The Ben and Emil Show - PP Episode 8: Suing Mr. Beast for $100,000,000!

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Mr. Beast Burger is a SPECTACULAR failure, with the ghost kitchen company entrusted by Mr. Beast to make his burgers in over 1700 locations saying that he sabotaged the deal in order to get out of it, and Mr. Beast claiming that their negligence and terrible quality control has damaged his brand and is grounds for terminating their contract. SOUNDS MESSY. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And we're live. Welcome to another edition of PayPigsPod. We have a controversy to address right off the bat, and we just... Wait, wait, let's do it after all the plugs. After the plugs? Yeah. Okay. London show tickets are for sale.

That's right. We'll be there on September 4th at Leicester Square. Inexplicably spelled, not Lester. Inexplicably spelled like Leicester. Yeah, it's just... Lister. One of many head scratchers that will... We're excited to see all kinds of fucked up shit like that in London.

Yeah. Also, we're posting... But that link is right below. Yeah, maybe we'll put it up here because that'll be funnier because you're pointing down here and then we'll stick it up here. I don't think it's possible to stick it up here. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right.

It'll be below. It'll be in the description. So if you want to come see us in London, click that link. Buy a ticket. Bring your friend. Sorry, Glasgow. Sorry, Dublin, Edinburgh. We're going to be in London.

So we'll come back. We'll come back. We'll figure it out. Don't know when, but we'll figure it out. Also, please follow us on TikTok and Instagram at Pay Pigspod because we've been posting there and we want your help. Yeah, we finally got them off the ground. Yes. We had a couple inactive accounts that were just sitting there.

Yeah. And we also have a theme song now. So a big shout out to Connor Todd for making our theme song. Thank you to Connor Todd for the hookup. Yeah, we still. It'll be playing soon. It'll be playing on this episode. Yeah.

But like soon. Oh, yeah, yeah. And we'll have a visual coming with it too that is going to be in the works. But, okay, now that that's out of the way, we got to address the controversy. Right. A lot of people, you know, look, Dylan's going to be going public with something and we just want to get ahead of it. And we just want to say he wanted to. eat that banana out of the strippers pussy that's right we kind of had nothing to do with it if

anything we were clapping alone saying go Dylan eat it eat the banana I think we did say do it yeah we did do a do it chant but but he seemed to want to do it right and then we also um do you want to address the other thing I asked him to lose weight yeah why I just thought he'd look hotter. Yeah, especially being associated with this show, we wanted him to look hotter. Right. So, yes, we did ask him to, but it was for the betterment of the show. Are you talking about you?

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um, and the other allegations are true. I have given myself a mustache. and I do plan on keeping it.

So if you have anything to say about it that's negative, you can just keep it to yourself because... Or you don't have to. Or you don't have to say anything. No, or you... Don't have to have a mustache? No, no, no. You can leave me in comments about the mustache.

Fine. If you insist on leaving me in comments, go ahead. We can't... Chime in, sound off. We can't stop them. If I get a majority of negative comments, maybe I'll shave it. I have been known to cave to social pressure.

Well, I feel like if you're going to do it, you've got to keep the rest clean. Keep all this clean? Yeah, I think I will. To accentuate it. Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do from now on. But it's a little bit not clean. Yeah, because I shaved like three days ago. So I'm going to have to just do it again.

I'm going to have to shave again. Anyway, well, oh boy, man, I am, does this, does this must mushroom? Does this mustache make me look like a dad at all? If you were to cast me in a commercial as a dad, would mustache help or hinder? Is this like you're asking for a friend? I have to, I have to, I have to shoot a thing after this, and I have to be a concerned dad as my child goes into surgery

for a commercial. Yeah, I guess it helps. It's okay. It's okay, son. It's okay. Daddy's here. There's no line like that. It's just like, oh, everything's going to.

I think it's literally everything's going to be okay. That's the only line? That's the only line. But then there's a shot afterward where I have to act. I guess the child has successfully come out of surgery and is being given like a treat from the nurse or something. And I have to be like, oh, that's great. It's just, it's ridiculous. Let's see it. Give us the real one. Don't laugh.

Okay, I'm not casting you. No, I know. No, I'll do it. I'll do it better at home. Give me the, give me the, what's the line? Son, it's okay. They're not going to kill you. Okay. So, too much? Can I take it again? What's that famous line where it's like some people think acting is just saying things loud?

Yeah. That felt like that. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I mean, I was, that was me making fun, and that's not how I do it. We'll stop hiding behind an ironic detachment and give me your... Son, it's okay. It's the best doctor in the world for benile, uh...

And you're such a piece of... A piece of penis joke. Just give it to me. What's weird is I have to shoot it from the bed POV, which is the weirdest kind of that I because traditional or whatever conventional wisdom would be just like head on chest up Oh now you're giving the director notes

No but the thing says shoot it from it's meant to be from the POV of the from the POV of the bed Sure Looking down so son It's going to be okay That's pretty good He booked it. I'm playing an Orange County firefighter whose son is going in for appendicitis.

I feel like that's how this mustache is. Are you scabbing? Am I scabbing? Yeah. No, it's a commercial. I'm pretty sure commercial work. A lot of commercial work is non-union, apparently. And that's how it was before, too.

Please tell me if I am. I don't think I am. Is commercial work scabbing? Is commercial work? Worth it WGA strike No that's not it Oh yeah okay

Is it Oh boy here we go Emil the famously bad Googler No don't This is ridiculous So if you follow us on TikTok And Instagram you would know that One of our TikToks is absolutely blown up

And if you don't know what I'm talking about You just got to go see for yourself And see Emil just getting dragged in the comments You should probably show up and defend a No, I'm fine with it. Are there any guidelines? Commercial acting?

It's, there's so much shit, all right? Well, we'll find out. We'll find out. The biggest thing that we're going to get into, though, is Mr. Beast. Mr. Beef. The man whose face, I just, I just don't understand. Wait, let's play the song before we go into it. Oh, yeah.

I'd like to try to sell something to you. There are all missions, there are no risks. There is no risks. It is the best. K-tribles, a little-d-d-bonds, not a dollar, like marks, waves, rules, pounds, and sex, sex, sex, sex. College of corporations. The world is a business. I have seen the face of God. There you have. And we're back.

There you haven't. That was so special. We're a real show now, aren't we? Yeah. Big shout out to Connor Todd, our boy. So let's dive in, shall we? Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast is added again.

This name cannot be stopped. He can't be stopped. Well, if anyone could stop him, it might be this lawsuit. I don't know if it'll, I don't know if it will. No, I doubt it well. I'm joking. I think they'll probably settle. Actually, I don't know. Maybe because he, this, so, okay, let's back up.

Yeah, if you don't know what happened, Mr. Beast, uh, aka Jimmy Donaldson. A.k.k.a. Young beef. He reversed to himself at one point. Young beef? No, young beast. Young Beast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He referred to himself as Young Beast. He's, uh, he, he launched, he launched Beast Burger. In December, December 2020. Yeah. Okay. And it, hugely successful. Do you know how many restaurants he opened? 1700. Holy shit. Including just one with an actual store. You know where it is? Front location and no, none other than New Jersey.

None other than New Jersey. That's right. And the others are all operating as go. as ghost kitchens, which is a relatively new concept that has really been taken America by storm, wherein they are location agnostic, kitchenless restaurant, well, they're not kitchenless, but they're like a restaurantless. You don't need a physical location. You don't need a brick and mortar location because who gives a shit? Everyone's just getting on their fucking delivery apps anyway. So one kitchen could be making food for several total different restaurants and if you've ever seen one on grubhub or or uber eats or anything where you go i don't think i've ever even heard of this place it's probably because it's

coming it's right coming from a ghost kitchen it actually sucks you're like i'd like to order this type of food and then you're like wow i've never heard of this place it looks in the in the food looks all um they they have a good like food photographer taking it looks all glossy that's how i know and i just avoid those places and then it just comes and it's the nastiest thing you've ever yeah and they've got stupid names like epic pizza or epic burger pumping out pizza and sushi and burritos and yeah the ghost kitchen in in hollywood is located on western and whenever i see that it's it's located on western i just go yeah i'm not eating there and it's weird they they have a wall of lockers like when you go to pick up the order because i picked up from there once it's a it'll say like

your your food will be ready in locker 32 and you open it and you can see it and you can see into the kitchen and you take your bag and you fuck off and it's just it's just it just feels gross it's a gross dining experience yeah also just quick aside did you know the guy who did cha cha cha-cha slide died today what does that do with anything i just see it in the thing here dj casper chacha slide creator not dj casper weddings will never be the same no it'll still be the same because we'll still play it one time real smooth i'm going to a wedding a couple weeks i hope the dj gives a little this one goes out to dj casper and people will go Who?

And then it comes on and you go. Oh, this guy, yeah. Slide to the left. Now die. You know, get put into a casket. So Mr. Beast launched this as a joint venture with a company called Virtual Dining Concepts, a company that is being, that it was created by. Robert Earl.

He's the guy who, he's the CEO of Planet Hollywood. Is he still the current CEO of Planet Hollywood? It's, yep, founder and CEO of Planet Hollywood. Wow. Virtual dining concepts, VDC. They specialize in virtual kitchens and delivery-only concepts. Partnering with food delivery services. And, you know, it's not just Mr. Beast who's getting in on the section.

The company has backed celebrity brands, including those from Mariah Carey. What the fuck does she have? I know. Mario Lopez and DJ Polly D. Oh, I wonder if they're just investors. They must just be investors. They back celebrity brands. And it's all, you know, the virtual dining concept.

So it's like all food related stuff. DJ Palli D probably has some kind of fucking protein shake or something. Carrie VDC. Let's see what she's. Mariah's cookies. Yeah. Mariah's cookies. Add Mariah's cookies to your existing restaurant's kitchen.

With Mariah's cookies, you can join VDC in the incredible Mariah Carey on a virtual brand that delivers what your new customers are craving. Freshly baked, delicious cookies. You may not realize this, but Mariah loves to bake, and her specialty is cookies. This makes me want to try her cookies. Oh, my God. Wait, the real house bowls? What?

Yeah, dude. Real dining, virtual dining concepts needs to be put in jail. And Bravo, they've teamed up to create real house bowls, a virtual restaurant that delivers curated meals for hungry fans to enjoy while catching up with all their Jesus Christ Get this, DJ Polly D's Italian subs Virtual brand arrives on Grubhub.

Oh my God. Buddy V's cake slice? Is this a Cake Wars guy? Yep. Jesus, God. What else do they have? Mr. Beastburger. Lanky Box Kitchen?

Also, they try to fucking, like, sell you on this shit. Like, Polly D's authenticity shows in everything he does. does from his music and hobbies to his signature looks and TV personality. He's gaining the trust of his fans and they know they'll receive quality food from Pauli D's Italian subs. Get the fuck out of here. Are you out of your mind? I mean, that's, it's funny because someone was telling us about this, how, you know, it used to be that there would be brands and brands would go to creators and be like, hey, we want you to help us sell our thing. You're like,

now it's changing because creators are figuring out that they can just create their own, they can create their own brand right and they don't have to go but it's like no they don't care about this shit they partner with the fucking planet hollywood guy and are just like yeah i don't know hawk the nastiest burger you can make oh pardon my take has has also joined forces with virtual dining concepts to create a crave worthy menu of cheese steaks and loaded fries pardon my cheese steak no man okay yeah but if if if uh if vdc wants to work with us yeah if we do it it's gonna be If we do it, it's going to be so cool. NASCAR refuel, just pork stuff?

Yeah, it's all pork. Snarf up this pig shit, you nasty. Who would, who, they also partnered with NASCAR for NASCAR refuel wings? Oh, God, the copy on this, allowing every day to be like a day at the racetrack. Who, I don't, I, who would want that? Ordering this shit. Wait, I got to know what that little. freak Mario Lopez is getting into.

Something to do with his dimples, I hope. Oh, Mario's tortas, of course. God, they're always like, it's, oh, I can't take it. It's such a, it's, it's an idea that appeals to like 48-year-old marketing executives who think, who just see successful brand or successful influencer and think that will translate to real world sales no matter how shitty. and foist it upon it feels. I think that's the problem.

Is that like... Yeah, it does work? We're so stupid that we go like, oh, I want an Italian sub from Polly D. I want Mariah's cookies. It's only appealing to me... How first are your real house bowls? It's only appealing to me

if the influencer or celebrity or whoever is already a chef or something like that. Like if it was, what's the guy's name, Mario. Well, let's not go with him. That guy's bad, right, right. Who's the, who's the angry British one? Oh, Gordon Ramsey. If it was Gordon Ramsey's scrambled eggs.

I still wouldn't, though. It's like all that shit's so nasty. Because it's going to come from a ghost kitchen. Yeah. Where some guy, where you run into a problem like Mr. Beast ran into. Okay, so. Do you know where you're sourcing your beef for those?

pardon my cheese steaks. Shut up. Well, so, I mean, I think that's, so he's getting sued, but it is a response to... Well, wait, so a month ago? Yeah, end of July. End of July, Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast, sued VDC. He blamed the company for poor food quality and said that the majority of Mr. Beast burger virtual restaurants have negative culinary reviews from fans who are

quote, deeply disappointed by the fact that Mr. Beast would put his name on this product. They said that VDC caused material irreparable harm to the Mr. Beast brand and Mr. Beast's reputation and claimed that while the business has made millions of dollars, he has not received a dime. Which I find, I mean, I had to go into the actual complaint because I was like, they must elaborate on that. How the fuck has he operated this for close to three years? Is it because they have to recoup cost first? They, it says nothing, uh, point seven on this, on this complaint. To be clear, while this business has made millions of dollars, Mr. Bees has not received a dime. And they do not elaborate further. And I'm like, what, in, wow, how the fuck? Have they not made any money off this? I mean, the complaint is wild. It does include, it includes like tweets and, uh, posts of Reddit from our slash well that sucks. Finally ordered our first Mr. Beast burger and then realized after the first bite that it was just mostly raw meat. Sad. face and some pictures of the raw meat.

But yeah, the whole complaint is full of just, because they say quality and fan customer satisfaction are paramount above all else for Mr. Beast. He expected that his fans would be the recipients of excellent customer service and a superior branded food product. Unfortunately, however, VDC was more focused on rapidly expanding the business as a way to pitch the virtual restaurant model to other celebrities for its own business. Right. It says in the complaint, one New York reviewer stated that Mr. Beastberger was, quote,

The absolute worst burger I've ever eaten in my entire life. It was like eating spoonfuls of garlic powder. Fries were soggy and ice cold. Don't waste your money. More than half, and it goes on to say that more than half of the Mr. Beastburger virtual restaurants have less than two out of five stars, which is well below the median score of four stars. One father of two, one father of two felt as though he had, quote,

let his children down by ordering Mr. Beesburgers when he received. terrible quality food in an unbranded packaging that he was able to trace back to a 7-Eleven. Customers do not expect their Mr. Beast burger to come in a 7-Eleven bag. Yeah, that's bullshit. That is not what anyone expects from Mr. Beast branded product. I love this. They claim that it is sad that Mr. Beast would put his name on this. Mr. Beast is being canceled over burgers.

Equally disturbing. Many customers believe that Mr. Beast is personally responsible for this mess, as evidenced by statements such as all in caps quote how could you do this to me jimmy how could you do it to him jimmy there is a i i love the lawyer who wrote this complaint it opens with when joe damaggio was asked why he hustled on every play of every game he responded that there is always a kid who may be seeing me for the first time i owe him my best this encapsulates the philosophy that one of the most accomplished and prolific online content creators in the world jimmy donaldson a Mr. Beast brings to everything he does.

So here's the key... Here's the key part of the complaint. Unfortunately, due to the material irreparable harm to Mr. Beast's reputation and brand caused by virtual concepts, virtual dining concepts, failure to uphold its end of the party's agreement, Mr. Beast has no choice but to seek a judicial declaration that he has the right to terminate the Mr. Beast Burger business and damages from the harm caused by virtual dining concepts, multiple material breaches of the contracts between the parties. So, in response to that, VDC has now countersued. Well, because it seems like, yeah, Mr. Beast wanted to get out of his

thing. And he was getting, get out of his contract with VDC. And he was being very public about that. Right. Right. So he was tweeting about it. He was saying, you know, the company I partnered with won't let me stop, even though it's a, it's terrible for my brand. And this is. So now those are deleted tweets. So he tweeted that. So basically, VDC is alleging that perhaps those reviews are all fake and in support of Mr. Beasts's desire to get out of this contract that he realized after the fact was not a very good contract that, quote, young Mr. Beast screwed up and should not have signed. Young Beasts signed a bad deal. He said, the lawsuit contains examples of tweets from Donaldson, some that appear to have been deleted from the social media stars account.

where Donaldson wrote to his millions of fans that he wished to close his burger business and said that, quote, the company I partnered with won't let me stop, even though it's terrible for my brand. Young Beast signed a bad deal. If I had the ability to close it, I would have done so a long time ago, sadly. Sometimes when you're young, you sign shit deal. My thing is like, how fucking long of a deal did he sign? It's been almost three years.

I don't know. but so so vdc is basically saying he he shot himself in the foot he signed a bad deal and the only reason that he tried to change it and wanted to get more control over it and thus more money right vdc saying he realizes how valuable this brand is and now he wants it all to himself uh that he's not living up to all the contractual obligations he has like promoting it in fact he's harming all these things he's harming their business and making it difficult for them to continue right to attract these types deals with other celebrities. And if you're going to jeopardize DJ Pauli D's Italian subs,

you can fuck off. You better lawyer the fuck up. Oh, yeah, you better, you better lawyer up. Mariah's cookies? I, man,

I, I think I could go the rest of my life without crossing paths with anyone who has ever eaten a Mariah Carey cookie. I mean, where do you even get that? I've never seen using my life. I have no idea, man.

They're probably, they're probably in like New York City or maybe they start with a smaller market. I don't know. I didn't even know Planet Hollywoods were still around. The worst restaurant in the world is now partnering with celebrities to make. I would say cheesecake factory is the worst restaurant in the world. Worse than a...

No, actually, I take that back because you can really eat anything there. Planet Hollywood and what's the... Hard Rock Cafe? Yes. Where you can just like go eat your food next to a guitar that Jimmy Hendrix puked on or something. thing? No, even worse. It'd be like Dave Navarro looked at the guitar one time. They've got like a scarf from Dave Navarro in a glass case. I remember

passing Dave Navarro on the road one time. We were on a very tight street in Beverly Hills and I passed him and he was in an all black Dodge Challenger and I was like, oh shit, that's Dave Navarro. He's the Livmas Taco Bell guy. And everyone went who? Yeah, Dave Navarro. He would He was the guitarist for Jane's Addiction. He was briefly in Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yeah, and then he famously was on, like, Hidden Boss, or what's that show?

I mean, he's made a... Inkmaster. He's made a whole career out of being... Hidden Boss. That's a thing? No, undercover boss. Hidden Boss. But so, I don't know who to side with here, because on the one hand, I can attest personally

to the to the low quality of these ghost kitchens because they're just there's no way that a kitchen is going to be able unless you're a cheesecake factory where you can make mediterranean italian chinese japanese japanese you can order any type of cuisine at a cheesecake factory and it's all not good but that's the promise we offer anything you want but it's going to suck it's going to suck and also so these ghost kitchens are way smaller than that the the geographic footprint that the one on western has is tiny yeah there's like three people shifting between like 12 different cuisines just like oh fuck i got to make a burrito now i got to make like an italian burrito now i got to make a burrito pizza now it's all just dog shit yeah you know steve aoki i believe at one point had i want to say

six different pizza places well he comes from a long line of food dynasties that's right well just the one benny hunt yeah just the very short line his dad but i believe he had one pizza restaurant so it was all coming from one kitchen a ghost kitchen but they it was almost like he was just um uh ab testing and seeing which brand which name for the pizza restaurants and which imagery would would catch the most eyes and then he would narrow it down to that one because yeah i remember seen for a while in like 2019 2020 there were all these different pizza places that all felt really similar and i couldn't put my finger in it was steve aoki's Did I ever order them?

Fuck no. Because I'm a domino's head. Do you think it was very dramatic when Steve Yoki had to tell his dad he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps and he was going to be a DJ? No, absolutely not. Because I'm sure that he was like, I will absolutely still carry on that because I don't have to do shit, you mean? I can just sit back and let Benihana run itself.

No, he's running it into the ground. No, he's not. Really? Oh. When's the last time you went to a Benny Hona? Benihana is like the specific one. Yes. They are the originator of the interactive Hibachi experience. I don't think I've ever been to one.

Really? It's fun. I've been to Hibachi. Yeah. Well, then you technically meant to a Benihana. I don't think that's true. Well, yeah, because they like invented it where the guy... Are you sure they invented it? I'm pretty sure that they made it like famous. Well, that's, those are two different things.

Popularized it rather. Anyway. So there, they went on to say that his baseless and unlawful disparagement had the intended effect. Mr. Beasberger's reputation was materially damaged, if not destroyed. Customers abandoned the brand. And VDC's hard-won relationships with vendors, partners, and suppliers were shattered, causing damages to plaintiffs that, according to the evidence and Donaldson's own statements regarding the value of Mr. Beesberger are in the nine-figure range. So I don't know who's, I don't, I think they're both to blame. Oh, me too. You don't just give up after a few things you go in and you make it right i think he does he realizes he

signed a shitty deal but he probably saw dollar signs although i still don't understand how he didn't he hasn't seen a dime from this yeah that doesn't make sense with 1700 locations yeah i don't understand that's wild not getting paid for for doing something that is wild huh signing a stupid deal that's signing a stupid deal is that's crazy signing a bad deal i mean i guess it can happen to even Mr. Beast, even Jimmy. Even Jimmy. So it is interesting because there was an interview that he did with Colin and Samir, friends of the, some show that I can't read. It feels like a fever dream, this other show that I think we might have had. Yes, I remember talking to those guys. Yeah. I remember where. I can't remember if it was real. But yeah,

it's important to note all this predated feastables. Yes. His very popular. food line, which I think he owns. He owns Feastables. It's all Jimmy. It's not VDC pumping out some nasty fucking shit. Right. And he was saying, he basically, one thing that I respect about this guy is he just, he, he really likes the challenge of, I guess I hate using this word, but disruption.

He really likes going in and like seeing what he can do in a, in a space. And that's, that's, uh, he does seem obsessed with. like building things building a brand and building a, yeah. Because there was another issue that he ran into with Feastables, which is with his chocolate. And at first I kind of rolled my eyes and I thought, yeah, this

isn't that fucking. Well, so we play the clip because I feel like there's, if you click on the clip up. So Matt Stoller actually pointed this out and he if you just click it, it'll play the clip of talking to them. America has been owned by four companies and like no one has been able to get in there. It's like Hershey's

Mars. Mars. Lent and Ferraro and it's just pretty crazy like but most of it it's just Hershey's and Mars they don't like they do like 75% chocolate revenue in America and so it's like it's kind of like monopolistic almost like you can't if you have a successful chocolate company they'll just buy you or just like fully use you don't get shell space and so these guys like just own all the chocolate space and they don't innovate like a Hershey's bar to me just tastes like yeah it tastes very processed and I don't really like it um at all to me

Is that the whole clip you wanted to? Well, keep good. Yeah. And so it's... By the way, I got to disagree. Well, yeah, yeah. Sure, a Hershey's bar is boring and uninnovative. But if you go into a candy aisle these days, they got all sorts of different variations on shit now.

And I'm mostly standing there going, Jesus Christ, they got a Reese's candy bar. They got a Reese's this. They got a Reese's that. They got a this, the thing, and the other... It's a lot of shit to choose from. I'd have to say, I kind of agree with them there. I mean, I agree with them. Sure.

walk through a candy aisle. I'm like it seems like all the same shit. It's the same shit no matter where you go from a to a 7-11 to it's so fascinating to me like why are they not new, innovative cool like, you know, snack products coming out more often. It's because these guys just

have all the shell space and they have no need to innovate. You're just going to buy what's there and no one's really threatening them. So to me it's fun to like put pressure on them and try to get as much shelf space as possible and you know, try to figure out what they're doing but better. It's like the only thing in my life outside of YouTube that I've like gotten

Hothon and like on that same high again working on YouTube, I get that when I make these products like CPG products. And so I enjoy it a lot. I think like, yeah, but no, I was, so if I'm in like a candy island, a regular old supermarket or I don't know, 7-Eleven, wherever the fuck they sell candy, uh, it seems like all the same shit I've seen all of it. I disagree with him on it feels like he, because he said snacks specifically. Oh yeah, snacks.

Snacks. Snacks are better than ever. There's so much good shit out there. The chips aisle is insane. But you know where it's all going on? Where? Is like organic grocery stores like the one that just opened? Oh, yeah, man.

They got it going on. If you go into there, you're like, I've never seen shit like this. This is fucking psycho. And same shit with like candy type of stuff. It's all shit I've never even seen. It looks delicious. It's like when you go into a new city as a kid and the fire hydrants are painted a different color. you're like whoa i wonder what the girls here must look like

what do they look like i don't know just hot hot girl i remember going to this house in newport beach once a year for easter and um i knew we were in in the right part of town when the fire hydards there were white and then and then we'd get there and it'd be like women i'd never even seen before just like hot girls that's how you feel that snacks yeah yeah that's how i feel that snacks i step in and i'm like Dang. Snacks in an organic cushion stuff. Where have these things been all my life?

But really, there's all sorts of different. I do agree with them, though, especially like mainstream chocolate bars and stuff. I think they kind of taste nasty and processed. Yeah. And then you can get actual. This Matt Stoller article talks about how the domination of shelf space, not just literally, but figuratively, is a big problem across the economy. You've got Google dominating the,

the shelf space of the internet of search. There was the razor blade space with, I believe it was Gillette. Yep. And then you've got meat monopolies, business software firms, soft drinks, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, movie and TV streaming are all about distribution. The Microsoft Activision merger case. And I really like this part. We eat unhealthy food because of these monopolies.

Are charged too much for medicine because of these monopolies. Get paid less than we should because of these monopolies. monopolies and have less credible information about our world because of these monopolies. Indeed, it's not too extreme to say that the core social problem in America, fostering everything from obesity to the dominance of big tech is control of shelf space. And he goes on to talk about how you know, who's going to save us? Lina Conn. Well, I was going to say Mr. Beast. Oh, well, Mr. Beast, sure. It's a joke. Thanks, man. You know, Mr. Beast could. I mean, I don't think it would be, I think that I absolutely think Mr. Beast's next thing in the next couple decades is going to be

venturing into politics for sure. 100%. Yeah. That's a big, it's the ultimate challenge. I mean, we also have the tweet. What tweet? Oh, Mr. Beast for president or whatever. Did he tweet that himself?

Yeah, I could see it. And, you know, if, if any, if there were to be any young charismatic person who had, I am looking forward to when he starts, so social programs will be widely available, but you will have to do challenges to get them. Yeah, but if they're like fun challenges that you can then monetize that feed into the program. If he can stay in this room for seven days, we will get him his much-needed knee surgery or cancer therapies. So there was this law passed in 1936 that was meant to stop exactly this. It was called the Robinson Patman Act that basically says, I won't read all of it because it's really convoluted,

but it basically says that middlemen can't pay or be paid to exclude rivals. a.k.a. grocery stores, 711s, convenience stores, cannot be paid by big candy to exclude shelf space from rivals and new entrants such as Mr. Beast. Right. And Stoller goes on to say, you know, this law is still in the books, but it seems like it's being basically ignored and there are plenty of people. Right. Yeah, because it says enforcers stopped enforcing it in the 1970s and 80s as part of the reversal of the traditional American policy framework against monopolies. one key argument for not enforcing this law was that the internet made fights over shelf space irrelevant since you could sell things online and get around retail bottlenecks, which I get.

But then that has all changed so much because now, yeah, you've got Google's own, you can pay to have your ads be seen first. Same thing with like Amazon marketplace. It's the same thing. So today the Federal Trade Commission, Lena Khan, the head of it, is resurrecting this act. And she actually, funny enough, 10 years ago, wrote about the candy oligopoly. She pointed out how through the 1960s, and I did not know this, America's candy market was largely regional. You would eat candy that was produced nearby in your town or county or state. And there were a lot of different candies.

Everyone remembers Rhode Island's own. Come on. What was it? What? I get myself into this mess. No, come on. You got to, well, because there was, like the, there was the, there was a Lindy bar for Charles Lindberg, the Dr. IQ bar for a 30s, 1930s radio quiz show, and the O. Henry bar, named after the guy who moved barrels of corn syrup at one manufacturer's candy plant.

But so, Hershey's bought Reese's in 1963 before buying Twizzlers and Ammonjoy, then Nestle bought up Goobers, Baby Ruth, and Wonka bars. The Heath Bar was hugely popular by the late 70s. Hershey asked for the rights to produce it. Heath declined, so then Hershey bought the original recipe from another company and introduced the score bar, which I've never had. You never had a score? No. I've had a Heath Bar.

They used to love his fucking teeth. I used to love Whatcha McCollets, too. It was a great candy. Which one? It's called a Whatcha McCollett. That's the name of the candy, spelled Whatchamacallet? I'm not doing this. so so so hersey played a hard ball they they they they bought the score bar to compete head on heath bar sales fell and eventually it was acquired and uh by a finish company and then ultimately by hersey um so now there's only about 150 candy producers today and from those 150 like mr b said mars and hersy control about 75% of the national chocolate market and 60% of the u.s candy market overall yeah

I mean, that's probably a similar story to pretty much every industry. Yeah, everything sucks. There's a bunch of regional things and then they all just consolidated and now you just have four options, all of which you hate. It's the illusion of choice. It's funny, even, I don't know if you've noticed this, but like, when you, when you notice everything. When you go to a city, you're like, wow, we even.

I'm constantly noticing things in cities. You're like, we even homogenized cities. They're just like all the fucking, they're like, here's the area where we do some street art and the brewery is and then you go to and you're like what's the point of even people I don't know there used to be like regional specialties and everything and now you just go and it's like no we have everything the city who just came from has I fucking hate breweries I hate going to breweries oh here's a here's a here's a heavy heavy beer that's going to make you tired and you're just going to be yawning all all the rest of the night until you want to go home early which you will and here's the best part we're going to serve it to you and it's not going to be cold enough it's going to be like just not that cold well that's how you're supposed to drink it it's a really no i don't fucking know and then also hey you want a burger to go with it it's going to be so salty and heavy and greasy and it's going to taste good until you're halfway done with it and then you're like this fucking sucks and then you eat the rest of it and then you're just full and tired off of

shitty beer and burger so you want to go home and then you can't even have sex with your girlfriend after because you're so bloated and full of gas from the shitty burger and beer you just had fuck breweries it's a common problem it's a very common issue you so so anyway uh stoller goes on to talk about how the the these companies pay huge fees for shelf space which is why you see the same pattern of brands prominently displayed at any walmart croakers 711 it's priority too right like if you want those eye level shelves those fucking primo spots yeah you got to pay up dog uh so you sent me this miso robotics thing earlier today.

You just gave me whiplash. Can we, uh... Oh, because it's back to the kitchens thing? All right. Yeah, fuck it, what? Well, who cares? And we won't talk about it. Well, I just feel like we got to wrap up what we're talking about before this.

Let's wrap it up. So in conclusion, I think we're taking Mr. B's side for sure on this, because he's going up against big candy and I think that he really does care. I'd like to try one of his candy bars at this point. That's what I was going to say. I need to try one of these things if we're going to continue to talk about. I need to know if it's actually good. I want to see what the ingredients are. I want to see how it tastes. I just... I want to feel that thing in my mouth.

Yeah. We've made fun of Mr. Beast on here before. Because can I tell you what? What? I'm already out on novelty shit. If it's like food, I don't need like, A, I don't need celebrity shit. I don't need fucking jokey. He's got one chocolate bar called These Nuts. It's obviously got peanuts or whatever the hell is in it. I don't need that with my food. I don't need a sexual. He's got two strikes against him because it's celebrity and it's jokey.

Yeah. It better knock my socks off. The chocolate. I mean, you can't, I can't imagine that you can fuck up chocolate, but. I've had, what's the place in New York

that people love? Oh, massed? Yes. Well, the big controversy with that was that they were just getting it from like some boring ass wholesaler and white labeling it. Okay, but that's, That's one way to fuck it up.

Yeah, true. But, and they're still getting away. I was like, they probably, I was just in upstate New York and they had a bunch of mass chocolate. And I said, they probably fixed everything now that all that controversy came out or whatever. It was horrible. I was like, shit. I just had like a $10 chocolate bar. Couldn't give it away.

Truly was trying to have friends take a piece. I still just, my, my beef with Mr. Beast is that his name and his face just don't. match it's just there's something where i'm like what am i missing why is he mr beast sounds like a ufc fighter or like a wrestler someone who'd be huge and yoked and like a mr beast but he's just a he's a weanus it's like when you have a um giant friend and you call him tiny true i will say at the l a show he's also getting jacked now yeah that's you saw so we we had our we had our show in los angeles and thanks to everybody who showed up but there were a couple guys who were like big dudes

like my height. Oh remember those two yeah and I just kept fucking I just like touching them when they came up for a picture I was just like grabbing the night I remember just saying you're a big guy there was two especially they were together they were together and they were just like huge dudes

hey brother but nice to meet you and I was like hell I think I just specifically said hell yeah big boys yeah we said we love the big boys I was just grabbing like the guy was right here and I was just going like dude you're fucking rock solid he was he had great long hair yeah yeah yeah we love that guy we love that guy so leave a comment if you're that guy who i i guess kind of like is that sexual harassment it was pretty

uncomfortable for everybody yeah no it was good it was good well so yeah but if we want to talk about the another an innovation that might help ghost kitchens across america yeah this i was i was telling you i might want to i might want to invest i might i might buy some shares of this. This is interesting because the valuation of it recently got cut in half apparently. Also, okay, so we're talking about, so miso robotics. Like miso soup, but

robotics. Just like that, Ben. Yeah, me, so M-I-S-O. Yeah. Well, yeah. So, okay. Oh, did you think I was saying like M-E? Like, no, I'm just saying it for the... M-O-Robotics. Well, because some people might not know, I don't know. I guess, yeah, miso is universally understood to be

spelled a certain way. Fuck. but miso robotics they're giving everyone the investment opportunity you can invest in their AI powered robotics filling the gap in fast food kitchens and they've got they've got flippy you're going to have to if you're an audio listener you're going to have to look up flippy this dude is by the way this is not at all an ad and we are not at all like advocating for investing in this I've never seen anything like this before where you're just able to invest that's what I was so surprised. So many of these things are like, we're going to, you know, we're going to do

XYZ. They're already in White Castle, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chipotle, Jack in the Box, Panera Bread. And Wimpy Burgers. Yeah, I didn't say that because I don't think that one's real. There's going to be one guy commenting. Wimpy burgers are an institution in Iowa. This is interesting. This stat says fast food restaurants can't keep their kitchen staff. There will be 3.7 million more job openings than workers over the next 10 years in the U.S. alone. Our tech fills the gaps. Dude, I'm more interested. They're saying that they juice the profit margins.

Our AI robotics can make restaurants three times more powerful. I mean, I don't know if I trust that. I don't know if I trust robotics. I just had no idea, but Flippy's on pace to fry over one million baskets this year. That's crazy, man. Flippy is doing that? How does Flippy put the fries in the in the box? I don't know if I

trust that. I've seen enough videos of robots fucking up where I'd be like, I don't want to be in the same kid. I wouldn't want to, if I were a Oh, dude, this guy is going to just spill hot oil all over every employee. For sure. Meso Robox is going to get sued into oblivion. So it looks like they're funding the cap is going to stop at $5 million. At $5 million.

They're currently at $3.7 million. But yeah, I went down to like the comments and there were people or questions. There's a FAQ or, oh, yeah, no, it's questions. Yeah, this person said I paid $10 a share because. now it's at like five. So people bought and immediately their investment was cut in half. And the company responded and said the new valuation is $265 million pre-money with Ecolab investing at $4.97 a share. The previous valuation was $500 million, which was a market-based valuation validated by over 1,800 crowdfunding investors who invested in the

round. However, the market is experiencing a time of high inflation in global macroeconomic headwinds, blah, blah, blah, blah. pretty much every comment is that i invested at x why am i why is it now offered at why pretty low valuation though but then there's 165 million this person gregg it says flippy grabbed my hand and stuck it in hot oil oh baboo uh all right well so what else have we got to talk about oh yeah you wanted to talk about i i don't care to talk about that kaisenat starting a right there's nothing more to say other than that guy's a fucking moron

and all those people out there are morons jumping on cars and stuff it's it's pathetic and gross it's crazy those are the things that uh i don't know people riot about it's always um every time i hear about a riot i'm like oh it must be some kind of like climate thing we're probably going to like shut down and then it's like now is ever playstation fives it was one

it was one ps5 i had a dream that i bought a playstation five And I was feeling awful about it because I thought, great, now I'm just going to spend so much free time playing video games. But I want to play video games. Yeah, but I guess now I'm just going to be playing video games. That was a dream. That's a really nice dream. Because Best Buy now. Wait, can I say when I first heard about January 6th, when someone was like, like, turn on the TV that I'm still in the Capitol or whatever, I was like, holy shit, we're finally doing it.

And then I was like, oh, freak, because of Trump. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I also really fast, just speaking of restaurants, Dylan pointed out this app called Too Good to Go. And it is a pretty great, it's an app that lets you rescue unsold food at your favorite spots from an untimely fate. Basically, you can check stores and restaurants in your area and save bags of food from going to waste at a great price. So, like, it can be donuts, maybe it's subway meat. Is this one an ad?

No, none of these are ads. think that it's cool how much did you get paid for that 10 million dollars are you gonna split it with you yeah that's the way that this business works sick yeah so good job us no i i i wish uh and anyway i i just wanted let's let's do a little market stuff shall we why not please i'm sure you guys heard the news last week that fitch downgraded u.s debt of abracrombie end fame yeah the fitch's other side hustle is credit ratings And they downgraded the United States. They downgraded us from from AAA rated to double A plus rated.

Still not bad. That's two A's. Yeah, but we're still A students. But does it mean anything? No, it doesn't mean shit. Janet Yellen chimed in and she said it was, she called it flawed and unwarranted. She said if I see Fitch out in the street, it's on site. That's exactly right.

And then Jamie Diamond, who I, I think actually will end up running for president because in 26. They were pushing him. They wanted him for 2024. Yeah. I think that he'd be, it's gross, but, you know, whatever. He seems to, I've read his annual shareholder letters and he is a, despite being a fucking billionaire banker guy, he seems to care about. As much as I hate Jamie Diamond, it would be.

I would take him over anybody else who's in the running right now. No, just let me finish. Okay, go ahead. It would be nice to have a Greek American in the Oval Office. it'd be great if he gave every if he ran on the platform when all the um when all the remember when the conio west thing was going off and he's talking about like jews running the banks how could i forget i'm like oh fuck i really hope they don't find out that jamie diamond is greek yeah huh they're going to be coming for us i think that uh it would be great if if jamie diamond

ran on a platform of like we're going to give every american with a chase sapphire card 20 000 ultimate rewards points if you vote for him send in proof that you voted for him and you get rewards points a bonus it's got to be illegal but that would help get my vote that's 200 bucks in value anyway that's nothing to me yeah well it's something to me and he chimed in he says it doesn't really matter that much because it's the market not rating agencies that determine borrowing costs and he said that it's ridiculous that other countries have higher credit ratings than the united states when they depend on the stability created by the u.s and it's military. To have them be AAA and not America is kind of ridiculous. It's still the most

prosperous nation on the planet. It's the most secure nation on the planet. Yeah, fuck you, Fitch. Fuck you Fitch. Stupid-ass Fitch. Let's see. What else do we have? We got a bunch of shit this week. Wait, didn't you want to talk about that new chip? Yeah, kind of. It's just Nvidia has been dominating everything with the AI chips. And then here comes AMD hot on their tale saying that they announced last week that they're working on their own AI chip but you know and then the superconductor news looks like it it's officially just it ain't going to happen it's like they they basically invented some kind of new new magnetic material or something but it's not a superconductor so that's yeah some guy came in and said nice new magnetic material

He just came in with his arms crossed. You idiots. Hey, you South Koreans. You know what you did here? You created new magnetic material. It's nice. But it's not a superconductor. Yeah, you stupid asses.

I think... Remember in... Did you ever see Garden State? Of course I saw Garden State. You remember what the guy is rich from? Yeah, silent... Silent Velcro. Yeah.

Yeah, so fucking stupid. Oh, God. Zach Braff, get over yourself. I just hate... I hated learning that Zach Braff changed his voice for Scrubs. That's not his real voice throughout the show. What do you mean? His voice isn't really high like this.

That's not how he talks. That's what he put on an affectation for the show. You mean acting? Wait. I mean, yeah, but that's just so fuck. But he does kind of sound like that. No, he doesn't. When he talks, he talks in a lower register.

And for that character, like made it, yeah, I guess you like acting. Oh, he was playing a character and you're pissed about that? I liked scrubs. Of course you did. Why? I don't know. It just seems like, yeah, I never.

It's one of those shows where by the time it had reached peak popularity, I wasn't going to start it because I just felt like, well, I missed the boat. Same with Lost. I was a huge lost head. I'll defend it until I die. There was not a more fun show to watch. Everybody was going nuts. I agree, like the payoff maybe wasn't what you wanted to be.

That was the first show where I was ever, I was on message boards and stuff going, what is this thing? That's time you're never going to get back. How do you feel about that now? Great. I had a lot of fun. I like that kind of stuff. Yeah, I get that.

I was doing that with Breaking Bad at the end. But there's no supernatural element. Yeah, but it was just like, what's he going to do with that gun? Oh. What's he going to do with it? I like it with Supernatural. You know what another one was? What?

Cloverfield. Oh, yeah. That movie rocked. It was so good. Yeah. And then all the stuff online about slew show and all the stuff? Yeah, sure. I don't know what that is.

What's it? Slooth show? Who's that? Do you remember how in the beginning they're at the party? Yes. It's a going away party. Yes. For his girlfriend.

No. For him. Yes. He's got a job in Japan For this new company And one of their companies Is this thing called like Sleu Show I don't remember

This all was like fucking 12 years ago So I'm done It was just Easter egg stuff in the movie To help promote it basically, right? Yes But then they leaked all this stuff online So everyone was like pouring over it And you know

And they think The company he was working for Actually was digging And woke up the monster or whatever I also think that monster is just a baby It's a scared baby No Yeah it is

No because at the end At the end, when they show the footage where they're on Coney Island, you can see the monster land in the water. Yeah, but it's a baby. Well, fuck me. All right. All right. Yeah, you might be right. I just picked my nose on camera.

Did you see that? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Despite its size, Clover was conceived by the film's creators as being a newborn. Oh, awesome. So it gets even bigger. Yeah, that's why he acts that way. Like a baby?

I mean, is that what you're saying? That's why the monster in Cloverfield acts pissed off because he's just a big baby. Yeah, he doesn't know what's going on. He's not trying to... He's not toilet trained yet. So, yeah. Damn. You want to talk about this Amazon thing?

Yeah, please. Sorry about that Cloverfield diversity. No, no, no, I don't mind it. I like it. I just thought that this was kind of cool. These people at Amazon have this. side hustle going on. So Amazon's dominated, the majority of sales on Amazon come from third-party sellers,

aka hustlers, TikTok hustlers, are drop-shippers. Drop-shippers. They're all third-party sellers. But there are entire multimillion-dollar businesses that live and die by Amazon and their rules and regulations and algorithms. Like Amazon can change a rule and then boom, an entire business. goes up in smoke because they're not getting favorable placement or perhaps they've been suspended or any number of things that is not only costly to navigate but time consuming and when you're

a third-party seller and your your way of life your your entire business depends on it you're going to you're going to inevitably get pretty desperate for for help so there are these insights at Amazon. And they've got them also. There's people at Etsy. There's people at other, at other big companies, Walmart. And it's typically low wage, low level seller support staffers in China, India, and Costa Rica. And what they do is they're acting as brokers. Right. They're helping the third party sellers, you know, recover accounts, you know, do all these things. So for a fee of $200 to $400. Sellers can pay for services such as Amazon Magic, as one broker on encrypted messaging

service, Telegram calls it. They also include access to company insiders who can remove negative reviews on a product and provide information on competitors. Users are told to send a private message to learn the price of certain items. Certain services, sorry. They got, CNBC got this screenshot from one of the, which is really wild. This is like a public thing on Telegram showing their, their, their offerings and what they get.

So like here's an Amazon seller internal annotation. One to two business days for $180. You get the detailed information of your suspension. Then you can write your appeal accordingly. Yeah. I can't blame. I mean, God, it's wild how when a company like Amazon grows to be the size that it is, just fraud alone.

The fraud and the, the illicit behaviors that spawn from it become their own little miniature economies. Yeah. You know? Well, I mean, it's pretty much, it feels like every platform is that now. These platforms get so large,

and then the platforms themselves become so integral to someone's business that all these other things spring up around it, right? I mean, like, we're on, we're posting this on YouTube. And I mean, I'm sure people know this, but it's not as simple as just being like, okay make the best content you can and then post it it's like there's there's now entire economies which i mean we get hit up all the time by consultants and stuff and it's all about you know

thumbnails down to titles every little thing time time to post yeah youtube shorts all sorts of shit and it's exhausting and you know that happened with all of these platforms right and Facebook, when it was still Facebook, took over the news industry for a while. And then every news industry had to pivot very quickly to having a video news office. And so I mean, yeah, these these things get so popular that it just creates new economies. Yeah. I remember reading about fraud rings where people were buying expensive computers or expensive cameras and they would basically just swap them out with either broken cheaper versions or just swap out parts and then send them back for full refunds but keep the actual product and for some people that I was reading

how they let like one group of people just continue to do it for years so they could just rack up the charges against them and then they finally went in and busted them oof that's got to be brutal man you just think you're getting away with murder just all right here we go I'm just doing it I'm just making a fuck ton of money over and over and over he probably told his friends to get in oh yeah and then boom you're fucking busted so it just goes to show folks crime doesn't pay that's that's the lesson or or it does until it absolutely doesn't it does for a while it does for a while and then you get greedy yeah and then you get greedy and you tell yourself one last job one last job but it's never one last job no it's not but i'm and that one last job is the one that gets you

to get you nicked right which sucks because you told your daughter you were going to take her to a baseball You said, I'm going to be back for the baseball game. But, Daddy, you always miss my baseball games, but not this time. Yeah, not this time, honey. I swear, I'll be there. You know why? Because you're in jail. Yeah. For doing crime.

And you let her down one more time. So now not only are you in jail for doing crime, but now you've lost your daughter's trust. And this has been an ad for the LAPD. This is a good place to end this episode. Thanks to everybody who came to the L.A. show. Thanks to, what's his name? Made our song? Connor Todd, baby.

Connor Todd, baby. No, no, Connor Todd. Connor Todd. Comma, baby. Comma baby. Yeah, not Connor Todd, baby.