Let's Go To Court! - 115: Pepsi's Big Mistake & the Murder of Skylar Neese

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

It was the early 90s, and Pepsi needed to make a name for itself in the Philippines. So they came up with a brilliant idea. They dubbed it Number Fever. Under the bottle cap of each Pepsi product, consumers would find a number. If they were lucky, that number would earn them extra cash. The typical reward was roughly 100 pesos. But if a Pepsi drinker was especially lucky, they could win one million pesos. People all over the country played the game. They were eager for a shot at the life changing money. Then, Pepsi announced that night’s winning number 349. There was just one problem. For some strange reason, a lot of people had that number.  Then Kristin tells us about the murder of Skylar Neese. In the summer of 2012, Skylar was sixteen years old. She’d just gotten home from a shift at Wendy’s when her friends Rachel Shoaf and Sheila Eddy asked her to come hang out. Skylar wasn’t so sure. It was late. She’d have to sneak out of her family’s apartment. Plus, she and Rachel and Sheila had been on the outs lately. She wasn’t eager to hang out with them. But they kept pressing her. Eventually, Skylar gave in.  And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: “Trial by Twitter” by Holly Millea for Elle magazine “Unfriended” episode of 20/20 In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Pepsi’s “Number Fever” in the Philippines caused street riots, deaths, and 14 years of lawsuit” by Tijana Radeska, The Vintage News “The Computer Error That Led to a Country Declaring War on Pepsi” by Jake Rossen, Mental Floss “That Time Pepsi Accidentally Promised Hundreds of Thousands of People $40,000 Each” by Karl Smallwood, TodayIFoundOut.com “Philippines: Court clears Pepsi on promo fiasco” just-drinks.com “SC decides in finality on 'Pepsi 349' case” by Rene U. Borromeo, The Philippine Star

One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts. I'm Kristen Caruso. I'm Brandi Egan. Let's go to court. On this episode, I'll talk about the murder of Skylar Neese. And I'll be talking about Pepsi.

Oh, gang. Oh, boy. Oh, folks. It's a bit of a shit show here at LGTC today. A bit? You know, probably my favorite thing you've ever texted me is you were trying to say things were a shit show, which they were. But you just said shot show. Shot show, yes. Because your phone corrected you. So things are a bit of a shot show today, folks. Because your phone corrected you.

So things are a bit of a shot show today, folks. We are on day two electric boogaloo of the stay at home order in Kansas City. Shockingly, this podcast is has been deemed a non-essential business. That is correct. So we're recording remotely for the first time ever. And so far, it's not going great, folks. We started trying to record about an hour ago. Things have not gone great.

We love trying new things. We love new technology. We don't love any of those things, Chris. No. Sorry. I was trying to be positive. Oh, okay. You know, hoping it might come true. It'll be interesting to hear how this turns out.

Hopefully it turns out great. But on our end right now, there's a slight delay and it just feels fudging weird. It does. And yeah, so we're a little bit concerned about the audio quality, obviously. It's feeling a little bit like old school LGTC up in here. But we figured that even that would be better than no episode. So as they say, Kristen, what did you say it was? As they say in, what was the business?

The show must go on. As they say in the judicial system, the show must go on. I'm sure we've all heard that before. Yes. Oh, no. But how are, how okay so how are you doing um so today's day two of the stay-at-home order but it's my first day where i actually have not physically left the house because i had a doctor's appointment yesterday so um that is deemed an essential activity so i did have to leave well for that yes um so yeah i'm feeling full-on jimmy stewart um in rear window i will be how many murders have you witnessed none so far but i expect to be

fully fully involved in a murder plot with my neighbor any any moment now you know what's so sick nothing Nothing would make you happier. Nothing. Can you at least give me some excitement? Because, okay, okay, here is also the thing. My job has been deemed non-essential. David's job is essential. And so I am home all alone. Hey, you've got the two dogs, and I hope they're giving you the stink eye right now for saying alone. They're like, oh, what are we?

Nothing. Oliver practically crawled into my purse the other day. OK. And then he sat at the door. It's so sad because his best friend left. Oh, those poor dogs. Yeah. Things are feeling very doom and gloom.

Yeah. I mean, it's warmer out today, but it's still pretty gloomy. So if we could get some nice weather, that would help balance things out a little bit, I think. Oh, really? Is that what you wish for? You know what I wish for? I wish for the end of coronavirus. Oh, excuse me.

Yeah, so you're wishing for some sunshine. But you know what I want? I want world peace and for the coronavirus to go away. OK. I wonder who's a better person. No, this blows chunks. So my thing that I've been doing to try to, like, get some grip on mental health or whatever, I've been going on walks. And last night it was just like dark. There was no one at the playground. Thank God. There's not supposed to be anyone at the playground.

Obviously. But my thing is we live by a really fun playground that even in like the dead of winter, there's always someone. And it just like to be on a walk and see absolutely no one. It was just. Yeah, it's depressing. It's just sad. It's just so sad. Yes.

And then like when I did see one person, we like we were on the sidewalk and then we both like put, I mean, like 12 feet between each other. You know, it's just, it's, it's kind of sad times. It is sad times, but it's important. And hopefully it will shorten the span of this thing and save some lives. So, you know, I mean, they say that, but I'm not canceling my spring break plans. You still got that cruise, you still got that cruise you still got that cruise booked oh god for any for any dum-dums out there i am obviously kidding my god the people who have continued on in their daily lives i don't i don't know what to say. It is ridiculous. I think for a moment it was fair. People were like, okay, yeah, we'll still continue on.

But if at this point you haven't realized the gravity of this, we need you to catch up and help flatten the curve, folks. Yeah, I mean, like, last week I was sitting on Brandy's lap licking the side of her face, but this week that has to change. I am a little bit worried because the episode that comes out today is obviously a week delayed and we're talking about coronavirus in it and like all that a lot has changed in a week. It is it is funny like some stuff in these days it ages like milk and like yeah literally last week we were just, yeah, we're keeping our distance.

And I'm thinking, are people going to hear that, not realize that it's recorded like a week ahead of time and think that we're just like ignoring the stay at home order or just, you know, holding hands and spitting into each other's mouths. Gross. Oh, stop it. I want to vomit. I know I started that joke, but I can't finish it. All right. So far, this take is going better than the others. Well, yeah, in that my microphone hasn't randomly shut off or, you know, whatever. Yeah. So far, I'm feeling a lot better. Me too. Me too. So hopefully this will work out okay. And we just get to keep putting something out to everybody. Because, I mean, we need to do it as much as we want. I know a lot of you want to hear it.

Yeah, I feel like talking to you. Well, and we talked on the phone last night. And it was just like, it made me feel so much better just to talk to you. Yes. I love you. i love you too i know that this is not a good time to say it but i just have to tell you the story that has been making me cry every time i think about it i know i know we're supposed to be lifting people up here but you know did you hear about the guy in italy he was in his 70s he got coronavirus

obviously they are in a place right now where they have to make these horrible decisions about like who gets ventilators and who gets, I mean, just awful. And anyway, so his church, they all chipped in to get him a ventilator. And he told them, thank you, but no, give that to someone younger. And so it went to someone younger and now he has passed. Oh, I hadn't heard that at all. Thank you. I'm so depressed now. I'm sorry.

I told that to my sister today and I like got choked. I mean, I just I can't even talk about it. Like the the idea that people are having to make those decisions right now is just so heartbreaking. Yeah. But you know what's more heartbreaking? What? The idea that the stock market isn't doing too great right now. Kristen.

No, fuck those people who are like, the economy. It's like, yeah, obviously we all want the economy to do great but like can we put a price on human life well apparently we can apparently we can okay got real dark kristen this is supposed to be i'm sorry yeah we're supposed to be a comedy podcast yeah well these are dark times folks okay so guys we're doing something special because today is April Fools. Brandy, tell them what we have planned. Yeah, so last year we did like a whole prank episode. And we're not doing that this year because, well, I don't know, because I couldn't handle it.

So instead, what we're doing is I am doing a very Kristen case. And Kristen is going to do a Brandy case. Which, man, thanks a lot of all the weeks to do something really, really depressing. No kidding. Yeah. So we've totally Freaky Friday'd the podcast. Can I be Lindsay Lohan? Sure.

Absolutely. I'll be Jamie Lee Curtis. Great. Great. She has a Tesla. So. what do you mean though what in that movie she had a tesla no in real life jamie lee curtis has a tesla well that's all i've ever wanted fucking love teslas they look so cool they look amazing look like little spaceships okay well now i want to be Jamie Lee Curtis. No, it's too bad.

You already called the shit show that is Lindsay Lohan. All right, fine. Why don't you drive off into the sunset with your Activia? Yeah, I'm going to shit my pants in my Tesla. Are you going first this week? You are, right? Yeah, I go first. Yeah.

Okay. I just have to locate my case here. Oh, good. Oh, good. It's got so many windows up because I don't usually have to have anything, you know, recording-wise on my screen. And it's a whole new world. Don't you dare go outside.

Okay. Thank you. Let's talk about Pepsi, please. Let's talk about you and me. Staying in our houses, not going outside. Let's cry, baby. Yeah, no kidding. I haven't cried yet today, Kristen.

So I've got to. Oh, well, I was about to say the same, but no, I like I just told you, I thought about that man in Italy. I'm halfway through day one of no tears for the last few days. See if we can keep this streak alive. All right. Rossen over at Mental Floss for an excellent piece on this case. And also to Carl Smallwood at todayifoundout.com, which is the first place that I located this case. Had a really nice piece there. Okay, here we go. The year was 1992. Bill Clinton was Time Magazine's Man of the Year. The world had just seen its first set of spinner rims.

The masses were first exposed to Sir Mix-a-Lot's lyrical genius and baby got back. LA face with an Oakland booty. Sorry, go ahead. The line, there's no crying in baseball, was uttered for the first time with the premiere of A League of Their Own. My dad got divorced and Pepsi Cola was struggling hard in the Philippines. I am going to pause real quick. I asked my dad for

a fun fact about himself in 1992 specifically for that intro. And that's what he said. He's like, all I can think of is that's the year I got divorced. Well, you know, that's, that's a pretty big moment in a person's life. Also, real quick, I'm gonna go real Kristen here. And I'm throwing in an international disclaimer. So I found a couple of really great articles that were very overview pieces. But the detailed pieces of this case are in languages that I don't read. And so international disclaimer. are in languages that I don't read. And so international disclaimer. Okay.

So at the time in 1992, the Philippines was the 12th biggest soda market in the world, which is pretty big when you consider the size of the Philippines. And Pepsi was sitting in second place in the market. Even in second place, though, their market share was only 17%. Coke held the top spot with a staggering 75% of the market. So in the wise words of Ricky Bobby, if you're not first, you're last. And so Pepsi was like, we have got to do something and we've got to do it fast. They were also kind of fresh off of a couple of marketing blunders, including Pepsi AM, which I had never heard of. What's that? Is that a radio

station? No, it was like a special version of Pepsi for you to drink in the morning that had 28% more caffeine in it. Ew, no. Yeah, it flopped, obviously, since we've never heard of it. And it's obviously still not around. And then there was that whole Madonna fiasco. Do you remember this at all? No. Okay, what happened? So Pepsi famously paid Madonna like $5 million for this big endorsement deal. Okay. And like then recorded some commercial spots with her. And then Madonna released her like a prayer video which was super controversial it struck up all this like religious controversy and so pepsi could she made out with jesus yes yes yeah couldn't air any of those spots they were just out the five million

dollars yeah so rough times for pepsi okay i mean they, they were still raking in the dough, though, right? Yeah. Yeah, okay. So, have no fear, though. The marketing geniuses at Pepsi, which we know a little bit about the marketing people over there at Pepsi, because you covered a Pepsi case before. Yeah. So, what was it? It was the helicopter case where the guy took a commercial, literally.

The Harrier jet. Yes, it was the Pepsi points. So this predates that. But we have some knowledge, you know, going into this, that Pepsi is going to have another big blunder because they did the Pepsi points thing. And this guy found a loophole in the system and was going to buy a Harrier jet with seven million Pepsi points. So anyway, the marketing geniuses at Pepsi are putting their noggins together to come up with the perfect marketing strategy for the Philippines. And they do it. They come up with number fever. So during the number fever game, consumers would buy these specially marked Pepsi products.

And under the bottle cap, there was a number. specially marked Pepsi products. And under the bottle cap, there was a number. And then each night on the Channel 2 News, they would do a special segment where they would announce the winning number for the day. Most of the prizes were really small, usually like 100 pesos, which would be the equivalent of like $5 in the United States. But there was the opportunity to win a grand prize of 1 million pesos, which would be around $40,000. This was like real life changing money. Yeah. And number fever went off like gangbusters. People like lost their minds for it the promotion started in february of 1992 and the promise of even a small payout sent consumers flocking to the stores pepsi sales rose over 40 percent and their market share grew from 17 to 26 in a matter of a couple of months months. So huge impact. By May of 1992, 51,000 people had won 100 pesos and 17 people had taken

home the grand prize. Pepsi could not better than ever. The promise of a shot at what was really perceived to be life changing money in a country. So at this time, the Philippines was a very modest economy, and there was widespread poverty. So getting like this really got people to buy into this idea, like all I have to do is buy a Pepsi product, which I buy, I got people to buy into this idea. Like all I have to do is buy a Pepsi product, which I buy. I was going to buy a soda anyway. So and then I could win this money. And so, yeah, it's almost better than the lottery.

If you're exactly something you enjoy anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So people were tuning into these nightly broadcasts by the hundreds of thousands in hopes that their number would be picked as the grand prize winner. And as I said, people were thrilled when their number was picked as the 100 peso winner. Like it was just a super exciting time. Sure. But then on May 25th, 1992, as I said, hundreds of thousands of people were tuned into that night's broadcast. The winning number was pulled up on the screen and it was number 349. Hundreds of thousands of people matched the number that night.

Oh, no. And that number was attached to the grand prize. One million pesos. Oh, this makes me want to cry. So all these people thought they had won? Uh-huh. Something had happened. There was some kind of glitch, and we'll kind of get into it in a little bit.

But somehow, 800,000 caps were printed with the number 349 on it no so the next morning after this number as read pepsi plants in manila were overrun by hundreds of thousands of people coming to claim their grand prize yeah and then they found out that there would be no prize. So that night, there was supposed to be one grand prize given out there was supposed to be that was the thing that night, it was going to be a grand prize winning night. But somehow some glitch of some kind had caused a number that was on the forbidden winner list to be called as the winner. And so as these people were turning up at the Pepsi plant, I don't know what kind of arrangement this is that that's where you go to claim your prize. But they were told one by one, we're not paying this out. We

refuse to pay it. This was a mistake. And all hell broke loose in the well, yeah, you can't. And all hell broke loose in the. Well, yeah, you can't. I mean, you just can't do that to people. No, you. Oh, yeah. So. Oh, wait. OK.

Yes. How quickly did they realize they'd made a huge mistake? They held a meeting at like three o'clock in the morning after the drawing to figure out what the fuck to do. It was very quickly realized that the number that was called was on the forbidden number list. OK, well, you have to give people something. So that's that's what they did. They they got together. They brainstormed.

What do we do? Obviously, we can't pay out a million pesos to 800000 people. Now, all 800000 caps were not claimed, but upwards of 450,000 were. Almost half a million people tried to claim this grand prize. So in the meantime, when Pepsi's trying to figure out what to do about this, riots are going on in the streets. People are threatening Pepsi executives. All of a sudden, around all of the plants, they put up barbed wire. Pepsi executives all got bodyguards that would escort them to and from work. They started taking different routes every day to work because they were constantly being hounded. In all, 486,170 people attempted to claim the grand prize for their 349 cap.

Yeah. While Pepsi's trying to figure out what to do, they're also trying to figure out how the hell this happened. And so the way that this drawing was supposed to have worked, they recruited this marketing firm that was based in Mexico called DG Consultores, and they were using a very newfangled system with a computer to formulate an algorithm. A what now? Exactly. That would pull a number each night. And so what is unknown? There's kind of two theories about what happened here. Was this actually a computer glitch where the computer pulled this number? Or was this a mistake that was based in human error?

Because kind of two lists were made and then inputted into this algorithm. One of them was like, OK, these are the base numbers. These are the numbers that are printed on the majority of caps. So these must be entered as non-winners. This is the forbidden list. And 349 was one of those numbers because it was, you know how it's like, it's like a monopoly piece. Every third piece you get is Baltic Avenue or whatever. Sure, sure. Yeah, same kind of thing. We know 800,000 caps are going to have this number on it. So this cannot be a grand prize winning number. So somehow a number from the forbidden list either got selected through a computer glitch or someone through human error transposed the lists and the list of forbidden numbers got entered as the list of potential winning numbers.

Does that make sense? Yes. And so to this day, they don't really know what happened, but it was a huge problem. And one that Pepsi really could not afford to fix. They would have ended up having to pay out. Honestly, they couldn't. It would have been almost $32 billion in payouts to pay out all of those. It would have been $32 billion?

Yes. To pay out all of those. Yeah. Anyone who's surprised by my reaction, this just shows how bad i am at math because i was like well you know 40 grand you know 40 grand to half a million people it it adds up fast this was a marketing campaign that was supposed to cost like a maximum of $2 million. Yeah. And so they're like, okay, well, obviously we cannot pay out $30 billion. Like we just can't.

And so as a goodwill gesture, goodwill gesture. Oh, my goodness. A goodwill gesture. As a goodwill gesture, they put forward an offer to these 486,000 people and offered to pay them 500 pesos per cap. That equals out to somewhere between 18 and 20 dollars in U.S. dollars, which is still a considerable amount of money when you're talking about paying that out over almost 500,000 times. That takes what was supposed to be a $2 million campaign and balloons it to a $10 million campaign. But still affordable. It all depends on what you think. It all depends on what your expectations are.

If your expectations are, I just want a million pesos and then it drops down to 500. It's nothing, exactly.. That it's nothing. Exactly. It's not. Yeah. Yeah. It's nothing. And it would be infuriating.

Yeah. So some of the people were like, oh, great. They saw it as a goodwill gesture. Goodwill gesture. I cannot say that phrase. And they were like, very complicated. It is. It is.

This is like in one of our first episodes. when you couldn't say dispatcher yes i say dispatcher just fine now thank you that's right every time you make entry into my home you say the word dispatcher just shut up okay so some of the people were like great we'll'll take our 20 bucks and we'll move on with our lives. But that was not the majority of people. Most of the consumers who held these winning caps were livid. They argued that Pepsi had raised their hope of lessening their financial burdens. And then they didn't care about what they deemed a clerical mistake. It was their error. They should have to own up to it. And they should

have to deliver what they promised. They saw Pepsi as this massive company, and they thought they should accept fault, and they had to make it right. And of course, we know that Pepsi thought that that was not the case, that this was not their fault. It was a glitch or at the very least, it was the fault of this other marketing company that they had they had enlisted to help with this. Right. And so the riots and the attacks on Pepsi intensified. Delivery trucks were overturned by angry mobs. They were burned. Somewhere between 32 and 37 trucks were somehow destroyed or vandalized or rocks were thrown at them by protesters. People took to the streets with signs and they stood outside.

They like set up camp outside of Pepsi headquarters. They threw Molotov cocktails into the Pepsi offices. Homemade explosive devices were put like on the front lawn of the Pepsi corporate offices. In one terrible instance, someone had made like a homemade grenade and they'd thrown it at a delivery truck. But the grenade had kept on rolling and like rolled into a store or something and ended up killing a school teacher and her five-year-old student that was with her and wounded six others oh god it was crazy it was just crazy times the mobs kind of organized to create like coalitions coalition 349 it was their intent to kind of take a more organized systematic approach at forcing Pepsi to pay up um yeah

so they they what did they think they were gonna accomplish I they called for product boycotts they printed up like anti-pepsi posters and stuff, posted them everywhere. Yeah, it was bad. One man who was involved in the protests, he was 64 years old. He died of heart failure during a march against Pepsi. And then his wife, shortly after his death, who was also boycotting and very involved in this movement, she was quoted as saying, even if I die here, my ghost will come to fight Pepsi. It is their mistake, not our mistake. And now they won't pay. That's why we are fighting. You know, I've got to say it, it would

be so upsetting and so infuriating. If you were in poverty and all of a sudden you felt like you got this huge, huge payout from this international massive company. You would feel like they need to do the right thing. Absolutely. And yes, to the average average person it wouldn't seem like it's something that pepsi couldn't do and i don't know pepsi's worth i don't know how much that would have 32 billion dollars as a huge sum of money i i can't imagine they could have done that very easily i would imagine that would have had a huge impact on the company's financial status. Yes, yes, absolutely. But you don't want to hear that.

No, of course not. Of course not. No. And so this just continues. And Pepsi probably didn't handle it the best. They tried to ignore all of this at first. They got all of their executives out of town and kind of protected. And then they made a public statement calling this extortion oh oh real bad not not great at all

that's dumb yeah that is so dumb oh yeah and so complaints about this both civil and criminal complaints started to like flood in to the prosecutor offices all over the country. People wanted to file complaints. They wanted to file court cases. Like there was even this one group of people who were kind of watching this situation all from the outside, some kind of like legal experts will say. And they started offering to buy people's caps from them for $15, believing that eventually Pepsi would have to cave and pay out the full prize amount. At the very least, they would at some point be ordered by a court to do so. And so they're like, oh, let us take your cap off your hands now. We'll pay you $15 and then we'll take care of all this legal stuff.

We're willing to bet. We're willing to be out this money now because we think we're going to get paid back huge in the end. Yeah. This went on for months. It stretched like well into 1993 and then kind of like conspiracy theories started to swirl around it. At some point, the riots and stuff like that, that all kind of dwindled. People only have so much steam when it comes to that. And it looked like they weren't really gaining much ground.

And so they turned their focus onto the court cases that they were filing. But then these conspiracy theories come out. At one point, this guy comes forward and claims that all of the attacks on Pepsi had actually been perpetrated by Pepsi in an attempt to take the focus off what they had done. So this guy, he happened to be on like the National Bureau of Investigation in the Philippines. He was like the chief of their organized crime division. So he makes this big statement that's reported in a Chicago Tribune article about how he believes that the people of the Philippines

are not behind these attacks at all. That it is all done by Pepsi in a play to gain sympathy. Like, oh, you know, we know a mistake was made here, but look what's happening to us. Wow. This guy was actually reprimanded

by his superiors very quickly. And that particular conspiracy theory was quickly debunked. But it's an interesting theory. It is an interesting theory. But I mean, Pepsi didn't get that school teacher killed and the five year old killed. Right. I mean, come on. Exactly. Exactly. Another conspiracy theory was that it was actually like rival soda companies. As I mentioned, this is a big soda market in the world. And so like, well, they do call them the soda wars. They do. Exactly. And so, yeah, that was another conspiracy theory that Pepsi had mishandled this so badly that other bottling companies had seen it as an opportunity to come in and lessen Pepsi's share in the market even more. Yeah. Yeah. Eventually, all of this kind of goes to the wayside. The tax, all of that stop and things go back to normal. But then we still have all of these court cases.

689 civil suits were filed and fifty two hundred criminal complaints were filed against Pepsi. OK, just a little. I'm going to give you the spoiler alert right now. There's not much available on the court. Sure. So I am sorry. They're all civil cases and whatever. What we do know is that the majority of them brandy on top of everything we're all dealing with you bring us this what we do know is that the majority of these were tossed out like they didn't move forward at all so i read something somewhere that said basically the fine print of this contest at this point to get the fine print of a contest you had to mail in like a self-addressed stamped envelope to get the official rules. Do you remember that when you'd see a commercial? Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. To get the, you know, the full rules. S-A-S-E. So what comes

out is that in the fine print of the rules of this contest is that the cap had to bear the number and like a hidden barcode that signified it as a winner. And so these 349 caps did not hold that necessary piece, the barcode or some articles called it a crown. I don't really know what it was, but it was some kind of other piece other than the number that signified the cap was a winner. So because of that, they're off the hook. They're very protected. Yeah. So the majority of these cases are thrown out without doing much. Pepsi does end up spending like $11 million fighting the cases that had some more merit to them. And that takes years and years. In 2006. So this happened in 1992. In 2006, so this happened in 1992.

In 2006, finally, the Philippines Supreme Court issued like a 10 page opinion and basically completely let Pepsi off the hook. It closed the last of the cases that were still open and basically said, sorry, you have no grounds here. Pepsi doesn't owe you anything. They get off scot-free. But by that point, Pepsi had really rebounded in the market. They had bottomed out at like somewhere between a 12 and 15 percent of the market when all of this was going on. They'd rebounded up to somewhere around 21% by this time. So still nowhere near what Coke had. But it did okay. And today, Pepsi's still alive and well and doing all right in the Philippines, it seemed, despite the 349 fiasco.

That was wild. Yeah. I had never heard that story. I didn't know anything about it. I, you know, had to do some Googling for a Kristen case. And this is this is I felt this fit you pretty well. OK, how did it feel to do a Kristen case? I actually was way more interested, like, as I got into it than I thought I would be. OK. Yeah. Yeah. I tell you something. It sucked to do a Brandy case. Oh'm so sorry i hated it i thought that i was going to be super bored during like researching i love hearing your cases but doing

the research on them doesn't sound that exciting to me but yeah i even found like a piece in the vintage news so i felt very kristin-y oh yeah yeah that's that's where i'm at for sure. Do you know my story? I know bits and pieces. Uh-huh. I bet you do. You twisted freak. All right. You ready for this?

Yes. Are you ready? Are you ready to deliver it? No. Uh-oh. But, you know, we're all doing things we don't want to do right now. First of all, huge shout out to the article Trial by Twitter by Holly Millay for Elle Magazine. And you know how I enjoy an episode of 2020 now and then? This episode is called Unfriended.

Excellent. All right. It was almost midnight on July 5th, 2012 in Star City, West Virginia. Star City or Star City? Star Space City. Excellent. Thank you. 16-year-old Skylar Neese was sitting in her family's apartment.

She'd just finished up a shift at Wendy's and she was getting a ton of calls and texts from her friends Sheila Eadie and Rachel Schoaf. Sheila and Rachel wanted Skylar to sneak out of her family's apartment and hang out with them but Skylar was kind of hesitant. The three of them had had a falling out recently and Skylar was kind of like not really wanting to get together with them. It just seemed kind of weird that they were reaching out. But eventually Sheila and Rachel wore her down. At about 12 30 that night Skylar climbed out her bedroom window and got into the back seat of Sheila's car. Okay. I don't like where this is going Kristen. Oh you, you don't? No. No, it's terrible. It's terrible. So I just

want to say what happened next is absolutely terrible. Skylar would go on to miss out on so many things. Her high school graduation, college, she'd planned to go to law school, and she'd also miss out on silly little stuff. For example, in the spring of 2019, a hot new trend swept the nation. It all started on June 28th, 2019, when a nine second video was posted on Instagram. What? In what year? 2019. Oh, I totally heard the year wrong.

I was like, instagram wasn't around then okay i'm sorry continue so skylar niece getting out of her family's apartment that was 2012 yeah and this this video that she you know obviously missed out on happened in 2019 it was disgusting it was shocking it disturbing. It temporarily made me stop eating ice cream. Oh, what? I will now describe it to you in great detail. What are you doing? What? What, Brandy? This is part of the story? I don't think it is. I think you're interrupting a story to bring us a more lighthearted story. April Fool's, Brandi.

Oh my gosh. You made me do a Kristen case and you're not doing a Brandi case? You thought the joke was on the listeners. The whole time the joke was on you. Oh my gosh if you think that i'm gonna do a case about a teenager being murdered by two other teenagers no way no way oh my gosh okay may i tell you something yeah i got so worried this morning when i saw the intros page and all you wrote was pepsi because i was like okay i feel like i know all the light-hearted cases at least somewhat yeah and i was like if there was another pepsi case i would know

she's gonna she's gonna pull the prank i'm trying to pull on her before I get a chance to pull the prank. And like, it took me like 20 minutes to finally relax and believe that you had a real case. Okay, I for real had a moment where I thought about pulling a prank on you. And then I didn't do it. That's actually how I ended up with a Pepsi case. I was going to redo a case you had already done. Brandy, how do you feel right now? I feel got. You got me. All right. All right. Okay, guys, let me tell you about ice cream. Can't believe you did that. I have been so excited.

Okay, so like I said, this is a video that was posted on Instagram in 2019. In 2019. In it, a cute teenage girl is standing in the ice cream section of a grocery store. She's got curly hair, hipster glasses, a nose ring, a striped crop top, and she's holding a delicious, innocent tub of Blue Bell ice cream. It's up to her face, and there's no lid the flavor just real quick blue bell is the best ice cream yeah blue bell is very very good it's so good okay i don't know that they do they have it everywhere in the united states i know it's texas based and you can find it all over the south and midwest i don't know i don't know if our friends in the northeast have had the privilege.

And I don't either. But it's delicious. Until that whole Listeria thing. That was rough for them. Well, poor Bluebell has experienced that. This is our sad corporate stories episode. The flavor she was holding was tin roof. No, it wasn't. Was it really? Yeah. What do you mean tin roof no it wasn't was it really yeah what do you mean no it wasn't because i i thought you were making a joke because i remember when i was a kid like

that was steve's favorite ice cream and you would make fun of me because you're like i've never heard of that really yes okay well it just shows how much I forget because I heard. So it's vanilla ice cream with a fudge swirl and chocolate covered peanuts. It's so good. Yeah. No, it sounds delicious. But when I read it's called tin roof, I was like, that's not a thing. What a weird thing.

Well, anyway. Anyway. Okay. Continue. So she holds the rim of the tub to her open mouth. Okay. She extends her tongue and she, ah, she swipes her tongue all the way across the ice cream. Oh my gosh.

Her boyfriend is recording the video and as she's licking the ice cream, he says, lick it, lick it, lick it. When she finishes, she laughs. She puts the lid back on the ice cream. The boyfriend says, oh, you foul, put it back, put it back. She shrieks again with laughter. She swings the freezer door open. She puts the ice cream back inside with all the other tubs and she slams the freezer door shut she screeches she smiles she walks off oh my gosh that's the most disgusting thing

um yeah and somebody came and bought that ice cream so um someone did this like last week somewhere in missouri a guy like yeah we're in the midst of this coronavirus stuff and he posted a video of himself like i think he was in like the deodorant aisle or something yeah licking packaging yeah disgusting yeah what the hell is wrong with people i i don't know legitimately you wonder yeah okay now i've got a side note but not really a side note i have not clicked on this article because it's just too disgusting but did you hear about the woman who was on an airplane oh oh and she licked the seat of the airplane toilet what no why would she do that? What? The coronavirus challenge, Brandy. You're kidding me. That's not real. Okay. Now here's the thing. Full disclosure. I did not

click on anything. I saw the photo and I was like, absolutely not. I don't even like to go into an airplane bathroom. I can't believe that people talk about the Mile High Club. That sounds like the most disgusting thing on earth. One time I saw a guy in his socks walk into an airplane bathroom and I thought I was going to throw up. Oh, God. I mean, oh, God. Can you imagine anything nastier than licking an airplane toilet seat oh my god i can't no that sounds terrible okay i have to move on i'm sorry continue so this video of this

girl licking ice cream and putting it back in the grocery store freezer obviously went viral millions of people watched it people were disturbed were angry. Everyone on social media freaked out. One person said, identify her and charge her. Another person said, my cat is better behaved than this. What a weird thing to say. And another person said, and my husband teases me because I always take products from the very back. Oh, yeah. See? Makes sense.

That's why you do it. I do on some things, not everything. I think the freshest stuff is in the back. Yeah. So I tend to do that sometimes with produce. Like I figure, you know, not everybody has finger banged the apples at the back of the. I hope no one is finger banging any of the apples kristin i don't know what kind of fucking grocery store you're going to you've seen my grocery store

it's not great yeah like i think you get the milk from the back you get the bread from the back you get the freshest stuff that way never really considered anybody licking it or finger banging it but well now you know now you know knowing's half the battle people were shocked who would do such a thing but apparently a few people would do such a thing copycat videos sprung up on social media okay i'm sorry at this point I have to pause to go pee. Okay, go ahead. This is a classic episode. I haven't had to do this in like a year.

Yes. Okay. Okay, go pee. I'll be back. Okay, stop crying. I'm back. Did you see what I think the problem was? What?

Go ahead. Huh. I don't know. What? Well, you go first. I was going to say, did you see the video of that poor woman who was like on a conference call for the first time? Oh, my God.

Like a video conference call and went to the fucking bathroom. Yes. Oh, I was dying. I was telling Kyla about that. Wait, no, I told you about that. No, you did? Yeah, the other day when we were over to get you set up for remote, I told you and David about that no you did yeah the other day when we were when we were over to get you set up for remote i told you and david about that video oh we talked about the salon too so i assumed

that's where i heard it anyway okay copycat videos sprung up on social media in another one a cute looking young woman or at least she looked that way with the filter she was using. Hey, these filters. People are lying. Did she have, like, koala bear ears on? You know, it's been a while since I watched these videos. But, like, you know, she had, you know, very big eyes, very small waist, like, you know, very dewy looking skin. And then she had, like, you know, obviously she obviously she had like a tiara of flowers that were clearly you know fake but you get the idea i do she walks down the frozen food section of her

grocery store opens one of the freezer doors pulls out a pint of ice cream bends over a little closes her eyes rolls her tongue over the top of it twice swirls her tongue in the middle of it and with her tongue doing nasty non-consensual things to that ice cream she looks at the camera with bedroom eyes smiles puts the lid back on puts it back in the freezer and walks off would you call that tongue banging yes i would thank you that's beautiful you're welcome copycat videos were now officially a thing attention seeking weirdos were all about the ice cream challenge i'm sorry hashtag ice cream challenge yes yeah you gotta do the hashtag did i ever tell you about

the time this was like i don't know five years ago i worked with this older lady and she said um she was looking up a hashtag on twitter and she goes it's pound sign ice cream challenge and bluebell was like oh shit yeah it was a huge pr crisis they'd already dealt with the listeria crisis in 2015 i'm sorry the what crisis did i am i saying that wrong it's listeria listeria listeria you made it sound like they had lice and another problem the bluebell lice outbreak and then they had listeria and then you know then this this poor company they're just trying to make some damn ice cream so you know they were very sad. And the general public was like, could you guys maybe like put a plastic seal around your ice cream?

And Blue Bill was like, the ice cream creates a natural seal. Also, don't lick our ice cream until you've paid for it. Yes. Okay. Now, I get their thing about like their ice cream does create the natural seal. But after all this shit, wouldn't you just put the plastic around it, too? Yeah. Yes.

I mean, I know we're supposed to reduce packaging. But when you've got fucking weirdos who are going around licking things. Licking your cream. That's what you do. Wow. Brandy, you were so appalled when i said finger banging apple and now here you are leading the charge you know you're the product of the five people you hang out with the most

what does that mean you've taken me down i mean like i meant what what is your point are you meaning that you're taking me down? Yeah, I'm taking you down. You started this episode. You were so classy. Now here you are making disgusting jokes. People are licking cream. I'm going to talk about it. Okay, well, you don't have to say it like you deserve a Nobel Prize.

Yeah, I just saw what was going on and I had to speak up. I think anyone else would have done the same. They say, see something, say something. So here I am. Hey, I'm getting the Nobel Prize first because as we established, what you want right now is sunshine. And what I want is world peace and for the coronavirus to go away. That's really all I ask for. Hang on, my headphones are coming off. Damn it. I know. I hate wearing headphones. I hate it too. And I'm trying to do the thing Norm told us about like take the left side off. But man, I used a hair mask last night and my locks are silky and the headphones

are just flipping and flopping off of me it's the one you got me i really like it makes it sound like your hair's so greasy your headphones won't stay in place i'm like that guy on 90 day fiance i i just put about half a tub of mayo on my hair. Let it sit in the sun for about an hour. It smelled great. Can you not even joke about this? No, it's making me nauseous. Okay, I'm sorry. I'll move on. I'll move on. Only because you're pregnant. Thank you. In the meantime, as word spread about the trend, a few grocery stores started posting security guards in front of the blue bell it was kind of a joke and kind of not do you remember this i do remember that i thought it was really funny so blue bell also spoke out they called the original video

a malicious act of food tampering which yeah in a statement to the media bluebell said based on security footage the location and the inspection of the carton we believe we may have recovered the half gallon that was tampered with how i know that's i appreciate i appreciate that they kept it real they didn't say we've got it for sure. But, I mean, that's not super reassuring, right? I don't find it reassuring at all. And I feel like that's the best they can say. And it's probably not even true. Like, how would you have any idea?

Well, here's the deal. They were pretty sure they knew which one had been licked. It had come from a Walmart in Lufkin, Texas. But they told everyone, hey, as an added precaution, we took all the tin roof flavor out of that particular Walmart. Sorry, Steve Bourne. You know, in the meantime, people worked on tracking down the girl from the video. Did I say people worked? Police worked on tracking down the girl from the video. Hey, police are people too, Kristen. They did some digging online and they found her.

She was bragging about what she'd done. She was like, hey, everyone, I've been pretty sick lately. Guess they should call it flu bell. Oh, my gosh. Hey, you should all start licking tubs of ice cream. Let's start an epidemic. Oh no. Police were like, holy shit.

But then they realized that this person wasn't the real ice cream licker. It was a catfish. Oh my, an ice cream licker catfish? This is a thing. This is a world we live in. It was someone who wasn't even in the United States.

They just set up a profile with a very similar username to the real ice cream liquor, I guess to get attention. This is, this is so weird. Yeah, that's super weird. Eventually, they found out that the ice cream liquorer in the original video was a 17-year-old girl. So, because of her age, police chose not to release her name. Whatever punishment she would face would be handled in juvenile court. Lame.

But, Brandy, this was not over. Brandy, this was not over because this 17 year old girl had inspired people, started a movement, if you will. Oh, my God. That is literally what I have in my notes. You did not. I have. She'd started a movement. She was a trailblazer. Was a trailblazer. A couple weeks after the girl's video went viral, a 36-year-old man named Laniece Martin, who lived in Louisiana, posted a video of himself on Facebook, licking a tub of Blue Bell ice cream and putting it back in the grocery store freezer that dude's way too old for that um yes like 20 years too old yes police wasted no time arresting him they charged him with criminal mischief and unlawful posting of criminal activity for notoriety and publicity which i

didn't even know that was on the books. But apparently that's on the books. You could break that law. That's the day and age we live in, Kristen. I don't even know what to say to that. I feel like that's all we've said to each other lately. It's just like, man, these are the times we're living in, huh? Times we're living in. When you got ice cream licking catfishes.

Oh, what a world. But Laniece was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. I licked that ice cream, but I didn't really put it back. I paid for it. I swear. I have the receipt.

Hmm. Okay. You ready for something interesting? swear. I have the receipt. Hmm. Okay. You ready for something interesting? So he's a fake badass idiot? Yeah, he did have the receipt. Oh my gosh, he really bought it? Yes. Yes. I'm gonna look so cool with my friends online. Yeah.

Yeah, basically, 36-year- old man was like oh this will be funny oh my gosh so it was a harmless prank question mark yeah a spokesman for the sheriff's office was like okay we're gonna take into consideration that he eventually bought the ice cream. But this is not OK. He's not off the hook. Yeah. He said he puts it on Facebook to gain notoriety. And at the end of the day, it gives other people ideas that are not in the best interest of public health.

Which, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, yes. Good grief. This is the world we're living in, Brandi. That's the day and age that we're living in, Kristen. Laniece was eventually released from jail, and he did a bunch of interviews trying to explain his side of the story. Okay.

In these interviews, I think he seemed sort of surprised that people were so grossed out by him i think that makes sense to me because you obviously don't appreciate the grossness of it if you're going out and doing it right right it's like i mean it's like he didn't really think it through. Yeah. At all. Yeah. So apparently he's a DJ and the prank cost him a lot of money because nobody wanted him at their wedding or bar mitzvah or whatever. They were like, you will take the guy who doesn't lick ice cream and put it back in the freezer, but then also pays for it. But, you know, anyway. So here's his side of the story. Are you ready? I am so ready.

He said that he paid for a tub of ice cream. And when he did, the cashier said that he could get a discount on a second tub. So he went back to the freezer with the tub he'd already paid for. And his friend was like, you should pretend like you're doing the ice cream challenge thing. And he did. You left out a bro there, Kristen. There's for sure a bro in there. So, you know, that's his side of the story.

And again, the Louisiana police would comment for these interviews and they'd always be like, yeah, okay, he did pay for it, but that's not really the point. Yeah, no, it's not. Still, like, you can't just be putting that out there into the universe no even though these are the days we live in or these are the times we live in it's the times we're living in kristin so here's the lame part i'm not sure what became of this particular story i haven't found anything new about it which could mean that he's

still waiting for his day in court or that they drop charges or that my Google machine is busted. But who cares? Because I have a story about an ice cream licker who wasn't a juvenile and who was recently brought to justice. Excellent. Lay it on us. I've got a fresh one. It's been a while since I said that it has been a little over a month after the original ice cream lick video went viral a 24 year old man named de adrian anderson decided that he'd like a taste of internet fame as well. No!

I see what you did there. Brandy, that was good stuff. So he went to a Walmart, pulled up a tub of vanilla Blue Bell out of the freezer. He looked over his shoulder, pulled off the lid, did a big circular lick in the middle of the ice cream, lowered the tub, looked around, dug his finger into it, brought his finger to his mouth, then did one more big back and forth lick for good measure. Oh, God. And of course, he put it back in the freezer.

That's both a tongue bang and a finger bang. That's right. For those of you with score sheets at home, he did both. Law enforcement tracked him down and Jefferson County, Texas District Attorney Bob Wertham was ready to pounce. He was like, yeah, this was much more than a stunt. He said the only way to stop copycats is to enforce the law very strongly. Just like Laniece, De'Adrien did actually buy the ice cream that he licked. But again, that wasn't the fucking point. No, it's not the fucking point.

You keep doing that. I mean, I do think you should get you know that should be considered the fact that you didn't actually leave the tub of ice cream for someone else to buy but still get your nasty ass out of here that's just my opinion the videos caused panic the stores had to replace their inventory. And also, it should be against the law to be that disgusting. Yeah, it should be against the law to be that disgusting. You know, that lady who licked that airplane toilet seat, I mean, I'm sure that's not technically a crime, but it should be. It sure should be.

De'Adrien would have to face consequences. So in January of 2020, he pled guilty to criminal mischief. He was facing up to $4,000 in fines and up to one year in jail. He asked the judge for probation. In an interview afterward, he said, I'm not a bad guy. He admitted he just wanted to go viral. Hmm. You know, honestly, watching that interview, I kind of felt bad for him.

Really? I really did. And I wasn't expecting that. But it just. Was clear he didn't understand the gravity of what he had done. You don't know. It wasn't that that got me it was just like I've I regularly feel grateful that I didn't grow up with social media like Facebook became a thing right after we graduated

high school and so I just I feel grateful that I've never I've never in my life didn't grow up with this like pressure to have like a ton of likes on anything, you know, that didn't like shape me as I was growing up. Absolutely. Yeah. No, that makes total sense. I think, you know, him saying that he he did all this just because he wanted to go viral. I don't know. It made me feel bad for him. Just because he wanted to go viral. I don't know. It made me feel bad for him. Yeah.

Makes me feel bad for anybody who, like, has that as such a big priority that they'll do something that will get them possibly a year in jail. Yeah. But he didn't get a year in jail. What did he get? A few weeks ago, De'Adrien was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He also had to pay a one thousand dollar fine and about fifteen hundred dollars in restitution to blue bell i wonder how they came up with that dollar amount the fifteen hundred dollars yeah i believe that was what it cost to replace all the inventory that was in that particular store okay all right. And that's the story of the murder of Skylar Neese. I mean, the ice cream challenge.

Very well played, Kristen. Thank you. I do want to say, you know, obviously the Skylar Neese story is is a horrible story. I feel I feel terrible for her family that just I did do some reading in the course of this. And gosh, what an awful story. And I just couldn't do it. So I didn't do it. Very good. But I appreciated the opportunity to prank my friend. It was very good.

You did a great job. I didn't see it coming at all. Good, good. I was really worried because you're so crafty. I thought for sure you'd think something was up. I didn't see it coming at all. Good. Good. I was really worried because you're so crafty. I thought for sure you'd think something was up. I didn't at all. Good. I honestly did not.

I was very caught off guard by that. Hey, you know what? We are so thrown off that in this entire episode, we have not plugged the Patreon at all. Oh, do it. Like, not one bit. Do it right now,isten okay guys do you want more of this spotty and weird audio quality well i've got good news for you we are active on patreon at the five dollar level you can get access to bonus episodes we just put out a new one last week. And, yeah, time.

And you know what? Sorry, God, I'm a mess. Time is a thing. We just put it out and we recorded it together because we recorded it before the stay-at-home order. So if you're like, my God, the audio quality in this episode is terrible, you know, join the Patreon. You'll hear some good episodes. That's right.

And obviously the bonus episode for April is going to suck, but, you know, what can we do? This is where we are. This is where we are. This is the day and age we're living in. Also at the $5 level on on patreon you can join the discord you can chat with people at the seven dollar level you get all of that plus monthly videos that are really fun and you get a sticker and our lovely autographs and that's about it. I do have a question. For me?

No, in general. Well, I mean, yeah, it's for you, but you said we're active on Patreon. What does that mean? Is that like sexually active? We are sexually active on Patreon. We're not sure what it means, but it sounds bad.

It sounds bad. And these are the days we're living in. These are the times we're living in. We're sexually active on Patreon. I think that's probably against their term, seeing addition. You know what it actually is? I think they cracked down on people because they were doing some sexy stuff on Patreon. Yeah, I don't think you're allowed to do sexy stuff on Patreon. You know what's funny is when we first signed up for Patreon, they ask you if you do like adult content.

And I was like, well, we do curse in our stuff. And we, you know, we we are definitely an explicit podcast. So I started to click that and Norm was like, no, they mean like, do you post porn? And I was like, oh, OK, OK, OK. I mean, sometimes sometimes we get so sexy they flagged our stuff at the seven dollar level you get an eight by ten glossy of the two of us nude oh no no one wants that it's black and white it's very classy very classy you're gonna love it oh no brandy what questions do we have from our lovely page yeah so from our discord we've got some questions let's let's see what we're doing here okay okay i brandy i have to

i have to stop this right now this is ridiculous what in my In my neighborhood. I told you, I believe I told you before we started recording. I think it was actually on take 27 of our recording attempts. Yeah. People in my neighborhood. I love my neighborhood. We're doing some cool stuff with, well, I was about to say we're doing cool stuff with the coronavirus. That's not what I mean.

Like someone in our our in our neighborhood, I do think this is cool. They've encouraged people like if you have stuffed animals to put them in your windows and then like when kids are out on their walks, like they can do a little scavenger hunt, try to spot all the bears in the windows and stuff. But then there are also people who are like, hey, I've got a bunch of paperback books. I'm going to set them on the porch. Feel free to take some. Or I've got blah, blah, blah. Okay, another person just set out a bunch of DVDs.

And I'm like, people, do you read the papers? I mean, this virus can live on stuff for like, isn't it like 72 hours? Yeah, certain surfaces it can live for 72 hours. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to offer up a bunch of my used Kleenex. Put that out on the front porch. No, don't do that, Kristen. I'm sorry.

Is that too disgusting? It was pretty gross. All right. Let's do some questions. All right. All right. We might need to cut that. Are people crazy?

Yes, people are crazy, Kristen. That's like the people that I had to call and cancel their appointments. And they're like, what? You're choosing to close down? No, we're not choosing to close down. There's an order in effect. Somebody else that came into the salon was like, so how do you know you had to close? Did someone call and tell you?

It's like, what? No, no one called to tell us. Like they issued an official order. How do people get their news? I have no idea. Okay, here we go. Here we go with questions from our Discord. Fiery One would like to know, what was it like recording the first remote episode?

Shitty. A real shit show. I should say, I don't want people to think we're complaining like obviously people have real problems in the world right now and this is the biggest one right here this is yeah clearly this is the top the top problem in the age that we're living in but yeah we have not enjoyed it no i much prefer to be looking at you and you know what's weird i mean obviously you're at your kitchen table right now, but I'm still in the normal place.

So I'm just staring at the ghost of Brandy. Oh, where I would usually be. Oh, that's sad. I know. Oh, OK. Static Shock would like to know, which interview would you be more interested in? An interview with a serial killer, the detective who caught them, or a surviving victim? Okay, I have strong feelings.

You do? Yes. Okay. I think all these interviews with these psychopaths who go out and do these things are nuts. I think they're useless i think these people usually guys are almost always 100 full of shit we don't gain anything from listening to them blab and blab and blab i am definitely interested in someone who survived i'm interested in the person who caught them. But yeah, I really, like, people got super into the Ted Bundy

stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. People say he was so charming. I don't know. He seems like your average white dude to me. You wouldn't trust him for a second. Yeah, you, I think he is very charming. You would not trust him for a second. You don't like an arrogant white male. Like, that is not

going to work for you. Well, no, here you're correct but also here's what i'm saying like i think there's just some bodies that we get born into where people are just a little more apt to trust us it's not that someone is like oh oh my god, he's so charming, he's so blah blah blah. It's like, no, he's like a white guy in khakis and we tend to trust a white guy in khakis and you don't figure out until too late that

you know. Do you know what I'm saying? I do know what you're saying, yes. My answer is, I think the survivor, I think survivor stories are fucking crazy and I would love to meet a badass who survives a crazy situation okay um gadriel would like to know since you'll both be remote how long do you think it'll be until someone's not wearing pants while recording oh damn it okay first of all gadriel is very funny in our discord um i am just kicking myself right now because a couple days ago you know i always tell you to keep your pants on and you

always you know get very upset about the idea that anyone might for a second think that you are recording without pants on and i thought what an opportunity to say that we are both, because we are in our own homes, we are fully nude. And then I forgot until this very moment. I was like, man, Brandi will be so uncomfortable. It'll be hilarious. It would have been hilarious because I would have been very uncomfortable. Yeah, well, these are the prices we pay for a good joke. I did almost record in my pajamas. And then at the last minute I got dressed into real clothes.

Why? I don't know. It seemed more professional. You know what? I remember when I first started working from home, when I quit my big girl job and I started working with Norman. I like quit my big girl job and like I started working with Norman. People give you all this unsolicited advice about like, well, you know, it's important to treat it like a regular job. So like you get up and you shower and you put on nice clothes and you blah, blah, blah. And you continue to hate your life.

I think that is so weird because there are some there are some downsides to working from home. But like one of the upsides is that you can wear sweatpants yeah so why wouldn't you yeah these are the questions i ask you um mandy m says brandy do you eventually plan on going back to work are you allowed to wear the baby on your back while cutting hair um i absolutely plan to go back to work after having london um and i would love to wear her on my back while i cut hair i absolutely plan to go back to work after having london and i would love to wear her on my back while i cut hair it's totally allowed so maybe we'll try it out um nani b wants to know how does kristen question the wrong group and shit in a bag but brandy's most embarrassing memory is showing her panties in kindergarten. I feel like we need to dig deeper now that you've had some time to think on it.

So I have thought on it a little bit. And I do have one as an adult. It's still not that embarrassing, but I was very embarrassed when it happened. So it was not that long ago, maybe a year or two ago. And I was cutting this woman's hair. And I had done her hair many times. And she got a very blunt bob. a year or two ago and I was cutting this woman's hair and I had done her hair many times and she got a very blunt bob like and so I had done highlights on her and we're back at the chair

like shampooed out and everything I'm about to cut her and so I said okay so what are we doing with the cut today just your typical blunt cunt I meant to say blunt cut and didn't and um quickly corrected myself she said nothing so oh she didn't laugh no she didn't laugh she just was like yeah just the usual so i don't know if she didn't catch it or she was trying to be polite but it was very embarrassing well you are a blunt cut you'll just tell it like it is yeah i you know okay that's much better i agree if i'm if i'm on this podcast talking about shitting in a bag doing all kinds of humiliating stuff you gotta you've got to bring out the real stories here brandy i'm sorry i've never shit in a bag, Kristen. It's okay. You can tell us.

No one's listening. Brandy, it's fine. Maggie May wants to know, what is Brandy's dad's favorite color? Yes. I think we all want to know. The people want to know. It is red. I was wrong.

My goodness. Hang on. I've got a 10 pounds fact book here. I've got a Tim Pounds fact book here. I've got to fill that out real quick. Yeah, if everybody could fill that in in their Tim Pounds journals, that'd be great. Hey, how about, here's an idea. Instead of, you know, selling t-shirts one day, we just make Tim Pounds journals. And it's just a journal where you can only put in facts about Brandy's dad.

Nothing else. Perfect. I think those would sell out obviously and obviously you know if we don't make them someone else will because it's such a good idea um s bruns says aside from listening to other true crime podcasts do you watch true crime shows if so what is your go-to show oh yeah we watch them all like oh hell yeah yeah my favorite like show show that's on like it's on id is evil lives here have you seen that one kristin no okay so i really like it because it's told from the point of view of whoever the perpetrator is it's their family who is being interviewed so it's like all about their life and if there were like warning signs that they didn't see from the point of view of whoever the perpetrator is. It's their family who is being interviewed. So it's like all about their life.

And if there were like warning signs that they didn't see, like one of them was like a girl whose dad was a serial killer. And there was like a father whose son like went and did this big mall shooting. Like it's very, very interesting. It's a cool perspective. That sounds right up your alley. You love hearing from the families of serial killers. Yeah.

I tell you what, I love a really good deep dive into a crime. Yeah. So like, you know, classic The Staircase on Netflix. I loved that. Yeah, you want like a multi-part series on one crime. Yeah, and I want the kind that like everybody watches, everybody has a strong opinion, and then there are all these articles later that are like, well, but, you know, that documentary left out three facts, and I think they were very biased. That's, like, right up my alley. Yeah.

Very good. I'm looking at you making a murderer. One last question? Yeah, sure. a murderer um one last question yeah sure um angela would like to know and this is this is a really good one take your time think about it kristin okay what is your favorite vegetable you know i love vegetables i know you do that's why i think it's gonna be tough for you i like zucchini it's my favorite the first time i ever had it your mom cooked it for me it was amazing and I still love it to this day it's my favorite um yeah I think that's my favorite too zucchini Norman hates it really but I've found a way to love him despite that flaw yeah I mean you hate zucchini clearly he did not grow up around cherry

pits because I I think I love it for the same reason you do. Like my mom would do zucchini all the time sauteed. She'd put a ton of cheese on it and we would like lap that up. And to this day, I find zucchini very comforting. Yeah, absolutely. OK, I lied. There is one question. This was not submitted during the official question period. It was submitted earlier today in the case discussion section from FateNabu1.

I don't know how you pronounce it. My biggest question about today's podcast. We know when LGTC Brandy's dad was born and graduated, but when did the great and powerful TP, when was he born and when did he graduate? Kristen, the people want to know. No, I refuse. Okay, he was born, part of it, okay, he was born in 58 and I'm terrible at math. So, you know, you guys are just going to have to like do the math for me.

76. Are you sure you... That sounds about right. I demand that we pass on this question. I think we've had too many DP facts and not enough 10 pounds facts, which is why we need that 10 pounds journal. Yes. All right. Should we move on to Supreme Court induction yeah um i'll i'm totally ready for

that i'll just oh good so guys while brandy's stalling let me tell you what's happening here these are for people who are at the seven dollar level in our patreon we are reading their names and we're reading their favorite movies and brand Brandy's going to read their names because I screw up names every time. Gerard the Completionist. Hey, Gerard. Scott Pilgrim versus the world. Gerard gave us like our first big shout out. Yeah, he's the reason a lot of people heard about our show early on.

Thanks, Gerard. So if you haven't heard of Gerard, he has a YouTube show. It's on YouTube. And he completes a video game. Starts, finish. And he does reviews and it's a fun show. Is that where YouTube shows are? They're on YouTube. Guys, don't go to

Netflix to try to find Gerard's show. Okay? Quit it. You've got to go to YouTube to find the YouTube show. Sam. Holes. Mary Beth. The Wizard of Oz. Kayla Rinnish.

The Princess Bride. Millie Q. The Little Rascals. Taya W. Newsies. Cynthia Gonzalez. Midsommar. Oh, so good. Amy Dupuy. Forrest Gump. Heather Kronmiller. The Raven. Mandy S. The Grand Budapest Hotel. Lisa Radent. Memoirs of a Geisha. Jordan S.

of a geisha. Jordan S. Ten things I hate about you because hello Heath Ledger. Yes. Welcome. Welcome to the Supreme Court. Oh, that's terrible to do with a lag. It feels so weird. It's so bad. I'm sorry, folks. Yeah, I apologize to everyone who's going to be inducted on these remote episodes. Yeah, it's a very special time. You get to, you know, hear us. Guys, these are the times we live in. This is the day and age we're living in, folks. Thank you so much for all of your support, guys. We appreciate it.

What do we usually say here, Kristen? guys. We appreciate it. What do we usually say here, Kristen? Well, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna just like mix it up a little bit and just say that it's kind of a cool privilege to have a thing right now where we're making content for bored people. I know a lot of you are bored or maybe stressed. And I hope that I hope that you guys enjoyed this episode. I hope the audio wasn't totally shitty. I guess we'll find out. But thank you guys for listening. We really appreciate it. We do.

And we hope you're doing so much. Yes. Yeah. At the end of the day, that's really what we really hope is that everybody's doing OK. Staying safe. Staying healthy. That's that's the important thing right now. No, Brandy, what you really want is just some sunshine.

What I want is for some sunshine what i want is for everyone to be okay wow all right guys just remember that all brandy cares about is just sunshine in kansas city okay that's exactly that's exactly it that's i don't care about anything else hey guys if you've got a minute please find find us on social media. We're on Facebook. We're on Twitter. We're on Instagram. We're on Reddit. We're on Patreon.

Please subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen. Head on over to Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating. Leave us a review. And then be sure to join us next week. When we'll be experts on two whole new topics. Podcast adjourned. Oh God, we say so much in un unison and now for a note about our process

I read a bunch of stuff then regurgitate it all back up in my very limited vocabulary and I copy and paste from the best sources on the web and sometimes Wikipedia so we owe a huge thank you to the real experts for this episode I got my info from the article trial

by Twitter oh that's fake. All that is fake. Okay. Do you need to put in some real sources? You know what? I'll put them in the show notes. You guys, you guys get the idea. I got my info from the Vintage News, Mental Floss, JustDrinks.com, TodayIFoundout.com, and the Philippine Star. For a full list of our sources, visit lgtcpodcast.com. Any errors are, of course, ours, but please don't take our word for it. Go read their stuff.