Doughboys - Dicky's Barbecue Pit with Jamelle Bouie

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie, Unclear and Present Danger) joins the 'boys to talk new movies, airport eats, and southern BBQ before a review of Dickey's BBQ Pit. Plus, another edition of Snack or Wack.Watch this episode at youtube.com/doughboysmediaGet ad-free episodes at patreon.com/doughboysGet Doughboys merch at kinshipgoods.com/doughboysAdvertise on Doughboys via Gumball.fmSources for this week's intro:https://www.rolanddickeyjr.com/https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2010/july-august/dickeys-texas-barbecue-aims-to-conquer-the-country/https://texastimetravel.com/directory/dickeys-barbecue-pit/https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/dickeys-barbecue-closes-113-units-franchisees-bolthttps://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/financing/dickeys-sales-plunge-franchisees-pay-pricehttps://www.dickeys.com/company/our-storySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. Want to watch this episode? Check it out on our YouTube channel by going to youtube.com slash doughboysmedia. With a $5 meal deal with new McValue, you pick a McDouble or a McChicken, then get a small fry, a small drink, and a four-piece McNuggets. That's a lot of McDonald's for not a lot of money. Prices of anticipation may vary. McDouble Meal is $6 in some markets for a limited time only. We're blazing new trails. No one has ever done what we're doing. We are bringing barbecue

across the country. This hyperbolic bluster, typical of the asshole executive class, is proudly trumpeted by chain restaurant kingpin Roland Dickey Jr. on his own website. The current steward of his family's eponymous smoked meats chain, Dickey Jr. made the remarks in a 2010 interview with DCEO Magazine, surprisingly the D stands for Dallas, not douchebag, in which the nepo baby, back ribs, executive also promised, quote, world domination, one store at a time. Founded in Dallas in 1941 by Roland's grandfather, Travis Dickey, a World War I veteran who actually worked

at least a single day in his life, the family business is the oldest still operating restaurant in Texas's largest city. And for the vast majority of its existence, the company seemed content being exactly that. It didn't begin franchising until 1994. and when Roland took the reins in 2006, it had just 20 area restaurants. But the young Dickie Jr. insisted on a strategy of aggressive worldwide expansion, opening

dozens of new franchises across the continent every year, peaking at 564 in 2017. However, as rapidly as it grew, the balloon deflated. The very next year, 2018, 113 of those locations shuttered. And it's only gotten worse since the pandemic. According to a December 2024 piece in restaurant business by Jonathan Mays, 28% of the chain stores have closed just in the past 18 months. An attorney representing jilted franchise owners has an even more dire assessment in that same article, quote, 70% to 80% are shutting down.

With the company hemorrhaging money and franchisees declaring bankruptcy en masse, it's worth highlighting another quote from Roland Dickey Jr's DCEO profile that's notably omitted from his website, quote, a company is either growing or shrinking. Due to Roland's hubristic mismanagement of his family's historic brand, it's pretty clear that it's shrinking.

This week on Doughboys, Dicky's barbecue pit. Come on! Go, it's the Doughboy! Double over Doughboy! Welcome to Doughboy's, the podcast about chain restaurants. I'm Tiger Weiger along with my co-host, Nutty Buddy Young Jr. aka Mr. Saturday Bite, the Spoon Man Mike Mitchell. Nutty, can Jr. AKA Mr. Saturday Bite, the spoon man, Mike Mitchell. Nutty, can you say it again? Nutty Buddy Young Jr. AKA Mr. Saturday Bite. Nutty, Nutty Buddy Young, Nutty Buddy Young Jr.? Nutty Buddy Young Jr. AKA Mr. Saturday Bite,

a Mr. Saturday Night reference. What is his name in the movie though? It's, it's, it's Nut, it's, it's. I think I've, you know, I'm realizing it's gotta be Buddy Young. I've never seen it. Buddy Young. I've never seen Mr. Saturday Night. Casey, have you ever seen Mr. Saturday Night?

I have not. No. Nutty Buddy Young Jr. Nutty Buddy Young Jr. Nutty Buddy Young Jr. aka Mr. Saturday Bite. Hey, Doe Fam, just wanted to pay homage to Billy Crystal as his presence has loomed large in this year's tournament. Congrats on another thrilling Munch Madness

and sorry about Susser. God bless you all and God bless Billy Crystal. Kevin, Kevtron in the dough score, roastedbirdfuck.com. Billy Crystal, how you doing, our friend? Um... I'm glad you're not doing blackface anymore. All laugh It was a different time.

It was 1995 or whatever. No. When I was 10 years old, yeah. Actually, incorrect. There was a Sloppy Boys episode with Tom Sharpling. Yeah. And he said, when do you think the last time he did, because he, what's the character, who was the character? Who was the, it, Sammy Davis Jr.

Sammy Davis Jr. They said, when do you think the last time he did it? And the answer was 2012. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Barack Obama is in office. Second term. Yeah, second term. Wow.

I believe it's, it's, it's, it's, oh, I think it is like Obama presidency. That's wild. I think 2012 is the answer. Uh, insane, too, it's, it's, it's, it's, oh, I think it is like Obama presidency. That's wild. I think 2012 is the answer. Insane, but we loved it, we were laughing. We, we, Sammy David. I now wanna see if I can't actually reach out to the former president and ask him, did you know that when you were in office,

Billy Crystal was still doing blackface, just to see how he reacts? This is like a legitimate thing I could probably manage. Wow. Please do. Oh, man. He's right now is at Netflix producing the Billy Crystal Sammy Davis Jr. Good.

Good. Good. I'm finishing my email to my doctor. I'm sending it right now. Great. Hog transplant. Like dog, we were talking dog man in the beginning. We were talking dog man,

which we haven't seen but our guest has seen. But dog man seems Cronenberg-esque, my understanding of what the lore of it is. A man's head is removed and then a dog's head is put in its place and the man just goes away. And the man just goes away. His hog doesn't, though. I mean, that's...

He's a dog with a human hog, so... Is that the truth? I mean, I think it's implied. That's crazy. Yeah, it's weird to think about. Other dogs are like, it's not red. Like, they'll be like whispering to each other, you know what I'm saying?

Anyways, I wonder, has Jemmy seen Dog Man? No, she has not. We gotta take her. Yeah. Yeah, we gotta take her. Can we take her to the movie theater? You know, I've never tried, why not? Let's try it out.

A dog-friendly movie theater could be fun, like to do a special show or something. That would be fun. That would be fun, I feel like you'll never see a movie quietly. Yeah, right. If you've got a bunch of dogs, and like, she's a quiet dog, but most dogs don't do what she does. Sure, yeah, yeah. Have you seen the things where it's like you'll never see a movie quietly. Yeah, right. If you've got a bunch of dogs, and like she's a quiet dog, but most dogs don't do what she does.

Sure, yeah. Have you seen the things where it's like service dogs and they're training them to like, I think it was a clip, it was in Canada, but they were training like Canadian service dogs to be quiet through like an orchestra performance. Yes, that's part of their training is they have to sit through an entire theater performance.

And there's like pictures of like theaters and all the seats are just filled with like puppies just like your dogs just Like sitting there watching and they have to sit through the whole performance quietly. That's like part of their training. That's adorable It's so I wonder what it must feel like. Is it like a live performance or just like a recording? That's a good question. Cuz like what would it feel like if you're the performer? Yeah I had to come before for an audience full of dogs. They don't tell you beforehand. You just show up and this is the audience. I would love that. As like a performer that'd be awesome. So cute.

Oh man, we're doing our live production of Dog Man. This is gonna take. It's what Lydia Tarr's up to these days. It's conducting for dog audiences. Playing the soundtrack from Monster Hunter. Mitch, I know you got a drop. Yes, I'm gonna hit him with a drop. I'm the king of the tree, Nick. I'm the tiger now. Tiger now, tiger now, tiger now. I'm the tiger now.

Tiger now, tiger now, tiger now. I'm the tiger now. Were we hearing some of the high and mighty theme in there? I don't know what that was. Sounded like it. Sounded very similar to it. We had DCMA for the high and mighty. Hey, Gabe, this is going to come for us.

Hi, Doughboys and crew. Nick is tiger now. That's right. Regards, Brent, New Hampshire. Regards, Brent, New Hampshire. New Hampshire, what's up? Thanks, Brent. The south of the north, as they call it. That's what they call it. I would say that's true.

It's very true. That's pretty accurate. That has been my experience. Yeah. The Trump and don't tread on me signs as soon as you cross over are a... Gotta have a Gadsden flag in the yard if you're in New Hampshire. It's a requirement. the Trump and don't tread on me signs as soon as you cross over our- Gotta have a Gadsden flag in the yard

if you're in New Hampshire, it's a requirement. It is, it's an interesting, and they hate, they hate tax-a-chusets as they call us. Yes, I live for your die, no sales tax, no seat belts. Yeah, I said don't tread on me, which is also, I mean, also believable, but I meant to live free or die, which is very, that is the state, that is the state motto, right? Yes, yes.

They tried to change it years ago to just live free, and they got very mad, and they were like, no, it's live free or die. Bad movie, but great title, The Fourth Die Hard. Free or Die Hard is a great. It's fucking good. Yeah. And maybe like the movie like a half star more

It's just a good title. It is now you're thinking in letterbox terms I It makes me sad that that Poor Bruce Willis who's going who's has health issues, but it makes me sad that we never saw Like another reboot of Die Hard cuz they would have and'm like, I feel like the second reboot, they maybe would have done better than the, than the last one. You're saying there would have done some sort of recall. They would have done some like, like, like Die

Hard, a new legacy. And it would have been like a proper John McClane movie. It would have been bad. I take it back already. It probably would have been like a John McClane would have been sad and like, you know, his divorced and then he would have died at the end of it. That's like that, that's the requal. It might have been like a sad sax

or like indie five sort of treatment. The requal equation is that the person is sad and then they die or someone they like dies. They've been robbed of their victory at the end of the previous movie. They just like, they're miserable, they're lonely. It happens so much. I don't understand.

I don't wanna see Sad Indiana't want to see sad Indiana Jones. Why? We could have a scene with John McClane and like a grave site is like weeping to Hans Gruber. Like everyone I ever knew was dead. But. Did you kill that guy? Don't worry about it.

Drops at BirdFuck.com. Mitch, very, very excited to get today's guest in studio here at HeadGum, a columnist for the New York Times and cohost of the podcast, Unclear and Present Danger, Jamel Bowie. Hi Jamel, welcome back. Hello, thank you guys for having me.

What a treat. We're so happy to have you. You're in LA briefly. Thank you so much for making time for us. Happy to. Always a treat to have you on the show. I don't want to make you talk politics. I know that's not why you're here,

but what's going on? I mean, I don't know, the country's collapsing. I don't know what to tell you. I keep joking with my wife. She does not like this joke. I keep saying the odds of me getting a rendition to an El Salvadoran prison have just gone up a couple of percentage points. The next time from... Terrifying. into an El Salvadorian prison have just gone up a couple of percentage points. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh.

Uh. The next time from. Terrifying. Just like I'm laughing about it, but like the next time he says, you know, time just fake news, it's like, well, you know, am I gonna open the door one day

and like some ICE agent will be like. Right. You know. Um, just a quick aside, a Jemmy just farted on my leg. I felt the vibration. Did you? Yeah. I don't smell. Did you? Yeah.

I don't smell anything, luckily. Oh, no. OK, good. But off to El Salvador with Jemmy. She's going to go. Right, gone. Chipper right out. Look, I'm going to admit this right off the bat.

Voter regret. I got voter regret. Well, you know, I was, it's funny to hear you say that, because I wanted to congratulate you for the pardon you got earlier this year. I would have been in for a long time. I'm lucky. I mean, that was the first sign that things

were probably not great. Yeah, like it happened on day one. It's kind of funny. It's like day one, like hour one, Jan six, guys, you're free now. Yes, it's kind of funny. It's like day one, like hour one. Jan six, guys, you're free now. Yes, yeah, yeah. He should have reinstated Jimmy Pesto.

He should have been put back in the... I'd love to have Jimmy, like if part of it was Jimmy Pesto is coming back on Bob's Burgers, then it'd be like, all right, okay. Yeah, last part of the executive order, yeah. We're doing another story of the story of Everest sketch? Okay, all right. I feel like the, whoever we elect, hopefully,

a Democrat who wins in the next, whatever, in three years or whatever. Maybe a certain podcast host, Draft Mitch. Wait a minute, me? Yeah. I'm hearing Draft Mitch come around. Which side am I running on again? Look, I could not be president, and I admit that, I'm here in draft Mitch to come around. Which side am I running on again?

Look, I could not be president, and I admit that, but anyone can be president. I mean, anyone can be president. Anyone can be president. Quite literally. Anyone can be president. It's not a big leap from like host of The Apprentice to host of Doughboys.

No, you're right. It's like two rungs of the ladder away. Can I clean up my act in three? No, whatever. We'll see what happens. You don't gotta clean up your act. Yeah, don't. Yeah, buddy. That's what you're talking about.

All right. If someone goes to jail for doing something to a Tesla, whatever Democratic president comes in, they should get what's it called? You just said they should let them free. What is it called? Pardon? said they should let them free. They should, what is it called? Pardon?

They should pardon, Jesus Christ. Are you okay? I'm nervous. I can't, I'm gonna sound dumb no matter what, but I'm saying they should pardon whoever, people who fucked up Teslas should be pardoned if there's a Democratic president, right? Is that what you're emailing your doctor about?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. about? That I'm nervous? We're going to sound dumb on the podcast. And it's just like, I'm sure that whenever whoever gets elected will be like, I'm not going to do that or something. I'm sure that it won't happen, but they should be pardoned. They should be pardoned. You know, we should be throwing people in jail. I've gotten very militant about this. Like next democratic president, we gotta arrest Elon Musk,

throw him in the jail. If there are, this is something I'm quite serious about. If there are any American residents in that El Salvador and Gulag in three or four years, we're gonna invade El Salvador and get them back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that. We should do a Manuel Noriega on those people and send the United States military in and we gotta have them back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that. We should do a Manuel Noriega on those people and send the United States military in,

and we gotta have him back. Yeah, I agree. It's a, yeah, grim times, but like in lighter news and on a funner topic, I know you're big. I wanna quickly say a thing that's making me feel sane is watching your Instagram videos. Oh, thank you.

Jamel will just bring, you bring sanity to the world. And it is, it's grounding to watch things like that. And I was saying, instead of looking at X, which I don't post on anymore, but I haven't deleted it. And I'll look and be, you know, just, my jaw will hit the floor by the way people act now. And then watching something like your posts make me feel so Much better. Yeah, obviously doing great work in print but on video as well. Yeah. Thank you

I've been trying to do a balance of like informed stuff and then like a minute long video where I call JD Vance a pig man Which someone remixed into a song I'm gonna play that drop You know what you're an offense to pig men, JD Vance. There's some good pig men, right? Yeah, yeah. Gamarion Guards, you know, good pig men. Porco Rosso, good pig man.

I love Porco Rosso. Who else? Rocksteady? Or Bebop, right? Be else? Or Bebop, right? Bebop, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Bebop is the pig. What do you call him? It's Rocksteady, right?

Is that what you said? Okay. I also, I don't know if you watched the John Oliver thing that they did last. John Oliver I like watching a lot too. He did a great thing on trans athletes in sports and it was fantastic. There's just a plug.

If you want to watch that. Check out John Oliver. On HBO, on Macs, if you want to check it out and it was fantastic. There's just a plug. If you wanna watch that. Check out John Oliver. On HBO, on Max, if you wanna check it out, it's great. And there's some things that make me feel more normal and you're one of them, so thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I know you're a big movie guy.

Obviously you talk about a lot of political thrillers on Unclear and Breast and Danger. I, you know, you got a family, it's a little bit tougher to go out to the theater, but have you seen any movies in 2025 that you've enjoyed? I, you know, I've not been able to get to the movies. The only movie I've seen in theaters this year is Dog Man. Was Dog Man, wow.

But I haven't had a chance to go see anything that I would like to see. We did watch when it got on streaming Conclave. Oh yeah, I thought it was a lot of fun. And I got the, they released a 4K blu-ray of To Live and Die in LA. Okay. Which I had never seen before.

And I watched that not long ago and I was like in love with that. Great movie. Yeah. Yeah. Melanie uses it as a theme song. The, who is it? Wham that?

Wang. Wang Chung. Yeah, Wang Chung. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great, great song in the beginning of that. Have you seen it ever? No? No, I haven't seen it.

It's good. It's wild, it's wild. Yeah, yeah. One of my favorites. I gotta watch it. Now, you get to see William Peterson's hog. Oh, watch it tonight. Yeah.

Yeah. We went and saw, I saw 1900 with Neil Campbell, where you get to see Robert De Niro and... Gérard Depardieu. Gérard Depardieu. They both hang out. They hang out and they both, they get... They...

Skiing, I guess you could say. They get masturbated at the same time. I think that's where he's going, but I'm not entirely certain. It is a very, it's a six hour long movie. Yeah. I saw it with with Neil or dude, Neil Campbell. But also it is, it's funny, it's like a six hour long movie, but the last 45 minutes is like where you're like, all right, enough of it,

but there's a lot of great stuff in there. You've never seen that before? No, and I would, Bernardo Bertolucci film, six hours, never seen it, no. I gotta check it out. Yeah, I think you'd like it. Yeah. You know what I just saw for the first time, I can't remember if I said it on the podcast,

but I just saw Late Spring, the Ozu film. Oh, yeah, wonderful movie. I had it in a rough screen of that. And I was like, I'd never seen it before. The only Ozu I'd seen is Tokyo Store, which is obviously a masterpiece, but it's like, I was like, hi, this is fucking good.

And just saw it in a theater, just like an absolutely locked in crowd, It was great. Yeah. Wow. I love that the, that's one nice thing about LA. Isn't Ozu, is Ozu, I know it's his last name, but isn't it a flavor too? Or is that my making that up? You're thinking of Yuzu? Yep.

That's what I'm thinking of. Yuzu. Hashtag graph of Mitch. I mean, that's, that's relatable to like, you know, ordinary people in the heartland, you know, they don't know what- Right. You know, they're like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, that's that's relatable to like, you know, ordinary people in the heartland, you know, they don't know what they know. You use it.

You use it. Is it a flavor? Is it a director? Who knows the people in the heartland are going to love me everywhere else. Maybe not as much, but we'll see. Wait, speaking of movies, Casey, you just got bagged. You saw black bag. I finally got bagged.

What do you think? It was great. A lot of fun got bagged. You saw Black Bag. I finally got bagged, yeah. What'd you think? It was great. A lot of fun. Fun ride. You like presents more though, the recent Soderbergh. You came in kind of being like, it seemed like you weren't liking, or you kind of were like trying to let us down or something.

No, no, no, no, no, no. That was not my intention. Okay, okay. I just know you guys were big on the bag, and I think I'm bigger on presents. Between the two- Completely fair. Grand new S presence between the two brand new sort of movies. Enjoyed both films. I enjoyed both quite a bit.

Two in a year, this movie year I think is turning out to be a lot better. It's looking up so far, Mickey 17, a lot of fun. Apparently the new Coogler is pretty good. Oh yeah, Sinners is good. Oh Sinners, yeah, I'm excited to see Sinners. That's, or next weekend. Next weekend, weekend. Yeah

Dog man, would you classify? You know a cab all cops are bastards. Sure. Right is does where does dog man fall in that? I mean, he seems like a good competent cop not not too violent, but okay also a cab, you know You know Unfortunately, yeah, he's part of an oppressive system. Yeah All right fair enough a dag You know, unfortunately, he's part of an oppressive system. Yeah. All right, fair enough. Hey, Dag. Yeah.

Ooh. I know you're an avid home cook. And like, you're cooking for a family. Obviously, you got kids' palates to account for. But any new dishes in the rotation? Any new dishes in the rotation? What's your kind of like regular sort of meal routine? Any new dishes in the rotation?

I feel like sometimes you get it like, oh, I've started making this one pot like miso pasta I didn't use to make. Like, and this has become a go-to for me or whatever, you know? Like sometimes that happens. Usually, my kids actually have a pretty decent palette for being kids. Like we can do a lot of things.

Often like a meal I will make in general is gonna be like, you know, there'll be a grain, there'll be like a legume or something, and then like some other protein or a vegetable or whatnot. But I can't think of anything that's been new in the rotation other than, you know what, you know what's new? This is gonna sound very fancy, but it's not.

It's just like a white bean gratin, gratin? I don't know how to say that. I think maybe potato gratin. Yeah, yeah, gratin, okay. White bean gratin, gratin? I don't know how to say that. Gratin, I think maybe? Potato gratin, so as how I said. Gratin, okay. I don't know if that's right. White bean gratin. That's just sort of like caramelized fennel

and celery and garlic and white beans and some cheese. And then you bake it with breadcrumbs. And they could really like it and it's really good. Gratin, too close to rotten. Whoever named that, however long ago, too close to sounding like rotten. The French uh, however, long ago, too close to sounding like rotten. The French fucked up.

The French did fuck up. We were talking about this earlier because we're going to do a snack or whack, not today, but in the future episode and they're macron, they're macrons, macrons, macrons, macrons, which are macaroons. I think I've only ever known macaroons. I was saying this in the, in the, in the the well, there's three there and there's a French president Emmanuel Macron Macron. Yes. Yeah Which Amelia said that there was she was at a bakery and it said to specify between the three

And the third turned out to be the French president Just had a picture of the president's face and said do not order this I just had a picture of the president's face and said, do not order this. That's funny. But I didn't know. I think I had only ever known of macaroons. I don't even really know macrones. Macarons?

Macarons. It's macarons, right? Well, there's, okay, so there's, Jesus Christ. There's macarons. And those are the sandwiches. Those are the sandwiches, yes. Lots of colors and flavors. Macarons.

There's macaroons. Macaroons. Those are the coconut guys. Yes, coconut guys. Okay, yeah, yeah. And then there's of course the leader of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron. Okay, right.

Macron, yeah. Yeah. I think I only knew macaroons existed of the bunch. Or mac, fuck it, I'm not gonna try this again. Mitch only knew macron. I only knew macron. He was only aware. I only knew...

Look, is this... We're clearly the dumbest people you've spoken to this whole trip, right? Not at all. Whoa, wow. That's nice. I've got brain fog going on today-wise. You're doing great.

I got 99% on my CPAP machine. I got a 99% score last night, which is pretty good. But for me, it's still pretty, you know, I'm still operating at like 48% of a normal human being. But 99, Wags, last night, a good REM sleep, so. How many French Republics are we up to now? We're on the fifth. We're on the fifth one. We're on the fifth one, okay.

All right. It's almost kind of unfair to the French at this point because the joke is like, they can't figure it out, but they've been on the fifth for like 50 years, 60 years. That's pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah. Are you looking at French Republics?

I'm looking at Emmanuel Macron's Wikipedia page, okay? And I'm realizing I was thinking of a different guy. I was thinking of the guy before Macron. Let me see. You were thinking of this guy. Who was before Macron? Was it Marco Z? Yeah, it was Marco Z. Sarcosy, someone with a semi-similar name. That's the face I was picturing.

That's Macron. Okay, so you were... Macron's looking good. They eat all over there. I'm going to close this other tab for this steam dating app. There we go. Steam dating. Steam dating. You were, you were, Macron's looking good. They eat all over there. I'm gonna close this other tab for this steam dating app. Can I show you who I was thinking of?

There we go. Steam dating. It's a dating sim, it's not an app. Can I tell you who I was thinking of? Yeah. Okay. You were thinking of Mr. Bean. Yeah.

Yeah, so definitely Mr. Bean is not, was not ever in charge of- He never was in charge. Did he ever go to France? Maybe in one of the Bean movies, he ascended to the French presidency, and there were some crack falls as a result. But I don't know specifically if that's happened.

All right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I mean, it'd be funny. You think about Mr. Bean being president of France, it'd be pretty funny. It'd be very funny, yes. Because they'd be all stuffy about it, and they'd have all their parliamentary procedure and all their pomp and circumstance, and he'd be tri funny. Yes. Because they'd be all like, you know, stuffy about it and they'd have all their parliamentary procedure and all their pomp and circumstance

and he'd be like tripping over something. And he could have a big baguette sticking out of his mouth. Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah, that'd be good. I mean, make Mr. Bean president of the United States, you know? Why not? Why not?

He'd be pretty good. He seems like a pretty intelligent man when he's not being Bean. Is the real life actor, is he a Brexiter? Rowan Atkinson? Is Rowan Atkins he a Brexiter? Rowan Atkinson? Is Rowan Atkinson a Brexiter? Uh-oh. I just basically assume.

After we just commended him on being us. I basically assume every British celebrity has the worst politics imaginable. Yeah. It just seems to be the pattern. No, I don't think he is. I'm thinking of Martin Freeman. OK.

Bill, Bill, Billbo. No. Billbo? Not Billbo. Billbo. I think Billbo, I think Billbo is, is, you Freeman. Okay. Bilbo. No! Bilbo, not Bilbo. Bilbo. I think Bilbo is, you know. Wow. Written for the British. Bilbo is a Brexiter?

Is Bilbo a Brexiter? Are you binging this? I'm binging it. Let's see what happens. Oh my God. No Bilbo Baggins is not a Brexiter. Bilbo is a fictional character from JRR Tolkien's The Holiday. Oh, okay.

Well, that's good, that's great. Good, good, good, good. Great. Is that the AI overview? Yeah. It's a, I just try not to dig into that at all. Like once like, I feel like anytime I know anything about a celebrity's politics, I regret it.

It's almost never good, right? Right. That was like when I found out, was it Marion Couture, there's like a 9-11 truth or something? Oh boy, I didn't know that. Oh my God. I don't wanna say that

if I'm like libeling someone. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So maybe she is. Parody, fair use? Yeah, fair use. But I found out something like that, that she was a conspiracy theorist. Wow.

And I was like, yeah, that's too bad. It's too bad. Mitch, what are you looking up? I'm looking up to see if he's, it seems like there is a controversy around Martin Freeman, who is Bilbo Baggins. Yeah. It seems like he might be a Brexiter.

Oh boy. But look. Look, that worked out great. It worked out great. England's doing wonderfully right now. Look, he carried the ring for a long time. The ring changes a man. That's what happens. All right, so you're out in LA for a brief stretch.

I'm not someone who loves to travel. I imagine you travel a fair amount. When you're on an airplane or you're at the airport, like what is your flight food routine? My flight food routine. It kind of depends on when I'm flying and which airport I'm flying in. Right. So where I live in Charlottesville,

the connections for me are either to LaGuardia or to Atlanta. If I'm flying really early in the morning, I don't usually eat breakfast until like nine or 930. And so when I land, I'll usually just like grab something like a, you know, a Fair Life protein shake or something from a store. If I am really hungry, I will sit down for a meal somewhere

at LaGuardia, which has recently been renovated. They have like actual legitimate like food options. So I will sit down for a meal in Atlanta. If I have like time between a connection, there's like in the terminal that I usually end up in, there's like a place that does a pretty decent breakfast. And so those are, it's typically the case. If it's at any time away from meal times,

I actually don't really eat. Maybe I'll carry some snacks on me. The thing about having two kids is there's just a ton of goddamn snacks in my house. So I can just put a couple of things in my bag and I have a snack, I have a bottle of water, but I try not to eat when I'm flying. Wow.

Speaking of flying and kids, do you ever do the airplane with your kids? You know what I mean? Do you ever like, here comes the airplane? Is that a thing that parents still do? I have never done that with my children. Wow. I'm also not that with my children. Wow. I'm also not a whimsical person.

So, maybe parents do it. The one time I tried to feed my youngest, like something by hand, like there was a cupcake, and she bit my finger. Oh my God. So, and like bit my finger hard. Like if you don't stop biting my finger, I might lose this finger.

Dear Lord. So I don't do that anymore, I might lose this finger. Dear Lord. So I don't do that anymore. Did it once. Wow. Dear Lord. She's a very aggressive little girl. Yeah. Very. Yeah.

The thing about like, we've been, Mitch and I have gotten into this before about like travel and food, specifically airplanes and food. I feel like I have to have a meal before I go on a plane. We got into a very, very big fight. We don't need to re-alligate this. Also, just to be clear, I was feeding Wags like an airplane and he bit the shit out of my hair.

Heard, heard. Wags was like, ah. We got into a big fight about how we have different schedules. Yes. I would just say like I wake up at 5 a.m. I'm sorry. I tend to wake up pretty early. But like I I feel like I have to eat something before I get on a plane because I just feel so fatigued otherwise.

And also I make really poor decisions. Even if I'm eating some relative garbage at a terminal, it's gonna be, or in an airport lounge, it's going to be better than what I can get on a plane. Yeah, you need some brain food before you get on a flight because with the Doughboys, you're the one who's almost missed flights multiple times. I missed one flight. And you almost missed the second, big day.

But I was okay, fine, I missed one flight and I almost missed the second, who cares? You make me nervous on flight day. You do. Cause it seems like a guy who like also doesn't care to miss it. Let me tell you, with this haircut, I make a lot of people nervous on flight day. Yeah, no shit.

Yeah, no shit. Timothy McWay. Ah. It's a, it's, I, my big thing is I get, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like for me more so it's just like, I feel like I'm trapped. And so I don't know, for whatever reason, I feel like if I'm, if I have an empty stomach,

that's even worse. So I have to like consider that, but yeah. I don't, I don't really feel anxiety on planes. And I know there's, there was this thing like, what six months ago where people were like raw dogging flights. Oh yeah. Not doing anything on a flight, but I will say that's sort

of just like my natural state on a plane. Like I can just sort of sit there and kind of like daydream and not worry about it. I love to sit there. People get on me for listening to like nothing when I'm like in a car, but it's like, yeah, you just let your brain go to work. I don't know.

That to me is weirder, but I, on a plane, I can just sit there and do nothing. I mean, I sometimes I'll put on headphones and fall asleep, but I don't need, I don just sit there and do nothing. I mean, I sometimes, I'll put on headphones and fall asleep, but I don't need really anything at all. Driving, I like to listen to things. Driving, I can only listen to music. I can't do audiobooks, I can't do podcasts,

because then I will fall asleep. For whatever reason, hearing people talk while I'm driving will put me right to sleep. Yes, I'm a music in my car guy basically only. But I can't do it with other people in the car, my kids. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, sorry kids.

Wait, have you done a Waymo while you were out here? No. Waymo is an interesting experience. I'd be curious about your take on it because it's like, it's the automated cars obviously, but they've been testing it in parts of LA and it may possibly where you're staying. I'm not sure what exactly,

what neighborhoods it overlaps with, but it's like, I've witnessed this, I witnessed this actually with my parents recently, the experience of people being like, I'm never getting in one of those. And then like, all right, let's try one ride in it. And then after like, oh, this is actually kind of nice. It's a weird, like you don't wanna give tech people

any credit, but this is one thing where it's like, ah, fuck, this is kinda kind of nice. It's a weird, like you don't want to give tech people any credit, but this is one thing where it's like, ah, fuck, this is kind of, they kind of figured it out. It feels, I guess it's statistically safer than an Uber and also feels safer than an Uber, which is huge. From like a user experience. They do feel safe. They're taking away from obviously from humans, you know, paying human beings.

And the bad thing is, is that they're cheaper right now, but at some point they just will be. Yeah, they'll jack up the prices up when they take over the market. Of course, yeah. We're flying, we're going on tour, and so we're flying soon, and I am kind of nervous about flying. We're flying Waymo Air, so that'll be a good point.

Turns out woke floats, like you were saying. Woke floats. I was, after there was the really unfortunate accident at the DC airport. And the next day I was flying home from a trip. Oh my God. And so flying Delta, flying in fact the same kind of plane that went down.

So we get safely to Charlottesville and as we land, and before they let us off, the captain was like, I just wanted to say that we had dealt with take your safety very seriously. And we were really making sure that we would get you guys home today. And I was like, why did you tell me that? Like, why? You don't need, I don't need this reassurance.

I'm home safely. This just makes me think that we almost fell out of the sky. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Wow. Yeah, it is.

I went to Arkansas, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Bill Clinton, the old Billy's home. Yeah. And what were you? Want me to do a little?

I'm not going to do it. No, I don't know. I'm just going to do it. I want to be the guy. Bill Clinton said to do? No, I don't know. I mean, I don't know. It's a bit of a new one. What would be the guy Bill Clinton said when you showed up? I don't know. Be interested. Be curious.

Obviously it didn't happen. Yeah, it didn't happen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's on Epstein Island at least. That's where he resides. He was, he was, he was, I saw him when we were landing, I saw him on the tarmac looking at his watch waiting for the Lully Express.

Where the hell is it? Um, he still takes it, which I feel like is a bad move after everything. Yeah, not a great look. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, a friend of mine was in New York and sent a picture of their mom in front of Epstein's house mansion in New York.

Oh man. I know, I was like, oh, that's pretty dark, but I did kind of love it. And if we're New York-wise, I. I know, I was like, oh, that's pretty dark, but I did kind of love it. Um, and if we're New York-wise, I think we have to, we must visit. Um, but I, like, like the same thing in Arkansas, I was like, it feels like with, I feel like with a smaller state,

the chances of falling out of the sky feel greater or something like that, but we're going, we're really gonna fly into New York City or to DC. So we should be okay, even though that's where the accident happened. Statistically, we'll be fine. That is not necessarily going to help my anxiety. I understand that intellectually,

but you can't outwit your hippocampus. You're fucking nervous, you're gonna be nervous. It'll be fine, I'll take some drugs. If it is the case that what's happening is they took away the Woken and DEI and the plane stopped flying, then you just have to hope you get on the Soul Plane. You know?

You gotta hope you do. I would love to be on the Soul Plane. That would be a fucking blast. That would be the dream. Yeah. The plane looks like a riot. A blast on that thing. I do like, you know, you said you had Ghostzoo

as an idea, but you just said Hippo Campus and it sounded pretty damn good. Wow, like a Hippo University? It's but you just said Hippo Campus, and it sounded pretty damn good. Wow, like a hippo university? It's a hippo university, hippo campus. It's pretty good, and also right now, you know, it's, uh, Moodang is so big. Like, hippos are so in the zeitgeist, I bet you could sell it like a hippo animated movie.

We're saying Moodang is big when that was like eight months ago, and I don't know if anyone cares about Moodang anymore. I know how Hollywood works, though they'll be very late to a trend. That movie will come out in like five years. Yeah, yeah. But you know. Five years from now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Moodang was quite the juicy one. I don't fantasize about eating Moodang. What are you talking about? It's perverse. Come on now. We had barbecue today. Name does translate to juicy pork, I believe. Wait, is that real?

Or spongy pork, it's something like that? Moodang's name is spongy pork. Can someone look it up? What kind of pork is it? Bouncy pork, maybe? What? Bouncy pork. Yeah, bouncy pork. Bouncy pork.

Yeah. Cute. It is cute. Yeah. All right, so here, let me ask you about barbecue. Okay. Because you're from Virginia. Yes.

Casey also from the South, from Florida. So I know you both have some barbecue opinions. We're talking about a barbecue chain today. First off- It's funny, because I just don't, Florida for some reason doesn't count for me. I mean, the funny thing about this is that like, okay, Virginia, Floridian, but like barbecue

isn't really a Florida thing or Virginia thing. That's what I was gonna ask. If Virginia has its own barbecue culture and I guess you just answered it for me, not really. Not really. Yeah. I mean, obviously you can find good barbecue in Virginia, but there's no like Virginia barbecue.

Right, and then there's like a Carolina style, obviously there's a Texas style. Like these regional styles exist, but it's less so of a thing in Virginia. But you are saying like, I do imagine you've had some good barbecue in your life. Yes. Yeah. And I imagine where you live, it's like there are good barbecue options,

like, you know, relatively close. There is one... There's one. There's two. There's two good barbecue options where I live. One is in a little town called Gordon'sville, and a place with barbecue exchange, and it's wonderful.

And they have, or they used to have, pre-pandemic, every February, Porkapalooza, where you would show up and it was just a big barbecue festival. And you'd eat all the barbecue you wanted. We got a similar thing for the Doughboys where all our fans meet up at Dorkapalooza.

Hey, come on now. All you fucking losers. You're pathetic. Why are you here? And you know like during the Republican convention or whatever, like a grinder goes crazy. For ours, none of the dating apps, they're just dead silence. They all go down. There's no sexual activity. Grinders go crazy. People are looking for sandwiches.

The G-R-I-N-D-E-R app goes nuts. The Grinder app goes crazy. Ha ha ha ha ha. Uh, there is a pizza festival coming, um, and Wise, you sent it to the Doughboy Sex Chain, and you said, should we do this? And then Susso replied, yes, we, Capital W-E, should. Yeah.

And I am interested in going to the- We don't do things like that very often. No. But that's like the sort of thing that we could do as a show. We could cover, we could go to this big LA pizza festival and see what that's all about. And we probably won't, just because we're bad at our jobs.

But LA barbecue was pretty dire, I would say, for a long time. And then was it bloodsos? Or was there blues? Was that what it was? There's a few different concepts that kind of like you came, but I think blood so's was one of the big ones, or at least even if that wasn't the first, that was kind of like the, you know,

that was a signifier that like kind of like, oh, LA barbecue's becoming more of a thing. Now, I'm sure you compare it to other barbecue cities in the nation, and I'm sure it pales in comparison to what you can find in the South, but like there are good barbecue options out here now, and then obviously there's Korean barbecue, which is its own thing.

Yeah, 100% yes. And I was saying, Moose Craft is a new one that is great, but sorry, go ahead. I don't know, how recent are these like, new barbecue entrants? I think within the past 10 to 15 years, I feel like, yeah. Bloodsills I feel like is probably close,

that's the one that I was like, oh, like the barbecue trend or whatever is happening in LA. And I'm sure that you could find, like there was probably one good spot in LA at some point. But the history, like Blood Soz was the thing that I feel like really took off, right? I think there was another good spot, like not in Hollywood,

but like maybe in like West LA or something at one point. Yeah, I know. It's not Baby Blues, or maybe it is Baby Blues, but it's something like that. It's got blues in the name. It was Baby Blues. It was Baby Blues. Yeah, I know it's not Baby Blues or maybe it is Baby Blues, but it's something like that. It's got blues in the name. It was Baby Blues. It was Baby Blues, okay. Yeah, that place was all right.

And then also there's the Adam Perry Lang restaurant, which has a, you know, Adam Perry Lang, something of a celebrity chef. He has his barbecue concept. I'm trying to look up what it's called, but we were talking about Epstein earlier. Adam Perry Lang also was like- On the fly log?

No, he was like Epstein's personal chef for a time. Wow. It's like an insane personal history. Oh my God. I mean, you think about barbecue, I'm not one of those people who's like, you can't find good barbecue outside of the South or outside South Carolina,

like you can find good barbecue everywhere. I do think it's a similar situation as with like pizza and like historic pizza hubs, right? You can find good pizza everywhere, but like the median pizza in say like New York or New Haven is probably gonna be a little better than like the median pizza where I grew up in Virginia Beach.

Right. Yeah, I think- 100%. Yeah. There's gotta be, right, in every, look, I'm no Dave Portnoy, but I feel like in every, like every town in the United States, there has to be at least one

decent pizza shop, right? Like at this point, I don't know. Yeah, I mean like Italian food is, there are regions where it's better, but it's kind of a national cuisine. Mexican food has become kind of the same thing. There's good Mexican food all over the country now, but there are pockets where Mexican food is better.

In the middle of the country, you're not gonna hit. LA pizza was tough for a while. Yeah. Like when I first got here. It's gotten better. Yeah, it's Mexican food is better. In the middle of the country, you're not gonna hit. LA pizza was tough for a while. Yeah. Like when I first got here. It's gotten better. Yeah, it's gotten a lot better. But I think a lot of what you see, and this applies both to barbecue and to pizza in LA, is like, there's not like a,

what you might see in regions more known for it, where you can find like a cheaper or a working class version that is like very good. Whereas in LA, it's like, you're paying a premium. These are like, you know, these are more upscale. These are fancier concepts. So much of that's just the function of like cost of living. Right.

Like if you are in, you know, rural South Carolina, if you're in Charleston even, you can find a bunch of space to, especially in the outskirts of the city, a bunch of space to open up a place and do barbecue and you're not gonna be spending so much money on rent, right? Right. Or in parts of the rural South

where there's basically no laws anymore, you can just have a shack. I'm not joking about that. Maybe Casey could attest to this, but once you get out of major population areas, I think in any place that's sufficiently rural, law doesn't exist anymore. Yeah, it just turns into fallout.

Yeah, it's not that it's chaotic. It's that you can do whatever you want and no one's gonna bother you unless it's really egregious. The brother New Hampshire is like that too, me too, and you get up there, you can do whatever you want. Yeah, live or die.

Lockhart, Wags and I went to Lockhart, I actually demanded that you go to Lockhart. Remember when we did our, this is now almost 10 years ago. Did you go to that bad place in Lockhart, Texas? Oh yeah, we did a barbecue tour in, which I'd been before, I've been, I've luckily been to Lockhart like three or four times. And it's like the bar, it is the barbecue capital, right?

Or maybe it's self-proclaimed barbecue capital of the world. I don't know if there's an official title, maybe Trump will give one in. It's like when there were two popes, you know? Right. The pope in Avignon and the pope in Rome. Yes, yeah. It's the barbecue capital and I'm sure there's some other

barbecue capital that's been declared. Yes, I think Lockhart should be the one. It is awesome. And you walk in, you're basically walking into like the walk-in barbecue pits. You feel like you're Hansel and Gretel-ing yourself. Yeah, there were like three spots we went there. They look at, you look at that Boston butt over there.

There were three spots. I would feed millions of Texans. As you, Mia and Gabris, we went to three different spots. Oh man, me, you, and Gabris? The country would be eating good for a long... Me, you, and Gabris, and we cooking us up? Yeah, we had a... wait, are you saying we... Wait, hold on. I just realized what you're saying.

You're talking about cooking the three of us and serving us. Okay, I was talking about the three of us went and ate at these places. Yes, which is also true. I was saying there's the walk in, it's the walk, you walk into basically into an oven. So hypothetically. Right, we could have been cooked and turned into meals for dozens.

I do have the, I do sometimes when I look at like, one of those like wood fire ovens, I do sometimes think about like, what if I just baseball slid into there? What would happen? That'd be crazy, like a brick pizza oven, you just go head first. It would be very sad, but I would give the safe signal.

I guess you'd be out, kind of, in a way, right? You'd be gone. It is, I get what you're saying. It's like when you put a goat, there's like videos of like goats just running into fires. I don't know why they do that, but like, it's like being on a building and wanting to just jump off the building.

Yeah, 100%. Is there a name for it? I feel like that's an experience everyone has. Like you're doing something that you have no intention of like running, like driving off a side of a mountain, but your brain's like, what if I did it? Yeah, exactly. That's fucked up.

The fact that the brain does it, we are fucked up. It's called the call of the void, I believe. Call of the void. Of course you freak, you know it. Ha ha ha. Lockhart was fantastic. And when I was just in Bentonville, I went to Wright's Barbecue,

and Wright's Barbecue is really good. This is in Arkansas. In Arkansas, yeah, yeah. Wright's Barbecue. And I got what I was just making fun of. I got there and I was like, can I get some brisket? And they're like, no, we're out of, and they were out of everything.

Wow. And I got, it's funny because it's similar to what I got today, but I got a jalapeno sausage, like a jalapeno cheddar sausage, and I got pulled pork, which I said I didn't like today, which I am kind of a pulled pork skeptic. I was just saying, you weren't here for this, but I was saying how you said that the floor for chicken

is very low. And I was saying the ceiling for pulled pork is pretty low. Like, I, like- The best version of it is still not knocking your socks off. But now I'm going back on what I said, because their pulled, the Wright's barbecue pulled pork was fantastic. And it can be good. I think because their pulled the rights barbecue pulled pork was fantastic and can be good

I think because pulled pork is maybe on the easier side of what you can do barbecue wise It's like much more common and so you're more likely to encounter like really mediocre pulled pork Yeah, great pulled pork can be quite good that was that for me growing up barbecue was we're making pulled pork and it's super like super saucy and like candy, you know, like ribs that are so like, and not good quality ribs, like, uh, like Chili's level of ribs with just glazed over giving, being served to their sticky son, me like already, I was already sticky. And then what? They're sticky sons?

They're sticky sons. Sticky son. Is that how they introduce you to everyone? This is our sticky son, sir. This is Michael, my sticky son. They shake my hand. And I'm just going to die. Well, I can't let go.

But this memory, which I'm sure you, like, I remember watching, it's the same year, I think the same year Chris Farley died, I'm putting all these weird things together in my head. I was in middle school. Yeah, you have those markers, and so it happens sometimes. And it was the Green Bay Packers were in the Super Bowl.

Okay. Maybe with, I guess with Farf. With Farf, yes. And I remember like, not even really caring too much about sports at that point, but was so excited about the halftime and we made ribs. And I just remember it was just like the sticky, like that to me was barbecue.

Like this, like sugary, sticky sauce on ribs. And I don't even like, like I almost don't even like ribs now because I had such a bad, like a bad version of them forever, which is like, you know, like the little veiny, like not meaty ribs. And now I think ribs are so, and today, not to get into the food, but today my favorite thing was the ribs,

which is crazy, but. For me, barbecue, growing up in SoCal, lifelong SoCal, Super Dude, it's like there just isn't like much of, you could do places that do good barbecue. There are some good barbecue restaurants in Long Beach, which was like never really a thing for my family. We had like a barbecue outside, but it was never for barbecue.

It was for grilling. It's a different thing. And so for me, honestly, a big part of what I thought barbecue was was I want my baby back, baby back, baby back. Chili's baby back ribs. I was like, I would go and I was like, oh, this is what a barbecue experience is.

This is a big slab of meat that's got a really, really like saccharin sweet sauce. There's a video of them recording that song. I was just thinking about it. It's so good. It honestly is like seeing the Beatles in studio. It's huge. It's such a cultural touchstone.

And they're so locked in. And they sound so good. Their individual voices, they sound so, like just their individual voices, they sound so good. The drummer's just drumming the shit out of it. It's fucking awesome. Just session musicians just like locked in. It's great.

This used to be a damn country. What the hell's happened? Make jingles great again. The jingles, jingles suck now. It's true. Jingles are bad. I mean, everything is a fucking joke now. That's the issue for me.

Everything has to be funny. Yeah, you can't have like a- Nothing is, and none of it is funny. Like, give me sincerity over that. Right, right. Give me the baby back rib song, that's real. We like that because it was trying to be earnest and it didn't care about being cheesy or not.

It just was what it was. And we liked that it wasn't commenting on itself. 100%. Yeah, yeah. It was beautiful. Yeah, it was great. we liked that it wasn't commenting on itself. 100%. It was beautiful. People were singing it across the country. You guys don't even know this. And Sink was singing it. You Zoomers have no idea.

I'm not a Zoomer. The country was going wild for the baby back ribs. Jingle, you heard it everywhere. The president recited it. I wouldn't be surprised. Was it Bill? Yeah, Bill probably was coming. Probably 100% was. Hillary, I want my baby.

Yeah, make sure he did that. Come over here, Monica. Baby back, baby back. Yeah. He was singing it after everything went down. Hillary, I want my baby back, baby back. Sorry about what happened. He was, this is him apologizing after the blue dress.

Do you remember his speech? I did not have sexual relations with those baby back, baby back. Do you remember he gave like a speech from, it might've been from the Oval Office, like addressing the allegations and basically like, so like, you know, saying that he was like, I remember watching that,

like it was such a big news story at the time that I remember watching that with like a group of friends. It was like, that like, you know, saying that he was, and like, I remember watching that, like it was such a big news story at the time that I remember watching that with like a group of friends. It was like, that's such a weird thing that we all like, hey, let's go see what the president said about like getting his dick sucked. That was pretty weird. Yeah. So when I was, I wanted more details first.

But when I was in college, what my part-time job, I was doing archive editing for like just video and audio coming out of the White House since the White House used to produce that stuff, put it out there and then researchers would just sift through it. So I was like an editor, editing some of that stuff.

And I was editing the press conference, the first press conference where Clinton addresses the allegations. And it's so funny. Oh my God. Because when it's like, if you watch a documentary about the nineties, they just show the part where he's like, I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

But that comes at the end of like an hour long press conference about education policy. So he's just like talking about federal education policy. And then at the very end, he's like, can I have one more thing to say? I did not have sexual relations with that woman. And then he walks off.

Wow. That's wild. It's very funny to be. Yeah, in context, that's so strange. Did he ever give an excuse? I like Blue. Blue turns me on. Bluey the dog is hot.

I don't know. I mean, I can try to think. I mean, Bluey didn't exist at this point, but I was gonna say that's disgusting It's a child well oh my god Louie the dog is a child that's your issue Father and blue is blue so I mean there There we go. Right, that's how it is. Louie's dad and mom, how was that? Or is it just the dad? Just the dad, the mom is orange.

Louie's dad, are you happy? Does that work? Yeah, okay, that fixes it. When it comes to barbecue, just like growing up, my dad is a smoker, so he would like smoke meat on occasion. We used to smoke turkeys for Thanksgiving. Oh, that's fun. And so that was like mainly, we didn't go out to eat a ton,

so that was like my main exposure to barbecue. And I don't think I really began like eating more barbecue until in college. Yeah, I think I was a dumb enough kid and just was not exposed to it. I thought barbecue, I thought barbecue equaled barbecue sauce. Right, yeah, yeah.

I thought that's what, like, That's pretty dumb. The barbecue sauce you get for like a chicken McNugget was like, that's what makes it barbecue, you know? Do you know my first interaction to smoking was the mask. Ah! Ah!

Ah! What kind of sauce do you like barbecue-wise? I don't like sauce. Wow, you like it dry. I like it. I... Like Ben Shapiro, I like it dry. I didn't mean it like that.

I dry it up. Wikes, that was gross. What? No, I mean, I'm just of the opinion that your barbecue should be good without a bunch of sauce. Yeah, sure. You shouldn't have to rely on sauce. Like, sauce is something extra that you can add if that's

what you want as another flavor. But in terms of the quality of the meat, it should be perfectly, now I want to say perfectly juicy, but now it just sounds weird when I say it. Since when? You started it with dry. Perfectly wet. It was dry. Perfectly wet.

Um. I get where you, look, barbecue people out there, if you're listening, you are annoying. Like they are very annoying. Is that the most annoying like food person? I don't know. I'm trying to think. Everyone is so annoying now.

Barbecue people are very annoying. Barbecue people are annoying. I feel like coffee people are more annoying. I was just about to say coffee people. Yeah. Speaking are more annoying. I was just about to say coffee people. That's very annoying. Speaking as a coffee guy, I was about to say coffee people. Beer people can be pretty annoying.

Beer people are pretty bad. Beer snobs are bad. I think especially, I mean, they get, and it's funny because you and I will talk about IPA, beer snobs, and people get mad at us for that. And they're like, we're not, like they just get, because we both aren't huge IPA fans.

And then we're always like, they always want IPAs and we say that they all taste the same. And then people get mad at us for making fun of IPA people. But IPA beer snobs, I think are the most annoying people in the world. Do they even still exist? I feel like that was a thing 10 years ago. It feels like that's faded a little bit.

It's faded a little bit. The double IPA, quadruple IPA, just how hoppy can you get it? It's less of a thing. IPAs, I think, kind of suck. But barbecue people are very annoying. You are annoying. But I will say this.

They are right that when it's like, you've never had real barbecue before. And then when I think on the past, I'm like, yeah, I never really had real barbecue until like Lockhart or wherever, like, until I had real southern barbecue chains. And it is a different barbecue. I wouldn't even put that high on my list.

And then when I have real barbecue, I'm like, oh, real barbecue is fantastic. I know it's Casey's favorite foods. I love it. Casey loves a Q. And when it is good like that Moosecraft barbecue in LA. I mean, that's the thing, it has to be good barbecue. Yes, yes.

I mean, the thing about barbecue, it's genuinely interesting about it, is that it's one of the food ways in the country that did remain regional for much longer than other ones. Pizza, even Mexican food, became much more national, but it's only been relatively recently where barbecue is a thing that is somewhat, I wouldn't say common, but like, yeah,

you can find barbecue around the country. You're saying like that real deal barbecue. Yeah, whereas like for the longest time, right? Like if you wanted to get real deal barbecues, you have to get a ticket and go to Texas. You have to go to Kansas City. If you go to the actual place where it comes from. And I've never had, we wanna do a show in Kansas City.

Kansas City barbecue is my favorite, I love that show. Wow, Kansas City. We've never had it. Yeah, never been. I remember going to Dinosaur Barbecue when I was in college and that being like- That's in Ithaca and there's a one in New York City, right? Well, it's Syracuse.

Oh, it's Syracuse, I'm sorry. There's a bunch of people from Syracuse in Ithaca, from the Cuse and they always be like, Dinosaur Barbecue and then I went anduse, and they always be like, dinosaur barbecue. And then I went and ate that and was like, oh, this is good. And now I wonder how dinosaur barbecue is compared to some of these really good barbecue places. It might be bad.

I have no idea. But so I'm like, college is the first time I had good barbecue and then great barbecue, not till I was in my like maybe almost 30 years old. Yeah, again, you from New England, me from Southern California, we just weren't exposed. Yeah, and there's still like, there's still styles that are still very regional, right?

Like you can, like Texas style, which I think is the one that's become more national because brisket is like widely available and the technique is you can replicate in other places, but like whole hog is still very much a thing that you have to go to South Carolina. Get your mind out of that gutter. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

I mean, there's so many doughboy style barbecues. Dry rub. Dry rub. Whole hog. Whole hog. Uh. Burnt dance, okay? That works. Honestly.

Mario when he falls on lava. Um, I, uh, I, uh, for me, I don't think I, I don't know if I've ever had Kansas City barbecue, or like definitely haven't had real deal Kansas City barbecue. Texas, I've, I've, I've knocked off the list and then I know, like, I think I've had like, what's the other, is it the Carolina styles or, or, or is it a? Well, there's like North, there's the North, like North Carolina is known for, like, I think I've had, like, what's the other, is it the Carolina styles or is it a? Well, there's like North, there's the North, like North Carolina is known for, well, the Carolina's for pulled pork

and North Carolina is like the vinegar based sauce. Okay, yes. Part of the state. And then South Carolina is like a mustard based sauce. Okay. I'm intrigued by the mustard based sauce, some big mustard guy. It's good.

Yeah. It's good. The guy who didn't know who DJ Mustard was for like eight months after everyone knew. When people were yelling, Mustard, he thought it was actually, he thought people were talking about Mustard. People were talking about Mustard unless they loved it.

Idea, 100% about that. Yeah. I mean, that's legit. Mustard's a great condiment. It is great. There's a lot of styles we haven't tried. We should go to different cities. We haven't done that.

One interesting thing is there's barbecue fusion. So like, I was reading some years ago about how I saw Dallas, it was like Ethiopian slash like barbecue fusion. Oh wow, that's fun. Up near DC, I think in Maryland, like in one of the counties around the city, there's like maybe a Guatemalan joint that like does like, you know, barbecue fusion.

So you can get like, you can get like a, like a papusa with like brisket stuffed in it or something. Which sounds, when I say it out loud, sounds incredible. That sounds awesome. Yeah. I'm going, I'm getting Korean barbecue this weekend, Claudia and John early, the three of us are going to Parks barbecue.

Oh, wow. Classic spot. One of the best in the country. And that's the thing. And you know, obviously it's a different thing. So different, yeah. But that is the one thing that you can definitely point out that LA has, is just world-class Korean barbecue.

For your kid, have your kids had good, you're saying, have your kids had sushi yet, or like a? Yeah, oh wow. So my son loves sushi. Yeah, wow. We actually recently got sushi for dinner and I was like, okay, do I have enough? And I just like, I just gotta buy like two whole separate

rolls just for him to eat in addition to everything else. Wow, I love it. So he loves sushi. We don't get barbecue a ton, but they both had barbecue and they both like it. That's great. So again, their palates were like surprisingly broad for being little kids.

Part of it is that like we never did the thing where like we made food separately for them. It's just sort of like, you're just gonna eat what we eat. And if you don't like it, I guess too bad. That's how it was for growing up. That's exactly the same. Like my face would be mushed into my meal if I didn't eat it.

But I, maybe that's a little too much. But, but, but. Also, you were gonna eat it. Yeah, I was never an issue. I never got the face mush. But, but I, for me, we've talked about this before, like the idea of sushi, it was so foreign to me and I had never, like, I remember trying it

in middle school, like, or maybe, maybe even high school when my parents got it, and being like, this is so strange to me, and it just not, and now I feel like kids are used to that growing up, like kids just eat sushi, or like, Chankton's daughter, my goddaughter, will like, she just eats sushi and she's like a baby. Like- What's up with the grocery store, you know?

Like, you go to- Yeah, the Walgreens. Yeah. We go to our local Wegmans, and they have like, two. What about the grocery store, you know? Like you go to... Yeah, the Walgreens. Yeah. We go to our local Wegmans and they have like, you know, two guys making sushi fresh right there and you just pick some up. I do think about like when we were, you guys are older than me, but like not that much older than me.

And I'd say that when we were kids, like the quality of sushi you might get at a restaurant is now basically what you can get at a grocery store these days. Yes, 100%, yeah. For sure. That's wild. I got exposed to sushi and related dishes

like Spam-as-sou-be like fairly early on. So like I kind of knew, like I knew that sort of, you know. Which makes sense in California too. Yeah, yeah, but like it was treated in pop culture as like this weird thing for a time, like raw fish. Like it was like a sitcom joke, I'm not gonna eat raw fish. A weird feminizing thing.

Exactly, yeah. I'm sure I could think of some joke where like a man's eating sushi and they're just like, oh, look at that guy, he's a huge pussy. Yeah. Wasn't there a book called, in the 80s? If I still saw that movie, I'd be like slapping my leg. That's right, he is a huge pussy.

Comedies are back. There was a book, I think the title was, in the 80s, I think it was titled, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche. That's right, yeah. It was one of those things that was just like, again, just a masculinity tome or whatever. Soft eggs, someone has a, I guess someone has a pussy. I can't think of anything else to say, yeah.

The Simpsons have Homer, like a very early, I think a season one episode is Homer at that sushi restaurant. Yeah. And it's like eating like this blowfish that's like, and it's like, it's poisonous or whatever. So it also seemed like, oh my God, like it's dangerous and it's raw.

And it was completely, you know, it was strange to me as a boy. And now the most common thing in the United States. Yeah, it's everywhere. Which is a good thing, it was strange to me as a boy and now the most common thing in in the Which is a good thing it's a great thing, but people out there, you know, if you hear your pussy I mean not I mean now with the tariffs, you know, we might Yeah also Did you want to announce the the doughboys?

Yeah. Yeah. Also, did you want to announce the Doughboys Patreon increase? Yeah, we have the Doughboys tariffs have gone into effect. So if you're outside of the country, you're going to be paying a premium on the Doughboys of Patreon. And unfortunately, it's affected people

inside the country too. So Platinum Play Club is now 17 bucks. It's easier to just make it global. It's actually fairer and easier just to make the tariffs apply to Americans as well. So yeah, that Patreon is gonna be a little more expensive. Yeah. But thank you for subscribing. Thank you for subscribing.

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and every order is age verified. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Dickie's Barbecue Pit was founded in Dallas, Texas in 1941 by Travis Dickie. Last week, Mitch with Stav, we talked about Carl's Jr. founded the very same year, 1941, as Dickey. 1941?

As Dickey's barbecue business. This is nearly a hundred-year-old, it's 80-something years old? That is shocking to me. It is wild. That is crazy. Dickies is older than Burger King, Denny's, and Waffle House.

The reason it doesn't seem on the same level as those places is because Dickies didn't begin franchising until it existed for 50 years. So 1994 was the first time they said like, let's make some more Dickies. And then this leads to Travis Dickie, the founder, his grandson, Roland Dickie Jr. becoming CEO in 2006. And Dickie Jr. just was like, we're gonna be everywhere.

He just began an exponential growth policy. They had 20 locations when he took over in 2006. In 2010, four years later, they had 115, and in 2017, they had 567 locations. So they just scaled up massively, Mitch, in like a decade and change from 20 locations to over 500. However- Can I, can I, can I tell you? Let me, let me, let me get, get, make it clear of how

old Dickies is. Yeah. It's older than Joe Biden. Older than Joe Biden. Wow. Dickies is older than Joe Biden. What year was Biden born? 42. Same as my dad. My dad was, my dad was actually older than Biden. That's wild to think about. He's dead also, but he was, he was, he was, he was, also, but he was an old man. Yeah. Martin Scorsese. Dickies is older than Martin Scorsese. That's crazy to think about.

It's old. Dickies is old. But it was just like a regional like Dallas thing for most of its existence until this recent decision to turn it into an international brand. Does it say when the various expansions happened? Is it like they expanded to, they expanded to a hundred locations and then like 10 years passed

and they do like another big expansion or is it just a? I believe it was, I don't have a year by year TikTok here, but I believe it was just kind of a, you know, it was a conscious decision by the new CEO to make it a bigger brand and they just basically just grew, like franchised as rapidly as possible.

I do remember a story Biden told about how he and Kornpop after going swimming in a swimming hole went to Dickies. Can I say, sometimes, sometimes, and I'm just like thinking about the past, I remember that the Kornpop story was real. Like I remember, I remember watching him tell that story and being like, he's an adult old man. And then like a week later,

there's a story in the Washington Post by like Corn Pop's daughter. And it's like, yeah, Corn Pop was my father and him and Joe Biden had a blood feud. What can I say? And it was like that moment when I read that corn pop with reals, like Joe Biden can become president. God is smiling upon him.

I don't think Biden would be doing so far. I mean, he would clearly be, I think he would be doing bad, but I think the country would be doing much better. I would take the sleepiest Joe. Yeah, sure. The deep sleep. Give me, give me weakakened at Bernie's 2.

Joe Biden. So that is right. So does Weakened at Bernie's 2 just take place right after the last movie? Because it must, right? I don't remember. Boy, it's been years since I've seen it. I've seen both those movies. I think it was a year later he's, he's, he's proposing.

The thing, the gimmick of Weekend at Bernie's too is there's like a voodoo ritual that brings him back so he can like move and like dance on his own. So, but I don't know if it happens right after the first movie. Did the curse keep him fresh? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, yeah.

That'd have been a great inauguration for Biden, Biden too, right? Like they, they push him onto the stage and then there's like a voodoo ritual. All right. All right. All right. Jumps up.

Got sunglasses on. Come on, man. Force ghost corn pops, smiling down. He's smiling. So the issue is they over expanded as these chains tend to do. As per a December, 2024 piece in restaurant business by Jonathan Mays, the great Jonathan Mays,

the title is Dickie's Sales Plunge and Franchisees Pay the Price. A couple of quotes from this, the company's corporate franchise revenue declined 12 and a half percent last year and is down 24% over the past two years. As many as 28% of the chain stores have closed in just the past 18 months.

And then as of 2025, they now have 360 locations. So down over 200 from their peak about eight years ago. So we went to a downtown LA location. There's a few locations in the greater LA area. Kind of a weird place in downtown. It feels like where it's situated on Spring Street, kind of an odd spot. Yes, 100%.

But we did a pickup from there, and I'd never been to Dicky's. I mean, I imagine none of us had been to Dicky's. No, never been to Dicky's. I honestly, I knew of Dicky's just because I've seen it in those lists of like, you know, top 100 chain restaurants or whatever. And it was, I think in 2012,

like the fastest growing chain in the country. So like I was aware of it. In 2012, it was the fastest. Yeah, isn't that weird? So before you guys reached out to me with like a list of possible choices, I had never heard of Dickey. Yeah.

Like not, never encountered in my life. I believe it is the largest barbecue chain in the world in terms of number of locations. Which is so weird to think about, because again, it just seems to have had no impact on food culture or it isn't like a thing you see ads for or whatever, no one's talking about diggies, but it just instantly kind of became ubiquitous.

We ordered from the Downtown LA location. And I mean, like it's basically a place, like they've got meat plates and they've got sandwiches and they've got sides. They've got what you'd expect a barbecue restaurant place like they've got they've got meat plates, and they've got sandwiches, and they've got sides, they've got what you'd expect a barbecue restaurant to be doing. They've also got wings, which we got some of Mitch, you got a three meat plate, I got a two meat plate, Jamal, you got some some brisket, and a kielbasa and some

turkey. I mean, I guess we can just start with the meats, because that's the reason to go to a barbecue restaurant. Is this an Arby's? Is there? Do they have the Is this an Arby's decision? Do they have the meats? Do they have the meats? Do they have the meats? I don't know. I'll start with- Obviously in a literal sense, they do.

In a literal sense, they have the meats. They have meats. We all got the brisket. Mm-hmm. I was, I thought the brisket was functionally fine, but like I was not particularly impressed by it. Like I was like, oh, this is brisket, you know? But like it felt like it was, I don't know,

it felt like it was lacking both flavor and then also fat. It kind of felt like it was like a little bit leaner than I would like. My brisket was fatty. It had been more of the fat. It was like well-smoked, it wasn't like tough to eat. Really bad brisket can be tough to eat, but it just had no flavor.

It was just sort of like you needed the sauce to give it any kind of anything worth eating. And there are places that that's their approach. And we were talking about Raising Canes, which I'm less a fan of than some other people, but that is a place where you're just supposed to be like, yeah, the sauce sauces, you know, the tendies are a delivery mechanism for the sauce.

With barbecue, it shouldn't be that way, ideally. You shouldn't need the sauce, but I feel like you kind of need it here. I don't know, what'd you think of that brisket? I think you liked it a little bit more. Mine was, I think mine must've been a little bit better, but I had pieces that were pretty gray and overcooked. So I think you summed it up pretty well with,

oh, this is brisket. This is brisket, not said in a 300 way, not said like this is Sparta, said like this is brisket. Yes. It'd be a fun commercial though. That would be, I would love it. This is, yeah, that'd be good, it'd be fun. I would like it if-

This is brisket and you kick a pork shoulder into a barbecue pit. I would like that if that was what, who's our guy there who we defended for a long time? He's now doing like a right wing movie, I think. Gerard Butler? The guy who did 300. 300, oh.

Oh, Zach. Zack Snyder. Snyder, yeah. Snyder's doing some sort of a. I love being so fucking old, you can't remember the name of someone you're a fan of. I don't remember shit. I know, well, I think Snyder's got it. I think Snyder, I think he's making some sort of right wing.

I mean, that tends to do the pattern. When I first took a bite of it, I was like, okay. I was like, this is an equivalent to an okay brisket. But as my meats went on, I got the jalapeno cheddar sausage. Yeah, jalapeno cheddar kielbasa. I got that as well, yeah. It was, I was gonna be like, this is really bad. This is gonna be the worst thing I eat today.

And then I was wrong. But it was not, it was just so dry and overcooked. That's the thing, it wasn't like, the picture, obviously the pictures on the website don't mean anything, but the picture suggested like a juicy sausage. Right. But this was just sort of like dried and triveled up.

Almost Slim Jim-esque. Yes, yeah. It was not, and also here's the funny thing about that website is like, even the website pictures just look okay. It's one of those places where like, the website seems shoddy for a thing that's a huge chain apparently, or was.

Everything about this place seems a little janky, which makes me just feel like this is, there's some sort of scam going on. Every time I see that, I'm just like, okay, this is like a scheme to like bilk your franchisees or something, you know what I mean? Like I just, I don't know, like yeah, you look at the app and the app's kind of crap.

It's like a little bit janky. It feels like, everything feels just a little bit like, what's the word I'm looking for? like, um, everything feels just a little bit like, what's the word I'm looking for? A rough shot, a little bit, you know, it's just- Yeah, something is off. Yeah, just shabby. Yeah, and I, and for the brisket, I was like, okay, and then the sausage, this is how I was like

eating the things, I was like, brisket, okay, that's not bad, sausage real bad, ribs, which I said, I'm not even usually a huge ribs guy. You tried the ribs, Wags. Yeah, you got some pork ribs. I did take a bite of that sumbitch. It was decent. Maybe, yeah, maybe the best meat, honestly, of the day.

But then there was another pork rib below it that was so dried out and horrible. But the one that was cooked decently was good. And so I was kind of still on board a little bit when I was realizing you guys were starting to hate this place. And I had the mac and cheese, which I thought the mac and cheese was just okay.

And the mashed potatoes, like the loaded mashed potatoes, which were like trying to do like a baked potato and a mashed potato, there was like green onions in it and bacon and cheese in the mashed potatoes. Those were bad. Straight up. That's the thing, like that looks like something they're trying to market as one of their showstoppers

of like, look at what we did. Like we have a loaded baked potato, mashed potato, like how wild is that? And then yeah, you have it, it's just kind of underwhelming. Yeah, not to mention that there was also multiple things missing in the order, which look, you get it delivered, that is just what's gonna happen. There's like no real way around that, I feel like.

It's gonna happen. But it was no real way around that, I feel like. It's gonna happen. But it was like, things are missing and the food, and then it was much like the economy wags. It was crap. Things were going downwards as the meal, right? The economy went down. Azdac went down. Hashtag draft Mitch.

The meal experience as I was looking around and realizing what was happening, it started to plummet. So I also had the sausage and the brisket. I got the smoked turkey as well. I also got the smoked turkey. Because I'm always- It's my second protein.

Smoked turkey is kind of a difficult meat to do because turkey is not a very fatty animal. It's kind of a bland animal. And so it kind of, it's not, this isn't like a rule of thumb, but I feel like if a place can do a decent smoked turkey, it probably can do a decent job with other things. And the smoked turkey, I thought it had more flavor than the brisket.

I agree. It was also kind of like stringy and not great. No, it was, it was, yeah, it was pretty dried out and you know, which turkey tends to do, but like I didn't find the texture of the meat particularly pleasant, but I did feel like it had more flavor. Maybe it was just better seasoned than the brisket.

And I don't know if that's just how they do their turkey or maybe this is how this particular batch was. But yeah, you and I both agreed, like we were talking during lunch, like yeah, the turkey was just straight better than the brisket, which should not be the case. I feel like the turkey should be like, oh yeah, they also have a good turkey.

It should not be like, well, the brisket was bad, but the turkey is a little better. You know, that's damning it a little bit. You know the first time I had a smoked turkey, I went over to the mask's house for Thanksgiving. He welcomed you in. Does he have the mask on still? Yeah, of course he's wearing the mask on.

Look, I'm going to just say this. He's like, what are you having for dinner, man? It's smoking. You don't know what he means? Because that's just how he talks. But it was the turkey. It was the turkey. It was slightly weird that I just showed up talks. But it was the turkey. Yeah. It was the turkey. It was the, you know, it was weird.

It was slightly weird that I just showed up to his house. He invited you. He's a grown man. And he's looking for children to invite over because he's a cartoon character. Look, I gotta say this. I bet him saying grace would be so funny. I was just about to say, I know that this, look,

I know that the way the joke went over, it wasn't to people's liking. But I'm gonna say this, if they made a movie, The Masks Thanksgiving, how fun would that be? That'd be pretty great. I would watch. Thanksgiving at The Masks. I would watch.

That would be a blast. Have you seen the Sonic movies? Yes. I do like Jim Carrey in the Sonic movies. I keep telling people that Jim Carrey is giving a 90s performance in the movies. He's killing it. And there are definitely a lot of kids

that their understanding of Jim Carrey comes through the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and that's it. But he is like, I mean, it's classic Jim Carrey. I got to see a rhino giving birth to him or whatever in Acemature 2. There's guys who are just, I mean, Jim Carrey's undeniable, Jack Black, come on, these guys, they're good, they're good, they're all good.

I have something for the mascot Thanksgiving. What's that? He goes for like a third or fourth helping, and he goes, somebody stop me! Yeah! That's really good, Amelia. That's true. Let's get you in that room. That's really good.

Get her in the room. Get in the writer's room. Amelia and I had a productive day. She helped me with an audition earlier today. Oh, that's nice. Mitch did a good job. Wait, were you auditioning for the Masked Thanksgiving? That's what this is all about.

Maybe. Guess who I'd be playing? Fat Thanksgiving guest. I would think you'd say the turkey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They put it like human being. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I thought the turkey was fine and it definitely needed some sauce to wake it up. And let me just say this. So we got a bunch of different sauces. I was not particularly, I was not particularly into any of the sauces, honestly. Like, their sauces come in their branded little cups and I thought their default sauce was whatever.

I thought their sweet sauce was like way too sweet. And I thought their hot sauce was whatever. I thought their sweet sauce was like way too sweet. I thought their hot sauce, I was just like, give me a little bit more burn or something here. Sure. Their hot barbecue sauce at least. They have a straight up hot sauce. Yeah, yeah. But like they're like packaged branded Dickey sauces

I thought were all pretty underwhelming. I just got mad thinking of how much my body looks like an uncooked turkey. It's just like very similar. Very similar. Very, very similar. Turkeys look a lot like you. They do. Yeah, down to the big hole. And look, I stuffed that thing.

I don't even know what that means, but, uh. I mean, we can, we can, we can each probably figure out a joke about fucking a turkey. Yeah, I guess. It is, there's, yeah, there's, there's something very, uh, Mitch coded about an uncoached turkey. Uh. The sauces were pretty, the sauce, I mean, I, I don't know. Maybe someone wants to defend the sauces. I, I wasn't. I think the sauces were fine. I didn't have, I didn't have an issueooked turkey. The sauces were pretty, I mean, I don't know. Maybe someone wants to defend the sauces.

I didn't have a issue with it. I only had the standard sauce. I thought it was fine. I will say like the bottled Wegmans brand sauce I get at the grocery store is like better. Yeah, that's the thing. It's just like, I'll get some sweet baby rays or whatever. This should be better.

Their signature sauce should be better than some bullseyes I can get from the supermarket. The sides. I thought it was, I personally thought it was better than bullseye or something. That's fair, that's totally fair. I mean, I didn't think they were great. I'm not going to bat for them.

I didn't mind the barbecue beans. I didn't get my green beans. I did not like the barbecue beans. Wow, okay. I thought they were, so like, I like beans a lot, one of my favorite food groups. Yeah. And we make barbecue beans sometimes.

And the thing about barbecue beans is like, they are supposed to be sweet, but that should be balanced with like heat and a strong savory note. That's like sort of what all the bacon or the pork is for. Like it's a balance of these three elements. And I thought these were like sickly sweet without enough of the other elements

that you need for them to work. I found them like just, I had a couple of bites and I was like, I can't. And I like, I love beans. Like I will, I will, you know, I will look past a lot, but I thought these were not good. How do you prep a barbecue bean at home?

I, you, you, the way I do it is I cook the navy beans first like from dry navy beans Maybe with some bay leaves and garlic and like a whole onion thrown in just for like some additional flavor and then you make sort of the sauce like ketchup mustard powder or Or actual yellow mustard brown sugar What else is in there? There's a bunch of stuff in there. Chop up some jalapenos, chop up some onion, make sort of the beans and some bean liquid, like enough to kind of in a casserole dish, like kind of submerge the beans

and put whole strips of bacon on top and then pop it in the oven. Cover it, pop it in the oven. Because the beans are already cooked, basically you're like cooking it so that the liquid reduces and the vegetables kind of like dissolve in everything. And after like 40 or 45 minutes, take off the foil

and then let the bacon on top brown. And then you got baked beans. That sounds delicious. That sounds heavenly. That sounds fantastic. There's molasses in there. Right, wow. Yeah, I like forasses in there. I don't know. Right, wow. Yeah, I like for me.

Can I also just say? Yes. I know that, but liquid bean made me think of Mr. Bean as the T-1000. So I'll be very funny. That would be very funny. He pulls himself through metal bars and then does a pratfall.

I mean, I love it. And he falls straight into a turkey. That sounded so good. And as you were saying that, I was like, oh yeah, the bean steak did suck. I think that they were serviceable, but I thought the chili was worse, by the way. Yeah, the chili was definitely worse than the beans.

Which again, the chili had brisket in it, and they were talking up their brisket chili. So like I, I, I, I'm expecting a little bit more. It was not anything particularly exciting. Yeah, I guess they were just kind of canned beans, but I don't know that they got the job done for me at least. I was able to try the green, I got green beans and I thought they were fine. They tasted like canned, canned beans

that they added like a little meat to, which I'll say growing up, like I grew up eating canned green beans. And so I do have a nostalgic, this is a flavor I recognize. Were today's beans better than Bush's baked beans? My guess is probably no. No, I think they're about the same.

I mean, I haven't eaten Bush's baked beans in a year. I saw them, that was a huge go-to. That's my dog about them. Jimmy's quiet. She's being quiet. I guess, is that specifically Boston baked beans? There's a difference with Boston baked beans. I mean, you should be the one who knows. I know. I know.

I can talk about the difference. Oh, please do. Boston baked beans, so southern style baked beans can't have tomato in them. Boston baked beans generally don't. Boston baked beans are generally just molasses, whatever the bean liquid is, mustard, and some brown sugar. And that's generally what you get in Boston baked beans. And not bacon, but some other kind of salt pork.

Yeah, there's sometimes some pork in there or something. I love, I'm a big Boston baked. I know about them too. I know. I know about them. Um, I, I, as far as the sides, when I thought the mac and cheese was, did you try any? Yeah, I thought the mac and cheese was fine.

And I also thought, and it was a thing that got lost in the shuffle until it was, you know, sub room temp. We somehow just overlooked it. But the, the fried okra that I ordered was also... It was kind of devastating....was also fine. a sub room temp, we somehow just overlooked it. But the fried okra that I ordered was also- This is kind of devastating. Was also fine.

But that was one of the better sides and it was- Jamel and I were like, I think that was the best side. Yeah, and I wish we'd had it hot, but we somehow just missed it. What else did we miss? I mean, are there other- Well, to go into the awful side of stuff. You got buffalo wings.

Yeah, we should talk about the wings were really disappointing. Half Buffalo Hot, half Carolina Barbecue. I could not taste the difference between them. Whatever sauces they rolled them in a bowl with. Those are two pretty different things. Pretty distinct sauces, and I could not tell the difference between the two sauces.

And the ranch that they came with was pretty inert. But I just also felt like, are these even smoked? It feels like they were from like in a deep fryer. It said they were smoked wings, I think on the app. Well, when I first took a bite of them, what we sometimes say on the show is gamey, which is, we'll get into a second here. This is exactly how Amelia described what she ate.

But the wings tasted so much like dominoes, like bad dominoes wings. Yes, they taste like pizza place wings, for sure. Which was like how, when it's a barbecue place, and I know it's a fast food barbecue place, but you're like, I wish that these have to be a little bit better, right? Or the fryer has to be cooking or something,

like you have to have a good fry on them or something and there was not. It says they are pit smoked wings. So that's what they're claiming on their site. To me, they seem to be like they were in a fryer, but I'll believe them that they were actually smoked. I did not get any sort of smoky character from them. I mean, if they were, I didn't try the wings,

but it would make sense if they were fried, that would make them a little more disappointing. I don't know, just sort of like, there's a reason why fried chicken dedicated restaurants have better fried chicken than places that just have fried chicken as an option. Like fried chicken is an intensive thing. It requires like a lot of moving parts.

Yes, yeah. And so like, if you just, if you have a barbecue restaurant, you're also frying wings, the wings are not gonna get the kind of attention that everything else has. That's a great point, you're also frying wings, the wings are not gonna get the kind of attention that everything else is. That's a great point, yeah. Mitch, you got the jalapeno and cheese Trail Boss sandwich as a side sandwich.

This is another thing on a normal visit, this would be the worst thing I got. Go ahead, you want it. Casey, you also got a brisket sandwich, and Amelia, you got a crispy chicken sandal, correct? Correct. So the Trail Boss jalapeno cheddar sandwich would be, it's a chicken fried steak, brisket, jalapenos, and cheese.

Is that what's on it? Yes, it's, yes. That's what it looks like the components are on the app. And I took a bite of that and it was bad. It was really bad. And I let you take a bite of it, Wags. You also thought it was really bad. I thought it was pretty repulsive. And then I took a bite of Amelia's fried chicken sandwich

that Emma and Amelia split and then didn't eat too much of because I think it was horrible. And it was truly rotten. I took one bite and then I was like, nope. I forgot my brisket sandwich and Amelia was like, you can have my chicken sandwich. And then she was like, well, we can share it. And then she texted me, she texted me like this is bad

And so I was coming in with low expectations. The chicken was bad. The chicken sandwich was the worst thing I had. Yeah It was it was it was completely gay It was chewy and gamey like you said the chicken patty was like half the size of the bun too or the piece of chicken There's like a lot of extra bread around. I didn't try it I just noticed like the cross section when you had yours and I was like, not for me. No, and there was nothing on it but sauce. There was no, it was just chicken sauce, right? Yeah, homestyle sauce. Yeah, yeah, but there was no lettuce, tomato, nothing.

Wait, wait, homestyle or hostile? When I was eating it was a hostile. I mean, when I was eating it was a hostile. When you cut it into and you saw the bisect, saw it bisected, I hate that I say that because you say it all the timeect, saw it bisected, I hate that I say that because you say it all the time. When it was bisected.

That's a good word, bisected. It does make it sound very clinical. It does, yeah, that's true. Yeah, in, yeah. Very dexterous. Yeah, yeah, which is a great way to describe Weiger. Am I a dexter? I'm so sorry, yeah.

And it looks like you cut, it looks like you cut in half an old sandwich. It looked old. Here's what I was saying. Like, supersized for me, like the old hamburger. It was like, this looks like a sandwich that's been sitting around, and it's new, it's fresh. It didn't make any sense.

It's not only like new in the, it was just made, it's new to the menu. All of their chicken sandwiches and the Ranch Boss sandwich and the Trail Boss sandwich, by the way, Trail Boss sounds like a show that's been like on TLC for like 10 seasons. Yeah. It's like somehow like the second most watched show

in America, Trail Boss. It's on like the Paramount Network. Yeah, yeah. Peter Berg directed the pilot. These are all like things that they've added to the menu. Isn't it Peter Berg? Did I mess it up again? It is Peter Berg. Peter Berg, yeah.

These are all things that they've added to the menu. Isn't that Peterburg? Did I mess it up again? It is Peterburg. Peterburg, yeah. These are all things that they've added to the menu in, you know, recently. And I generally think it goes back to something you were saying of just like, you're a barbecue restaurant, why are you trying to do all these fried chicken sandwiches? And the only reason I can think of is they're just trying to cash in on the fried chicken sandwich trend,

which is, you know, it's not a- Which is almost over at this point. It's kind of over, yeah. It's kind of at the tail end of it. I mean, just is, you know, it's not a- Which is almost over at this point. It's kind of over, yeah, it's kind of at the tail end of it. I mean, just thinking, you talked earlier about, they did a massive and rapid expansion and sort of like, that, this is all a testament to why that's sort of a bad idea, right? Like you want, you are a barbecue chain restaurant,

you should focus on that and you should remain in places where there is like a barbecue culture that people are just gonna, maybe they don't wanna wait at like a nicer place where they go to your fast food restaurant for a quick barbecue meal. But trying to both expand and then offer everything to everyone.

Like why in God's name is there chicken fried steak on a barbecue restaurant's menu? First of all- It really doesn't make sense. I don't think I've seen chicken fried steak in like years, but like, why is that there? Like who's buying that? Yeah.

Only the doughboys basically. Only the doughboys, right? Only the doughboys and like an 82 year old grampy. You know? And it was immediately like, oh, this is not, we both were like, this is not good, this is garbage. We threw it away immediately. Here's the thing I was concerned about,

is you know when you get chicken wings and the bones don't look right? Like the bones looked, like they were like kind of dark, but like the bones were kind of dark. And I was like, there's something, this wasn't a healthy chicken. They were like, it was the- You guys were describing the chicken as gamey.

And I got, each time I'm just like, how does one get gamey fast food chicken? Where is this chicken coming from that it doesn't at least taste like bland? Yes. Right? It should have no flavor versus a distinct flavor of game. Yes. I think it was a prison exchange.

It was from the El Salvador prison. It was, it seemed very, it either felt like it was old or meat that had sat around. There was something that just wasn't right about it. It's kind of the thing, and this is, I guess, maybe a grim thing to voice, but it's like, when you think about like our agricultural system, our food supply system and factory farming, I feel like sometimes you can taste

when something had a horrible life. You know what I mean? It's like kind of like, this was a chicken who, this was just like an awful sort of existence and it kind of comes through in the meat and the way that it was raised and the way it was slaughtered. It was like fucking horrible. Take a big bite. I can taste that despair.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a bummer. And, like, if you have something that, like, comes from, like, a, you know, whatever. It seemed like the chicken when it was younger, it had so much potential, and, like, after high school,

didn't really do much. And it just kind of stuck around. It's just like, it just didn't do much with itself, you know? But it, I sadly agree like it was not happy. By the way, to bring this on a lighter note, I think I know what the new trend of food is gonna be. Oh, go us in. The Italians are taking over.

Let's fucking go. No, no, no, no, no. All right. The Italians are taking over. Let's fucking go. No, no, no, no, no. All right. Oh, go listen. The Italians are taking over. Let's fucking go. No, no, no, no, no. All right.

Like Italian, like right now, like the Italian sandwiches, there's like big focaccia Italian sandwiches, like I think like Florence style sandwiches. You mean beyond like pizza and pasta, you think like Italian food at large is going to be the only bigger thing. I know this sounds silly, but the new restaurant trend is Italian and I took a picture. There's a place at the Americana There's like a new Italian. I think ice cream. It's just they're pushing. They're pushing Italians New switch coming out, Mario?

Yeah. Wow. No! And you know what's sad about that? They're fucking withholding the Mario on that one. We can't get into it. I know, I know, I'm sorry. But there was, there was at the, at a, look at this.

Look at this, look at this shit. This is at Americana the other day. Mitch is holding up a sign for a change. Venti, buon ambuono, buonassimo. Mitch, you have to sound like you're gonna be like a no Italian, Italians allowed sign. No Italians, no dogs. I love Italian people.

It is, but I'm telling you, the Italian trend is coming. It's coming. Amelia? You say that in my neighborhood, they opened up a sort of a pizza shop that's like a Roman style pizza shop. Oh, wow. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Roman pizza, that's pretty, like in LA,

Quarter Sheets has the big slab slices, and I think Roman style is very in right now. Yeah. You got mesmerized by Jemmy, it seems like. She's being cute. Then she looks like an Italian chocolate and gelato shop, opening soon at the Americana slash, what is it called, the Americana?

What is it? That's right, the Americana. Oh, Americana. Americana at brand called? The Americana, what is it? That's right, the Americana. Americana. Americana at Brand? At Brand, that's what I was thinking of. Anyway, Italian is in, I think Chicken Sandwiches was the last trend.

Chicken Sandwiches feels like that's done. Feels over. We're kicking out all the immigrants, and so we gotta return to the classic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Casey, you're a big fan of the Q. You got yourself a Texas brisket sandwich. How was that? It was kind of exactly what I expected as far as like fast food barbecue goes. I mean, like the texture was like fine. It was tender enough, but yeah, it was like not really seasoned.

I didn't think it really needed a lot of the sauce. You were okay with it for a fast food bar. And I think you and I, I think you and I maybe got the juiciest cuts of the brisket. It seems like mine was okay. And then as I was taking off pieces of brisket, it got like grayer and grayer. And I feel like that's, you guys had gray,

the gray ET version of the brisket, it seems like. Yes. I was definitely, as I was going, pouring more sauce on every bite. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, like it should, that rib was the, and if everything was the quality of that rib that we shared there, I think it would be good.

It would be like a decent spot. But there was a lot of things, when you take a lot of bites of stuff and you're like, this is disgusting, it's gonna hurt the fork score. Well, and I think there's also just the element of, usually with these places, usually with any chain we talk about, there's at least something we're like,

hey, that's pretty good. We're like, oh, I like this. And there's nothing that I go back at everything that I tasted. There's nothing where I was like, I was like, I actually enjoyed that's pretty good. We're like, oh, I like this. And there's nothing that I go back at everything that I tasted. There's nothing where I was like, I actually enjoyed that quite a bit. Despite all these other things, this one bite was working. Nothing really fits that criteria for me.

I guess we should talk about the pecan pie slice. Oh, right, yes. Let me, before we move to the pecan pie, I do have to say we all got pieces of Texas toast. Oh, yes. The Texas toast was bad. That was awful. It was so bad.

Like not even disappointing as mediocre bread can be, but just actively not good. Yeah. Yeah, it was horrible. It tasted so much like an old hot dog bun that was grilled. I mentioned Raisin Canes earlier. Their Texas toast is legit good. And like, there's no, like this is, I don't know.

I'm kind of looking forward to like getting to have a big piece of the Texas toast. I have two bites of this, I don't even want to be slathered in sauce. I don't want to be- It's buttery grilled bread. It seems like it should be kind of easy, but it was- And this is a Texas based chain.

This is a chain from Dallas that says they're bringing a Texas style barbecue nationwide. Texas toast should be a thing they excel at. At least in the fast food, you know food chain version, it's not working. The pecan pie was fine. I felt like it was like, you know, kind of like from a grocery store. Yeah, it was, I thought the crust actually was like,

so at first it wasn't like a rolled out crust. It was like a pressed in crust. And I thought it was just sort of like a salty crust. It was like, yeah, but it was fine. Yeah, that and the okra had so much salt on it. We were saying at the end of the, that and the okra had so much salt on it. We were saying at the end of the art, those are the last two things we tried basically.

I thought it was, it was fine. It was, look, it wasn't bad. I don't think it was a bad. No, it wasn't bad. Yeah, it wasn't bad. The thing about pecan pie is actually of the view that like, there's no, like the only good pecan pie is pecan pie you're gonna get from somebody who made it at home.

Like I don't think you can have a good store-bought pecan pie. Right, right. I'll give it this, I'll give it credit for this. It wasn't completely dried out. It was like moist, basically. One of our top pies. Can we say pecan pie? Can we say?

I think that's on my personal Mount Pie more. On your personal Mount Pie more. I don't, it's not on mine. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Are cupcakes on there?'t, it's not on mine. Wow. Yeah. Wow. What are cupcakes on there? Emma, we cannot get into this.

Yes they are, Emma. I like that I've been listening to this podcast for so long that I like know what you guys are talking about. And for that, we apologize. What would be, quickly, what would be your Mount Piemore? Can you bang one out real quick? I think so. Sweet potato pie.

I do love an apple pie. Key lime pie. Oh, that's a good answer. And lemon meringue pie. Wow. Two citrus pies. Here's, this is crazy, but I've made it once, and now it is one of my favorites,

but apple cranberry pie is on there. Okay. And that, I know that that's, but apple cranberry pie is on there. Okay. And I know that that's, but I mean, like I guess I would put apple on the, cause a good apple pie, I think that you just, it's the one that you get the most, so you've had bad versions of it, and if the apples aren't cooked well, it can be bad.

It has that, the floor can be pretty low for apple pie. But a really good apple pie is- It's the best. Okay, so here's a question. I like, and I got this from my father-in-law, I like a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on my apple pie. Really fun. Wow. I do like that, yeah.

I don't know if I've. Johnny Rockets used to do that, they stopped doing it. I think I maybe had a bite of it with you when I had never done it before, but it was not a thing that I got often when I was younger, but I do like it. It's a sweet and savory sort of thing. Yeah, it's a sweet and savory thing.

It's just like a nice, like, if the cheese is just put on, it's not like quite fully melted, there's a bit of a temperature contrast thing that I like too. I don't know, it just works. That's delightful. I think I had to put cherry pie in my top pie, but it needs to be ala mode.

I need it to be cut a little bit. I need like the tartness to be cut with something. Yeah. And so I need a little bit of ice cream. I like a chocolate mud pie. That's fun. If you guys have ever had a buttermilk pie. I have, yes.

I have not. Yeah. Grape pie. It's like a tangy custard almost. We could just talk about pies all day. This is so much better than... God, man, yeah. Pies are fucking...

We've never done a deep dive on pie. We've done a few pie chains. What was the pie concept we did with Marley? Oh, pie hole. Pie hole, yeah. Pie hole was good. There aren't a lot of like pie chain restaurants. It tends to be, you know...

There's a place like Marie Callender's that has pies, but it's not their main thing. Pie hole was trying to do exactly what Jemma was saying of trying to be like, we may, we may, it's like a homemade pecan pie and we slice it and you get a slice of it. But it felt like the concept just maybe, it feels like it's, is it shuttered completely?

The one at the Americana is now gone. A lot of them have closed. I'm not sure if the chain is still hanging in there in some form. That gelato chocolate, Italian chocolate place took over Sprinkles at the Americana. So the Sprinkles is now gone. And then there's a pie hole.

And where the pie hole was, I think a Cinnabon went. Wow. It feels like a pie only restaurant or chain is like a tough proposition. Like if you're running a bakery and also made pies on occasion, that's one thing, but like only making pies and hoping to like make your business selling pies, it sounds really difficult.

Cause I feel like for most people, pie isn't a go-to dessert, you know? Pie is like an occasion dessert, right? It's Thanksgiving, you have some pies, it's Christmas, you have some pies. But- Just on a daily basis, who wants to get like a slice of pie? It's a My mountain pie more real quick. I would say I mean definitely have pecan on there I definitely have coconut cream on there the remaining two slots I think I am gonna be what I guess what I'm gonna go see ya 3.1 457 I think you got three digits, right?

I think you got the, I think. You going over? No, no, I think 3.14 is 7. 3.14, 159. 7 is there. 7 is right there. I think it's 3.14, 159, 26, 5, 3, 5, 7, 5, 3, 2, 3, 8, 4, 6. I don't know.

I got a lot of them wrong. So she's the AI? That was shocking to hear you do that. I love it. I mean, it was probably just wrong. You're using mint tattoos. Eyes rolled back. If anyone in this room had done spice, it would have been Amelia.

I am gonna, like yeah, I think I think my, no, I think I would do coconut cream and pecan for two slots. Yeah, pecan would take one of mine too. I think I would put blueberry on there because I do love a fresh blueberry pie. Now the last slot, I mean, I'm weighing a couple of Jamel's picks,

but I think the one I'm gonna go with is actually key lime because I do love like a really good key lime pie. Key lime is pretty damn good. It's so specific and so delightful. We should get to our fork scores for Diggie's BBQ pit. We damn good. Is so specific and so delightful. We should get to our fork scores for Diggie's barbecue pit. We can do doughboys and Key West. I've pitched it forever.

We haven't been to the South enough in general. We only went to Texas once back in 2017. And we've never been to Florida. We've never been to, you know. Call it Peron De Santis. I will say, in like 2020, we were just like, we were talking to our, like us, you have an agent you work with who books like, you know, like touring gigs.

We were talking with our agent about touring and it was during deep pandemic. And we're just sort of like, what's the future hold or whatever. He's like, ah, you know, things are just kind of shut down right now. Unless you want to do Florida, you can do down right now.

Unless you want to do Florida, you can do the Florida now. It'd be great to do a show for like 17 people down there. May of 2020, like Jacksonville. Let me, if you guys come through the South, let me recommend Richmond, Virginia. Great city. Oh, I would love that. That would be a blast. Yeah, yeah.

The Carolinas too, we gotta go to. Dave Matthews also lived in Virginia. I would like to see- Dave Matthews from Charlottesville. Yep, yep, Charlottesville, yep. I want to go to Miller's, the bar that. That would be a blast. Yeah. Yeah. The Carolinas too we gotta go to. Dave Matthews also lived in Virginia. I would like to see- Dave Matthews from Charlottesville. Yeah, yeah, Charlottesville, yeah. I wanna go to Miller's, the bar that he would go to, and look, I won't go down to Dave Matthews' hole there, but I have a proposition.

Yeah. Replace DeSantis with DeSanta. That's good, Mitch. It would be an upgrade. You okay? You're doing great. It would be an upgrade. Brr. Ah. Are you OK? You're doing great. We like the mask Thanksgiving. That was fun.

That was very good. We should get to our final thoughts on Dickens Barbecue. Wouldn't it be nice if DeSantis was replaced with? It would be an upgrade. Everyone loves Santa. What I think, I don't think of like a nice DeSantis. I think of like an anti-woke Santa. Yeah, I think that's what's right.

This Santa doesn't come to my house. Oh my God. Oh my God. DeSanta. He is like, oh my God. Juan DeSanta. That's a bad Santa. That's a bad.

Worse than bad. Bad Santa's pretty nice. Bad Santa's kind of fun. Bad Santa's nice. Wigs, this year has been crazy busy. We've been potting. We had the Munch Madness Tournament. It's been wild so far.

I call it busy season. We've been a couple of busy beavers. Our schedule is so full. We don't have a lot of time to go grocery shopping. That's why we use Hungry Root. Hungry Root is like having your own personal shopper. They take care of the weekly grocery shopping, recommending healthy groceries tailored to your taste, nutrition preferences, and health goals.

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Jamel, you know how this works. We'll go around, we'll give our closing argument, our score from zero to five forks. You're our guest, we'll begin with closing argument our score from zero to five forks. You're our guest, we'll begin with you. Your thoughts on Dickies. So when we were eating, Mitch raised the question of whether it was even possible

to have a good barbecue chain. Precisely because both barbecues mean quite specific, but it also requires time and attention. And it gets sort of at odds with the whole notion of fast food. And I'm inclined to say that Mitch is totally correct. Wow. That it's not, it may not be.

Yeah. And here I am. You got something right. Here I am to prosecute the case against Mitch. No, I'm not sure it's possible to have a good barbecue chain. And certainly not one that has engaged in this rapid expansion that seems to want to do too much, I'm not sure it's possible to have a good barbecue chain. And certainly not one that has engaged

in this rapid expansion that seems to want to do too much, has too much on its menu, have too many options. The meal itself, I think reflects kind of the basic conceptual flaw with the Enterprise. The meats, the meats were there. Yeah. But the meats weren't sweet? I don't know. They weren't particularly good.

No. The brisket was bad. The turkey, although it had some flavor, was dry. The sausage was just really bafflingly disappointing. Yeah. The sides, my green beans were OK, and I thought the beans were bad. I'm going to give this two forks.

Two forks. Wow. Two forks. Mitch, your thoughts, your forks score. It's almost like I'm gonna be, look, the day hasn't gone the way I wanted. I was stuck behind Koalik's mom in traffic, Wags, if you check your phone, you'll see.

Wait, really? Yeah. I was stuck behind Matt Koalik's mom in traffic. That's crazy. And then I came here, I'm like, barbecue, that will be fun. And, and. This is a custom license plate that says Rat Mom One.

I know Rat Mom One. Oh wow. Really? You know Mrs. Koalik? I do. I actually know Rat Mom One. Wow. Rat Mom One, I was behind in traffic.

Yeah. The barbecue I came in, I wanted it to be good. My DeSanta thing didn't go over the way I wanted to. The day's just not, even though you liked it just like you liked the mass thing, I know you liked it just as equally. The day is just not going my way. And I just, barbecue seems like it's going to be fun. We have a great guest here. But we were saying,

sometimes the bad food is a fun episode. And I've had a fun time today. I'm in a blast. And I almost wanna give Dickies the benefit of the doubt, which I shouldn't, why? Why should I give it the benefit of the doubt? There were bites in there where I was like, this could be good on,

is this a bad outing by this place or something, or is this just the way it always is? And I gotta go by my one experience from it, be good on, is this a bad outing by this place or something, or is this just the way it always is? And I got to go by my one experience from it, which is, I guess, handholding club, two forks, not, and I had a better experience probably than you, Nick, but the lows were really low. I feel like there's a version of this chain that could be, could be fine. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there was things that I was eating that I was like, this isn't bad.

This is like, this is decent for a fast food barbecue chain. And also that's a thing that you don't get often, but I do, I think my hypothesis was correct. I think, I just don't think you're gonna get a good barbecue. And it's a bummer. I wanted it to be good, but it is not, Wags. Dickie's barbecue pit is now a stew forks from the Spoon Man. Dickie's barbecue pit is not, Wags. Dickie's Barbecue Pit is now a, it's two forks from the Spoon Man, Dickie's Barbecue Pit is now a subsidiary

of Dickie's Capital Group. Of course. Like this whole thing is, we see this pattern repeatedly, Mitch, where these companies have- What else do they make, like jail bars or something? They're building ice detention camps, serving Dickies there.

These companies start as, you know, these maybe beloved local institutions, and then they have aspirations to become global brands, and then they either themselves become like some sort of, you know, holding company, a private equity company, or they're sold to one of those companies. And just to read a little bit more

from this restaurant business article by the great Jonathan Mays, reflecting on Roland Dickey Jr., who is the failed grandson, who has kind of, you know, torpedoed this brand. When I said, when you said to read a little bit more, Jamal and I both went for drinks. We knew it was time.

Yeah. Interviews with about a dozen Dickies franchisees, details from legal filings, and numerous complaints submitted to federal regulators all suggest the challenges have exacerbated problems in a system that has long had difficulty with high numbers of store closures. Operators complain that it's difficult to generate

a profit in the Dickie system. They complain about cost overruns on new unit openings, high costs for food and supplies from Dickie's company-run supply chain subsidiary, frequent discounts on digital orders, and pricing limits from the franchiser. Add it all together, the system is one in which franchisees are closing at a rapid rate. Some locations are viable, says an attorney

who represents a number of Dickie's franchises, but very few, 70 to 80% are shutting down. The whole business model is simply not working. Wait, how much but very few, 70 to 80% are shutting down. The whole business model is simply not working. Wait, how much are shutting down? 70 to 80%. 70 to 80%. Yeah, I mean, so far about 30% have shut down. They're foreseeing for even more.

I mean, this chain is one where it's kind of like, they had, you know, they ballooned and now the bubble is collapsing. And it speaks to things like the Subway, and Subway is the most predatory of all these. Subway's whole model was like, we're just going to collect franchise fees. We're going to expand as much as possible.

We're basically going to get all of our franchise owners trapped in debt cycles. And they have to buy from the company suppliers, but they can't turn a profit on their stores. A lot of people put their homes as part of their, up as, you know, to get these investments so that they can, you know. They put their houses up like things like that. Yeah, they put their houses up.

And so like, it's a really, like, it's just a real bummer what they are doing. And I think also that is just kind of reflected in the quality of the barbecue, which I think the food is just kind of reflected in the quality of the barbecue, which I think the food is just like, just not very good. And the whole thing just kind of bums me out when you dig just even a layer deeper. But also just by sheer coincidence,

the last two meals I've eaten have both been barbecue in the headgum kitchen. Because last night I was recording my other podcast, Get Plated, and we ordered bloodsos for dinner. Wow, what the fuck? Bloodsos- I gotta work for Get Plated.

What the hell? Bloodsos was, you know, again, this is an LA chain. There's only a few of them. They have retained the level of quality as they've expanded. And it's just on a completely different level. Also, a Texas barbecue concept, and it's so, so much better. We'll give it forks scores on Get Played, and we'll give it five forks.

I'll talk to Liv. I'll talk to my lawyer about this tonight. What a day it's gonna be for him when we finally sue each other, our lawyer that we share. Wouldn't be the first podcast host to do that. That is very true, Wikes. That is very true. I think in comparison to that,

obviously it's not the same, it's not a national concept, but it's just like, if I'm gonna go, if I'm gonna indulge in barbecue, this big heavy meal that's very often going to be a day ender, a day ruiner, I want it to taste fucking good. And I just did not get that from Dickies. And I don't see any reason to even be as charitable as give this a second fork.

I think this was a one fork experience, one fork for Dickies. Nicky didn't like Dickies. Pretty disappointing. Nicky didn't like Dickies. You have threatened to sue me once on a tech show with me, you and Susser. And then I threaten to sue you later on for a different thing.

If we ever actually do sue each other, we've both lost it. And we should be put down. Amelia, you were going to say your fork score. You said, I want to know what my fork score is. And we never heard. Oh, in the kitchen? Yeah. Handholding club, one fork.

You almost said star. I do letterbox system now. If this chain was a movie, it'd be Christmas with the Cranks. Oh my god. You're saying we're cranks? Shots fired at Christmas with the Cranks. Oh, you're saying we jack off? No, I just don't like that movie. If I were reviewing Dickies as a letter box review,

I would write something like Dickies, more like Dick cheese. Hell yes. That's good. I think that says it all. I'm just realizing we fucked up. We should have all worn Dickies for this episode. That would have been good as hell. Jamel gives me an idea.

Dickies, the smegma of chain restaurants. Oh! Jesus Christ. The smegma. It's disgusting. That word is so gross. No one wants to hear that shit, Amelia. Smegma.

It's fucking awful. No, if they get it a few more times, they probably won't get it. Hey, that was our few of Dickies. It's time for a segment. We've got a food stuff we're gonna decide if you should put it in your mouth. It's Snack or Whack. And hey, courtesy of Goldbelly,

we've got some Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cake. I'll read the copy here. Celebrate in style the Ina Garten way. This snow white coconut layer cake is layered with cream cheese icing and coated in shredded coconut and is guaranteed to be a centerpiece your guests will go crazy for. A hint of almond extract really puts it over the top.

I will say that, Mitch, we have tasted also on the podcast, courtesy of our buddy, Joe, and is guaranteed to be a centerpiece your guests will go crazy for. A hint of almond extract really puts it over the top. I will say that, Mitch, we have tasted also on the podcast, courtesy of our buddy Drew Mc... Why bowls? There were no plates. It's gonna work out fine. All right, that's fair. We've got some bowls for our cake here.

Courtesy of what, Mike? Courtesy of our buddy Drew McWeeny, we have tasted the Tom Cruise cake on the podcast. Also a coconut cake. So we'll see how this celebrity coconut cake compares. But this is Barefoot Contessa's recipe. The Doughboys can't be bought. Also, I wanted to say that Amelia said,

would you like for me to present the cake uncut? Was that what you're wording? She did say it. You want the cake uncut. We're unboxing the cake now. Would you like me to present the cake uncut? And then she asked if you wanted to perform its bris on camera or not.

You gotta remove the foreskin from the cake. Which is the box. Get rid of the Shmagma. You're a freak, Amelia. And of course you brought up Shmagma. I don't love coconut cake. You don't love coconut cake? Do you like coconut in general? I don't love coconut cake. You don't love coconut cake? Do you like coconut in general?

I'm okay on coconut cake. Okay. Has this been in the fridge for? So this was delivered frozen, and then Anya kindly pulled it out of the fridge for me yesterday around noon, and put it out of the freezer, I mean, and put it in the fridge.

So it's been defrosting. So it should be defrosted by now. It seems defrosted. Just chilled, yeah. Perfect. I'm not a big coconut fan myself. Interesting, okay. Although I grew up, my dad is a Florida man, and we grew up, he grew up making lots of coconut cakes.

Wow. So. I love coconut. Florida man also has, that's a, the Florida man is like the, he wasn't a Florida man in that sense, right? No, no, no, he wasn't, no. A Florida man is under these from,

I was born in Florida, I'm technically. Wow! By birth, I am a Florida man in that sense, right? No, no, no. Florida man is under these from Florida. I was born in Florida. By birth, I am a Florida man. Casey, were you born in Florida? I was born in Florida also. Wow. Broward County. I was born in Jacksonville.

Okay. Wow. Broward County. I once gave a talk, this was in 2016, I gave a talk at a college in Broward County. Yeah. And I was like, the talk was basically sort of like, this Trump guy, he fucking sucks.

Yeah. And afterwards, the guy who had invited, like, reached out to my agent to invite me, he was like, he took me to the study, he said, I really like Trump, you know? And I was like, sorry? I don't know who you thought you were bringing to your campus.

Okay, so we can all take a little bit of this cake. I'll show some on camera. Amelia, thank you so much for divvying this up. Thank you so much, Amelia. Yeah, thank you, Amelia. Well, not thank you for everything. I want to say this, Wiggs. The Doughboys can't be bought. We are advertising with Gold Belly. I was supposed to bring some... Bagels.

No. Oh, no. We didn't even bother with the bagels. We thought it was such a big food day. But then it was wrong because we didn't even, because the barbecue was so bad. I was excited to pig out on barbecue and I was just kind of like, all right, I'll eat enough to get a sense of what this is. Cause it wasn't very good. The Doughboys can't be bought. We are advertising with Goldbelly.

That's the truth. Yeah. And this got sent to us because of that. Sure. But I just want to say, this is not, we're not advertising for Goldbelly here. Right. In this moment. But I think

Goldbelly is a good... You're saying too much. It's one of the good ones. I just... It's good. Doughboy is not bought by Goldbelly. He's enjoying a cake brought to us by Goldbelly. That's what I'm trying to say. Everyone's liking it. This is really good. To be fair, we're reviewing the cake, not Goldbelly. That's true. Right. I will is really good Cake not gold belly. So that's true, right? I also a lot five horse. Um, I'll say this. Mm-hmm I like Anna garden. I like her show. Mm-hmm I've talked to Natalie about this and she doesn't like they say this but I was like I really like I really my life I want to is the what the life of her husband Jeffrey. Yes, who just is like the life of her husband, Jeffrey. Yes.

Who just is like. Yeah, I could see how Natalie would enjoy that. Who just seems to not do anything and he just sort of shows up, he's like, oh, what are you cooking? And he just kinda like, well, like mints is in there and then just has like a bite of whatever dish he's prepared. That's where like the food appears and so does he.

Yeah, yeah. Her memoir is super interesting. She had like a really rough childhood and rough life and like Jeffrey, they have a really lovely relationship. This is, I think, somewhat more known, but she was a nuclear policy analyst in the Carter administration. And Jeffrey was the undersecretary of the treasury

under Clinton. That I didn't know. And there's a undersecretary for foreign trade or something under Clinton, because there's a book, now I'm gonna start talking about my job. There's a book I recently read about the Clinton administration that he plays a prominent part as like a policy maker

negotiating international trade in the first couple of years of the Clinton administration. Wow. Yeah. That's so funny. Cause like all I know him as is a guy who was like, Oh, a cranberry tart. I'll take a bite. Boom. You know?

It is, yeah. That obviously was a very qualified individual in the government. I like, I do think that her arc is fascinating. And I do envy anyone who's like, Hey, I've achieved some level of success, but I just want to do something else. And then they're able to succeed at that.

I don't know, that's the dream, right? This cake is good. This cake is good. I'm really enjoying it. It's like not too sweet. I like looking at a cake sometimes you're like, oh, it's going to be sticky sweet and I'm like going to want like one or two bites.

It's like perfect. No, this is wonderful. There's not too much frosting either, just like the right amount. After such a letdown with the barbecue, I might finish this whole slice of cake. It is, it's good. So even as someone who doesn't like coconut,

that's not bothering you. I'm not like a huge coconut guy. I think honestly, it's kind of a texture thing for me. I don't like the, but also this is fantastic. This is delightful. I agree with you. This is completely redeemed. This is a food day, like just having this,

this, and, and it's another thing where, you know, a cake is frozen shipped across the country, you don't know how it's going to hold up, but this, this defrosted nicely and is delicious. It worked out perfectly with Gold Bell. Um, I, we were supposed to review something that I, well, I can't say that. I still, I forgot how to say it. Um, mac, mac, macrons, macrons. So we were supposed to review some macrons and I put them on top of my keys.

Yeah. Uh, and we did that audition earlier and Amelia was like, don't forget the macrons. And I was like, sure. They were on top of your keys. They're on top of my keys and I managed to, and I like moved them to get my keys. You know what? of your keys. They were on top of my keys. And I managed to, and I like moved them to get my keys and like. You know what?

I understand that. That happens. It happens, it happens. And we luckily, we had this to go. So a big, big time snack for me. This is, this is a big time snack. It's fantastic. Yeah.

Go belly.com slash Joe boys. I don't know what the code is. That is, that's, that's, that's really, that is, that's really, that's good. Yeah. Jamel, even as a coconut skeptic, you're enjoying this? Yeah, this is great. Yeah. Hey, just like a restaurant, I value your feedback.

Let's open the feedback. Today's email is from Tom H. Tom writes, Hi from New Jersey. I recently saw a discussion on Reddit. From New York. Not the Doughboy sub, don't worry. About whether or not a bowl of cereal with milk can be considered soup. I scoffed at the notion immediately,

but since I've been coming around to the idea that cereal might actually in fact be soup. So what do you think? I truly cannot wait to hear your thoughts, specifically Mitch's thoughts, okay, on the issue. Thanks, Tom H. Would that be a gazpacho because it's cold? I guess that's the argument, is it?

Emma, great point. But is a gazpacho a soup? Gazpacho I think is a a gazpacho because it's cold. I guess that's the argument, is it? Emma, great point. But is a gazpacho a soup? Gazpacho I think is a soup, yeah. Okay, so, okay. I think this is ridiculous. He's talking about the whole podcast. He gets up on the link of some of the heaps. I know it was here for a slight political gap there.

What the fuck is this? Where's John Dickerson? So cereal specifically refers to the dry good, right? It's not, you can have cereal without milk. Milk is not a necessary part of eating cereal. So it's sort of like adding the milk to the cereal doesn't make it a soup. It's just cereal and milk. Like soup implies that the entire thing

is like a unity, right? Yes. Soup is not a unity, right? Like- Yes. Soup is not a dry, like whatever you want to, however you want to break down the taxonomy of soup, soup is not dry. It's not a dry dish. Like, like wetness is inherent to it.

And if you're at, like you're saying that all the moisture is coming via the milk, then that's a pretty strong argument against a bowl of cereal with milk being soup. Amelia was going, like you were winning her over with it. She was, it seemed like you were clearly on the side of cereal is soup. Yeah, he convinced me.

I was, it's... Actually, no, it seems like you're gonna say the opposite though, right? Is that where you're going with this? I don't think cereal is soup. I'm like, a bowl of cereal with milk is soup. I was like, full, like, yeah, you eat it with a spoon, it's in a bowl, it's soup.

And then Jamel was like, but you can have it without milk. And I was immediately switched back. Yeah, it's a very strong argument. You can't have like, I don't know, chicken noodle soup and just like remove the chicken noodles. Right. It would just be, you wouldn't do, I mean. Well, now you're kind of winning me back

over the cereal is soup side. I mean, the other. Well now you're kind of winning me back over the cerealist soup side. I mean the other thing is if you went somewhere and they're like appetizers or bowl of soup and they don't tell you what the soup is, soup of the day and you order it and they put a bowl of fucking frosted flakes in front of you.

Yeah. I would shoot everyone in the recipe. Yeah. It is a sort of thing of, I think that's a great test. And Mitch, I think this is the thing you've talked about in terms of the hamburger sandwich thing of like, if you're someone's like, hey, this is an issue though.

Do you want a sandwich? And you're like, sure. And they bring you a burger. You're kind of like, okay, I get what you're doing, but this is not what I thought of when you offered me a sandwich. Also, if I asked for a soup and I asked for a sandwich and you brought me a bowl of Frosted Flakes

and a burger, I'd love it. I like both of those things, so I would be happy. But specifically... That's sick. Yeah, that's like a meal Tom Hanks and Big would eat. What is that? That's like a meal Tom Hanks and Big would eat. Sure, I'm not gonna eat...

It's like a grown-up kid meal. How do you know that I'm not one of... How do you know that I didn't make a... Mitch might have big disease. I maybe made a wish on Zoltair. So what do you think of that? I bigged everything except your hog. What the fuck is...

Zoltair was specific about that part. Yeah. I didn't have to... Yeah, well, why did I... You think either Zoltair did that to me or I specified that I want to keep my hog? Zoltair did it to you. Yeah, yeah.

Zoltair did it to me. Thatupreeh Saltair did it to me. That's a good question. How much weight or how much age would I have to lose for my hog to look normal? 39 years. 100 pounds, 39 years, one of the two. I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna put an end to all of this. A hamburger is a hamburger, a hot dog is a hot dog,

it is not a sandwich, a hot dog is not a sandwich, a burger is not a sandwich, a hamburger is a burger, a hamburger is a burger, cereal isn't soup, soup is soup. Gazpacho is a subcategory of soup. Yes. Yeah. Ramen is a subcategory of soup. Yes. Yeah. Ramen is a subcategory of soup. I think that's fair. And then when I said what is better, soup, ramen, pho,

it still made sense. I still stand by that. No, that makes total sense to me, because when I think soup, I mean, ramen and pho are soups, but if you say what's better, soup, ramen, or pho, I think of a traditional Western soup. Yes, thank you. I agree with that. To me, it's better, soup, ramen, or pho, I think of a traditional Western soup. Yes, thank you.

To me, it's like lentil soup or chicken noodle soup versus whatever ramen or whatever pho you're going to get. But I think people trying to make a hot dog and say, it's not going to happen. It's just not happening. A hot dog, a taco. I was just about to ask that. No!

Three sides. Have you heard of French tacos? I have heard about French tacos. Oh no, I haven't. Mitch, you have because I fucking told you about it on the podcast. French tacos is, I mean, you can go ahead and explain it, but it's like an Algerian, you know,

I believe it's Algerian immigrants in France have like made it into a street food that's becoming very popular. Tacos is plural, they call it a singular tacos, French tacos, and it's basically like flatbread with the halal meat in it, fries, and then like a bacon bell sauce. A cheese sauce, you can put all kinds of stuff in it.

I was reading a New Yorker article about this. I gotta put on my NPR voice. I was reading a New Yorker article about it, and they talked to some Mexican restaurateurs in France who are fucking furious that this exists. Oh my God. Which is very funny to me. Especially because the French are so protective

of how you define and label foods there. And then just for this immigrant cuisine is now like, hey, what the fuck, now they're calling this a tacos, and people come in and are looking for a Mexican taco and they're disappointed by our offerings. Yeah, they'll come, like they want a French tacos, they'll go to like a Mexican restaurant and order a taco and they'll be like, what the fuck is this?

That is soccer boo. And then. And then. I think they're in the same New Yorker piece, yeah. It's fascinating. Where did they get the name tacos from? Is it from like the Mexican version of tacos or is it from somewhere else and it just happens to like?

I think it might be a weird cultural exchange from the Mexican taco. Yeah, it kind of looks like it. They use a, it's a flour tortilla that they use. So it's not, there's like, there's some like genetic, you know, connection there. I think that specify French tacos. This is the thing, you have to say French tacos.

Well, Mitch, this is a thing that'll, that'll, I think get your attention to rally you up as, as a, as an Irishman. The number one tacos chain in France is O apostrophe tacos. Okay, this, I am, I'm pissed off. Now they cross, now they cross the line. These fucking frogs. Weigel will always give me the comic section of The New Yorker. That's right. I read the comic

section. And I'm always like, what the fuck is this shit? I think that we try to, there's things that have been, and this maybe sounds old fashioned. I don't mean it to sound old fashioned. There's things we try to recategorize, it's not gonna happen. It's you can't, French tacos are French tacos now. Yeah, I- And it sounds annoying, I'd be annoyed too, that sounds fucking annoying.

You guys should go to France and try it though. I do wanna try it, cause reading the description, I was like, I bet this is fucking great. I bet there's a reason they love this. Yeah, when I was in Vienna and I had a Kaiser Krone, and it's like this hot dog with cheese in it, and they put it, they hollow out the bread, they put it in the bread,

and they put the condiments in there, and it's like one of the best hot dog type meals I've ever had in my entire life. Europe does a lot of that stuff better than us, and I don't know why we haven't, we gotta steal it. We gotta do it. There should be a French taco shop in LA. I don't understand why there's not.

I think where we've all landed is that a bowl of cereal with milk is not soup. And I just generally, I actually do. I think these taxonomical discussions are fun, but you can get very cute with it. And you can all of a sudden you're arguing that like- It's oatmeal soup? Exactly, like is a comet a battleship?

Like you can try to like argue anything and it's- Is it a what? Is a comet a battleship? You know what I mean? It's- A comet from space? Yeah, it's like you could start arguing like any, like you could talk yourself into arguing anything

that's ridiculous. That one works for me. But at the end of the day, I mean, like, we know what soup is. And a bowl of cereal with milk is... Are the Doughboyz comedians. You know, don't worry about it. I'm just imagining a politician running a campaign. We know what soup is. Cereal is not soup.

There are two genders. Aw, man. I was into this guy for a second. I was into this guy for a second. then he went off on the soup there. That's Nick. That's my impression of Nick. If you have a question or comment about the World of Shane restaurants, you can email us at feedbag at birdfuck.com or leave us a voicemail at 830-GO-DOE. That's 830-463-6844. Our producer is Emma Erdbrink. Our associate producer is Amelia Moreno. Our supervising media producer is Casey Donahue. Our video editor is Mike Dorfman.

Hey, you can check out our merch at kinshipgoods.com slash doughboys and you can get the Doughboys double a weekly bonus episode, plus our entire pre-2018 back catalog subscribe at patreon.com slash doughboys. Jamel Bowie, the best in the biz. People should definitely read you in the New York Times to make sense of our world.

It's a regular read for me. I love your writing. And as Mitch mentioned, just incredibly great explaining things on videos on social media. I love watching your videos. I see likes on there of people I know, even from back in Quincy and stuff. And too smart, too nice, and too funny to be on our podcast.

That's the thing that's always, we love having you here. We love, you know, we're fans of yours, and we love that you check in with the show, but it still continues to baffle us. But thank you for being a part of it. And also, can we just say one thing about the politics and the government? We fix it. Can you just fix. Uh, we fix it.

Can you just fix it? I'll go get those clowns out of Washington. Thank you. People should also check out Unclear and Present Danger, a great pod. Both Nellie, also a big fan of the podcast. People should definitely listen to that. I'm on an episode discussing Executive Decision,

which was a lot of fun. A movie where Steven Seagal gets gut. It's very funny. But please. But please, plug away. And thank you so much for being here. Yes. Thank you guys for the kind words. You can find me at the Times. I understand the Times is controversial,

so if you don't want to pay for the Times, I don't care. I just work for them. If you follow me on Blue Sky, I always post free links to my stuff at the Times, so that's how you can get around it. And yeah, I'm on TikTok and on Instagram and Blue Sky and the podcast. And you should also, I'll plug my co-host John Gans's book

When the Clock Broke, it's about 1992 in American politics. It's very illustrative and illuminative of the current period in American politics. So I highly recommend John's book. Wow. And yeah. When I think of how the world is crazy and you're one of the good forces in the world, so thank you for doing what you do. That is the truth. Thank you. It's the truth. I hope that

things get better for your line of work soon. Listen, I do too. Don't want to be an El Salvadorian gulag, personally. You won't allow that. The Doughboys will not allow that. Hopefully, we still have freedom of the press. Hey, on that note, I'll do it for this episode of Doughboys. Until next time. Hey, you know what? The Dough Army will stand up for you, or we'll be there with you. One of the two. Yeah, yeah.

That'll do it for this episode of Doughboys. Until next time, for the Speed of Ad Mike Mitchell, I'm Tiger Whiger. Happy eating. See ya. That was a HeadGum Podcast. in the day. We're determined to help fix life's dumbest problems. We also have guest helpers join us from the entire cast of New Girl to Michael Cera, Andy Samberg, Jimmy Kimmel, just to name a few. So do me a favor and come check out an episode and then bounce around our catalog. We're over 150 episodes so far, so there's plenty of stories for you to discover. Subscribe to We're Here to Help on

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