My Brother, My Brother And Me - MBMBaM 783: Spidey Spaghetti

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

We here at MBMBaM strive to be on the cutting edge of culture, and this week we're breaking out all the stops. We've got everything from rare Dirty-era Christina Aguilera collectible ducks, innovations in the novelty popsicle industry, and a brave and bold new concept in brand eating: dipping chicken tenders in sauces. But before we dig in, we have to ask... do YOU like Wendy's?Suggested talking points: Every Bear a Citizen, Tank Town For Kids, Burner Ducks, The Episode the Music DiedBorder Angels: https://www.borderangels.org/

The McElroy brothers are not experts, and their advice should never be followed. Travis insists he's a sexpert, but if there's a degree on his wall, I haven't seen it. Also, this show isn't for kids, which I mention only so the babies out there will know how cool they are for listening. What's up, you cool, baby? It's the start of something beautiful. A small acquaintance has blossomed, it's rapping, and two, A precious friendship I could have never seen

What was coming for me Hangs at the skate park Hangs by the beach My life It feels life Life It's better It's better with you

My life Ah It's better It's better with you This is true Oh, it's better. It's better with two. My way.

Ah, ah, it's better with you. Hello, everybody, and welcome to my brother, my brother, me, and advice show for the Modranera. I'm your oldest brother, Justin McElroy. What is up, citizens of Travnation. It's me, your middleest brother and brave leader, Travis, big dog, wolf-wolf, rooom-vroom, McElroy. What's up, Travnation, it's me your sweet baby brother. 30 under 30 built for tough Griffin Macroy I'm not sure guys if I'm

even allowed to be doing this right now Yeah dude you should be taking the day off Popping your feet up like all of our government employees Because it's anarchy in the USA We have no government Fear not Fear not Not the worst not like obviously bad in a lot of ways

But considering so many ways So many ways But for the joking of the show But for the joking of the show I'm just saying the government's not been great lately Well You're welcome Certain parts of it

Trav Nation, I want to use this platform to extend the offer of encompassing what you guys call the United States of America. Okay. Let's just go down the list, Trav Nation, because I really, you know, help would certainly be appreciated. We've burned a lot of bridges lately, the folks down on Capitol Hill. Yeah. And the White House. Actually, I should say primarily they are also. Yeah.

And the courts. And the courts. So the parks are closed. We'd open those back up. How? Just unlocking the gates mostly. You don't think you'd get in trouble doing that? Well, we'd start paying the employees.

So then who's going to stop us? The employees? That's cool. Yeah, no, you can definitely do that. And also, every bear is actually a citizen of Trave Nation on a Every bear you said. Every bear. That's cool.

Even the weird ones. The one that I need you to focus on Trav and Trav Nation, because it is the one that I hate the most about the shutdown, I think, is that our beloved air traffic controllers will continue to work. Right. But will not be compensated for that work. That's the exact headspace I want them at, baby. Yeah, for sure.

I want them. I want them ragged. Bones tired. Yeah. And broke. And broken. Jesus Christ. Here's my plan for that.

I'm going to start paying them. And I'm going to hire more of them. And I'm going to give them breaks and comfy, like, stuff in there. I'm going to redo a lot of this stuff. That'll do it, man. I'll get the property brothers up in there and have the property brothers fix. Like make the tower cute. That's cool.

Fix all those shit. give him race car beds? That'll fix it. That'll do it. Tell me the next 10 words and I'll drop out of this podcast right now. You know, Travis, it's like, sounds nice. I gave you a lot of words, Justin. But how are you funding it?

He's going to help out to land in the planes. Travis, break off a little bit of how that sounds. If you were in the tower. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa, little to the left. Little to the left. Oh, yeah, you got it. Now kiss those wheels on the ground.

Smooch them right down. That's a good plane kiss. That kind of thing. Yeah, for sure. kind of thing for sure. That ought to get our boys and blue down safely. What I'm going to do, Justin, to raise the money to pay for it, I'm going to sell the tanks. Now, I know what you're wondering. No, I'm not going to sell them to other countries. I'm going to take the bullets out of them. Yes, good. Smart. The bullets are so big in the tanks. Yeah, I'm going to take the bullets out so there won't be any bullets available. Don't get it twisted. And then just going to sell them to American collectors. I think that there's going to be a real market for these things. We could put them in parades, just put them all over the place. Let kids drive them if they want to, maybe set up like an amusement park area with a corned off.

Tank town for kids. Yeah, but it's tanks. Yeah, you can drive the tank around. The tanks shoot corn dogs out super fast. That's cool. And I'm going to let Tribe Nation citizens pay a dollar each per vote to vote on what we're going to name each tank. Hey, Trout, can I talk to you over here for a second?

Yeah. You notice how uncomfortable just is talking about political? Yeah, man. Here I am talking about selling tanks. I feel like we're over here having a good time talking about tank town. Obviously, it's a fucking horrifying situation 100% of time all around the world. What tank town? But like it's our job as jokesters to say things like a tank that shoots corn dogs.

Justin's over there looking like he has diarrhea and he doesn't know what to do about it. No, I was thinking. Yeah. I got lost to my head for a second. Because of all my good ideas. Because of how good ideas were. It was when you were going to get rid of all the tanks. Not get rid of...

Sell. Sell them. Good. This part's important. Good collectors. Yeah. And you said you wouldn't... Okay, here's what happened.

Tanks can neither be created nor destroyed. So I can't get rid of them. I could sink them in the ocean and make reefs out of them for the fishes. Cool. That's a good idea. Yeah, that would be fun. Hang-up, Juice. About tanks?

Oh, no. It's just when Travis started talking about not selling the tanks. I started thinking about that time in Superman. went and scooped up all of our weapons and threw him in the sun. Really that part in Superman 4? A lot of people don't talk about it, but in Superman 4, Superman scoops up

all the nuclear weapons on the planet. Yeah, she knows about. This, that's... Yeah, X-rays, okay. So he gets all the nuclear bombs of the planet and then he throws him in the sun. Yeah. Do you think...

I mean, Superman's great and indestructible. We love it. But do you think he talked to any science guys about that? at all because like I'm not a bombologist for sure yeah but like it does seem wild that he just kind of made that call do you think too when he landed back and he was like I got rid of all the nuclear weapons like the science guys and stuff were like oh my god you got rid of all the nuclear weapons and all the stuff to make more nuclear weapons and he was like oh shit oh no oops I'll be right

back I got a good get a bunch of the middle I think soups probably did some back of the napkin math according to they might be giants a million earths could fit in of one sun and a million nuclear bombs can fit in one earth. So that's like a Google bombs. I think it would take quite a lot to blow up the sun. But it would have been nice to know if he had done like a press conference beforehand, even shortly beforehand, like, hey, I'm Superman, I'm going to take your bombs. There's nothing you need to stop me.

I'm going to throw him into the sun. If you happen to be a sunologist and you know stuff about how that could be disastrous for the whole solar system, hit me up. And he has like a public number. Right now, I'm going to pick him. all up I'm gonna park them on Saturn as a placeholder and then when you guys tell me it's cool I'm gonna take them to the sun if we want to do them one at a time just to see how guys I think is okay we'll do 10 at a time if there's like a crazy flare I'll be like whoa whoa whoa whoa

yelza stop so stop it's like yeah it's exactly the fireworks procedure hi jiff jiff's and daily planet couldn't you just throw them anywhere else in the whole gal in the whole universe can no because if he throws it once he throws it and he doesn't throw with the fur enough so it falls back down to Earth

and also you know like doomsday's out there and Megazore and all the other Superman bad guys and they could

collect those things up you know what I mean he could hit the Guardians of the Galaxy with that and then where are we at yeah you gotta be careful with that

Captain Planet told them to do it and he was like yeah let's do it it is a it is a bad idea to talk about this considering

that it is I mean, four or five days before the episode comes out while we record this. We don't know what the situation is. I did see Mike Johnson on the news this morning that absolutely fucking chode penis wrinkle up on a stage saying, if the Democrats don't get it together,

we're going to have to start laying off federal workers. You hate that shit, don't you, Michael? Michael, that's your least favorite. Go to start. We hate laying off federal. Fuck off chode nuts. Get him. Yeah.

Get him, Griffin. I hate how much oxygen I share with that absolute fucking chode wrinkle. Fuck that dude. Yeah. Is he one of the big guys or what's up? He came out, someone came up to him and was like, hey, your president's embarrassing himself, man. And he's like, I didn't see the whole military speech thing.

Both of these nuts, Mike Johnson, you fucking chode. Did he see the thing where Trump posted an AI video of himself saying a thing he never said? I did it Didn't see that one Did say it I was watching The new season of the bear I know I'm a little behind

But I haven't been keeping up With current events I only read Lamont Isn't it in Lamont? This is an advice show I want to help you the people I collect rubber ducks In recent years

This has become pretty common And they're popping up In more and more stores As a result When I mention my collection nowadays I'll get a casual Oh, I have a friend who collects them too Or something casual like that

The thing is You've used casual twice in two clauses My friend, I know exactly what your problem is With this new wave of duck collectors, huh? It couldn't be that they're casual, huh? The thing is that I've been collecting For about 15 years And have about three

I didn't even finish the fucking question I knew had your number Not that exact number I would have guessed 300 unique duds How can I casually assert my dominance as the inevitably superior collector that's from buoyancy, bother in Virginia? We're going to have to put on the hat of someone who celebrates a sort of gatekeeping, which is not our usual position to take, but I do think, I do fully, fully understand why it would get your hackles up. My oldest says that he has a rubber duck collection because he gets a rubber duck every time he goes to the dentist. My friends, he has like nine.

And then some of them are cool. He has one big, glittery one. I like that a lot. That's a cool rubber duck. He's got a whole spot in his bedroom where he displays them. That's great. But come on. I don't know.

I don't, uh, listen, I'm going to gatekeep, gatekeeping for a second. I don't know that differentiating a collection versus I have several of those. That's more of like, let's, let's make words mean something. more than it is gay. If you said, I like rubber ducks and you said, you don't like rubber ducks, I like rubber ducks because I have 300 of them. But if you're like, yeah, my friend collects those, and you're like, how many do they have? And they're like, five.

It's like, no, they have several of them. But it's just like everybody feels like a phony all the time, man. Not me. That's true. Travis doesn't. Some people don't. Okay. A lot of people feel like a phony all the time.

You don't have to do anything to make people feel like a phony, right? I understand the compulsion But if you Peacock a little bit No, it's ducks It's a different bird Travis is right on this one It's a fully different bird

They don't even make anything If you Are ostentatious Thank you With your ducks Then I think that they're going to fill in the blanks They're going to see what a joke they are They're going to recognize themselves

For the drubroney that they are They're going to know that your superiority there They're going to know the tip of the flying V such as it is. Now, let me ask you this, Justin. Is there a scenario in which question asker is talking about very proudly their duck collection? And then one of said jabronies tries to steal a little bit of that limelight of like, yeah, I also do that. No, if they frame it like, no big deal, I also do ducks.

Yeah, everybody does that. That's when you have to drop. That's when you should. Okay. Yeah. There is one pretty good option here, and that is to have a. bag of 20 to 30 discreet ducks on you at all times.

Burners, not your faves. Not your faves. No, no, no, no. You need to be able to toss some on the ground and walk away. That's how good your collection is. These are literal trash to me.

This is gravel. Hold up like a special limited edition like Christina Aguilera like a dirty era sort of like cross promo record launch duck and they're like, you're like pretty cool, huh? They're like, holy shit, where did you even get that? you say, and you crush it in your hand,

you throw it in the guard, you say, it doesn't matter, I have 30 of them. I got 30 of them. I have 30. I want your ducks alone by my. You flora. We're probably the first people to make that.

Sometimes it feels, like I feel an energy in the room, and it's like we're definitely the first people to ever make a rubber duck collection based Christina Aguilera dirty joke. I feel like after we do it, sometimes we take like two beats. For the historians to write it down.

Yeah, to clip it. Awesome. Clip it out. Clip it out. It makes it easier for history to find it. When history is trying to find it later, the big ones. There's little parentheses around the jokes. They go a little parenthetical, a silence parenthetical. And that was when they changed everything.

That's one of the times when they changed everything that week. This was the episode, the music died. We'll all remember. I think a great solve for this, and this is one that you can use for, for so many fucking things that you want to use as a conversation starter or a subtle means of displaying your superiority in your duck collection is set it as your desktop on your phone,

your wallpaper, whatever you call it. People call it different things in different countries. Your desktop wallpaper on your phone. Make it all of your ducks. People are gonna see that because it's bright and colorful. They'll be like, wow, it's a lot of ducks. You say, thanks, they're mine. Do you wanna see more photos of them?

Don't tell me about your friend. They'll be too embarrassed They'll know if they see it They'll know that it's not appropriate To bring up their friend Yeah I just feel like If you've already dropped a bag of 20 to 30 discrete ducks on

And the Griffins is just a whole lot of Well mine True you think about how many times You're doing that a day They only have 300 ducks So they could pull off this gambit Approximately 10 times You are you have to go back

For your boys You gotta get you can You can drop together You know what I mean Yeah yeah you can Drop him in to flourish, but ducks fly to get in and crap. Oh, man. Holy shit, though.

I almost think, because of my prioritizing, avoiding uncomfortable social scenarios, it would be worse to have this be public information, because do you know how many fucking Scrowdy Row, basic ass, canary yellow

rubber ducks you are going to get sitting on your, you come in, they know it's your birthday, they put a basic ass rubber duck, like enjoy. What the fuck? am I going to do with this platonic ideal of a rubber duck? There is an early level of intervention, though, where you set that up, like, listen, I love receiving ducks if they are like appropriate for the collection. And now you've given your coworkers or friends like the hunt, right, where they're going to bring it. I'm like, what about this one?

I've done this one is special. And when they get the approval on that, that's when it feels so good. And it's like, yeah, that's worthy. You nailed it. That's great. If you had a big rubber duck collection, wouldn't you want to display it in like a huge, like, hook-a-duck rotating aquatic display? Like, you would have a whole room in your house and you walk, people would walk in and they're just going. Like, they're not sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

Oh, yeah, they're like in a ring of moving water. They're in a ring of moving water, like a carnival game. But these are absolutely not child's prizes. These are adult collector's items. That would be so cool. Man, I hate to use the word adult before things. It just is, I think it's been ruined for me. The second you say adult collector's items, I'm like, ugh.

Yeah. What's up with these ducks? They are, they are, they are butt ducks. I love popsicles, and I was thinking about maybe bringing some to work as a delightful afternoon snack. There's a freezer and the popsicles are individually wrapped. What's the etiquette on bringing these treats into the office? For context, I'm specifically speaking about the frozen treats on a stick. Not the flavored ice in a sleeve or iced cream.

The flavor would most likely be fruit flavored. So no bomb-poles. Thank you. You're really building this fucking plane while you're flying and aren't you, pal? These are important details, though. They are important details, you know what? Maybe it would be better. What the fuck do you think bomb pop tastes like for now?

It's a caduzzi. Give me a fucking a push. Pop, maybe that would be unconventional. I might put that under ice cream. They're all fruit flavors. They're all fruit flavors. I know, but, Justin, you have to recognize in a professional setting. You see Derek from accounting bust out a flute-flavored popsicle.

Sorry, sorry. You said flute, so we have to stop. What's playable. Like those candies, you know, like Toot Suit sweets from Twi-Jing. Yeah, like Chitty-Jing Bing. Fuck, I destroy a Toot Suite right now. Yeah, we all would. And, but it's, you see that.

And it's like, now that. that's almost a professional affectation. I see a bomb pop. I'm like, that's a child working an adult's job. Yeah. What's the adult? I guess there are like those fucking fancy chocolate ones that you see where they like really drizzle on the, that good chocolate stuff.

But it's not an ice cream one, girlfriend. You're right. It's not an ice cream. It's a fruit flavor. You're right. There is the ones we've tried to do this where it's like, and there's pieces of real fruit inside and like give those to our kids and our kids are like, what do you think I want out of a.

Popsicle experience because the father business is not it. It's not the world's hardest strawberry. I'll tell you that much. It's just like the gap between, it's like how, the, the biggest gap in the world is the gap between how kids think they feel about smoothies and how kids really feel about smooth. Correct. For sure. 100%.

Kids are obsessed because we had a lot of, we had a lot of cartoons that were in their age that were like trying to popularize, you know, healthy eating, right? Like, you got to eat smoothies. It meant, like, Daniel Tiger, like, went eight. shit for it and they love conceptually love smoothies well that was he was doing protein he was protein packing because he wanted to get huge like his dad he wanted to get huge like his that that was the whole thing where the do you remember the like the chunk of episodes where the lion moved into town and like took he like walked up to daniel tiger's dad and like fucking

punched him in the face and then took his house yeah took his house and his house and his wife and his watch and it's like his dad is like you're power's not gonna call it daniel if you What real gains? You gotta eat a gazelle. So he had to protein pack on. Do you remember that? It was the one Prince Wednesday did die. He died from the lion attack.

Kids don't like smoothies. That's all I was going to say. I can't. Where do you guys have popsicles? Because I, guys, I bring these flavored treats out to the pool. My kids love them. Yeah. I can't.

I don't like any popsicles. That's cool. That's, I understand that. I don't like any popsicles. They give me a tummy ache, weirdly. especially the ones in the plastic sleeve it's just like straight sugar water you say weirdly they contain carbon

so I don't understand why it is weird that they give you a tummy ache I will fuck absolutely with a filly swirl sometimes those come in cups with a stick but they do make them in popsicle forms those are so lit Justin you don't people Philly swirl people please make a box

of the cotton candy ones you only put two in there and it's ruining my life please I mean it's my least favorite but for the kids the kids got it please do a box of kind of kids Hey, as long as we're on this, I see you all out there, popsicle makers, the animals, all y'all. You know you got one good flavor and one shit flavor, and you do combo boxes to get that shit flavor out of the warehouse. Cut it the fuck out.

Cut it out. We're on to you. And stop putting people they like on flavors they don't. I'm tired to tell my kid, I can't get him Olaf's horseradish crunch because my son. My son, Jeremy, despises horseradish. Yeah. It's likechia buy it for him. You don't like spaghetti.

I'm not getting you, I'm not getting you the ragu with the battle bus on it, dude. I'm getting Spitey spaghetti. You don't like Spitey spaghetti yogurt. You hate spaghetti. You love Spider-Man. He won't make it taste good. It won't taste how Spider-Man feels to you to see him. I know the Spaghetti's like webs, but it doesn't.

It doesn't. Translate, honey. It doesn't. That doesn't taste good for you. I can't make the pasta look more like Spider-Man. There's only so much I can make it look. I know it fell apart with your spoon, sweetie. You're supposed to.

It's supposed to. You're supposed to eat Spider-Man. I like it because I like spaghetti, but you don't. I get to enjoy Spider-Man's flavor, but you don't because you don't like it. And I bought the family-sized pack of it because we both thought it was going to be a thing. and we committed to it. Now watch me eat it. You got to label your box of popsicles, first of all,

but you also got to know that with individually wrapped popsicle, you are creating a very stealable situation. It is one of the more stealable foods. Anything individually wrapped in like a box of more than four, you could totally lose one of those just to theft. Shrinkage. Shrinkage is what they do. call it um what if you made your own popsicles this is a fun summertime activity and it's not

really summer anymore but it is fun to make a popsicle and then no one's going to really go after those and i think if they see you eating them and they see like little herbs and shit floating around in there it does lend it a certain like i don't know veneer of adulthood um wow you guys fucking hated that idea no i liked it so much you despise you despise you I was picturing in my head, Griffin, when I'm, anytime we talk about like an office behavior outside of any, like regular established procedures, right? Right. I start to think, and how does this translate to, oh, that's Tom, the blank guy, the office

blank guy. The office popsicle. The office popsicle guy. Okay, I can see it. Every day, 1.30, he has a popsicle to get him over that hump and make it to five o'clock. We love that. Probably good. bespoke popsicle guy

who makes his own like basil lemonade I think that's cool I think that's kind of cool that's what I'm trying to determine I'd get into it I'd get into it okay yeah I think

we might have a solution to this problem from Wheeling West Virginia with our own budget saver that company is the company behind Twin Pops No way Twin Pops might be Just the thing

Because imagine Anytime someone goes To the freezer And they come out with one You have a little bell Yes And it's like Uh-uh

Hello What are we here You will not get much work done You will be primarily watching the kitchen To see if someone comes out With one of these pops But when they come out

It's like Ahah Splitties Yes You know two fur There's two there What for me Thank you

One for One for me One fur one for two fur we both get a one for two fur we're splitting two for us one for me we're splitting them

have you ever tried to split one of those in a clean half not doable twin pops we should get up to wheeling because we could we could probably access that factory you need perforation

just a little perforation please that's all I'm asking I get a daughter get a daughter that cries if you do it wrong you'll learn you'll get a real you'll get fucking

I got you know no shit I got Martin Yan's crazy butcher knife above my stove for when my kid wants a twin pop, and I can't deal with the breakdown. And I need perfect, that perfect precision, that carbon steel. We don't talk about the weird, 15 degrees of carbon steel. I've gotten so good at eyeballing, splitting a drink into two cups. Like, I'm like, I'm, I bet it's to the micron, you know what I mean? like I got a pizza delivered earlier this week and something happened to it on route and it showed up and when we opened the box it was like half squished into like one half of the box it was a tragedy a lot of the cheese had just like come off almost all the slices that it all kind of like squished into each other is a horrible situation and gus is so picky about his pizza if he sees any sauce through the cheese stratum he will not he will not fuck with it so

So this is me in the fucking kitchen hovering over this pizza mush trying to create a solid layer of cheese coverage on one of these reconstructed slices and then like putting it in the broiler for a second to try to melt the cheese. Because if he knows it's patchwork stuff, he's not going to fuck with it. It was the most degrading moment in my entire life. Oh, griff. Oh, griff, buddy. And then of course, you know, me and Rachel had to eat the slop. because the kids got the slices. God, I eat the slog.

That's parenthood. That's dinner, baby. Can we go to the man? Oh, dang it, I was going to say it, and then... I technically didn't say it. I said a series of syllables that could be into... I can tell you what's wild. I'm already there.

Laurel. Shit. I'm in the money zone. Travis, who's in there with you? You too. No. Travis, those are... Travis, that's not us.

What? That's not us. Travis, get out of there. You know why I like doing ads for Squarespace? Why? Why? I like a sponsor that is all about creation. That's what Squarespace, for me, it is a creative tool.

You got a project you want to do. You don't know the best way to get started. A website is a great place to get going. And I love- I bet that if Squarespace was around at the dawn of time, God would have have used it to create the earth. Probably with these best in class templates. Absolutely, you would have.

But the problem is that they're created by world class designers and I don't think there were any world class designers before God made the earth. Okay, that's the first thing you would have made then, the designers. In the beginning, there was designers. You all take it from here. The word was designers and the word was with designers.

Thank you so much Squarespace. Oh, there's more. Yeah, yeah, you got to say more about. about it or else people are kind of a little bit confused still they uh you can use these websites they're not just vanity things you can use them to sell stuff um you could yeah you could use them to sell your products if you want you could use it to organize events whatever you want to do the website squarespace makes it really easy head to squarespace dot com slash my brother for a free trial and when you're ready to launch use offer code my brother to save 10% off your first purchase of a

website or domain i'm ready to launch right now into savings what With rocket money. Fuck. Imagine rocket money is like a defense system with little rockets targeted at your unused subscriptions. And when those unused subscriptions try to hove into your bank account, it's like, beo, peepoo, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew.

And it takes those unwanted subscriptions out. Takes them down. That's a little violent. Wow, it's such a violent way of thinking about it. I don't know if Rocket Money would like that. I was thinking more like the Space Invaders video game, you know, not like, there's no gore. There would be no gore, Griffin. Is that what you're concerned about?

So you're like, you have like your, your fart piano deluxe subscription that your son signed you up for because his fingerprint, I guess, is close enough to yours. Yeah. And it zaps that, but there's, but no blood or anything. No, no, no, no, no, just pixels. Just pixels. And then I don't have to pay $6.99 a fucking week. because Rocket Money helped me out and now I'm like saving Buku Bucks

every year and meeting all my financial goals. Wait, Buku Bucks, are you serious? Yeah, man, Buku Bucks. It was Bucu Bucs a week. Rocket Money also, it shows you all your expenses in one place and it helps you, you know, lower your bills and reach your financial goals and grow your savings and they have like a grown-up. Like a grown-up.

They've got over 5 million members that have saved over a total of $500 million and canceled subscriptions with members saving up to $740 a year when they use all the app's premium features. So cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with RocketMoney. Go to RocketMoney.com slash my brother. Today, that's rocketmoney.com slash my brother. RocketMoney.com slash my brother. All right.

I don't want to wait for the next segment to begin because I got a start right now. That was so cool. I want a Munch Squad I want to Munch Squad All time or intro Oh my God damn Welcome Munch Squad's podcast is in a podcast Profiling the latest and greatest in brand eating

That was a little bit like when Frampton runs like the tube From his mouth and do his guitar Talkbox baby And he talks through it You feel What I'm not here That was a really good Peter Frim to top box impression trash. Thank you.

Who knew? I could never do it again. Never again? It's rare that almost, it's rare that like an entire movement can be summed up in one image. And it's even rare that I would do that in an audio format. Huh. We've made it. Looks like we made it.

Can I say, can I describe this? Yeah, so this is a trap. What we, as modern day human beings, might at first mistake for a Wendy's sign. Yeah, big Wendy's sign up in the sky. So admittedly, without any of the excess stuff on it, just the Wendy's picture. And then where it would say Wendy's, it says, 10D's, and there's a godlike beam of light shining upon it from the heavens. There's a weird number of God rays in this picture.

They basically just swapped the W with a T. And you can tell that's what happened because the kerning is like fucked up. You can tell a W was supposed to go there, not a capital T. Yeah. But this is the, this is the headline. Without context, though, I just want to say, tendies doesn't read like chicken tenders to me. So much as like, we're going to treat you tenderly here at Wendy's. Yeah.

I could see that. There's the headline, guys. A new chicken era dawns at Wendy's. That's the story. We are still cleaning up after the last chicken era. The fact that a new one has settled this quickly sucks. Has already begun. This is going to confuse the future paleontologists who dig up all these chicken bones.

Yeah, for sure. There was a whole extinction event that they're not even going to see. Wendy's Fresh, Never Frozen Square Burgers, holds deep roots in chicken, too, with its spicy chicken sandwich arriving in 1995 a good 24 years before the so-called chicken sandwich wars involved a category in social media. But

U.S. CMO Lindsay Rikoski and the team recognized more pressing trends swirling in recent years. Guys, we're eating a wild amount of chicken. We can't get enough of this stuff. That's the thing. And they cannot sell enough of it through the judicial method. Hence,

Tendis. What is that, Justin? Because so far, it just looks like they're announcing they Photoshop to sign. For Wendy's, Radkowski says, the brand had two choices, as is often the case when a trend elevates into a frenzy. It could race to join in, or it could watch, learn, and arrive to market on its own terms.

That's fucking great. It's so cool for a restaurant to put out a press release saying, we're smart. Yeah, we are very clear. Tommy's rush to market to make money off the trend. We waited until the trend started to die down. And now we're going to try to scrape up all the money that's left. The fix, the leavings.

Radkowski says Wendy spent more than a year, quote, probably closer to 18 months on development of the COVID vaccine. You don't have to correct. You can fix that in the press release. Yeah, I, no, yeah, 100%. They should know exactly how long that they did. This is a news story, though. Did you say on the development of the COVID vaccine, Justin?

I was just reflecting on how it was a similar time frame to create the first COVID vaccine. These Tendys will kill COVID. In laboratory conditions. Yeah. Wendy's involved franchisees and tested through a couple of markets. In addition to flavor and appearance, it wanted to pilot Tendys in the real world. Guys, they took 18 months to come up with chicken ters. To change the one letter, yeah.

Yeah. They got six sauces, Wendy's signature, sweet chili, scorching hot, creamy ranch, honey barbecue, and honey mustard. Can we not have a little bit more originality in the sauce department, guys? 18 months to come up with what? Tendee. They could have just spent that time going to the Los Angeles Convention Center, trying the chicken tenders there, which are my favorite chicken tenders I've ever eaten. Really good chickens.

And just recreate those. Just make those. Returning to the broader theme for Wendy's, Radkoski says, it would have been easy to look around and observe the chicken surge. And maybe smart. Maybe we should have done that.

Maybe a good idea. Yeah, we don't know. Wait, fuck. Wendy's wanted to begin the process with customers, quote, why are they eating more chicken now than they have? And as we started to do the work

on our menu more recently, as we were looking at the next chapter for Wendy's staying modern, relevant to younger QSR customers as we've refined our consumer target. So that's why it's, and then she says simply core menu or innovation, quote, we've done a lot with chicken. Extremely sinister. No doubt for sure.

Most of which we couldn't tell our priest about. Let's put it that way. Yeah, it's a evil. There's a wickedness there. We're really known for flavor, she adds. So when we thought about what's out there right now, the choices consumers have in the unique place we believe Wendy's can carve out. It wasn't only about the tender itself, but the sauces became a huge part of the conversation. And really where we saw a lot of excitement when we did work with the customers, if you can get excited about honey barbecue at this point, I don't know what to tell you.

You're on a whole other thing, then I want to get on your level. That's cool. I was on TikTok today, and I saw an ad for Garbage Pail Kids' books written by R.L. Stein. That just happened, right? Yeah. And you want me to get excited about honey mustard? Yeah. And even that, I assume, just a very small reaction from you.

Like, that's what it takes to get you to 10%. Yeah. Interesting. Can I say that. Honey mustard? To be nutting over honey mustard is crazy. So far from this press release, what I have gathered is they spent 18. months determining that people like to eat chicken tenders with sauces.

I literally still do not know what the news is here. What is the action item for me as a consumer of Wendy's? Well, I mean, I did clarify that the entirety of the story was contained within the image. And I was not, I mean, tendies guys, tendee, they're tendies. They have chicken tenders. They decided to not make them taste like shit and people, like, dipping them and stuff. They didn't have a press release. They didn't have chicken tenders before?

They didn't? They didn't have chicken. I can't speak to that with confidence. I didn't fucking, I didn't know that. So, like, who gives a shit, Wendy's? Yeah, Griffin, but then, but, so, um, they go on. They go on. There's many paragraphs.

Here's another quote from Red Koski. You think about a. What? How do you maximize reach and grow coverage with consumers and have things that are very unique and distinct to Wendy's? By having honey mustard. One example is sweet chili. Wendy's could have unveiled a sweet and sour sauce and stayed pedestrian, she says, but this presented a chance to unroll an updated tape. There's more flavor for intensity and balance, and it's relevant to a Gen Z category that flossed

sauces. Flossed sauce. That flossed sauces. Something else Wendy's noticed, and guys, this one is really going to trip you up. They noticed the research and hands-on tests where customers, again, with a spotlight on younger cohorts,

like to mix sauces and make meals more personal. They combine ranch with scorching hot, for instance. Whoa. That mix ability, it really leads to endless ways you can

create flavor with Wendy's sauces. And that was in mind when we thought about how the sauces complement each other within the lineup as well. That's cool. So then... Was it? You had a good think about like, but what if they mix creamy ranch with it? What have they mixed creamy ranch in there?

Originally, all of our... All of our sauces were sort of chemically repulsive to each other. Like oil and water, they would not actually... mixed, but we realized... One of them was baking soda and vinegar. And guys, that was a mistake. That was not a good sauce.

Wendy's signature is Wendy's signature creamy sauce with hints of black pepper and hot sauce. I mean, credit to them, I'm not going to put that in my body. Like, I don't know. Do you guys... Okay, okay, I have a big idea for you.

Okay. They recently did a very... You gotta get this fucking picture of chicken titters off my screen just. It is making me hungry as a wolf. Yeah. The, uh, they did a wind Wendy's promotion recently with Wednesday,

where it was like a bunch of wild sauces, and they were all colored, so you couldn't really tell what the sauces were, and you had to kind of guess. And they had names like, like, blood from a dog. Here's my theory. This is my fan theory. I think that those are all the sauces

that they made for tests, and then they were like, fuck, no, this all is too crazy. We can't. Well, let's just keep the normal ones, okay? They didn't like mummy piss, guys. They did not like Mommy Piss. We got to get rid of that.

I told you we should have a Chipotle Mummy Piss. That's where the youth cohort is at. Chipotle Mummy Piss. These young freaks like it's spicy. They don't care that it's pit. They don't care that it's piss. It's the spice that they crave. There's a reason Wendy's drop six options instead of one.

Red Koski admits it's a crowded space, but being distinctly Wendy's in a sea of fast food options is nothing new to the brand's marketing ethos. Okay. Like, none of that means shit. Like, those are just words. Those are words put in an order that our human brains ascribe meaning to, and yet say fucking nothing. Guys. Hey, speaking of, would you like a full quote about why it is called this?

Yeah. Because you are probably wondering about it, right? Like, how could you? We like to have fun. And it doesn't have to be super serious. Okay. No. Our name so easily lends itself to a nickname for the product.

Yeah. And the way we're going to talk about it is our tenders are so bold and juicy and crispy and the sauces are so amazing. You're going to want to know them on a first name basis. This is beyond, I think, AI wrote this and it's putting me in a headspace of like maybe it's all AI matrix, human battery, and I'm asleep. and because there's simply no way a human being got a hand on this particular ball. That is a profoundly wild thing to say.

I've never been eating any food and thought, I got to know this food's first name. Do you want to hear a sentence from the boss of Wendy's about the people that made up the Wendy's chicken vendors? I can geek out on some of what the team went through, she says, of the ideation process. It takes time. And we had conversations once we knew what was happening competitively. We said, we're not going to rush it. We're not going to change our launch date. We're going to do it our way.

The boxes don't say tendies. They say Wendy's. I don't ever want to go there again. Did it take them 18 months? That sucks, dude. I don't ever want to go there again. Can I ask a serious question? And we've talked about this obviously on Munch Squad a lot before.

Yeah. You're plugged into the QSR space. How many, just rough, unwilling, captive. Just rough estimate, how many major news publications, how many verticals are out there covering the QSR space that would need the help of a full press release to write the story Wendy's has chicken tenders now? QSR is not, it's not just for marketing Griffin,

it's about, it's a historical document. You know what I mean? So like three or four, maybe top publications? Okay, so this is a job for someone is to write this whole thing. A whole thing. For those four places and you. That's crazy. That's like a really bespoke service journalism.

It's really wild that they're doing. It almost feels like vanity journalism, like we'll name a star after you. You know what I mean? Like we'll do a long feature story about how you came up with tendies. Yeah, I can't frame it. I can't stress enough. It looks like, I think this is just so they have something to frame in the offices, right? You've shared the details here with us, Justin, and I once again have to reiterate a little bit of telling on themselves, once again, 18 months spent people like chicken tenders, dipping in sauces, sometimes they mix them, and have you ever noticed that Wendy's sounds like tendies?

Yeah, so I want to look at the packaging real quick. I know Griffin, can you just clock, if you just look at the packaging. They don't do, I got to say, pictures of chicken tenders without dip are repugnant to me. This does nothing for me. Yeah, it's really rough. It's really rough. They need to be dipped in something. Looking at them by, by the way, this is a core product offering.

Okay. They're having a picnic out on a picnic table. They've got their fries sort of spayed out, and it looks like the fries are just raw dogging it on the picnic table. They don't want you to look at the fries. Don't look at the fries right now. We're sorry the fries are touching our picnic table. It's crazy, man. So you look at the package.

There, the details work down to packaging. Tendys come in vessels built for dunking with a dip cup cut out that holds. Vessels built for dunking. That's a submarine. A submarine is a vessel built for dunking. Take upon yourself this sacrament. Take the vessel, the empty vessel. In a way, my children, we are all vessels meant for dunking.

Come get baptized. It's got a dip cup, cut out. Did shot, den juts. It's got a dip, cup, cut out that holds sauces. Quote, it's a reflection of how consumers want to eat. I feel like I'm looking in a fucking mirror. It's a reflection of how consumers want to eat. We want to enable a better elevated experience of a little perforation or a cutout for the sauce.

I do like preparation. Those are things that take a little bit of time, Travis. an 18-month timeline in total and then producing for 6,000 restaurants in the U.S. at scale training our system. We wanted to do it the right way. Derek wanted to rush it.

Derek said, let's get it out there. We fired him. This is what, which may be meant it wasn't maybe the fastest as you think about some of our competitors and other things that have launched recently. I'm looking right now

at the Wendy's online website at the menu for places. a delivery or pickup order at Wendy's and this particular menu item is found under tenders and you can get three piece tenders or four piece tenders they don't even call them Wendy's tendies on the menu the this I've never I've never thought of this before I never thought this of a press release but it's lying like it's a lying the press release is actually lying and none of this is actually true or happening um The, so they, they, the chain often frames their approach as, quote, not outspending the other guys, but out playing them.

4D chess. Yeah, man. Don't tell us about that. That's the podcast game we've been playing the whole time. Yeah. Be late to trends. Do them very poorly. You see it everywhere from SaaS on social media to collaborations, such as its SpongeBob crabby Patty setup.

to the more recent Wednesday meal of misfortune, i.e., please take all these grody sauces. We don't know what to do. The landfill smells weird, and we can't put any more in the landfill. The landfill guy said we couldn't put any more there. He said no more. So we got to, you got to eat them, please. He said rats have been crawling out of the landfill wrong. Yeah, because of all the sauces.

We've been looking into like a cave system in Nevada where they said we could store these things for up to 50 years. I thought he said they've been crawling out strong So I do feel a little bit better I feel a little bit better about wrong than strong I guys Delicious and smoky but incorrect From a physiological sort of standpoint This is that I'll tell you

How this ends because it really does go on like We will make it really fun And bring to life a craft That went into the development of the product itself The experience the sauces So that people can experience it in a hands-on immersive way

that's because the attendees locations are going to have a red carpet feel there's going to be tendies restaurants you see a red carpet feel tendies experience it's a playful takeover approach where are these going to happen because if I don't fucking see it I am not

going to believe it probably California man you get all the fucking fun stuff man and probably yeah and one thing Redkoski wants to make clear however is are not a fleeting moment in the product timeline. Oh, okay. They're joining Wendy's central offerings and giving the brand another anchor to leverage a chicken

category that's driving growth and occasions throughout the segment. And again, she says, that's why we took the time to do it right. To leverage our tenders. I want to eat chicken tenders so. Yeah, dude. So bad. Yeah. Not these.

Not these, but like any. They're all kind of the same. Well, there's a Popeye's by my mind. my house that I think I might order lunch from now. Yeah. Thank you, Wendy's, for making me think about Popeyes. Thank you, Wendy's, for reminding us about Popeyes. I mean, I do need to, like, we can joke, but, like, you guys still like Wendy's.

You guys still like Wendy's, right? Not again, Griffin. Nice try. Trave, Justin would have, I would have gotten. I know, I know Justin would have, but I can see into the deep, dark pit of your soul, sir. Thanks, Travis. I appreciate it. Yeah, baby.

Let's wrap this up. I'm tired. I'm Travis. Hey, thanks so much for listening to our podcast. I hope you're enjoying some Wendy's chicken tenders. Griff, do you like Wendy's? We got some new merch up in the merch store over at Macroymerch.com. There's a Taz Hunger Beanie with some rad eyeball design.

It's going to keep you warm and spooky in these cold and spooky months. And 10% of all of our merch proceeds this month will be donated to Border Angels. which offers services like educational programs, water drops in the desert, day laborer outreach, familius reunitas, immigration bond fund program, and shelter aid support in Tijuana

to aid migrants and asylum seekers in need. It's, again, macroymerch.com. And hey, we got a few more shows coming up. Not much, not many opportunities to come see us. If you live in or around Salt Lake City or San Diego, we're coming up there and just like, I don't know, next week, I guess. Something like that.

We've also got the TAS show we're doing on that tour is going to be our 50th Taz live show to celebrate. We're doing a balance show with Erica E. Shee is a special guest and Griffin is going to be running that one. It's going to be so much fun. Tickets are on sale now. You can go to bit.org.com.

Also, Champions Grove is coming back for its third year for Memorial Day weekend in May. Sponsored by Witt. Didn't you say it was going to be sponsored by Wendy's? No, and the tickets for that are going to go on sale November 3rd at 12 p.m. Eastern Time. Get all the details at Championsgrove.com or by following Champions Grove on Instagram. Yeah. Hey, thanks to Montaigne for the use of our theme song, My Life is Better With You.

It's a great album. A great, great album, that new album is hard to be a fish. All Montane's music is so great. I love to listen to it at home. It gives me a break from listening to Imagine Drive. on my sort of public house speakers. Juice, do you like imagine? Justin, Justin, Justin, Justin, Justin. Hey, Justin, Griffin do you have the Montaigne album on CD? Do you like Imagine Dragons, Justin?

Do we have a fear? Justin looks like he's been killed. Justin looks like he's been killed in his chair. Do you have the Montane record on CD? I just, I just, I. Yeah, I have it on CD. CD's nuts. CD's nuts.

I feel like not, I feel like not. Okay, Trad do you want to do, do we have a fear? We do. I'll read it. CD's nuts. This year, I will live faster than my fear of witnessing a tense social situation in public and being approached by John Kinones after I've failed to intervene. That's fucking good. and true and powerful.

My name is Justin McElroy. I'm Travis McElroy. I'm Griffin McElroy. This has been my brother. My brother may kiss your dad. Square on the lips. It's better with you. My life.

It's better. It's better with you. My life. Oh, ah, it's better. It's better with you. This is true. It's better. It's better with two. My way.

Ah, oh, it's better with you. Maximum Fun. A work-owned network of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.