Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Everyone’s Gone Full Tin Fish | Ep. 312

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

Everyone on the internet is suddenly obsessed with tin fish. Sardines. Anchovies. Baby eels. Luxury cans that cost more than a real dinner. This week, Daniel and Soren try to understand how canned fish became a personality, why British men in fezzes are eating fish spines on camera, and what it says about internet culture when the worst foods get rebranded as delicacies. Along the way: debate videos, reaction content, copied sketches, algorithmic brain rot, and the creeping feeling that the internet might need to be turned off for a few years. We will not be decanting the tin. ----🔗LINKS:Search Engine episode: https://www.searchengine.show/an-anthropology-of-gooning/Daniel Kolitz' piece: https://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/the-goon-squad-daniel-kolitz-porn-masturbation-loneliness/Pablo Torre Finds Out: https://www.pablo.show/p/high-goonTinned Fish Reviews: https://tinnedfishreviews.com/Thanks to Rocket Money for sponsoring this episode. RocketMoney.com/qq. Reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money.Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. I want to hear your thoughts on to know what's on your mind. I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. The answer's not important. I'm just glad that we could talk tonight. So what's your favorite? Who did you get? When will I be?

Remember? What's it out? Worded all. Are you ignored? Oh, forget it. I saw a movie Daniel O'Brien. Two best friends and comedy writers. If there's an answer, they're going to find it.

I think you'll have a great time here. I think you'll have a great time here. Welcome back to Quick Question, the podcast, Daniel O'Brien and Soren Bowie. Starting off, like we always do, with shout-outs. Shoutouts to women. Shoutouts to the troops. Shoutouts to the fans. Shout out to first responders.

Yeah. Nurses, doctors. Soren, you take them. Okay. Shout out to the firemen. Our lives are in your hands. Shout out to the maintenance workers out there, saving our lives, doing jobs we can't, do ourselves. separated out women from our listeners because we saw some numbers we got a little demographic taste

and we saw the type of people that you are out there listening to our show and uh we now know that you're all men we are we are right in there with like Andrew Tate in terms of like the number of men who listened to our podcast it's really the wheelhouse we're aiming for there's I'd been being so careful about um language and sort of trying to stay aware of all progressive sensitivities. But it's, I just, I don't have to, which is neat now. I don't have to. It's just us guys.

That's it. I think, here's what I would, I anticipate is happening, is that we are, we provide a different, a different idea of masculinity than is otherwise being given on podcast. That can't be entirely true, because there's a bunch of podcasts where it's just two guys talking. They're not all Dan Bilzerian, you know? Like, there are a lot of, like, weedy dudes like us, just talking on podcasts. And I think they're getting that anywhere. So fuck my idea.

It would be so great to do this podcast with, like, one other element that we didn't have to bring. And it just, like, came to us. Like, do you listen to Pablo Tori finds out at all? No. Oh, it's one of the best podcasts in the world. He's just an incredible journalist who gets wild access. He is very sports focused. But he is, he's a, his, his, like, thesis behind everything is basically, like, sports is culture.

Sports is politics. Sports is the world. So I'm reporting on sports, but in a way that, like, explains. something greater about things he did the um i believe he broke the story about the um whatever financial scandal kawai leonard got wrapped up and with the clippers oh where he was like for anyone who does know the clippers have like every n b a team has a salary cap of what they can pay their players because if you didn't have a cap you could just build the greatest team and and and just dominate forever.

And there was some, there was a story that broke out that, to get around that salary cap in a pretty shady way. Like the Clippers were paying Kauai Leonard, let's say $10 million to play basketball for the Clippers. But also separately, the owner of the Clippers was like, I have this company that does good thing for the environment

and we would love to hire you as a spokesman for this company at an additional $15 million or whatever was. So, Kauai Leonard, like, you know, took that money for a company that, like, fully doesn't exist. And he's never, there's not even, like, a photo of him, like, planting trees with the company. It was a huge scandal. No one knew what to do about it. And Pablo Tori, I believe is the guy who broke that story wide open.

He's fantastic. He's wonderful. He does a few episodes of his show a week. and one or two of them are like these really serious pieces of journalism but he will also occasionally just have two guests on to talk about a thing that someone found when that Olivia Nuzzi piece came out and everyone on the internet was making fun of it he was like I'm just going to have Mike was sure

and another friend on and we're going to talk about this and it's like a show and tell thing and he had Mina Kimes and Katie Nolan on and they just played a game together and I was like, this would be I would love a podcast where we could just walk in

and there's like a thing dropped in front of us that we can just play with and then we never have to think about podcast ideas because we work so hard on them I mean we go into other people's podcasts that way. When I go into SIF. Isn't that name of it?

Secretly incredibly fascinating? Yeah. Have you been booking that without me? No, I wouldn't dare. Oh, good. But I'm saying, like, when we go on that show together, it's just you and I, and Alex is, like, happy to be the straight man, and he'll be like, here's Saturn. And let me tell you a little about Saturn. We're like, all right, fuck you.

This is going to be rough for you. I'll do hypecast with Tom Riemann and Dave Bell, where they go through, like, you know. like all the trailers for things and talk about what they're excited about that's coming out in the world of movies and TV shows. The lift as a guest on that show is so low. They like send you a doc with all the trailers. And sometimes I'll even watch them. Sometimes it's just like, I don't think I need to.

I could be excited about one of the movies that I've heard of and then I can learn about the others while I'm here. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I just got invited to go back on Katie's podcast, Katie Golden's podcast, Creature Feature, which is one that I really love doing. I got to get that. I got to get back.

It's been so long. Talk to them. Talk to Katie. Because she's like, like Alex, she will just let you go sometimes. She'll let you, if you've got to run, not like you have to leave the podcast. I mean, like, you've got a run of bits that you're doing. And you're like, you're having too much fun to stop. Even though she has a lot of information to get out.

she will patiently wait for you to just keep going and then she will occasionally like feed it a little and she'll play a little but she's like she's very patient both of them yeah so patient with a guest like me i got so fucking cucked by that show my loser ass they brought me in before the show existed and to do like a test run of an episode um and they never released it and i've never been invited back since I can't imagine what that's like. For anyone listening, I did that with a show of Daniel at one point. About nothing. We got to talk about some real things. Soren, you're watching the show Task, or you watch the show Task. Yeah, I'm done with it. Martha Plimpton on that show, she's a broad.

Soren, name some broads, top five broads. Okay, Judy Dench, obviously, Helen Mirren. Whoa! Great broads. Disagree. You don't like either one of them? Judy Dench has a broad? No, I don't think so.

What is she? A knight. A dame. A knight. Shut down. Sorin. She's a girl knight. She's a dame.

But you wouldn't be like, oh, now there's a broad. No, for Judy Densch, no. 100% no. Okay. but you'll do that for Martha Plimpton. Yeah. Do you think that Martha Plimpton deserves less respect than Judy Dench? I'm not being disrespectful of broads.

Oh, but it does seem like broad is like somebody that you're willing to call some people, but other people are above it. They are, it is a lateral move, Soren. They are beside it, not above nor below. Good escape. You know, we are just a podcast. of men, Dan, it's fine. You can call Judy Titchamara. We're all guys here.

Or you can say that Judy did. It's all just guys talking to guys. I did like her that show an awful lot. Let's see. She was in Raising Hope, right? And then I don't even remember the first time I saw her. Like, what do I know her from originally? I know her from Raising Hope and Task.

And I'm certain there was like some other thing that she did first because Raising Hope can't have been her first thing and... Oh, fucking... We're stupid. Is it raising Arizona or something? Oh, she's in Goonys.

No, it's Goonies. Yeah. She was like what... She was the nerdy girl in Goonies. Mm-mm. Yeah. So she's been... She's an actor for longer than we've been alive.

That's right. But abroad for just a short while. That's true. I really, can I tell you something, honestly, Soren, is I thought this... I thought this would be, this would generate like a lot of fire immediately. I thought he'd be like, oh, yes, I have a lot. I have a list of broads too.

And then we would just fulfill the destiny of this podcast and just list broads. And then next week we would list guys. And that's it. And that would be the show. Okay. Well, you need me, I mean, if I took them in and I could think of some broads for you that I really enjoy the work of. Nope, we can burn this episode. Christine Bransky was on my list, but fuck, whatever.

It doesn't matter. what did you want to talk about this week Hold on Let me give you a broad Are you Googling broad? You can't No, I'm not I'm Googling the name of somebody

Who played an actress that I mean An actress who played a character That I really liked And I think she's a great broad All right, I can't wait Yeah Lee Garlington Who is Lee Garlington?

What landman shit is she on? Lee Garlington You're going to be like Oh yeah, I know her That's a broad. I mean, when I Google image search Lee Garlington, there's a bunch of black and white photos of a man. Is that true?

Lee Garlington, you got a man? Yeah. No. Okay. She's definitely not a man. Okay. If it's this one, then yeah, she's abroad. That counts.

You've seen her before. Yeah. Right? You've seen her lots of stuff. Totally. I can't name any of them currently. Dante's Peak, I think. She's in on a ton of stuff.

As you see her face, you're like, oh, yeah, I know, Link Arlington. I'm all over that. I got lots of apps on my phone. Some of these apps, these frankly too many apps, some of these food apps I won't name, have been charging me money in the background, and I had no idea. Monthly subscriptions that I've been paying for months

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That's rocketmoney.com slash QQ. Rocketmoney.com slash QQ. Okay, well, listen, let's talk about what I want to talk about. We're not going to name, and you don't like my broads. Okay. Daniel. Do you watch, have you ever watched a video? You think that's, all right, God Almighty.

Quick question, David. Quick question, Daniel. What is your, is your finger on the pulse of the tin fish scene? All of my fucking co-workers eat tin fish. Okay. It does seem to be having a moment. As comedy hero, John Mullaney eats tin fish and talks about it. Often enough that it's coming across my desk. Not so often that I'm going to see what all the fuss is about and get a tin fish.

But what was patient zero of tin fish? Why is everyone, even you, my best friend Soren, from across the country. What are you doing talking about tin fish? Well, you know, I catch everything downstream on Facebook. And I have been recently watching videos, reels. they call them there, about tin fish. These came across my desk, and I brought it up with Gabe, and Gabe was like, oh, yeah, everybody's into tin fish right now. Tin fish are like a big thing.

Everybody's talking about them. And I was like, what the fuck is going on? Because it's the most, for us growing up, the idea of tin fish was like, it's a step above dog food, basically. It's like, if you were in an emergency, you might eat tin fish, but maybe not even then. And here's another thing about it that, correct me if I'm wrong, tin fish is not the name of a brand. that's just that this is the thing that drove me the craziest because not only is apparently every comedian eating tin fish on the regular not only is that strange phenomenon happening but we've all just we all assumed that everyone clicks when they hear tin fish that they all

know what it's like right right they're not saying i like these little pouches of salted fish snacks right like these little like tin cans of fish that I eat they just say tin fish like it's fucking Q-tips and it's driving me insane that they think they don't need to explain

what tin fish is right you know I think the more pedestrian version of this is obviously tuna fish tuna fish exclusively comes in tins even unless you're at like a sushi restaurant but everybody knows tuna fish but then like tin fish I'm more talking about

not like that chunked meat it's like actual whole fish like sardines and churned chovies, mackerel, like that kind of stuff. And it's having a real moment, it seems, because everybody is suddenly like, treating it like a delicacy. A delicacy. Yeah.

And it's very unnerving to me. It's, like, there are tin fish. There are tins of fish that will go for like $47 or like $60. What? Yeah. Baby eels in a chili olive oil sauce. that look like little, they look like home style chicken soup. Where are you seeing them?

Air one? What are you doing? Well, that's a great question, Dan, because I've been watching a lot of videos from this guy. There's a guy who does these things called tin fish reviews. He's British. And the first one that I saw, I was so horrified that I had to go back and just like check out his entire catalog. And I'm not through it all. I've had exhausted anything.

And I still have an appetite for his tin fish reviews, even though I would never have an appetite for tin fish. Like, it's, never have I seen someone with, with absolutely zero intersection with my own tastes. I'll just, like, describe this guy to you. Where's a fez? As he does these reviews. What a choice. He's a British guy. His house, um, I'm going to actually go to a limb here and just say apartment.

It's rough to look at. It's like, it's not, it's not nothing dirty or dingy about it. It's just, there's a lot of, like, knickknacks and shit on his bookshelves. The whole area is making me a little anxious, and that I don't think there's a lot of flat surfaces there. Like, he's just filled everything. And then each one of these reviews, he sits there with his dog next to him. And the dog is just patiently waiting to eat some of this elevated dog food that this man is eating. Each time, he, first of all,

He's very soft-spoken and, like, loves all the fish, everything that he tastes. He loves very, very soft-spoken and doesn't get super excited about anything, but does a lot of this. He goes, wow, that's nice. That's nice. Wow. And that's his reviews, basically. But he, each time, right now he's doing Advent calendars for December. He's doing every single day you get a new type of tin fish that he opens up from this little basket.

He's wrapped all of them. So he unwraps them while his dog is also sitting there in a full. Fez, generally. And soren, this is pissing me off. And then he's got a, he's got a glass next to him with a bunch of different types of old rusty forks. And he's like, he'll, whatever type of fish it is, he knows the type of fork that's supposed to go along with it. Some of them have like five prongs. Some of them look like a spork, but it's metal. And he's like, he'll like delicately figure out which one he's supposed

to eat it with. He's got like an, an ivory spoon. But they're really, it's a rough scene in that fork jar there can't be different for different tin fish there simply can't do you understand why there can't be I do I do that's why I'm bewildered by this man

I can't stop watching him and I haven't even got to the fish yet which is like the real meat of the show he is first of all he takes it out he shows it to you and then he does this he does what he calls the pole

where he unlocks the top of it. And he's like, well, it's a big part of the review is whether it's a good poll or not on the can, on the tin. Sorry. And then he says, every single time he does it, he then says, let us decant the tin. Let us decant the tin. And then he dumps all this shit out. He plops it on a plate. It's always, even the plate itself is one of those plates where you're like, I guarantee that's a mismatch to every other plate that you own. Like there's no way you have a collection of that type of plate. And that makes me more depressed. But he plop out this stuff. And it's always just like it falls out like World War II rations. Like it's so gross looking. And I, in general, I have I think an aversion to eating a whole animal at once. I, that's my thing. It's my hang up. I understand that we are killing and eating animals. I do it daily other than the killing. But when I'm reminded that I'm eating an entire animal, I don't like it as much. I don't like the idea that he's taking like a whole fish and putting it in his mouth. He does, goes way beyond that. Because bish, I find very unnerving as a, as a, like, a food. Like, anything that actually tastes fishy, I don't like. But if it's more like salmon or something that's a little bit more mild, yeah, I'm all about that. But he just relishes in it.

He relishes in, like, that, like, the nature of eating an entire animal at once. And so, like, he talks a lot about the scales. He talks a lot. He will cut one open every time with his shitty. He will explore the insides and look for rope hacks and stuff like that, which are just eggs, egg sacks. And then he does this thing called The Squish Test, where he takes his 16-pronged fork and just smashes it into his weird plastic plate to see what it does then. And then he will do this thing. First of all, he's eating it and he's like loving it every single time.

Gives everything like a 10 out of 10. Can't get enough of tin fish. And then he will... if it's a full fish he'll hunt for the spine he'll take one he'll dissect it and he'll look for the spine and he'll pull out the spine itself and eat that put in his mouth and give you like a review of that like it's crisp it's crunchy like in a the thing that you would probably you'd want to hide in the same way you're eating like a soft cheese you're not there for the rind you're like sometimes the rind's going to get on my cracker and that's just the nature of things but like he's like

he's hunting for the worst part of this thing and being like, now I'm going to review this and taking it and eating it. And it's like I'm revolted every single time. He seems like a very nice guy, but I'm revolted by him. I can't, if I ever met him in person, I'd run away. Oh, by the way, his dog does get some every single time. He gives a little bit to Arthur. I mean, so much of what you're describing sounds exactly like those old fancy feast cat food commercials. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but there would be like a, um, yes, Some uppity British cat, I'm projecting. And then someone would, like, white glove service, take a crystal elevated dish and drop some fancy feast cat food on it for this piece of shit cat to eat.

Yeah, they serve it up. They serve it. Cats always get their meals up in a crystal stem glassware. That's what this show is to me with someone plopping tinfish in a fancy plate and eating it with a fork. And he sounds incredibly fancy Because he's British And so like the way And he's got like that

If you were to learn accents For a play or whatever He's got that upscale Standard British accent Where you're like Oh this is This is not some cockney dude Doing these reviews

Yeah And he In that way I guess he sort of elevates it But I'm so I cannot get over Like when he plops it out And he does his decanting of the fish every single time it's like you know do you get that separation water that water that

comes out or the oil or whatever it's floating in yeah it then has little particles of something in it just packing juice yeah yeah the packing juice something again you'd think you'd be like well let's drain this shit out of here and then let's maybe eat the fish and close our eyes but he's like he relishes that he will take his one of his many uh silverware apparatus and he will spoon up some and just taste the sauce of it And, like, he'll do this for, there's, he's done, like, a scorpion pepper tuna before. And it is hurting him. It's so clear that this is hurting him as he's, like, eating this tuna.

And he's like, he'll take a bite and he'll, like, I did not anticipate how spicy that would be. And he's starting to turn red and he's getting, like, that sweat above his, above his upper lip. But he doesn't stop. By the way, this guy also eats almost all the fish in front of you. He eats pretty much everything. And then he's also, like, then he's just going to get some of that scorpion pepper sauce. and like he's like he's always like no matter what he's he's clearly in pain he's like wow it's hurting the back of my throat it's nice it's very nice wow wow it's really nice

and uh i i can't stop watching him i watched him eat some baby eels and it fucking all i almost threw up that sounds like a really bad time it sounds like a bad time to watch someone eat some baby eels yeah well you got if you watched it you'd be like oh let's just do another let's let's do one more because I've never seen somebody so brave I think he that's we just shouted out firemen oh you're right you're absolutely right I should have shouted out tin fish review guy that's right that would have been smart especially because and this is a take for another episode I think I don't like fireman I think I'm starting to not like him go on keep doing what you're doing let's just let it sit and let people wonder what that could mean and go go on as far as

as I know they're just good police but but like he'll do he'll get some let's say like sardines and part of the not only is he going to cut it open but then he's also going to be like let's get a swipe of these scales and you see him do this like very delicate precision with a shitty old fork and he'll scrape up some of the scales off this fish and then pop that in his mouth and every single loves it. Can't get enough of it. He's never like, oh, that was a mistake. You should eat this whole thing at once

and you should close your eyes when you do it. Why is he doing it? I mean, why is anyone doing anything? Well, I don't. I guess. It doesn't matter. But, yeah. And also,

stupid question to ask. I just don't understand why you would ever choose tin fish. Why that would ever be your choice. That is a last resort food, as far as I'm concerned. And the fact that there's now like a an audience for it.

There are people out there who are like, what's the new tin fish type? Like, what are we doing? What are we doing next? Ooh, look at this one in a Tuscan sauce. Like, I don't, I can't get behind it. Also, I can't imagine it's healthy. You're eating out of a can.

We already knew that, like, spam was not good for you. But, like, eating fish out of a can means it has to be so preserved in there that it's not going to give you botulism. And there's no way you're supposed to eat that much of something. Oh, no. it's so much and he eats it all he gets so into it that he's like a lot of the review is just

you watching him take another bite take another bite pulling out some muscles that he's got that you're like he has to like dissect to get into and it's it's hideous it's like I've watched to meet oysters and it was so revolting

I don't think um I like oysters I like oysters a lot and I will go and get oysters. You want to preserve for 16 years? I don't think I would ever watch someone eat an oyster. I don't want to be perceived eating oysters. I think it's a bad, it's a bad, bad time. I can't believe anyone would, like, ah, he's reviewing an oyster. Let's see what that looks like. Let's get a camera on his mouth.

You also, let me guess, you eat an oyster all at once. You slurp that thing down. You get it, you put it in your mouth. You maybe do a, a bite. or two is a formality, but really you're just slurping the whole thing down. You're slurping it, yeah, because, and let me amend what I said seconds ago, I'm not positive I like oysters. So I want to get it done quickly. Again, they do have a little fork for it. You do get a little special fork for your oysters. A little special fork is just to cut it from the thing. But this guy will, he reviews oysters that are, I assume, have been around for months and

months, which not the way you're supposed to eat oysters. And then also he does this other thing you're not supposed to do, which is he bites them in half. They'll just take off a little bit of it. And he'll be like, hmm, that's really nice. It's like a patte. No. And I'm like, that can't, that can't, that can't, none of this is right.

No. It can't, an oyster should not taste like a patte. No. And your mouth is not supposed to have time to figure out what you're doing. Now your, now your mouth is ahead of the game and it's going to turn on you. Yeah, I don't, sushi, different types of fish. I don't think that the mastication of it is the enjoyable part. You get the flavor all at once.

I think you just fucking get it down the gullet. Like, you don't sit around and stew in the chewing of fish. It's rough. Hi, I'm Darren Marler. Host of the Weird Darkness podcast. I want to talk about the most important tool in my podcast belt. Spreaker is the all-in-one platform that makes it easy to record, host, and distribute your show everywhere from Apple Podcasts to Spotify. But the real game changer for me was Spreeker's

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Anyway, you're going to have to watch him now. Yeah. Does Tin Fisher use? I kind of is going to be the thing that gets me back on Facebook. I think he's everywhere. I think he's probably on TikTok and Instagram and stuff, but this is where I'm catching it. He is, he seems like the nicest person in the world. He's got a very sweet dog. He refers to his wife as the cameraman, which I don't, I don't love.

But, uh, but, Hey man, it's just us, guys. Everyone's men now. It's cool. He does share fish with her occasionally. So you'll get her hand at least, but she's never going to turn the camera around on herself. But he wears the feds I can't figure out.

I'm just like, I've, I've, come blind to it because it was confusing and confounding at first and now I'm just like it's getting in the way I'm getting to ignore it and he seems like a very nice guy seems like a very I wouldn't say enthusiastic but optimistic he just like loves everything he touches and that includes the bottom of the barrel food that we save in sellers for the apocalypse do you are you deep enough into this that you are looking at um his view count is that public information? Is he huge?

Do you know? It's okay if you don't know. I don't know. But now I'm curious because I want to know if everybody else is watching it for the same reason I am. I want to know why.

Like, I don't want to just know that people are. I want to know like the reason. Because if they're also like, oh good, I've been meaning to try that type of fish, then the world is different than I thought it was.

I'm living in a different universe. Yeah. No one was... no one is unsure if they want to eat fish spine and is looking for reviews to like, oh, this guy's, oh, he says it's good. Okay. This guy who like fucking slurped up grouper eyeballs says the spine is good.

So I'll take it, I'll order a $47 tin of fish now. Everything is so transparent and gelatinous and cold. And I can't conceive of a person being like, ah, my favorite food. Someone sent me this special one that I've never tried before. So I'm going to eat that. And let's get the spine and the eyeballs out. Let's see how those are. Now let's do the skin.

Like, I can't hang. But I do. I choose to. I choose to because I'm so, it's like looking at an alien race. Like, I don't get it. What a bad time. Yeah, anyway, I encourage you to go watch it and watch all. Yeah, I'll check it out.

I'd like to break out of my Instagram rut of seeing things that I see on Instagram. The algorithms got you you pegged? No, I mean, I think, well, yes, the algorithms

got me pegged, but only, but not for videos that I like. It's just the ones that I watch, the same way that you don't like this fish guy, but you keep watching his videos. I will get, um, served a lot of,

you're familiar with, um, Jubilee or Red Flag debate shows No It's There's a lot of different versions of them now But like someone will

Let's A very outspoken liberal person Is going to get in a room With 20 Diehard conservative people Yes of course I've seen this Someone comes up and sits in debate

With debate with them And sometimes it turns into screaming fights There's people in the audience holding up red flags I've never truth be told because I've never on purpose sat down to watch start to finish one of these things I don't know what the flags do

or if a person who holds the flag then gets to speak next because the formats are different and sometimes the person will just the you know whoever has the out of vogue viewpoint will be like abortion first one to this stage

who wants to argue with me, gets to argue with me, and you see people rush. So I don't know exactly where the flags fit in. But I'm served clips of these, never a full episode, just clips, usually of the same kind of shaggy hair, dead-eyed liberal kid who is very good at this specific format of debate, where he gets someone who super disagrees with him. And then he goes through all of the talking points that he is. supposed to have and then the the bad guys go through all the talking points that they're supposed to have and like the titles are usually like kid owns maga watch maga freak have a complete

meltdown when faced with facts and is this that blonde kid are you thinking of that like he looks real young and he's blonde got shaggy like sheepdog hair there's two that are that are pretty similar but i think i think yes one of them is the one that you're talking about um I understand that, like, I agree with most, almost everything that, like, the liberal sides are going to say in any of these debates. I don't agree with the framing that liberal has owned MAGA because nine times out of 10, these debates are one person who is saying, President Trump doesn't have a health care plan. He's been running for president for 10,000 fucking years and he doesn't have a single plan. And his big, beautiful bill is going to knock.

60 million Americans off their health care plan. That's what he's going to do. This many people are going to lose money. This many people are going to lose health care. This many people are going to lose jobs. And then the other person is going to be like, you sound like you've been parroting a bunch of CNN fake news, bullshit talking points.

All they're doing is getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. And these blah, blah, blahs. And immigrants are getting free health care. And all that Mr. President Trump wants to do is make sure that crooks don't get health care as paid for by us. It's like, I don't think. think anyone won this. I think there are two people with like their minds made up and there are different sets of conflicting facts shouting them at each other. I think this is a bad

format for changing minds. I think it's a bad format for content to spread on the internet. And I feel very strongly about that. So strongly that I reward the algorithm by watching them sound on to completion every time I come across them there's a guy named Dr. Mike did he did like

an anti-vaccine I see him a lot too yeah yeah so he did one and I also caught that downstream but he like he then does this He's pretty good at it

he's very patient and calm and talks and like listens to them listens to their concerns and stuff and then he does this postmortem

afterwards where he talks about having been on it and what he learned and stuff and he's like it was really helpful for me because I got

a lot of you could see the scatter plot you could see the stuff that people were really hung up on and how there's like a lot of people all hung up on one particular thing or like you know autism's obviously a huge one a huge hang nail for that but he's got there are other little ones that he was like oh i didn't anticipate that so many people would stick right here and that's helpful for him obviously because then he can the more that he can talk to individual patients and feel like hey this isn't the way this actually works here's the science here's blah blah blah blah it's helpful for him in his dissection of the issue. For me, it's just like, I don't know.

I'm going to listen and I'm going to, I think you're right. I think you're right in a lot of these issues. But really, this is depressing to me. It's depressing that so many people believe this and you are not changing any of their minds. They're going to continue to believe this after you're done. Not changing any of their minds because they are probably, the people who disagree with you are probably getting an entirely different set of videos that reaffirm what they already think.

The same way that I'm getting like the patient doctor with kind eyes saying all the things that I agree with to a room full of people, they're getting, the other side is getting their own version of that in a way that is very bad. And I hope the patient doctor with kind eyes doesn't happen to work out of a rural hospital because they're all going to get shut fucking down with the current administration. We're getting political. there's another kind of video I watch Political videos

Well you have to It's a non-political video that I I wish you were on Instagram more Because I have so many Thoughts and questions about Instagram content And I can't Share them with anyone

But there's two other things that I notice Because I cook a lot And I get a lot of recipes from Instagram that part of my feed makes sense but now there's a new style of Instagram recipe reaction video

where, and you can't always tell in the beginning what you're getting. Sometimes I just see, I start watching a video and as a guy who's like, today we're going to make tomato soup with cottage cheese and here are the ingredients that I'm using and here's the stuff and I'm like, okay, I'm going to listen to this and maybe I will make this later.

And then someone else pops up. someone like does a stitches themselves in the way they do on TikTok and for a while it's just like a floating head in the bottom corner who's like nodding and then looks to the camera and then we cut to the new guy who is like I'm going to make the recipe that this first guy said and I'm going to tell you if it's good yeah and he I'm watching the same recipe get made by two different guys and they both eat it and they both always say it's good and I was like I don't think I needed this middleman because I don't I don't know either of you the exact same amount. This first chef that showed up on my Instagram is just as trustworthy as you, sir. I don't understand why you are inserting yourself into this. Or who exactly this is for? They don't just say it's good. I mean, they always don't believe it at the beginning.

Yeah, you watch somebody start to make something and then you cut to somebody in their kitchen. They're like, there's no way. There's no way. And then they try it. And, like, they are making it themselves. And every single time that they make it, they then are like, okay, well, let's see, let's see. And then they will take a bite and they do the exact, all of them have the exact same face that they do, which is eyes closed and they melt a little. Like, they melt into their table or whatever.

Or they start banging on their table with their eyes closed. And it's not even like enough of a, you've eaten something before. We all have. You could put something in your mouth. You need a little while to, like, move it around in there before you know what it tastes like. But the minute it hits their tongue, it's like these are starving humans who are like, oh, God, I'm coming. Like they, their eyes close and they're like, oh, oh, yeah. And like it's the best thing that they've ever had.

And you know what? It's not, Dan. I tried some of these. I got duped into it. I got duped into one of the cream cheese recipes. I know. I know I make a, you make, there's all these crock pot meals where they're like, and now put in all this stuff that looks normal. And now one block of cream cheese.

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dot com that's s p r e a k er dot com the other instagram trend that i don't understand and maybe maybe i'm i'm an asshole for it is is um people will just do other people's sketches or other people's jokes in a way that is like part of the culture of Instagram in a way that confuses me because we were on Twitter when Twitter was good years ago and it was never really good

but it was more fun and we were doing jokes and sometimes you would see someone like when you found out someone was stealing another person's joke that was bad that was like broadly frowned upon and was it fuck Jerry who was just like stealing contact

posting it as their own and like and claiming to be an aggregator that was like news we would get mad at that kind of thing we as as a as a community if you saw someone else do a joke that someone else came up with on Twitter we're like why are you doing that don't do that it's fine on Instagram and the jokes are a much heavier lift than someone copying and pasting a text thing because they're making full sketches I will describe to you yeah one that because we've we've got a baby incoming i get a lot of like pregnancy and uh upcoming parentage stuff fed to me sometimes tips sometimes jokes and there's uh a a sketch that goes like this the text on the screen will be something like live footage of my husband two weeks before

becoming a first time dad and it's him he's got tools in his hand because he's building a crib and then he sees the camera and he smiles and pretends he's going to use the drill tool to drill himself in the head commit suicide then he like waves his hands and laughs ha ha no and then there'll be the next part of the sketch is he's in uh the kitchen setting up another thing that is for the eventual baby he sees the camera takes out a knife pretence he's going to cut himself ha ha no just kidding third beat more of the same that the joke doesn't go anywhere it's just variations on I'm playfully threatening

suicide because I'm not ready to be a father stuff like that's the joke first time I saw that sketch I was keeping the bar low for dads love it yeah first time I saw that sketch I was like this is a sketch this is like parents are making condo they made a sketch different sets of parents

will do that sketch beat for beat with their own tools and their own knives and their own I'm going to jump out the window just kidding ha ha my life is over just kidding ha ha ha ha they do it they don't add to it they don't

do an escalation on it they don't they don't put a twist it's just like I saw this sketch I laughed honey let's do this sketch that I saw and I don't understand it and no one is like this was originally done by credit where credits do this person

I don't know who created any of these things because I'm just seeing like another sketch that someone will do is is pregnant woman is there and she says uh honey according to this this app our baby is two pounds and then the husband says that's crazy because you've gained something like 50 pounds

and then it'll be like a smash cut to rip that guy died and the first time i saw that sketch i was like pretty funny sketch but now i've seen it 10 different times the exact same joke with 10 different couples and i just i i feel like i'm taking crazy pills Yeah, this is making me feel actually a lot better, honestly. It's because I saw one that was a woman, P.O.E, like, she's walking into a bathroom. And she's like, look at how disgusting this is. And she's showing her husband's area of the sink.

And she's like, his toothbrush is there. And it's like sitting out. There's toothpaste there and stuff. But it's like, there are three or four items. But she's like, I tell him every single day to clean this stuff up. Tell me if this is also happening to you. And then she pans away to like leave the room. And as she does, her whole side of the sink is just like littered with like makeup and hairspray and all kinds like all these feminine products that are like, that's the joke is like you're catching just a glimpse.

For sure. Yeah. I saw that. I saw that. And it obviously stuck in my craw. And then I saw it again. But it looked a little different. And I was like, what is happening?

Like is this my, that was my brain. I was like, I just remembered it completely wrong. What a weird Mandela effect. Like I think I just remembered the whole thing wrong. somebody else's room you're not telling me which is actually a huge relief that there's a bunch of people doing that same video

just doing it's you know like there are nothing yeah sometimes I will I'll see like like viral internet things like not hot ones because that host isn't sufferable and impossible to watch but like they will do a version of hot ones where it's just

two celebrities eating wings and talking to each other and there are sometimes I'll see some see something like that and think that would be fun to do with my wife not necessarily like film it but like get some wings eat some spicy wings and talk to each other that i understand that is like a date night activity i don't understand seeing a sketch that someone else made and then just thinking like i would like to also make that do that like you're covering a song and I don't know if people are trying to

if they're hoping that viewers assume they did the sketch or it's just like sketches are on the internet and I and my wife and I like sketches so we just do them like you and I used to make videos we would see we would run sketches on the site and you could tell if someone was like inspired by a Britannic sketch

and trying to do something like that you would never see someone who is like redoing a sketch word for word because that's that's a lot of work I think about those the one I described

with the faking miming suicide over and over again I'm like that's like five locations yeah that's so much work a lot of editing to do honey we got We're sketchmakers now.

We're going to do this one. We're going to see how it feels to do this sketch. I think it's, well, the kindest part of me says that they see this is no different than any other TikTok trend. Like, you have a trend, which is, there's this interesting way you can, or, oh, here's a great example. Like, a woman will secretly film her picking her husband up and putting him on the counter, basically like sitting him up on a counter as like a joke. Like, hey, see how a husband reacts to being picked up. It's really fun. And so other people are like, oh, you know, I could love that would be fun.

Like, I'll love to see what happens when I pick my husband up. And so the trends are a lot of times dependent on like, hey, can we actually do this move? And then also, what is going to be the reaction of the other person when I do this move? I think that they're not seeing it as any different than that. They're being like, oh, that's the trend. Like, let's just do, let's also do the trend. Let's make this sketch word for word shot for shot. And we will also at our, well, that will be our contribution.

to this mosaic of like this trend. I hope, I'd hope. But I think that you might be right also. I think that it's, they saw something and they like, I think we're at the tip of this before it goes viral. If we made the exact same thing, ours might go viral by accident. That I actually think is the generous read. That's the read for me where someone is thinking like we were going to get a bunch

more attention for this, which we can parlay into brand deals and money. That is a thing. I mean, it makes them a shitty person because you're stealing somebody else's idea. It's not generous at all. It's a generous read because that's like a version of humanity. I understand more than people who just see the internet as a strange sort of paint-by-numbers place

where you can do a sketch that you saw and you don't care that Instagram is full of 10 versions of the exact same sketch and in fact you're like happily participating in that and you think that's good internet content and I don't

I mean that's why I feel like the theft is a better read because that's a version of humanity that has a goal that I understand but if everyone if the internet which you and I invented in 2006

The internet, if now the version of sketch comedy on the internet is just like unambitious repetition and no escalation and no twists and no like invention, then that's a bummer for content, for internet comedy. Well, yeah. So, okay, not to get like two in the weeds here, but are you, this. I swear that this is related. He's going to do it, folks. He's going to name a broad. Here it comes. Do you know what gooning is?

I do. And this like, the idea of maximizing, the idea of maximizing anything, that you're like, the grind set mind core, the grindset mind. Grind core mindset? Grindrind core mindset. That you can, you can like, you can do the most of anything. And if you just go to the most, then you will be the best at that thing. people have taken that to masturbation where they're like they're they're going to sit in a room for 18 hours or whatever I think maybe that's maybe it's like 12 but they sit in a room and they're going to try to masturbate that entire time and they're going to watch they're like being fed these videos and there's videos that other people are curating for these gooners that are like that are going to be specifically to keep them going and it's catered specifically to them and this hearing about

out this exist has only made my own, the way that I use the internet feel really bad and naked and terrible because I sit there on reels and I'm just like, I'm just going through. And I'm not physically masturbating, but I am just like, what is going to entertain my brain? Now it's going to entertain my brain. Now it's like, what's going to be the thing that's going to scratch the itch for me over and over and over again. And it's like I'm just flipping through these short-formed things that are empty calorie, that are dog shit, there's no story, there's nothing to them.

And I'm doing it all day. I'm doing it for like, if I look at my screen time, it's always humiliating, like, how much time I spend on my phone. And I think that, like, the direction we're headed is we're all becoming gooners, right? Like, we're all becoming these guys. We're all do it. We're becoming these guys who are, we're going to sit in our cave and we're just going to be like, what's next what's next what's next

I don't like this one what's next that's a little bit better what's next and it's rough it's rough to think about if anyone is curious about this gooning stuff that sort of talked about I believe we listened to the same episode of search engine about

man there's a whole search engine episode about it because there was this like incredible deep dive expose and maybe vanity fair with someone who like got into the Gooning community, which is just like basically an internet forum full of, uh, it's going to shock you guys, mostly men who masturbate and talk to each other about it and share videos that, that they make because they think like I, uh, you would really like this

porn montage that I made. I curated it, it's, specifically for you, so you can watch this and masturbate a whole lot. This person embedded themselves in that community, asked a lot of questions to try to understand the community better, and wrote an article about it, and then the article was discussed on search engine. Okay, so I've read the article. And also Pobulatory myself shared it. It's fascinating and weird and, like, kind of sad, but I do the one interesting takeaway from

the search engine podcast. where the writer explains it to the host, PJ, vote. PJ is just like, it's, so these guys, like, they're not interested in, a lot of them say they're not interested in, like, having sex with a person going out in the world and meeting someone because we're all a little bit traumatized and broken by COVID, and a lot of the guys are like, I don't, I don't want to go out and disappoint someone, or I don't know what they like, but if I stay at home with the computer I know what I like

and I don't have to worry about another person which is a very sad like way to go through life but the conclusion in this podcast was these guys are also like they formed a community around it and it's like this is a someone made for me this montage that they think I'd like

of porn for me to masturbate to and PJ's thought and my thought is also just like you should the person who made that porn montage you should find them and have sex with them like this is I think you guys

think you really like each other you're so close to what what life can be like there are because there's like competitions and stuff there's like these guys are like I don't think there's competitions for who can masturbate the best

but there's like competitions for guys who are like creating this feeder material like that are like and like then they have this weird relationship with each other yeah where like one is feeding the other

and you're like They will send each other private messages. They're like, I miss you and stuff like that. Anyway, the article is called The Goon Squad by Daniel Colitz. And I assume Daniel Colitz is the one who is on the episode of Search Engine. Yeah. Daniel Kibblesmith shared that article. And it's so well written.

It's a subject that you don't want to read about. It's a subject that is really tough to read about and is like, has the same, gets the same reaction out of me as tin fish, where I'm like really squirming in my seat as I'm like, as I'm reading his stuff. but he's such an excellent writer that it is worth reading this article. It's so well written in a way that I'm like, fuck, I used to write for the internet. I also have that same feeling I get when you described Tinfish

and I think about the gooning, which is just like, maybe we turn the internet off for a couple of years. Maybe we just shut it down. Just do emails on it and movie trailers. We're allowed to use Wikipedia and that's it. Like, what if we just gave up on it? for a little well.

And I was like, what if I gave up on it a little for a little while, a little while? And then I go, oh, no, not me. Yeah. I'm fine. It makes me very scared about having kids and losing them to the goon squad of the internet somehow. Because, you know, if we don't know what we're having, but if it's, if I have a boy who 15 years on the line, just like, I don't want to go out on dates because this stranger in Quebec sends me curated

masturbation fodder daily and it's exactly what I like and it's I can't imagine being happier than this. I feel like as a parent I'd be like, I can't compete with that. That's more intimate than your, my relationship with your mother. We would never do send curated porn to each other.

It's, uh, you know, enjoy your, your, your, your weird sad life. Yeah, but there's a nihilism to it that we're not addressing as well which is like the, the nihilism of is that within these mixtapes of porn that they're creating for each other, there's a lot of messages of like, give yourself over to this. You are nothing. Just lose yourself to the

indulgence. This is all that there is for you. There's nothing out there for you. Like, there's that kind of stuff to it. It's like, it's really, really sad. And that's part of the appeal for them is I'm doing something so detrimental to my body and my mind. And I'm just going to sink into it entirely. And that's rough. I was thinking of my own children as that was happening and how they will at some point be old enough to make decisions like that. And I'm like, I don't know.

I'm going to do what I can with the foundation currently to ensure that they have more ambition than that and that they believe that they belong in this world in a way where they don't just shut themselves off in their goon cave. Yeah. as Daniel Kibblesmith called it I think he called it a cagoon which I was like yeah that's exactly what it should be

I do yes you're right foundation I think I know that there were there were vices and bad temptations in the world since the beginning of time and my parents you know the internet didn't exist

when my parents had me and my brothers but they raised us with morals and tools and just comfort and love in a way that when given the option we would avoid the vices that they knew of and the ones that they couldn't predict when the new ones came up because they had given us these tools and they'd raised us in such a way that we were going to do the right thing,

which I imagine is what you're doing with your kids and what I would like to do for my kids. But I don't know, the Internet's so big. It's changing so fucking much that it seems really hard to keep up with to like, I don't know what tools to give the kids. Right, because you don't know what's going to be like. I don't know what's going to be out there.

And also, you know, you know. No, you remember what it felt like when you were prepubescent or pubescent, when you were like, oh, this is the worst version of me. I think that I'm not right for this world. I think that I'm not one of the good ones. And you're like, and there's a lot of shame and weirdness about it. And you're at your very worst and you're mad all the time. And like, you don't feel quite like you fit in the world. We always came at that with an understanding that this will likely end at some point.

that like maybe there is another side to this. I think that if you catch a kid in exactly that moment and you're like, hey, we don't know if there's an end to the other side, but here, here's another world where you can live where everything is much, much better. They're going to choose that, man. Their brains aren't developed enough to be like, okay, I will put off everything until I will just assume that the life will get better at some point. They're not going to do that. They're going to be like, well, I want it better now. I have no context for how long life is. I want the good stuff.

the fact that there's an entire community doing it is maybe you could think that's heartwarming I think it's very scary when I think about about being like 13 and and horny and mad and sad and weird all the time there was something to looking at other people and being like I don't know they can function in the world so maybe I could function in the world too and then meanwhile this goon squad is very much like wouldn't you rather listen to voiceover on top of porn playlists that tells you you're nothing and like masturbate all day in your in your little room doesn't that feel good i do it look 30 000 other people are doing it that guy makes 300k a year and he comes and does this so it's like this is very normal and this is fine

you can do this and you're with us you're with us you're one of us and doesn't that feel good to be part of that it's it's really all right well anyways this has been our masturbation episode. This has been an episode of the broadcast. Oh, yeah, where we named broads and then we talked about masturbating. That's right. Other people masturbating, which is somehow worse. All right.

Well, thank you for listening to this podcast. Me Rex, Gabe Harder, video content, Patreon, all the hits that you'd hear at the normal end of one of these. Hit up all those. If you like more of this podcast, obviously go to our Patreon. We do love our supporters through Patreon, and we try to give you a pretty good show that is separate enough from this that it feels like, ah, this deserves to be behind a paywall. Anyway, thank you. Goodbye.

I've got a quick, quick question for you all right. I want to hear your thoughts on what's on your mind. I've got a quick, quick question for you. you all right the answer's not important I'm just glad that we can talk

tonight so what's your favorite who did you get when would I be remember I think what's 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 you have a great time here