Secretly Incredibly Fascinating - presenting "The Inspectors Inspectors" Episodes 1-3

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Hello and happy U.S. Thanksgiving Week! We are thrilled to share the first 3 episodes of "The Inspectors Inspectors", our unique bizarre recap podcast for the TV show funded and produced by the U.S. Postal Service. Hear the show by supporting SIF at https://maximumfun.org/join.SIFpod and "The Inspectors Inspectors" exist because of the generosity of Maximum Fun members. THANK YOU to everyone who does that wonderful thing.Once you're a member, grab "The Inspectors Inspectors" and all your other BoCo using this how-to: https://maximumfun.org/howtoboco/

Hey, it's me Alex. I'm with Katie of course. Hey Katie. It's me. Oh Now I'm surprised but I Look is this is a special message because the new podcast for you this week is not a standard episode of secretly incredibly fascinating It's not it's a new episode of the inspectors inspectors The inspectors inspectors we watched the world's greatest show. It's the world's greatest show. Yeah, this is the Monday before US Thanksgiving.

I'm just very thankful that you all exist and are here. And if you are a Maximum Fund member, the third episode of the Inspectors Inspectors is in your feed right now. If you're not a member, let me tell you something. In the most recent Maximum Fun Drive, me and Katie unlocked a truly unhinged whole podcast that we now make once in a while. And we love it. It's a show. Alex found a show about the United States Postal Inspection Service, otherwise known as USPIS, which is- USPIS, USPIS.

It is an incredible journey. This show is, it was created by homunculi who don't, while they understand human emotion theoretically, they cannot grasp it. They have never felt the quality of what it means to be human. It's true. We were thinking about what's something that feels SIF but also strange. And the first ever episode of SIF is about US post offices. We've done further episodes about postal codes and like covered mail trucks and live shows.

And like there's, I find a real joy in the United States mail system as being safe. I love the USPS. I'm going to say it loud and proud. I love the USPS. I've experienced mail systems in other countries and I got to hand it, like even when the USPS is like sort of like hampered by low funding, they're incredible. So I love them.

This show is interesting, I will say. It is not, it is not on par with the quality and the sort of care that the United States Postal Service brings to our doorsteps, I will say. Exactly, because the trouble is, in their quest to become really good at delivering mail, the US Postal Service did not train themselves to make a narrative TV show, but they did fund one. In recent times, this started in 2015, it ended in 2019.

Recent, we were all around. This aired on CBS on weekend mornings. CBS is arguably the number one US TV channel. It's a standard network. They funded four seasons and a total of 106 episodes. 106 episodes. That's probably more than your favorite Netflix show that got canceled after one season. It's probably more than almost every Netflix show.

It's a narrative crime drama about US postal inspectors. And it's also geared as edutainment for teens. So there's a little like hashtag the inspectors graphics, they want you to tweet about it. And it turned out only elderly people watched it when people looked at the actual ratings. Because I guess that's just the audience for CBS weekend mornings. But this show is like exquisite in how alienating and inhuman it is when you have perfectly pleasant postal people try to make a TV show that has to be edutainment and they are both motivated but not particularly skilled at the craft of anything.

And it's wild. I don't think Alex, I don't think this was made by like, postal workers. You're making it sound like they like handed the reins of the like, all right, postal workers, here you go. Here's a camera and some paper. Now write a script. I think what this is to me is it is a, you know, the like, what's it called? The like exquisite cadaver, the sort of thing where it's like

you kind of put together pieces. Oh, exquisite corpse, yeah. Exquisite corpse, that's it. It's's like you kind of put together pieces. Exquisite corpse, yeah. Exquisite corpse, that's it. It's where like you kind of, you have a bunch of pages where you put together like three parts of a creature and create like some kind of weird stitched together being. That's what this show feels like because I think that there were probably a lot of like,

a lot of disjointed meetings, a lot of sort of different goals, right? Where it's like, make it funny and hip and appeal to kids, but also make it very safe and bland and inoffensive and do not make jokes at the expense of the United States Postal Inspection Service directly. And also teach them about the mail, but not too much, because we don't wanna give away our secret investigations. inspection service directly and also teach them about the mail, but not too much because

we don't want to give away our secret investigations. So it's, you know, it exists within the context of its own essence. Yeah, there's so many mediocre forces and plans combining to make this show. And then it just is also strange in ways we never expected going into it. There are at least two big ways I can think of where it's much stranger than you would think it is. And he's talking about, he's talking about Oedipal overtones guys. Heavy Oedipal overtones.

Yes. It's mainly about a mom and a son who are into each other. And so with that said, MaxFunMembers, you have the new episode today. That's your new show for this Monday. If you're not a MaxFunMember, please consider becoming one because everything we do, CIF, everything, it doesn't exist without direct support. And the moment you join, you get the complete three episode run of our podcast recapping the inspectors. It's called the inspectors inspectors. It's truly a joy. It is such a

gift you can give yourself this holiday season. If you want to listen to me slowly lose the last vestiges of my mind, please sign up. Be part of the Max Fun family as you watch, you watch my brain dissolve in real time. Yeah, and here be also dissolved, but also be sort of a, the movie saw a puppet master observing Katie's decline, you know? But I'm also declining too, it's great. I am atomized and then made new and different every episode. And we hope to do more of these.

That'll partly depend on the next Max Fun Drive and general support. But I hope folks know we also put out celebratory art for people in the last Max Fun Drive. We achieved a game night that we're going to do in early 2025. There's just lots of joy every week for being a member, not just this particular wild week. But so we love to join up with you and have that thing happen. And if you're ever pulled over by police, you can always pull out your, I'm a member of Maximum Fun card and be like, look, you know I'm a member, right? Do you know what organization I'm part of?

It won't help you, but then it will spread the word about maximum fun, so we do appreciate that. You will still go to jail. I thought you were gonna say that when regular police pull you over, you're gonna have us piss knowledge to counter their law enforcement. Like, I'm basically law enforcement too, right? Yeah, I understand male crime.

Anyway, we love you all. Happy US Thanksgiving, happy just general other times for other countries, and we'll see you next Monday with a whole nother episode of CIF. We'll see you right now with episode three of the Inspector's Inspectors in MaxFunMember Feeds.