Citation Needed - The Host's Fictional Bios

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

This episode was inspired by our tall tales episode. We each take a crack a writing another host's fictional bio. This was supposed to be a Christmas Episode but was delayed....

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 In the dry states of the Southwest, there's a group that's been denied a basic human right. In the Navajo Nation today, a third of our households don't have running water. But that's not something they chose for themselves. Can the Navajo people reclaim their right to water and contend with the government's legacy of control and neglect? Our water, our beauty. Our water, our beauty. That's in the next season of Reclaimed, the lifeblood of Navajo Nation.
Starting point is 00:00:28 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to Citation Needed, the podcast where we choose a subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia, and pretend we're experts. Because this is the internet, and that's how it works now. I'm Eli and I'll be the reason for the season tonight. This episode was scheduled for Christmas. It was scheduled. But we'll need some- Winter. Winter is a season. Thank you!
Starting point is 00:01:15 It is! It's like there's only one season. Yeah. Exactly. This is the white Christmas of Christmas episodes. It's a podcast. They're all white. Every one of our episodes is the white Christmas. White Christmas of Christmas episodes Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of Christmas of I thought that was a good name And I was just sad that it wasn't a euphemism for cocaine I thought we were gonna party Yes an unnecessary contraction. He like I do know white guys stuff You do yeah, all I write on the little bike. It's true and
Starting point is 00:01:56 Also joining us tonight the hero with a tale to be told Cecil something Italian Cecil Are you ready to be canonized as you so rightly deserve feel like we're gonna get canonized by this group they're either gonna be shooting me out of or with a cannon okay it was either that or Eli had to try to spell Hague a graphical and I don't think any of us wanted that yeah okay okay that's fair you want a winter soldier that's how you get a winter soldier before we begin how you get a winter soldier
Starting point is 00:02:32 Before we begin tonight, I'd like to take a moment to thank our patrons. Patrons usually a squadron of guys jer- A reason for the season Patrons usually a squadron of guys- Jesus Patrons usually a squadron- A winter soldier Jesus Patrons usually a squadron- The war on Christmas. I was just thinking this episode wasn't gonna be long enough Keith It's gonna be like three hours for me to edit. Okay. Yeah, man If I break if I don't laugh and stop every time he can't do the bit It's good. Yes, I did it Patrons usually thank you. I was gonna say that happened for that
Starting point is 00:03:05 That's the commitment yeah, and also this next one Patrons, usually a thank you. I was going to say it had to happen for that. Thank you. That's the commitment. And also this next one has to happen too. Patrons, usually a squadron of guys jerking off in such an egregious manner have to find a Turkish bathhouse or a David Barton gym. But thanks to your dollars, we can record it for the whole world to enjoy. And if you'd like to learn how to join their ranks, be sure to stick around to the end of the show. And with that out of the way, tell us, Tom, what person, place, thing, concept, phenomenon,
Starting point is 00:03:30 or event will we be talking about today? Ourselves, I guess. More particularly, how little we actually know one another. And Noah, you decided that we were going to talk about each other for this very special Christmas episode. Why? Well, because sometimes ideas seem better when you're high.
Starting point is 00:03:50 Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. I get it. I get it. So Noah, why don't you start us off by telling us the tale of Heath Enright? Okay. So obviously we've talked a lot on this show about Heath being tall, but what we may never
Starting point is 00:04:02 have mentioned is that that has been a lifelong infliction. He was in fact born at his present height of 64 inches or 193 centimeters. He was curled up like real good. It's both an affliction and an infliction by my parents genetically. But he was still obviously baby levels of skinny at first and then he just filled out over time. So in a process less like being birthed and more like being extruded, he came into the world on August 27th of 1981.
Starting point is 00:04:37 Yeah, when he was born, the doctor actually yelled, it's a spaghetti. Yeah, right. Exactly. That was the most remarkable part. Now, he cement size was obviously an incredible burden for his parents. Normal baby furniture wouldn't accommodate their writhing noodle of a child, so they had to get creative. On walks, for example, they used two walkers with a board stretched between them. To put them to bed, they had to cut the ends off of four crips and kind of duct tape them together. And to carry them them around his mom had to wear a pair of
Starting point is 00:05:10 Papooses one on the front and one on the back that just you know it was for limb overflow This childhood pet was a kangaroo with a backpack that he could take him for rides in that Yes, my story's a lot like Hey, honey, you think maybe we should just use a a bed-sized bed for our enormous, baby No, no, no, I all right then hand me the baby's duct tape Not using it's ducked. I was a pedantic. She's not correct things like that It's not I'm gonna do the voice. It's ducked. There's a duck Duck tape that is the universal tape is duct tape. Hell yeah, let's get into this.
Starting point is 00:05:48 It is not for ducts. Duct tape, if you look... They have to let you use it on ducts! Duct tape is a shiny silver tape that would be not useful for anything else. Tom, no matter what else happens on this episode, Ethan Wright will be Googling. He's Googling right now only to find out in moments that he is wrong. And I promise. He's going to the dark web. He's going to the deep web.
Starting point is 00:06:12 He's finding the first article on Wikipedia. So the original duct tape is branded as duck. It's going to be like an hour and 15 minutes already. With a T at the end of it, duct tape to use for ducts is not the same thing as the Universal tape that you are referring to that is are you serious? I'm a hundred percent serious duct tape is a shiny shitty tape. That's not particularly useful for anything other than Ducks and it's not used on don't you look at your HVAC system? You will not see what you think of as duct tape on your HVAC system
Starting point is 00:06:46 You'll see a shitty shiny silver tape Yeah, I'm a hundred percent right. I've looked this up before cuz I corrected people. You sound so confident. Yeah Yeah, because I did the same thing you just did and then I got I got told off I was like no way that's true. This this this correction pays it forward. It's kind of amazing. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. So it's like a double shitty baby. I tried to do a pedantic correction. It was like somebody I was like emailing a podcast to my parents.
Starting point is 00:07:16 It's not boobin if it's not from Kentucky. All right. So now I have to somehow steer this back to the prepared material. I'm tall. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Heath's tall. Heath's extreme tallness also came with a few health issues. For example, in order for Baby Formula to reach all the way down his giraffe-like neck, it had to be squirted with great force. Caliente. Holy shit.
Starting point is 00:07:41 It was Caliente. Now, unfortunately, aerospace engineer and former NASA employee Lonnie George Johnson would not invent the super soaker until 1989. So his dad has a fun. So his dad had to fashion a makeshift bellows system to get he through those first few tenuous months of life. His extended digestive tract also required a far higher intake of fiber than was true for most kids.
Starting point is 00:08:04 A problem his father rectified with a steady diet of surprise toothpicks secreted away with his food. The video of Heath's mom jumping on those milk bellows from the diving board never should have been cut from America's Funniest Home Videos. Bob said it was a coward. She hit him with a wiffle ball bat right in the crotch. She did, yeah. He just got him.
Starting point is 00:08:24 F*** yeah, she did. Now as Heath got older, it became clear... Dave Cluay was like, cut it. Now as Heath got older, it became clear that he was only going to grow outward instead of upward, which came as a great relief to his parents. Keep in mind that they were mentally preparing to raise a 24-foot tall teenager, but he remained 6' four as he aged, making his height progressively less awkward every
Starting point is 00:08:48 year. Now in his adolescence, he did make a habit of wearing trench coats everywhere in hopes that people would assume he was just, you know, several kids trying to get into an R rated movie. But by the time he reached about 14 years of age, it ceased to be an issue. Ceased to be in yeah, teens in trench coats in the 90s, definitely not an issue. Okay, no, I mean, I meant the height. Jesus Christ!
Starting point is 00:09:13 Dude, I gotta take cover behind a desk from that joke, Jesus Christ! Jesus! No, look, Tom, I meant his height ceased to be an issue. His fashion choices would remain an issue far into the 2000s. Man. Okay. True story. My friend wore a trench coat to school the day after Columbine and got side tackled by
Starting point is 00:09:35 security. Crying blackface at the time. Now as a teenager, Heath excelled at a number of sports, none of which were basketball, which we can all admit is weird. But Heath's dad was the type who believed his son should have a sport for every season because the alternative was spending time with him. So he spent his winter playing hockey, his spring's playing baseball, his summer's playing soccer, and his autumn's playing deodor-cough, an ancient game of unknown origin that involves forcing larger and larger objects through smaller and smaller rings. I'm sorry, he didn't play football and there are just no other
Starting point is 00:10:08 autumn sports. So he was also an excellent student. He made it all the way through high school without ever answering a question on a test incorrectly, or rather in a way he was willing to concede was incorrect. Sometimes the teacher disagreed, but they were fucking wrong. It was duck Technically his answer should have counted but the teachers didn't disagree often And so he went from high school to Williams College where he would go on to graduate Magna cum laude how because this is a fictional biography Time out time out time. I didn't realize we were allowed to lie about each other Heath I'm about to Venmo you a lot of money Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, And as is true for so many of us. You know, it didn't pop up. No.
Starting point is 00:11:05 Now of course. Phone is locked. As is true for so many of us, it was during his days in college that the most pivotal moment of his life occurred. I get it. Lots of people experiment in college. Not as many as Bill Dorm Room fuck robots though. That's a little...
Starting point is 00:11:21 No, it was even more important than that actually. So this event that I'm talking about, it happened, as Heath even more important than that, actually. So this event that I'm talking about, it happened as Heath can tell you from memory, I'm sure at 1048 PM on November 28th on 2009. That was a Saturday, Saturday. And it lasted for only 45 seconds, but it would echo in Heath's heart and his mind for all the seconds afterwards and still rings there today. And the moment I'm talking about, of course, is the 2009 Folgers incest commercial in which an actor playing a teenage sister, I fucks the actor playing her 20 something brother for the most awkward three quarters of a minute in the history of American advertising.
Starting point is 00:12:00 Fun fact, that commercial is so Heath directional because they weren't sure if they wanted the two characters to be husband and wife or brother and sister when they shot it, but they ended up cutting the two shoots together, which I think we can all agree wasn't interesting in the choice. I don't think that's true. And they were both adults. I'm pretty sure. But with AI accelerating at the rate it is, 2025 will be the year that Heath finally sees
Starting point is 00:12:24 the climax of that commercial. Oh, there's there are several reenactments Cecil that you can find now. So now after lots of my climaxes are called the singularity. Yeah Now after graduation Heath would go on to use this degree in economic sciences to secure a job as a bartender at TGA Fridays Because well You can see how fucked the economy was before the rest of us. And he's like, I just want to get a bartender money. He would then leave that job to take up a very promising
Starting point is 00:12:52 career in the throwing around sacks of sand industry, which he would eventually give up for the somehow even less promising field of podcasting. A career move, no doubt, that seemed like a better idea at the beginning of this biography than it does at the end. Woof. All right.
Starting point is 00:13:08 So Cecil, tell us about Tom. Wow. Going after Noah with something like this is pretty difficult, but I'll give it a shot. Okay. Tom's mom and dad met the day Saigon fell to the Viet Cong. It was April 30th, 1975. It had nothing to do with Vietnam or the Vietnam War. It just happened on that day. Their courtship was a whirlwind affair spurred on by a substantial lack of conversation. When his mother asked his father to marry his dad, like always,
Starting point is 00:13:40 didn't speak. So she just took it as a yes. Tom's mom, Carol, had a monkey called Stacho. He served as the ring bearer in the wedding. They eloped to the Everglades, where they were married by a Protestant python who offered Tom's mom an apple, and she, in turn, asked the python if it was martini-flavored. Okay.
Starting point is 00:14:02 To be fair, at this point, everything that ends up in Tom's mom's mouth is Martini flavored by default. Or something blue at the wedding was just three speared olives stuffed with blue cheese. It technically counts. Alright, this is a, I had to make a fictional stuff for mine, Cecil. This is amazing. I know Tom a little better. Okay, their marriage lasted three years During that time Tom's parents had two children and three conversations
Starting point is 00:14:33 The conversations were never about anything too deep to her about the weather The other was about where they should go to dinner Tom was conceived during that one They called it a Denny's Grand Slam Tom was born in 1978 and the doctors had some trouble removing him from the birth canal. His shoulders stuck and they had to exert some sort of amount of pressure on him to get him out of there and in the process his neck was shoved deep into his body and his shoulders formed this sort of protective foreskin around it His neck his neck stays deeply buried in his chest cavity today. Oh
Starting point is 00:15:16 Today yeah, absolutely, but but otherwise the gravitron at the carnival was a fun time To be fair based on what we know about Tom if he had tried to let himself out He'd have just ripped his mom in half and saved the world a ton of trouble If he tried to let himself out, he'd have just ripped his mom in half and saved the world a ton of trouble. So like Hulk Hogan taking off his shirt. Exactly. Tom and his brother Ralph Wiggum went to a school in a two room schoolhouse in the swamps of central Florida. One of the rooms was for the students, obviously, and the other was for the alligators that
Starting point is 00:15:39 they rode to and from the schoolhouse. Tom's alligator had to walk uphill both ways to school and then he'd ride it home and then he'd have to jump across several alligator heads like pitfall to get to his front door. Inside he would see his mom doing shots of plastic bottle doers with the monkey. That's accurate. Snatcho's tiny little liver bulged as he took swig after swig of that swill. The monkey died a year later. But it died because it bit Tom and he tried to flush it down the toilet. And his mom caught him mid-plunger,
Starting point is 00:16:14 so she tried CPR for 30 minutes on Stacho's tiny, fragile, and broken body. Jesus Christ! A taste of toilet water, a welcome reprieve from the doers. And he died right there in the bathroom on the floorboards. And I can say you still hear his heartbeat if you listen really close. All right. See, so for the last time, that's just my throbbing head. That's just...
Starting point is 00:16:38 Yeah, no, we talked about this. Which is crazy because it's resonant because it's stuck in your chest cavity. So it's just this sort of thrumming that comes out. Tom. Crehensel tail heart. Tom was sent. I thought I was going to just monkey. Shut up and go back to Googling Ducktay.
Starting point is 00:16:55 Tom was sent. No, I already checked that. Tom was sent to live with his dad near Midway Airport. A small neighborhood surrounds that airport and they all signed a petition to kick Tom's dad out of the homeowners association They complained that Tom was so loud. He disturbed the serene sounds of the landing 747 So his father moved them to Frankfurt not like an interesting one like in Germany the one South of I-80 in Illinois that's next to the entire village of white supremacists
Starting point is 00:17:24 Indiana It's kind of sandwich village of white supremacists. Exactly. Indiana? Yeah, the other side. It's kind of sandwiched between white supremacists. Oh, I see. Yeah. Ohio? That was the original description of the Oreo. Yeah. Tom spent many years tearing down road signs,
Starting point is 00:17:39 breaking mailboxes, duck taping, sorry, duck taping raccoons to people's steering wheels and killing any animal that came near his house. The most amazing accomplishment is this, he had to do all this before his curfew of 415 p.m. Well, early morning is when the raccoons are the most trusting, so trusting and filled with our garbage. I'm comforted to know now that the raccoon was already dead when Tom duct-taped it there, though.
Starting point is 00:18:09 That's true. It's not my fault they die with their arms out comically. I mean, they're just begging for a steering wheel taping. Like our lord in the garden. I just want to point out that Cecil and Noah are secretly changing their duct to duct. I didn't change anything! I'm willing to be wrong, Heath! I'm okay with it. I'm just not willing for the notes to be wrong. Oh yeah. We wouldn't want a spelling error in our notes. Well in 450. Right, right, exactly. I wouldn't want one in red or pink. Right. All right. So Tom. I'm blue everybody, just so you know what that was Tom eventually found weightlifting we get it you have depression
Starting point is 00:18:51 Tom eventually found weightlifting which is kind of amazing because his eyes barely pop up outside of his upper body He's like a crossfit It's an interesting shape. He was also recruited to wrestle in his high school, which is surprising since he lacks any sort of pressure control, balance, athleticism, or tactile sense. I have some of those. No, I don't have any of those. His tactic was to grab onto his opponent as hard as he could, and then when his balance failed, which it inevitably would, he would fall with them and hope that they hit the ground before he did. Cecil, what did he call it? He called it the 9-11. As you can imagine, a wrestling career built on hope is only available to CM Punk. Fun fact, that is a person Tom wrestled in college. And I'm not kidding on this last one. Tom and I went to a
Starting point is 00:19:42 college with a bunch of guys and they had a wrestling league in some kid's backyard on Friday nights and they had a ring and they would jump off the ropes and they'd break tables and shit. Oh Jesus, it was fucking wild. And then they had a free for all at the end of the night. What? Like a big fucking battle royale
Starting point is 00:19:55 and the last person standing got a pot of money that they collected to enter. And when Tom entered. You were in like the original backyard wrestling film? Wrestling film. Yeah. When Tom entered. I wasn't in it, but I played Root of Tech Wrestling Federation. Yeah. When Tom answered. I wasn't in it, but I played.
Starting point is 00:20:06 But Tom got in at the end to try to win the money, but they all ganged up on him because they were smart. They did. And then he did wrestle with CM Punk before that guy got his face obliterated in the UFC. Okay. That's the best. Cecil, I literally have a podcast whose main purpose is for Tom to tell crazy stories from his life, and we hadn't gotten to that
Starting point is 00:20:28 Crazy stories this is all You think that but then you learn about the car wash Just be coming in hot every Wristled CM Punk okay, whatever you guys talking about moving on just Phil Brooks at the time Okay, whatever you guys talking about moving on that's fine brooks at the time My great-grandma fucked millionaire heart and my friend wrestled CM Punk. It's all coming together Another true story. I'd like to share one time I was at Tom's house with my now wife and then girlfriend Sarah came out of the kitchen and she saw Tom's brother wealth Ralph Wigg much, much, much smaller and frail version of Tom.
Starting point is 00:21:06 This is due to years of him losing food share battles at the dinner table. My wife asks who he is, but not in a normal way, guys. In the way you would talk to a family pet and who are you little boy, she says. And he says, I'm Tom's brother and then no shit in the most condescending and obvious child pandering tone she And how old are you and she leaves over? To get to his eye level to say it she kind of sorority squats over how old are you? And he says I'm three years older than Tom and then Sarah waited out in the car for me for the rest of the time.
Starting point is 00:21:46 In fairness to Sarah, my brother was about 28 and still had not finished puberty when that happened. So you got to see a picture of this guy before you judge Sarah on this. Tom went to college in Naperville, Illinois at a college wedged between a Starbucks and a Mongolian barbecue. He studied English lit and minored in secondary education. He got a soul crushing job after college and decided not to become a teacher because he hates kids.
Starting point is 00:22:16 Later, he would go on to have two kids and then find two more children and then start a podcast that exclusively talks about him. Throughout the hard years of soul-crushing labor and long hours, he kept his spirits up by reading about people lost in the Arctic or dying at sea. All right. Well, while we reflect on just how many of the crazy parts of that story are true, let's take a little break for some apropos of nothing. People dying of exposure as a kink is pretty awesome. You know, like I sure.
Starting point is 00:22:46 Oh, they get hired. Interesting. From freezing, I get hired my own way, you know, like from watching them. Whatever. Amazing. All right, everyone pipe down, as I mentioned in your invitation, we're roasting ourselves this week. So we thought it would only be fair to you, the subject of our 400 plus episodes, to have a turn as well.
Starting point is 00:23:23 So everybody come on up to the mic and do your thing. Who's first? Oh, wow. All the way back from episode six, it is Andrew Jackson, everybody. How do y'all OK, here we go. Since Tom did my essay, I thought I'd talk about him. Tom is an Irish. He's an Irishman, full blood red. Red hair and everything.
Starting point is 00:23:53 Really? Fine. Wow. Wow. That's OK. OK. Thank you, President Jackson. All right. Next up, Chung Ling Su. No, no, no, thank you. Also, for anybody who's mad about it, a reminder that Chung Ling Su was a white guy pretending to be Asian. So you can't get mad, please.
Starting point is 00:24:13 OK, Frank Ducks. You want to come up here, Ducks? It's actually ducked. She's. Pretty sure that's not how it works with the tape, but anyway, Cecil's karate doesn't hold a candle to mine, and I'm not sure about that. It does. It does. The whole episode is that you are a liar.
Starting point is 00:24:40 So I'm wrong about the duct tape too. Okay, I want to go. Sure. Action park. What do you have? He threw up and pooped himself at the same time in me. I was there. Right. Right. Thank you. Anyone else? No. I'll go. Oh, Henry Ford. All right. Henry, come on up. What are you doing? Escalator is broken. No, no, Henry. on up that what are you doing escalator is broken no no Henry those are stairs just you just walk no those are your hands that there you go is this the microphone no no this is yes what why would it look
Starting point is 00:25:20 at my hands which hand it's a both. I'm holding it with both. You know what? I'll come to you. I'll come to you. Here. You got it? Got it. Okay. Now talk. Tom is an Irish. And we're back! When we left off, two tales were told and three were left to go. Tom, you're due some revenge. Why don't you tell us a little about Noah's illusions? Certainly. The Phoenix, the mythical bird whose death and rebirth is only possible because of its famed ability to immolate and from that immolation to be reborn, a creature made flesh from ash,
Starting point is 00:26:12 may in fact be the closest known relative of No Illusions. Though little is known of his parents, it can be surmised with some degree of reasonable certainty that little Noah is perhaps not made flesh from ash but rather from flesh was born the remarkable animated ash that walks among us now. Confirm he is ash and when he refers to his boomstick that is just his bong people. If you guys have been saying asshole this whole time I apologize for the Christmas presents this year. Regardless of whether or not his origins were biological or mythical, what remains astonishing about his birth was that from the moment he left his mother's birth canal,
Starting point is 00:26:52 before he even had words or was able to properly coordinate his limbs, Baby Noah still managed to perform a rough pantomime criticizing the medical technique of the attending obstetrician. And while reports from the day are admittedly sketchy, the infant Noah was both technically correct and brutally acerbic in his clumsy critique. Yeah, if I could just hop in to correct you, wasn't what the pediatrician was expecting when he smacked Noah's ass, but it's what he got. The cold, harsh environment of the real world contrasted so starkly with the warm embrace of the gentle womb, a fact which Noah has never forgotten, his desire to retreat back into the fold of his mother's folds, perhaps igniting his long-standing love of hot pockets. Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 00:27:36 I know these are always going to be kind of roasty, but you only like hot pockets because they remind you of your mom's Vajic takes it. I'd say so. It's the gray sleeve, right? You only like hot pockets because they remind you of your mom's. It's the gray sleeve, right? I think it's the gray sleeve. Why it's it's white on the outside. Guys, it is crazy that you can make hot pockets exponentially more gross by adding a motive, right? It's true.
Starting point is 00:28:06 Well, things for baby Noah chugged along as you might expect for the first few years until one day when watching the black and white moving picture box his parents had just installed in their ramshackle home, Noah first saw Bobo, the smoking chimp. Perhaps recalling his origins, perhaps recognizing the freedom the chimp embodied
Starting point is 00:28:23 in his fearless nonchalance to social rules and mores, Noah saw in that chimp his own future, and he began his smoking habit at the tender age of three years old. Hey, mole, pacifier's in the ashtray again. Well, that's how he likes it! Okay, you've come a long way, baby. That's a good slogan, actually. It's a great one. You won't go much farther, but you've come a long way.
Starting point is 00:28:52 Keep the cough in. In school, Noah was a frightful student. Noah was actually Tom's mom's chimp at first and then became Noah's student chimp. Did a lot of extra work. Stacho. Everyone's related. In school, Noah was a frightful student. Not a bad student, but literally a frightening student.
Starting point is 00:29:10 While it was not unusual for precocious children to raise their hands frequently in class, Noah sat within the confines of his one-room schoolhouse, disinterested in the ramblings of the teachers. He would later describe as, quote, no better educated or better able to educate than a dressed-up turnip. When he was called to the front of the class to answer some rudimentary question or puzzle,
Starting point is 00:29:29 instead Noah would take to the front of the class, snatch the chalk from his teacher's trembling hands, and begin correcting the errors of grammar, logic, and judgment in the problems themselves. It wasn't long before groans of dismay would instinctively rise from the bellies of school marms everywhere when they heard the prepubescent squeak of young Noah beginning an unasked for soliloquy with, let me begin by rejecting the premise. By the age of eight, Noah declared himself both emancipated and graduated and struck out on his own. When he walked across the stage at graduation, the principal handed him a hurd of gold.
Starting point is 00:30:06 No, actually redlined it and gave it back. It said, see me at the bottom. It's like, bummer. So I legit, I called my 10th grade English teacher out for using the wrong form of principal on a classroom sign. And you know what, Ms. McQuarrie? I stand by it. You were fucking wrong.
Starting point is 00:30:24 She hung up with duct tape. As most of the men and women of his generation did when needing to cross the vast expanses of a country as yet not entirely tamed, young Noah took to riding the rails. Actually hopping a train in motion being far too difficult for Noah's young body, he instead took up the practice of finding some beleaguered rail bureaucrat and just harangued him until the confused fellow eventually gave up and conceded the point that yes, the US rail system does benefit from heavy federal subsidies and the people therefore do have a right to benefit from those rail systems and wasn't Noah then entitled not only to ride on the train but
Starting point is 00:31:02 also perhaps from some of the man's packed lunch. He stole the guy's copy of Atlas Shrugged too. That was while riding the rails across our great nation, then boasting not nearly so many states as in its present incarnation, that he came across the performers of the Big Apple Circus. Here Noah again felt himself at home in a way that he couldn't within the constraints of modern society. Among what he felt were his people, Noah began to learn the ancient arts of juggling and balancing random stuff on other stuff. A skill which, serving no practical purpose, delighted Noah, not instead of their practicality, but precisely because they were so
Starting point is 00:31:43 completely divorced from all utility. Okay, am I the only one who's going to do a fictional one? Jesus. Also, if sandbag disruptor isn't practical, I don't know what is, Tom. It doesn't make sense what you said. It's just gibberish. It wasn't even English. Read in economics. And so it was that Noah began to grow up, riding the rails of the troop of the big top
Starting point is 00:32:10 and seeing and criticizing the world. From town to town, there was no elected official or state policy that was immune to his biting critique. Having been gifted a soapbox from one of his friends within the circus, Noah began his early career in forming diatribes from his very first platform. A wooden crate, stamped ivory, the symbol of whiteness, berating a nation now becoming a long-standing tradition even to the present day.
Starting point is 00:32:35 Oh, Tom, here's another rock. I think I see a part of that glass house that's still standing. It was on one of his many sojourns across our great nation that Noah, taking a break from performing for, as he called them, the goddamn rubes, met the love of his life. Somewhere in the backwaters of Georgia, he heard the voice of an angel calling out from somewhere deep within the woods, followed quickly by a thud and a muffled squeak. Intrigued and perhaps slightly aroused, Noah followed the sound deep. the woods, followed quickly by a thud and a muffled squeak. Intrigued and perhaps slightly aroused, Noah followed the sounds deep into primordial Georgian
Starting point is 00:33:22 wilderness when he spotted her. There upon a riverbank, clad in child's overalls and a straw hat made for a doll, stood Lucinda, singing and gleefully swinging what would later be described as her varmint hammer. It was in that moment that Noah realized that his heart never fully belonged to himself, and that his journey of thousands of miles had been made so that he might one day happen upon the diminutive woman who so clearly had captured it. At the moment he realized this, however, tragedy struck. Without warning, a bullfrog, of no particular note or size, suddenly leapt from the water
Starting point is 00:33:59 and in one gulp swallowed whole tiny lucinda, before disappearing into the murky depths of the shallow water. At once, determined not to lose his love mere moments upon finding her, Noah dove into the water and seized the frog, pulling loose from its belly Lucinda and setting her upon a small stick to catch her breath. Are you alright? exclaimed a shocked and love-struck no illusions to which Lucinda only laughed. Of course I am silly, it happens all the time.
Starting point is 00:34:27 She was nonetheless taken by the gesture and thus began their whirlwind courtship. Wow, Tom's not even going to mention that I was the bullfrog. I hate being the new guy. This is bullshit. Noah and Lucinda together began their lives with the circus, with Noah introducing Lucinda to the world of juggling and Lucinda introducing Noah to the world of narcotics. Yes, you see, Lucinda was known across George at the time as the hillbilly South's own Pablo Escobar, her tiny stature allowing her to escape law enforcement by scurrying into crevices
Starting point is 00:34:59 where men or dogs simply could not follow. Noah then found his second true love, Weed, which by trying for the first time caused him to loudly declare, this almost makes you stupid fuckers tolerable. That was in the year of our Lord 1963 and Noah has not one hour of his waking life been sober since. One time we took a plane to Japan, but yeah, other than that. Well, he actually had a bunch of THC stored up in his mitochondria, I think, so like, yeah. Powerhouse of the South.
Starting point is 00:35:31 Also gummies. Also I had gummies. Now the heyday of the traveling circus had begun to wind down, and Noah and Lucinda had no desire to sell out to Ringling Brothers, or as Noah called it, Big Cirque. And so the pair- Puckers. Amazing. Ringling Brothers or as Noah called it Big Cirque So the pair needed to stop traveling and settle down in a more stable and less itinerant lives It happened that juggling aimlessly about New York City Noah found himself standing in front of a large toy store in Midtown Manhattan
Starting point is 00:36:06 With a sign in the window that very very coincidentally read, help wanted, toy demonstrators, must be preternaturally agile and coordinated, no people skills necessary. Not one to believe in fate, Noah did believe in opportunity and he heard the knock loudly enough. It was in that store that Noah met one Eli Bosna, a 9-11 truther and conspiracy theorist, and the only Jewish person who believed that the Jews probably did it, regardless of what it happened to be.
Starting point is 00:36:30 Noah began his usual process of belittling and berating into a surprise discovered that not only was it effective in converting Eli, but he was also able to perform his miracle of intellectual conversion while keeping six hacky sacks going at once. He also met Heath, who helped him get something down from a high shelf. Alas, but all good things must, it seems, come to an end, and one cold and blustery Christmas season, Noah found out that he had been fired from his toy store job. He took it hard. Impossibly hard.
Starting point is 00:37:09 Retreating into himself and living deep in the Pennsylvanian woods, in an unheated single-wide trailer Noah began plotting his revenge. Just as he was putting the finishing touches on a quote, a serves you fucking right device, which I won't describe in further detail for legal reasons he realized there might be a way to channel his rage and misanthropy and turn it into money in short he had discovered podcasting yeah the people that know his old company had already built a pretty big bomb so it seemed redundant at that point
Starting point is 00:37:43 listeners of this show know the rest of the story. How he first reached out to Heath to help him get a microphone from that top shelf at Best Buy before realizing that Heath was actually both clever and tall. And how he asked Eli to guest on the show on a lark and realized that actually self-effacing New York Jews might know a little something about comedy. And how eventually he and Lucinda found some measure of success moving finally from the backwoods of Pennsylvania and into the backwoods of Georgia a step if not up then at least not down.
Starting point is 00:38:16 He also likes video games a lot. Well done indeed. Well podcast listener as you know by now the important part of the podcast is about to begin. The part about me. I assume this timestamp is carved onto some gold plate somewhere and you're listening back through the annals of history, both for the story of and exhibition with my genius. So Heath, tell us about me.
Starting point is 00:38:46 Elias Q. Bosnik. Wow. Eli Bosnik. We're going to talk about Eli. What can you say about Eli Bosnik? Hasn't already been etched on the inside of the bathroom stall at the greyhound station.
Starting point is 00:39:01 Not much, but I'll give it a shot. Eli was born in 1987 wearing geriatric Velcro sneakers, oversized and one mesh shorts, and a loud T-shirt with an obnoxious meme on it. Since then, Eli's grown out a beard a little. Otherwise, he's very much the same. Yeah, it was very much the same. Same year as the Garbage Pail Kids movie.
Starting point is 00:39:24 Things have never made so much sense to me. Yeah young Eli just didn't realize that junkie Jeff was not intended to be aspirational. Okay but here's the thing, it's not that Eli wasn't a beautiful baby. It's that he wasn't trying to be a beautiful baby and look good. He was being ironic as a baby. That's why the visual stuff So Eli grew up in Binghamton, New York and against all odds He is not a member of the clan right now. He has done
Starting point is 00:39:56 Firearms training at their literal facilities, but that was it. I was it and Eli not being part of a hate group is thanks in large part to his amazing parents. His father David was a high school and college football star who went on to become an extremely beloved teacher. I heard David had four interceptions in one game at Polk High. Yes, yes, in the Rose Bowl somehow. He led his high school team to the fucking Rose Bowl. Crazy. Yeah, super, super cool dad. Like the coolest. And Eli's mom,
Starting point is 00:40:32 Liz, is an extremely talented and celebrated writer. Eli would never tell you this because he doesn't like to brag about his mom, but Liz actually won a Lee Bennett Hopkins Award for poetry. Get the fuck out of here! That is prestigious, man! It sure is. And she's an excellent professor as well, who's taught at some great institutions like Colgate, Hamilton, and Sarah Lawrence. And her whole life seems super cool.
Starting point is 00:41:00 Like on top of being a great poet and novelist herself, she was married to John Gardner, one of my personal favorite authors. Grendel was amazing! Love Grendel! So good. So good. And fun fact about Eli, his mom, one of the ghosts from Nickel Mountain was actually based on Liz. No way. Wow! So cool, man! Okay, said like men who have not read the book. Okay, my mom is as close as John Gardner got to writing Lolita and with a similar age difference
Starting point is 00:41:29 So let's just move forward. Okay, please don't interrupt. Did you guys know? You guys know that JD Salinger tried to flirt with Liz and she totally shot him down. I did not know that nice He is a bad author. He is a bad Did not know that nice. He is a bad author You guys know that Liz Rosenberg anagrams to Zen or gerbils Wow his parents are so interesting Okay, so let's talk about Eli's childhood. Mm-hmm. He had amazing parents and just a reminder the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award is like a super duper serious honor. And of course, it's named after Lee Bennett Hopkins, the educator, poet, author and anthropologist
Starting point is 00:42:14 who was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1938. You don't say. Fun fact, Scranton is the setting for the American version of The Office, starring Steve Carell. And Steve is amazing! He is. Yeah. As a comedian, an improviser, you tap dance. He does it!
Starting point is 00:42:32 He does it! Man, I loved him on The Daily Show back in the day. Amazing. Right? And remember in Bruce Almighty, when he was doing the speaking in tongues thing? Yes! Knowing his comedic gibberish was going to be compared to Jim Carrey, but still crushing on him. So good! And what about Crazy Stupid Love? Very underrated. Love that movie. His comedic gibberish was gonna be compared to Jim Carrey, but so crusty so good
Starting point is 00:42:50 Yeah, what about crazy stupid love very underrated love? Yeah, agreed. Yeah, he is great Super great episode was building to a prank on me. I'm gonna mention you all by name in the nose Steve Carell Wow, just so much talent Steve Carell Wow, but yeah, okay getting back to Eli another important thing about Eli, he has an amazing cousin. She was the chief of obstetrics at the Cleveland Clinic for years. And during that time, she revolutionized the field using advanced robotics to assist in delivery. Wow. She sounds really smart. So smart. And she she sounds really smart. So smart!
Starting point is 00:43:25 And she saved so many lives. What a good person. Just a truly great person. What a good person for society. Yes, yeah, the whole world. Eli's family member. But we're getting off track again. I wanna talk about Eli for real.
Starting point is 00:43:37 In particular, his amazing great-grandparents who survived the Holocaust. Oh, wow. Yeah, as a Jewish family living in Poland, it must have been absolutely terrifying. Somehow they lived through that horrific time and eventually made it to America where they continued the family.
Starting point is 00:43:56 During the darkest, darkest moments, all they had was their faith. And then generations later, we got Eli. Okay, we're running out of time. Uh, something, something Tevye in high school. I don't know. IBS, NYU, uh, penicillin, penicillin, penicillin, um, selling light up condoms at a toy store, should have used those condoms to avoid the
Starting point is 00:44:21 penicillin now that I think about it. More IBS, um think about it more IBS More IBS again and of course Abandoned the Jewish faith of those incredible Holocaust surviving ancestors and become an atheist podcaster I mean You're not wrong. I just wish it was long Sorry, sorry one other important thing about Eli Eli's parents would go on to adopt another kid, but this is very important. There's no official record of them saying, we're hoping to get, quote, a good one this time.
Starting point is 00:44:57 That is just a rumor. All right, Heath. Short but sweet. Like, my revenge will be noted. Wait, wait, wait. Sorry, sorry. He also has a blog. Or no, he's short but sweet. Like my revenge will be noted. Wait, sorry, sorry. He also has a blog or no, he had a blog, but like he had a blog. I'm going to get a blog. People multiples. Anyways, that leaves us to the reason why we're all here.
Starting point is 00:45:17 Nay, perhaps the reason this crazy dance called a universe began the best friendship of Cecil something Italian and Eli Bosnick but before there can be an eclipse there must be two celestial bodies you heard the brief story of my son now prepare for the moon the yang to my yen or as you call it off in the way distant future the Cecil to my Eli Bosnick. Cecil something Italian was born in Chicago or something. I don't know. But I do know he was born poor as a child. He would often sit by drainpipes while things in his neighborhood explode.
Starting point is 00:45:57 That's true. But from such a sad GI Joe. Yes. But from such a spark, greatness was made. Greatness in the form of Cecil something Italian. It says a lot about my childhood when someone can ask if I remember the refinery exploding and I have to ask which time. It was fine the first time, refined the second time. But it was on the rough streets of Chicago or maybe somewhere else that Cecil learned the blade.
Starting point is 00:46:28 The switchblade of first, of course. The Tommyknocker, the butterflyknife, the rapier, and eventually the rapiest. Jesus Christ Eli Bosnick. So in our notes there's space here for a joke. Thank you Tom. Thank you for jumping on that. Certainly space there for a joke. Soon none could match Cecil's blade.
Starting point is 00:46:48 The sound of his shoes made of food stamps on the cobblestone streets of Chicago or maybe somewhere else made his fellow Dickensian orphans flee in terror. Yes, his own sword teacher, Mandy Patankin, who once famously said, I think it would be a good idea for me to do a one-man show about Anne Frank But despite his skill Cecil struck him down shedding the only tear he would ever cry in the process I use that Anne Frank puppet as an offhand parry device for many years good Pulsing time Cecil was so good guys
Starting point is 00:47:23 He could sword fight a guy with one hand while making the puppet sword fight that guy's dog with the other. It was pretty crazy shit. It's true. Here's a video. Due to his terrible, horrible, disgusting poverty, Cecil, or as it was known at the time, El Tigre, ate only rocks and pebbles until the age of 16 when, rifling through a dumpster, he met a rat with a dream to cook. Through a series of wacky happenstances cataloged in the documentary Ratatouille, Cecil went to cooking school where he met Tom Curry, who was studying English. Studying English.
Starting point is 00:47:59 Yeah, you just boil the food. English is a really easy department at culinary school. You just boil everything. Done. Yeah. Just boil the food. English is a really easy department at culinary school. Just boil everything. Done. Yeah. There were so many of us English majors coming out of the culinary at the time.
Starting point is 00:48:12 When at last Cecil had won the heart of the food critic, he knew he was ready to dive head first into the world and give the gift of himself to the masses. So he did the thing he did best. He stabbed that rat in the heart at midnight on Halloween, breathed in that rat's last breath out at exactly midnight, and gained all his cooking knowledge. Some say he still has that rat's affection for cheese to this day. And then he mentored those turtle ninjas.
Starting point is 00:48:39 It's a cool story, but tell us about Cecil and Dino. I shall Heath. I shall. You see, every Lone Ranger needs his Tomtom, every Batman needs his Robin, and also some examples where the two aren't fucking. After having explained to him multiple times that he couldn't study English at Cecil's cooking school,
Starting point is 00:48:59 Tom and Cecil started reading philosophy or something, and they were friends a friendship that would turn out to be a second only to my own maybe third in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night the clown Fiesty says fools are as like husbands as Pilchards are to herrings the husbands the bigger I don't know what that means and I didn't know how to transition to Sarah so now I have good job me I am Cecil's best friend. Yes. His soul is entwined with mine as no two souls have ever been or ever will be again But there is another his wife we met in a park
Starting point is 00:49:41 She was drawing a sweet crow wearing an eyes wide shut mask dipping its feathers in blood. He said that reminds me of all the people I killed and they knew that they would be second place in each other's hearts forever. At what point does this fictional biography crossover into sexually harassing your co-worker guys this is important to know. Okay but also a sweet crow wearing an eyes wide shut mask dip against feathers in the blood is an amazing cake. I like it. I'm 100% Sarah's next try. You can have that one Sarah. For their honeymoon they stepped through the stargate and brought back some of those time-traveling godcats which they keep in their home. Scientists guess there are between 11 and 3
Starting point is 00:50:23 godcats in Cecil's home at any given time but there is no way to know for sure. The brave, the foolish, the full of vim and vigor seek those cats and trade belly rubs for a glimpse into the future. But the future holds only death and what the cat sees cannot be unseen. My favorite part is when I'm sleeping past their breakfast and they stand on my chest screaming my future until I wake up. That's my favorite part. How do they apply the electrodes? Bobcasters are a rare lot.
Starting point is 00:50:56 Precious jewels that function differently than you. As Cecil would call you, normies. I would never say that because I am very relatable and just like you Cecil says it all the time. Just so you know anyways We cannot speak words we podcasters the way a normal person can answering questions ordering from restaurants We fill with words like come in a teenagers. Okay, come on release Let's we explode like a teenager's balls. So, Cecil started a podcast with his second best friend Tom called Everyone's a Critic.
Starting point is 00:51:32 It's a movie review show, much like Godawful Movies, available wherever you get your podcasts, but it wasn't nearly as good. It was not nearly as good, no? Tom said Goodfellas was only okay. Okay, but that is still one of my most raving and it's over long It's over long true what we learned from everyone's a critic which I have heard every episode of it that Tom doesn't care for film From there Tom and Cecil decided to enter the world of secular activism From there, Tom and Cecil decided to enter the world of secular activism. Podcast atheism looked so different back then than it does today. There was hinker punk, kerchow, hickory hour, the bible belt something, the unholy whatever,
Starting point is 00:52:14 and also Tom and Cecil. Seth Andrews was still Christian and Hemet Mehta was still a math teacher, so being the only atheist podcast that spoke fluent English was a great benefit to Tom and Cecil and soon they soared to the top of the chart Yeah, we we definitely nudged that one guy out who wouldn't add out the edit out the part where of the recording where he Let his cat out. It was a real tough room to fucking get into one guy Two guys the one guy who spoke German and did it and the other guy you know I actually had a show back then I think it was called mouth noises before every sentence but it was exactly spoken like a man who edits me but then
Starting point is 00:52:57 as you've heard so many times today a miracle happened Keith and Noah started a podcast so that I could eventually be on it. And with that promise on their lips, they were raised from the obscurity of the honky tonk Bible squonk where they shared the spotlight of cognitive dissonance and then an episode of Be Reasonable so hilarious that it would lead to the very program to which you listen. But none of that matters matters none of these people matter because then I arrived
Starting point is 00:53:30 God by which I mean that guy from Alibaba reached down and smote Toys R Us Leaving my tremendous genius without an outlet Keith and Noah came to me on bended knee and whispered Okay, and us's your genius. And I said, sure. Yeah. Okay. So we were actually bending down to put a dollar in Eli's hat at Washington Square Park. He's doing stupid. I don't know, tricks or some bullshit with cards or something.
Starting point is 00:53:56 So it was like, nobody, nothing Eli. Yes, I will lend you my genius. And we were like, what? Yeah, we didn't ask you to lend us your genius you were desperate we asked you to sell it to us outright and you did it's true I did fucking bowl of soup it was crazy and that got him so it could have been the end of things my friend except for snarky email about Halloween costumes which would set the world of fire and bring Cecil and I together at last. And that began and ended the very first time anyone believed Eli Monson.
Starting point is 00:54:29 See? Up at Yale, a lady who totally turned out to be a bigot wrote an email to her students saying to look the other way if they saw racist Halloween costumes. And then her husband ran across the campus with his hands over his ears to escape the consequences. Now that part didn't happen. In fact, he was so ashamed of his actions that he secretly invented a time machine to destroy all the evidence of what he had done. If not for the incredibly reliable news source Yik Yak, his actions would have been hidden
Starting point is 00:54:56 forever. But luckily, I, investigative reporter Eli Bosnik, appeared, unatheistically speaking in cognitive dissonance, to put the truth on the map. Yeah, Eli had called no fact checking like he was JD Vance and had debate. I did. I did. That was fun. I think it was the first time we ever had to put out an apology episode immediately following
Starting point is 00:55:18 it. To say Tom and Cecil were- You don't have to make shit up to find racist people in America, man. There's so many real ones. Come on. To say Tom and Cecil were impressed is an understatement. They said of the episode, wow, that was the greatest episode we've ever done. And we'd like to apologize to those of you who were upset about the things Eli said that turned out to be not true.
Starting point is 00:55:39 Glowing praise like that. Yeah. Yeah, I actually think we offered refunds to our listeners and this was before Patreon. A spark? I'm trying to give them time. Yeah. You had to give them an hour of your life.
Starting point is 00:55:51 It was rough. Yeah. I'm going to die at 53 just from that episode. Just, oh yeah, that's why. A spark? A spark was lit. Oh God, I can't keep doing this. No.
Starting point is 00:56:09 That's in the podcast to the music just fades in. A spark was lit. A flame was flamed and a friendship had begun. When a charity needed money to burn witches in Africa I used my insult powers to make sure they had no what they did when Keith needed several Michelin star dinners a month We joined the fucker and raised money to make those dinners possible and also maybe did some stuff for some poor Yeah, sure. I hope so just gonna jump in right here to give Cecil a clean It was after the second of those charity fundraisers as sweat ran down our manly backs and into our eyes
Starting point is 00:56:55 Where do you think your eyes are man? We said to each other? We should start a podcast together about stuff and things and indeed it was and always would be. Amen. All right Noah, you brought this monstrosity upon us. If you had to summarize what you've learned in one sentence, what would it be? This was a terrible mistake and I've ruined 2025 already. Sorry. Fair enough. All right Noah, are you ready for the quiz? I guess so. Why not? Cecil? What is your favorite thing about me?
Starting point is 00:57:27 It's an essay question. I thought I was... Cool, just gonna jump in right here for you, Cecil. Oh, thanks. Appreciate it. Clean cut. Okay, Noah, which of the following is the most tragic element of today's discussion? A. Tom competing for his mother's love with an alcoholic monkey.
Starting point is 00:57:43 I lost. B. My complete lack of any distinctive quality ever. That's fun. C. One of Cecil's recurring childhood nightmares of an oil refinery explosion was actually a real oil refinery explosion happening next to him again. Or D. Eli's understanding of his relationship with season okay that's a tough one because they are all pretty fucking tragic I'm gonna go with secret answer e the fact that I didn't even make it into this
Starting point is 00:58:15 fucking question okay okay I do have one about Eli everybody so let me just do this we all know Eli's pension for lying about pretty much everything So with that in mind, what is his favorite TV show as a kid a? misleading rainbow Spurious George see George my little phony or D Schmuck tail. Oh, no, it's it's gotta be D schmuck tails. It's got 100% All right, well Cecil talked about me last so he wins Get a Noah essay again, yeah, I should do some kind of penance for bringing this shit upon the world. I got it
Starting point is 00:58:59 All right. Well for everyone that isn't me and also I'm me. Thanking you for hanging out with me tonight. We'll be back next week, and by then, we'll do a show like normal again. Between now and then, you can hear me on Dear Old Dad, Scathing Atheist, Godawful Movies, D&D Minus, The Skeptocrat, and even a couple episodes of Cognitive Dissonance. Those aren't up anymore. Those other guys. And if you'd like to help keep the show going, you can make a per episode donation at patreon.com slash citation pod or leave us a five star review everywhere you can. And if you'd like to get in touch with us, check out past episodes, connect with us on
Starting point is 00:59:35 social media or check the show notes. Be sure to check out citation pod.com and hey Cecil, Merry Christmas. This episode comes out at the beginning of January, man. Fuck you guys, okay? Your mom is such a good writer. Such a great writer. Really, we've been at Hot Prince. It's like you don't even care about exploration. I do.
Starting point is 01:00:03 I just find what happened along the way funny. Oh, so frostbite is funny to you? I mean, yeah, very funny. Tom, we're starting to roast back up. Are all the explorers done yelling at you? Yeah, I think they're done. I think. Make any difference. So mean. I hate my own toes. You don't see how that's funny? No. I ate my own toes. You don't see how that's funny? No! In the dry states of the Southwest, there's a group that's been denied a basic human right.
Starting point is 01:00:31 In the Navajo Nation today, a third of our households don't have running water. But that's not something they chose for themselves. Can the Navajo people reclaim their right to water and contend with the government's legacy of control and neglect. That's in the next season of Reclaimed, the lifeblood of Navajo Nation. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

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