Some More News - Resignstein, Princess Bride Quotes, and EVEN MORE Glass Slides

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Hi. On today's episode, Michael Swaim (@SWAIM_CORP) and Abe Epperson (@AbeTheMighty) join Katy and Cody to talk about Dianne Feinstein's inability to serve her constituents, Elon Musk comparing himself to Inigo Montoya, and a very bad fake Tesla commercial starring a very bad fake AI Ryan Reynolds.   Contribute to Michael and Abe's film project! https://seedandspark.com/fund/papa-bear Support us on our PATREON: http://patreon.com/somemorenews  Check out our MERCH STORE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews?ref_id=9949  SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh    Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1  Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news   Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews  Get your money's worth at https://EXPRESSVPN.com/MORENEWS to get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free! If you want to take ownership of your health, today is a good time to start. Athletic Greens is giving you a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to https://athleticgreens.com/MORENEWS.

Hello, you saucy minks! This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. You know, using the internet without ExpressVPN is a lot like eating a mink without sauce. Or using an analogy without a relatable simile. My point is that ExpressVPN protects all of your devices from hackers who might want to steal and sell your data. That way, you can connect anywhere and feel safe. Unlike the animals in my mink's farm. So give it a try. Get an extra three months of ExpressVPN free at expressvpn.com slash more news. That's expressvpn.com slash more news.

Expressvpn.com slash more news. Why hello and welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. Hey. You'd never hear it from me because I'm a different person. And I'm Cody Johnston is the person that I am. Hi. Hi. Hello. Hello hello and welcome to our guests our friends our colleagues I would still consider you colleagues uh Michael Swaim and Abe Epperson ladies and gentlemen thank you for having us that That was Abe. Abe made that weird sound.

I'm Michael Swaim, man of class and means. That's Abe too. Thanks for having us. One of us always lies and one of us always says he's Abe. Yep. No, thank you guys. Because what a treat to have some old friends here with us today. We're going to catch up we're gonna chat

for about the news about our lives about projects all of that great stuff but first we've gotta celebrate some holidays oh who doesn't love a holiday uh may 18th thursday may 18th is send an electronic greeting card day. Come on. This is a well cat holiday. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's a well cat holiday. Big jib jab. Got to them.

Save stamps, save money, save a letter carrier. Send an electronic greeting card today. This seems like it's kind of undermining the post office. So, you know, I don't need to go down that route. But May 18th, also my partner jen's birthday i.e today and i got them a physical card what a sucker whoa could have saved pennies on the dollar man created likely back at a time when electronic greeting cards were a thing i think my i mean my dad still does them i still get a lot for like a birthday. It'll

have some, not every year, but I think last year he did. Maggie and Will's wedding notes after their wedding were digital. And I'm like, oh, we're allowed to do that word because that's easy. Yeah. We can email gifts now. That's right.

Yeah. And put sound on them, which is amazing. Like it's the future really. Yeah, and put sound on them, which is amazing. Like, it's the future, really. Yeah. Although I once saw the guy who invented GIFs speak at a thing, and I think it's pronounced JIFs. That was not worth the time. No, it was really good.

It was really good. Gotta try shit out, you know. This is the spot to do it. And May 19th, this one's fun. How much information am I going to reveal? Is Jumping Frog Jubilee Day. Yes, we'll say that again.

Jumping Frog Jubilee Day. The Jumping Frog Jubilee takes place every year in May at the Calaveras County Fair. Competitors bring their frogs and try for the best time to cross the arena. Last year's champion was a five-year-old boy. Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, lived in this area in the 19th century, and his 1865 short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,

was his breakthrough. This one's fun for me. Without revealing too much information information this isn't very far away from me and it's not like where i live so don't go looking for me in there and honestly don't go looking for me in any of the surrounding areas however uh i was doing a day trip to there's a cute town called murphy's uh that's in calaveras county and i was there with my parents and we were driving through and i was like the fuck are all these signs why is there so many frogs everywhere and this is right after i

moved last year and uh stopped there's like a museum to it for frogs they love their frogs and that's when i first learned about the calaveras County Fair and the jumping frog obsession. So you did learn about the frogs like it wasn't just like a mystery that you saw today. Eventually, I might be condensing a couple different trips. But yeah, in terms of I don't think I learned realized at first I was like, there's so many frogs everywhere. What the fuck? There's big sculptures of frogs. There's frogs, frog themed this and and that i'm like there what is this it's a rainforest cafe i figured if i i there was like a one percent chance i could get you

excited enough to just scrap your weekend plans and go to the calaveras county fair get a frog train a frog and see if you can win this honestly jon, it's all hinging on whether or not I'm coming to LA next week. Oh. You'll have to not come to LA. If I'm not coming to LA, I'm going to go to this fucking frog fair. But if I'm driving to LA at 6 a.m. on Monday morning, then probably not. I remember the first time I went to a BYOF.

Be your own frog. Yeah. That's just a weird thing to say is bring your frog to, I mean, I guess that's the event, but it's like, I don't know. It's the only time you would hear that. I don't know anyone who has a frog. I bet someone, people do own frogs. People do.

People definitely have frogs. You don't have to a cock fight, my man. Yeah. You know? It's just, I guess. Your own dog to a dog race? my man. Yeah. You know? I guess. Your own dog to a dog race. I'm not on the pulse of, you know, frog, the frog world. Your own baby to a baby talk.

So on. Yeah. Yeah. I guess that's right. I've just never thought about bringing a frog. But I mean, I love that like five year old child wins. I wonder, like, is it the frog that gets like, is it for the best frog or is it for like the best owner frog combo well it does say that that kid won but i watched the video right isn't it a

race the video of him winning is like he puts the frog down and then like kind of taps behind it and then the frog jumps forward and he jumps forward really fast and then is caught in the net like 10 feet away and so i think it's just like you you gotta get lucky having your frog jump quickly of your correct direction that's not nearly enough time to evaluate a frog in my opinion i don't i agree with you if it's not you know if it doesn't have a top hat and a cane and singing hello my baby hello my honey can you really give it an award? Abe's favorite movie is Magnolia, but mainly just for the frogs. That's like his main interest in it. I love when they fall from the sky and they explode.

Yeah, the froggies. I forgot about that. Sick fascination of mine. That seems like a good spot to put an ad break speaking of sick fascination fascination hey there future winners it's me five-time raw potato eating contest champion cody the tater hater johnston you know eating raw potatoes in quick succession is literally terrible i hate doing it it's worse than death.

But at least I drink AG1 by Athletic Greens to keep my gut health stable. That's why I gave AG1 a try, because I eat raw potatoes competitively and needed my instrument to be as strong as possible. It's got probiotics and plant-based enzymes that support my digestive system. And believe me, my digestive system needs all the support it can get.

Sometimes I try to escape before the raw potato eating contest, but they always find and catch me. Anyway, if you want to take ownership of your health, today is a good time to start. Athletic Greens is giving you a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com slash more news. That's athleticgreens.com slash more news. Check it out.

We're back yet, y'all. Oh, this is where we get to chat like friends. I'm stressed out all the time because Abe and I are trying to produce a movie right now. Plus I'm getting married in 10 days. Plus as mentioned, today's my partner's birthday. We're equidistant goes Jen's birthday,

10 days anniversary, 10 days, my birthday. So we realized we've accidentally set up like a horror corridor of obligation where every year we will have to like and as practice we tried to do as you do sometimes after you've been together a long time this is our 11th year together we know we love each other we're so busy don't do anything right but i did stuff yeah and i know i told them the same thing but they're gonna do stuff

because if you don't and they somehow are weird about it. You're like, I knew I should have fucking done a thing. It's a weird off. And this is the year as well that the two of you are getting married. So it's hard to. Sure, that your your time together, you've been together 11 years. Wow. Time flies.

And you will be together for all the rest of them and they're going to be years where you're able to knock it out of the park and they're going to be years where perhaps you will have to say we're both so busy we're not gonna but you're getting married it's hard to be it's hard you start off your marriage year with let's just forgo our birthdays and everything you want to show up for them i believe it will actually happen there will come a point probably like when a kid is two i bet that year of your life you really do skip each year's birthdays i was gonna say once there are kids involved for sure then you're like no i mean it i ain't doing shit yeah for real on the outside

of just watching it's amazing to watch your friend kind of have an amazing like this is a big month for swam you know yeah uh as for all the reasons big month and uh i've been kind of watching him uh go through so much and it's amazing when you're like like a collaborator you know like because he's my writing partner and it's like some days you wake up and you're like oh the ball of anxiety is totally in in me and i uh i can't get it out and i everything's the worst and starting to get depressed and all that stuff and it's amazing to have someone to kind of pick you up and kind of be there and hopefully and so far it's been pretty good in terms of like we can kind of pick each other up when we fall and that's just because

it's just day in and day out just working on you know our dreams so to speak um so it's kind of amazing to work with this guy so i'm i'm very blessed in that regard what a beautiful thing to say and i so know that that's true. And watching you guys, I mean, you guys have been working together for ever. Our entire adult lives. I think we met in 2003? Five, four. Four?

Three, two, one. In college. Three, two, one. Let's go. One of our 20 years. And you've grown together. Absolutely. And evolved together. It's just as much as a partnership like that. And yes, Cody, what we have as well, I think is so important and beautiful and it's its own relationship that people don't really talk about, you know,

but you want, you do want to be an emotional support system for them. And of course you do. It's your, one of your primary partnerships in life, you know? And don't forget the swam stole dyad all the way back to college as well. I cast you as the mom, I think. Right. And yeah, you did. In the play about Jesus being a kid's roommate. That's right. Very hacky as a premise well you gotta start somewhere changed my i i've told you this story but i don't think i've said

it on this show i was really depressed in college and i took a whole semester off and i i'd been acting my whole life and then when i got to college i was like i should be a lawyer uh that's how i should use my acting skills and i started you know studying poli sci and international relations and I was really depressed and I took time off from school and I was like before I went back what's the one thing I can do for myself and I was like you know what I'm just going to audition for something so I like put on my brave my bravest facade and i marched over what was the name of the galbraith hall yeah 157 i remember yeah and i saw a flyer for your play to audition and i didn't know it was like one of the og auditions it was the first audition i had there

yeah and the very first play I staged because I spent all freshman year auditioning and never got cast, even though my acting teachers were like, you're crushing it. And I'm like, I'm only here to do this. You won't let me do it. It is depressing, Katie.

Totally. When you're a theater major and you don't get cast in the shows, you're really like, what am I doing here? That was my chosen profession. And I'm spending a quarter waiting to audition again next quarter. That seems like such a waste of time. Yeah.

I remember that night when Michael, he walked over to me. We hadn't really met yet. And he put a cigar in his mouth and he said whatever it is that kid's got it that's how that's how it began and that's how it all began yeah but ucsd heck yeah well see i could just chat with you guys about life and catching up for forever we gotta yeah cody's got something we gotta talk about your we gotta allow cody to speak i was listening to uh what you were saying a different it was so lovely about uh i was listening to a couple of different podcasts uh i don't know which ones because i can't understand any of them well you were talking about your dreams together

and i want you to talk about your dreams oh i was gonna say yeah good thank you cody for allowing us to speak upon our dreams yeah so, so I think I can start. As mentioned, we're making an independent kind of film, and it's based on the time that Michael's father came out as a gay furry while he was a teenager, semi-autobiographical. If you don't know, I mean, most of your audience is probably terminally online, but the term furry describes a community of fans artists you know gamers it's like a community of uh people who who enjoy anthropomorphized animals usually

through the arts and it's often uh they create what's called a fursona which is an avatar or an identity that represents what their true self is. And it's a community that has been bullied by like an online zeitgeist as well as portrayals in the media and such. And so we knew that knowing that this story and a lot of the kind of examples from Michael's life that we could kind of pull from, we just thought, Hey, we can make a movie that could say essentially that humans could be better.

So we wrote this coming of age they could be uh so we wrote this coming of age like kind of comedy drama that deals with family subculture sexuality and if uh if you've heard of our stuff uh from those are muskets which katie was alluding to uh we all worked at cracked and now michael and i work at small beans you might be interested in the fact that we're producing it now literally right now and you can help uh and the idea is that you can go to seed and spark.com slash fund slash papa hyphen bear the name of the movie's papa bear and um you can become a part of the movie get stuff from the movie watch the film early even go to premiere for just you know a meager cost so we're hoping that you'll visit the page and help us out because

we really want to make the movie we're very passionate about it and we hope you agree that this is a story worth telling but wait there's more but sure i promise um doesn't have to be short it does explode myths about freedom i read just for example people listening probably think i think as most people think even the people who know the litter box news stories are bullshit etc think um that's like a sex thing right right it's not even mainly a sex thing for most people it was for my dad so we get into that because it led him to being comfortable with his queerness and that's actually it's a very queer inclusive community and so that's true for a lot of furs but not for a lot

of furs for a lot of furs it's like i like certain sub-genre of comic books we go to fur cons um both for this and i did growing up with my dad and it's identical to san diego comic con like it's just a bunch of nerds just a bunch of nerds and there's the exact same amount of sexual content which is to say like five percent or whatever and uh some people hook up in the hotel rooms that's true at all comic conventions etc that's true all conventions all conventions really all gatherings all gatherings of people yeah somebody be fucking that's right well all i wanted to add is that it's broader than that because it's not like a furry interest movie uh it's an ensemble piece uh we've and like if you don't know us because you just came here through

even more news we have done stuff at a very like i would call movie level of polish. And we even made a movie once that wasn't as polished as I'd like it to be, but it's still a movie. I'm in it. Yeah, exactly. You are in it. Oh, you're so good in that, too. And you get the final joke of the whole movie. Yeah.

Kill Me Now, you can watch that for free on YouTube in its entirety if you want. It's also got Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett. It's funny. I just wish it looked better because we were very young we were babies but the point is production wise like we can do this we know we can we're very confident in that regard and i wanted people to know it's not like only interesting if you're a furry like we compare it to like ladybird eighth grade you know it's like a family drama comedy with heart. Yeah. I can say that I have read this script. I don't know that I've read the most recent iteration for you guys have had a

version of this for a long time and it's wonderful. And just to underscore everything that they've already established about the furry community. Yeah. Cody and I went to a furry convention uh while back and covered it for uh our other former show worst year ever and it was fascinating it is just any other community and there's so much information which is why uh misconception about what it means and it's heartbreaking because there are some beautiful stories and people that come from this place and there is a lot of shame around how people talk about it the way

people are derogatory and i think movies like this will be very important in uh actually understanding this community a short story about that, just because like, it's so true. We recently went to the golden state for convention. Um, and there was a kind of panel about content creation and there was a little kid had his, uh, mom kind of like there,

uh, clearly he wanted to create content. Clearly, uh, she was being supportive of him and his question when they opened up the question of floor is how do you deal with furry hate and it just like broke my heart you know it was just like one of those things where it's just like man you don't even like the internet is jokes and i'm glad that the internet is jokes but sometimes

you don't think about the fallout of people who are just like there to do the thing they want to do and yeah but now there's like this eight or nine year old kid is like so i posted something totally innocuous he didn't say it at these words why is everyone so mean to me and there was this pause and they're like yeah it's yeah that's tough like they don't know why and, they don't know why. And like, I don't understand why. And we try to, you know, and we just think it's an urgent time for that with like so much trans hate and queer hate generally resurging. So it's definitely more about like everyone's journey towards coming to terms with whatever their sexuality is, is super complex and individualized and unique to each person and if it doesn't impact you go fuck yourself like our only thing like the other message the core message of the movie is not even just leave it's that tolerance does not require you to love or even understand whatever

seems weird or unfamiliar to you yes you just have to mind your own business it doesn't matter i find myself falling back on that a lot in my conversations up here i've moved to the mountains as you guys know yeah where i'm like what does it matter you don't you don't have to understand or transphobes modern transphobes i'm like you did not know trans people existed 10 years ago you never thought the word trans in your life like how is this impacting you cause it's brand new to them

they think it's an attack right one of my favorite things is like you see the thing is like I don't care about you so much why can't you be like me well this seems like a good time to talk about I don't care about you so much. Why can't you be like me? Yeah. Yeah. Well, this seems like a good time to talk about the news. Yeah, it is the news after all. Because we kind of are slip sliding our way into that arena anyway.

But you know what? First, let's slip slide our way into an ad. We've got it. We got to put an ad in right here and then we'll come back to talk about the news and we are back as promised for even more news that's what i think i promised diane feinstein we're gonna start off with or should i say diane resign stein wait are you combining her name with einstein you think she's a brilliant i think she should resign i think she should resign stein i

soft launched this joke once before on this show when we didn't quite talk about diane reinstein and then i tweeted it so we're just just going to grab it. Is this the hard launch then? Yeah, this is the hard launch. Dianne Rezine Stein. Let's get it trending on Twitter, folks. It's going to be shirt making machine. It's in the title of the episode. It's going to be a t-shirt.

Yes. I can't promise that. Dianne's back in the Senate voting with her buds again as of last week. But I don't think that anybody's very confident in her ability to perform or whether or not she should even be there at all. It's awful, actually. I'm laughing, but it's very brutal to watch. You guys seen some of the clips, seen her being wheeled into the senate chambers yeah she's an ancient bag of bones it's a ancient bag of bones it's a break deserves a break i

something because you sent these articles out and one thing that i read is it's it was almost like the writer was the the author was it was was necessary that they address it up top. I mean, it's kind of what it's about, but it's like I asked her how she was feeling. Oh, I'm feeling fine. I have a problem with the leg. A fellow reporter asked, what's wrong with your leg? Nothing that's anyone's concern but mine. It's just like that is an encapsulated, like yeah there's a problem but i'm not gonna say it

i don't have to say it but even though i'm well you know a representative uh there is a little worry about that it is a you know in the news cycle so you can tell us a little bit more now go fuck yourself you know like that's it's strange how that's navigated these days. Well, here I'll I'll share this little tidbit. This is a report from Slate. And it was an interaction with a reporter and between a reporter and Feinstein. I guess outside of the Senate. I'm not sure what a fellow reporter asked her what the response from her colleagues had been like since her return, though, the conversation took an odd turn. No, I haven't been gone, she said. OK, you should follow that. I haven't been gone. I've been working.

When asked whether she meant that she'd been working from home, she turned feisty. No, I've been here. I've been voting, she said. Please, you either know or you don't know. I've been here. I've been voting. She said, please, you either know or you don't know. So that's really alarming.

The whole world knows that she's been sick, uh, that she hasn't been gone for months. Uh, we have been waiting for her return in order to get some very important work done. Well, just like do a, do a job.

Well, yeah. important work done well just like do it do a job well yeah also i feel like feisty has become our code word for very old person who should not be working anymore but they still are they must be feisty not addicted to power in a way that they can't let go of yeah well and like uh the two lines abe that you were talking about that that is also feisty in a weird way. It is. Because why did you bring it up? Oh, the thing you mentioned.

Well, it's none of your business. Well, that's this sort of disconnect that, I don't know, just the irritability that comes from not necessarily knowing where you've been or what's going on. Well, from people that are becoming senile. I mean, this, not to just keep ragging on the poor woman, but a couple, before she was gone for her lengthy absence, I mean, there are a number, for years, this has been a known secret for years that she's been ailing and that her mental faculties aren't what they once were. There are times when she was reading statements in the Senate and then repeated herself or like it started the same,

forgot that she'd even asked this question in a line of questioning and said the same one, you know, really just appearing to not understand fully or remember all of her actions or or you know what what she's even said um and then uh it was this today or yesterday uh i think it was today a report from political i guess nancy pelosi's daughter uh nancy prada has been acting as her caregiver and has been her chaperone. And there's a lot of talk about, you know, this is a lot of Pelosi influence perhaps as to why Diane hasn't resigned because if Diane was to resign, Gavin Newsom has made clear that he would appoint a black woman as her

replacement. And, dear me. And that would be Barbara Lee. Right. But Nancy Pelosi wants Adam Schiff. Yeah, the whole situation. And Adam Schiff is the frontrunner in California. So what's best for Adam Schiff? It would be for Dianne Feinstein to finish her term.

What's best for Dianne Feinstein and the Democratic Party? Not that. Yeah, it's really actually like really disgusting. It's it's really upsetting. Yeah. I wonder if anything will actually like change from this because like it's not hard to just I guess it is hard. Like this is the elder abuse.

They're abusing this woman and like to hold this seat from certain people, I guess. And it's just very weird that everybody seems to know what's going on and like there are these people just sort of like wheeling her around like no don't we can't let you talk because it's a possible you know a potential problem yeah just like it's this liability um it's very uh it's just disturbing uh that we're in this like age of just like the oldest people on earth just like not letting go like not letting go even a little bit yeah how about that coronation god i know but then on the other side they don't even like let you leave with dignity right you know like if they if they respect diane feinstein as much as they say they do But then on the other side, they don't even let you leave with dignity. Right.

If they respect Dianne Feinstein as much as they say they do, they let her go so they don't have to keep parading her around and keep forcing her to do all these votes so that her senior staff can get cushy jobs in whoever's next. And so they can't secure their person as the next senator of california she's gonna be 90 next month 90 i can't imagine what it's like well i mean it you know to live in the public eye like that but it's the framing the argument kind of stuff like the uh you i see what you want to do i like talking to reporters like i see what you want to

get out of me i see where their story is and it's usually valid but it's like no i've done you're not going to get anything from me about that that reveals so much about like well okay so what are your interests here you want to make this a non-story and that i mean that's not up to you um and that's something that i feel like politicians have been doing a lot more been a lot looser with in you know the recent you know just in the recent years but that's probably been developing forever but like it's just one of those things just like we shouldn't we should be able to ask these questions without them saying, like, how dare you? This is an affront to, you know, the office. No, it's not.

It's just, you know, the public asking some questions about, are you still cool? You know, are you still good to go? And when it's obvious that that is a valid question. Well, a talking point that everyone says on both sides and all points on the spectrum, like we all say, free speech is theoretically good, right? It is. It's frustrating because it is a thing that is all that. It's always there, but it does seem like it's more and more and more. Yesterday, a congressperson shoved somebody for asking a question i missed that

like physically it just attacked them uh it's so i didn't miss it like oh i missed that but i missed that oh oh no oh civility no oh is that clay higgins yeah clay higgins thank you sounds like a country star but uh it's same thing like what gianforte did uh five years ago six years ago but it doesn't seem to matter everyone it feels like a talking point that works on all stages is no no no i work for the american people damn or like i'm your employee and it just seems like employees oh their employer the like check-in on are you physically able to do your job uh and cognitively able to do your job uh and i do think that's fair to ask but i also want to double down on what abe said is i think we often everyone is just a person so like it would

be interesting to be tom cruise because in some sense, he's still just a human guy, right? He must have doubts and blah, blah, blah. Whoever, Abraham Lincoln, it's crazy. There's just a normal guy in that situation. And I guess I just is like I represent 50,000 people. I'm like, not their king at all, but I sure can't get away with a lot. You know? Yeah.

I just can't imagine what that does to you. I think in some ways you must, and regardless of political party, high level public servants must think differently than I think. I just don't see how you could stay human. There's something that happens for sure. It's similar to like when people accumulate a lot of money. We have done an episode on this. Jonathan wrote it. You know how that can affect you. not affect you it does affect you it affects you very deeply how you connect with people how you relate to people cody you look like you got something no just yeah how you view yourself how you're you like you're like well they're not kings yeah they are many of them kind of think that way right little mini kings just a bunch of pile of bones and fear that's all they are that feels like a good time to transition to twitter's new ceo god what a mess jonathan do you want to talk to us about some of this sure i mean you know i i started writing the notes on this just about her new uh twitter's new ceo which was announced i

think last friday and since then there was another one of these weeks that elon had where i just have like 10 bullet points of all the weird shit he said and did so let's start with that guy let's start with the ceo uh twitter's new ceo is uh named linda yaccarino she was previously head of ad sales at nbc universal uh she's a former trump appointee she was on his president's council on sports she on twitter she follows jack posobiec and cat turd and lives of tiktok so we get an idea of who this person is fucking woke bitch oh i shouldn't have said bitch well she uh she people are freaking out about her well people the cat turds of the world are freaking out about her association with the world economic forum because they think this makes her a quote

far left loon deeply infected with the woke mind virus because they think that the world economic forum is behind a great reset where people will be forced to live in pods and eat bugs. And I know that just went from zero to like a thousand real quick. Sure did. But that is what they think. Anyway, this is the person whose job it is to bring like American Airlines and Coca-Cola back to Twitter while Elon's like saying like, don't call Marjorie Taylor Greene a white supremacist.

And calling George Soros Magneto. That's a lot. Is anybody interested in the bugs or the the pods anybody want to get in the pods need the bugs well i don't know what kind of amenities are in those pods what's going on outside the pod who here has eaten the bugs i've not eaten the bugs i do pay to go into a pod a couple times a month sensory deprivation pod oh so i'm fine with pods. If that's not where you live and you're allowed out of the pod, I think pods are great.

Well, if you want out of the pod, you gotta eat the bugs. Yeah, it's a combo deal. There's no separate. There's like a tube with the bugs in it. It's like a breathalyzer. You put it in, some bugs crawl down the tube,

eat some bugs, and then the pod opens. For some reason, the mascot goes over your bugs and then eat some bugs for some reason the mascot goes over your nose and mouth so they can get up there if you're not blowing oh yeah gotta get in all the holes that's a part of it for me this is a sex thing right this is a sex thing i was just thinking of the love is blind pods which look pretty cushy oh yeah the little rooms yeah i could live in that that's a straight-up room is that what they mean by pods just call no I think it's just a circular room right I was

hoping like a futuristic coffin that's you know oh yeah like it like the matrix you know or it's like a hovercraft that you race against Sebulba through the Beggar's Canyon. Did you say vulva? No, Sebulba. Sebulba. Sebulba. They call him the vulva. I thought that you said race through a vulva.

I'm not about to drop a V word on this podcast. You guys, I have to be honest. I do think that we've lost the thread here a bit. We got this. So like the main takeaway, I would like to point out that, you know, there have been has been talk. I mean, Linda, Linda's got a bad job ahead of her. She's got a bad situation.

She's being in charge of a failing company. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There is talk of this being what is this called the glass slide glass cliff glass cliff i like mine um slipping sliding yeah like whoa whoa whoa like glass ceiling as in you're putting a woman in charge to get credit but she's set up to fail completely. I did it, though. I'm diverse. We've got this diverse woman.

We look at us. We're being woke and it's an impossible job. So, you know, that is a possibility, although she is, by all accounts, very qualified for this position. For this terrible, terrible job. I would assume it's anything other than just a terrible terrible decision i feel like elon to buy it in the first place for lulz was a terrible decision and he's only made like only bad decisions 100 of the time when it comes to like implementing changes on twitter they never work he takes most of them back everyone

goes we don't want this and he goes sorry uh advertisers go us neither we're out so like i assume he just fucked up and she's gonna do bad because it seems to be the way it's going with twitter it seems like he's uh because he's always wanted to um make this other app he didn't want twitter he wanted to make an app called x that's basically um payments yeah payment and a payment app a messaging app uh like a like for crypto and paying like all this kind of stuff for everything it's an everything but instead of doing that bought twitter and is like forcing that onto it um which i don't think will work but he'll probably still make that eventually it seems like twitter will work but he'll probably still make that eventually it seems like twitter will fail and he'll use a lot of the stuff that he wanted to

do to make the x app which enough people will pay for because clearly if you charge more than eight dollars right you just charge like forty dollars they'll pay forty dollars like they'll pay fifty dollars yeah right so Just cater to those people. If he's a good little businessman like he says he is, you would know that one of the basic tenets of running a business is once you become a success, you don't pivot to a different thing unless market forces are telling you you have to pivot. But X is such a good unique name you just can't not it's so much better than twitter yeah there's no i mean just as uh

comedians when we jump from crack to or we're pushed however you want to look at it to do our own thing we went down the slide you lose like 80 percent or and then you're lucky enough to like build it back up but in the immediate and think about comedians you love you don't go where did that guy go i gotta follow him you know only for maybe one or two or three of your favorite creators so it's all about the stage and the channel you immediately everything falls off if you change channels. So, but like I just said, like, sure, but he'll probably do that because that's the bad wrong thing to do. So he probably will.

Right. Yeah, exactly. And don't worry, everybody. He's staying on as CTO, head of product. Cool. Our boy's not going anywhere. So we can get longer videos. So he's going to make her job really hard. Yeah. Longer can get longer videos. So he's going to make her job really hard. Yeah, longer videos.

My goodness. Jonathan, what else has been going on in Elon Twitter land this week? Because there's some yummy bit. Well, let's see. He gave a big wide-ranging interview to David Faber at CNBC, which was also simulcast as a Twitter space. Interestingly, he said working from home is morally wrong for the people doing the working from home.

Really wild. And I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he has a car company and he wants people to commute to their jobs in his cars. But he's like, it's messed up that there's people who, like the people who build cars and make food have to go to work but those who have laptop jobs don't i like the phrase man of the people then no he's he specifically said but those in the laptop class man of the people laptop class yeah

don't try to talk about class the other people the people who aren't me and my billions and billions and billions of dollars. What a ridiculous person. Those elite laptop class. I guess it's just good to know that he thinks everyone's job should be equal. That he's, you know, basically a communist. Everyone, if one person has a harder job, everyone should have that same level, right? Now that is based. I thought that's why he was rolling out that plan to give everyone an emerald mine, right? Now that is based. I thought that's why you were rolling out that plan

to give everyone an emerald mine, right? It's one per. Emerald mines for all? Yeah. Everybody gets one. It's on God right there. One thing that I'm reading right now, because I'm just searching Elon Musk

and just looking at the news. Oh, there's stuff out there? Quote, I'll say what I want to say, and if the consequences of doing that is losing money so be it I love so be it well we're going to play the whole clip from that

oh okay nevermind no no not nevermind thank you so much Jonathan set us up for this just for our listeners to know there's nothing wrong with the podcast there will be a 12 second silent pause in the middle of this and i feel like we have to play the whole thing when he's eating bugs he's yeah just so you know you guys while he there's a pause it's a shot of elon musk staring off to the side

like gathering his thoughts. No, gathering his thoughts. Really introspective. Having a think. Having a think. Think my thoughts. Anyway, you guys will see. You know, do your tweets hurt the company?

Are there Tesla owners who say, I don't agree with his political position because, and I know it because he shares so much of it. Or are there advertisers on Twitter that Linda Yaccarino will come and say, you gotta stop, man. Or, you know, I can't get these ads because of some of the things you tweet. You gotta stop. There it is. Motionless.

Use your brain. Use it. Use your brain. You know, I'm reminded of... Use your brain. Use it. You know, I'm reminded of the scene in The Princess Bride. Great movie.

Great movie. Great movie. It is. The person who killed his father. He says, Offer me money. What? Offer me power. He says... Offer me money. What? Offer me power. Oh. I don't care. So you just don't care.

That's not what he said. That's not what he said. You wanna share what you have to say. It's the jest, but that's not what he said. I'll say what I wanna say, and if... Well... Wait, hold on, boys if well wait hold on losing money so be it thing is about it not being the line is that the actual line adds context to make what he's quoting and the point he's trying to make not relevant to the situation that's right because you killed my father that's not the situation for elon musk right it just isn't i want my that's so revealing you're like someone said something mean about me online i think that's

similar to this guy whose father was murdered in front of him that's how fragile his ego is i really believe well yeah yes also like offer me money i don't care yeah you've got a lot of it already you've got a lot of it already that's the thing the stakes are very different was inigo montoya the richest most powerful man in florin and gilder at the yeah that's why the movie was so short yeah i mean i've been told it's like oh he's just saying he doesn't care about the consequences. He wants to be able to speak his mind and speak his truth. And I'm like, do you really think that Eddie like he changes his mind about everything all the time? He's just chaotic.

He doesn't believe half of the shit he says. He's just playing to an audience. He's people give to an audience. People give him so much more credit and respect, the people that like him. You know what I mean? What am I saying? They'll jump through hoops to defend him. That's because his martyrdom isn't real.

He's one of the most powerful people on the planet. If you're like, let them come, so be it, then you're someone who's making a stand and, represents maybe some people but you're not you're not actually a martyr it's because it's portrayed like does well in his mind he's like i look good when i say stuff like this and you can know that it's calculated yeah at its core like this quote is saying i don't care about money i don't care about power i don't want any of that i want my father back you fucking son of a bitch does elon think that he does he is the power he is one of the most powerful people in the world and richest people in the world and he owns the site that it is unilaterally making changes all willy-nilly, that affects people's lives and livelihood.

That affects the news and how we consume it. You don't get to compare yourself to an underdog character that spent their life on a single focused mission. Their entire life only hunting down this man he does though he can he can he does uh it's the same assassination coordinates right it's that like the fake martyrdom abe that you're talking about yeah if i say it enough people will be like oh elon's under attack well what do you mean by that and it and that example shows how clearly in that case he did not know about the consequences he said something and did something because it felt right because branding

is good because he knows that he is an icon regardless of what we have to say about it he's a powerful figure in the in the zeitgeist and he knows he has to play a certain role and so he's doing things for that and that is a false mentality that is a mentality that is not one of a martyr it's none of the things he tries to portray he's trying to be this bastion of truth but i it's just like i it's tough to a lot see so many people falling for it yes he's uh constant contradictions um like uh you know thinking that he's making these decisions for any reason other than like you're saying like the performative the act of it like knowing like what is the kind of thing i would do like firing everybody he said today or yesterday that he didn't research just in this moment he seems like like there's evil evil focused people like to

santa's el Elon seems really reactive. Like, I feel like he's just going into rooms and then wanting to come off cool in that room. Yeah, it's the impulsive thing of like you get enough wealth and then you're only going to act on like that impulse. You're going to tweet whatever I want. You know, whatever. Let's wrap things up by talking briefly about the rider strike and and whatnot uh cody you saw something on twitter today it's related to what we were just talking about related to our man elon uh don't know his last name not gonna learn it so we'll be

continuing to talk about these strikes i know like sag is going to be voting probably and the the strike will probably get bigger and bigger i'll just interject as a sag member to say yeah we got sent we're getting sent today our strike authorization vote cards and if you happen to be an actor that listens to this show and you get one it's very very important that we actually vote sag voting voting uh statistics statistics turnout is very very low probably about like 30 percent and just for context the wga strike authorization vote was like at almost 80%, I want to say, response. And so that gives a much stronger mandate than if only 30% of people show up and vote. But yes, so we have a couple weeks to get that back. And then I believe negotiations for the SAG contracts will start June 7th, and they have until June 30th. And if we'll see, it's very much in conjunction with what the wga is fighting

for i'm sure you've seen lots of actors out protesting anytime i'm in la while this is going on i will be joining them and protesting at the calaveras county frog fair if i'm not uh but yeah so anyway that's just a little update from uh the screen actors guild side of things uh there's this ad that is uh apparently tesla's an ad for tesla featuring ryan reynolds that's just odd because i mean that dude's hustles so hard ryan reynolds he must have so much money let's listen to him he's got that whole cell phone company and shit. All right, I'll shut up. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds.

How much do you think it would cost to own a car that's this fucking awesome? Ah, I see. Driving, self-driving. What the shit? That's the coolest thing ever. What if I told you you could own this car for less than the lifetime cost of a Toyota Corolla? So this is a jib jab.

Whose balls do I have to fondle to get a Tesla instead of a shit Corolla? Well, today you can buy one for just $36,490. For those not watching, Ryan Reynolds is played by an animatronic sex doll. It looks like a high-tech jib jab almost where like a low-tech deep fake yeah um it's very weird I don't think it's actually associated with Tesla it seems like a marketing guy um and it's just the kind of thing

that uh seems to be a harbinger of doom, I guess. What the fuck? The tweet with it says this was generated by AI to tie this conversation to the writer's strike conversation. Yeah, well, there's going to be, like, there's, unless it ends quickly, there's just going to be this huge push from these kinds of people who think that art or anything not even that like a tesla commercial would be amazing art but like that robots can do it and we can just like use whoever we're just gonna like are you an act have you been

in something has your art been online has your been in something? Has your art been online? Has your writing been online? Has your image been online? Well, it's going to go in our little robot ads for bullshit. And I don't. Again, this isn't like an official ad for them. It doesn't appear, but he's got a little gold checkmark next to his name. So it's it's not an official ad, although Elon Musk replied nice to it. Oh, cool.

And I mean, this this tweet has a community note on it. And the guy's like, disclaimer, we made this with deep fake AI. And the listeners can't see what we just see, but saw. But there's no way you would think that was Ryan Reynolds. You'd be like, yeah, no shit, dude. But so is that legal? And the answer is be like, yeah, no shit, dude. But so is that legal? And the answer is, well, there aren't laws against it yet.

Man, sometimes it feels like one of the main ways to make money is just to go, well, there's no law against stealing that art yet. And then the writer's strike is in part to address how streaming was that. They're like, none of these contracts say true for streaming streaming is not really a show we can pay you whatever we want specifically in terms of the negotiations this is literally what we're going to be talking about yeah because there are contracts uh where they're starting to try to include use of an actor's image voice in perpetuity and shit like that but everyone's seeing how far can we push this when will they push back when do we not need people when do we not need people watching this video and it's like fuck you you think the one crucial human job in the chain of making art is you the suit you think like yeah it'll all be

robots and us the executives the real ones who make dreams come alive we'll be there fuck you dude it's so absurd um and like the wiggle room that they're gonna allow like it's like like you're saying jonathan the commercial doesn't look like ryan reynolds is in the commercial it's like they took a photo and they stretch his mouth what's what is the line because you could make a cgi ryan reynolds if you had the time uh eventually ai will probably be able to do a pretty decent ryan reynolds so is it like well if you make it look a little worse it's okay right like obviously you can't do like this is his image it's full because now it's parody i'm not trying

to fool you i'm just using this pretty close ryan reynolds voice and a pretty close image to tag him on twitter and say buy a tesla like it's just but then what if you did a series of 50 of those and a sitcom starring ryan reynolds now is it still okay like clearly not him we gotta figure this all out yeah it seems bad seems bad well it seems like it requires subtlety and tact to navigate so it's not gonna work out yeah so we can't yeah also i can't believe he replied nice to that also the writing's terrible yeah they threw in that one joke whose balls do i have to fondle they're like oh yeah that sounds like a ryan reynolds joke and you're like a little bit i guess yeah but it's a robot's version of a ryan

reynolds right it's it's like a robot who read the lines that he has said it's like well this kind of thing so it's not anything well whose dick do i have to suck is a line that dates from like the 40s so it's just mad libsing that line it's just all hack yeah um to answer one thing that you said before i guess it's time to wrap things up but you know i don't think these executives i mean maybe they do see themselves as the only important part in the creation of entertainment i think that they don't care about entertainment. I don't think that they actually care about the art in any capacity. And that shouldn't be a surprise. But you kind of think that with Hollywood and stories,

because we all come here with such passion for this and reverence for the art form, all the different, all different art forms, you know, and knowing how hard it is to succeed in this industry but but caring enough that we want to try anyway and to see these people who run things really showing their cards in that they absolutely do not give a shit about art they do not care they do not see its cultural significance they do not respect it in any capacity and and that's what we're seeing and i just also want to say that

both the writers strike and sag negotiations and i don't know much about the director's guild and what they're negotiating yet i will but this could be the last chance we get you gotta strike first 1000% the only chance we have before the wild west sort of presses the people who have the power and money and um whatever is decided here

you can't go back on not easily anyway yeah which is why you should support the small D. Independence. That's right. We should also say, yeah, or I feel the need to say, the fact that we wrote and are self-producing and directing a movie right now

does not violate any of this stuff, which we stand for, for multiple reasons I could get into, but just trust me. We looked into it. I mean, the big one is that we're not working with any WGA signatories. Exactly. Yeah. So I was going to say the main one being in our entire illustrious careers where we've been blessed to have many, many fans and do some great work.

We've never qualified for any of these guilds. We've never had reps or agents or managers. We're just out here in the wild, man. Yeah. Our shit is not real enough for this so we're so we're good we thank you for saying that and it's real to me what's the kind of thing well we've been talking about it in terms of what our support for the wga is and what we should or should not be doing um And we have also looked into it and we are not WGA. We are not working with WGA writers or at any capacity. And, you know, I've talked to several writer friends and in general,

the support, the idea is you support us by talking about it, support us by amplifying uh the movement and you know direct part of it is also like what you're talking about like you've done you've done so many all these things but you don't qualify and like that's weird um we're not you know that's one involved in the industry um and that's weird if all your stuff has been online that's not real yet that's one of the things they're not real yeah yeah there's always been even sag has issues with that you know like oh definitely uh let's put web in the corner over here just for a little bit yeah yeah which is to be honest they didn't do such a good job in figuring it out last time around which is like

been a real difficult it's really hard to to to come here and and try to be any sort of a creative person and um navigate this ever-changing landscape creative you know yeah when i made my first Ryan Reynolds chat GDP, AI, you know, like they said, this is not creation. This is not art. And I beg to differ. Well, you believed in yourself. I believe in the power. But you know what?

Elon Musk said nice. Let them come. Whereas I count out immediately. was like please i'm sorry what would you like chat gpt my script that chat gpt wrote and it said it was good so validation validation I made an AI to guys this has been fun having you here I miss you guys

love you guys I know I'm so excited I get to see you both soon a couple times it's gonna be awesome it's gonna be

too much probably a little too much maybe well I'm planning on making it too much yes you will dislike me

by the end perfect no it's gonna be great direct everybody where to go Well, I'm planning on making it too much. Yes. You will dislike me by the end. Perfect. No, it's going to be great. Direct everybody where to go to support you guys and where to follow you and all the good things. Yeah, normally we'd probably promote our podcasting network, which if your main interest is podcasts, you can find that at Small Beans just by searching that phrase and podcast. I am at the word podcast. But we're using this time way more on papa bear so papa bear papa bear again that's uh the indie movie we're making if

you skipped the first few minutes for whatever reason uh it's a coming of age family dramedy that we've been working on for like seven eight years and it's ready to go into production we already got some investors on board to the point where we're like pretty confident that it's going to come together. But we're crowdfunding a portion of it. And that portion is very crucial. The campaign's running right now. If you know our work from Cracked or the premise of a guy in his middle age coming out as a

gay furry to his family, including his like 17 year old son. And then wackiness ensues and people learn and grow. If that appeals to you, you can find out much more over at seed and spark dot com slash fund slash Papa hyphen bear. Or if that's too long, just search Papa Bear Seed and Spark. You'd probably find it. You'll find it. But we are also going to include a link to it somehow. Tweets.

We'll tweet the link. Papa Bear Michael Abe. We'll include the link. Something. First hit. Papa Bear Michael Abe. Google it. I'm pretty sure.

That works? Yep. That works. There you go. Thanks, guys. We're making sure you guys know how to get there. It does. Well, I want to see this movie.

Me too. I have been aware of this movie and this story for a long time, and I think it's a wonderful project. Wholehearted support from me on this. Thank you, Katie. It means a lot. Gosh, this has been good. This has been fun.

What? Cody's looking aghast at you. At us. this has been fun what cody's looking at gas us nothing at us you just want to take credit for the great thing that katie said i don't never know what i'm supposed to be speaking for just you or for just me or for both of us i'm never speaking for just you okay whatever we're done we're done with the show you're about to speak for me You're about to speak for me. You're about to speak for me. I am. You're right.

I'm about to speak for you and I just want to tell everybody out there listening that we we love you very much. Much.