Lovett or Leave It - What Time is the Super Bowl?

Episode Date: February 6, 2021

Bezos is OUT. Emily in Paris is IN. And NO ONE deserves applause for saying "9/11 happened." Langston Kerman joins to break down the week's news, listeners compete on who failed at new pandemic hobbies the hardest. And Ira Madison III, Erin Ryan, Langston, and Travis join for the Rant Wheel to cover everything from celebrity boxing to the Space Force. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, please visit crooked.com/lovettorleaveit. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail].

Welcome to Love It or Leave It, civility pushed right to the edge. Things that tipped the other way, we'd all be out on the ledge. But it's alright, it's okay, we're all doing fine. I've got PTSD! We're all in therapy, buying edibles and cases of wine. I've gained half my body weight! I'm getting half my body weight. Oh, say, can you see? A new day is dawning. We're in good hands with Uncle Sam's little bro.

Not the youngest brother with the iguanas and the bass. He loves the Bible, but seems pretty cool. It's Papa Joe. He loves the Bible, but seems pretty cool. It's Papa Joe. Back to the future, love, it gave me the news. Four years passed like an attack. Our minds are battered and bruised.

Our sensibility, civility pushed right to the edge. Things that tipped the other way, we'd all be out on the ledge. But it's all right. It's okay, we're all doing fine. I'm eating noodles for breakfast. We're all in therapy, buying edibles and cases of wine. I wear my mask in the showers and we are all safe. Hey, can you see? A new day is dawning And anything is possible

Like universal basic income Daylight savings time ending And a ramp wheel on the senate floor We're in good hands With Uncle Sam's little bro He says folks way too much But he seems pretty cool It's Papa Joe

Vaxxed to the future Love it, gave me the news That incredible song was by Chris Adams. If you want to make a Vaxxed to the future, love it, give me the news. That incredible song was by Chris Adams. If you want to make a Facts to the Future theme song, please send it to us at leaveitatcrooked.com, leaveitatcrooked.com. Before we get to the show, check out Keep It this month.

Ira, Ida, and Louis will be having discussions with Black creators, Black-owned business leaders, and many more great guests for Black History Month. Make sure you're subscribed to Crooked's pop culture and politics podcast. Keep it wherever you listen. You're going to hear Ira do a rant later. Keep it as awesome. You will love it. If you're not listening to it, what are you doing? And also, if you aren't subscribed to the What A Day newsletter, please check it out. It's written by Sarah Lazarus, who is hilarious. It is an awesome recap at the end of every day to let you know what happened in the day's news. It is funny. It is insightful. You'll really like it. So check that out at crooked.com slash subscribe. Later in the show, we'll be joined by Alima 2, Aaron Ryan, Ira

Madison III, Travis Helwig stops by, and we play a very fun game with listeners. But first, he's an actor, comedian, and host of the podcast, My Mama Told Me. Welcome back, returning champion, Langston Kerman. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited. I can't wait. Let's get into it. What a week. Langston, as you know, we like to start these episodes with the worst joke we could come up with.

Oh, I know. I'm excited to hear how bad you can go. Let's do it. This is brutal. Business Insider is changing its name to Insider. Ever since this pandemic started, everybody's losing business. Okay. All right.

You went cute, and I appreciate that. I thought you were going to say something about minding their business, and I was like, oh, we're getting a little edgy. But no, you were like, what is the family-friendly version of this joke? Well, it's just something about the word business. Just business. Jeff Bezos announced that he will step down from his role as Amazon CEO later this year.

Bezos is stepping down to focus on his true passion, collecting infinity stones. Just wants to do this now. I recently found out that he's got a whole space program he's working on. So, of course. Oh, that doesn't sound good. No, it's not. There's no way that's good.

But he's sending people to suborbital space for 200 grand each. You can fly up to suborbital space. So, you know, he's got things to focus on. That's expensive. Yeah. No, it is. I'm going to wait till it's, you know, after a while, they'll bring it down to like 150. Yeah.

You want those Southwest discounts. Once those kick in, that's when you go. You got to go to space on an off weekend. Mm-hmm. Right. Go to space in the winter when the tickets are cheaper. The winter.

Of course the tickets to space are cheaper. It's winter out here. It's winter. It's bad weather. Bezos is stepping down to focus on his true passion, being a more ripped bald guy than J.K. Simmons. Is that true? J.K. is pretty buff.

That's why he's got to focus. That's why Jeff has to focus. Bezos is stepping down to focus on his true passion, completing the time machine through which he gave himself the idea for Amazon. That's weird. What if he doesn't do it? What happens? Then he's just a dude with a weird eye.

And he's just got to wrestle with that for the rest of his life and no money to help make it feel better. Yeah, he's got to invent Amazon. We're wrong. He deserves what he has. A hundred percent we're wrong. He deserves every penny. Because otherwise he just has to look at that eye. And that's crazy.

Amazon workers in an Alabama warehouse have complained that the company is posting anti-union flyers in the bathroom stalls. But if they don't want to see the posters, they should just pee in water bottles like they're supposed to. That's a pretty good one. I don't know. If you don't want to see the posters, stop asking your robot boss for a break. If you don't want to see the posters, you should have never learned to read in the first place.

That's not why we hired you, Amazon workers. They've introduced this thing. It's called the mega cycle or the mega death cycle where there's a 10 hour shift or that goes from 1 20 a.m to 11 20 a.m that is a brutal shift yeah it's wild that we know do you know what i mean like it's i know wild that like we don't even know what nike's doing in in terms of their uh secret sweatshops and all that but we know exactly what's happening with amazon and nobody can do anything it's it's a fascinating experience on groundhog day at gobbler's knob and punk satani pugs on a field

did see his shadow and so you know what that means six more years of covid oh i don't like that one at all that doesn't that doesn't feel good i want to go outside i want to go outside i want to go inside those are two of my favorite places inside and outside i like outside and then sometimes you get sick of that you go on inside you go on inside and you don't have to like uh prep to go inside or uh ask politely that somebody else following you inside not follow so closely. I would love to let people follow me closely inside. I want to sneak a Chipotle burrito into a movie and then have the person sitting next to me being like, what the fuck? Because we're so close. And not because your mask is off, but just because you're being

unreasonable in a different way right right i'm being anti-social in a less deadly but very annoying way yeah one time uh my friend spencer and i we went to a movie that we thought was gonna be empty it was like a sunday afternoon a movie that had been out for a long time and so we did sneak in a pair of piping hot Chipotle burritos. And we got into the theater and we were like, oh fuck, it's pretty full. It's pretty full. And we sat down in our seats. We're the villains in this story, to be clear.

We're the villains. We sat down in our seats and I was like one next to the aisle, but the seat next to me was empty. Then it was my friend and then it was a stranger. And then the stranger turned to Spencer and then it was a stranger and then the stranger turned to my to spencer and said would you guys at least mind sliding over oh and spencer went now we're good it wasn't right no i mean my hands are all my hands are all covered in case though i don't want to get up i'm just gonna chill i'm gonna chill right here my dad every year uh for my birthday would take me and my friends to the movie theater

and he would uh obviously he's not paying for my friends he'll pay for the tickets but he's not paying for us to get snacks on top of that and every year he would make us line up at the door like 12 of us and he would literally stuff every coat pocket he could find with various items including like pop tarts and fruit snacks and juice boxes so we were all just little criminals that he was uh marching to go uh watch the six man together in theater nice nice nice i would i had a pair of cargo shorts when i lived in new york solely for the purpose of putting a Big Mac in one pocket and fries in the other. Like two little gun holsters for a chubby kid. Oh, I love that.

I mean, just appalling. Do you remember when Bill de Blasio killed that groundhog? Oh, I do remember that. He just dropped it. Yeah. He's too tall. Yeah. He just gave it a permanent concussion and then it died.

It died. Wow. He dropped it and it died. In hindsight, maybe a bad omen. No, it wasn't. Yeah. That's not a good sign. What does that mean for winter?

Now the groundhog's seeing all kinds of things and none of it's good yeah it's uh it's not great it's not not a good sign for winter when the groundhog is dead the groundhogs sing the uh crippling shadow of death i think is is what it's saying and uh oh boy winter is gonna be a while this year it's gonna be a cold one it's gonna be a while this year. It's going to be a cold one. It's going to be a cold one. The groundhog sees only grim death. Yeah. The D.C. police are investigating after a man told his apartment building

that he had the COVID-19 vaccine for sale asking for $500 or best offer. Good news, they stopped him. Bad news, it was Fauci. It was Fauci. It's been a real blow to his reputation. There were some leftovers. They told me I could sell them.

What? What do you want from me? The man's working hard for us. Let him get his beak wet. Rush's Sputnik vaccine has been proven to be safe and effective. I'm not doing it. I forgot. They declared while waving a needle in front of Alexei Navalny oh shit oh

that's fun ah it's too dark that's too much I like it there is something nice about them threatening as somebody's writing it down that's nice data from the clinical trials of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine show that they both prevented 100% of hospitalizations after just a single dose. Can't wait. With a 0% chance of hospitalization, I could finally get a trampoline. They figured they cracked it.

You'll never go to the hospital. There's no reason to go to the hospital now, now that COVID's not on the table. All the other things that kill us. Not a concern. Langston, have you ever seen the film Terms of Endearment? I have not. Starring Shirley MacLaine. I'm aware of it.

I haven't seen it. You haven't seen the 1983 James L. Brooks film starring Deborah Winger and Shirley MacLaine with a brief appearance by Jack Nicholson? I've covered all of James L. Brooks' other work, and I just missed that one. That's the one that I skipped. Well, in that movie, there's a famous scene where Shirley MacLaine is running around a hospital yelling to get a shot. And now we are all Shirley MacLaine running around demanding, give us the shot. And they won't give it to us.

And now for a segment called I Try Not to Cry because I Thought of Terms of Endearment. Oh. Well, what did she want the shot so bad for? Was there a... Well, she's in pain. The daughter's in pain. It's a very sad film.

It's a very sad film. Very sad. I got you. I'll cry right... I swear to God, I will tear up thinking about the film. Listen, I'm sold. You don't have to keep selling it.

You keep trying to pitch this to me, lowering the price. I get it. I'm sold. I'm in. I've made the sale. I should just move on. But what if I told you that at first it's a movie about Jeff Daniels cheating on his wife? Okay. There it is. So it's not just that it's like messy and then it gets that oh it's messy it's messy and then it's sad jack nicholson plays you guessed it an astronaut oh good for him this is when he was still like balding and not like uh fully committed to just being a weirdly bald guy yeah no he was well he was still still in his balding virile phase, where he would kind of constantly push the hair back. Yeah.

It would be wild. It was like he was pretending it was sexual balding. Yeah, it was. It was sexual balding. In Pasadena, a man who was turned away from the famed restaurant Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles for being maskless came back with a gun and robbed them of chicken, waffles, and syrup, which is one way to get your picture on the wall. I think, I'll say it, I think he did the best he could possibly do. the best he could possibly do.

They turned him away for not wearing a mask. And he said, well, I'm not going to inconvenience all of these people by sitting here and yelling and complaining about the injustices that I'm being met with. I'll return and get my chicken and waffles. The only way I know how, which is through armed robbery. And I don't,

it's a blameless crime. He, the man, no, I know no villains, no heroes. Classic. It's complicated. People are complicated. Gray area, classic gray area. I haven't seen it, any of the coverage and it,

maybe it says something bad about me, but my first question was, did he pay? Yeah. Is this a Michael Douglas in falling down situation where he robs the fast food place because he just missed breakfast, but he wants to pay because it's about the principle. I just want to make the transaction and you won't do it unless I point a gun in your face. I had a different friend who asked if he returned with a mask on this time when he held them at gunpoint. And that one I was pretty certain was a no. I don't think that he went went got a mask and a gun

and then which is ironic right because that's you know you need them once again you're fucking up your mask situation in a different way you would have liked a mask at this point uh you probably would have benefited from the mask and maybe this wouldn't be quite the news story it's become had you worn a mask. It's ironic, right? Because you can't do a mass robbery because of a mask mandate. It's not possible. You're trapped in a loop. You can't do it. Yeah, I think what he's fighting for is unmasked robberies, and that's not a great place to be fighting. Meanwhile, the Biden administration will begin shipping vaccines directly to pharmacies this week. Shout out to the first person who goes to CVS Stone looking for shampoo, a single serving container of hummus, and two vitamin waters for the price of one, only to luck into getting a soon-to-expire dose of Moderna. We here at Love It or Leave It salute you. That is pretty cool.

You go to get some LaCroix and you just end up getting a vaccination yeah that's huge that's what that rules you're just like I'm just here for a bag of chocolate covered pretzels uh that were near the register and Advil and now I got the vaccine can you unlock the deodorant which you've locked up for some reason and by the way i'd love one of those vaccines if you got them hi little um i want the one with six blades i don't know why and and some pfizer does pfizer make both i don't know if pfizer covers both of those but yeah i'll take the pfizer brand all the way through do you have to do they have to i bet they have to unlock both yeah maybe it's the same key it's probably the same key yeah Now I'm waiting for a manager to unlock the thing with the vaccine. And she stares at you a little mean because you've been convenient star.

She was in the back watching YouTube videos. It's like, don't blame me. Blame society. Why is all this shit locked up? You know, Senator Joe Manchin said on Tuesday that he doesn't support increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the coronavirus relief bill. And that means we can't pass it because Democrats can't afford to lose a single vote, which means the bill can only be as liberal as our most conservative members will allow.

Just like how a lone picky eater can force an entire family to eat at Bland Andy's House of Buttered Noodles. Ever been to Bland Andy's? You're a man who understands politics far better than I do. Why doese manchin get to call himself a democrat like he doesn't like democrats he doesn't really vote with democrats why does he get to keep using that tagline if it's like i don't get to call myself a rapper i ain't doing that i got other shit going on well he is a democrat just enough like when when it counts right like when we really need him he's there some of the time which is better than republicans which are there zero percent of the time i got you so it's like uh i think it's more like when eddie murphy put out that album

oh this he's a party all the time kind of uh democrat democrat yeah he's a party all the time democrat i got whatever that means yeah well that was the single of eddie murphy's album was party all the time and oh i've seen it it's great it's great it's pretty fun he made a reggae album later and it's way less fun there are things like that that exist that remind you that you need people in your life that tell you the truth no matter what yes a hundred percent i you need somebody to be like hey man button your shirt up and go write some jokes this ain't the move rick james is cool and we all like hanging out with Rick James, but maybe get those buttons up and start focusing on these comedy jokes. Hey, let's think about how you got here and why anybody knows your name.

Maybe focus on that. You're super famous for this thing. Not for that thing. No, no, no, no. You're not the first comedian who wanted to be a musician, and there's plenty of musicians that want to be comedians. Doesn't really work. Hey, hey.

It doesn't really work. You're great with voices. We love your voices. None of them should be singing. Maybe let them talk in in silly stylings maybe in the character of a silly person singing in a comedic moment yep we'll allow it as long as it's silly is it silly eddie because you don't seem like you're being silly right now you seem like you're being very serious and trying to attract people with this are you trying to tell us you you want us to be taking you seriously right now because that's a mistake are you trying to make me horny eddie because if you're trying to make me horny i'm out i'm out this is a weird al yankovic thing we're in. All right? If it's not, we're out.

We're out. This week, House Democrats announced that they would take a vote to strip Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. It was either that or taking her out with the space laser, which was an option. I like that. Hog some mayock, Marge. Welcome to the Festival of Lights. I guess I'm wishing her a happy festival. Yeah.

Hitting her with the space laser from the Jews. I like that. In a private meeting, Greene then was greeted by a standing ovation by half of the Republicans in private. So not like for show, like they were just super pumped to see her. Whoa. And then the next day she went to the floor to defend herself. And she said this. I also want to tell you 9-11 absolutely happened. I remember that day crying all day long watching it on the news whoa

yeah think about how fucking far gone you are that you are on the floor of the u.s congress being like just to clear just to set the record straight i do believe that 9-11 happened she's that doesn't mean she doesn't think it was an inside job no you know she's like it happened for sure those were not digitally uh uh falling buildings those were real falling buildings those lives were actually lost and then some person in the back just stood up and slow clapped her real good as she finished like she nailed it 9-11 did happen i'm sorry democrats what do you disagree with your rebuttal go ahead nancy i'd love to hear your rebuttal on this one let's hear some cancel culture because 9-11 happened oh now you can't say 9-11 happened, huh, AOC? That's a pretty good argument. I think that is how you win.

It's a very Adam Sandler, this is how I win moment, is you just say 9-11 happened. It's so dark. On the other side of the Republican Civil War, Liz Cheney, she voted to impeach Donald Trump. So House Republicans tried to oust her from leadership. She kept her vote by a vote of 145 to 61. So roughly the same number of Republicans voted to overturn the election as supported Liz Cheney for impeaching Trump for trying to do the same thing. And that means, Langston, that there are a bunch of Republicans who voted to overturn the election and then voted to support Liz Cheney for impeaching Trump for trying to overturn the election, and then voted to support Liz Cheney for impeaching Trump for trying to overturn the election. Do you know how far gone your party is

when the devil on your shoulder is Donald Trump and the angel on your shoulder is Liz fucking Cheney? Is Dick Cheney's third heart? Yeah. Like, the devil in me thinks we should destroy our country, but the angel in me thinks we should destroy other countries. The kid in me loves racist anti-Semitic Facebook posts,

but the adult in me wants to bomb Iran. Let's grow up and start a war already. Cut it out with all this infighting. We've got real people to murder. bomb Iran. Let's grow up and start a war already. Cut it out with all this infighting. We've got real people to murder. I love it. This is great. Langston, so good to see you as always.

Thank you so much for being here. It was great seeing you. When we come back, I talked to Dr. Alima too about this moment in the pandemic and some tips for how to get through it. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. He is a clinical psychologist and former professor at Columbia University, and he shares helpful videos about mental health and psychology on his YouTube channel, The Psych Show. Please welcome back Dr. Alimatu. Good to see you. John, good to see you. Thanks for having me back. It's good to see you. Last time we talked, it was during a dark moment in terms of the pandemic unfolding before

us. It was also at the peak of the fires and you were in Northern California. You were in a dark place. We were all in a dark place. And, you know, it was a little bit like physician heal thyself, you know? How are you doing? How is your social distancing as it stretches out? How is the family? How are you? Thanks for asking. Big picture, I finally started to feel hopeful about the future again sometime in late December. And it was a combination of looks like we are going to have a transition in our government and it's not going to go too horribly. Although then we had the insurrection. So in some ways, my worst fears came true there.

But we also had the vaccines starting to roll out. And that was really the first time in 2020, since the pandemic began, that I started to see some big picture hope we might be able to find a way through this. And even though the vaccine rollout has been rocky, and there's a lot of public health kind of stuff we have to work through, I am hopeful about 2021 being a net positive compared to last year. One thing that I have noticed, and one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is, this is anecdotal,

but it's something that I've heard from a ton of people in my life. It's something you see online. I've actually seen a bunch of columns about this, that the end does feel closer. It does feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel. And yet people seem to feel worse right now, that there's a sense that like they've hit another wall and they don't totally understand why. Are you hearing that? And what are some thoughts you have as to

why this moment might feel, even as there's hope, like unsatisfying or kind of dark in some way? Yeah. Well, first off it's winter. So that, um, I know it might not look like it in Northern California, but there's a big blizzard that has impacted the East Coast. The typical things that we would usually do to cheer each other up, to connect with each other, seems so out of grasp right now. Being able to go to someone's home and hang out and be warm, it's still dangerous to do those kind of things. We've got the vaccines, but they're not,

they're out of reach for so many different people. So yeah, there's big picture hope, but the day-to-day challenges of our lives haven't changed much. We still have high rates of infection. There's still the exact same social distancing and safety guidelines are in play. It's still very hard to connect with people. Oh, we still have these freaking, I'm so tired of Zooming with you. I would so much rather just hang out and have this conversation face to face, but that's still out of reach. So it's a lot of that. We know that the first half of a prolonged

period of isolation and distancing is always harder than the second half. That's true of scientists stationed in Antarctica. It's true of astronauts on the space station. We don't even know if we're in the second half or not yet. Like we don't have a timeline. We don't know when this thing is going to end. And you have new variants coming up, which are kicking up a lot of our uncertainty. So in some ways, we are so much more forward than the last time we spoke. And in other ways, nothing's changed.

Right. Well, one thing that has changed, and I was wondering what you thought about this, which is that the threat from the previous administration is gone. The fear that this person won't leave, that the election won't go the way we want. We ended up with the, you know, one of the best case scenarios. Do you think part of this is this sort of source of adrenaline and attention kind of being removed? The days following Trump's ban from Twitter and later Facebook and other social media platforms. I don't know if you felt this, I felt like I could just breathe a little bit like I had a sigh of relief. He wasn't all over the news. He wasn't the main story like the random shit Trump was saying on social media

wasn't what was filling up my mind with anxiety. And this kind of taps onto a lot of what we know about poverty and resources. Like when you're, it's not just about income and wealth and funds and money, but when your mind is really focused on one thing you don't feel like you have enough of, it focuses completely on that. Like when you're hungry, all you can think about is hunger and everything else kind of,

you let everything else fall apart. Many of us don't have enough time, so we focus so much on our work and we don't do our laundry or don't do anything else, like we can't focus on solving the other problems. Similar thing was happening with the Trump presidency. There was so much fear and uncertainty and anger about what the administration was doing. It was absorbing all of your attention and all of your resources. And now that that administration is gone and every day isn't full of, can you believe what Biden said?

And is like he actually going to do that thing? Like we have a bit more attention to focus on other things, like especially those of us who might have been in some kind of vulnerable community or or identify with a community that was challenged or put at risk by the Trump administration. that was challenged or put at risk by the Trump administration. Like all of our attention isn't dedicated to following all the crazy stories that are developing out of that. We can breathe a little bit and focus a little bit more on other things. I ate 33 out of 36 Oreos from a box of Oreos in a 24 hour period. What do you think that means? Well, two questions. One is, were they the Lady Gaga Oreos in a 24 hour period. What do you think that means? Well, two questions. One is, were they the Lady Gaga Oreos? Because no, they weren't. They were just normal. They weren't even double stuffed.

They were classic, normal, good old fashioned American Oreos. Yeah, yeah. Doctor. Yeah. Those are those are good. I like the like dipped ones where it's Oreo, but then it's like dipped in more chocolate It's it's just like completely wrapped. Mm-hmm, but that's a different podcast entirely What what does that mean? when we are Really full of intense emotions Sometimes we go back to the things that reliably provide us comfort and that's totally okay And that's totally okay and that's totally

good um as long as it's not something that's happening like every single night right say that but like i have been going to my own like sour patch kids as a source of uh of comfort for myself often um it's it's really just like finding ways to kind of soothe your body down when it's been at such a high, not like a good high, like a high anxiety for so many different reasons. Yeah. I'm surprised by how many nights in a row I'll say, you know what? You deserve dessert today. Today's a day that you've earned a dessert. It's like every day. I didn't do anything that special today. I just got through today. Thank you so much for your time. Before I let you go,

I did want to ask, it feels like we can see the end, but there's no date certain. It moves around. We hear there are variants, then we hear the vaccine's effective. We hear that the vaccine will be available in the spring.

Then we hear there's a setback to when it's going to be available. Do you have any thoughts or tips just for people how they can manage that uncertainty or give themselves more of a sense of certainty from it or just some other way to kind of think about in a helpful way like the next few months? There is a lot to remain hopeful for. In the big picture, I am hopeful that by the time this year is out, we are going to have more in-person activities and contact with the people we love and the people we care about.

I definitely see that on the horizon. But we don't know when that's going to come. We don't know for all the reasons you just mentioned. So the biggest thing that we still need is something that you all have been doing in 2020. all have been doing in 2020 and that is focusing on the near term, focusing on today, focusing on tomorrow, focusing on the next week ahead. The best way we can manage uncertainty is by focusing on the things that we can control, the things in our immediate environment and not plan for too far down the horizon, too far down into the future.

Tolerating uncertainty is a muscle that you build. And the more that you are able to focus on the here and now and what you can control, the better you will be able to tolerate the big picture uncertainty because we have no idea what's coming. But if you're able to tap into those skills that you built up in 2020, you're gonna be able to get through

some of these speed bumps we have coming our way in 2021. I like that. Tolerance for uncertainty is a muscle you build. Dr. Alimatu, thank you so much for talking to us. Hey, my pleasure. And if you find those Lady Gaga Oreos, please send them my way because I've been looking. I know people I haven't, I got to track them down. I'm sure they taste great because Oreos are great. That's the thing about them. Yeah, I never met an Oreo I didn't like. They're always delicious. Thanks, John, for having me. Thank you to Dr. Alima too for joining us. When we come back, we challenge

some listeners on the hobbies they started but did not finish during this time of social distance. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. So we were just weeks away from the one-year anniversary of quarantine, and boy, are my weed gummies tired. 11 months is long enough for most of us to admit that our pandemic hobbies didn't really pan out. The herb garden didn't grow. The sourdough didn't start. Your time with Infinite Jest turned out to be finite. So we wanted to hear all about the bikes you bought but never rode in a segment we're calling, oh, right, I was never going to use this time effectively. Who the hell was I kidding? Now let's stream some dumb shit. Here to play the game,

we have Elizabeth, Samantha, and Eric. Welcome to the show. Hi, everybody. Hi. Hello. Elizabeth, Samantha, and Eric, welcome to the show. Hi, everybody. Hi. Hello. So here's how this works, all right? It's a very sophisticated, complicated game.

I'm going to talk to each of you about the hobby you attempted and failed, and I'm going to decide who failed the hardest, all right? And that's how you'll win. Elizabeth, start with you. What is the pandemic hobby skill that you wanted to take up that you wanted to learn? Yeah, I thought it would be a good idea and it would save me some money if I started making my own dehydrated fruit for my two-year-old. And I got really excited. I did a lot of research, went on New York Times to find the best food dehydrator. And I bought it. And then I realized that it doesn't just take fruit and a fruit dehydrator. It also takes preservatives, which I had no idea of.

And it also takes about 18 hours to do apples. So I was going to have to do a whole bag of apples for 18 hours. It's just for about a Ziploc bag size full of apple chips. And how much did the dehydrator cost roughly? About 120. Was it used once? I haven't even taken it out of the box. All right. Well, okay. Okay. 120 bucks. Food dehydrator did not use it. How long, when did you buy it? In October of last year. I think it's cool that you still have the box. I think it's cool that you kept it all taking up space in your house. I think that that's cool. I think that's cool. Yeah. I got to opening it, realized how long stuff was going to take me. And then it sat in a corner. That's as far as I got. And it is forgotten now. Well, until today. All right. Elizabeth, please hold on a moment. All right. We have this, we have the food

dehydrator. Let's go to Samantha and find out about her hobbies and how abysmally she failed at them. Samantha, talk to us. What did you hope to achieve in this pandemic time? So I know how to knit and I figured, um, I was on Tik TOK a lot, um, during the summer because who like, who isn't on there? And, um, I, uh, decided to make the Harry Styles cardigan from JW Anderson that everyone was making. And so, but, um, they didn't have all the colors. So I just bought random colors and the size of each one um it involved like 16 like balls of yarn so um I just I I spent like a hundred dollars at Michael's and got this huge ass box um at my front door and it just kind of sat in the box for two months and then I started

it and I only got like six squares in like it's an entire cardigan. And I just gave up because it looks cool. Do you have the evidence of your attempt? Yeah, I have. So I have part of it. It's not even the right color. That's not that's yarn. You're just showing me yarn. Oh, I see. I see. Yeah, I like gave up on this last one because it was too hard. I was also drunk while I knitted it. So I'm pretty sure I messed it up. Uh huh. So that looks like that looks like you started a scarf. Yeah, but you you have to do like 12 of these and then you sew it together and then you become Harry Styles. it together and then you become Harry Styles. That's cool. That's cool. I like Harry Styles. I like that he's like, I say no to some, but not all of your gender norms. I like that. All right.

Okay. So Samantha, it is crafts, which I think is, it somehow feels like a little bit more of a failure. Also, I do think because of the sad remnant of basically two squares, it's just a funny image. So I feel really good about that. And it's a tough competition. I'm not going to say, I'm not going to, I'm not going to rule yet. It's a tough competition right now between Elizabeth and Samantha. Time to talk to Eric. Eric. Hello. What is the hobby you decided to use this time to tackle? So I decided to learn how to play guitar because of a boy.

Sure. Sure. So it was like, you know, we started dating. I was trying to do everything a new thing would. You know, I tried to do active listening, triangulating each other's needs, feeding him cookies so he doesn't leave me.

So the one thing that we both missed during the pandemic was live music and we both play the piano. So I wanted to surprise him by learning the guitar and say like, oh my gosh, we can jam, we can have live music over quarantine. I made a name for us, we would be called the Von Trapp Family Singers, but here we are months later, quarantine. I made a name for us. We would be called the Von Traft Family Singers. But here

we are months later and I'm left with no man and a dusty guitar. So, OK, that is I mean, so first of all, I do want to just circle back to something you said at the top, because I do believe I heard that you said that one of the new things you were going to try during the pandemic was called listening, which I think is really funny. So did you know this person before the pandemic began? Yep. And you broke up during the pandemic. Yep.

And joke's on me. He's still in my COVID bubble. He's still in your bubble. So, failure? Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. That sucks. Okay. so failure wow wow wow that sucks okay eric wow okay now but in fairness to samantha and elizabeth you're definitely winning in the sense that what you're describing did make us the saddest however it's a little bit off from the actual hobby itself. Do you have a guitar nearby?

Yes, it's right here. And I will tell you, I had to tune it because I haven't tuned it. So she's here. She's still dusty. And can you show us, play the guitar. Let's see. What's the best you can do? And look, I may stop this at any moment. you got to come on come in hot okay and do your best okay i will cut this off thank you uh last of us two um for this song um take on me wait hold on wait no that's not it hold on okay so far yeah you're pretty bad oh that's oh shit oh you know my headphones who cares i can sing if you want no I'm not going to do that. Well done.

Elizabeth, Samantha, let's give some applause for Eric. That was great. Thanks. Thank you. So. Oh, shit. There it goes. Wait, I don't, I didn't buy a guitar stand.

Sorry, I'm just sort of reeling from what I've learned. Alright, I am prepared now with the winner of the game. Our second runner-up for the dream of dried fruit and the failure to make it in her home

for her family is Elizabeth. It is truly sad that you bought a fruit dehydrator and did not dehydrate any fruit. Your hope of making something akin to healthy fruit roll-ups was admirable, but you failed. And for that, we salute you.

Our first runner-up, with her desire to see a piece of clothing in the world and then decide to create it in her own home during this difficult time and then completely failing. I mean, just basically doing part of a scarf, which is the easiest thing to knit, let's face it, and then giving up having purchased the wrong colors and seemingly having begun attempting it without any plan whatsoever when clearly making a cardigan this complicated would have required some advanced planning. You can't just drunkenly start to knit.

Our first runner up is Samantha. And the winner of our pandemic hobby, abysmal failure, is Eric, who learned both how to listen and play guitar and ended up being unable to listen or play that guitar for anyone. Thank you. But he played a beautiful rendition from The Last of Us 2. And so while he may not have successfully learned to play the guitar yet, I think that we all believe that he will soon be playing the Last of Us 2 theme for another boy who will understand just what he's gotten. All right, Eric?

Sounds great. Sounds great. You're our winner. This is exciting. It's so exciting. Do I get like a premium account to like a dating thing? Yeah, sure. Yeah, we'll send you that.

We'll get you a coupon. We'll get you some premium access i don't know what that gets you more swipes i don't know i know i haven't been on it you can nobody can too sad too sad okay too sad oh no eric you've won thank you elizabeth samantha eric it was so fun thank you so much for joining i think that uh many of us can commiserate with our failure to use this time to learn the things we said we would learn, because it turns out that it's still us in the pandemic, not some better version of us using the time more effectively. things they said they were going to write during this time. We are zero for zero. I had a lot of ideas. All right. I had pilots. I had op-eds. I had essays. All right. Zero. Zero. Thank you to Elizabeth, Samantha, and Eric for joining us. That was awesome. When we come back, the rant wheel. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Now it's time for the rant wheel. You know how it works. We spin the wheel wherever it lands. We talk about the topic. This week on the wheel, we have Space Force, Emily in Paris, Lamar Odom versus Aaron Carter, PlayStation 5, Oreos, Valentine's Day, Super Bowl ads, and cooking at home.

We're doing a little differently on the rant wheel this week. So you're about to hear rants from me, from Langston, from Aaron Ryan, from Ira Madison, from Travis, and, you know, that's it. It has landed on Space Force, and here to rant about the topic, the host of Hysteria, returning champion, Erin Ryan. I didn't realize that this was a contest. It's a contest. I thought this was just- Life is a contest.

It's nice to know that I'm a champion, though. My trophy must have gotten lost in the mail. Okay, so I'm here to rant about Space Force. So here's why I'm ranting about Space Force. A couple days ago, one of the kind of wild-eyed Trumpist grifters tried to stoke up the outrage cycle against the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, by sending the following tweet. Jen Psaki mocked our service heroes. There's nothing funny about the Space Force.

Au contraire, grifter. Everything is funny about the Space Force because objectively bad ideas that stupid people love are funny. So I know a lot of people have pointed out that Space Force is stupid because there's been a sort of drip, drip, drip of like bad ideas that have come out around this new branch of the military. This Trumpland grifter tweeting that about Jen Psaki really gave me an opportunity to kind of put all of those drips together into an ocean of stupidity. Okay, so first of all, the Space Force logo is bad. It's ripped off directly from one of the Star Treks. I don't know which Star Trek because I don't watch the Star Treks. Nothing wrong with watching the Star Treks. I just personally don't want to trek through the stars, but it's a direct ripoff and it is very, very silly. Second, the name is bad. Conceptually, the title sounds like something a six-year-old boy would come up with. And it also kind of brings to mind, what are we

forcing in space? What is the point of a space army? Have we declared war on the moon? Did President Trump watch the movie Alien and think it was a documentary like he thought Sicario was a documentary about crossing the border? A lot of questions about why we're calling it Space Force. Sicario, just starting to, Sicario is a documentary about what happens when the lead character in a movie doesn't do anything. Sorry, go on as you were saying. I mean, I've fallen asleep in it three times, so I'll take your word for it. Okay, so third, the people in the Space Force

are called Guardians. Guardians, okay, first of all, there's already a movie about people in space who are Guardians, and it's called Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a better name than Space Force. But also, like, the word Guardians, it evokes protection. And I'm trying to think of something that could come from space that could hurt me or Earth that a person

could stop. Literally nothing. A comet, what are you going to do with that Space Force? A sunstorm, you're going to fly into the sun? You're going to stop it from interfering with the magnetic field? You're going to uninvent magnetism? It's like if all the women in the military were declared a new branch of the military and called the Bitch Squadron. That sounds cool. Actually, I would probably join the Bitch Squadron. That sounds good, though. Or if all the Navy midshipmen who went in submarines were renamed the Wet Boys.

The Space Force- Still, you're just, you're not, you're just coming up with good ideas. I think the Wet Boys would be funny. I would want to be friends with a Wet Boy. But here's the thing. Space Force already exists. It is part of the Air Force,

just as the Wet Boys are already in the Navy. We do not need another distinction and another way for us to funnel money to the military that, A, doesn't make us any safer. B, doesn't benefit any members of the actual Space Force. It is an invented bureaucratic layer with every possible aspect of it is stupid and funny. funny. Everything about Space Force is funny. And I hope President Biden puts Space Force back where it belongs, which is in the Air Force and also maybe declaring war on the moon. Very good points. I'll add only a couple small things. One, the uniforms are not good. They may have had some nerds on this, but we needed some gay nerds on this. And I would like to see a reconsideration of the uniform. Now, I do have some problem with this being in the Air Force because in Star Trek, they use sea terms.

You're an admiral, you know, you're a captain and I would like of a ship, you know, and so I would consider whether or not we think of space as a big sea, you know? Not so much sky as a big ocean, you know? For space-going vessels. Yeah, there's dark matter out there, but not very much of anything else. But the Guardians thing is sort of evocative of, like, heaven-themed stuff, like angels. It's too pop culture. Like, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek, like, use them, fine.

But, like, go deeper if you're looking for sci-fi from which to draw inspiration. Erin Ryan, everybody. Thank you so much for joining. That was great. Thanks for having me. It has landed on Emily in Paris. Here to rant about the topic, host of Keep It, Iron Madison III, returning champion. Returning champion, Iron Madison III, lest I forget. Hi, John.

Returning champion? Yeah. Sure. Why not? I've won the rant wheel before. There were prizes. I didn't get one. Everyone takes this compliment and is like, where's's my trophy it says something about our generation or my parachute

gift card all right all right all right emily in paris we all love it it's everyone's favorite show what do you got to say about it um for those who don't know emily in paris was nominated this week for a Golden Globe for Best Series. And Lily Collins was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy. I have a lot of thoughts about this. And they could involve Michaela Cole and I May Destroy You not being nominated. But they are mostly on the fact that I feel like I did this. I feel like I did this. I feel like Tommy Vitor did this.

I feel like John and Emily Favreau did this. It's all our fault. You think we moved the culture? You think Crooked moved the culture? I think we did. I think Crooked took a hard stance on Emily in Paris is watchable. It's fun. Tommy was always tweeting about it.

And now... Tommy, well, Tommy pretended he didn't like it and then had his funny way of watching it in its entirety by himself. I will say I am surprised that you think that, look, you tell me that we've got some pull with Emmy voters. I'll believe you. But I don't know about our pull with the Hollywood foreign

press. Okay, so this is, I have to explain this because it goes all the way to the top. Wow. Follow the... Now. Ira Anon. Who does the Hollywood foreign press love? Stars.

Who have they gifted before? Mia Farrow. Who do they love? Wow. Mia Farrow and her family, Ronan Farrow, your fiancé. This is all to get to Ronan. You bet. That makes a ton of sense.

That's why they voted for Emily in Paris. That really checks out. Just to apply your theory, can you also make that theory apply to the film The Tourist starring Johnny Depp, previous honoree of the Hollywood Farm Press? You know, I don't know't know cricket's not responsible for that though it's before our time it's before our time uh although i do support accolades for the tourists because it does star my favorite white woman angelina jolie i just remember that there's i never saw the tourists but i just remember that there's some kind of unholy twist in it. That does not make any sense.

That's all that I know about the Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, two hander, the tourist. Yeah. I've never actually seen it because I love her too much to watch it, but I support that for her, but this is what the globes do.

They nominate nonsense. I support that for her. But this is what the Globes do. They nominate nonsense. Aaron Taylor Johnson has a acting trophy for nocturnal animals. I just, it's just, every year it feels like we do this. And every year everyone's like, I can't believe these nominees. And it's like, every year it's like, it's just like a couple dozen Italian people. Just being like, they came to a party.

Oh, you did it too. Actually, maybe the thing, the only that I watched on Disney Plus is a motion picture? I mean, it is. Is it? It is. Look, I... It's a live special. It is a live special slash variety show.

Yes, it is. That's right. It's an event. It should be nominated alongside. It should have to fight against Grease Live. Yeah. Or Carpool Karaoke. All right, let's spin it again.

All right, let's spin it again. It has landed on Oreos. So Ira, thank you for being here for this. I have a sickness. Do you like the Chromatica Oreos? So first of all, I haven't even... That was my keep it this week. I haven't... I don't know. Look, I don't know... That was my keep it this week. I haven't... I don't know.

Look, I don't know where these Chromatica Oreos are. They have not made it to the part of the country I'm currently in. Literally? Oh, where are you? I'm in Connecticut. Oh. All right. Eating pizza.

Catherine Hepburn. Yeah, that's what I am up here. Do you think Catherine Hepburn used to get depressed and eat 33 out of 36 Oreos from the box? Probably. All right. Look, I'll just summarize the rant. I am eating too many Oreos and I can't stop. I had 33 out of 36 from a box and I thought I'd show them restraint.

That was in a 24-hour period. But you raised Katharine Hepburn and I will share this because I think it's really funny, which Mia has a handwritten recipe called Catherine Hepburn's brownies and um they're pretty good Ronan made them how have you never cooked them like on your show with Priyanka or sent me the recipe to cook them it's honestly never occurred to me I want to make these brownies now this is so upsetting Lewis would kill you here's the thing here's the thing there's a lot of things that i would go to katherine hepburn to ask fashion questions acting questions style questions performance questions uh how do you questions about character and and uh integrity here's what I don't go to Katharine Hepburn about,

which is brownies. Because as a rule, which is not what I would go to her for. You don't go to somebody with those cheekbones and ask them for dessert recipes. You know what I mean? You go to somebody with these cheekbones. I'm pointing at my face.

You go to somebody with softer features. That's all that I'm saying. But they're pretty good. Ronan made them. They're pretty good. They're pretty good, the Catherine Hepburn brownies. Maybe I should make those with Priyanka. That's a good idea.

You should. Who else has them? I don't know. No, I just wonder who else Catherine gave this recipe to. That's what I want to know. I don't know. What if this piece of paper is the only copy, like one of those Nicolas Cage things? Oh, like it's a national if this piece of paper is like the only copy like um one of those nicholas cage things you know like it's a national treasure book of secrets national da vinci code

da vinci code so are you saying that the katherine hutburn's brownie recipe actually reveals some secret like who killed natalie wood well it was that's not we know we know who killed natalie wood everybody knows that uh of course we do yeah it was jeremy renner jeremy renner jeremy renner after matt damon said no uh when we i don't know what that means all right let's end this um ira always a pleasure to see you. Thank you. Also, suggestion for not eating all those Oreos all the time, because I have successfully stopped myself from eating the hordes of Girl Scout cookies that I have in my home.

I just got Invisalign. So it's like it stops you from eating them. You've got to take these out. It's a whole process. You got to brush your teeth after you like eat something. You got to put them back in. I just decided to not snack. That's cool.

That's cool. It's like a it's like what it's like a chastity belt for Oreos. Yeah. You know, in a way, in a way. Yeah. Black snake moaning myself. All right. This segment's over it has landed on lamar odom versus aaron carter langston take it away yeah okay i'll be honest everybody's been focusing their attention on the insurrection.

And I feel like this is a much bigger issue. I think that in truth, this is, listen, Jake Paul knocked out Nate Robinson in two rounds and laid him to the ground in a way that Black people are going to struggle with for centuries to follow. This is something that's going to go down in our history books and now there's a new trend that's popping up where a bunch of uh filthy white boys are are preparing to now take on our greatest athletes and somehow prove that they are more athletic more capable uh and especially better fighters and my fear is that this is actually

going to end up in a devastating way for lamar odom despite being 6 9 6 10 and a former nba champion he might in fact get knocked out by by what's his name aaron carter yeah aaron carter of all of all people not even the best carter aaron carter is gonna knock out lamar odom who's overcome so much he survived fucking strokes and crack addiction and now he's gonna get knocked out by aaron carter and only the black community is gonna be left to suffer through this and it's all gonna like it you know dana white's gonna get paid off in it i don't know it's just it's very upsetting i I'm not sleeping well. He could win.

He could. Lamar Odom could win, but there's no, what is the win here? Aaron Carter is my height and unwell. His family doesn't speak to him anymore. He's what QAnon people are afraid is inside of the wayfair cabinets like we we are not aaron carter is not uh there's no victory in knocking out aaron carter right right what what do you win what do you win you're supposed to win here you're supposed to beat him yeah you're a giant supposed to be in a wayfair cabinet that you build yourself he just arrives on top.

He's the guy who brings it to you. He's sort of the Rumpelstiltskin of Wayfair cabinets. He stands outside of it. He's like, ah, look inside. And then, you know, a girl named Rebecca pops out or whatever it is that they think is happening. Anyway, I'm very upset. It's ruining my sleep. I don't know what to do with these feelings.

I don't know what to do either. feelings. I don't know what to do either. I don't understand these celebrity confrontations. They're not for me. Sure. They're not for me. Yeah. I feel like it started after that, you remember that Claymation show, Celebrity Deathmatch?

Yes. Where we theorized what it would be like for these celebrities to fist fight each other and murder each other. And then some of them started doing it. Like, I have a vague memory of Tonya Harding fighting somebody. Yes. Tonya Harding did fight and then went on to, like, have multiple fights because it turned out she was pretty good at it.

Yeah. And Screech fought somebody. R.I.P. R.I.P. Oh, we'll miss you dearly. And, you know, all these people just started fighting and it turned into a weird thing where we just wanted to see how weird they punched or how uncomfortable they were with getting help from a man in a corner they didn't know. It just all it makes me uncomfortable. And I pray Lamar Odom wins. But I also don't know what the victory is here. And I also think that when we signed up to watch celebrities fight each other and beat each other to a bloody pulp, it was yet another, along with Bill de Blasio dropping the groundhog, a bad omen for our society. Langston Kerman,

so good to see you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. This was fun. It has landed on Super Bowl commercials. And here to rant about the topic, it's Travis. Travis Helwick. Hi, Travis. First of all, I'm not the person who started that fire. And it's one of my, if you search my name in Google, one of the auto things is fire. And it's, and that and the Mike Bloomberg thing have haunted me forever. So I just want to put out there that they're both not true.

What's not true? Yeah, you're not, you're not currently a speechwriter for Mike Bloomberg. No, I never have been. You never have been a what? Speechwriter for Mike Bloomberg. Or speechwriter in general,. You never have been a what? Speech writer for Mike Bloomberg or speech writer in general, unless you count what I've do for you, speech writing. So what was the job you did for Mike Bloomberg? I mean, I don't, we don't get the details. You worked for Mike Bloomberg. It wasn't technically a speech writer. Is that what you're saying?

God fucking damn it. I don't know what you're upset about. Whatever. Anyway. So Travis, Travis Helbig's here to rant. You know him. He wasn't actually a speech writer for Mike Bloomberg. He had some other kind of similar job super bowl ads huh uh cheetos budweiser let's go all right so um i want to begin this rant by saying i like tim and eric okay and i don't want i don't want him or eric or any fans of them to think that i i think that they're bad i actually think that they're great you don't like Tim or Eric or any fans of them to think that I think that they're bad. I actually think that they're great. You don't like, you like kind of more traditional comedy.

I love Tim and Eric. I was very much influenced by them as a young comedian, which I was before I started working at this bullshit company. And now I'm an old, I'm an old neohub that gets yelled at by people for liking Pete Buttigieg too much. Okay, the rant. Tim and Eric ruined Super Bowl commercials. Wow, all right and here is is what i'll say tim and eric invented a very good style of comedy that was like you know some kind it was kind of bad on purpose and they used like this 80s video style and it was very cool it was very influential the downside is that it was very easy to recreate

by people who were less talented than them. And so around 2015, Tim and Eric started making ads for Old Spice and they involved like a man with a shirt off. It was very fast moving and weird and a lot of strange shit happened and people loved it because it's funny and it's Tim and Eric.

From there, every single fucking Super Bowl commercial after those Old Sp spice ads are the exact same thing and it involves a weird man punching through things 4 000 weird things happen like this year it's going to be like fran lebowitz on a unicorn like high-fiving wayne brady like it'll be it's stupid and there's too many things going on and And what I want, I don't want, from now on, I just want the Budweiser frogs back. I want horses that make me cry because they brought the Budweiser over a field. I want like, I want one funny thing. I don't need 40 things.

I want an old woman eating a Doritos 3D doing a kickflip. And that's it. Yeah. That's all I want. Tim and Eric is good. Tim and Eric is great. Forget what Travis said. Tim and Eric are great.

Look, Travis. Here's what i mean travis someone's gonna fucking snitch tag tim and eric who listens to the podcast and be like i can't believe travis talked shit about them and it's going to they're they don't know that it's not real god damn it you've ruined my life that's my rant travis hellwig everybody that was awesome You've ruined my life. That's my rant. Travis Helwig, everybody. That was awesome. It has landed on PlayStation 5. I have waited to talk about this because I felt fortunate to have a PlayStation 5 because I got very lucky and someone sent me the link to

get one at the exact moment it was possible for me to get one. And they've been quite scarce. That's how you got the vaccine, right? That's also how I got the vaccine. I got the vaccine the same way I got the PlayStation 5, which is somebody replied to me and Josh Gadd on Twitter. That's how I got both. And it was in both cases, Deborah Birx, oddly enough. So, and I love the PlayStation 5 in many respects. I enjoyed the Demon's Souls. I then went down a rabbit hole from games, and I played Dark Souls 3. I played Bloodborne again. Had a blast. I'm currently playing Hitman 3. Enjoying it immensely.

Enjoying it immensely. Love planning my missions. The graphics are beautiful. And I've been reluctant to criticize the PlayStation 5 because it has been such a light in the darkness in a period in which there is not much to do. The menus are terrible. The design of the interface is garbage. What did they do? What did they do? PlayStation 3 had a terrible interface. They kind of fixed it for PlayStation 4, and it is currently an absolute shitshow.

Hold the PlayStation button, you get one menu. Tap it, you get another. Neither one is what you'd expect. And in both respects, the center of the screen is filled with advertisements and genuine bullshit. I got a PlayStation 5 last week. And so I know what you're talking about. And it really seems like they continue to advertise the games you've already purchased when you press that button. What am I?

Yeah, no, I think Hitman 3 is pretty cool. That's why I was trying to open it. Sony, what's going on? What are these giant cards? When I open a PlayStation 5, I'm not looking for an interface that allows me to reminisce about the levels I played previously on the PlayStation 5, gigantic in the center of the screen. I don't know. Look, there is a culture around the trophies that you can earn. And I actually have at times enjoyed trying to be a completionist and getting the trophies. I don't know a single person out there who wants their entire game experience to revolve around sharing information about the completion trophies they got in various games.

I don't know who wants that. I don't know anyone ever who wants that. Just put a simple fucking thing where you can click on the game you want to play or close the game you don't want to play. Turning the thing off is an ordeal. Yeah, I never know why the game library isn't the entire screen.

I will say it always makes me feel bad when I open that menu because I'm not a completionist. I'm very bad at video games. And it'll be like, did you know you've only completed 60% of this sack boy level? I'm like, oh, I couldn't even win this game for children. What is this information? I'm doing terribly. Oh, you're only at 59% through this part of the game. I'm going to the game to continue playing the game. Don't tell me how to complete a video game. All right. I played through Shadow

of the Colossus like three dozen times to get onto the roof of the temple, all right? And if you know what I'm talking about... No idea. Well, it's a very complicated thing about increasing your stamina, your little pink stamina ball, all right? And you have to complete the game several times

and go through the journey against the Colossus, the Colossuses, the Colossi, several times to repeat the cycle until you can reach the garden that you climbed to on the top of the cathedral. The point is, Sony, I'm a fan, all right? I'm not an Xbox person, all right? I'm a PlayStation person.

You got me. Fix the interface. Let's do an update. Let's do an update. I will also say the controller is excellent. It's great. Everything about the system is excellent, is excellent. So I just think the menus are just a huge miss,

huge miss on the interface. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to Aaron, Ira, Langston, and Travis for joining for the rant wheel. When we come back, we'll end on a high note. Don't go anywhere.

This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. Because we all need it this week, here it is, the high note. Hi, I love it. My high note is, after watching and being in awe of the inauguration,

particularly of Vice President Harris, my partner was inspired in researching the requirements for running for the U.S. House of Representatives. She is a queer immigrant from Iran, a practicing Christian and former pastor, and she would bring a unique voice and an important one to Congress. Hopefully you'll find her on the ballot in 2022. Thanks. Bye. Hi, I love it.

This is Layla from Virginia, and I'm a grad student. I'm also a mental health counselor who works in a grant-funded clinic that provides free counseling to families. My high note of the week is that after a long time, we were able to finally be able to also provide services to teachers and school staff in our area, and so we're really excited to be able to just meet the mental health needs of our families, students, and teachers and school staff during this really difficult time and hopefully be able to give you a support for them. Thank you for everything that you're doing. I love the show and it really is a great thing for me to keep up with.

Hey, Lovett. This is Katie calling from the Twin Cities. And my high note this week was I just finished the 10K that I spent all of January training for. And my goal was to finish it in under an hour. And while listening to your show and the time flying by, I finished it in 58 minutes, 36 seconds. So thanks for that. Thanks for that. Also, I don't know if you remember, a couple of years ago, you came to Minneapolis in a crazy blizzard in April. And my sisters and I were a few of the crazy folks who came to see you. So thanks for making it there and providing some entertainment for us hearty Minnesotans. Have a great day.

Hey, love it. This is Tim from Birmingham, Alabama. This past weekend, some friends, we got together and went out rock climbing for her birthday. And we all climbed well, beautiful weather. And more than anything, it just was, it gave me hope because it felt a little normal. And it just gave me excitement and a little bit of joy and thinking that even though we're not out of the woods yet with COVID and that there's a lot of work to be done, it just felt normal. And that was really hopeful for me. Thanks for all you do. Thanks to everybody who left a message. If you want to leave us a message about something that gave you hope, you can call us at 323-521-9455. Thanks to Langston, Aaron, Ira, Travis, and everybody who called in. There are 640

days until the 2022 midterm elections. Have a great weekend, everybody. Love It or Leave It is a Crooked Media production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, Elisa Gutierrez, Lee Eisenberg, our head writer, and the person whose gender reveal party started

the fire, Travis Helwig. Jocelyn Kaufman, Pallavi Gunalan, and Peter Miller are the writers. Our assistant producer is Sydney Rapp. Bill Lance is our editor, and Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McClain and Jamie Skeel, for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast,

and to our digital producers, Nar Melkonian and Milo Kim, for filming and editing video each week so you can.