Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - The 2023 Pop Culture Pop Quiz Part 1

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

What better way to ring in the new year than by looking back at the one we just finished? Dan quizzes Soren on the sentences that explain 2023 (h/t The Ringer).See all 84 sentences at https://www.theringer.com/year-in-review/2023/12/18/24002319/2023-recap-pop-culture-sportsThanks to Shopify for sponsoring this episode. Sign up for a $1/month trial period at shopify.com/qq Thanks to Rocket Money for sponsoring this episode. Try it at RocketMoney.com/qq. It could save you hundreds a year. Follow the show on socials: https://www.linktr.ee/QQPodcastSoren Bowie: https://twitter.com/Soren_LtdDaniel O'Brien: https://twitter.com/DOB_INC

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 favorite? Who did you get? When will I be remembered? What's it out there? Where did all the bad weeks 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. So hello again and welcome to another episode of Quick Question with Soren and Daniel, our first episode back in the new year. That's right. It's now Daniel Wary, Woo Thousand, and Funny Soren. This is the podcast where two best friends and comedy writers ask each other questions

and give each other answers. I am on behalf of that podcast, senior writer for Last Week Tonight, author of How to Fight Presidents, the co-host with the co-most, Daniel O'Brien, joined as always by the Ted to my bill, the pepper to my salt, the mustard to my popcorn, Mr. Sorin Bowie. of woo, woo thousand. Woo thousand. And, and, and funny Soren. And funny. Oh, I see. Okay. The funny is now making sense to me. Yeah.

Funny Soren. Uh, that was beautiful, Dan. Great job. Great job working on that. That's a good joke. You did great. The bill to my Ted. Or did you say Ted to my bill?

I said Ted to my bill. Yeah. Oh, that's even better because it's the name of the show and I should go first. You thought it all through. You're better at these. And I'm going to let you keep doing them. That's your new year promise to me. Thank you for this gift.

My resolution is to change nothing. I'm doing great. Everything I do is great. So change it. Don't change a thing. Thanks to Shopify for supporting Quick Question. Shopify is a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs like myself the resources once reserved for big business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash QQ, all lowercase.

Stop paying for the ones you don't want. Stop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions and manage your expenses the easy way by going to rocketmoney.com slash QQ. Can I tell you, I had a genuine thought in my head that I wanted the podcast to be better this year. I think I think this every year and, and like right out the gate, like I have my plan for this episode that I think would be an accessible episode uh and then as i'm reading the intro and it starts with what to a new person must sound like complete

gibberish nonsense bullshit immediately i've lost any new people i hope to gain well what were you hoping to make it better to attract to cast a wider net or are you hoping to make it better to cast a wider net or were you hoping to make it better to really reward our listeners? I don't... No. I want to cast a wider net. I want a deeper pool. Or even if I can't get a much deeper pool, I would like to just once have an episode that I can point to to a stranger and say like oh this is pretty good this isn't alienating this doesn't require you to have not only listened to four years of podcasting

but also be kind of familiar with our shorthand and both of our entire careers i think just honestly i think we've got at least anyone could drop into. We've got at least two and a half episodes like that, buddy. Okay. That's pretty good. Over the course of five years, six years. Yeah. I think there's like, there's two that I think I can go back and be like, well, yeah, maybe this one. Maybe you could listen to this one.

Okay. That's good to know. Well then, well then I did it. Then I did my resolution resolution this is so much better every year you should do you should make your resolution something that you forgot you already did and then you just it makes it so much easier then now i'm done 2004 is all downhill you just you just ride it yeah oh boy oh okay daniel uh we should address the fact that i don't know if people can tell honestly i can't really uh You are sick still. You're a sick boy.

I am either sick still or sick again. The last time we talked, I had COVID famously, and then I recovered, thankfully, from COVID. And again, also thankful my symptoms were very mild. And I had like a week of perfect health where I felt great just to encapsulate all of Christmas festivities. And then immediately got what I'm pretty sure is the flu because it just, it makes sense for all the symptoms that I have. And everyone I was around also got sick and one of them got tested for the flu. And that's just one of those things. If I'm in a group of people and one of them has something, I'm like, oh, thank you for doing the legwork. I probably have that too. I won't investigate further. So did you get a, you got a flu shot this year, right? I did not. No. Ah,

so you, and did Shay get one? You don't know. Oh, she's anti-vax. I forgot. No, no, no, no. That's absolutely not. I there there's there's got to be some kind of i don't know what the legalities are of how much of my girlfriend's medical information i give on this yeah oh i see oh you were concerned that you were going to be exposing too much by telling me whether or not she got a flu shot yeah okay fine don't tell me that's fine i'll tell you that um my whole family got them my whole family gets them every year i didn't ever used to get them when i was in college and like a young adult i thought what is the problem i'm young why would how could a flu hurt me without any sort of like further thought than that and since i've been

a parent i'm like everyone get your fucking flu shot just get it just go get your flu shot uh but i have been bad about getting the flu shot for my entire life yeah i was too i think even even like and like hopefully i'll be better but i don't know man i'm not feeling great about i mean the reason i get flu shots now is, is convenience. I, my kids go to get it and while I'm there and they're getting, they're getting poked, they're like, uh, you want one? I'm like, yeah, yeah. Give me one of those.

And then I get one too. I guess that, yeah, I guess you kind of have to, they're not driving yet. They can't just do that on their own. No, they don't go to their own appointments yet. Um, but I, yeah, I, I will get them only because of convenience. I think that if I had to schedule my own appointment, I would be kind of like you. I'd be like, it'd be like January.

I'd be like, oh shit, you know what I forgot? I'd never get a flu shot. Now, my mom, who is, she was a nurse. My mom. My mom was a nurse in an ER for a very long time. was a nurse in an er for a very long time um but also has like a she is she has a very crunchy philosophy when it comes to medicine she is like holistic and she is she's always looking for stuff that western medicine is missing and so she's skeptical of Western medicine despite being an ER nurse. I think a lot of medical professionals are.

Yes. And so my brother and I have joked that she's one bad friend away from being anti-vax. I don't think that's probably true. She's much better than that. But she has not gotten her flu shot in a very long time. And she's now over 70 and i'm like mom you gotta get it like you you're this is like you get the fluid it's you're done it's gonna lay you out and you don't you're up in a cabin in the woods by yourself now like uh you you gotta

get your flu shot she's like i don't know and it's like i think that was also contributing the fact that i i didn't get flu shots when I was a kid because my parents were like, you don't need it. Right. My mom was also a nurse and I don't recall us getting flu shots every year. And certainly when I was left to my own devices, I didn't do it. And everything always seemed fine. And then years ago, our former boss, Jack, whose wife was a doctor, he was saying, I was the same way. I never used to get flu shots because I didn't get them growing up and I never got sick. But then I learned that the reason you get a flu shot is to protect other people who are more vulnerable because you can carry the flu and still give it to them. And I thought, that is some ironclad logic that makes a whole lot of sense to me.

Pass. It's just so easy. It's just, I'm just selfish enough that they need to make it one more step easier than they have already made it for me. You know, there are so many, every CVS and Walgreens has all those signs that are like, free flu shots, just come in and get them right now. We're waiting by the door.

And I'm like, yeah, that's pretty convenient. Be better if it was in my house though. Yeah. Be better if it was like on my way to something and I didn't need to stop or break my gate in any way. Do you think that getting laid out by this flu has changed your mind at all? No. What do you want?

The real answer or the podcast answer? No, I don't care, I guess. I'm just thinking like in your defense, there've also been years where like you go get a flu shot and then you get the flu and you'd be like, well, what happened then you'd like look it up or whatever and they'd be like oh yeah we missed it this year we got there there's a different strain like we were prepping for like these other strains and we just didn't anticipate that like the virus is going to play offense in a different direction like we game planned but they came they also game planned and like they beat us this year and you're like oh okay so that was i was a big waste of time where i was like kind of sick for a day and had a sore arm yeah yeah we really

blew it this year but but definitely give us another shot next year we really think we're gonna we're gonna crack this wide open and uh if we don't just keep in mind no accountability for us yeah that's true um i mean i will say that any hesitance that i had before and i think this is i speak for you as well but i just want to be explicit about it any hesitance i had before about getting flu shots was not related to what's in the flu shot i right that is fine everything is i yes it's good in the flu shot it's i have no conspiracy theories or fears around the flu shots it is purely i swear lazy you're just a lazy person yeah and i am too but i they have made it so convenient for me this was the first year i went to my pediatrician and they were like oh we're not going to do it well we're not going

to do yours because we only have enough for the kids and i was like oh okay and then i had to figure it out on my own and i'm fortunately i was going to get my before the holidays going to get my covid uh my new covid shot which they're not even calling an uh update or whatever not an update that's for machines yeah booster they're calling it an actual vaccine like it's a new vaccine and i went i like, I better get that before we go to the holidays. Might as well get the other one too. And then just had kind of a miserable day. Yeah.

Okay. We should be very clear that we are encouraging on this show of people getting all vaccines all the time. Is that too much of an overcorrection? No, I don't think so. I think the vaccines exist for a reason and you like there's proof in the pudding of people who have not been getting the vaccines getting vaccines in general lately and all of a sudden like scarlet fever's fucking back or or something

else like meningitis is showing up all over the place like yeah get your get your vaccines that should go without saying. Should we get into the show now that we addressed the elephant in the room? Because the reason was if I sound bad to anyone, like different than the normal bad, it's because I'm very sick and you should have sympathy for me. One more second. First of all, yes. I'm sorry, Dan. I hope you feel better. Okay. Now, there are like some childhood viruses or bacterial infections that you think like you don't get it as an adult. Some of those would be obviously chickenpox, but ones like pink eye or strep throat. Those don't feel like adult diseases those are adult viruses when

you get something a sickness like that it's embarrassing to tell other people you're like i got strep throat and they're like fucking how kissing an eight-year-old causes what causes it is a bacterial infection strep throat is a bacterial infection it only infects your throat it doesn't usually come with a lot of expectorate or like uh the mucus that you would get from a cold but you get that deeply deeply sore throat and your tonsils get very swollen you sometimes get if you can like see all the way back into your throat you get some little pustules like like white spots on your the back no i remember getting strep as a kid and that like knocks you out that's a no joke thing that as a kid i i really thought

like this is gonna be like the greatest threat of my life and then i got older and it just wasn't there anymore and are you telling me the reason is because kids are are filthy and disgusting no it's not kids are just more susceptible to it than adults are um i don't know all of the reasons why partially because there's only a few strains of strep throat and once you get them like i don't know all of the reasons why partially because there's only a few strains of strep throat and once you get them like i don't think you really get them again but also because kids immune there's just like they're like running so hard they're like they're always in fifth gear their immune systems and i think that this makes it very easy for a bacterial infection like strep throat to slip through um the only way to solve strep throat is with- Become strep throat. Is to think like strep throat. You have to get, I don't think it's penicillin, but you got to get like some antibiotic for it.

And when we were on this trip, Ronan's grandmother got very sick and we didn't know what it was. And she got strep throat. And she's like, it's crazy because I got it last year too and we were like what adults can get strep throat it was like it was like i i felt vulnerable like i had a blind spot i felt very vulnerable in a way i hadn't felt vulnerable in a while where i was like ah i haven't even been watching this side like these gates i have not even been watching what's been slipping through and uh and then ronan got it because he's actually i guess from the ages like three to twelve or something like that that's when you're most susceptible so ronan immediately got it he's on amoxicillin now which is the kid version of a antibiotic

so annoying to just like give your kid at the same time every day for 10 days giving them something that they don't like but uh he's obviously at least he's old enough that he understands totally totally why we were like hiding it in pudding for gilly back when she had an ear infection but uh he gets it he also the other thing about strep throat is like you feel you've never felt worse like you feel terrible um until you take antibiotics for a day and then you're like back in circulation like you are back so fast uh you feel you shouldn't be back in circulation yet you should wait 48 hours but you're back in like you feel better immediately um and that's what it was for me when i took that doxycycline for when I had a tick bite where I was like, I'm pretty sure I might die from this.

And then within like eight hours of taking my first dose, I was like, I'm back, baby. Why take the rest? And so in some ways, like that's great because it's not a sickness like a cold that always has a long run out at the end. It's like you take the first dose of your drug and you're like oh i'm better that was that was bad huh guys all right well i'm back now let's go for a mile run like you're fine um and that's been great but she she does she obviously she doesn't know where she got it but it it does travel like a cold like it travels in air vapor and then like mall, little water molecules and stuff like that. And my brother also got it recently.

And I'm like, huh? Where's everybody getting the strep from? I didn't, I, I mean, as a kid, do you remember your mom being at all concerned that she was also going to

get strep from you? No, I don't either. I don't know what's going on. I got to. Yeah. Get get get to a doctor have i divulged too much information about my family on this podcast about their medical history uh i don't know okay it depends i mean it depends on how embarrassing the reason is for how someone gets stressed i don't think it it's possible i think it's because it travels like a cold you

get it from like touching surfaces or like someone coughing near you and stuff like that. I think that's fine. But yeah, we were all very surprised that she got strep. And then I think immediately you can give it to kids. Yeah. Yeah. I have such strong memories of getting strep tests at school as like a regular part of the year, if not twice a year, you would just get it. That's right.

Just like, this is the time when kids get strep. So like do this thing. They would put that, yeah, they put that swab all the way down your throat. Yeah. It's really an awful test. She's, I felt so bad for her because she like, she's so excited to see her grandkids. We get there and she's immediately bedridden. Like she can't really hang out. And she did try, like she came out and like made a delicious pie and stuff, but she was like wearing a mask because she didn't know if it was COVID or what, like she did all the right things. And she just got just lucky, I guess, that she got strep at, as a senior citizen. Like that's, it's rough, man. Hey, let me ask you, what's a hobby that you're doing right now? Are you learning to play guitar? Are you knitting?

Are you, did you learn how to warp a loom and start, start weaving? I think, I think those are real terms. Whatever your hobby is, you never know when that's going to blow up and become a legitimate business. And it could. You have to believe in yourself. It happens all the time. Think about all those people on Etsy that just yesterday were thinking, I just like making cabinets on my own. And now they're sweating to make orders for everybody.

Well, Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business from the launch your own online shop stage to the first real store stage to, oh my God, we just hit a million order stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. I think the only reason we would ever create actual things that we could sell for this show, it would just be a competition. We would sell some DOB Devo t-shirts and some connoisseur shirts and just see which one sells better and then rub it in the other one's face every single episode. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet best converting checkout up to 36%

better compared to other leading commerce platforms and sell more with less effort. Thanks to Shopify magic, your AI powered all store. I know there's a big, there's a big issue right now where people deciding is a good AI is it bad AI? Shopify's got the good one. The good one's on their team. Plus, Shopify's extensive help resources are there to support your success every step of the way. Those are real people behind Shopify because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. So sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash QQ, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash QQ to take your business to the next level today. Shopify.com slash QQ. Well, should we get into the show? Let's do it. Okay.

Soren, it's the new year. Oh, oh shit. Oh shit. You're right. Yeah. And I thought this might be fun so the ringer which is one of the last websites in the world uh they have they put out a bunch of year in review articles and one of them was the 84 sentences that explain 2023 okay they're just sentences that are pulled from social media, from speeches, from interviews,

from TV and movies, from whatever, just sentences. They're not even like ranked best, most. It was just like, here are the sentences that explain this year. And I'm curious. I'm not exactly sure how to get into this with you because at first I wanted to just read all of them and see how many you would get. But that seems like it might take a long time. I could just also jump around.

Jumper. How well do you think you would do on a list of 84 sentences that define the year 2023? I think I'd do pretty well. Okay. We'll start with an easy one. Okay. Like this one, the game is given away.

And it's not meant to be like a test. I'm making it a test for you. The game is given away by who says it. And especially if I say the name of the person who says it. This from January of 2023 is Goodnight night katie and it's uh a line delivered by megan and megan is spelled m3gan jesus christ i have no idea really what this context says no from the movie megan also spelled m3gan oh oh gee okay i so this is also like pop culture this isn't just like yeah okay and why would that encapsulate 2023

it's just it's just these are things for 2023 you might remember yeah jesus okay here's what i thought it it might speak also to like a an extremely uh online person oh okay that's what that was my my takeaway from this list is is someone who is both extremely online and also extremely um into reality tv there's a lot of reality tv oh then i'm i'm gonna do very poorly uh i see here's what here's what I anticipated this was going to be. You have these quotes from people that just feel like they have the heartbeat of the year already. I'll give you an example. Brian Ferenczi, who's a friend of ours from 5 Second Films, remember him?

Yeah. So he had a tweet this year that was, My self-driving Tesla crosses four lanes of freeway traffic in an attempt to jackknife an oncoming Subaru. In the final seconds of my life, I'm filling out a CAPTCHA to try to regain control of the vehicle, but I don't know which squares in the grid are woke. Like that felt to me like, oh yeah, that's 2023.

That's the most perfect, efficient time capsule for the year i think a person could conceive of this is not that list no i thought it was gonna be like when you said k i was like okay this is katie coric this is like something that happened in the news this is gonna be a big deal all i'm getting is good night and megan spelled wrong i was like i have no idea what this is all right but this but but that's that's illustrated for me that that like you weren't swept up in megan fever as the the the first and most exciting movie of 2023 i do remember everyone really going hard at megan and like the dancing and stuff like that that megan was doing everyone was uh already hated

the movie before they had ever seen it. And then obviously she became a mascot then at that point. You've got the wrong read on this, man. We all loved it. You loved Megan? Everyone loved Megan. Yeah. We loved the idea of Megan.

And then we went to go see the movie. And I saw it in a rowdy movie theater where me and a bunch of other people kept saying, that's Megan. Every time Megan was on screen, it was awesome was awesome oh i like that angle a lot better they're gonna make more megans and it's gonna be terrible this is one of those perfect movies where they didn't realize they were making something campy and ridiculous and until it until a trailer came out and twitter took the ball and ran with it and then i think everyone behind the movie was like uh yep yeah we don't think it's it's elevated horror either we also think it's stupid and funny you're right that was our intention enjoy the silly

camp movie good for them to for pivoting though i mean you're so easy to dig your feet in and be like no what i made is art right oh no okay i didn't realize all right no so i'm gonna i'm changing my answer i'm gonna do poorly give me some other ones some of these are some of these are just like things that happened uh february 1st 2023 i'm retiring for good tom brady yes you remember that you didn't have to give me even the name i would have gotten that one great how about this what was the universe trying to say to me by depriving me of both my brother and my penis i don't know. What a great out of context quote though. I think the source might surprise you. It's from Prince Harry's autobiography, Spare.

What? Did he lose the... Did he lose his penis somewhere? He was on like a winter expedition and got frostbite on his dick and was worried he was going to lose it. How did I miss this? That's amazing. That would have wonderful story. And it was, yeah, it was a story that he told on Colbert and it made the rounds everywhere. And it was like one of the several pull quotes from his book when he did, when he megget megan did their massive we are in the next

phase of our entertainment careers tour when they were just like both everywhere for a big part of 2023 i did avoid a lot of that excerpts from his book were all over the place now he he lost something i mean just trying to like think of like logistics of how you would frostbite your penis because it is it's nestled in a little area designed for that never to happen right that would be real you have it requires some level of exposure yeah good for him good for him um jacking off in 40 to below temperatures. This is another sports thing that maybe you'll have a better recall of. Prior to the pass, holding, number 24, defense, five-yard penalty, automatic first down.

Is this the... Say that one again. Prior to the pass, holding number 24 defense. Five-yard penalty, automatic first down. Said by Carl Sheffers. Who was playing in this? At first, I thought it was going to be a brotherly shove thing from the Eagles, which has been a very big deal this year, but it's not. It's what game was decided by that?

I don't know what this one is. It's from the Super Bowl. Oh, God damn it. That was forever ago. I don't remember a holding call being that pivotal in the last Super Bowl. Maybe I'm nuts. I don't either. Man, but honestly, the Super Bowl feels like it was Olympics. It feels like it was four years ago. I can't either man that was but honestly the Super Bowl feels like it was Olympics

it feels like it was four years ago I can't alright that one I didn't get I'm not doing great here February 19th 2023 Angela Bassett did the thing

no I mean this is all too far away. I've forgotten anything that happened in February. I, this is so, it's so wild to me. It feels like we live in two different worlds. The things that are so clear to me as like a hallmark of this year that maybe never penetrated through to you. Maybe never made it to your desk.

Is this that? Oh, fuck. I think I do know what this is. Such a vague memory. It's not even about, it's not even her. It's somebody else saying it. It's somebody else in an award show saying it about her. It's somebody else rapping it.

Rapping it. Like I, it's so, it's wild to me that that on the one hand i'm saying you didn't know what this is from but meanwhile i'm like why soren it was from the 2023 baptist of course god why weren't you watching the best i do know what this is but not i mean obviously i was not watching the baptist but i only be okay there's my little hallmark i i can get a i was not watching the baptist but i only be okay there's my little hallmark i i can get a foothold in the baptist because she rapped a congratul or like a like a shout out to a bunch of different people right yes yes a bunch of different women women specifically she she made a whole song slash rap about uh being at the bath doesn't and i can't remember if she was

presenting or hosting it doesn't matter it's lost to time and the was it this particular uh ariana de bose okay who is uh divisive on the internet for reasons that i don't fully understand she's got extreme like theater kid energy and and sometimes we hate that and sometimes we love it. I don't know why people really hate it. This performance was really silly and kind of cringe inducing, but also adorable and delightful. And it was just fun to rewatch clips of her saying, Angela Bassett did the thing as part of her fast

rap of all of the women performers in the last, the previous year, never elaborating on what did the thing is. It's about her performance in Wakanda forever. I'm reading it now. Like she's got like actually Viola Davis, my woman, Viola Davis my woman Viola Davis my woman king

Kate you're a genius Jamie Lee you're all of us did the thing that's what you say about somebody you hate every bit of it makes no sense every like the starting point of I want to say something great about every woman nominated in this category that's a fine idea do that but um jamie lee you are all of us what does that mean

what could that mean what it's not like her performance in everything everywhere All at Once was specifically like a valve release of tension for everybody. She didn't like... I don't think it's... Jamie Lee Curtis didn't play a part that was like, yes, she said what we're all thinking. She played like a wild part in that movie. And it's insane to say that you are all of us as like the

one accolade you're giving to Jamie Lee Curtis. Viola Davis, My Woman King, that makes sense. That is the name of the movie she was in and the part that she played. Blanchette Kate, You're a Genius. But for, I mean sure, that is defensible. It's less defensible when you realize uh you didn't do uh phone book name rules for rhyme purposes it doesn't need to be that way it that that is a thing that that like it's it's a goofy thing you excuse in music if you're like this year's better than 2028 i like you blanchette kate you don't do it when you don't need to rhyme eight with anything. Blanchette Kate, you're a genius.

And it doesn't impact the rhythm at all. It's just an inexplicable choice. And of course, the coup de grace was, and Angela Bassett did the thing. Oh my God. This is wonderful. The whole thing is okay so jamie lee curtis i'm i'm guessing that she means by that is that the character that she played was so pedestrian and like what what i'm gonna say this is a very insulting thing that hollywood

regularly does where they want somebody to look like an ordinary american and they just make them look like a swamp creature they like what what hollywood thinks middle america is or like the average person is they're like make them disgusting make them as as like pear-shaped and weird as possible ah there it is there's my america there's my slice of americana and they did that with her. And so maybe she's also being like, yeah, you were, you represented all of us. We're all like that. Maybe they, they, they also gave her hot dog fingers in that movie.

They did do that. That's true. It's not really a Midwest thing as far as I know. Hey, long time listeners of the show and connoisseurins will know that I recently discovered that I was still paying for Sirius Radio, despite not having used it for a year and a half, probably. And the real diabolical part about subscription-based services like that is that they renew every year. And they don't tell you before they renew. You just renew, and then they go, hey, congratulations, you renewed. And then you think, well, shoot, I already bought it for a whole nother year.

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This is football again uh is this aaron rogers yes got it oh thank god can you explain what that what happened let's see yeah oh fuck what interview was this um it was when we were down on aaron rogers again for a little while like we got we go through like these cycles on aaron rogers where like everyone's like what the fuck he didn't get his vaccine and he eats clay like what is going on he and shailene woodley like what are they doing together but then all of a sudden like he joins the jets and everyone's like perfect move he's gonna bring the jets back they're gonna be joe namath days like it's gonna be awesome But then all of a sudden, like he joins the Jets and everyone's like, perfect move. He's going to bring the Jets back.

They're going to be Joe Namath days. Like it's going to be awesome. Right. So, and this was, this was March. So this is before he joined the Jets. My memory of Aaron Rodgers this year until recently, because he's in the news now for being shitty, but my knowledge of him in 2023 was every time i was either at the gym and sports was on or i was trying to watch basketball the dominating news story was there is no news from aaron rogers this was that period where it's isolation hadn't left the packers yet yes and every day someone

would like for some reason it dominated around the horn. It dominated every sports channel there was. It was just someone to update saying there is no update on Aaron Rodgers. And it was driving me nutso. Just this millionaire sitting around taking his time to make a decision and everyone else, all the commentators just talking about the lack of decision. That's right. Yeah. Yes, I forgot about this.

Okay. Yeah. Aaron Rodgers disappeared for a while. And it was an isolation that was self, what's the word? Prescribed. And he never really came out and said specifically what he was doing during it is that right yeah okay he went to like a yurt or something and then and then emerged and decided i'm gonna be a new york jet that's right and then

immediately twisted his ankle off yeah or blow out his knee um I thought it was one of the like devastating ones. It's not Achilles, right? Oh, you know what? It was. Yeah, it was his Achilles tendon. But then he was like, he was on his feet again, like too much later. And everyone's like, oh shit, maybe that clay shit works. Yeah.

I would be surprised if you knew any bit of this. Yes. This is from March of last year. This is someone is talking on TikTok. Make a vodka sauce pasta with me because I'm grounded. Because, well, first, do you want to guess why this person is grounded? It's a daughter of a famous director. Is this Martin Scorsese's daughter no and it's not mandy patinkin's family i don't know who this is make a vodka sauce pasta with me because i'm grounded because i tried to charter a helicopter from new york to maryland on my dad's credit card because I wanted to have dinner with my camp friend.

I don't know this. That's Sofia Coppola's daughter. And it's exactly what it sounds like. She tried to use her dad's credit card to charter a helicopter to have dinner with her friend. Who is her dad, Spike Jonze? I don't know. I only know her as Sofia Coppola's daughter because I'm an ally. Wonderful.

How old is this girl? Do you know? Is she like a teenager or is she like 18? She's a teenager. She wanted to go see a friend from camp. I like this a lot. This is a fun game. 16 years old.

I'm basically like, this is what I need for 2020. At the end of the year forever for 2023. I need like a lot. This is a fun game. Yeah. 16 years old. I've learned, I basically like, this is what I need for 2020 at the end of the year for every, for 2023. I need like, yeah. Okay. Well, what actually happened?

Cause I know what happened on Twitter and it wasn't this. Right. There's some TV quotes. I wonder how many you've seen. All right. I love you, but you are not serious. Yeah.

That's accession. Yeah. I hate pretending that i don't hate things well that sounds like me did i say that did i say that about star wars uh that's beef did you watch beef oh no i didn't i don't watch beef ah beef's good as hell uh today he showed up wearing chair pants, which he calls Chance. I don't know what that is either. Really? No. Oh, man.

That's Jury Duty. I have not watched Jury Duty. Really? Oh, buddy. Got to watch Jury Duty? Got to watch Beef? Okay. Jury Duty's on something weird, right?

It's on like Apple Plus or something? It debuted on either Plus or something? It debuted on either Freebie or Vudu, but you can watch it on Amazon Prime. I think it initially was... Whatever Prime's shitty kid that it doesn't want anyone to know about, whether that's Freebie or Vudu, it debuted on that,

and then Prime was like, oh, people are actually watching this show. We'll take from here it's a prime show it's a prime show now uh i need you to get up on that show because it is such a delightful show and i i need you to fall in love with it so that you can now join me in being outraged that the star of it has a development deal oh really yeah okay well okay so jury duty i assume it's narrative right or is it um you know nothing about jury duty okay i'm not gonna this isn't spoiling it but um it's it purports to be a mockumentary, like office style mockumentary about working on a jury. But only one of the people involved doesn't realize that it's all fake. There's one person who is an actual human being who is being filmed and everyone else is actors, including James Marsden playing himself and having a really good time.

I see him in that photo here. Well, that's, yeah, I understand now. So this is Windy City. And like you fall, yeah, yeah. But you fall in love with this guy because he's such a sweetheart and the character actors around him are very good and funny. And it's just unlike anything that's been done before, like lightning in a bottle and everything like that. And it ends and they make the big reveal to him that this was all fake. And he doesn't jump in front of a bus or like have his entire world shattered or anything like all the worries that you have that this guy's going to flip out. He handles it gracefully and sweetly and you love him for it. And fast forward to the present and I'm watching Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper's New Year's Eve countdown.

And they bring the one non-actor on the show and he's like, his hair is done now and he's dressing better and he's taking care of himself. And like, I was in construction before I did jury duty, but then I quit that job. And now you're going to be seeing a lot more of me. It's like, oh, that's a bummer. We didn't want that, buddy. I would be happier if someone could just make you rich and you would go away. We don't need you to be making development deals with Amazon to create shows. So he's got it.

Okay. He's just like a, yeah, he's a Carson Daly type and they gave him, they're like, we're going to make you a star. Yeah. Okay.

All right. I didn't, I mean, it's, and I don't, I don't even blame him. I blame studios and, and people with money who saw the success of jury duty and how everyone fell in

love with this guy. And they just thought, we got to... This guy is the secret sauce. We need to do more with him. This guy can open a box office. No. Well.

Oh. TV show. We're into May now. Okay. 55 burgers, 55 fries, 55 tacos, 55 pies, 55 cokes, 100 tater tots, 100 pizzas, 100 tenders, 100 meatballs, 100 coffees, 55 wings, 55 shakes, 55 pancakes, 55 posses, 55 peppers, and 155 taters.

You did that great, Dan. That's Tim Robinson. That's wonderful. That was well done. Thanks, buddy. I'm reading it. That's my boy, Tim Robinson, who I famously met on the strike lines and said, and immediately dropped Sam's name.

Did I tell you that story? You did. I don't know if you told it on the podcast. Yeah. So obviously he does a lot with Sam. They did Detroiters together and he still does a lot of the episodes of, I think you should leave. I don't know if he's writing on the show

or if he's just in them, but the minute I saw Tim Robinson, I was like, who do I know? What can I say? What can I say? Practicing my lie, like what lie I was going to do. But I was like, Tim, hey,

sorry to interrupt. I'm Soren. I just want to say I'm a big fan. I'm a good friend with Sam. Like, you know, our mutual friend, Sam. And he's like, oh, awesome. Okay, great, man. Sam Richardson.

Oh, sorry. Did I never say his full name? Okay. Sam Richard. I was like, yeah, I know Sam. And he's like, okay, great. And I was like, yeah. And then we walked away from each other.

And I was like, that went really well. That was great. I think I cut through a lot of noise by saying Sam's name. Yeah, I think so too. I think, I think, uh, and I don't, I don't know Tim Robinson at all and I won't speak for him, but from what I've seen in interviews and, uh, observed, he seems like the kind of person who doesn't want to be not at all. Uh, not that he's, I don't think he's an asshole at all.

Not at all. in the world who i think are they're good at their they're doing their thing for the right reasons you know what i mean like they're he would he has to do sketch like it's like in him like i have to make these things i have to make these things that i know are funny and like a byproduct of that is the fame but the fame was never the goal and it's so clear with him like the fame was never the goal and like there's a real purity to that it's like um it's like uh yokich like you you watch him in yeah in post-game conferences eli manning was this way by the way like eli manning was somebody who was just like i don't give a shit what anybody thinks about me like i'm just doing this other thing and i don't i honestly don't know that football was his passion i think maybe it might not have been but he like clearly had this other he was not interested in the fame at all. And I really appreciate that.

No, he's barely interested in football. He just knows that he's good at it. He was, for our listeners, he was the quarterback for the New York football giants for a very long time. He's won two Super Bowls with them. And like his brother, Peyton Manning is a superior quarterback. His father, Archie Manning was a football player as well so it's like in his blood he was basically raised to do this but if you ever and he's a good quarterback but if you ever see him uh in the middle of his job of playing football he doesn't seem thrilled to be there and he like famously when he was drafted, he was drafted for the, I want to say the Chargers when they were still in San Diego.

And he was like, no, I don't want, he like demanded a trade before he even suited up to play for the Giants, which tells me a lot about him as someone who's like, no, I didn't even want to play football and now you're making me move to San Diego. No, I'll only do it if I can stay over here.

That's how they got Phillip Rivers. I want to be on the East Coast. That's how the Chargers got Phillip Rivers. But he's so fun to watch because he does not care about the game. Like the game is annoying to him. Like he does want it to win, but I think he's not like he's like, there's no passion of like, he doesn't get insane about it. The way I would say Phillip Rivers does.

And like like he still wins games like and maybe that's like the cool heads prevail motto like he he can keep it together because it's never he's not passionate about the way it never seemed like he was and then you watch like post-game conferences and it was also clear he didn't want to be there either like the idea that he would be out in the media spotlight is just like, he's barely civil. Like these, it's only sort of annoying to him.

Yeah. My, uh, circling back to Tim Robinson on this, I, there's a podcast that I listen to a lot called good one, a podcast about jokes where, which is,

which is like a podcast created in a lab specifically for me. Cause they'll take a comedian and, uh, isolate a joke or a sketch or a bit that they've done and then interview that comedian and like get into the nuts and bolts of why you chose like like really into the minutiae of like why this word why this pause where did all this come from the kind of thing that uh i really geek out about even though i i sometimes it in general. And you get a lot of really interesting answers from thoughtful people who like clearly think about their craft all the time. And you also get the episode they did with Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin that they did live at Vulture Fest. And anytime the interviewer is trying to ask specifically like

vulture fest and anytime the interviewer is trying to ask specifically like uh why you settled on this line in the the focus group sketch with the car why you why you did this why where did this come from tim robinson is always just like it's just it was just funny it was the funny line like as much as i love like listening to mike rabiglia who was like a craftsman who can tell you why he picked every single word and every pause in his delivery i also love tim robinson who was just like he's not saying this but basically no it's a gut thing and it can't be taught you're not going to figure it out i picked it because it's the funniest and i did it because i'm the funniest you don't dissect the bird to find the song. Why are you asking me? This is boring. Why do you want to hear this?

I picked this because of course I did. Why would I pick something that was less funny? That's poking a dead frog, right? What's the point? You know, you can agree with me. It was funny. So that's why it's there. Yeah.

June 6th, 2023. Livvy rizzed up baby. Yeah, I know this. I still don't know what it means, but there were like these, there are young kids that are famous for not, not being like television celebrities, but just like they're really good at their individual things that they're already doing.

And like baby Gronk is a little football player, right? I don't know. Yeah. I think baby Gronk is a. This is, I, this is one that, um, made its way across my Twitter desk that I didn't understand, but I, I, I, I believe that it's okay that I don't understand. Here's the write-up in the ringer for it. You don't have to know what the sentence means. In fact, knowing what it means runs counter to why it's important. What matters is that this precise combination of words

uttered in this precise order taps into our broken psyches unlike anything I've ever heard. And I agree with that. It was just one of those things that I acknowledge that it makes sense to someone, but to people like me who, who like at the time didn't know what what riz meant and didn't know who baby gronk or livy were it was just like why is everyone repeating this phrase why is it what happened which it's it's finding out that buffalo buffalo

buffalo buffalo was yes like how could it be? What do you mean? Now explain it. Which one of these is the noun? I know about Riz because I've got some neighbor kids who are about 12 years old. And so Riz is like, that's in the lexicon around here. I mean, I know about Riz because I was born with it. That's true. It's just in your blood.

But Baby Gronk, I'm like reading about him now. He's a little football player but this is the crazy thing we're calling him baby grunt you want to know his real name is madden adult gronk his fucking real name is madden and we're calling him baby gronk that's so funny this is this is insane for people who don't know uh rob grkowski, that's who Gronk is. He was a tight end for the Patriots, maybe one of the best tight ends in all of history. But John Madden is like, he is an institution in football in a way that Gronk will never be. Right. Now, because I'm a little in the weeds on this you kept saying baby gronk is a little football player football player do you is it like a high school football player younger than that i

think i think he's he's only like oh wow or something like that oh shit he's real little uh i don't really know what he's like yeah so like there's clips there's clips of kids playing uh football you'll see them every once in a while or like basketball. Like, and there's just kids like people become culturally aware of because they are so good for their age. There's a little girl who plays football and she plays flag at this age because she's so young, but she is outstanding in a way where like you watch it. Even if you have no context for football, you're like, oh yeah, man, she's real good.

You just watch the body movements of these people and you're like, yeah, you're great. Yeah. And Baby Gronk is one of these such mavens. Baby Gronk is just really good at football. And Livvy rizzed him up and I still can't believe it sometimes. Oh, she rizzed him up. Who is Livvy? They rizz up so fast.

I have no idea. Oh, we don't know who she is. Okay. Let me, hold on. No, that's Olivia Dunn. She's not related to this. Oh, we don't know who she is. Okay. Let me, hold on. No, that's Olivia Dunn. She's not related to this. Oh, Livvy. Oh, Olivia Dunn is Livvy.

Okay. She is a gymnast. She's, oh yeah, at LSU, she's a gymnast. So she is in college. And maybe that's why this made news. That a college person was like, I'm going to throw some flirtation at a 10 year old. But I think these are just TikTok stars. Basically, they're TikTok stars for their respective things that they do really well, which is gymnasiums and fields. fields uh and so riz we we joked about it earlier both of us knowing what it is uh i i thought i was under the impression that riz was the the new young slang for charisma

okay so but riz'd up means i think yeah it means like throwing your charisma at somebody all right it's the um yeah i'm not even going to say the content. The context I was about to give was going to really date me. So I'm not going to do that. Uh, June 12th, 2023. This is another sports one.

The job is done. We can go home now. Ah, that's my boy. That's Joker. Oh yeah. That's, uh,

the, the star of the nuggets. That's, uh, Jokic. That. He's the best player in the NBA currently. And that's arguable, obviously. But he's like, he dominates in every single stat there is. And he can build like a team. It doesn't matter who he plays with. Like he can like make a team great it's one he's great but he just happens to also be on a team with a bunch of other stars yeah and and the the fun and remarkable thing about him is that he truly seems to hate playing basketball as we were talking about earlier just a a man with a gift who loves uh his tiny horses He loves going home. He doesn't seem to care for Colorado, where he plays. He seemed very... There's a clip that I watched a million times

after his team, the Denver Nuggets, won the championship last year, where he was talking about going home and the series being over, he could finally rest. And he was giving a press conference and someone was like, are you excited for the victory parade? And he turns to someone off camera when is parade?

They go, Thursday. And his head sinks. He goes, I have to go home. I have to go home. Just so upset to learn about the parade in his honor that he has to go to for work he thought he was done it is it is a job for him it's a job that he checks in and checks out of

he does his very best when he's at that job like he's not gonna he's not gonna just do half-ass it like that's his work yeah but he, just like everybody else, hates his job. Yeah. Do you know what sports team, this is also from June, there's some something happened in the trade like some there were some trades made in football around that time um i don't know who this is i uh it is the oakland ace i don't know the circumstances around it because i stopped following baseball i don't either the last thing it because I stopped following baseball. I don't either. The last thing I know about the Oakland A's is Moneyball. Ah.

So. That would have tripped. I would have. You're a smarty pants for going into your mind palace and remembering that baseball was happening in June. Because if someone said that to me right now, I would think, oh, Detroit Pistons currently. Because they have a sell the team chant going on. Yeah. That was under the deadline.

Like that would have been in December that we started hearing that. I think so. Because they lost their record-breaking game in December. You know about that, right? The number of lost games. They lost it in, in they, sorry, they lost their record breaking game.

So they had, they were, they got to a point where they lost more games. In December is when they had, when they had the most loss. Yes, exactly. Did they beat that, that losing streak yet?

I don't know. I, I feel like we would have heard about it. This is like when Powerball starts going up and, and we don't hear anything until somebody hits. I hadn't thought about, I, cause I,

you know, you, you hear about any streak in any sport and it gets very exciting. Even sad ones like the Pistons losing. Like I'm a basketball fan, but I don't follow Detroit at all. But I've been checking on them for this streak. And I love the press conference where Kate Cunningham was like, yeah, we're definitely, we're bad. We're a bad team. We're not losing 25 straight games bad. And this was after they'd lost 25 straight games. And that's just like, intellectually, I completely understand where he's coming from, where he's like, we're bad. We're not as bad as we seem. We certainly shouldn't have lost this many games. And it's like, no, man, you're totally right.

You did lose them though. And that's in many ways more important than the soul of your team. I mean, there's like, you can see this whole, it was a slow train wreck happening for the Pistons for years. And I don't know if you could go back to the trust the process portion of their history, but they had it. I thought trust the process was 76ers. Was it really? Oh, you're right.

You're absolutely right. Oh, nevermind. Both teams wear blue, right? Sports podcast. All right. This is a quote. I wouldn't have known who this quote was from, and it's darkly funny.

It's from June 2023, is when it surfaced, but it was originally uttered in 2021. And the quote is, I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules. Oh, yeah, that's the sub. That's the guy who made the sub. It is. It's Stockton that's the guy who made the sub it is it's stockton rush the ceo who uh made all those rich guys die in a tomb and that one rich guy's son yeah an imploded tin can yeah that's it is sad that people died but But the details were so funny that came out of that.

I know. And his name is Stockton Rush, which makes him really hard to root for to begin with. And he was a billionaire who broke a bunch of rules and thought he was a genius because he had money. There's a fantastic Behind the Bastards episode, Behind the Bastards from our friend and former co-worker Robert Evans with, I think, Andrew T is the guest. And it gives a great deep dive into the Stockton Rush, tight and submersible of it all. And it's very fascinating. And you never want anyone to die, but you will be rooting against Stockton Rush a bit if you listen to that episode that feels

like a good that one's right in my wheelhouse as far as like a 2023 like this represents the year kind of quote yeah i'm really surprised the like did you had you heard that quote before or you okay but it was his whole philosophy like that was just how he lived his life. It was like, they don't apply to me. Right. Okay. I think what we ought to do is we ought to, I don't want to stop doing this because I'm having so much fun. So I think we will just split this up into two episodes because I want to keep playing this game.

So let's just end it here. I will say all the details here and then we can, we can keep playing this. Okay. You know what? Don't even record it. Let's just do it. Just the two of us.

Let's just keep playing this game. Stay on the horn where I just give Soren sentences that happened in 2023. It shouldn't be as fun as it is, but it's really enjoyable for me. I hope that it's enjoyable to listen to too. All right. You can follow Daniel on Twitter or sorry, you can follow Daniel on X at DOB underscore Inc.

You can't follow me there anymore. My account's there, but nothing's happening. You can follow me on blue sky at Soren. You can follow quick question on X at QQ underscore Soren and Dan. You can also find us on Instagram where there are some really funny clips that I think Gabe put together that are, man, they make the show look a lot more fun than it probably actually is. He's at Gabe harder is our editor, our sound engineer, our producer.

You can find us on Instagram at QQ underscore with underscore Soren underscore and underscore Daniel. Mouthful. If you liked our theme song, it's by Merex. You can find them at merex.bandcamp.com or wherever you listen to your music. And you can watch us. We've done a couple of live episodes. No, I keep saying live.

We've done a couple of episodes where Daniel and I are in the same room and we're videoed together. And as much as I hate to admit it, like they're better, they're good. You can find those at YouTube slash at QQ podcast. Thanks for listening. Goodbye. I've got a quick, quick question for you, all right. I want to hear your thoughts.

I want 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 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