergent squares. They think it's going to be, you know, a 25, look, they're already doing, involved in a, what is it, $25 billion? laundry market. So there's no plastic or liquid. The product known as Tide Evo is about the size of your palm, depending on the size of your palm, and the plain white tile has six different layers of woven fibers made from cleaning materials.

The fibers dissolve in cold water to cut down on energy usage and come in a recyclable box that is much smaller and cheaper to ship than other detergent products. A box of 42 tiles costs 1999 on Amazon compared with the 1297 for a pack of 42 pods. So, okay, so a little price here. I don't know. We had the, what was the pods thing on TikTok? I don't know, some stupid pod thing that everybody was doing that went viral. So maybe we'll have a, you know, we'll have a tied Evo eating.

contest on a TikTok. I'm not telling you to do that. But if you want to go viral on a TikTok, have a Tide Evo eating contest. And you can go through each layer. And then, you know, it'll bring eyeballs to the product. And maybe the price will drop a little bit. So good luck to Brechtle & Gamble for their new Tide Evo product.

Plus, I see as a, you know, a bad. carrying Heinz police officer, that Heinz is coming out with a new Heinz keg chip. Built like a giant keg. I'm not really sure how big it actually is. And it's not available yet. But it, oh, I'm sorry, it's 114 ounces. It does say, if you read the small print, it does tell us.

114 ounces of rich, thick Heinz ketchup. It's awesome. It's got the little pump on top. Now it's not available, so I signed up for information. Maybe they'll just send me one. As a police officer, a Heinz police officer, they should send me one. I want the Heinz ketchup. I might have to drop the refrigerator shelf down a notch just to fit the ketchup in the refrigerator.

But that's going to happen. And when I say, me having to drop the refrigerator shelf down, I mean, you know, someone in the house will have to do that. So I see this headline. from a Wendy's employee that had created a fake employee. And I thought this was in Pennsylvania. And I thought it was genius. And then I thought, wait, I thought someone did that before. She's just following in footsteps.

Yes. A few years ago, a Pinellas County, Florida woman, had created a fake employee at a Dunkin' Donuts. Now, she only did it for a short period. Duncan Donuts was on top of it. She had a fake employee logging in a total of 235 hours. So with the employee earning $8.65 an hour, she earned about an extra $1,600, a little more than $1,600. But Dunkin' Donuts caught on to the fictitious person right away. The Wendy's employee in Pennsylvania, this Linda Johnson was the general manager.

And she had access to the scheduling system and the timesheets and the payroll. So she created an employee, gave it a name, clocked him in, clocked him out. She logged shifts, 128 shifts for him over 11 months. And every two weeks, his paycheck totaling 20, totaling she got about $20,000 in the 11 months. And it went straight to her cash app.

Kind of sweet. That's a genius idea. Now, apparently it's a crime that, you know, you're creating this fictitious employee, and you're paying him and you're taking the money. So I don't recommend it. But apparently, the owners conducted an audit and they found discrepancies in the payroll. Yeah. Who is this person? No one knows who he is. No one's seen him. He always clocks in when you're here. Who is he? Well, he's a really good employee and he works so fast you can't see him. So she was charged with theft by deception and eventually, I guess, turn herself in. Okay. So I guess the insurance company lost some money. And, you know, you

you know, Wendy's lost the money. They're a little upset. It doesn't say what happened to Linda. So maybe they just had her go to work and pay it off. I doubt that happens in today's world. Everybody wants to throw everybody in jail. But, you know, back in the day, something like this would happen. And then you would just tell the Wendy's, you know, general manager, Linda,

you've got to go back to being just a regular worker, and you're going to pay back the money that you stole from us with your fake employee. then that's how we're going to do it. But in today's world, I'm sure she's still rotting in jail. We put that theft by deception. So I mentioned this the other day on the Fat Five during Pat Gray on Leashed. And I just wanted to mention it to you guys because it makes me want to go through my baseball cards and my football cards and my basketball cards because I know that I have some that are going to be worth some money.

I hope. Probably not, though. My luck is just that they're all been old. and used, but Logan Paul sent a new world record for the auction price of a trading card. It was a Pikachu Illustrator Pokemon card. Now, I remember when he bought it, okay, and he bought it for $5.275 million. And everyone thought he was crazy. It was a Guinness record at the time for a Pokemon card.

And he added a diamond necklace and a custom case that he wore, he wore it at WrestleMania, he wore it, right, saw pictures of him with it on. Well, he put that up for auction because apparently he wanted to pay for his wedding, like he didn't have enough money to pay for his wedding. So it was up for auction. And it sold for $16.5 million. That is a pretty good ROI. That would be a return on investment.

So that sets a couple of records as well. The Guinness World Records person was there, the Sarah Kaysen. Apparently, the price was a record, not just for a Pokemon card, but also it was a record for any trading card sold at auction. So congratulations to Logan Paul for selling his Pokemon card. It's Pokemon. It's Pikachu Illustrator Pokemon card for, man, he made like over $10 million on that card, that is awesome. That is awesome for him. And I'm pretty sure that will, that will cover the wedding. Who died today? Who died today? Well, let's begin with Tom Noonan. Tom Noonan dead at the age of 74. He was, I was an actor, Robocop 2, Last Action Hero, Man Hunter. He was, he was in quite a number

of movies. And it was announced that he had passed away. Did not say what he died of or from. But rest in peace to Tom Noonan, dead at the age of 74. Then we have Eric Dane. Eric Dane has passed away. I know. My daughter was really bummed out about this. Many people in her circle of friends were very bummed out. about Eric Dane dead at the age of 53.

He had a battle with ALS, and if you were following him at all, you knew that he did, he had that battle. And I know that I guess, what's his face? You know, Johnny Depp was letting him stay at one of his homes for free as they struggled financially to take care of the ALS. And I guess he filmed a goodbye message and about his struggle. and the love of his family, which is going to be airing,

it may already be up on Netflix. So we have that to look forward to to, to be able to watch and, you know, have a few tears rolled down our cheek for that one. But I found it interesting that his wife had filed for divorce. And then he was diagnosed with ALS. And the wife withdrew the divorce filing, saying that she had to be there with him for.

him and with the daughters. And so they were there the whole time. And so I don't know, I don't know if she's still hated him. And, you know, just you're lucky I didn't divorce you. I could have you bastard. I don't know that that happened. But I just found it interesting that she was all ready to kick him to the curb until he was diagnosed with ALS. And then she wanted to teach her children to show up for family. And so that's what she did. So rest in peace to Eric Dane, dead at the age of 53. And I'm not sure if they've found the last skier or not or if they've just given up, but they had the avalanche near Lake Tahoe and, you know, nine skiers were caught in the avalanche.

So they found eight of the backcountry skiers. They were all found dead near the Lake Tahoe incident where the avalanche happened. I believe it was the country's deadliest in decades. Six skiers from the same group were rescued. Authorities said the final missing skier was presumed dead. I'm guessing they kind of still are looking for the skier, but maybe not. Maybe they're just, we got to wait until the snow melts. Sorry.

He's out there somewhere. But wow, it's so sad. I mean, I'm really sad. And I mean, I'm not sure of all the details. I mean, there were these skiers. and they didn't see the avalanche cubbin? Were they busy filming it and then got caught? I don't know.

I don't know. But the whole thing is really sad. But they have found at least eight of them. And I believe they're still looking for number nine. And we got news. Another report that Savannah Guthrie is not coming back to work for the Today Show. That doesn't surprise me. I've said it all along that she wasn't going to return.

There's no way she can come back. We still haven't found her mom. It's what day 20. And now they have very little to go on. They don't know where she is. We could be, you know, looking for her for years. No way Savannah can come back to the today show and say, yeah, you know, still haven't found my mom. It's been a year.

All right, let's go to Bill. Bill's going to show us how to bake a wonderful loaf of sourdough bread. It just doesn't, it's not going to happen. And plus, you look at the pictures of her, just in 20 days. You know, the picture is private. to she was on the Today Show and then now, holy cow, it's taken a toll. So I'm sure that I'm sure that she won't be back. Of course, she'll come back and be dressed in black and in a cloak of sadness for the show. But there's no way she comes back as one of the co-host. And she was one of the main

host there. Right. I mean, she was supposed to be there for the Olympics and the whole thing. She's a big time host for them. So that's a big loss. And they, I mean, they drug a host. Hoda back from her retirement to fill in while Savannah was out there because they thought it was just going to be a quick look for mom, find mom, and she'll be back. Nope, not the case. So we'll see what happens. I mean, that case is ongoing and interest is beginning to, interests begin to feign a little bit. Some of the news people are pulling away. All that's left are the citizen journalists covering the case. And I did know this. but I found out not long ago that the sheriff's department there in Peanah County has a reality show.

So we should be, we should get all of this behind the scenes on their reality show, right? Because I know the sheriff, he hates the FBI. Now, he's said that the family has been cleared. I don't think the FBI has cleared everyone on the family. And they're still, they show up at the sister's house. And I mean, everyone believes, since we have nothing. nothing to go on that we've all come up with the conclusion that it has to be someone in the family, right? And maybe it wasn't a kidnapping, but it was a, it was a, you know, crime of passion.

And then we had to make it look like a kidnapping. So, I mean, we just, we don't know. But I'm looking forward to the Pina County Sheriff's Department reality show because they may they'll have it all covered. It's called Desert Law. It's 10.com. It's 10 episode's A&E reality series featuring the Pima County Sheriff's Department. Now, I guess the show highlights the DUI unit and the detectives patrolling over 9,000 square miles of Arizona. And it focuses on high-intensity cases, including drug busts and armed confrontations. Well, we should have season two already ready to go because they should have been filming the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case. And you can call it whatever you want.

You can continue to call it Desert Law. The Guthrie Kidnapping on A&E. Oh, and we should talk about Peter Green too. I say we should talk, I should tell you, about Peter Green, who passed away back in December. Remember the actor, Peter Green? I mean, if you, he's one of those, oh yeah, that guy. So when you see him, when you see Peter Green, you go,

oh, yeah, that guy. And he died back in December. they found him in his apartment with a fatal gunshot wound. Well, apparently, he was 60 years old, rest in peace to Peter Green, but he died of a gunshot wound to the left exilia with injury of the brachial artery. You know, everyone knows where that is. And according to the New York chief medical examiner, the bullet entered his left armpit and caused major bleeding after damaging the artery, supplying blood to his arm, elbow, forearm,

and hand. His death was ruled an accident. Apparently, it was an accidental shooting. I guess he was, who doesn't play around with their gun in New York and the apartment all by yourself? And then goes off and you shoot yourself and no one's there to help you. So rest in peace again to Peter Green. One of those, oh yeah, that guy. Actors still dead at the age of 60 by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

And before we get to the joke of the day, I'm going to tell you a story that's been irking me the entire week, okay, or at least the last three or four days. So I'm watching the Attorney General debate here in Texas. It was hosted by Ali Beth Stecky, one of our Blaze TV hosts. And she did a fine job. It was fine. And it was aired live on Blaze TV. it was put on by the Republican Party of Texas, I think, what do they call themselves? The Republican Attorney General Association.

They put out the debate. And it was with Chip Roy and Mays Middleton, Joan Huffman, and Aaron Wrights. Now, I will say Chip Roy is the frontrunner. Aaron Wrights sounded pretty good. And Joan Huffman, I guess, you know, she's okay. But Mays Middleton, okay? So Mays Middleton, he says during the debate, my idea. Do I get credit for it?

No. And then I remember, I'm trying to remember, I remember talking to Mays Middleton when he was on the Jackie Daily show. When I was producing and putting together the Jackie Daily show, the show no longer is on. But I remember talking to Mays Middleton, a Texas businessman who was going to run for Attorney General. and I told him about my idea. We either did it on the show at the time or I talked to him specifically off the air, but I talked to him about the border wall

and how we should use and we should recycle the windmill blades to use for the wall because we don't know what to do with them. We're burying them in a hole. They don't know how they're going to, they don't go back into the earth for a thousand years. And my idea was,

instead of spending all this money on the border wall, material. They could recycle the wind turbine blades by putting every other one upside down, right side up, put them in the ground and make those the border wall. He mentioned this during the debate. Did I get credit? No. Did he say, you know, I believe that we should do this. Like, you know, one of my constituents, Jeff Fisher said, the host of chewing the fat. No. Did I get that? No. So it just kind of irks me a little bit. So Mays, you're welcome. for using my idea. I hope you win so that you can use my idea, and I hope I get credit for it. But until then, I'm a little irked that I didn't get credit for it. Okay? All right. I got that

off my chest now. Okay. This is the, look it out of here. This is the joke of the day sent from William. And again, I want to remind everyone that I appreciate the jokes of the day being sent in. Some need work. You know, I appreciate you writing the jokes, but you know, you need a little bit of work. Like this one is not bad. It's a long way getting there, though. So this is the joke of the day from William. You can send your submission to chewing the fat at the blaze.com. An engineer dies and is relegated to hell. Once he begins in hell, he starts to make changes. He installs escalators and air conditioning. God calls Satan and ask, how's it going down there, Satan? And Satan says it's

never been so good since the engineer got here. And God was shocked and says, that's a mistake. No engineer should be there. I'm taking him back. Satan says, so sue me. Where are you going to find a lawyer? See, because the lawyer, no, you got it. Stream and subscribe to more Blaze Media content at theblaze.com slash podcasts.