Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - 1-800 Call-QQSD

Episode Date: February 5, 2023

Everyone's healthy and fired up to hit you with another episode filled with questions.  For listeners under 25 the guys explain the concept of Collect Pay Phone calls and what Folger's coffee was! 

I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? I wanna hear your thoughts, wanna know what's on your mind I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favourite? Who did you get? What do I be? What's it up to? Where did all that go?? Oh, forget it. Saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien.

Two best friends and comedy writers. If there's an answer, they're gonna find it. I think you'll have a great time here. I think you'll have a great time here the bottom half senior writer for last week's night author of how to fight presidents and sleepy boy daniel o'brien with me as always is my co-host soren buoy soren say hello hello everybody i'm soren buoy i'm a writer for american dad i am the i'm the top uh but like bagel wise not sexually like yeah like dan's dan's bottom i'm a i'm a top bagel lee i don't think i've ever heard that described that top i'm top like like bagel wise just a preference thing some people don't like as much as like the the the bullshit that they

sprinkle on top of the bagel they want that bottom half where they just get a few little notes yeah yeah it's breakfast is about business i don't need any of those flourishes. The top bagel, that stays in the trash. that we get, I get in the morning and I don't get in crazy late or anything. I get in when everybody else gets in, but I go look through those bagels and the options are like cranberry and chocolate chip and some sort of wheat bagel that looks like it's somehow

just heavier than the others. Like when you pick it up, it's like it got more mass. Why are we making these? Like why are any donut shop bagel shop making these? I think I could really thrive as an office or set catering uh person because i would love that for you like like purely because i can i will learn and adapt if i was doing bagels every morning and i realized every day at around 1 p.m i'm staring at a bunch of moldy grape cranberry bagels. I'd be like, okay, it seems

like people don't want these. I'm going to make sure we don't have them ever again. And I'll just double up on the ones that people eat quickly. Here's what you should be getting. Onion, garlic, everything, salt, maybe sesame, and a plane. Everyone's going to be happy. maybe sesame and a plane that like everyone's going to be happy. We used to get breakfast in the office every weekend and writers get in around 10 o'clock. Other people get in earlier than that. And by the time we roll in at 10 o'clock, almost everything would have been eaten already. There'd be like some bits of granola or like the bottom of a bowl has some yogurt in it still. And that's the kind of thing where I'm like, well, this has been the same problem happens every week some yogurt in it still. And that's the kind of thing where I'm like,

well, this has been, this same problem happens every week and has been for years. At a certain point, someone needs to learn and adjust because they must see that this doesn't work. Colleen learned the exact wrong lesson from it. She also gets bagels at her work occasionally. And so the other day we were having guests over and she was going to order bagels and coffee and she's like going through the list of bagels and i was like can i take a look at that and i see what she's checked and she's checked all like that the bullshit all the and not the good stuff just the bullshit and i was like where why are you doing this like is this a joke and she was like these are the bagels that are always at my work these are the ones people like like no no no no no those are the bagels that are always at my work. These are the ones people like. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Those are the bagels that are left. Those are the ones you're seeing because no one wanted them.

Don't get those. Yeah. I do understand the impulse of I'm having a party and let me throw out all the rules of what I know I like and just be like, what do people snack on? I guess I get those orange crackers with the peanut butter inside them. I've seen that before in movies i i guess i'll get a tray of those and the doritos i hate and some cheese puffs yeah the it's like i don't know what it is i i want to beat down in her like suppress the urge to get stuff she doesn't want to eat because she thinks that's what it's,

we get pastries and I'm like, we go pick out the pastries. And I'm like, I want, I just want to pull you aside for a second as you're ordering and be like, don't, don't do this. What are you doing? You don't want that thing.

Nobody wants that thing. That weird. It almost looks like a croissant, but it's got, it's like loaded with cheese on top. Yeah. What if the party gets canceled? And then you're just stuck with a bunch

of those like chocolate sprinkly snow cap things and some pretzel rods oh fuck what am i gonna do why are we getting cake pops it's 9 30 in the morning uh i had something i want to talk about soren oh i'm sorry yeah go ahead i've been thinking about it ever since you said you worked for the show american dad uh Huge news about American Dad recently. Oh my God, yes. That was lighting up my Twitter. Would you like to talk about it? Absolutely.

This is also a thing that has been going on in my life where I'm like, I'm going to share this with everybody I know. Michael Imperioli did a recent interview interview with uh architectural digest where he's talking about his house and let me just set the scene because it helps he has nothing modern in his place his house exists outside of time it's like he he has dante busts and he's got like all his curtains his bed his uh lighting it all like, it looks like you walk into a rich, like a rich person's house and you're like, yes, this is what it's supposed to look like. I shouldn't know what any of this shit is.

And he's got all that stuff. He's so classy. If anyone doesn't know, he was Christopher on The Sopranos most famously. He's been an actor for like going all the way back. He was in Goodfellas. He's just been like around and acting in a lot of these uh mob focused piece projects for years and years and years and like you see him when he's not

doing that and uh he associates with like flashy uh very urbane brands like he seems like a cigar guy i think he did like uh like high-end tequila ads for a while. He's just like, he's a great go-to for just like class sophistication. Most recently he was on the season two of the White Lotus and he was great. And I love him, soar and continue. Yeah, he's the middle generation

of those three guys in the White Lotus. Yeah. And he's just like, he seems like a very cool guy. He's a great actor, respected, no problems that we know of yet. Yeah. So like he's clean. He's like, you do a background check and you're like, yeah, okay, I can like this guy.

And as he's like going through the house, he says, I can't even remember how it comes up. I think maybe they ask him, what do you watch? What television shows do you like? And he goes, I watch a lot of American Dad. It's my favorite show by far, actually. Hey! And everybody in the world went, fucking what?

What is he talking about? so that stung a little that everyone on twitter was like shitting on it immediately like what why would he say that what a crazy choice um but i also in my heart was thinking the same thing i was like oh wow yeah i want to be delicate about it because it's not i don't think it's crazy to love American Dad. I watched that show and I watched it before you even worked on it and it always makes me laugh. It's a very funny show and I love the characters. I will agree that it's strange for an adult man to say out loud,

my favorite show is American Dad. It's not because the show is bad. It's just like, you're supposed to lie and say something cool. Like the rest of us, you idiot, what are you doing? Say your favorite show is the news or something. I don't know. There's a woman on our show, Nicole Shabtai, who's very funny. And as soon as I put, I dropped this Michael Imperioli news in the WhatsApp thread like a bomb. And immediately she like went and watched it and she was like, his favorite writers are Dante and us. I thought that was wonderful.

Yeah, he's exactly the wrong choice. He's exactly like a weird, such a weird demographic for it. Like everything about it is so exciting to me. And I love that he loves the is so exciting to me. Yeah. I love that he loves the show. It makes me so happy. It means that, obviously, we can never possibly have him on the show. No.

Because I never want him to see how the sausage is made. I never want him to actually meet any of us. I want it to just be this weird thing that exists in his brain of like, man, how do they do it? Yeah. I remember, not to make this story about me, but here we go. A couple years ago, I think my first season at Last Week Tonight, finding out that Chicago Bulls' Zach Levine wanted to come to a taping of our show because he likes the show. And I remember my bosses

asking me and the other basketball head in the office, they were like, is this guy good? Who is this guy? I'm like, yeah, he's good! Let him come to the show! I don't know. Also, does it matter if he's good? I just wanted to know, because they hadn't heard of him. And they're like, is this a player

people know of? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's cool that he wants to see the show. I don't, we should like, someone should reach out to him and be like, are you sure you want to do this? It's like a full 40 minutes of just watching one guy talk. Like, don't, you have to be there the whole time. Are you sure there's something more fun you can do in New York on a Sunday afternoon? I miss that about our table reads.

We used to have like occasionally a celebrity would just be like, I'd love to come. And of course they'd be like, yeah, but that communication never made it to anybody else in the office. So occasionally you just go to a table read and Waka Flocka would be sitting there. Oh shit. I wasn't prepared. I didn't even dress for this. Well, congratulations, Michael from The Sopranos. And what's his name from White Lotus?

Likes your show. Truly thrilling. Yeah, I've heard rumors. I don't know if I... Yeah, I'm going to say it. I've heard rumors that Donald Glover likes our show a lot that he when they're making like Atlanta and they're just

like sitting around shooting the shit they'll talk about like oh on American Dad like they do it like this and like he would just like hop into an anecdote about the show and that makes me I'm so giddy I'm like a little girl just like oh my god

he's talking about us i don't think anyone that cool or interesting uh watches our show i think people are are very aware of our show like we've done like writers guild zooms with other uh writers from like what we do in the shadows and, and other shows that I, I, I know and love. And when our show is brought up, there's, there's a lot of like nodding and like what you guys do is so hard.

It's so important. I was like, yeah, you don't fucking watch this show. It doesn't matter. Nobody, I mean, other than Marco,

I don't know who's watching our show. It just happens to be all when they get into their hotel room. But I like, you have, there's a lot of respect commanded from last week to tonight among everybody within the entertainment industry. I mean, they hear it, just like you said, they hear the name like, oh yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, good.

Yeah, of course. Yes, I'm on that team. I'm on that team. I love them. Maybe they don't watch the show i don't know but it does yeah it does feel like you'd have some pretty cool hip people who would be into it i mean it feels young despite john oliver it feels young i've always uh just like out of pure vanity have always really wondered especially when uh zach levine raised his hand as a fan i was like do other basketball players watch the show i need a list of every basketball

player who watches this show oh my god joel and b just laughing at one of your jokes in his giant house uh do they talk about it during timeouts? Holy shit. Yeah, this housing crisis is nuts, huh? Yeah. Do you guys see his piece on Myanmar? Yes, I did. Carmelo Anthony, I did. I don't even know

if Carmelo Anthony still plays. No, I don't think he is. Well, that's our Venn diagram of our shows. That's our think he is. Well, let me, that's our, on the Venn diagram of our shows. That's our crossover. Cause you know, Scotty Pippen famously on our show and, uh,

new of it, new, new of its existence. Didn't necessarily want to read the script before, before doing the record, but like new of it. Um, yeah.

So that's very exciting. It's, I've been flying high for several weeks well about a week now yeah just like on that news so thank you for bringing it up yeah of course uh i a co-worker of mine whom you've met uh joanna rovkoff is a huge sopranos fanos fan. Like, no joke, used... Like, Sopranos quotes were in her wedding vows. She is like an unironic, massive, massive Sopranos fan. And she is on maternity leave right now. And I'm waiting for her to come back so I can text her about this American Dad news.

I love her. She's great. I was like, don't bother her right now. This isn't the time to send her a screenshot of Michael Imperial's Architectural Digest to be like, this is huge news for our friend Soren, right? Hey, wake up. What are you doing? Our mutual friend Soren, remember from the HBO party? Should we get into the show? Yeah, I think we should do it oh wait quick question uh yes you were sick last time we talked how you feeling actually really good yeah uh i've come out the other side i i did i backslid a tiny bit only because uh my wife went out of town for a few days and i had the kids alone and i foolishly was like i'm gonna do it all i'm gonna have the kids

and then as soon as they go to school i'm'm also going to run to the gym and do everything. And within the first day, it was clear that had been a mistake. Too much too soon? Yes. Yeah. Or you're just on the side of the virus at that point. Yeah. Where your body's like, what are you doing, man?

We had this thing licked. But now I'm much better. Everybody in my house, thankfully, at this moment, is healthy, which is so rare in the winter. So, yeah, we're in a good window. Nice. I have a quick question for you, Dan. Go for it.

Speaking of my family, you and your brothers, when you were young, other than music, other than piano with your brothers, when you were young, other than music, other than like piano with your brother, was it clear for your parents? Like, Oh no, my child has extraordinary natural talent at this thing. Like now, how do I deal with this? Do I support it? Do I nurture it? Do I just like give them a normal childhood? But I'm thinking mostly in terms of sports, but I mean, anything. Did that happen? They were supportive of every hobby we did that we were not good at. Like they put us in Little League.

My brother David made the all-star team and they weren't giving him like private coaches or anything like that. But they did want to like nurture sports for him because it seemed like he was interested in that. When I wanted to sign up for cross country in high school, they didn't bat an eye and they were like, yeah, we'll pay whatever sign up fee. And then I dropped out of cross country. They were happy when I wanted to take voice lessons, happy when I wanted to take bass guitar lessons,

happy when I wanted to take acting lessons, whatever thing they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, go follow your dream. I wasn't, uh, good enough at any one thing that, uh, they took real notice of like they, like, I wasn't like excelling at acting or anything like that for, so there was, there were, there never would have been an opportunity for them to step in and be like, we really think you shouldn't take base and you should, you should go back to acting, we really think you shouldn't take base and you should, you should go back to acting because we really think you, you've got a bright future ahead

of you. They weren't guiding you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and again, I wasn't like naturally gifted at anything where it was like, hold the phone. Let's, let's, let's see, we need to do something with this.

We need to like, like get him on a path. I, I was thinking back to it in my own life and i'll tell you why in a second but i had i had a thing which was acting which was i early on my brother had done a lot of acting classes he was about four and a half years older than me he was a very good actor and occasionally i would just go to the acting classes with him and when i did that this teacher was like the she came to my parents she's like i'd love to have him keep coming because he's just go to the acting classes with him. And when I did that, this teacher was like, the, she came to my parents. She's like, I'd love to have him keep coming. Cause he's, he shows like real promise. And I was young. I was like eight or something like that.

And, um, she's just like dollar signs in her eyes. It's just like, please, please. Cause she had connections in Los Angeles and things. And my parents like, okay, sure. Yeah. And so I kept doing these acting classes. And then she, at a certain point, I think it was when I was 14, she was like, it's super important that you go to pilot season. Now pilot season for anyone who doesn't know there's a certain time of year in Los Angeles when they cast for all of the upcoming pilots on broadcast television. I don't know if it's still the same situation because there's so fewer, all the shows are like shows get released whenever whenever but for a long time everybody went to pilot season that's when you were most likely to get a job on television and because everyone was in town for that kind of thing a lot of movies and stuff were also

casting at that time and this is really just like it's i was like the end of january it's right around now i think it's like february to the beginning of January. It's right around now. I think it's like February to the beginning of April is really pilot season. And it's a big endeavor because you're missing a bunch of school to go to it. You're going and staying in a furnished apartment essentially. And it's cost a bunch of money. You've got to do headshots. You've got to do a bunch of different things. Yeah.

As a young working actor, it's really like that is your your job once a year is to go to la lose a lot of money and try to book anything just anything that is casting just try to win the lottery that's your shot yeah and so uh my parents were like no way immediately and then she kept pushing and i was also young enough that i was like that sounds great i want to go do it no concept of money or anything and And they eventually agreed to it and we did it and went out for pal season. And it was definitely an experience and it was unique and fun. But looking back on it, I'm like, it pains me to look back on it because it was so clear that it was like destroying the relationship between my

parents. So it was like a fraction, not in a way that was irreparable. They're still together, but it was like, they were fighting a lot. I went with my mom. I it was like a fraction, not in a way that was irreparable. They're still together, but it was like, they were fighting a lot. I went with my mom. I was not necessarily a very good kid there. Then I wasn't as thankful as I could have been. It was. And then I can remember like coming back in the car early,

getting a call on the way home. They wanted someone like this show wanted to screen test me which is like that's good i mean that's really good news and my mom trying to decide if we go back or not and like talking to my dad on the phone him being like no way come home and then calling back and like being like just go back i don't want him to hate me and like no nobody in my family knowing what to do and and being like i can't i don't like this feeling at all i i don't like who i am and so i was like ah let's go home let's just go home so we left we didn't stay i remember uh my my acting life because i did really think i wanted to be an actor when i was younger and

doing local theater and stuff and again i don't want to throw my parents under the bus they were incredibly supportive and and and still are any pivot I wanted to make, I'm sure they would wholeheartedly support me and have my back on it. But I also remember doing a million plays as a kid and my parents always saying, congratulations, you're great. You're the best one up there. You're so talented. What a good little actor. And i i very clearly remember doing a show with this uh young woman named ashley she is now uh used the stage name ashley lauren she is a broadway star go see her in moulin rouge as a teen right now she's a great friend that i have known for a million years they saw my parents saw the two of us in a show together and they were like honey you're so great

you're such a star that ashley, though, she has got it. She's next level. Yeah. Just even as a kid being fully aware, there's like, oh, yeah, my parents have been blowing smoke. She has the real it factor. That's how they're supposed to react. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Totally. And I really thought- And they're right. She's on Broadway. And I'm a fucking nobody. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You were in Dispatches. No, what was that space show that we did? Dispatches from Space. You weren't in that.

The show that you wrote and started. You were the other space show we did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I thought this is, I have to wait. Like acting is, this is not a thing that for children, I decided at that time. And my parents were so supportive during it in a way where I was like, I, I don't want anything really in my life. I don't, I don't, I'm not passionate about anything cause I'm 14 fucking years old, but

this sounded fun. So I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm really passionate about it. So anyway, I'm telling you all this because my son has shown promise at a thing in a way where i'm like already like oh hedge fund let the thing be hedge fund make lots of money ronan he i just he's a landlord he's seven he. He's just to, I guess for fun, um, over Christmas break, we took him miniature golfing and he went with his cousins and my brother and my brother's wife and Ronan just wiped the floor with everybody at miniature golf in a way where like his, the way that he grips the club, uh, I didn't teach him it.

He's like, he knows how to hold a club. He's got such a nice touch on the ball. Like he's it's fits his personality so much of like, just, I want to get it exactly right. I want it to be perfect. I think I've got it. All right, here we go. And it's like, he's like looking at like, he's going and examining it. And then he comes back and he hits the ball. And he's so good in a way where my brother was like, is he winning? Yeah, man, he's beating everybody. And at first I was like, maybe it was just a fluke.

So I've taken him a couple of times and to just a little putting green and stuff. He's never swung a big club before. I mean, that's totally different but his his short game is it's like such a clear natural talent for short game that i'm like fucking i think i have to do something now i think you forced my hand i this golf is the most expensive sport he could have been interested in my uh go ahead my five-year-old nephew is the same way he's just very good at it and like we do I haven't got many golf with him

we do like we go to pitch and putt he's like yeah the longest hole is like 90 yards the shores is like 50 or something like that and he is like really playing I mean he he knows when he wants to select clubs and he's like, when he gets up on the green, he's like, he's taking his time and he's looking at it. He's not just like most little kids or like I would do, we're just like, now it's my turn to hit the ball and see what happens.

He's like really measuring and thinking about it. And it's like very funny and cute, but it's also like at a certain point, yeah, you might want to invest in this. And my mom always says that he's so young that he doesn't know that golf is supposed to be hard. And that's why the rest of us are bad at it because like I approach golf like,

this is hard, this is stupid. People are looking at me. I'm going to be really bad at this. And no one told him that it's hard yet. So he just does it with pure confidence and grace and like this raw, mysterious skill that he has. What a great insight from your mom. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's how I feel about my son. Where I was like, okay, well, miniature golf is one thing.

You're hitting a ball on a carpet. Let's go do a putting green. It's almost some real terrain. He's still fucking sinking these putts, getting close on everything. I'm just like, I don't know, man. I'm thinking about his future. I'm like, okay, if you want to get some clubs, that's one expense. But then you put him on a golf team or whatever. to put him on a golf team or whatever. Yeah. There's nothing more expensive. There's like the coaching for golfing is so much more expensive than like a baseball coach. Getting him, if he was on a team, traveling to golf courses sounds like such a nightmare. Yeah.

Oof. It's not like soccer where you're just going to six different fields that are within four mile radius of your house. It's like you go to one golf. There might be, I think within my house, like near me, there's maybe one golf course that's three miles away. And the next one's 37 or like, it's so far away.

And the next one is double that. So traveling around to courses and then also club memberships. Like I just, I just want to be a cross country runner. It would be very funny to me if you came home one day with a nintendo switch and a golf game on it and be like ronan look at this you could do this from the house and way better right trying to get your son hooked on video games oh you like that one well let me show you also this other one is called minecraft what do you think about that you could build your own clubs um yeah i i don't know what i'm gonna do and and i was trying to think of like

why it immediately immediately i was not happy like i wasn't like excited for him i was immediately like my first instinct was to be like oh no and i think that it's born from my own experience of being semi-good at something. My parents immediately agreeing to help in every capacity. And the way that I felt terrible about it. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah.

I hope he becomes a real golf star. He loves it too. He hates so many competitive sports. It's a real delicate balance of trying to get him involved without making him feel that he doesn't want to be competitive. And so this is like you're playing against yourself in this game. If you make a mistake, you're not letting a team down. There's so much joy in him when he's playing it.

And he's also doing well so like he's into that as well and i'm like i am yeah i gotta now we gotta learn how to we gotta learn how to chip we gotta learn how to hit from the rough we gotta learn how to drive and i can only teach you so much with that because i am not a golf man it's very funny golfing with my brother and uh nephew because you know he's to mimic the stuff that he sees. And if he doesn't sink a putt when he wants to, he gets frustrated in the exact way that his father and uncle get frustrated. And that's very funny. He's like shaking his head and talking to himself.

And I'm like, oh, I wonder where he gets that from. And then I miss it. You fucking idiot. You stupid punk. It's an easy game. Just breathe. You know he gets that from. And then I miss it. I'm like, you fucking idiot. You stupid punk. It's an easy game. Just breathe. You know what you're doing. A child can do this.

I have seen you get mad at yourself. So I know exactly what this looks like. It's the look down at the ground, shaking your head and being like, Daniel. Yeah, Daniel. I would do this entire day over again just to replay that one shot. I had a chance at par and I blew it.

I blew it in front of the five-year-old. I realized the other day at the gym that I had headphones in, my Raycon earbuds, and somebody was looking at me and like talking to me and I caught their eye and I was like, Oh, and I said, I took him out. I was like, what? And he's like, did you say something to me? And I was like, no, he's like, you were talking. I was like, okay, I think I know what happened here. I subconsciously talk to myself at the gym and berate myself and belittle myself and like, I'd say terrible things to myself while I'm at the gym just to keep going. Like that's sort of my MO. So I was like, no, sir. So sorry,

sir. You are not a weak piece of shit. I'm a weak piece of shit. You have to understand. I, I've said, I say very hurtful things to myself because I, I think that this point, that's how the only way I can get this kind of thing done. And I realized, yeah, without even thinking about it, I was saying out loud, like, you dumb asshole. Everybody else can do this. You're just a shell of a man.

Like that kind of stuff. Terrible things. Mean things. But not for this man. No. So you want to start the show? We did start. I asked you the question i guess yeah let's start it for real let's do your question that's when the show really starts that's when we really start humming yeah we we uh we have insight into our ratings and our listenership and really you can see a spike in listeners when I start talking.

It's crazy because it's a podcast. So how does that happen? They get word. It's just word of mouth, honestly, for our show. People are like, yeah, you should listen to Quick Question. Don't start until about 32, 42. Yeah. They go in the subreddit every week, every Friday or Sunday, whenever this show comes out, they go in the subreddit and they're like minute 16 this time guys i wouldn't blame them i mean there are times in the middle of our podcast where i'm like man we haven't even gotten into our show yet what have we been talking about bagels i sure hope somebody out there likes this I got a quick question for you

go ahead are there any commercials that are like iconically woven into the fabric of your brain yet you have no idea what it's a commercial for I brought this up on Twitter recently

because a true thing that happened to me is there's this old commercial where a guy is in a car with his wife or girlfriend and he's singing uh to that uh that that one song that pour some sugar on me song but he's singing pour some sugar brah man when you need a cup brah man pour some shook up ramen when you need a cup ramen i think it's a pour some sugar brah man no he gets the lyrics wrong in the commercial and his wife goes pour some shook up ramen when you need a cup and he goes yeah like the soup and that commercial has been stuck in my brain it's like effective as a commercial in the sense that like it is never leaving my brain ever it's just it's just always in there seared in there and i love that commercial

uh not effective as a commercial because it occurred to me what is this an ad for and i had to go back and watch it to confirm because i knew i knew it was like something vaguely about technology i knew that they they used some kind of technology to look up the lyrics to this song and i i was trying to like was it a commercial for the internet i don't think it was like like late 90s i don't i don't think uh they had a commercial that's gonna be like if you don't know the lyrics to this song google it you or like you should consider buying the internet and changing your life and it was a commercial um it was a t-mobile commercial they had a disagreement

about the lyrics and then T-Mobile spokesperson Catherine Zeta-Jones comes out and says if they had T-Mobile this could be solved with a simple call to the library. And they call the library and have the librarian read the actual lyrics to the song for them. So like every bit of this is like a mind

blowing time capsule to me. That this was a time in 1997 or 1998 or whatever where they were like fighting with your wife if only you had a cell phone you could call the library like jesus christ long before the pour some sugar on the app existed where that all it was was information about pour some sugar on me right um so it's a it's a funny weird little time capsule ad But it also just got me thinking about Other commercials that live forever In my brain

Despite the fact that I don't know What they are a commercial for And someone in the The Twitter thread brought up That my brand commercial Where a guy needs Glasses I think And is treated very dramatically

Like about a certain company that has his brand of glasses. What? Anyway, do you have any? Yeah, I do. There's one that I actually looked up recently because I said it in a writer's room and everyone knew it. And then I was like,

what the fuck was that? And you just take stabs like that every once in a while. Cause you're like, is this a cultural thing? Everybody has, Oh shit. It is. Oh, great. Okay. That worked out really well.

And other times you're just like, everyone's like, no one knows what the fuck you're talking about. You're like, kick cloud kicker. He's, he's just glide behind the plane on the clouds and getting chased by air pirates and people like, what the fuck is that? But the other day we were, I can't remember what the... It was two people sitting in a restaurant and they're talking and getting very nostalgic. And for whatever reason in my brain, I was like, what was the name of that waiter in the little Parisian restaurant? Jean-Luc. Like that. Does that register for you? No. Okay. In my mind, it's two women sitting in a breakfast nook, and they're rehashing their old year when they were young, like the wild lives that waiter in the little Parisian restaurant? And they both go, Jean-Luc, and then laugh.

I had no idea what this was an ad for. Yeah, what could it be for? I was like, I got to find this. And if you look up Jean-Luc, you get something wrong. You get a lot of Jean-Luc Picard. Sure. But eventually I found it. I think it's a Folgers ad ad it's a coffee commercial where the

two women are sitting there and they're smelling the coffee and the smell is taking them back to these different experiences that they have and one of them is when they were traveling abroad this little parisian cafe i guess that also serves some bullshit folgers yeah and uh and they're talking about this hot waiter that they once knew and yeah that's that's certainly the subtext is is like that waiter that they both definitely fucked the guy with the scorpion tattoo on his neck and they're like yeah i'm the right age for that i i was I was, and then I started to be like, well, what the, what this commercial was not for me. I would have been like seven or eight when this came out. And did I just see it so often that it got stuck in my brain? Or what was it about the commercial

that really made its own wrinkle in my brain? Because not only do I not drink coffee or did I drink coffee at that time? The stuff that they're talking about is way out of my league, like way out of my ballpark wise. But somehow this commercial was just in me. And it was in all these other people that were the exact same age as me, where we were like, how do we get that? How do we keep that? the early internet technology adjacent things ended up sticking with me. That's where a lot of these came from. Like there's a commercial that I think was for collect calls where they said, it's a line that's iconic to me now. You have a collect call from, we add a baby, it's a boy. Say yes to accept the charges, say no to decline.

And they say no to decline the charges. And it's like a grandfather and grandmother in a house sitting together. And he said, they had a baby. It's a boy. Because that was like, this is another thing that makes me feel like the oldest person in the world. For our young listeners,

before cell phones, if you wanted a ride home from your parents and you were somewhere and it wasn't like a pre-coordinated time, if you wanted a ride home from your parents and you were somewhere and it wasn't like a pre-coordinated time, you had to call them using a payphone. And if you didn't have any quarters, you could call them collect, which was free,

unless they accept the charges. So the way, Jesus Christ, the way collect calls work is you would dial like 1-800-CALL-ATT or 1-800-COLLECT and then give the number that you wanted to call. And then the robot on the phone would say, at the beep, say your name. And then you would say your name. So when you collect call someone, it would say, you have a collect call from Daniel. Say yes to accept the charges, no to decline the charges. from Daniel.

Say yes to accept the charges. No to decline the charges. And our hack for getting around making anyone having to pay for anything was at the tone say your name, pick me up at 5 o'clock or pick me up at the pizza place so your parents would get the information, say no, and not have to pay anything.

And that's what this commercial... You're almost through it, man. You're almost through it. That's what this... That's what was being referenced what this commercial you're almost through it man you're almost through it that's what this that's what was being referenced in this commercial it's a a man in a delivery room who just had a baby with his wife and he wanted to convey that information to his parents without anyone having to to pay a dime and it was an effective commercial in that i got what was going on and it was funny and relevant to me. It's not effective in that, what were they advertising? They can't have been advertising the scam that I do because that's not a product you can sell.

Yeah, I know exactly the commercial you're talking about. I have no idea what it's for. The dad then hangs up the phone. He's like, who is that? And he's like, it's Bob. They had a baby. It's a boy. And like, yeah, I know the commercial. And like had a baby it's a boy and like yeah i know

the commercial and like yeah it was way beyond the the age of 1-800 collect and 1-800 collect was not be teaching you to do that no i have no idea what that ad is for um i do want to add a quick amendment it's not folgers it's general foods, French Vanilla Cafe. Oh, man. Even lower tier than Folgers. Yeah, God, that poor fucking ad company. I know they're listening to this show and they're like, it's not Folgers, we're the other one, please. So that means that at some point I looked it up and forgot again. I mean, there are commercials that I look back on,

like when you said 1-800-COLLECT, I remember that there were those that I look back on. Like when you said 1-800-COLLECT, I remember that there were those old Alyssa Milano commercials and Carrot Top commercials where I was like, for a moment, I was like, were they advertising pay phones? What was that? Yeah, it was such a bizarre time. one company who had who whose whole like appeal seemed to be dial all the numbers that are in the middle of your phone like it was like a straight line down like we made it easy just do the middle ones just keep pressing them until until our service yeah that's what my friends and i were kids and you'd have to remember somebody else's house phone we would just sit there looking at an actual telephone sitting on a desk and be like okay what word can we make out of your phone number try to decide like what the easiest way to remember

somebody's number is oh your your spells beat perfect that's what it's gonna be it's crazy how many phone numbers i learned when i was a kid and and have retained at the while retaining nothing of my my like current life i don't know my mom's phone number on her cell phone because it's programmed into my phone but like a friend's the last four digits of a friend's childhood home landline number is like, oh yeah, well that's, I've made that my pin number because that's easy to remember. I'm never going to forget that. I'm never going to forget Steve's phone number. I wish that I could pull that out. I wish that I could be like, all right, well let's, let's clear out some space for new things because yeah, I don't need to call Ed Cotton's parents anytime soon.

No, of course not. Back when we made names like that. I don't need to call Ed Cotton's parents anytime soon. No, of course not. But yeah, I definitely do have one. Ed Cotton. Yeah. Don't make names like that anymore, huh? Yeah. But yes, I definitely do have those. And it felt like it was much more common back then.

I guess maybe just because I don't watch commercials anymore. There's no... Aside from when I'm watching professional sports, commercials just don't penetrate my life anymore. It's interesting to see with my children, it's the same way where they watch stuff on Netflix or on Amazon, that when we go to a restaurant and there's television on, they're somewhat interested in like there's basketball or something just because it's moving moving stuff but the minute a commercial comes on they're glued like they're really into it yes and ronan will watch hulu occasionally on hulu you get commercials and i'll be like okay it's commercial do you need you to go pee you need

to go he's like no no i gotta see this and he like he really wants to see the commercials because i don't know commercials we're so used to tuning them out, but it's this little bite-sized thing where you're getting a lot of sensory information at once. And it's still very appealing to him. We have, I end up watching a lot of basketball now with my friend, Shay is a big basketball fan and she, we watched the Warriors whenever they're playing. And obviously I don't get Warriors unless it's a big game on my TV.

I don't have a million sports channels. So we usually watch it on like NBA league pass, whatever it is that she has. And it's such an interesting phenomenon to me because they have like commercial breaks when a game would naturally go to commercial break, but there are no commercials on League Pass. So it just like cuts to a blank screen that it was like, we'll be back. And then we just sit there in silence waiting for the game to come back on. It's really, really fascinating and fun. It feels like we're out of the golden age,

obviously, of commercials. The early 90eties felt like when commercials were really singing, it's such a funny thing to say, but like, that's when you had that Pepsi commercial where the, that you're collecting Pepsi points and like that, that kid rides a jet, that kind of stuff. That's just a, they knew how in the same way McDonald's knows how to like, they unlocked like, this isn't a real food, but flavors are gonna make you go crazy they knew in commercials they're like look this isn't real content but we've unlocked how the brain responds to different things and we know that you will have no choice but to keep this in your brain for the rest of your life yeah i certainly remember that that pepsi commercial and I remembered like just the weird mini viral campaigns that would happen with commercials where it was like you are going to decide you person watching at home.

In three months, you are going to decide whether or not the Trix rabbit actually gets his hands on some tricks. You're going to decide by like mailing something in or calling to vote some insane ancient practice of like ripping the top of your cereal box and putting it in an envelope and licking it with your mouth and sending it to the cereal factory. And it was like, yeah, I saw this commercial about determining whether or not the Trix rabbit gets his his cereal. And I unironically can't fucking wait three months to find out if he gets it this is gonna consume my entire family when m&ms was like uh all right well we're fucking off with the tan one nobody likes the tan one it's too close to the brown you get to decide what the next color is for m&ms and you're and you're like okay great we were all so happy to participate in capitalism we were so jazzed i guess i just i write it on some loose leaf paper what my choice is and mail it in can't remember what the process was but yeah his cereals did that all the time lucky charms

like add a new marshmallow flavor and it just it was like ripple effect in the school everyone was like did you fucking hear man they're doing rainbows now yeah coming to school why are you so mad it's a goddamn pot of gold of course it was what did i think it was why did i think it was gonna be a dinosaur i'm such an idiot i'm never gonna be surprised by cereal in a real way there was also a lot of there was just a lot of like mailing in of shit back in the day which which seems so crazy you know because you could as a kid that you have no impulse control so the fact that my kids can't wait for an amazon delivery to come in two days yeah the fact that you would get a cereal box and you'd be like there was no toy inside but there was something

fucking hot that you could get if you mailed in enough little box tops or dum-dum wrappers when you hate a lollipop and you'd be like okay i have like a very weird crude drawing of a stuffed animal of a mouse on the side of this dum-dum wrapper i need that i need that so i'm gonna mail in 50 of these and in two seasons i'll get it by the time it arrives i will surely have outgrown whatever it is there's there's no chance i will still be interested in this come winter how often you would order stuff without seeing an actual picture of it you'd see an artist's rendition of it you're like yeah good enough those look like cool magic tricks. I'll get those. Yeah. You would sell enough things for a school fundraiser that you would order one of their prizes from their stupid magazine. And then eight months later, your tiny red camera would show up.

I'm like, I was into cameras? Fuck. Stupid. Wait, did you take pictures? Old me fucked me yeah I don't know I guess I kind of missed those types of commercials but maybe I was just

the exact right age for it I kind of missed them I miss keeping track in my head of all the strange narratives for the Fruity Pebbles Flintstone commercials, where I just have to like, remember arcs.

You really did. They'd introduce new characters. You go, okay, all right, hold on. All right. I gotta remember this person.

Let me write this down. Yeah, there were, it is, they weren't even, I don't even want to call it. Cause it's not episodic. It's like bottle commercials existed,

but there were also like season long commercials where you just keep building on the plot. Oh, fascinating. Oh, boy, we're old. Maybe they still do all that. I just don't watch TV. But the thing I remember most clearly about commercials when I was a child was you'd watch Saturday morning cartoons or whatever. Cartoons dedicated to kids. They know how to grip you, but then they were very clear about being like, don't, they didn't say go out and get this.

They'd be like, ask your parents for this specific thing. This is how you get to the thing. You say, I want this. Yeah. So smart. thing you say i want this yeah so smart i uh another thing about commercials that i is occurring to me now that uh i think still does happen uh i would look forward to seasonal recurring commercials the way that i would look forward to like oh it's christmas time that means it's gonna be time to watch rudolph Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty. They're going to start airing those.

It was the same way with like, oh, it's the M&M's commercial with Santa. That's going to be coming on soon. That's how I know it's really Christmas time. Yeah, yeah. And like the Cadbury commercials. Oh, the Cadbury eggs? With that hunky lion with the rabbit rabbit ears i was just like uh again i'm uh i'm such a

fucking simp for capitalism as a kid i guess we're just like oh boy it's almost time for the cadbury commercial i it's that's my favorite commercial oh boy mom look it's on the cadbury commercials on all right time for bed. I think it still gets played. I think that that Cadbury one is still aired. And that's from like 1986. That's good. That's good. Why do I care?

Because it's tradition. Because you're not a superhero. That lion's dead now. All those animals are long dead. The people who made that commercial are long dead. Time marches on. Well, I don't have anything else to say. No, that can be the end of our show.

Good. The show, which is quick question, but you knew that already. It is recorded, edited, and produced by the irreplaceable Gabe Harder. Our theme song is by the incredibleplaceable gabe harder our theme song is by the incredible merex their digital album is available at merex.bandcamp.com uh speaking of music i mentioned a band on this show uh bug hunter before and the person who is responsible for bug hunter's music reached out to me and like i listen to this show i'm glad you like the music i was like great

let me know if you're ever in uh new york or new jersey and i'll come see you and he's coming to new york this summer and i'm gonna see him it's fucking awesome it's the best thing that's ever happened to me on this podcast finally this podcast paying off in some way i know he was like let me know let me know if you're free on this date and i'll put you on the guest list soren holy it's gonna be rad you're going back you're gonna fuck this guy i know i'm gonna fuck bug hunter it's awesome you can find us on twitter the show at qq underscore soren and dan or soren soren underscore ltd or me at dlb underscore inc uh i also have a sub stack if you want to sign up for that in case Twitter ever goes away. I use the sub stack to once a month send book recommendations to people who want book recommendations for me.

I will only email you once a month. It goes right into your inbox and you can delete it if you want. It's totally free. I'm trying to make sure I can keep in contact with people who want to follow me in case to make sure I can keep in contact with people who want to follow me in case Twitter dies. And I also want to hold myself accountable to reading more books. And this is a way of doing that. You could find it. This would be a pretty great time for me to say what the link is, but I don't have that information. That's none of my business. Google Daniel O'Brien Substack. I'm sure you could find it. We also have a Patreon for Quick Question. That's Patreon slash Quick Question. You can email the show

QQ with Soren and Daniel at gmail.com. This is too many things, man. Yeah. One of these days we're going to do an episode that is just plugs and then we'll never do it again. Actually, that sounds great. We don't have to think of anything beforehand.

Just the whole episode's plugs. We don't have to keep doing our plugs. No, we don't have to think of anything beforehand. Just the whole episode's plugged. We don't have to keep doing our plugs. No, we do. I stopped one time and Bacon told me I had to do more. Bacon, our business guy, said you can't not plug your things at the end of the episode. And you didn't get your slot for the day. Yeah. Bacon didn't feed you that whole day.

That's right. I'm so sorry. Yeah. All right. Well, are you through it all? I wasn't listening. I think so. All right.

Bye. I've been so – yeah, bye. Jesus Christ. I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? I wanna hear your thoughts, wanna know what's on your mind I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favourite? Who did you get? When will I be remembered? What's it out there? Where did all that go?

Oh, forget it I saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer, they're gonna find it I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here